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I have a public key to log on to my server. This key is password protected. However, when I log in to my server, there's no indication that the key is ever used. I just log in with my password as before. What kind of messages can I expect using public key/password combined authentication? I just need to know if both are being used or if I botched the public key setup. The client is Xubuntu 14.04, the server is Ubuntu Server 14.04.

nerdenator
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1 Answers1

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> ssh -v ...

gives you output which tells you how authentication was done. This is with public key:

[...]
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering DSA public key: /home/hl/.ssh/id_dsa_srm                                                                                                               
debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-dss blen 434                                                                                                                      
debug1: Enabling compression at level 6.                                                                                                                                
debug1: Authentication succeeded (publickey).  
[...]

That is the technical part. Usually you notice that the public key is used by having to enter the passphrase (unless you don't use one or it is cached by ssh-agent).

Hauke Laging
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  • @nerdenator You can even force `ssh` to use public keys only. This can be done on the command line or be configured in the config file for certain hosts. – Hauke Laging Jan 07 '15 at 16:34