PROBLEMS ENABLING PUBLIC-KEY AUTHENTICATION IN OPENVMS

[Ana M. García Olivencia]

Hi all.

I am trying to enable public-key authentication in some OpenVMS 8.3 systems (TCPIP v5.6, eco2). I am following all the steps from "HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Guide to SSH" but it doesn't work.

The only difference is that, instead of generating the pair of keys with OpenVMS 'ssh-keygen' utility, I am copying the public key generated from a Linux system. I think that this is supported, but I am not sure.

If it's necessary, I can post the result of 'ssh -v username@nodo.domain' execution, but, firt of all, I'd like somebody could confirm that.

Thanks in advance.

Ana

[Martin Vorlaender · Accepted solution]

Ana,

OpenSSH-based systems - like the typical Linux system - use their own file format for SSH keys.

Before transferring the public key to the VMS system, you have to convert it using

% ssh-keygen -e -f public_key > vms_format_public_key

HTH,
Martin

[Duncan Morris]

Ana,

you need to convert the Linux key to the OpenSSH format.

See this thread

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1046511

Duncan

[Duncan Morris]

Martin - thanks, I misread the direction for the key conversion.

-e is the correct flag.

Duncan

[Ana M. García Olivencia]

Martin, Duncan.

Thanks for your replies. I have done the conversion and it works ok.

Regards.

Ana

[Ana M. García Olivencia]

Problem solved.
Ana

[Hoff]

I beg to (politely) differ.

The problem is not solved; a step was missed.

That step? Using the documentation email contact or the support center and reporting the documentation error!

Now as to whether HP might update the documentation, that's another matter and for HP to decide.

[Ana M. García Olivencia]

Hoff.

You are right, but my experience in similar things is that it will be useless. Anyway, I'll send a mail to report the missing information.

Thanks.

Ana