SMC Networks SMC6224M manual User Authentication

USER AUTHENTICATION

3.Import Client’s Public Key to the Switch – Use the copy tftp public-keycommand (page 4-86)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 3-48.)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

055536161631051775940838686311092912322268285192543746031009371877211996963178

136627741416898513204911720483033925432410163799759237144901193800609025394840

848271781943722884025331159521348610229029789827213532671316294325328189150453

06393916643 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.

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