[turtle777]

Can somebody help me understand what locations are used for SSH keys.

I know of the following (possible) locations:

~/.ssh/ -- file: id_[xxx] or identity
/private/etc/ -- file: ssh_host[_xxx]_key
/private/var/root/.ssh/ -- file: id_[xxx] or identity

So far, I thought that the user's keys are in ~/.ssh/, but I don't understand the /private/etc/ files.
What do the ssh_host[_xxx]_key's do ?

Thanks for your help.

-t

[nospamboz]

It sounds like you're looking for some kind of SSH (or more particularly OpenSSH) primer.

Wikipedia is a good place to start. There are links on the OpenSSH article there to some
good Linux Journal articles, with lots of explanations regarding the many types of
keys in the second part.

The 101 Uses of OpenSSH: Part II of II | Linux Journal

HTH

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by nospamboz 

It sounds like you're looking for some kind of SSH (or more particularly OpenSSH) primer.

The 101 Uses of OpenSSH: Part II of II | Linux Journal

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, it doesn't answer my question.
It only references ~/.ssh/ (or $home/.ssh/), but not the other locations.

-t