CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-004) — Question 157

A junior systems administrator has generated a PKI certificate for SSH sessions. The administrator would like to configure authentication without passwords to remote systems. Which of the following should the administrator perform?

Answer options

• A. Add the content of id_rsa.pub file to the remote system ~/.ssh/authorized_keys location.
• B. Add the content of id_rsa file to the remote system ~/.ssh/authorized_keys location.
• C. Add the content of id_rsa file to the remote system ~/.ssh/known_hosts location.
• D. Add the content of id_rsa.pub file to the remote system ~/.ssh/known_hosts location.

Correct answer: A

Explanation

The correct action is to add the content of the id_rsa.pub file to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote system, as this file holds public keys for SSH authentication. The other options are incorrect because adding the id_rsa file, which is private, to the authorized_keys file poses a security risk, while adding either id_rsa or id_rsa.pub to the known_hosts file does not facilitate passwordless authentication.