SSHproxy installation documentation

Prerequisites

Here is the list of prerequisite software to run sshproxy. The versions are the ones I develop with. It may work with earlier versions, but I can't guaranty anything.

mysql 4.1.14
openssh 4.2_p1
python 2.4.2
- pycrypto 2.0 (indirect dependency from paramiko)
- paramiko 1.5.2
- MySQLdb 1.2.0

Install the database

It is strongly recomended to use the wizard script installdb.

Run the script, and answer all the questions:

./installdb
Enter the IP address to listen on [any]
Enter the port to listen on [2242]
Write the following configuration to ~/.sshproxy/sshproxy.conf ? (ctrl-C to cancel)
bindip = ''
port = 2242

Write the above configuration to ~/.sshproxy/sshproxy.conf ? (ctrl-C to cancel)
Configuration saved.
SSHproxy database hostname [127.0.0.1]:
SSHproxy database port [3306]:
SSHproxy database name [sshproxy]:
SSHproxy database user [sshproxy]:
SSHproxy database password [sshproxypw]:
Write the following configuration to ~/.sshproxy/mysql.conf ? (ctrl-C to cancel)
db = 'sshproxy'
host = '127.0.0.1'
password = 'sshproxypw'
port = 3306
user = 'sshproxy'

Write the above configuration to ~/.sshproxy/mysql.conf ? (ctrl-C to cancel)
Configuration saved.
MySQL administration user [root]:
MySQL administration password: mysqlpassword
Enter the IP of the host connecting to the database (* for any) [localhost]
Enter the admin uid [admin]
Enter the admin password adminpassword
Enter the admin group name [Administrators]
Enter the name of the group containing all sites [All Sites]
Do you want to add your first site ? [Y/n]
Enter the site name (this is symbolic and can be any valid identifiant) home
Enter the site address (DNS name or IP, the latter is stongly recomended) 1.2.3.4
Enter the port [22]
Enter the location (this is a comment about the site) My home server
Enter the user uid [root] root
Enter the user password rootpassword
Installation complete.
You can now run ./sshproxy in a console, then in another console
run the following command:
ssh -tp 2242 admin@localhost
Password: (enter adminpassword)
Then in the console enter manage_pwdb to enter sites and users
Enjoy!

Manual installation of the database

Skip this step if you did it with the wizard.

You can set up the database manually with the following commands:

mysqladmin create sshproxy
mysql -u root -p sshproxy < misc/sshproxy.sql
mysql -u root -p < misc/sshproxy-user.sql

Then load some data (edit the file before, see below):

mysql -u root -p sshproxy < misc/sshproxy-data.sql

You can adjust values in the site and user tables to reflect your own settings. Table site is for remote servers (can be localhost as well). Table user is for users on these sites.

You can also change the table login. This table is used to connect to the proxy.

Run the server

Issue the following command:

./sshproxy

This runs the sshproxy server which listens on the port 2242 (or the port you configured with the wizard).

Run the client

Issue the following command:

ssh -tp 2242 admin@localhost home

You may change the user admin to reflect the one you put in the login table. At the password prompt, enter the password you put into the login table.

You're now connected. Try some commands, then hit Control-X. You're now in the console. You can type help to get some explanations about console commands. Type back or switch 0 to come back to the SSH session.

Configuration files

If you ever need to change configuration, the files are placed in ~/.sshproxy:

~/.sshproxy
~/.sshproxy/id_dsa
~/.sshproxy/id_dsa.pub
~/.sshproxy/mysql.conf
~/.sshproxy/sshproxy.conf

Of course, '~' here represents the home directory of the user running the daemon.

Troubleshooting

If you experience locks when you try to connect to a remote site, change the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file on the remote site to read:

PasswordAuthentication yes

This is a known bug of SSHproxy, and will hopefully be fixed soon.

The sshproxy daemon is not verbose on the console, but it logs thru syslog (protocol udp on localhost, facility daemon), so you may check for errors in your /var/log/syslog or /var/log/message by the following command:

tail -f /var/log/{syslog,messages} | grep sshproxy

The log system will be enhanced in the next version. Of course you need to configure your syslog to accept udp from localhost. There is an example syslog-ng.conf file in ./misc/

-- 
David Guerizec <david@guerizec.net>