Secure Shell (SSH) for VT, SCO ANSI and Wyse-60 Terminal Emulation Sessions

PASSPORT Now Supports SSH for Secure Terminal Emulation

(PRWEB) March 15, 2006 -- PASSPORT terminal emulation software can now be configured using Secure Shell (SSH) to connect to Unix systems. Secure Shell is a protocol that is used to secure communication between the client and server. It is intended as a replacement for telnet, rlogin, rsh, rcp, and ftp. Because there is no greater concern for network managers than to protect the security of the corporate data, SSH protocol is widely used to provide strong authentication and secure communications between the two entities.

Benefits

The Internet is not a secure environment for transmitting data. Information sent from one computer to another over the Internet can be intercepted and used maliciously to harm the original owner, or worse, an entire user community. Therefore, it is necessary to use SSH to prevent this from happening. Any time you have to do the following remotely over the Internet: log on to a host, perform file transfer, issue a command, access network resources, you need to consider using Secure Shell protocol.

There are many technical benefits to running PASSPORT with Secure Shell (SSH), including:

Privacy of your data – This is encrypting data that passes over the network. This end-to-end encryption is based on random keys that are securely negotiated for that session and then destroyed when the session is over.

Integrity of communications – Integrity means assuring that data transmitted from one end of a network connection arrives unaltered on the other side. It uses cryptographic integrity checking, which verifies both that transmitted data hasn't been altered and that it truly comes from the other end of the connection.

Authentication – This means verifying someone's identity (proof of identity of senders and receivers). Every SSH connection involves two authentications: the client verifies the identity of the SSH server (server authentication), and the server verifies the identity of the user requesting access (user authentication).

Authorization - This is access control to accounts that occurs after authentication. SSH servers have various ways of restricting clients' actions once connecting to the server. Authorization can be done at server wide level, per account, or at each user's files.

Details

The Secure Shell provided by PASSPORT is based on the PuTTY implementation of SSH for Win32. Both SSH1 and SSH2 version are supported. Configuring a PASSPORT SSH session can easily be done from the Communication Setup (based on PASSPORT PC TO HOST).

Screenshot available at: http://www.zephyrcorp.com/images/screenshots/ssh-config1.gif

Typically, the SSH client (PASSPORT) only need to know the host name or IP address and the port TCP port number (usually 22) of the host. The Enable SSH Secure Connection option is only available when VT, SCO ANSI, or Wyse-60 emulation type is selected. Additional configuration such as protocol version, compression, and authentication can be configured from the Communication Setup/SSH tab (based on PASSPORT PC TO HOST).

Screenshot available at: http://www.zephyrcorp.com/images/screenshots/ssh-config2.gif

In addition, you must also connect to a host system that supports the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol in order for the connection to take place. Once PASSPORT is configured for SSH, your connection to the host will consists of these main SSH characteristics: authentication, authorization, encryption, and data integrity. Although PASSPORT uses both SSH (Secure Shell) and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection to protect and secure your communication, they’re two different connections using different protocols. An SSL connection basically gives you just a handshake and encryption of data where as an SSH connection gives you so much more mainly in the ability to authenticate, authorize on top of encryption.

About Zephyr

Zephyr Development Corporation is committed to delivering high-quality, affordable TN3270, TN5250, VT100, VT220 and SCO ANSI terminal emulation software and host access solutions. Zephyr offers subscription based licensing that substantially reduces the cost of terminal emulation software. Founded in 1985, Zephyr is a Citrix Premier Alliance Partner, a Cisco Enterprise Associate, a member of IBM® PartnerWorld, Microsoft® MSDN and the IETF. Zephyr headquarters are in Houston, Texas.

About PuTTY

PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. PuTTY is maintained by a small team based in Cambridge, England. For more information: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Trademarks

Zephyr, PASSPORT, PASSPORT PC TO HOST and PASSPORT WEB TO HOST are trademarks of Zephyr Development Corporation. PuTTY is a copyright of Simon Tatham. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

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