scponly(8) BSD System Manager's Manual scponly(8)NAMEscponlySYNOPSISscponly — limited shell for secure file transfers
DESCRIPTIONscponly 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. Function‐
ally, 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 adminis‐
trator to share files in the same way an anonymous ftp setup would, only
employing all the protection that ssh provides. This is especially sig‐
nificant if you consider that ftp authentications traverse public net‐
works 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/local/bin/scponly" (or wherever you choose to install it). This
would mean users with this shell can neither login interactively or exe‐
cute commands remotely. They can however, scp files in and out, governed
by the usual Unixish file permissions.
FEATURES
· Logging: scponly logs time, client IP address, username, and the
actual request to syslog.
· chroot: scponly can chroot to the user's home directory (or any other
directory the user has permissions for), disallowing access to the
rest of the filesystem.
· sftp compatibility: My testing of sftp against an scponly user
worked great. This is probably the cleanest and most usable way for
an scponly user to access files.
· Security checks: root login is disallowed (though root should never
be configured to be using scponly as the default shell.)
· WinSCP 2.0 compatibility: scponly can be compiled in WinSCP compati‐
bility mode that will permit a "semi-interactive" shell that WinSCP
can use.
· gftp compatibility: scponly is compatible with gftp if you set "use
ssh2 sftp subsys" in your gftp options.
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
· As recent as June 26, 2002, vulnerabilities have been discovered in
OpenSSH. There is also a SSH1 protocol vulnerability. If you're
going to use scponly , be aware it is no more secure than the ssh
installation it runs on.
· I've since discovered that ssh.com's commercial ssh offering supports
BOTH "dummy users" as well as functionality paralleling scponly. I
have not been able to find any notes on these features, but I did
read that they exist. I will make a point to include more informa‐
tion later. It appears that OpenSSH does not yet support these fea‐
tures. At this time, I have no plans to end-of-life scponly, though
ultimately, I recognize that scponly should eventually become just a
feature of whichever sshd you may run.
FILES
/usr/local/bin/scponly The default location for the shell
itself.
/usr/local/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 ALSOchroot(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 modi‐
fication, 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 docu‐
mentation 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, INCIDEN‐
TAL, 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, compromis‐
ing the shell.
Sept 03, 2002
