Secure Shell (SSH): Public Key Authentication over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

TL;DR

This paper presents a system enabling SSH public key authentication over HTTP, addressing security and technical challenges posed by HTTP restrictions for web-based SSH clients.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for performing SSH public key authentication over HTTP without compromising SSH protocol security.

Findings

Successfully implemented SSH public key authentication over HTTP.

Maintains security standards of SSH protocol.

Addresses HTTP restrictions like same origin policy.

Abstract

Secure Shell (SSH) protocol requires all implementations to support public key authentication method ("publickey") for authentication purposes, so web applications which provide a SSH client over the web browser need to support "publickey". However, restrictions in Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), such as same origin policy, and limited access to local resources, make it difficult to perform such authentications. In this document, a system to perform "publickey" authentication over HTTP is provided. It is ensured that no compromise is made that would pose a security risk to SSH protocol.