OT: secure http access using PuTTY key files

[Todd Zullinger]

Eric wrote:
> I have a secure Linux host on which all access is restricted to SSH
> for those with valid PuTTY key files protected with passphrase... no
> login allowed.
>
> I would like to put up a secure website on that machine that is
> accessed the same way... only those with valid PuTTY key files AND
> who know the passphrase can access.
>
> Where can I go (newsgroups, mailing lists, websites) to learn how to
> do that?
>
> I know that https uses SSL (secure socket layer) for secure website
> access but I'm pretty sure that doesn't work with PuTTY key files
> (right?).
>
> Anyway, right now SSH is the ONLY protocol available for external
> access on that machine (everything else tunnels in ssh, e.g.
> Subversion svn+ssh and Filezilla sftp+ssh2) and I'd like to keep it
> that way if I can.
>
> Is there such a thing as an "http+ssh" protocol?
>
> Also, almost all of the clients that will be accessing this thing
> are on Windows boxen (yeah, I know... nothing I can do about that)
> using MSIE or Firefox.  The web browser would have to be able to
> access key files administered by Pageant (the background-resident
> PuTTY Authentication Agent).

I think one way you can achieve this is to tunnel http over ssh.  You
can let your ssh users create such a tunnel and then they can browse
the web server on the remote box.  I don't use putty much at all
(since I don't use windows much at all), but there is a section in the
putty config for creating tunnels.  IIRC, there's also a plink command
that can create such tunnels also.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Politics is the business of tinkering with other people's lives.
    -- Nolan Neathercutt

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