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Home > Archive > Security+ > April 2003 > Careful - SSH Asymmetric or symmetric
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Careful - SSH Asymmetric or symmetric
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| dpaille 2003-04-22, 12:05 pm |
| I have been setting up SSH Servers for as long as I can remember, but always the wrong way I guess. I just found out in my studies, that SSH can use Asymmetric keys.
(I realize that some of you who have dealt with this before, this may seem basic, but this writing is to help some of the people who have not realized this.)
I thought that SSH was only symmetrical because when you first login to the SSH server, it asks you if you would like to download and accept the key. So I assumed this was a key pair (symmetric).
I am still unsure if the server is just acting as a Key repository for my public key and is just giving me my public key (and vica versa), or is it giving me it's key pair (which is what I think it is doing).
Clear as mud? I have to learn to summarize 
Answers and comments much appreciated.
Dom | |
| Tarzanboy 2003-04-22, 8:32 pm |
| My understanding was that Asymmetric (Public Key) encryption was only used in cases of authentication and non-repudiation, but only if the options were selected. It is possible to run SSH using logons as the primary means of authentication.
Symmetric (Secret Key) encryption is used to ensure confidentiality of the data stream.
Hash functions are used to verify the integrity of the data stream.
Cheers,
TB |
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