Exercise: Copy a File To Remote Machine, And Verify

  • View your local password database’s metadata, and compute its SHA256 fingerprint.

    $ ls -l /etc/passwd
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 2746 Mar  3 14:12 /etc/passwd
$ sha256sum /etc/passwd
72c18232434d0551af75f964ea66ae5d9271faba895f40a929fb17f19d7ab44c  /etc/passwd

  • Use the scp command to copy that file to the remote machine - into your remote home directory under the name ~/my-local-passwd

  • Use the ssh command non-interactively to verify the SHA256 checksum on the remote side:

    • You do not login to the remote machine

    • You do not type the sha256sum command an a remote login shell

    • Rather, you use the local ssh command to automate that process and call sha256sum remotely for you.

  • Compare the remote fingerprint with the local fingerprint

  • Did the copy succeed without information loss?