openssh unix dev - Aug 2018 - Why still no PKCS#11 ECC key support in OpenSSH ?

Hi,

I was trying to get OpenSSH portable working with my Yubikey.? A key was present
on the token but generated using the ECCP384 algorithm.

This lead to many obscure goose-chase red-herring error messages from OpenSSH
such as the delightful "Could not add card : agent refused operation"
or other nonsense that was meaningless and unhelpful.

Many hours later in Mr Google's company, I eventually found this website
https://fedoramagazine.org/fedora-28-better-smart-card-support-openssh/ , which
points to this https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2474 . Which
basically says that despite many patches, support for ECC has never been
incorporated into OpenSSH PKCS#11.

And indeed this was the underlying cause. I deleted the ECC key, generated an
RSA one, and it worked.

So, I have two questions:

(1) Why has this ECC thing been ongoing since 2015 and yet, despite the passage
of weeks, months and years, nobody has yet pulled any of the patches into the
OpenSSH codebase ?

(2) If you don't want ECC in the codebase, which appears to clearly be the
case, can you at least generate some more sensible error messages that say
"look, we only accept RSA keys, ok chum ?".?? That would save people
like me many hours of wasted time caused by your political or other reasons for
being stubborn and not including ECC support.

Sorry for the tone of this message, but I've had a rather frustrating waste
of a day due the issues outlined.

Bob

Tone aside, let me second what Bob said. OpenSSH maintainers seem to be able to
find time for many updates and upgrades - but ECC support over PKCS#11 appears
to repulse them for more than two years (I don't care to check for exactly
how many more).

Since several patches have been posted, so it's not like a new feature has
to be implemented from scratch - I'm at loss trying to understand what's
going on.

An explanation would be nice. Merging one of the patches would be even nicer.

Regards,
Uri

Sent from my iPhone
> On Aug 12, 2018, at 17:30, Bob Smith
<b631093f-779b-4d67-9ffe-5f6d5b1d3f8a at protonmail.ch> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I was trying to get OpenSSH portable working with my Yubikey.  A key was
present on the token but generated using the ECCP384 algorithm.
> 
> This lead to many obscure goose-chase red-herring error messages from
OpenSSH such as the delightful "Could not add card : agent refused
operation" or other nonsense that was meaningless and unhelpful.
> 
> Many hours later in Mr Google's company, I eventually found this
website https://fedoramagazine.org/fedora-28-better-smart-card-support-openssh/
, which points to this https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2474 . Which
basically says that despite many patches, support for ECC has never been
incorporated into OpenSSH PKCS#11.
> 
> And indeed this was the underlying cause. I deleted the ECC key, generated
an RSA one, and it worked.
> 
> So, I have two questions:
> 
> (1) Why has this ECC thing been ongoing since 2015 and yet, despite the
passage of weeks, months and years, nobody has yet pulled any of the patches
into the OpenSSH codebase ?
> 
> (2) If you don't want ECC in the codebase, which appears to clearly be
the case, can you at least generate some more sensible error messages that say
"look, we only accept RSA keys, ok chum ?".   That would save people
like me many hours of wasted time caused by your political or other reasons for
being stubborn and not including ECC support.
> 
> Sorry for the tone of this message, but I've had a rather frustrating
waste of a day due the issues outlined.
> 
> Bob
> _______________________________________________
> openssh-unix-dev mailing list
> openssh-unix-dev at mindrot.org
> https://lists.mindrot.org/mailman/listinfo/openssh-unix-dev
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On Sun, 12 Aug 2018, Blumenthal, Uri - 0553 - MITLL wrote:
> Tone aside, let me second what Bob said. OpenSSH maintainers seem to
> be able to find time for many updates and upgrades - but ECC support
> over PKCS#11 appears to repulse them for more than two years (I don't
> care to check for exactly how many more).
There's no "repulsion" involved, just a lack of time coupled with
a lot
of unfinished work and the costs (for me at least) of ramping up on
an unfamiliar API (PKCS#11).

-d