Encrypt temporary password using public ssh key

Posted by David M. Syzdek on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by David M. Syzdek
Published on 2012-07-09T17:02:38Z Indexed on 2012/07/09 21:17 UTC
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Filed under:

ssh

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password

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encryption

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openssl

I manage a virtual office and our staff uses both SSH keys and passwords for authentication. If one of our staff forgets his password, is there a way to encrypt a temporary password using his public RSA ssh key so I can send it to him via e-mail?

I've seen other questions related to this one, however the "answers" generally recommend against using the public/private SSH keys to perform general encryption/decryption and do not actually state if this is possible. I would like to know if it is indeed possible and what are the steps to encrypt and then decrypt the password.

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