I recently started using Git with GitHub and thus discovered that I already have a generated pair of SSH keys, public and private. This leads me to ask: what applications/programs/daemons on my Mac might have caused this keypair to be created? I've never used SSH to log in to another machine.
What apps/programs/daemons on OS X use the ~/.ssh/id_rsa* keys
ssh
Related Question
- MacOS – ssh-add every time I want to use SSH to login to the remote server
- Copying ssh private key with finder, but can’t see it with console
- MacOS – How to use SSH keys and disable password authentication
- Mac – Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch on Mac Mini
- How to keep the SSH private key passphrase away from OSX
- MacOS – Port 22: Connection Refused SSH Error
- MacOS – How to avoid macOS for keep asking for the passphrase for key ~/.ssh/id_rsa while remotely operating via ssh
- MacOS – Must we use ssh-agent nowadays
Best Answer
To be honest the question is a little bit huge. Your ssh keys could have been generated if you activated the sshd (Remote Login) from the sharing preference pane; as to what could have used (or uses them), it’s any program (like Git, Subversion, SFTP, etc) that requires ssh access. Not sure exactly which one could have generated for you, but you can always remove them and see what fails (save a backup!).