nbdkit-ssh-plugin - Man Page

access disk images over the SSH protocol

Synopsis

 nbdkit ssh host=HOST [path=]PATH
            [compression=true] [config=CONFIG_FILE]
            [create=true] [create-mode=MODE] [create-size=SIZE]
            [identity=FILENAME] [known-hosts=FILENAME]
            [password=PASSWORD|-|+FILENAME]
            [port=PORT] [timeout=SECS] [user=USER]
            [verify-remote-host=false]

Description

This is an nbdkit(1) plugin which lets you access remote disk images over Secure Shell (SSH).  Any server which hosts disk images and runs an SSH server can be turned into an NBD source using this plugin.

Examples

nbdkit ssh host=ssh.example.com disk.img

Open a file called disk.img on remote host ssh.example.com. Because the pathname is relative, it is opened relative to the user’s home directory on the remote server.

The remote file can be read or written.  To force read-only access add the -r flag.

nbdkit ssh host=ssh.example.com disk.img user=bob

As above but log in using username bob (instead of trying the local username).

Parameters

compression=true

Enable compression.  You should only use this on slow or bandwidth-limited connections.  On fast connections it will slow things down.

config=CONFIG_FILE

Read local SSH configuration from an alternate configuration file. Libssh expands some %-sequences in CONFIG_FILE, see "Path expansion" below.  CONFIG_FILE must expand to an absolute path.

config=

Do not read any local SSH configuration.

The config parameter is optional.  If it is not specified at all then ~/.ssh/config and /etc/ssh/ssh_config are both read. Missing or unreadable files are ignored.

create=true

(nbdkit ≥ 1.32)

If set, the remote file will be created.  The remote file is created on the first NBD connection to nbdkit, not when nbdkit starts up.  If the file already exists, it will be replaced and any existing content lost.

If using this option, you must use create-size.  create-mode can be used to control the permissions of the new file.

create-mode=MODE

(nbdkit ≥ 1.32)

If using create=true specify the default permissions of the new remote file.  You can use octal modes like create-mode=0777 or create-mode=0644.  The default is 0600, ie. only readable and writable by the remote user.

create-size=SIZE

(nbdkit ≥ 1.32)

If using create=true, specify the virtual size of the new disk. SIZE can use modifiers like 100M etc.

host=HOST

Specify the name or IP address of the remote host.

This parameter is required.

identity=FILENAME

Prepend the private key (identity) FILENAME to the list of identity files used.  Libssh examines several identity files by default such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519, ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa, ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa.  Libssh expands some %-sequences in FILENAME, see "Path expansion" below.  FILENAME must expand to an absolute path.

You can give this parameter multiple times.

known-hosts=FILENAME

Set name of the file which records the identity of previously seen hosts.  Libssh expands some %-sequences in FILENAME, see "Path expansion" below.  FILENAME must expand to an absolute path.

The default is to check ~/.ssh/known_hosts followed by /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts.

password=PASSWORD

Set the password to use when connecting to the remote server.

Note that passing this on the command line is not secure on shared machines.

password=-

Ask for the password (interactively) when nbdkit starts up.

password=+FILENAME

Read the password from the named file.  This is a secure method to supply a password, as long as you set the permissions on the file appropriately.

password=-FD

Read the password from file descriptor number FD, inherited from the parent process when nbdkit starts up.  This is also a secure method to supply a password.

[path=]PATH

Specify the path to the remote file.  This can be a relative path in which case it is relative to the remote home directory.

This parameter is required.

path= is a magic config key and may be omitted in most cases. See "Magic parameters" in nbdkit(1).

port=PORT

Specify the SSH protocol port name or number.

This parameter is optional.  If not given then the default ssh port is used.

timeout=SECS

Set the SSH connection timeout in seconds.

user=USER

Specify the remote username.

This parameter is optional.  If not given then the local username is used.

verify-remote-host=true
verify-remote-host=false

Set whether or not we verify the remote host is one we have previously seen, using a local file such as ~/.ssh/known_hosts.  The default is true, meaning that we verify the remote host’s identity has not changed.

Setting this to false is dangerous because it allows a Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack to be conducted against you.

Notes

Known hosts

The SSH server’s host key is checked at connection time, and must be present and correct in the local "known hosts" file.

If you have never connected to the SSH server before then the connection will usually fail.  You can:

  • connect to the server first using ssh(1) so you can manually accept the host key, or
  • provide the host key in an alternate file which you specify using the known-hosts option, or
  • set verify-remote-host=false on the command line.  This latter option is dangerous because it allows a MITM attack to be conducted against you.

Supported authentication methods

This plugin supports only the following authentication methods: none, publickey or password.  In particular note that keyboard-interactive is not supported.

SSH agent

There is no means for nbdkit to ask for the public key passphrase when it is running as a server.  Therefore publickey authentication must be done in conjunction with ssh-agent(1).

Path expansion

In the config, identity and known-hosts options, libssh expands some %-sequences.

%d

The user’s SSH directory, usually ~/.ssh

%u

The local username.

%l

The local hostname.

%h

The remote hostname.

%r

The remote username.

%p

The SSH port number.

%%

In libssh > 0.9.0 this expands to a single % character.  In earlier versions of libssh there was no way to escape a % character.

Debug Flags

-D ssh.log=[1..4]

Set the libssh log level to increasing levels of verbosity.  Each level includes messages from the previous levels.  Currently the levels are:

  1. informational and warning messages
  2. SSH and SFTP protocol steps
  3. SSH and SFTP packets
  4. libssh functions

Use level 2 to diagnose SSH protocol or server problems.  Levels 3 and 4 are extremely verbose and probably only useful if you are debugging libssh itself.

If diagnosing SSH problems it is also useful to look at server-side logs, eg. /var/log/secure or journalctl -u sshd

Files

~/.ssh/config
/etc/ssh/ssh_config

These are the default SSH config files which are read to get other options.  You can change this using the config option.

~/.ssh/id_dsa
~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
~/.ssh/id_ed25519
~/.ssh/id_rsa

These are some of the default private key (identify) files used by libssh.  You can prepend more to the list using the identity option.

~/.ssh/known_hosts
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts

These are the default SSH files recording the identity of previously seen hosts.  You can change this using the known-hosts option.

$plugindir/nbdkit-ssh-plugin.so

The plugin.

Use nbdkit --dump-config to find the location of $plugindir.

Version

nbdkit-ssh-plugin first appeared in nbdkit 1.12.

See Also

nbdkit(1), nbdkit-curl-plugin(1), nbdkit-extentlist-filter(1), nbdkit-retry-filter(1), nbdkit-plugin(3), ssh(1), ssh-agent(1), https://libssh.org.

Authors

Richard W.M. Jones

Parts derived from Pino Toscano’s qemu libssh driver.

License

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY RED HAT AND CONTRIBUTORS ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL RED HAT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Referenced By

nbdkit(1), nbdkit-curl-plugin(1), nbdkit-extentlist-filter(1), nbdkit-plugin(3), nbdkit-release-notes-1.12(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.16(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.26(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.28(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.32(1), nbdkit-release-notes-1.34(1), nbdkit-retry-filter(1), nbdkit-tar-filter(1), virt-v2v-release-notes-1.42(1).

2024-09-25 nbdkit-1.41.6