Plan 9 from Bell Labs’s /usr/web/sources/plan9/sys/man/4/ssh

Copyright © 2021 Plan 9 Foundation.
Distributed under the MIT License.
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.TH SSH 4
.SH NAME
ssh, netssh \- serve SSH v2 over TCP
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B netssh
[
.B -9dkv
] [
.B -m
.I mntpt
] [
.B -s
.I srvpt
]
.PP
.2C
.B "cd /net/ssh"
.B ./clone
.B ./ctl
.B ./keys
.BI ./ n
.BI ./ n /clone
.BI ./ n /ctl
.BI ./ n /data
.BI ./ n /listen
.BI ./ n /local
.BI ./ n /remote
.BI ./ n /status
.BI ./ n /tcp
\&...
.BI ./ n / ch
.BI ./ n / ch /ctl
.BI ./ n / ch /data
.BI ./ n / ch /listen
.BI ./ n / ch /request
.BI ./ n / ch /status
\&...
.1C
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I netssh
file server implements SSH v2 over TCP.
All of the encryption, authentication, and SSH protocol are handled
by a server managing SSH tunnels
that appears as a protocol directory,
.BR /net/ssh ,
similar to those of
.IR ip (3)
but with an extra level of hierarchy for SSH channels within connections.
Options are:
.TF -m
.TP
.B -d
Increase the amount of debugging output.
.TP
.B -k
Use
.IR keyfs (4)
for password validation.
.TP
.B -m
Mount point for the SSH protocol directory; defaults to
.BR /net .
.TP
.B -s
Name to post in
.BR /srv .
If
.B -s
is not given, no file is posted to
.BR /srv .
.TP
.B -v
Do not verify the remote system's host key (which is somewhat pedantic anyway).
This lets us talk to SSH v1 systems.
The presence of
.B /env/nosshkeyverify
is equivalent to specifying this option.
.PD
.LP
.B /net/ssh
contains a set of numbered directories, each of which
is an SSH connection that is currently active or has been used in the past,
per
.IR ip (3).
Opening
.B clone
reserves an SSH connection, reading from
it returns the connection number reserved, and writing to it writes to the
.B ctl
file in the numbered connection directory.
Reading the
.B ctl
file returns the most active state of any connection.
.B /net/ssh/ctl
currently implements no commands.
Finally, the
.B keys
file is used by
.IR ssh2 (1)
to relay information about keys and passwords between a user and the SSH server.
.LP
Each of the numbered connection directories contains
a set of numbered directories, one for each channel used on
that connection (see
.ft B
Channel Directories
.ft
below).
Similar to the top-level
.B clone
file, opening a connection's
.B clone
file reserves a channel and gives access to its
.B ctl
file.
Reading from the
.B ctl
file returns the connection number (also the name of that directory).
Commands may be written to a connection's
.B ctl
file:
.TF connect
.TP
.B connect
Dial the remote system and perform the initial
handshake to exchange versions, lists of supported algorithms,
and to establish the encryption keys to use.
.TP
.B ssh-userauth
Attempt to authenticate a user with the remote system, with either
public key authentication or a password.
.TP
.B ssh-connection
Currently unsupported.
.TP
.B hangup
Shut down a connection and all of its channels.
.TP
.B announce
.B /net/ssh
will accept connection requests from remote systems.
.TP
.B accept
Do the initial connection handshake with the calling system.
.TP
.B reject
Send back a connection rejection message to the caller
and shut down the connection.
.PD
.LP
Because data is always carried over a channel, the connection data file
is not used for usual data.
However, reads from the connection data file do return the capability
needed for
.I sshsession
to change identity to the user logging in.
As with other protocol directories, opens on
.B listen
block until a remote system establishes a connection, at which point,
a server should write either an
.B accept
or
.B reject
message to the
.B ctl
file.
The
.B local
and
.B remote
files give the IP addresses and port numbers of the local and remote
systems.
The connection
.B status
file gives the status of the most-recently established channel.
.
.SS "Channel Directories"
In each channel directory,
.BI /net/ssh/ conn / chan\fR,
reads from channel
.B ctl
files return the channel number.
Commands that may be written to a channel
.B ctl
file include:
.TF connect
.TP
.B connect
Create a new channel over this connection.
SSHv2 defines
.BR session ,
.BR x11 ,
.BR forwarded-tcpip ,
and
.B direct-tcpip
channels.
The
.B connect
command defaults to a
.B session
channel if no argument is given.
(This implementation correctly handles only session channel requests.)
.TP
.B global
Reserved for future development.
In particular, this is necessary to support TCP/IP forwarding.
.TP
.B hangup
Shut down a channel.
If this is the last open channel on this connection, then shut down
the connection too.
.TP
.B announce
Announce willingness to accept new channel requests from the calling system.
.PD
.LP
The channel
.B data
file is the file over which all application data is carried.
Opens of the channel
.B listen
file block until a channel is opened by the remote end.
Unlike the connection
.B listen
file, the listening program should not write an
.B accept
or
.B reject
message to the
.B ctl
file.
.PP
SSHv2 defines a number of out-of-band channel requests,
sent and received through the
.B request
file.
Among these are
.BR env ,
.BR exec ,
.BR exit-signal ,
.BR exit-status ,
.BR pty-req ,
.BR shell ,
.BR signal ,
.BR subsystem ,
.BR window-change ,
.BR x11-req ,
and
.BR xon-xoff .
.I Sshsession
only fully handles the
.B shell
and
.B exec
requests.
Others are blithely acknowledged, rejected or ignored,
depending on whether they are expected to be available by
the remote system.
.PP
The channel
.B status
file contains one of:
.BR Empty ,
.BR Allocated ,
.BR Initting ,
.BR Listening ,
.BR Opening ,
.BR Negotiating ,
.BR Authing ,
.BR Established ,
.BR Eof ,
.BR Closing ,
or
.BR Closed .
.
.SS "Cryptographic Algorithms"
During the initial connection exchange, both parties send lists of
supported algorithms.
The first list is for key exchange;
we support
.B diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
and
.BR diffie-hellman-group14-sha1 .
The second list is the set for which corresponding host keys exist;
we support
.B ssh-rsa
and
.BR ssh-dss .
The next lists are encryption algorithms, which may be negotiated
independently for the server-to-client and client-to-server directions;
we support
.BR aes128-cbc ,
.BR aes192-cbc ,
.BR aes256-cbc ,
.BR 3des-cbc ,
and
.B arcfour
with preference given in that order.
The final list is message authentication code algorithms;
we only support
.BR hmac-sha1 .
.
.SS "Keys and Management"
Various keys are used by the SSH server.
Most of them are expected to be stored in the instance of
.IR factotum (4)
running in the namespace of that server instance.
Sometimes there are alternative locations.
.LP
The first key needed is the host key for server operation.
In the case of the keys being stored in
.IR factotum (4),
these keys will be the first ones listed with
.B proto=rsa
and
.BR proto=dss .
Alternatively, these keys can be specified in the environment variables
.B rsakey
and
.B dsskey
or in files of the same names in the directory where
.I netssh
is started.
.LP
The next set of keys are the public host keys used by clients to
verify the identities of servers.
As with the original Plan 9 SSH implementation,
there is a system-wide list of these in
.B /sys/lib/ssh/keyring
and each user may have a list in
.BR $home/lib/keyring .
If a public key for a remote server is listed and matches the one
offered by the server, the connection proceeds.
If a public key for a remote server is listed but does not match
the one offered by the server, or
if no public key is listed for a remote server,
.I ssh
(see
.IR ssh2 (1))
presents the key to the user and asks whether to reject the
key, accept the key only for that session, or accept the key permanently.
The last option causes the key to be written to the user's keyring.
In the case of a mismatching key, the accept option can
either be to add to or replace the old key.
.LP
An SSH daemon,
such as
.I sshsession
in
.IR ssh2 (1),
must also have a list of public keys
for public key authentication.
Again, these keys must be stored in the
.I factotum
instance running in the name space of the daemon's SSH server.
Each such key must have the attributes
.BR role=verify,
.BR proto=rsa ,
and either
.B user=
or
.BR sys= .
.LP
The next key is a user's private key to be used for public key authentication.
We only support RSA keys for this, and the key must be in the
.I factotum
instance running in the namespace of the
.IR ssh (4)
instance.
Creating a key and putting it in
.I factotum
can be done by:
.IP
.EX
auth/rsagen >key; read -m key >/mnt/factotum/ctl
.EE
.LP
The key file will normally be loaded when
.I factotum
is started, either by way of
.IR secstore (1)
or directly in the user's
.BR lib/profile .
See
.IR ssh2 (1)
for
.IR rsa2ssh2 .
.LP
The command
.IP
.EX
auth/pemdecode 'RSA PRIVATE KEY' id_rsa | auth/asn12rsa >key
.EE
.LP
will translate a private key used with OpenSSH to one suitable
for loading into
.IR factotum .
.LP
To disambiguate when a user has more than one private key stored in
.IR factotum ,
the following selection criteria are applied:
.TF "M."
.PD 0.2v
.TP 3
1.
The selected key must have both
.B proto=rsa
and
.B !dk=
attributes present.
.TP
2.
Among those keys, the attributes
.BR user= ,
.BR sys= ,
and any attribute/value pair specified in a
.B -z
option to
.I ssh
are examined.
The value of the
.B user
attribute is expected to be the user name being authenticated on the remote
system, and the value of the
.B sys
attribute is expected to be the remote system as specified in the
.I ssh
invocation.
.TP
3.
The key with the greatest number of matches (most specific match) is selected.
Among keys with equal number of matches, the first is chosen.
.PD
.LP
For password-based user authentication,
.I netssh
can run in one of two modes.
If given
.BR -k ,
it will validate passwords against those stored in
.B /mnt/keys
provided by
.IR keyfs (4).
If run without
.BR -k ,
it will validate passwords with an authentication server using
.I auth_userpasswd
in
.IR auth (2).
.SH FILES
.TF /sys/lib/ssh/keyring
.TP
.B /sys/lib/ssh/keyring
System-wide known host public keys.
.TP
.B $home/lib/keyring
Per-user known host public keys.
.TP
.B /env/nosshkeyverify
.SH SOURCE
.B /sys/src/cmd/ssh2
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR ssh2 (1),
.IR ip (3),
.IR factotum (4),
.IR keyfs (4),
.IR authsrv (6),
.IR dsa (8),
.IR rsa (8)
.br
RFCs 4250, 4251, 4252, 4253, 4254, and 4419
.SH BUGS
.I Netssh
shouldn't have to run as the host owner and using
.IR factotum (4)
correctly would permit this.
.PP
.I Netssh
should be simplified by removing the top (connection) level of the
.B /net/ssh
hierarchy and multiplexing a single network connection
after the initial negotiation.
This would fit better with
.IR dial (2),
permit transports other than TCP,
and allow co-existence of v1 and v2 implementations on a single TCP port.
Better still,
use only a single channel (since we don't use X11)
and eliminate the top 2 levels.
.PP
.I Netssh
authentication via
.I keyfs
and public keys uses
.LR #¤/caphash ,
which isn't normally present after
.I cpurc
runs, so
.I netssh
needs to be converted to use
.IR factotum .
.PP
.B netssh
.B -k
assumes that
.I keyfs
is mounted,
which is typically only true of authentication servers.
.PP
The
.B keys
file protocol should be documented.
.PP
Only capable of using TCP for underlying connections.
.PP
Can't coexist with SSH v1 on the same port.
.PP
Several aspects of key management still need some work.
.PP
TCP/IP forwarding and some potentially useful channel requests have not
been implemented.
.PP
.B Zlib
compression is not supported and probably not needed.
.PP
The SSH v2 protocol is a classic second system:
over-engineered,
overly complicated,
misdesigned
and
jammed full of pointless goodies.
.PP
Host key verification is broken, so it's disabled temporarily
until it's fixed.

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