what is ssh-sgent?

[sktsee]

On Sat, 2008-05-03 at 21:00 +0100, John K Masters wrote: 
> On 20:40 Sat 03 May     , John K Masters wrote:
> > On 20:11 Sat 03 May     , andy baxter wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > Could someone tell me what ssh-agent is? I have the following process 
> > > running on my computer, and I'm not sure what it does:
> > > 
> > > root at monkey:~# ps ax | grep 5474
> > >  5474 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch 
> > > --exit-with-session x-session-manager
> > > 16932 pts/1    R+     0:00 grep 5474
> > > 
> > 
> > ssh-agent is part of the ssh suite of programs. Basically it allows you
> > to have a secure connection to another machine using public/private
> > keys. Once you have authenticated your connection using your passphrase
> > via ssh-add, the session details are kept in RAM on the client machine
> > and you can access the server securely without needing a password. 
> > 
> > If you have not explicitly installed ssh on your machine (IIRC it is not
> > installed by default) then I would look closely at the possibility your
> > machine has been compromised. However, depending on what applications
> > you have installed, ssh may have been pulled in as a dependancy.
> > 
> 
> On checking my Hardy install, looks like Seahorse IS installed by
> default and consequently so is ssh-agent. (Seahorse is the Gnome keyring
> manager) Why on earth do these distros keep moving the goalposts? :-)

Actually openssh-client is part of the default desktop install. It gets
pulled in by ssh-askpass-gnome, which in turn was pulled in by
ubuntu-desktop

-- 
sktsee