[CoLoCo] ssh but kind of a mac question so please forgive

[Paul Hummer]

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> For security reasons I don't want to copy the key. Is there an option to
> tell it to look for the key on a flash drive? How would I do this?
> 

Are you talking about the public key or the private key?  There's really
no reason to worry about the security of your public key.  Shoot, you
can see other people's public key on Launchpad.

The private key, on the other hand, is something you should protect
well.  If you'd like to put it on a USB key, that's fine.  However, you
need to tell ssh about it in your local config.

Open (or create and open) ~/.ssh/config and add the following lines,
substituting the variables in various places.

Host <nickname-of-host>
  Hostname <ip-address-or-fqdn>
  User <your-username-on-target-system>
  IdentityFile </path/toprivate/key>

It's best to review the man-page for ssh-config.  It's got all sorts of
goodies in it.

> Bonus question: if you forward local port 80 to the ssh server, would
> that essentially encrypt all local web traffic without setting up a
> socks proxy?
> 

Yes, in fact, that's how many people use wireless securely without a vpn.

- --
Paul Hummer

http://theironlion.net
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