| This describes the protocol used by OpenSSH's ssh-agent. |
| |
| OpenSSH's agent supports managing keys for the standard SSH protocol |
| 2 as well as the legacy SSH protocol 1. Support for these key types |
| is almost completely disjoint - in all but a few cases, operations on |
| protocol 2 keys cannot see or affect protocol 1 keys and vice-versa. |
| |
| Protocol 1 and protocol 2 keys are separated because of the differing |
| cryptographic usage: protocol 1 private RSA keys are used to decrypt |
| challenges that were encrypted with the corresponding public key, |
| whereas protocol 2 RSA private keys are used to sign challenges with |
| a private key for verification with the corresponding public key. It |
| is considered unsound practice to use the same key for signing and |
| encryption. |
| |
| With a couple of exceptions, the protocol message names used in this |
| document indicate which type of key the message relates to. SSH_* |
| messages refer to protocol 1 keys only. SSH2_* messages refer to |
| protocol 2 keys. Furthermore, the names also indicate whether the |
| message is a request to the agent (*_AGENTC_*) or a reply from the |
| agent (*_AGENT_*). Section 3 below contains the mapping of the |
| protocol message names to their integer values. |
| |
| 1. Data types |
| |
| Because of support for legacy SSH protocol 1 keys, OpenSSH's agent |
| protocol makes use of some data types not defined in RFC 4251. |
| |
| 1.1 uint16 |
| |
| The "uint16" data type is a simple MSB-first 16 bit unsigned integer |
| encoded in two bytes. |
| |
| 1.2 mpint1 |
| |
| The "mpint1" type represents an arbitrary precision integer (bignum). |
| Its format is as follows: |
| |
| uint16 bits |
| byte[(bits + 7) / 8] bignum |
| |
| "bignum" contains an unsigned arbitrary precision integer encoded as |
| eight bits per byte in big-endian (MSB first) format. |
| |
| Note the difference between the "mpint1" encoding and the "mpint" |
| encoding defined in RFC 4251. Also note that the length of the encoded |
| integer is specified in bits, not bytes and that the byte length of |
| the integer must be calculated by rounding up the number of bits to the |
| nearest eight. |
| |
| 2. Protocol Messages |
| |
| All protocol messages are prefixed with their length in bytes, encoded |
| as a 32 bit unsigned integer. Specifically: |
| |
| uint32 message_length |
| byte[message_length] message |
| |
| The following message descriptions refer only to the content the |
| "message" field. |
| |
| 2.1 Generic server responses |
| |
| The following generic messages may be sent by the server in response to |
| requests from the client. On success the agent may reply either with: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS |
| |
| or a request-specific success message. |
| |
| On failure, the agent may reply with: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENT_FAILURE |
| |
| SSH_AGENT_FAILURE messages are also sent in reply to unknown request |
| types. |
| |
| 2.2 Adding keys to the agent |
| |
| Keys are added to the agent using the SSH_AGENTC_ADD_RSA_IDENTITY and |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY requests for protocol 1 and protocol 2 keys |
| respectively. |
| |
| Two variants of these requests are SSH_AGENTC_ADD_RSA_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| and SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED - these add keys with optional |
| "constraints" on their usage. |
| |
| OpenSSH may be built with support for keys hosted on a smartcard |
| or other hardware security module. These keys may be added |
| to the agent using the SSH_AGENTC_ADD_SMARTCARD_KEY and |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_SMARTCARD_KEY_CONSTRAINED requests. |
| |
| 2.2.1 Key constraints |
| |
| The OpenSSH agent supports some basic optional constraints on key usage. |
| At present there are two constraints defined. |
| |
| The first constraint limits the validity duration of a key. It is |
| encoded as: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENT_CONSTRAIN_LIFETIME |
| uint32 seconds |
| |
| Where "seconds" contains the number of seconds that the key shall remain |
| valid measured from the moment that the agent receives it. After the |
| validity period has expired, OpenSSH's agent will erase these keys from |
| memory. |
| |
| The second constraint requires the agent to seek explicit user |
| confirmation before performing private key operations with the loaded |
| key. This constraint is encoded as: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENT_CONSTRAIN_CONFIRM |
| |
| Zero or more constraints may be specified when adding a key with one |
| of the *_CONSTRAINED requests. Multiple constraints are appended |
| consecutively to the end of the request: |
| |
| byte constraint1_type |
| .... constraint1_data |
| byte constraint2_type |
| .... constraint2_data |
| .... |
| byte constraintN_type |
| .... constraintN_data |
| |
| Such a sequence of zero or more constraints will be referred to below |
| as "constraint[]". Agents may determine whether there are constraints |
| by checking whether additional data exists in the "add key" request |
| after the key data itself. OpenSSH will refuse to add a key if it |
| contains unknown constraints. |
| |
| 2.2.2 Add protocol 1 key |
| |
| A client may add a protocol 1 key to an agent with the following |
| request: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_ADD_RSA_IDENTITY or |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_RSA_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| uint32 ignored |
| mpint1 rsa_n |
| mpint1 rsa_e |
| mpint1 rsa_d |
| mpint1 rsa_iqmp |
| mpint1 rsa_q |
| mpint1 rsa_p |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| Note that there is some redundancy in the key parameters; a key could be |
| fully specified using just rsa_q, rsa_p and rsa_e at the cost of extra |
| computation. |
| |
| "key_constraints" may only be present if the request type is |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_RSA_ID_CONSTRAINED. |
| |
| The agent will reply with a SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS if the key has been |
| successfully added or a SSH_AGENT_FAILURE if an error occurred. |
| |
| 2.2.3 Add protocol 2 key |
| |
| The OpenSSH agent supports DSA, ECDSA and RSA keys for protocol 2. DSA |
| keys may be added using the following request |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ssh-dss" |
| mpint dsa_p |
| mpint dsa_q |
| mpint dsa_g |
| mpint dsa_public_key |
| mpint dsa_private_key |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| DSA certificates may be added with: |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ssh-dss-cert-v00@openssh.com" |
| string certificate |
| mpint dsa_private_key |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| ECDSA keys may be added using the following request |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256" | |
| "ecdsa-sha2-nistp384" | |
| "ecdsa-sha2-nistp521" |
| string ecdsa_curve_name |
| string ecdsa_public_key |
| mpint ecdsa_private |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| ECDSA certificates may be added with: |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com" | |
| "ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com" | |
| "ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com" |
| string certificate |
| mpint ecdsa_private_key |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| ED25519 keys may be added using the following request |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ssh-ed25519"Â |
| mpint ed25519_public_key |
| mpint ed25519_private_key |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| ED25519 certificates may be added with: |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com"Â |
| string certificate |
| mpint ed25519_public_key |
| mpint ed25519_private_key |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| RSA keys may be added with this request: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ssh-rsa" |
| mpint rsa_n |
| mpint rsa_e |
| mpint rsa_d |
| mpint rsa_iqmp |
| mpint rsa_p |
| mpint rsa_q |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| RSA certificates may be added with this request: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY or |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED |
| string "ssh-rsa-cert-v00@openssh.com" |
| string certificate |
| mpint rsa_d |
| mpint rsa_iqmp |
| mpint rsa_p |
| mpint rsa_q |
| string key_comment |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| Note that the 'rsa_p' and 'rsa_q' parameters are sent in the reverse |
| order to the protocol 1 add keys message. As with the corresponding |
| protocol 1 "add key" request, the private key is overspecified to avoid |
| redundant processing. |
| |
| For DSA, ECDSA and RSA key add requests, "key_constraints" may only be |
| present if the request type is SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED. |
| |
| The agent will reply with a SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS if the key has been |
| successfully added or a SSH_AGENT_FAILURE if an error occurred. |
| |
| 2.2.4 Loading keys from a smartcard |
| |
| The OpenSSH agent may have optional smartcard support built in to it. If |
| so, it supports an operation to load keys from a smartcard. Technically, |
| only the public components of the keys are loaded into the agent so |
| this operation really arranges for future private key operations to be |
| delegated to the smartcard. |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_ADD_SMARTCARD_KEY or |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_SMARTCARD_KEY_CONSTRAINED |
| string reader_id |
| string pin |
| constraint[] key_constraints |
| |
| "reader_id" is an identifier to a smartcard reader and "pin" |
| is a PIN or passphrase used to unlock the private key(s) on the |
| device. "key_constraints" may only be present if the request type is |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_SMARTCARD_KEY_CONSTRAINED. |
| |
| This operation may load all SSH keys that are unlocked using the |
| "pin" on the specified reader. The type of key loaded (protocol 1 |
| or protocol 2) will be specified by the smartcard itself, it is not |
| client-specified. |
| |
| The agent will reply with a SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS if one or more keys have |
| been successfully loaded or a SSH_AGENT_FAILURE if an error occurred. |
| The agent will also return SSH_AGENT_FAILURE if it does not support |
| smartcards. |
| |
| 2.3 Removing multiple keys |
| |
| A client may request that an agent delete all protocol 1 keys using the |
| following request: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_REMOVE_ALL_RSA_IDENTITIES |
| |
| This message requests the deletion of all protocol 2 keys: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_REMOVE_ALL_IDENTITIES |
| |
| On success, the agent will delete all keys of the requested type and |
| reply with a SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS message. If an error occurred, the agent |
| will reply with SSH_AGENT_FAILURE. |
| |
| Note that, to delete all keys (both protocol 1 and 2), a client |
| must send both a SSH_AGENTC_REMOVE_ALL_RSA_IDENTITIES and a |
| SSH2_AGENTC_REMOVE_ALL_IDENTITIES request. |
| |
| 2.4 Removing specific keys |
| |
| 2.4.1 Removing a protocol 1 key |
| |
| Removal of a protocol 1 key may be requested with the following message: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_REMOVE_RSA_IDENTITY |
| uint32 key_bits |
| mpint1 rsa_e |
| mpint1 rsa_n |
| |
| Note that key_bits is strictly redundant, as it may be inferred by the |
| length of rsa_n. |
| |
| The agent will delete any private key matching the specified public key |
| and return SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS. If no such key was found, the agent will |
| return SSH_AGENT_FAILURE. |
| |
| 2.4.2 Removing a protocol 2 key |
| |
| Protocol 2 keys may be removed with the following request: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_REMOVE_IDENTITY |
| string key_blob |
| |
| Where "key_blob" is encoded as per RFC 4253 section 6.6 "Public Key |
| Algorithms" for any of the supported protocol 2 key types. |
| |
| The agent will delete any private key matching the specified public key |
| and return SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS. If no such key was found, the agent will |
| return SSH_AGENT_FAILURE. |
| |
| 2.4.3 Removing keys loaded from a smartcard |
| |
| A client may request that a server remove one or more smartcard-hosted |
| keys using this message: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_REMOVE_SMARTCARD_KEY |
| string reader_id |
| string pin |
| |
| "reader_id" the an identifier to a smartcard reader and "pin" is a PIN |
| or passphrase used to unlock the private key(s) on the device. |
| |
| When this message is received, and if the agent supports |
| smartcard-hosted keys, it will delete all keys that are hosted on the |
| specified smartcard that may be accessed with the given "pin". |
| |
| The agent will reply with a SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS if one or more keys have |
| been successfully removed or a SSH_AGENT_FAILURE if an error occurred. |
| The agent will also return SSH_AGENT_FAILURE if it does not support |
| smartcards. |
| |
| 2.5 Requesting a list of known keys |
| |
| An agent may be requested to list which keys it holds. Different |
| requests exist for protocol 1 and protocol 2 keys. |
| |
| 2.5.1 Requesting a list of protocol 1 keys |
| |
| To request a list of protocol 1 keys that are held in the agent, a |
| client may send the following message: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_REQUEST_RSA_IDENTITIES |
| |
| The agent will reply with the following message: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENT_RSA_IDENTITIES_ANSWER |
| uint32 num_keys |
| |
| Followed by zero or more consecutive keys, encoded as: |
| |
| uint32 bits |
| mpint1 rsa_e |
| mpint1 rsa_n |
| string key_comment |
| |
| 2.5.2 Requesting a list of protocol 2 keys |
| |
| A client may send the following message to request a list of |
| protocol 2 keys that are stored in the agent: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_REQUEST_IDENTITIES |
| |
| The agent will reply with the following message header: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENT_IDENTITIES_ANSWER |
| uint32 num_keys |
| |
| Followed by zero or more consecutive keys, encoded as: |
| |
| string key_blob |
| string key_comment |
| |
| Where "key_blob" is encoded as per RFC 4253 section 6.6 "Public Key |
| Algorithms" for any of the supported protocol 2 key types. |
| |
| 2.6 Private key operations |
| |
| The purpose of the agent is to perform private key operations, such as |
| signing and encryption without requiring a passphrase to unlock the |
| key and without allowing the private key itself to be exposed. There |
| are separate requests for the protocol 1 and protocol 2 private key |
| operations. |
| |
| 2.6.1 Protocol 1 private key challenge |
| |
| The private key operation used in version 1 of the SSH protocol is |
| decrypting a challenge that has been encrypted with a public key. |
| It may be requested using this message: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_RSA_CHALLENGE |
| uint32 ignored |
| mpint1 rsa_e |
| mpint1 rsa_n |
| mpint1 encrypted_challenge |
| byte[16] session_id |
| uint32 response_type /* must be 1 */ |
| |
| "rsa_e" and "rsa_n" are used to identify which private key to use. |
| "encrypted_challenge" is a challenge blob that has (presumably) |
| been encrypted with the public key and must be in the range |
| 1 <= encrypted_challenge < 2^256. "session_id" is the SSH protocol 1 |
| session ID (computed from the server host key, the server semi-ephemeral |
| key and the session cookie). |
| |
| "ignored" and "response_type" exist for compatibility with legacy |
| implementations. "response_type" must be equal to 1; other response |
| types are not supported. |
| |
| On receiving this request, the server decrypts the "encrypted_challenge" |
| using the private key matching the supplied (rsa_e, rsa_n) values. For |
| the response derivation, the decrypted challenge is represented as an |
| unsigned, big-endian integer encoded in a 32 byte buffer (i.e. values |
| smaller than 2^248 will have leading 0 bytes). |
| |
| The response value is then calculated as: |
| |
| response = MD5(decrypted_challenge || session_id) |
| |
| and returned in the following message |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENT_RSA_RESPONSE |
| byte[16] response |
| |
| If the agent cannot find the key specified by the supplied (rsa_e, |
| rsa_n) then it will return SSH_AGENT_FAILURE. |
| |
| 2.6.2 Protocol 2 private key signature request |
| |
| A client may use the following message to request signing of data using |
| a protocol 2 key: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENTC_SIGN_REQUEST |
| string key_blob |
| string data |
| uint32 flags |
| |
| Where "key_blob" is encoded as per RFC 4253 section 6.6 "Public Key |
| Algorithms" for any of the supported protocol 2 key types. "flags" is |
| a bit-mask, but at present only one possible value is defined (see below |
| for its meaning): |
| |
| SSH_AGENT_OLD_SIGNATURE 1 |
| |
| Upon receiving this request, the agent will look up the private key that |
| corresponds to the public key contained in key_blob. It will use this |
| private key to sign the "data" and produce a signature blob using the |
| key type-specific method described in RFC 4253 section 6.6 "Public Key |
| Algorithms". |
| |
| An exception to this is for "ssh-dss" keys where the "flags" word |
| contains the value SSH_AGENT_OLD_SIGNATURE. In this case, a legacy |
| signature encoding is used in lieu of the standard one. In this case, |
| the DSA signature blob is encoded as: |
| |
| byte[40] signature |
| |
| The signature will be returned in the response message: |
| |
| byte SSH2_AGENT_SIGN_RESPONSE |
| string signature_blob |
| |
| If the agent cannot find the key specified by the supplied key_blob then |
| it will return SSH_AGENT_FAILURE. |
| |
| 2.7 Locking or unlocking an agent |
| |
| The agent supports temporary locking with a passphrase to suspend |
| processing of sensitive operations until it has been unlocked with the |
| same passphrase. To lock an agent, a client send the following request: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_LOCK |
| string passphrase |
| |
| Upon receipt of this message and if the agent is not already locked, |
| it will suspend processing requests and return a SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS |
| reply. If the agent is already locked, it will return SSH_AGENT_FAILURE. |
| |
| While locked, the agent will refuse all requests except |
| SSH_AGENTC_UNLOCK, SSH_AGENTC_REQUEST_RSA_IDENTITIES and |
| SSH2_AGENTC_REQUEST_IDENTITIES. The "request identities" requests are |
| treated specially by a locked agent: it will always return an empty list |
| of keys. |
| |
| To unlock an agent, a client may request: |
| |
| byte SSH_AGENTC_UNLOCK |
| string passphrase |
| |
| If the passphrase matches and the agent is locked, then it will resume |
| processing all requests and return SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS. If the agent |
| is not locked or the passphrase does not match then it will return |
| SSH_AGENT_FAILURE. |
| |
| Locking and unlocking affects both protocol 1 and protocol 2 keys. |
| |
| 3. Protocol message numbers |
| |
| 3.1 Requests from client to agent for protocol 1 key operations |
| |
| SSH_AGENTC_REQUEST_RSA_IDENTITIES 1 |
| SSH_AGENTC_RSA_CHALLENGE 3 |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_RSA_IDENTITY 7 |
| SSH_AGENTC_REMOVE_RSA_IDENTITY 8 |
| SSH_AGENTC_REMOVE_ALL_RSA_IDENTITIES 9 |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_RSA_ID_CONSTRAINED 24 |
| |
| 3.2 Requests from client to agent for protocol 2 key operations |
| |
| SSH2_AGENTC_REQUEST_IDENTITIES 11 |
| SSH2_AGENTC_SIGN_REQUEST 13 |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_IDENTITY 17 |
| SSH2_AGENTC_REMOVE_IDENTITY 18 |
| SSH2_AGENTC_REMOVE_ALL_IDENTITIES 19 |
| SSH2_AGENTC_ADD_ID_CONSTRAINED 25 |
| |
| 3.3 Key-type independent requests from client to agent |
| |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_SMARTCARD_KEY 20 |
| SSH_AGENTC_REMOVE_SMARTCARD_KEY 21 |
| SSH_AGENTC_LOCK 22 |
| SSH_AGENTC_UNLOCK 23 |
| SSH_AGENTC_ADD_SMARTCARD_KEY_CONSTRAINED 26 |
| |
| 3.4 Generic replies from agent to client |
| |
| SSH_AGENT_FAILURE 5 |
| SSH_AGENT_SUCCESS 6 |
| |
| 3.5 Replies from agent to client for protocol 1 key operations |
| |
| SSH_AGENT_RSA_IDENTITIES_ANSWER 2 |
| SSH_AGENT_RSA_RESPONSE 4 |
| |
| 3.6 Replies from agent to client for protocol 2 key operations |
| |
| SSH2_AGENT_IDENTITIES_ANSWER 12 |
| SSH2_AGENT_SIGN_RESPONSE 14 |
| |
| 3.7 Key constraint identifiers |
| |
| SSH_AGENT_CONSTRAIN_LIFETIME 1 |
| SSH_AGENT_CONSTRAIN_CONFIRM 2 |
| |
| $OpenBSD: PROTOCOL.agent,v 1.9 2016/05/03 10:24:27 djm Exp $ |