[Gllug] RSA or DSA

[Nix]

On Tue, 17 May 2005, Alain Williams moaned:
> Nah - don't need to hack the binaries or keylog or crack the comms channel.
> If they gain access to your machine when you are logged in and become you (or root),
> All that they need to do is to work out what to set $SSH_AGENT_PID and $SSH_AUTH_SOCK
> (neither of which is difficult) then they use your active ssh-agent to log in to
> other machines without quoting a password and without knowing your passphrase.

Oooh. True. The agent necessarily doesn't have any protection against
that (nor can it without eliminating its only advantage).

> Thus being forced to quote a root password on the other box really does make
> things more difficult for them.

True (although if they can mess with your ssh-agent they can also snoop
on your pty and spy on your keyboard input ;) )

-- 
`End users are just test loads for verifying that the system works, kind of
 like resistors in an electrical circuit.' - Kaz Kylheku in c.o.l.d.s
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