[TriLUG] Re: USB keychains and private keys

[Lance A. Brown]

USB flash drives look like scsi disks to Linux.  I have a 128MB unit
partitions into two 64MB filesystems, one is vfat and one is ext3, and
have my private key stored onthe ext3 partiton.

It's also burned onto CD and on a couple floppy disks I have stored at home.

--[Lance]


Joseph Mack NA3T wrote:
> I was thinking of getting a USB keychain flashcard to store (among other
> things) my private key(s). However ssh requires that your private key be
> 400. I assume the USB keychains are vfat, in which case you can only set
> the permissions to 444, and ssh won't accep the private key (tested on a
> vfat floppy).
> 
> Presumably I could put an ext3 file system on there, but then I won't be
> able to use the device to transfer files to a windows machine (which
> admittedly I don't do a whole lot, but would be useful to be able to do).
> 
> I understand that you're not supposed to reformat these devices a whole
> lot, and that you should use cramfs if you're going to reformat them.
> 
> Do people store their private keys on these USB keychains?
> 
> Can someone straighten me out?
> 
> Thanks Joe
> 

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