# OpenSSH DSA key works but not RSA



## kpedersen (Aug 5, 2013)

Hi all,

For one of my servers I am having to use 8.4-RELEASE rather than 9.1-RELEASE and am wondering if the ssh provided in base lacks support for RSA keys.

If I specify DSA using the -t option in `ssk-keygen` then it all works, but if I miss off -t or specify RSA, then I get issues such as


```
Agent admitted failure to sign using the key
```

If I then use `ssh-add` on the remote machine, it states:


```
Could not open a connection to your authentication agent
```

If I run `ssh-agent` and store the variables, I can then do the add but it seems to lose it after a new session (i.e when I try to `ssh` in).

Am I safe to keep with DSA as a solution or is RSA preferable?

Best regards,

Karsten


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## kpa (Aug 5, 2013)

Use the DSA keys if they work, they are arguably safer cryptographically than RSA keys all though there are no significant weaknesses found in RSA encryption as of 2013.


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## kpedersen (Aug 6, 2013)

Ah cool, thanks.

I find it strange that RSA didn't work but I suppose it doesn't matter then


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