I have too many machines floating around, some virtual, some physical, and they’re getting added and removed semi-frequently as I play around with different tools/try out ideas. One recurring pain point is I have no easy way to manage SSH keys around them, and it’s a pain to deal with adding/removing/cycling keys. I know I can use AuthorizedKeysCommand on sshd_config to make the system fetch a remote key for validation, I know I could theoretically publish my pub key to github or alike, but I’m wondering if there’s something more flexible/powerful where I can manage multiple users (essentially roles) such that each machine can be assigned a role and automatically allow access accordingly?

I’ve seen Keyper before, but the container haven’t been updated for years, and the support discord owner actively kicks everyone from the server, even after asking questions.

Is there any other solution out there that would streamline this process a bit?

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.meEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I would switch to certificate based SSH authentication.

    All the server keys gets signed by your CA, all clients also gets signed by your CA. Everyone implicitly trust eachother though the CA and it’s as safe as regular SSH keys.

    You can also sign short lived client keys if you want to make revocations easier, the servers don’t care because now all it cares is that it’s a valid cert issues by the CA, which can be done entirely offline!

    HashiCorp Vault can also help managing the above, but it’s also pretty easy to do manually.