Safe to store keys?

[Acroman]

Hi Everyone - I'm trying to determine if it's safe to store SSH keys on my esp32-based devices for authentication purposes. I've done a bunch of digging but I can't seem to find a decisive answer. I've seen some things that imply that it's safe to store keys provided they are properly separated and ignored by SVN and all that.

My question is: how safe is it to store ssh keys on my ESP32 devices? Can the devices "leak" my keys if someone runs a debugger on my chip? Is there a better way to authenticate an esp device without maintaining some database of MACs or similar?

Sorry for my ignorance - I'm a web guy and a little bit new to working on hardware like the ESP. Any help greatly appreciated!!

[WiFive]

It is safe even with physical access if you use flash encryption and secure boot but careful not to lock yourself out of your own device during development.

[Acroman]

That's very helpful - thank you very much!