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I suppose that my main Linux user account password serves as my SSH password as well. Is there a way I can modify this? As it turns out, I'd like to have a REALLY secure SSH password for obvious reasons, but a less secure local password, as it makes typing in passwords a heck of a lot easier on a machine. Is there a way I can change my account password in SSH without changing my Linux user password?

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No. But if you use a SSH key and require login using a key then you can set the key passphrase to anything you like.

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Fyi, the linked page mostly describes generation of SSH1-RSA keys. Be careful with the instructions. – grawity Feb 15 '11 at 14:08
Thanks, I'll look into it. That's always more secure than using passwords anyway, right? Do you know of a tutorial on how to get key-only authentication set up on servers and clients? – TK Kocheran Feb 15 '11 at 15:52
Normally this is controlled by the PasswordAuthentication option in sshd_config; you can use Match to restrict it to specific users. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Feb 15 '11 at 17:13
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It is possible with some PAM configuration magic. With SSH, however, key-based authentication as suggested by Ignacio is a better solution.

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