Bug 21135 – ssh-add with no args doesn't attempt to use same passphrase for both RSA and DSA keys

Bug 21135 - ssh-add with no args doesn't attempt to use same passphrase for both RSA and DSA keys

Summary:	ssh-add with no args doesn't attempt to use same passphrase for both RSA and ...

Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX

Aliases:	None

Product:	Red Hat Linux
Classification:	Retired
Component:	openssh (Show other bugs)
Sub Component:
Version:	7.0
Hardware:	All Linux

Priority	medium Severity medium
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Assigned To:	Nalin Dahyabhai
QA Contact:
Docs Contact:

URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:	FutureFeature

Depends On:
Blocks:
	Show dependency tree / graph

Reported:	2000-11-20 12:58 EST by David Woodhouse
Modified:	2008-05-01 11:37 EDT (History)
CC List:	0 users

See Also:
Fixed In Version:
Doc Type:	Enhancement
Doc Text:
Story Points:	---
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:	2000-11-20 12:58:28 EST
Type:	---
Regression:	---
Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---
CRM:
Verified Versions:
Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---
RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---

Attachments	(Terms of Use)
patch to provide requested functionality (1.78 KB, patch) 2001-01-07 17:15 EST, David Woodhouse	no flags	Details \| Diff
Add an attachment (proposed patch, testcase, etc.)

Groups: None (edit)

Description David Woodhouse 2000-11-20 12:58:25 EST

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 15:42:32 EST

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 17:11:46 EST

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 17:15:04 EST

Created attachment 7207 [details]
patch to provide requested functionality

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