diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 713798cbb..92aff179b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@
      a TTY is fatal.
      
      ok markus@
+   - djm@cvs.openbsd.org 2011/05/10 05:46:46
+     [authfile.c]
+     despam debug() logs by detecting that we are trying to load a private key
+     in key_try_load_public() and returning early; ok markus@
 
 20110510
  - (dtucker) [openbsd-compat/openssl-compat.{c,h}] Bug #1882: fix
diff --git a/authfile.c b/authfile.c
index 608d1d06f..7a5b65142 100644
--- a/authfile.c
+++ b/authfile.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* $OpenBSD: authfile.c,v 1.88 2011/05/04 21:15:29 djm Exp $ */
+/* $OpenBSD: authfile.c,v 1.89 2011/05/10 05:46:46 djm Exp $ */
 /*
  * Author: Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
  * Copyright (c) 1995 Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>, Espoo, Finland
@@ -765,6 +765,9 @@ key_try_load_public(Key *k, const char *filename, char **commentp)
 			case '\0':
 				continue;
 			}
+			/* Abort loading if this looks like a private key */
+			if (strncmp(cp, "-----BEGIN", 10) == 0)
+				break;
 			/* Skip leading whitespace. */
 			for (; *cp && (*cp == ' ' || *cp == '\t'); cp++)
 				;