Configuration/data files parsing support

Most of the configuration data files parsing support resides in the sshd-common artfiact:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.sshd</groupId>
        <artifactId>sshd-common</artifactId>
        <version>...same version as the rest of the artifacts...</version>
    </dependency>

The code contains support for parsing the authorized_keys, known_hosts, ssh_config, sshd_config, and ~/config files. The code resides in the sshd-common artifact - specifically the KeyUtils#getPublicKeyEntryDecoder, AuthorizedKeyEntry#readAuthorizedKeys, KnownHostEntry#readKnownHostEntries and HostConfigEntry#readHostConfigEntries.

PEM/OpenSSH

The common code contains built-in support for parsing PEM and/or OpenSSH formatted key files and using them for authentication purposes. As mentioned previously, it can leverage Bouncycastle if available, but can do most of the work without it as well. For ed25519 support, one must provide the eddsa artifact dependency.

PUTTY

The code contains built-in support for parsing PUTTY key files (usually .ppk) and using them same as SSH ones as key-pair providers for autentication purposes. The PUTTY key file(s) readers are contained in the org.apache.sshd.common.config.keys.loader.putty package (specifically PuttyKeyUtils#DEFAULT_INSTANCE KeyPairResourceParser) of the sshd-putty artifact. Note: the artifact should be included as an extra dependency:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.sshd</groupId>
        <artifactId>sshd-putty</artifactId>
        <version>...same version as the rest of the artifacts...</version>
    </dependency>

OpenPGP

The code contains the sshd-openpgp module that enables using OpenPGP private key files as identity providers.

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.sshd</groupId>
        <artifactId>sshd-openpgp</artifactId>
        <version>...same version as the rest of the artifacts...</version>
    </dependency>

The support for it is currently still in its infancy, and therefore this feature should be considered experimental for the time being. However, within its limitations it supports

• RSA keys
• DSA keys
• ECDSA keys

(*) For now ed25519 keys are not supported by this module.

The code reads all the available key pairs in the key file without any distinction between encryption, decryption, authentication or signature ones.

This code relies on the jpgpj support module

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.c02e.jpgpj</groupId>
        <artifactId>jpgpj</artifactId>
        <version>...</version>
    </dependency>

(which in turn automatically uses Bouncycastle - so if one does not want Bouncycastle one cannot use this module).

Using OpenPGP authorized keys entries

In order to be able to read authorized_keys files that may contain OpenPGP keys references, one needs to register the relevant PublicKeyEntryDataResolver-s. This is done by calling PGPPublicKeyEntryDataResolver#registerDefaultKeyEntryDataResolvers once during the main code setup. This will enable the code to safely read authorized keys entries having the format specified in the OpenSSH PGP configuration:

    pgp-sign-dss 87C36E60187451050A4F26B134824FC95C781A18 with-comment
    pgp-sign-rsa 87C36E60187451050A4F26B134824FC95C781A18

Where the key data following the key type specification is the fingerprint value of the referenced key. In order to use a “mixed mode” file (i.e., one that has both SSH and OpenPGP keys) one needs to replace the default AuthorizedKeysAuthenticator instance with one that is derived from it and overrides the createDelegateAuthenticator method in a manner similar as shown below:

// Using PGPAuthorizedEntriesTracker
public class MyAuthorizedKeysAuthenticatorWithBothPGPAndSsh extends AuthorizedKeysAuthenticator {
    ... constructor(s) ...

    @Override
    protected PublickeyAuthenticator createDelegateAuthenticator(
            String username, ServerSession session, Path path,
            Collection<AuthorizedKeyEntry> entries, PublicKeyEntryResolver fallbackResolver)
                throws IOException, GeneralSecurityException {
        PGPAuthorizedEntriesTracker tracker = ... obtain an instance ...
        // Note: need to catch the PGPException and transform it into either an IOException or a GeneralSecurityException
        Collection<PublicKey> keys = tracker.resolveAuthorizedEntries(session, entries, fallbackResolver);
        if (GenericUtils.isEmpty(keys)) {
            return RejectAllPublickeyAuthenticator.INSTANCE;
        } else {
            return new KeySetPublickeyAuthenticator(id, keys);
        }
    }
}

// Using PGPPublicRingWatcher
public class MyAuthorizedKeysAuthenticatorWithBothPGPAndSsh extends AuthorizedKeysAuthenticator {
    ... constructor(s) ...

    @Override
    protected PublickeyAuthenticator createDelegateAuthenticator(
            String username, ServerSession session, Path path,
            Collection<AuthorizedKeyEntry> entries, PublicKeyEntryResolver fallbackResolver)
                throws IOException, GeneralSecurityException {
        PGPPublicRingWatcher watcher = ... obtain an instance ...
        // Note: need to catch the PGPException and transform it into either an IOException or a GeneralSecurityException
        Collection<PublicKey> keys = watcher.resolveAuthorizedEntries(session, entries, fallbackResolver);
        if (GenericUtils.isEmpty(keys)) {
            return RejectAllPublickeyAuthenticator.INSTANCE;
        } else {
            return new KeySetPublickeyAuthenticator(id, keys);
        }
    }
}

Note: in order to support GPG v2 .kbx files one requires up-to-date Bouncycastle and jpgpj versions.