User Authentication
3-37
3
To use the SSH server, complete these steps:
1. Generate a Host Key Pair – On the SSH Host Key Settings page, create a host
public/private key pair.
2. Provide Host Public Key to Clients – Many SSH client programs automatically
import the host public key during the initial connection setup with the switch.
Otherwise, you need to manually create a known hosts file on the management
station and place the host public key in it. An entry for a public key in the known
hosts file would appear similar to the following example:
10.1.0.54 1024 35 15684995401867669259333946775054617325313674890836547254
15020245593199868544358361651999923329781766065830956 10825913212890233
76546801726272571413428762941301196195566782 59566410486957427888146206
51941746772984865468615717739390164779355942303577413098022737087794545
24083971752646358058176716709574804776117
3. Import Client’s Public Key to the Switch – Use the copy tftp public-key
command (page 4-63) to copy a file containing the public key for all the SSH
client’s granted management access to the switch. (Note that these clients
must be configured locally on the switch via the User Accounts page as
described on page 3-30.) The clients are subsequently authenticated using
these keys. The current firmware only accepts public key files based on
standard UNIX format as shown in the following example for an RSA Version 1
key:
1024 35 1341081685609893921040944920155425347631641921872958921143173880
05553616163105177594083868631109291232226828519254374603100937187721199
69631781366277414168985132049117204830339254324101637997592371449011938
00609025394840848271781943722884025331159521348610229029789827213532671
31629432532818915045306393916643 steve@192.168.1.19
4. Set the Optional Parameters – On the SSH Settings page, configure the
optional parameters, including the authentication timeout, the number of retries,
and the server key size.
5. Enable SSH Service – On the SSH Settings page, enable the SSH server on
the switch.
6. Challenge-Response Authentication – When an SSH client attempts to contact
the switch, the SSH server uses the host key pair to negotiate a session key
and encryption method. Only clients that have a private key corresponding to
the public keys stored on the switch can access. The following exchanges take
place during this process:
a. The client sends its public key to the switch.
b. The switch compares the client's public key to those stored in memory.
c. If a match is found, the switch uses the public key to encrypt a random
sequence of bytes, and sends this string to the client.
d. The client uses its private key to decrypt the bytes, and sends the
decrypted bytes back to the switch.