# [SOLVED] Login using pvt key pwd before keychain is running

## sirlark

Hi,

I've just started using key chain. I set up a key pair and password protected the private key with the same password as my user account. Then I changed my user account's password. I noticed today that after a reboot, I could log in at the gdm log on screen with my old password (i.e. the private key's password). I hadn't noticed before because I was actually thinking about using the new password. Is this normal behaviour? I would have thought that after a cold boot, no ssh-agent process is running yet, and that keychain only starts them on first login (i.e. first login from gdm) so my old password shouldn't be acceptable?

Thanks

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## sirlark

Okay, so I thought about this. Obviously, the private key is being used for authentication in addition to the usual password mechanism.

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