SSH public key in collection, while keeping private key, ehm, private

It would be very useful to be able to share just the public key of an SSH key pair to a collection, while keeping the private key in your private vault.

This would enable us to:

  • Automate deployment of public keys from the collection (using Ansible, for example)
  • Let users manage their own keys, and reuse the same keys for non-automated systems
  • Simplify key management for less technical users (using the built-in key generation)
  • Keep machine accounts (Ansible, etc) from being able to see private keys
  • …all while using the SSH Agent on the user side
  • …and not needing any manual extra procedures

Our option is to set up a CA, but we would prefer not to at this moment. We also have quite a variety of systems, in a lot of different environments, so we still need SSH keys at the end of the day anyway.

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