Authentication is the process of proving your identity to a computer. It differs from authorization, which is the process of granting certain privileges to someone.
Questions tagged [authentication]
768 questions
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How to tell git which private key to use?
ssh has the -i option to tell which private key file to use when authenticating:
-i identity_fileSelects a file from which
the identity (private key) for RSA or DSA authentication is read.
The default is ~/.ssh/identity for protocol…

jrdioko
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Too many authentication failures for *username*
I have a hostgator account with ssh access enabled. When trying to upload the generated .pub key file with this command:
rsync -av -e "ssh -p2222" /home/user/.ssh/key.pub username@111.222.33.44:.ssh/authorized_keys
I keep getting:
Received…

Gabriel
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How do I configure SSH so it doesn't try all the identity files automatically?
I have been putting my ssh identity files inside my ~/.ssh/ folder. I have probably about 30 files in there.
When I connect to servers, I will specify the identity file to use with something like
ssh -i ~/.ssh/client1-identity…

cwd
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Keep GnuPG credentials cached for entire user session
GnuPG can, with gpg-agent, cache access to a private key. How can I keep that cache active for the entire user session?
When I unlock the key for gpg-agent, it only stays cached for a limited time. With SSH's agent, I enter the passphrase one time…

bignose
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ssh -o PreferredAuthentications: What's the difference between "password" and "keyboard-interactive"?
Both PreferredAuthentications=password and PreferredAuthentications=keyboard-interactive would prompt for the password, so what's the difference between them?
I Google'd with the keywords ssh PreferredAuthentications password keyboard-interactive…

su.root
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How do I use my keyfile to sftp transfer data from one server to another
I cant scp, the other server only takes sftp connections.
Currently, I am trying to do
sftp jay@server.name.com:/files> put -r ~/
-i keyname does not work, just resolves with illegal option -- i.

Jay
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Connecting Adium to Google Talk with a 2-factor authentication account isn’t working
Anyone else having this problem? After turning on 2-factor authentication on my Google Account I stopped being able to log in through Adium (Mac IM client that uses Pidgin’s libpurple for IM). Obviously you need to generate an application-specific…

Robin Whittleton
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Passing UNC username and password within a UNC path
Is it possible to pass the UNC username and password within a UNC path?
Similar to how FTP and SMB support this:
smb://user:pass@destination.com/share
ftp://user:pass@destination.com/share
I am trying to get a (non domain PC) service access to a…

Kvad
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Does Firefox support wildcards in NTLM / Negotiate URI's for autologin?
Following this question about Windows Domain Authentication with Firefox, does FF support using wildcards in the URI's? I'm not finding anything where it mentions support either way.

squillman
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Private/Public Key Authentication for Windows Remote desktop
Does anything exist for Windows RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) that is similar to SSH (in Linux) Public/Private key authentication (Instead of leaving normal password authentication open)?
I'm finding conflicting answers to this topic around the…

Lightning77
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Why does Internet Explorer keep asking me for NTLM credentials in an intranet zone?
Long text, sorry for that. I'm trying to be as specific as possible.
I'm on Windows 7 and I experience a very frustrating Internet Explorer 8 behavior. I'm in a company LAN with some intranet servers and a proxy for connecting with the outside…

Tomalak
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Windows Domain Authentication with Firefox
We have many internal web sites on our domain:
a.blah.com
b.bhah.com
c.blah.com
IE authenticates automatically using the currently signed in domain user but fire fox pops up a login box, sometimes multiple times per page load if assets on…

Danielb
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What is a GPG with "authenticate" capability used for?
GnuPG subkeys can be flagged with three kind of capabilities: Sign, Encrypt and Authenticate.
While the first two actions are widely used and documented, the authenticate action is somehow mysterious.
You can make such key only using editing a…

Claudio Floreani
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Chrome - Why am I automatically authenticated to a web app even after clearing browser cookies?
I am accessing a web application using Chrome. If I sign out of the app and clear all Chrome history/cookies/etc (even Flash cookies which are now handled by Chrome in the same Clear History area) and then re-access the site, I am automatically…

Howiecamp
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Any way to access StackExchange from a text only browser?
I have a very slow computer and spend most of my time without a graphical environment. StackExchange doesn't let me log in using Links saying that my "request could not be completed because it looks suspicious." Is there any way to get around this?

technillogue
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