Users with this key can access all of the repositories that xx can access.

[Flrancis]

Hey,

I am a new user of Bitbucket. Recently I created SSH keys for my account. I pasted the public key into my account according to the official tutorial here. Then I received an email saying as shown in the title.

From the message what I understand is that anyone who knows my public key can access both my public and private repositories. Is this correct?

Another question is that is my public key visible to others? What can they do with my public key? To access my public and private repositories?

Regards,

Francis

[Mikael Sandberg · Accepted solution]

Hi Francis,

Welcome to the Atlassian Community.

No, the public key does not give anyone access to your repositories, it is your private key that gives you access.

SSH keys are always generated in pairs with one known as the private key and the other as the public key. The private key is known only to you and it should be safely guarded. By contrast, the public key can be shared freely with any SSH server to which you wish to connect.

You can learn more about how the SSH protocol works here.