Add support for most of the ESC[<low number>t sequences, which xterm
[u/mdw/putty] / doc / pageant.but
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e5b0d077 1\C{pageant} Using Pageant for authentication
2
3Pageant is an SSH authentication agent. It holds your private keys
4in memory, already decoded, so that you can use them often without
5needing to type a passphrase.
6
e5b0d077 7\H{pageant-start} Getting started with Pageant
8
55ba634a 9Before you run Pageant, you need to have a private key. See
10\k{pubkey} to find out how to generate and use one.
e5b0d077 11
12When you run Pageant, it will put an icon of a computer wearing a
13hat into the System tray. It will then sit and do nothing.
14
15If you click the Pageant icon with the right mouse button, you will
16see a menu. Select \e{View Keys} from this menu. The Pageant main
17window will appear. (You can also bring this window up by
18double-clicking on the Pageant icon.)
19
20The Pageant window contains a list box. This shows the private keys
21Pageant is holding. When you start Pageant, it has no keys, so the
22list box will be empty.
23
24To add a key to Pageant, press the \e{Add Key} button. Pageant will
25bring up a file dialog, labelled \q{Select Private Key File}. Find
26your private key file in this dialog, and press \e{Open}.
27
28Pageant will now load the private key. If the key is protected by a
29passphrase, Pageant will ask you to type the passphrase. When the
30key has been loaded, it will appear in the list in the Pageant
31window.
32
33Now start PuTTY and open an SSH session to a site that accepts your
34key. PuTTY will notice that Pageant is running, retrieve the key
35automatically from Pageant, and use it to authenticate. You can now
36open as many PuTTY sessions as you like without having to type your
37passphrase again.
38
39When you want to shut down Pageant, click the right button on the
40Pageant icon in the System tray, and select \e{Exit} from the menu.
41Closing the Pageant main window does \e{not} shut down Pageant.
42
43\H{pageant-forward} Using agent forwarding
44
45\# Walk the user through enabling agent forwarding and starting a
46\# second-level session.
47
48\# Demonstrate the use of ssh-add at the remote end.
49
50\H{pageant-security} Security considerations
51
52\# Explain that local use of Pageant allows you convenient one-touch
53\# authentication without ever storing a decrypted key on disk
54
55\# Explain that, despite this, it still doesn't protect you against
56\# your local machine being hacked (swap files, but more importantly
57\# trojans)
58
59\# Explain that forwarding agent connections to a remote site
60\# can be abused by the sysadmin of that site, so you'd better know
61\# you can trust them