OpenSSH PKI support coming soon

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: December 4, 2006]

This project looks very promising and will probably be useful even at small sites.

In cryptography, a public key infrastructure (PKI) is an arrangement that provides for trusted third party vetting of, and vouching for, user identities. It also allows binding of public keys to users. This is usually carried out by software at a central location together with other coordinated software at distributed locations. The public keys are typically in certificates.

Most enterprise-scale PKI systems rely on certificate chains to establish a party's identity, as a certificate may have been issued by a certificate authority computer whose 'legitimacy' is established for such purposes by a certificate issued by a higher-level certificate authority, and so on. You may have use PKI in everyday, common examples are:
=> OpenGPG - Encryption and/or sender authentication of Email messages
=> Smart card logon
=> XML Signature for Encryption and/or authentication of documents etc

OpenBSD journal reporting that Daniel Hartmeier recently submitted to the OpenBSD tech mailing list a very interesting addition to OpenSSH, a PKI whose goal is to simplify host and user key administration.

( Via OpenBSD journal )

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Discussion on This Article:

Mark Seaborn Says: February 9th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
When is the target date to release openSSH with PKI support. I would be very interested in trying it out.