[Info-vax] OpenVMS SSH to freeSSHd on Windows

[Martin Vorlaender]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:50:05 +0100, Sum1 <not at here.com> wrote:
> VMS is a client to a
> Windows server using freeSSHd.  It appears that freeSSHd is based
> on/uses OpenSSH - VMS generated certificates are not compatible with
> it.  The typical solution is to convert the VMS certificates on the
> server (not the VMS client) but there are no SSH capabilities, other
> than SSH service/daemon on the Windows server.

It's really not important where the conversion takes place. That said,
unfortunately VMS' ssh-keygen lacks the -e (or -x) option to export
a SECSSH format key to OpenSSH format.

I seem to remember that I once was in a similar situation, and did
the conversion by hand:
- open the (VMS SECSH format) public key file on the Windows system with
a text editor
- remove everything up to and including the "---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----"
line and the "---- END SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----" line
- remove the line breaks yielding the key in just one line
- prepend the key format (something like "ssh-rsa" or "ssh-dss"), separating
it by a blank from the key
- optionally append (again separated by a blank) a comment.
You can lookup the expected file format in a sshd(8) man page under the
"AUTHORIZED_KEYS FILE FORMAT" heading.

> In another reply it was suggested that puTTY may work and will test it
> soon.  I was hoping that there may have been a VMS-based solution to
> convert the certificates.

IIRC, PuTTY's PuTTYgen utility has the ability to convert keys. So it
might be the easier path than doing it by hand.

HTH,
   Martin
-- 
One OS to rule them all       | Martin Vorlaender  |  OpenVMS rules!
One OS to find them           | work: mv at pdv-systeme.de
One OS to bring them all      |   http://vms.pdv-systeme.de/users/martinv/
And in the Darkness bind them.| home: martin.vorlaender at t-online.de