ssh keys

[winter]

Any one know how to stop ssh from sending public keys out, and dump the key on a usb pen instead?

[serz]

If you are on a host that doesn't have the public key of remote host then you wouldn't be able to connect.

[winter]

If you are on a host that doesn't have the public key of remote host then you wouldn't be able to connect.

when you initaly conect to a host it sends it public key, what i want to do is stop the inital key being sent. but put the key on a usb pen

[serz]

AUTHORIZED_KEYS FILE FORMAT
     ~/.ssh/authorized_keys is the default file that lists the public keys
     that are permitted for RSA authentication in protocol version 1 and for
     public key authentication (PubkeyAuthentication) in protocol version 2.
     AuthorizedKeysFile may be used to specify an alternative file.

     Each line of the file contains one key (empty lines and lines starting
     with a '#' are ignored as comments).  Each RSA public key consists of the
     following fields, separated by spaces: options, bits, exponent, modulus,
     comment.  Each protocol version 2 public key consists of: options, key-
     type, base64 encoded key, comment.  The options field is optional; its
     presence is determined by whether the line starts with a number or not
     (the options field never starts with a number).  The bits, exponent, mod-
     ulus and comment fields give the RSA key for protocol version 1; the com-
     ment field is not used for anything (but may be convenient for the user
     to identify the key).  For protocol version 2 the keytype is ``ssh-dss''
     or ``ssh-rsa''.

     Note that lines in this file are usually several hundred bytes long
     (because of the size of the public key encoding) up to a limit of 8 kilo-
     bytes, which permits DSA keys up to 8 kilobits and RSA keys up to 16
     kilobits.  You don't want to type them in; instead, copy the
     identity.pub, id_dsa.pub or the id_rsa.pub file and edit it.

     sshd enforces a minimum RSA key modulus size for protocol 1 and protocol
     2 keys of 768 bits.

     The options (if present) consist of comma-separated option specifica-
     tions.  No spaces are permitted, except within double quotes.  The fol-
     lowing option specifications are supported (note that option keywords are
     case-insensitive):

Would that work?