https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh
opkssh (OpenPubkey SSH)
https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh
oidc openid-connect ssh ssh-keys
Last synced: 21 days ago
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opkssh (OpenPubkey SSH)
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh
- Owner: openpubkey
- License: apache-2.0
- Created: 2025-03-16T15:32:26.000Z (about 1 month ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-03-30T22:07:41.000Z (22 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-30T22:27:59.322Z (22 days ago)
- Topics: oidc, openid-connect, ssh, ssh-keys
- Language: Go
- Homepage: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/296
- Size: 17.9 MB
- Stars: 965
- Watchers: 8
- Forks: 33
- Open Issues: 29
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
- Code of conduct: CODE-OF-CONDUCT.md
- Security: SECURITY.md
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README
# opkssh (OpenPubkey SSH)
[](https://raw.githack.com/wiki/openpubkey/opkssh/coverage.html)
**opkssh** is a tool which enables ssh to be used with OpenID Connect allowing SSH access management via identities like `[email protected]` instead of long-lived SSH keys.
It does not replace ssh, but rather generates ssh public keys that contain PK Tokens and configures sshd to verify the PK Token in the ssh public key. These PK Tokens contain standard OpenID Connect ID Tokens. This protocol builds on the [OpenPubkey](https://github.com/openpubkey/openpubkey/blob/main/README.md) which adds user public keys to OpenID Connect without breaking compatibility with existing OpenID Provider.
Currently opkssh is compatible with Google, Microsoft/Azure and Gitlab OpenID Providers (OP). If you have a gmail, microsoft or a gitlab account you can ssh with that account.
To ssh with opkssh you first need to download the opkssh binary and then run:
```bash
opkssh login
```
This opens a browser window where you can authenticate to your OpenID Provider. This will generate an SSH key in `~/.ssh/id_ecdsas` which contains your OpenID Connect identity.
Then you can ssh under this identity to any ssh server which is configured to use opkssh to authenticate users using their OpenID Connect identities.
```bash
ssh [email protected]
```
## Getting Started
To ssh with opkssh, Alice first needs to install opkssh using homebrew or manually downloading the binary.
### Homebrew Install (OSX)
To install with homebrew run:
```bash
brew tap openpubkey/opkssh
brew install opkssh
```
### Manual Install (Windows, Linux, OSX)
To install manually, download the opkssh binary and run it:
| | Download URL |
|-----------|--------------|
|🐧 Linux | [github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-linux-amd64](https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-linux-amd64) |
|🍎 OSX | [github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-osx-amd64](https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-osx-amd64) |
| ⊞ Win | [github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-windows-amd64.exe](https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-windows-amd64.exe) |
To install on Windows run:
```powershell
curl https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-windows-amd64.exe -o opkssh.exe
```
To install on OSX run:
```bash
curl -L https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-osx-amd64 -o opkssh; chmod +x opkssh
```
To install on linux run:
```bash
curl -L https://github.com/openpubkey/opkssh/releases/latest/download/opkssh-linux-amd64 -o opkssh; chmod +x opkssh
```
### SSHing with opkssh
After downloading opkssh, on OSX or Linux run:
```cmd
opkssh login
```
on Windows run:
```powershell
.\opkssh.exe login
```
This opens a browser window to select which OpenID Provider you want to authenticate against.
After successfully authenticating opkssh generates an SSH public key in `~/.ssh/id_ecdsas` which contains your PK Token.
By default this ssh key expires after 24 hours and you must run `opkssh login` to generate a new ssh key.
Since your PK Token has been saved as an SSH key you can SSH as normal:
```bash
ssh [email protected]
```
This works because SSH sends the SSH public key opkssh wrote in `~/.ssh/id_ecdsas` to the server and sshd running on the server will send the public key to the opkssh command to verify. This also works for other protocols that build on ssh like [sftp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH_File_Transfer_Protocol) or ssh tunnels.
```bash
sftp [email protected]
```
### Installing on a Server
To configure a linux server to use opkssh simply run (with root level privileges):
```bash
wget -qO- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openpubkey/opkssh/main/scripts/install-linux.sh" | sudo bash
```
This downloads the opkssh binary, installs it as `/usr/local/bin/opkssh`, and then configures ssh to use opkssh as an additional authentication mechanism.
To allow a user, `[email protected]`, to ssh to your server as `root`, run:
```bash
sudo opkssh add root [email protected] google
```
To allow a group, `ssh-users`, to ssh to your server as `root`, run:
```bash
sudo opkssh add root oidc:groups:ssh-users google
```
## How it works
We use two features of SSH to make this work.
First we leverage the fact that SSH public keys can be SSH certificates and SSH Certificates support arbitrary extensions.
This allows us to smuggle your PK Token, which includes your ID Token, into the SSH authentication protocol via an extension field of the SSH certificate.
Second, we use the `AuthorizedKeysCommand` configuration option in `sshd_config` (see [sshd_config manpage](https://man.openbsd.org/sshd_config.5#AuthorizedKeysCommand)) so that the SSH server will send the SSH certificate to an installed program that knows how to verify PK Tokens.
## What is supported
### Client support
| OS | Supported | Tested | Version Tested | Possible Future Support |
| -------- | -------- | ------- | ---------------------- |----------- |
| Linux | ✅ | ✅ | Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS | - |
| OSX | ✅ | ✅ | OSX 15.3.2 (Sequoia) | - |
| Windows11 | ✅ | ✅ | Windows 11 | - |
### Server support
| OS | Supported | Tested | Version Tested | Possible Future Support |
| -------- | -------- | ------- | ---------------------- |----------- |
| Linux | ✅ | ✅ | Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS | - |
| Linux | ✅ | ✅ | Centos 9 | - |
| OSX | ❌ | ❌ | - | Likely |
| Windows11 | ❌ | ❌ | - | Likely |
## Configuration
All opkssh configuration files are space delimited and live on the server.
We currently have no configuration files on the client.
### `/etc/opk/providers`
`/etc/opk/providers` contains a list of allowed OPs (OpenID Providers), a.k.a. IDPs.
This file functions as an access control list that enables admins to determine the OpenID Providers and Client IDs they wish to rely on.
- Column 1: Issuer URI of the OP
- Column 2: Client-ID, the audience claim in the ID Token
- Column 3: Expiration policy, options are:
- `24h` - user's ssh public key expires after 24 hours,
- `48h` - user's ssh public key expires after 48 hours,
- `1week` - user's ssh public key expires after 1 week,
- `oidc` - user's ssh public key expires when the ID Token expires
- `oidc-refreshed` - user's ssh public key expires when their refreshed ID Token expires.
By default we use `24h` as it requires that the user authenticate to their OP once a day. Most OPs expire ID Tokens every one to two hours, so if `oidc` the user will have to sign multiple times a day. `oidc-refreshed` is supported but complex and not currently recommended unless you know what you are doing.
The default values for `/etc/opk/providers` are:
```bash
# Issuer Client-ID expiration-policy
https://accounts.google.com 206584157355-7cbe4s640tvm7naoludob4ut1emii7sf.apps.googleusercontent.com 24h
https://login.microsoftonline.com/9188040d-6c67-4c5b-b112-36a304b66dad/v2.0 096ce0a3-5e72-4da8-9c86-12924b294a01 24h
```
`/etc/opk/providers` requires the following permissions (by default we create all configuration files with the correct permissions):
```bash
sudo chown root:opksshuser /etc/opk/providers
sudo chmod 640 /etc/opk/providers
```
## `/etc/opk/auth_id`
`/etc/opk/auth_id` is the global authorized identities file.
This is a server wide file where policies can be configured to determine which identities can assume what linux user accounts.
Linux user accounts are typically referred to in SSH as *principals* and we continue the use of this terminology.
- Column 1: The principal, i.e., the account the user wants to assume
- Column 2: Email address or subject ID of the user (choose one)
- Email - the email of the identity
- Subject ID - an unique ID for the user set by the OP. This is the `sub` claim in the ID Token.
- Group - the name of the group that the user is part of. This uses the `groups` claim which is presumed to
be an array. The group identifier uses a structured identifier. I.e. `oidc:groups:{groupId}`. Replace the `groupId`
with the id of your group.
- Column 3: Issuer URI
```bash
# email/sub principal issuer
alice [email protected] https://accounts.google.com
guest [email protected] https://accounts.google.com
root [email protected] https://accounts.google.com
dev [email protected] https://login.microsoftonline.com/9188040d-6c67-4c5b-b112-36a304b66dad/v2.0
# Group identifier
dev oidc:groups:developer https://login.microsoftonline.com/9188040d-6c67-4c5b-b112-36a304b66dad/v2.0
```
To add new rule run:
`sudo opkssh add {USER} {EMAIL/SUB/GROUP} {ISSUER}`
These `auth_id` files can be edited by hand or you can use the add command to add new policies.
For convenience you can use the shorthand `google` or `azure` rather than specifying the entire issuer.
This is especially useful in the case of azure where the issuer contains a long and hard to remember random string. For instance:
`sudo opkssh add dev [email protected] azure`
`/etc/opk/auth_id` requires the following permissions (by default we create all configuration files with the correct permissions):
```bash
sudo chown root:opksshuser /etc/opk/auth_id
sudo chmod 640 /etc/opk/auth_id
```
### `~/.opk/auth_id`
This is a local version of the auth_id file.
It lives in the user's home directory (`/home/{USER}/.opk/auth_id`) and allows users to add or remove authorized identities without requiring root level permissions.
It can only be used for user/principal whose home directory it lives in.
That is, if it is in `/home/alice/.opk/auth_id` it can only specify who can assume the principal `alice` on the server.
```bash
# email/sub principal issuer
alice [email protected] https://accounts.google.com
# Group identifier
dev oidc:groups:developer https://login.microsoftonline.com/9188040d-6c67-4c5b-b112-36a304b66dad/v2.0
```
It requires the following permissions:
```bash
chown {USER}:{USER} /home/{USER}/.opk/auth_id
chmod 600 /home/{USER}/.opk/auth_id
```
### AuthorizedKeysCommandUser
We use a low privilege user for the SSH AuthorizedKeysCommandUser.
Our install script creates this user and group automatically by running:
```bash
sudo groupadd --system opksshuser
sudo useradd -r -M -s /sbin/nologin -g opksshuser opksshuser
```
We then add the following lines to `/etc/ssh/sshd_config`
```bash
AuthorizedKeysCommand /usr/local/bin/opkssh verify %u %k %t
AuthorizedKeysCommandUser opksshuser
```
## Custom OpenID Providers (Authentik, Authelia, Keycloak, Zitadel...)
To log in using a custom OpenID Provider, run:
```bash
opkssh login --provider={ISSUER},{CLIENT_ID}
```
or in the rare case that a client secret is required by the OpenID Provider:
```bash
opkssh login --provider={ISSUER},{CLIENT_ID},{CLIENT_SECRET}
```
where ISSUER, CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET correspond to the issuer client ID and client secret of the custom OpenID Provider.
For example if the issuer is `https://authentik.local/application/o/opkssh/` and the client ID was `ClientID123`:
```bash
opkssh login --provider=https://authentik.local/application/o/opkssh/,ClientID123
```
### Server Configuration
In the `/etc/opk/providers` file, add the OpenID Provider as you would any OpenID Provider. For example:
```bash
https://authentik.local/application/o/opkssh/ ClientID123 24h
```
Then add identities to the policy to allow those identities SSH to the server:
```bash
opkssh add root [email protected] https://authentik.local/application/o/opkssh/
```
### Tested
| OpenID Provider | Tested | Notes |
|-----------|------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Authentik | ✅ | Do not add a certificate in the encryption section of the provider |
| Zitadel | ✅ | Check the UserInfo box on the Token Settings |
Do not use Confidential/Secret mode **only** client ID is needed.
## More information
We document how to manually install opkssh on a server [here](scripts/installing.md).