Why am I no longer being asked for my ssh passphrase?

[pastic]

When I began to use an RSA keypair for logging into my NAS and my Github account two years ago, I set up a passphrase for my private key. Consequently I had to type it once at first use for every logged in session. It's been like this for two years. But since a week or so I am no longer being asked for my passphrase. I don't know if the passphrase has been disabled (how could that have happened?) or if it is being unlocked automatically when I login (how could that have become the case?).

Is the passphrase contained in a file I have accidentally deleted, or what may have happened?

Edit:

Code: Select all

peter@debian:~/.local/share/keyrings$ ls -la
total 20
drwx------  2 peter peter 4096 Dec  2 08:23 .
drwx------ 35 peter peter 4096 Dec  2 11:04 ..
-rw-------  1 peter peter 4104 Nov 28 10:06 login.keyring
-rw-------  1 peter peter  207 Aug  9  2019 user.keystore
peter@debian:~/.local/share/keyrings$


The date for user.keystore more or less matches when Debian 10 was installed last year. login.keyring seems new since a few days. Is this proof that somehow unlocking at login has happened?

[trinidad]

or if it is being unlocked automatically when I login

Most likely the case. Depending on your desktop (there is a difference between XFCE and Gnome) reset your key ring to not autostart with your session.

TC

[pastic]

Yes, I guess I can reset the keyring, but it would be interesting to understand why this has happened?

I have not poked around user settings lately, there is nothing in my .history that looks like accidental key management. There is no-one else in the household that could have done it either.

What might have set my key to be unlocked @ login?

EDIT: I have concluded that I must have accidentally ticked the box in the "unlock keyring" dialog at some stage.

[sgosnell]

SSH keys are stored in ~/.ssh by default. Did you intentionally put the keys in a different location?