Is it reasonable to have multiple SSH keys?

Posted by Leonid Shevtsov on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Leonid Shevtsov
Published on 2010-03-18T09:59:37Z Indexed on 2010/03/18 10:01 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 615

Filed under:

ssh

|

ssh-keys

So far I've created a separate SSH key for each server I need to login to (for each purpose, to be more accurate). I did it out of a sense of security, just like different passwords to different sites.

Does having multiple SSH keys actually improve security? All of them are used from the same machine, are located in the same ~/.ssh, most even have the same passphrase.

So... should I give up the whole system and just use one SSH key for everything?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about ssh

Problem with hadoop start-dfs.sh

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I installed and configured hadoop on my Ubuntu 14.04 server, virtualized inside of hyper-v, however I am getting an issue when i run start-dfs.sh root@sUbuntu01:/var/log# start-dfs.sh 14/06/04 15:27:08 WARN util.NativeCodeLoader: Unable to load native-hadoop library for your platform... using builtin-java… >>> More
SSH problems (ssh_exchange_identification: read: Connection reset by peer)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I was running 11.10 and decided to do the full upgrade and come up to 12.04 after the update SSH (not SSHD) is now misbehaving when attempting to connect to other OpenSSH instances. I say OpenSSH as I am running a DropBear sshd on my router and I am able to connect to it. When attempting to connect… >>> More
SSH main process ended

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a running ubuntu server 10.04.1. When I tried to login to the server via ssh, I could not. Instead, I got connection refused error. I tried to ping the machine and I got reply! So, the clear reason is that SSH daemon is stopped. After reboot, I was able to login to my server via ssh. After… >>> More
SSH server not working (respawns until stopped)

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a running Ubuntu Server 10.04.1. When I tried to login to the server via ssh, I could not. Instead, I got connection refused error. I tried to ping the machine and I got reply! So, the clear reason is that SSH daemon is stopped. After reboot, I was able to login to my server via ssh. After… >>> More
Cannot SSH after resetting firewall on VPS

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm having trouble trying to SSH to my Debian 5 VPS with blacknight. It was working fine until I did the following: Logged into 'Parallels Infrastructure Manager' - Container - Firewall - Set to 'Normal Firewall settings'. It told me there was an error with the IPTables and offered the option again… >>> More

Related posts about ssh-keys

Is it reasonable to have multiple SSH keys?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
So far I've created a separate SSH key for each server I need to login to (for each purpose, to be more accurate). I did it out of a sense of security, just like different passwords to different sites. Does having multiple SSH keys actually improve security? All of them are used from the same machine… >>> More
Ubuntu Github ssh keys issue

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I followed every step given in this guide: http://help.github.com/linux-key-setup/ When I get to the end I am able to ssh to [email protected], getting the response: PTY allocation request failed on channel 0 Hi AlexBaranosky! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell… >>> More
Problem with shared ssh keys

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Following the process I've used in other environments (http://www.trilug.org/pipermail/trilug/Week-of-Mon-20080602/054712.html), I've tried setting-up shared keys between my Mac and my CentOS 4 webserver. I've seen the same problem with my older Ubuntu 7.10 workstation trying to connect via keys to… >>> More
Invalidating unused ssh keys

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am using one ssh account for all my Subversion users. They send me their public keys and I put them in .ssh/authorized_key of the svn account, then they can check out the code from Subversion using ssh tunnel. So far everything works fine. The problem though is that I want to invalidate keys that… >>> More
SSH keys fail for one user

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I just set up a new Debian server. I disabled root SSH and password auth, so you've gotta use a key file. For my primary user, everything works exactly as expected. I used ssh-keygen -t dsa and got myself a public and private key. Put one in authorized keys, put the other in a pem file locally. I… >>> More