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I frequently SSH into a remote Linux server of which I am an authorized user. In order to make the communication more secure, I setup the public/private key authentication instead of using password for login. I sent my public key to server's administrator and he added it to ".ssh/authorized_keys" under my home directory. Everything went well right off the bat and I could connect from my Linux laptop to the server without using my password on first attempt.

Now the question - if server's administrator had accidentally placed my public key under another user's "authorized_keys" then could I have logged in as that user?

(PS: If the answer is "yes" then I'd be very very very careful if I were an administrator because seems like somewhat easy mistake to make.)

Let me know if additional information is needed to answer the question correctly.

Thanks!

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    Yes, but you need to know which user's authorized_keys file the admin added your key to. BTW - instead of sending the key to the admin, you could probably have used ssh-copy-id and done it yourself....
    – ivanivan
    Jan 30, 2018 at 20:35
  • @ivanivan Thanks for the ssh-copy-id tip, I will remember it for next time. Your comment about the knowledge of username also makes sense. That makes me somewhat less spooked now. But still spooked nonetheless.
    – user309223
    Jan 30, 2018 at 20:48

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if server's administrator had accidentally placed my public key under another user's "authorized_keys" then could I have logged in as that user?

In a word: yes. The same way as if they sent you the other user's password, or saved your password under the other user's account.

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    The only exception perhaps is that both admin and I would think twice before sending out passwords to each other. However, public key is public information that I (or admin) might be little less careful about. But I see the point of you analogy. Thank you.
    – user309223
    Jan 30, 2018 at 20:53

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