PowerShell

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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Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$success = $false

#  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.

$ssh = New-Object Chilkat.Ssh

#  Connect to the SSH server.  Port 22 is the usual SSH port.
$sshPort = 22
$success = $ssh.Connect("ssh.example.com",$sshPort)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

#  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.
$password = "mySshPassword"

#  Load the SSH private key.  LoadText reads the file's text, which is then imported.
$privKey = New-Object Chilkat.SshKey
$keyStr = $privKey.LoadText("qa_data/id_rsa")
if ($privKey.LastMethodSuccess -eq $false) {
    $($privKey.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$success = $privKey.FromOpenSshPrivateKey($keyStr)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($privKey.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

#  Place the login and password into SecureString objects.
$secureLogin = New-Object Chilkat.SecureString
$secureLogin.Append("mySshLogin")
$securePassword = New-Object Chilkat.SecureString
$securePassword.Append($password)

$success = $ssh.AuthenticateSecPwPk($secureLogin,$securePassword,$privKey)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($ssh.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$("Authenticated.")

$ssh.Disconnect()