I've found all sorts of threads on how to best setup SSH keys and authorized_keys files on each boot since they are blown away each time.  I'm trying to see if there is a single best approach that's recommended now in 2019 that's easy to setup and maintain.

 

Right now what I'm doing is to have my keys and authorized_keys files in /boot/config/ssh/, and in the /boot/config/go file, I copy the files to ~/.ssh/. I use umask in the bash script like follows to handle the permissioning:

#!/bin/bash

# umask setup
umask 077

# Variable Setup
CONFIG=/boot/config/ssh
HOME_SSH=/root/.ssh

if [ ! -d "$HOME_SSH" ]; then
    mkdir $HOME_SSH
    cp $CONFIG/authorized_keys $HOME_SSH
    cp $CONFIG/known_hosts $HOME_SSH
fi

The one flaw in this is that as my server is running 24x7 like most of you, if I ever make changes to my ssh keys, authorized_keys or known_hosts, I have to remember to make changes in /boot/config/ssh then copy the files to ~/.ssh/.

 

What I was thinking would be better was to instead of copy then, make symbolic links to my master files in /boot/config/ssh from ~/.ssh/.  Then I only every update one spot.

 

I read some other threads using the /etc/ssh/ directory with some confusing comments about something that happens on boot where keys are copied from /boot/config/ssh automatically to /etc/ssh.  If the keys are present in /etc/ssh and the system uses those automatically, then do i even need keys in ~/.ssh?  Confusing...

 

this is where you all come in. There has got to be a small # of ways that are best in terms of ease to setup, and ease to maintain as keys are changed etc.

 

 

 

I'm also interested to know the best way to do this.  It's a problem I've been meaning to solve for months!  It's just so hard to remember to do it when I almost never reboot my unRAID host.

 

For now I'm stealing your idea unless there is a better way! 

No one has guidance?

this works for the SSH keys by adding to the /boot/config/go file, where foo is the key

 

mkdir ~/.ssh
echo 'foo' > ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 644 ~/.ssh