Well, work was slow today, so I finally decided to figure out how to use ssh keys. I already understood the basic idea of a public/private key pair, but I’d never used one like this before.

Basically, I put my public key on any server I want to access to (and have an account on), and when I request access to one of these servers, it sends me a challenge which I sign with my private key and send back. The server validates this signature with my public key and logs me in.

This all sounds a bit complicated, but it all happens automatically. The ssh client and server take care of it. I still have to enter a password, but it’s the password associated with my private key. This means that I only have to remember one password for all the servers I use.