openssh unix dev - Nov 2001 - su/sudo using ssh auth

To the openssh and sudo developer mailing lists:

Ssh has a key agent allowing authentication to remote hosts without
entering your password/passphrase again and again, which is very
convenient. I think the 'su', 'sudo', and similiar commands
could benefit
from this idea and mechanism. I don't have the necessary expertise in
cryptology to do this myself so I just want to throw this into the 
diskussion. If programs like 'su' und 'sudo' could be extended
to use
the ssh-agent a 'su-authorized-keys' file in the homedir of root would
be enough to become root or any other user with any key in that file.
For 'sudo' a similar mechanism could be used.

With existing ssh software I can, of course, put my key into root's
authorized_keys file and ssh to 'root at localhost', but this is an
unnecessary roundabout route, conflicts with policies disallowing remote
root logins and doesn't give me access to other accounts (like
'news'
or user accounts) I want to 'su' to.

Any ideas how this could be accomplished?

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf - jochen at remote.org - http://www.remote.org/jochen/

You could also try using the Kerberos auth methods as well.  This would let
you do what you want.
Lucas Koehntop

-----Original Message-----
From: sudo-workers-admin at courtesan.com
[mailto:sudo-workers-admin at courtesan.com] On Behalf Of Jochen Topf
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 5:30 AM
To: sudo-workers at courtesan.com; openssh-unix-dev at mindrot.org
Subject: su/sudo using ssh auth


To the openssh and sudo developer mailing lists:

Ssh has a key agent allowing authentication to remote hosts without entering
your password/passphrase again and again, which is very convenient. I think
the 'su', 'sudo', and similiar commands could benefit from this
idea and
mechanism. I don't have the necessary expertise in cryptology to do this
myself so I just want to throw this into the 
diskussion. If programs like 'su' und 'sudo' could be extended
to use the
ssh-agent a 'su-authorized-keys' file in the homedir of root would be
enough
to become root or any other user with any key in that file. For 'sudo' a
similar mechanism could be used.

With existing ssh software I can, of course, put my key into root's
authorized_keys file and ssh to 'root at localhost', but this is an
unnecessary
roundabout route, conflicts with policies disallowing remote root logins and
doesn't give me access to other accounts (like 'news' or user
accounts) I
want to 'su' to.

Any ideas how this could be accomplished?

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf - jochen at remote.org - http://www.remote.org/jochen/

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Jochen Topf wrote at 12:29 +0100 on Nov  2:
 > To the openssh and sudo developer mailing lists:
 > 
 > Ssh has a key agent allowing authentication to remote hosts without
 > entering your password/passphrase again and again, which is very
 > convenient. I think the 'su', 'sudo', and similiar
commands could benefit
 > from this idea and mechanism. I don't have the necessary expertise in
 > cryptology to do this myself so I just want to throw this into the 
 > diskussion. If programs like 'su' und 'sudo' could be
extended to use
 > the ssh-agent a 'su-authorized-keys' file in the homedir of root
would
 > be enough to become root or any other user with any key in that file.
 > For 'sudo' a similar mechanism could be used.
 > 
 > With existing ssh software I can, of course, put my key into root's
 > authorized_keys file and ssh to 'root at localhost', but this is
an
 > unnecessary roundabout route, conflicts with policies disallowing remote
 > root logins and doesn't give me access to other accounts (like
'news'
 > or user accounts) I want to 'su' to.
 > 
 > Any ideas how this could be accomplished?

I, too, would like this feature.  I emailed the sudo-workers
 list back in June (see Subject: sudo-agent).

Some day, I'll get around to writing sudo-agent.

I have resisted doing this because I really think it is pointless.

The only reason sudo authenticates at all is to guard against a
lack of physical security.  Using the ssh agent would not protect
against thins since the passphrase is only entered once.  If you
don't want to enter a password in sudo, just turn off authentication
and rely on whatever method was used to login.

 - todd