B4X

SSH Tunnel Authenticate with Secure Strings

Demonstrates SSH tunnel password authentication using SecureString objects, with the credentials read from an encrypted JSON config file and decrypted directly into secure strings rather than being hard-coded in source.

Background: The SshTunnel class runs the tunnel on a background thread, so it authenticates once and then serves connections until closed — which makes protecting the stored credential especially worthwhile. Decrypting straight into a SecureString avoids ever holding the password in an ordinary string, and the value stays encrypted in memory under a randomly generated session key. In production the decryption key itself would come from a key vault or OS keystore rather than a literal.

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Dim success As Boolean = False

'  This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
'  See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

'  Demonstrates SSH tunnel password authentication using SecureString objects, with the
'  credentials read from an encrypted config file rather than hard-coded in source.

'  Imagine the login and password were previously encrypted and saved in a JSON config file:
'  {
'    "ssh_login": "2+qylFfC56Ck7OQQt/U2/w==",
'    "ssh_password": "5neIq9Jmn0E3p71N6Yc8TA=="
'  }
Dim json As ChilkatJsonObject
json.Initialize
success = json.LoadFile("qa_data/passwords/ssh.json")
If success = False Then
    Log(json.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  These are the encryption settings used when the credentials were encrypted.  In a real
'  application the key would come from a secure source, not a literal.
Dim crypt As ChilkatCrypt2
crypt.Initialize("crypt")
crypt.CryptAlgorithm = "aes"
crypt.CipherMode = "cbc"
crypt.KeyLength = 128
crypt.SetEncodedKey("000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F", "hex")
crypt.SetEncodedIV("000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F", "hex")
crypt.EncodingMode = "base64"

'  Decrypt directly into SecureString objects.  The values stay encrypted in memory, now under
'  a randomly generated session key.
Dim ssLogin As ChilkatSecureString
ssLogin.Initialize
Dim ssPassword As ChilkatSecureString
ssPassword.Initialize
crypt.DecryptSecureENC(json.StringOf("ssh_login"), ssLogin)
crypt.DecryptSecureENC(json.StringOf("ssh_password"), ssPassword)

Dim tunnel As ChilkatSshTunnel
tunnel.Initialize("tunnel")

Dim port As Int = 22
success = tunnel.Connect("ssh.example.com", port)
If success = False Then
    Log(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


'  Authenticate using the secure strings.
success = tunnel.AuthenticateSecPw(ssLogin, ssPassword)
If success = False Then
    Log(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If


Log("SSH tunnel authentication successful.")

'  ... use the tunnel ...

Dim waitForThreadExit As Boolean = True
success = tunnel.CloseTunnel(waitForThreadExit)
If success = False Then
    Log(tunnel.LastErrorText)
    Return
End If