Why is my `id_rsa.pub` 403 characters? Isn't it supposed to be 256? Be gentle.
> cat ./ssh/id_rsa.pub | wc -m
403
Discussion
Should SHA-1 be one char length then ? 😉
I think your user name and machine name are encoded there. I M not sure though. Also does base 64 encoding change the length? I am not a security expert at all.
RSA keys are usually 1024/2048/4096 bits 403 could be an ascii armoured key which is a fancy way of storing a base64 encoded key
Have you tried turning it off, then back on?
A 2048-bit RSA key, for instance, is 256 bytes (because 2048 bits / 8 = 256 bytes). But when base64-encoded, it becomes approximately 342 characters long. Add the key type, comment, and whitespace, and you're at over 400 characters.