Editing Secure Shell (section)

==Authentication: OpenSSH key management==
On [[Unix-like]] systems, the list of authorized public keys is typically stored in the home directory of the user that is allowed to log in remotely, in the file <code>~/.ssh/authorized_keys</code>.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wiki.qnap.com/wiki/How_To_Set_Up_Authorized_Keys|title=How To Set Up Authorized Keys|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510111514/http://wiki.qnap.com/wiki/How_To_Set_Up_Authorized_Keys|archive-date=2011-05-10}}</ref> This file is respected by SSH only if it is not writable by anything apart from the owner and root. When the public key is present on the remote end and the matching private key is present on the local end, typing in the password is no longer required. However, for additional security the private key itself can be locked with a passphrase.

The private key can also be looked for in standard places, and its full path can be specified as a command line setting (the option <code>-i</code> for ssh). The [[ssh-keygen]] utility produces the public and private keys, always in pairs.