With CH/MC version 5.574 there is a new option to “Clear Public Key” on the agent details screen. What is this and why would this ever be needed?
Every Agent in TechIDManager has its own asymmetric key pair it uses for authentication to our servers. This key is stored with the agents, and is very secure. This key can get lost from an agent, if you break something about the agent (sorry I didn’t mean to point a finger there). This has happened with Azure/EntraID agents when the resource group that holds the agents function and secret information is deleted. Once this happens the private key stored with the resource group is lost forever. That key is needed for our servers to confirm that agent is who they claim to be. Once that key is lost, our servers won’t let any other agents register as that agent or make changes as that agent. This means our servers won’t let that agent register when it is re-installed. In order to re-install, and allow that agent to be “hijacked”, a new key needs to be allowed to be uploaded from the agent. You do this by selecting “Clear Public Key” in the agents details screen. After doing this a broken agent is able to re-installed.
