Re: [patch] Java client: Support for SSH Host key and user auth (password or key auth)

[David V. <dv...@ad...>]

Hi!

On Mon, 2011-03-07 at 11:59 -0800, Eric Wheeler wrote:
 > [...]
 > Would you send an example on how you configure your patch?

Sure! In all the hurry, I forgot to write about what it does and how it 
works.. Anyway. Currently, you have the option to configure the 
following keys:
- sshHostKey, which is basically the output of ssh-keyscan
- sshPassword can be used to omit the password dialog
- Alternatively, you can configure sshUserPublicKey and
   sshUserPrivateKey as found in ~/.ssh/id_*.

I've attached an HTML file that shows how to use this configuration.

 > [...]
 > One notable difference between the two applications is that I
 > developed my application for use as a command-line app, and you
 > appear to have developed this for a Java Applet.  Would you be able
 > to test my patch on the applet side?

Sure! I'm looking forward to it. Hope I get at it on friday.

One thing I noted when hacking my patch is that browsers tend to meddle 
with newlines (and other whitespace) when used in an attribute like 
<param value="...">. Since Jsch requires at least the newline after the 
-----BEGIN line for the private key, I decided to escape the newlines 
with a pipe character.

I'm a bit rusty on my java skills, so my current implementation feels 
hacky at best. I hadn't yet figured out how to properly "fix" the 
private key string so this wouldn't be neccessary.

 >
 > One comment: You might consider using JSch's built-in public/private
 > key parser.  They have already done the work of parsing many different
 > public/private key formats.

Yep, indeed.


 > Would you compare and contrast your patch to the one I submitted the
 > other day?  So we can compare, these are the contributions of my
 > earlier patch [ http://tinyurl.com/6gwsbpu ]:
 >       * Supports SSH known_hosts parsing for all formats supported by
 >         JSch
 >       * Supports RSA/DSA key parsing for all formats supported by
 >         JSch
 >       * Prompts for passphrases of encrypted keys
 >       * Abstracts the VNC-SSH configuration interface to easily add
 >         configuration values in the future, simultaneously supporting
 >         Applet and command-line parameters.
 >
 > Specifically, I am curious if your patch provides something additional
 > to the prior patch.  If so, it would be great to get the best features
 > of both patches committed to this project!

Absolutely! I didn't have the time yet to actually try your patch, but 
it looks very promising (and much cleaner than mine :D). The only thing 
that your patch seems to miss is the escaping thing I mentioned above.


Cheers,
Dave

-- 
David Vogt, Project Manager & Software Developer
adfinis GmbH, Brückfeldstrasse 21, 3012 Bern (Switzerland)
Email: dv...@ad..., Web: http://www.adfinis.com
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