[vox-tech] sshd_config and PasswordAuthentication

[Jay Strauss]

> No, SSH never passes password across the net in cleartext. They are sent to
> the remote host when using this option, which means that unless you have a
> different password for each host, a malicious remote administrator could
> capture your password and then use if to compromise your other accounts.

Feeling a bit stupid but I still don't understand what you mean

If I ssh from A to sveasoft - the password is encrypted
If I then ssh from sveasoft to C - the password is cleartext?

> 
> With PasswordAuthentication set to no, SSH-key authentication must be used
> instead of a password. This method uses public/private key pairs created by
> ssh-keygen(1) to authenticate. This is generally considered more secure than
> tunneled-password authencation for reasons than someone else can explaim
> better than I can.

This is what I thought that option did, but I have 
PasswordAuthentication no on most of my boxes but don't use a key pair 
to log in.  I get prompted for a password and I type that in, and I'm 
logged on.

Thanks
Jay