SSH-KEYSIGN(8)ADMINISTRATIVE COMMANDSSSH-KEYSIGN(8)

NAME

ssh-keysign - ssh helper program for hostbased authentication

SYNOPSIS


ssh-keysign

DESCRIPTION

ssh-keysign is used by ssh(1) to access the local host keys and generate the digital signature required during hostbased authentication with SSH protocol version 2.

ssh-keysign is disabled by default and can only be enabled in the global client configuration file /etc/ssh/ssh_config by setting EnableSSHKeysign to ``yes''.

ssh-keysign is not intended to be invoked by the user, but from ssh(1). See ssh(1) and sshd(8) for more information about hostbased authentication.

FILES

/etc/ssh/ssh_config
Controls whether ssh-keysign is enabled.
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key, /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
These files contain the private parts of the host keys used to generate the digital signature. They should be owned by root, readable only by root, and not accessible to others. Since they are readable only by root, ssh-keysign must be set-uid root if hostbased authentication is used.

SEE ALSO

ssh(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh_config(5), sshd(8)

HISTORY

ssh-keysign first appeared in OpenBSD.

AUTHORS

Markus Friedl <markus@openbsd.org>

May 24, 2002