Remote Secure Shell Sessions

Warning

This article includes proprietary information about AAltSys logins. Please generalize this material before release:

Identify username _____________________________________,
registration __________________________________________,
LTSP server IP ________________________________________.

Command line usage

Basic:

ssh -l [username] [registration].servers.aaltsys.net

NX Port forwarding of LTSP server:

ssh -L8889:ltspserver:8888 -l [username] [registration].servers.aaltsys.net

Gnome terminal

X-11 Forwarding with gnome-terminal (default IP for ltspserver is 10.4.0.2):

gnome-terminal -x ssh -L8889:ltspserver:8888 -l [username] [registration].servers.aaltsys.net

Redirecting SSH to PuTTY

PuTTY is an open-source cross-platform client for secure connections with remote hosts. It is available on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and it is the preferred client on Windows. PuTTY adds power to interactive sessions. For example, a user can add a port forwarding rule within a running terminal session.

Note

Install and configure PuTTY on a Debian KDE system using instructions from http://servers.aaltsys.info/resources/06_ssh_samba.html#redirecting-ssh-to-putty.

Fixing Changed SSH Keys

When using ssh from a terminal icon or weblink, the session may abort when starting. The most likely cause for this is a change to the ssh key. To address the problem for a terminal icon, open a terminal shell prompt:

ssh [registration].servers.aaltsys.net

Address this problem for a weblink:

ssh://[registration].servers.aaltsys.net/

The line number in your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file which is wrong will be displayed. Delete this line with the command:

sudo sed -i c\[linenumber] ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Fixing X11 Forwarding Zentyal

Zentyal may disable X11 forwarding, which prevents dosemu sessions from working, among other things.

Missing xauth

On Zentyal 2.0 and below, the xauth is missing. Install it with:

sudo apt-get install xauth

ssh uses IPV4 and not IPV6

On Zentyal 3.0+, Localhost may have an IPV6 address configured, preventing X11 forwarding by localhost over IPV4. The following commands (on the remote server, of course) prevent ssh from attempting IPV6:

sudo sed -ie "/\/usr\/sbin\/sshd -D/c\exec \/usr\/sbin\/sshd -D -4" /etc/init/ssh.conf
sudo service ssh reload

If /etc/hosts configures localhost under ip6, then the following command might fix this configuration:

sudo sed -ie "/localhost ip6/c\::1\tip6-localhost\tip6-loopback" /etc/hosts

Check to see that the 127.0.0.1 line includes localhost afterwards.

X11 Forwarding turned off

File /etc/ssh/sshd_config should have 3 option lines for X11 Forwarding as follows:

X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost yes

Correct any problems here by editing the configuration files and then reloading sshd:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo service ssh reload

Accessing Servers over SSH

In this example, an administrator wishes to connect to a remote Windows session running as a virtual machine on a Linux server. The Linux server is accessed at the domain name https://remoteserver.support.aaltsys.com. Both the Windows session and the Linux server authenticate username and password for logins.

First display a terminal window on the local machine, then ssh to the remote server:

xdg-open ssh://username@remoteserver.support.aaltsys.com

Now explore the remote environment to identify Windows RDP servers. Recommended commands are:

smbclient -L NETBIOSNAME
smbtree

These commands identify the virtualized windows session as XPUNLIMITED. Now find the IP for this machine using either of the commands:

net lookup XPUNLIMITED
nmblookup XPUNLIMITED

Suppose the remote Windows terminal server XPUNLIMITED uses IP 192.168.2.243 in its local network. Display the PuTTY menu with <Ctrl-RightClick>, and choose Change Settings.... Then select Category: Connection > SSH > Tunnels and enter:

Source port -- 3389
Destination -- 192.168.2.243:3389
Click -- Add
Click -- Apply

Finally, open the KRDC Remote Desktop client on the KDE Desktop, and connect to: rdp :kbd:localhost. A remote Windows RDP session will display as if it were local, being redirected to you over SSH.