Re: dropbear and new host keys?

2019-12-12 Thread Joakim Tjernlund
On Wed, 2019-12-11 at 18:00 +0100, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:
> On Wed, 2019-12-11 at 23:53 +0800, Matt Johnston wrote:
> > Hi Joakim,
> > 
> > The server needs to be stopped and restarted. If this is for new keys at
> > first-boot you could look at the -R option.
> 
> It's not first boot :(
> This is when a user wants to replace the current keys for some reason. 
> Ideally the
> next new session should read the new keys automatically.
> 
> In out case we cannot just restart dropbear and rebooting just for new keys 
> is not an option either.
> Could dropbear gain automatic reread of keys ?
> 

W.r.t -R option, will it dectect a bad key and regenerate a new one ?
One problem we have with using -R is that we need to convert dropbear keys to 
openssh
format as well and I cannot see a way to automatically trigger dropbearconvert 
etc.
if we do use -R, is there a way?

 Jocke


Re: dropbear and new host keys?

2019-12-12 Thread walter harms



Am 12.12.2019 13:01, schrieb Joakim Tjernlund:
> On Wed, 2019-12-11 at 18:00 +0100, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:
>> On Wed, 2019-12-11 at 23:53 +0800, Matt Johnston wrote:
>>> Hi Joakim,
>>>
>>> The server needs to be stopped and restarted. If this is for new keys at
>>> first-boot you could look at the -R option.
>>
>> It's not first boot :(
>> This is when a user wants to replace the current keys for some reason. 
>> Ideally the
>> next new session should read the new keys automatically.
>>
>> In out case we cannot just restart dropbear and rebooting just for new keys 
>> is not an option either.
>> Could dropbear gain automatic reread of keys ?
>>
> 
> W.r.t -R option, will it dectect a bad key and regenerate a new one ?
> One problem we have with using -R is that we need to convert dropbear keys to 
> openssh
> format as well and I cannot see a way to automatically trigger 
> dropbearconvert etc.
> if we do use -R, is there a way?
> 
>  Jocke

Can you use brute force ?
Kill the sshd that should cause a restart
of the daemon no matter what (killall -9 sshd)

re,
 wh


Re: dropbear and new host keys?

2019-12-12 Thread Geoff Winkless
On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 at 17:00, Joakim Tjernlund
 wrote:
> In out case we cannot just restart dropbear and rebooting just for new keys 
> is not an option either.
> Could dropbear gain automatic reread of keys ?

You know if you kill the parent process the child processes keep
running? So you can restart it without disconnecting everyone.

Geoff


Re: dropbear and new host keys?

2019-12-12 Thread Joakim Tjernlund
On Thu, 2019-12-12 at 13:31 +, Geoff Winkless wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 at 17:00, Joakim Tjernlund
>  wrote:
> > In out case we cannot just restart dropbear and rebooting just for new keys 
> > is not an option either.
> > Could dropbear gain automatic reread of keys ?
> 
> You know if you kill the parent process the child processes keep
> running? So you can restart it without disconnecting everyone.

Yes, but in our case dropbear start/stop script is connected with several other 
daemons, but yes it can be
worked around.

The bigger issue here is why not reread keys at every new session? That seems 
to like the
right thing to do in any case? 

 Jocke


Re: dropbear and new host keys?

2019-12-12 Thread Hans Harder
>   The bigger issue here is why not reread keys at every new session? That
seems to like the right thing to do in any case?

Performance...
Why should you do that.
You should not change your host keys everytime, because the connecting
client will have a conflict and get a warning about a possible man in the
middle attack because it cannot verify the host since the hostkey is
changed.

Simple way is to generate the new hostkeys, kill the main dropbear and
start it again.
Should be a very simple script...  and the current running sessions are not
affected.

Hans


On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 2:58 PM Joakim Tjernlund <
joakim.tjernl...@infinera.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 2019-12-12 at 13:31 +, Geoff Winkless wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 at 17:00, Joakim Tjernlund
> >  wrote:
> > > In out case we cannot just restart dropbear and rebooting just for new
> keys is not an option either.
> > > Could dropbear gain automatic reread of keys ?
> >
> > You know if you kill the parent process the child processes keep
> > running? So you can restart it without disconnecting everyone.
>
> Yes, but in our case dropbear start/stop script is connected with several
> other daemons, but yes it can be
> worked around.
>
> The bigger issue here is why not reread keys at every new session? That
> seems to like the
> right thing to do in any case?
>
>  Jocke
>


Re: dropbear and new host keys?

2019-12-12 Thread Joakim Tjernlund
On Thu, 2019-12-12 at 18:34 +0100, Hans Harder wrote:
> 
> >   The bigger issue here is why not reread keys at every new session? That 
> > seems to like the right thing to do in any case? 
> 
> Performance...

My text above was badly worded, should be: reread if keyfiles has changed.

> Why should you do that.
> You should not change your host keys everytime, because the connecting client 
> will have a conflict and get a warning about a possible man in the middle 
> attack because it cannot verify the host since the hostkey is changed.
> 

Of course not, I didn't say that you should change keys every new session. 
However, every now and then an admin may regenerate keys and it would
be great if dropbear picked up these new keys automatically, it is easy to 
forget that one also have to restart dropbear ...

> Simple way is to generate the new hostkeys, kill the main dropbear and start 
> it again.
> Should be a very simple script...  and the current running sessions are not 
> affected.
> 
> Hans
> 
> 
> On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 2:58 PM Joakim Tjernlund 
>  wrote:
> > On Thu, 2019-12-12 at 13:31 +, Geoff Winkless wrote:
> > > 
> > > On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 at 17:00, Joakim Tjernlund
> > >  wrote:
> > > > In out case we cannot just restart dropbear and rebooting just for new 
> > > > keys is not an option either.
> > > > Could dropbear gain automatic reread of keys ?
> > > 
> > > You know if you kill the parent process the child processes keep
> > > running? So you can restart it without disconnecting everyone.
> > 
> > Yes, but in our case dropbear start/stop script is connected with several 
> > other daemons, but yes it can be
> > worked around.
> > 
> > The bigger issue here is why not reread keys at every new session? That 
> > seems to like the
> > right thing to do in any case? 
> > 
> >  Jocke
> >