this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
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When authenticating with git over SSH, the private key should be considered secret and well protected.
That means the corresponding public key that was uploaded to the git server is enough to authenticate and no username is required. However, a password protected privare key is possible and extra layers of security can be added to the authentication mechanism.
As far as resource based attacks based on public key searching, I doubt many servers have significant enough public keys on a single host to even notice. Most repos are siloed and have specific teams/individuals assigned to them, so only a small number of public keys even gets loaded.
I dont know enough about the server side mechanics to be sure, but imo the attack surface is pretty small.
A username is required to authenticate with an SSH server. A public key alone is not enough.
While true, in most cases the username is simply "git" and not a specific username tied to the pub/priv keypair
The post you originally replied to was misunderstanding how the username is located when authenticating with a server.
Original post:
Your reply would be creating more confusion, because you implied that no username is required.
Your reply:
I am just clarifying if the original poster read your comment and was led to believe they wouldn't need a username. It is, in fact, required. As you expressed, it's usually "git" when connecting to a a git server, but it doesn't have to be.