LinuxMonth: Sshhh, somebody might hear you!

“The Internet’s not going to rewire itself for you; you’re
going to continue to have machines in between you and the machines
that want your password. How do you keep them from hearing that
password? You encrypt it!”

“If you don’t already have the ssh software on your system (try
running the command “ssh” to see), you’ll need to download it.
First, see if your distribution has ssh or openssh packages
included (distributions created outside the US might, distributions
created inside the US aren’t likely to). One trick is to see
whether there might be a server maintained outside the US that has
software ready for your distribution; ftp.redhat.de is an excellent
place to look for RedHat.”

“As this is the first time you’ve connected, the remote system
offers it’s host key to you; you should accept it. … When you
connect next time, your ssh client will compare the host key it has
with the key coming back from the server to make sure that it’s the
same system. It’ll complain loudly if the key changes… What have
you gained? The big gain so far is that every character you type
and every screen update that comes back from the server is
encrypted; nobody can use a sniffer to see what your keystrokes or
screen displays anymore.”

Complete
Story