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I'm pretty sure ssh-agent doesn't store the password, but the private key. Also, the fact that it supports timed expire (and can be setup to drop keys upon even

I'm pretty sure ssh-agent doesn't store the password, but the private key. Also, the fact that it supports timed expire (and can be setup to drop keys upon events such as screen lock) make it a wiser choice than passwordless keys.

gingerlime 14y ago
That's correct. And ssh-agent doesn't give access to the private key either, only to perform operations like signing. The only way to extract the key is to search it in the process memory, which I believe would requires root level access.