5 ms·

>Using keys is ever-so-slightly less convenient at setup And it's easier once it's setup. I don't have punch in a password any time I need to make a server cha

• Argorak 13y ago
  More importantly, it is far easier to revoke on a person-to-person basis even on the same account. If you use password auth and some accounts have a password that is shared knowledge (root, anyone?), you have to change all passwords once one persons permissions change. In practice, revoking public keys is a problem for many companies already as I found out when my private key was stolen a while ago. (on an encrypted drive, but paranoia is paranoia)
• finnw 13y ago
  Don't forget that makes you more vulnerable to malware on the client, which now has easy access to your keys, and your known_hosts file (which gives the attacker a convenient list of servers to attempt to log into using those keys.)
  • mjn 13y ago
    Yes, this is why having a passphrase on your key is recommended. The idea is not to use keys instead of passwords, but in addition to: the password protects the private key locally, which is used to authenticate to the server. However that seems to be uncommon practice.