Note: This bug is displayed in read-only format because the product is no longer active in Red Hat Bugzilla.

Bug 21135

Summary: ssh-add with no args doesn't attempt to use same passphrase for both RSA and DSA keys
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: David Woodhouse <dwmw2>
Component: opensshAssignee: Nalin Dahyabhai <nalin>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 7.0Keywords: FutureFeature
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Enhancement
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2000-11-20 17:58:28 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Attachments:
Description Flags
patch to provide requested functionality none

Description David Woodhouse 2000-11-20 17:58:25 UTC 
On most machines I now have both RSA and DSA keys, for connecting to SSHv1
or SSHv2 hosts respectively. I tend to give the keys the same passphrase -
I'm sure many people do the same. 

When adding both RSA and DSA keys, I believe ssh-add should attempt to
re-use the first passphrase given for the second key, and only prompt for a
second time if it fails.
Comment 1 Nalin Dahyabhai 2000-11-20 20:42:32 UTC 
After a passphrase is read in and ssh-add attempts to use it to decrypt a key
file, it takes care to clear the memory used.  This leads me to believe that
reusing passphrases in this manner would be a Bad Thing.
Comment 2 David Woodhouse 2001-01-07 22:11:46 UTC 
Remembering the passphrase for the duration of a single invocation of ssh-add
wouldn't open any new vulnerability. If you're paranoid about an attacker being
able to control/crash ssh-add and read the passphrase then the same applies to
getting decrypted keys from ssh-agent and you shouldn't be using them at all.
Comment 3 David Woodhouse 2001-01-07 22:15:04 UTC 
Created attachment 7207 [details]
patch to provide requested functionality