scponly - Man Page

Synopsis

scponly

limited shell for secure file transfers

Description

scponly is an alternative "shell" (of sorts) for system administrators who would like to provide access to remote users to both read and write local files without providing any remote execution privileges. Functionally, it is best described as a wrapper to the trusted suite of ssh applications.

A typical usage of scponly is in creating a semi-public account not unlike the concept of anonymous login for ftp. This allows an administrator to share files in the same way an anonymous ftp setup would, only employing all the protection that ssh provides. This is especially significant if you consider that ftp authentications traverse public networks in a plaintext format.

Instead of just a single anonymous user, scponly supports configuring potentially many users, each of which could be set up to provide access to distinct directory trees. Aside from the installation details, each of these users would have their default shell in /etc/passwd set to "/usr/bin/scponly" (or wherever you choose to install it). This would mean users with this shell can neither login interactively or execute commands remotely. They can however, scp files in and out, governed by the usual Unixish file permissions.

Features

scponly doesn't do anything to manage read/write permissions. The ssh applications already do that just fine. If you use scponly, be aware that good old Unix-style file permissions are still doing the work of protecting your files.

Notes

Files

/usr/bin/scponly

The default location for the shell itself.

/usr/sbin/scponlyc

The default location for the chrooted version of scponly

/etc/shells

To be a proper shell, it has to be included here.

See Also

chroot(2), ssh(1), scp(1), sftp(1), shells(5), sshd(8).

Authors

Joe Boyle ⟨joe@sublimation.org⟩.

Legalities

Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003
Joe Boyle ⟨joe@sublimation.org⟩.

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

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``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 THE AUTHOR 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.

Bugs

Versions prior to 2.4 have a vulnerability wherein the .ssh/environment file can be used to override $PATH and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH vars, compromising the shell.

Info

Sept 03, 2002