Lianja

SSH Authenticate with a SecureString Password and Private Key

Demonstrates the Chilkat Ssh.AuthenticateSecPwPk method, which performs the same combined password/private-key authentication as AuthenticatePwPk but receives the username and password as SecureString objects. The third argument is the SshKey private key.

Note: The private-key path is relative to the application's current working directory. Supply the path to your own key file.

Background: This is the SecureString form of multi-factor SSH authentication: the password is held encrypted in memory and combined with a private key for servers that require both. It is the most protective option when a deployment mandates two-factor SSH and you also want to minimize plaintext credential exposure in the process.

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llSuccess = .F.

//  Demonstrates the Ssh.AuthenticateSecPwPk method, which authenticates using SecureString login
//  and password objects together with a private key.  The 1st argument is the username, the 2nd
//  is the password, and the 3rd is an SshKey private key.

loSsh = createobject("CkSsh")

//  Connect to the SSH server.  Port 22 is the usual SSH port.
lnSshPort = 22
llSuccess = loSsh.Connect("ssh.example.com",lnSshPort)
if (llSuccess = .F.) then
    ? loSsh.LastErrorText
    release loSsh
    return
endif

//  Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
//  from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
lcPassword = "mySshPassword"

//  Load the SSH private key.  LoadText reads the file's text, which is then imported.
loPrivKey = createobject("CkSshKey")
lcKeyStr = loPrivKey.LoadText("qa_data/id_rsa")
if (loPrivKey.LastMethodSuccess = .F.) then
    ? loPrivKey.LastErrorText
    release loSsh
    release loPrivKey
    return
endif

llSuccess = loPrivKey.FromOpenSshPrivateKey(lcKeyStr)
if (llSuccess = .F.) then
    ? loPrivKey.LastErrorText
    release loSsh
    release loPrivKey
    return
endif

//  Place the login and password into SecureString objects.
loSecureLogin = createobject("CkSecureString")
loSecureLogin.Append("mySshLogin")
loSecurePassword = createobject("CkSecureString")
loSecurePassword.Append(lcPassword)

llSuccess = loSsh.AuthenticateSecPwPk(loSecureLogin,loSecurePassword,loPrivKey)
if (llSuccess = .F.) then
    ? loSsh.LastErrorText
    release loSsh
    release loPrivKey
    release loSecureLogin
    release loSecurePassword
    return
endif

? "Authenticated."

loSsh.Disconnect()


release loSsh
release loPrivKey
release loSecureLogin
release loSecurePassword