Questions[password](server)

I've just tried logging into a Fedora (release 13 Goddard) server using SSH (PuTTY, Windows). For some reason the Enter after typing my username didn't go through and I typed in my password and hit Enter again. I only realized my mistake when the server greeted me with a happy

myusername MYPASSWORD@server.example.com's password:

I broke off the connection at this point and changed my password on that machine (through a separate SSH connection).

... now my question is: Is such a failed login stored in plain text in any logfile? In other words, have I just forced my (now-outdated) password in front of the eyes of the remote admin the next time he scans his logs?

Update

Thanks for all the comments about the implied question "what to do to prevent this in the future". For quick, one-off connections I'll use this PuTTY feature now:

to replace the where-was-it-again "auto-login username" option

I'll also start using ssh keys more often, as explained in the PuTTY docs.

On Linux (Debian Squeeze) I would like to disable SSH login using password to some users (selected group or all users except root). But I do not want to disable login using certificate for them.

edit: thanks a lot for detailed answer! For some reason this does not work on my server:

Match User !root
PasswordAuthentication no

...but can be easily replaced by

PasswordAuthentication no
Match User root
PasswordAuthentication yes

How to automate SSH login with password? I'm configuring my test VM, so heavy security is not considered. SSH chosen for acceptable security with minimal configuration.

ex)

echo password | ssh id@server

This doesn't work.

I remember I did this with some tricks somebody guided me, but I can't remember now the trick I used...

How can passwordless sudo access be setup on either RHEL (Fedora, CentOS, etc) or Ubuntu distributions? (If it's the same across distros, that's even better!)

Setting: personal and/or lab/training equipment with no concern for unauthorized access (ie, the devices are on non-public networks, and any/all users are fully trusted, and the contents of the devices are "plain-vanilla").

This is a question regarding the OpenSSH client on Linux, MacOSX and FreeBSD.

Normally, I log into systems using my SSH key.

Occasionally, I want my SSH client to ignore my SSH key and use a password instead. If I 'ssh hostname', my client prompts me for the Passphrase to my SSH key which is an annoyance. Instead, I want the client to simply ignore my SSH key, so that the server will ask me for my password instead.

I tried the following, but I am still prompted for the passphrase to my SSH key. After this, I am prompted for my password.

ssh -o PreferredAuthentications=password host.example.org

I want to do this on the client side, without any modification of the remote host.