ssh hostbased auth

[sKewlBoy]

sorry for bothering with the noob question (but there's no longer the newbies forum).
How can I set up Host Base Authorizatioon between my desktop and my server ?
I've chaged HostbasedAuthentication to yes in server's sshd_config. I have ssh-keygen'ed for the user I want in my desktop.
What else do I have to do ?

Thanks

[rtn]

You need the host key of the client in the known hosts of the server.
Probably the easiest way to do it would be to ssh from the server
to the client as that user so that the host key is automagically added
to his $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts file.

What exactly are you trying to do? If it's just that you want to be able
to login without a password, there probably are better ways of handling it.

--rtn

[sKewlBoy]

Yes, that's what I want. Logging in without password.

[rtn]

If it's for a workstation or something, you can use ssh-agent to manage
an rsa key, and set up your authorized_keys file to allow the login. This
way, you'll type your rsa passphrase once per session (you can run
ssh-agent as a wrapper for X, so all of your xterms and X clients have
the agent enabled) and be able to open connections without a passphrase.

If it's for some type of automation, you can do the same thing, but
generate a key with a null passphrase. If you're going to set it up this
way, you really should limit the commands that can be run in the
authorized_keys file. There are examples of this in the man page for sshd.

If you want to post more specific requirements, I'm sure we can figure
out some of your best bets, sacrificing as little security as possible for
convenience.

--rtn

[sKewlBoy]

Thanks, I guess that'll be enough. I havent tried it yet, bvut that's probably what I want.
But what if I use putty to connect to the server ?

[rtn]