topic Re: More secure DSA or RSA public key? in Secure OS Software for Linux

More secure DSA or RSA public key?

'chris' — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:03:15 GMT

hi

I'd like to use passwordless ssh beetwen 2 linux boxes: 2.4.22 and 2.6.24.
Which is more secure DSA or RSA public key?

Re: More secure DSA or RSA public key?

Michal Kapalka (mikap) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:53:52 GMT

hi,

check this thread :

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-security-4/which-is-better-rsa-or-dsa-public-key-12593/

mikap

Re: More secure DSA or RSA public key?

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:21:32 GMT

Shalom,

Longer keys are harder to crack.

By default rsa keys are bigger in terms of bytes, therefore presumably harder to crack and more secure.

Take a look at the man page for ssh-keygen you can see why.

-b bits
Specifies the number of bits in the key to create. For RSA keys,
the minimum size is 768 bits and the default is 2048 bits.
Generally, 2048 bits is considered sufficient. DSA keys must be
exactly 1024 bits as specified by FIPS 186-2.

SEP

Re: More secure DSA or RSA public key?

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:22:20 GMT

Sorry about the double post. Note if you go wild on the size of an rsa key, you may really slow down authentication.

SEP