Implements client support for OpenSSH Certificates (#278)

Adds support for using OpenSSH Certificates based on [OpenSSH
Specs](https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/src/usr.bin/ssh/PROTOCOL.certkeys?annotate=HEAD)
using the existing `PublicKey` authentication.

**Approach:**
Adds a new `authenticate_openssh_cert()` method, similar to
`authenticate_publickey()` for passing certificate and the private key
for authentication and signature generation. Internally a new
`AuthMethod::OpenSSHCertificate` is added to handle certificate specific
authentication flow.

**Changes include -**
- Updated example `examples/client_exec_interactive.rs` with an optional
argument to pass the openssh certificate path.
- Dependencies `ssh-key` and `ssh-encoding` are added from
`RustCrypto/SSH` for parsing, encoding.

The server-side support for this might be tricky, I am yet to explore.

Cargo.toml

@@ -6,3 +6,6 @@ russh = { path = "russh" }
 russh-keys = { path = "russh-keys" }
 russh-cryptovec = { path = "cryptovec" }
 russh-config = { path = "russh-config" }
+
+[workspace.dependencies]
+ssh-key = { version = "0.6.6", features = ["ed25519", "rsa"] }

russh-keys/Cargo.toml

@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 sha1 = { version = "0.10", features = ["oid"] }
 sha2 = { version = "0.10", features = ["oid"] }
 spki = "0.7"
+ssh-key = { workspace = true }
 thiserror = "1.0"
 tokio = { version = "1.17.0", features = ["io-util", "rt-multi-thread", "time", "net"] }
 tokio-stream = { version = "0.1", features = ["net"] }

russh-keys/src/lib.rs

@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ use data_encoding::BASE64_MIME;
 use hmac::{Hmac, Mac};
 use log::debug;
 use sha1::Sha1;
+use ssh_key::Certificate;
 use thiserror::Error;
 
 pub mod ec;
@@ -321,6 +322,17 @@ pub fn load_secret_key<P: AsRef<Path>>(
     decode_secret_key(&secret, password)
 }
 
+/// Load a openssh certificate
+pub fn load_openssh_certificate<P: AsRef<Path>>(
+    cert_: P,
+) -> Result<Certificate, ssh_key::Error> {
+    let mut cert_file = std::fs::File::open(cert_)?;
+    let mut cert = String::new();
+    cert_file.read_to_string(&mut cert)?;
+
+    Certificate::from_openssh(&cert)
+}
+
 fn is_base64_char(c: char) -> bool {
     c.is_ascii_lowercase()
         || c.is_ascii_uppercase()

russh/Cargo.toml

@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ russh-cryptovec = { version = "0.7.0", path = "../cryptovec" }
 russh-keys = { version = "0.43.0", path = "../russh-keys" }
 sha1 = "0.10"
 sha2 = "0.10"
+ssh-encoding = { version = "0.2.0" }
+ssh-key = { workspace = true }
 hex-literal = "0.4"
 num-bigint = { version = "0.4", features = ["rand"] }
 subtle = "2.4"

russh/examples/client_exec_interactive.rs

@@ -29,11 +29,13 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
 
     info!("Connecting to {}:{}", cli.host, cli.port);
     info!("Key path: {:?}", cli.private_key);
+    info!("OpenSSH Certificate path: {:?}", cli.openssh_certificate);
 
     // Session is a wrapper around a russh client, defined down below
     let mut ssh = Session::connect(
         cli.private_key,
         cli.username.unwrap_or("root".to_string()),
+        cli.openssh_certificate,
         (cli.host, cli.port),
     )
     .await?;
@@ -86,9 +88,17 @@ impl Session {
     async fn connect<P: AsRef<Path>, A: ToSocketAddrs>(
         key_path: P,
         user: impl Into<String>,
+        openssh_cert_path: Option<P>,
         addrs: A,
     ) -> Result<Self> {
         let key_pair = load_secret_key(key_path, None)?;
+
+        // load ssh certificate
+        let mut openssh_cert = None;
+        if openssh_cert_path.is_some() {
+            openssh_cert = Some(load_openssh_certificate(openssh_cert_path.unwrap())?);
+        }
+
         let config = client::Config {
             inactivity_timeout: Some(Duration::from_secs(5)),
             ..<_>::default()
@@ -98,12 +108,24 @@ impl Session {
         let sh = Client {};
 
         let mut session = client::connect(config, addrs, sh).await?;
-        let auth_res = session
+
+        // use publickey authentication, with or without certificate
+        if openssh_cert.is_none() {
+            let auth_res = session
             .authenticate_publickey(user, Arc::new(key_pair))
             .await?;
 
-        if !auth_res {
-            anyhow::bail!("Authentication failed");
+            if !auth_res {
+                anyhow::bail!("Authentication (with publickey) failed");
+            }
+        } else {
+            let auth_res = session
+            .authenticate_openssh_cert(user, Arc::new(key_pair), openssh_cert.unwrap())
+            .await?;
+
+            if !auth_res {
+                anyhow::bail!("Authentication (with publickey+cert) failed");
+            }
         }
 
         Ok(Self { session })
@@ -197,6 +219,9 @@ pub struct Cli {
     #[clap(long, short = 'k')]
     private_key: PathBuf,
 
+    #[clap(long, short = 'o')]
+    openssh_certificate: Option<PathBuf>,
+
     #[clap(multiple = true, index = 2, required = true)]
     command: Vec<String>,
 }

russh/src/auth.rs

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ use std::sync::Arc;
 use bitflags::bitflags;
 use russh_cryptovec::CryptoVec;
 use russh_keys::{encoding, key};
+use ssh_key::Certificate;
 use thiserror::Error;
 use tokio::io::{AsyncRead, AsyncWrite};
 
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@ pub enum Method {
     None,
     Password { password: String },
     PublicKey { key: Arc<key::KeyPair> },
+    OpenSSHCertificate { key: Arc<key::KeyPair>, cert: Certificate },
     FuturePublicKey { key: key::PublicKey },
     KeyboardInteractive { submethods: String },
     // Hostbased,

russh/src/cert.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+use russh_cryptovec::CryptoVec;
+use russh_keys::encoding::Encoding;
+use ssh_encoding::Encode;
+use ssh_key::{Algorithm, Certificate, EcdsaCurve};
+use crate::{key::PubKey, negotiation::Named};
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate for DSA public key
+const CERT_DSA: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate for ECDSA (NIST P-256) public key
+const CERT_ECDSA_SHA2_P256: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate for ECDSA (NIST P-384) public key
+const CERT_ECDSA_SHA2_P384: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate for ECDSA (NIST P-521) public key
+const CERT_ECDSA_SHA2_P521: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate for Ed25519 public key
+const CERT_ED25519: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate with RSA public key
+const CERT_RSA: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate for ECDSA (NIST P-256) U2F/FIDO security key
+const CERT_SK_ECDSA_SHA2_P256: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// OpenSSH certificate for Ed25519 U2F/FIDO security key
+const CERT_SK_SSH_ED25519: &str = "[email protected]";
+
+/// None
+const NONE: &str = "none";
+
+impl PubKey for Certificate {
+    fn push_to(&self, buffer: &mut CryptoVec) {
+        let mut cert_encoded = Vec::new();
+        let _ = self.encode(&mut cert_encoded);
+
+        buffer.extend_ssh_string(&cert_encoded);
+    }
+}
+
+impl Named for Certificate {
+    fn name(&self) -> &'static str {
+        match self.algorithm() {
+            Algorithm::Dsa => CERT_DSA,
+            Algorithm::Ecdsa { curve } => match curve {
+                EcdsaCurve::NistP256 => CERT_ECDSA_SHA2_P256,
+                EcdsaCurve::NistP384 => CERT_ECDSA_SHA2_P384,
+                EcdsaCurve::NistP521 => CERT_ECDSA_SHA2_P521,
+            },
+            Algorithm::Ed25519 => CERT_ED25519,
+            Algorithm::Rsa { .. } => CERT_RSA,
+            Algorithm::SkEcdsaSha2NistP256 => CERT_SK_ECDSA_SHA2_P256,
+            Algorithm::SkEd25519 => CERT_SK_SSH_ED25519,
+            Algorithm::Other(_) => NONE,
+            _ => NONE,
+        }
+    }
+}

russh/src/client/encrypted.rs

@@ -333,6 +333,14 @@ impl Session {
                                     &mut self.common.buffer,
                                 )?
                             }
+                            Some(auth_method @ auth::Method::OpenSSHCertificate { .. }) => {
+                                self.common.buffer.clear();
+                                enc.client_send_signature(
+                                    &self.common.auth_user,
+                                    &auth_method,
+                                    &mut self.common.buffer,
+                                )?
+                            }
                             Some(auth::Method::FuturePublicKey { key }) => {
                                 debug!("public key");
                                 self.common.buffer.clear();
@@ -953,11 +961,22 @@ impl Encrypted {
                     self.write.extend_ssh_string(b"publickey");
                     self.write.push(0); // This is a probe
 
-                    debug!("write_auth_request: {:?}", key.name());
+                    debug!("write_auth_request: key - {:?}", key.name());
                     self.write.extend_ssh_string(key.name().as_bytes());
                     key.push_to(&mut self.write);
                     true
                 }
+                auth::Method::OpenSSHCertificate { ref cert, .. } => {
+                    self.write.extend_ssh_string(user.as_bytes());
+                    self.write.extend_ssh_string(b"ssh-connection");
+                    self.write.extend_ssh_string(b"publickey");
+                    self.write.push(0); // This is a probe
+
+                    debug!("write_auth_request: cert - {:?}", cert.name());
+                    self.write.extend_ssh_string(cert.name().as_bytes());
+                    cert.push_to(&mut self.write);
+                    true
+                }
                 auth::Method::FuturePublicKey { ref key, .. } => {
                     self.write.extend_ssh_string(user.as_bytes());
                     self.write.extend_ssh_string(b"ssh-connection");
@@ -996,7 +1015,7 @@ impl Encrypted {
         buffer.extend_ssh_string(b"ssh-connection");
         buffer.extend_ssh_string(b"publickey");
         buffer.push(1);
-        buffer.extend_ssh_string(key.name().as_bytes());
+        buffer.extend_ssh_string(key.name().as_bytes()); // TODO
         key.push_to(buffer);
         i0
     }
@@ -1008,7 +1027,7 @@ impl Encrypted {
         buffer: &mut CryptoVec,
     ) -> Result<(), crate::Error> {
         match method {
-            auth::Method::PublicKey { ref key } => {
+            auth::Method::PublicKey { ref key, ..  } => {
                 let i0 = self.client_make_to_sign(user, key.as_ref(), buffer);
                 // Extend with self-signature.
                 key.add_self_signature(buffer)?;
@@ -1017,6 +1036,15 @@ impl Encrypted {
                     self.write.extend(&buffer[i0..]);
                 })
             }
+            auth::Method::OpenSSHCertificate { ref key, ref cert  } => {
+                let i0 = self.client_make_to_sign(user, cert, buffer);
+                // Extend with self-signature.
+                key.add_self_signature(buffer)?;
+                push_packet!(self.write, {
+                    #[allow(clippy::indexing_slicing)] // length checked
+                    self.write.extend(&buffer[i0..]);
+                })
+            }
             _ => {}
         }
         Ok(())

russh/src/client/mod.rs

@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ use russh_cryptovec::CryptoVec;
 use russh_keys::encoding::Reader;
 use russh_keys::key::SignatureHash;
 use russh_keys::key::{self, parse_public_key, PublicKey};
+use ssh_key::Certificate;
 use tokio::io::{AsyncRead, AsyncWrite, AsyncWriteExt, ReadHalf, WriteHalf};
 use tokio::net::{TcpStream, ToSocketAddrs};
 use tokio::pin;
@@ -354,6 +355,24 @@ impl<H: Handler> Handle<H> {
         self.wait_recv_reply().await
     }
 
+    /// Perform public OpenSSH Certificate-based SSH authentication 
+    pub async fn authenticate_openssh_cert<U: Into<String>>(
+        &mut self,
+        user: U,
+        key: Arc<key::KeyPair>,
+        cert: Certificate,
+    ) -> Result<bool, crate::Error> {
+        let user = user.into();
+        self.sender
+            .send(Msg::Authenticate {
+                user,
+                method: auth::Method::OpenSSHCertificate { key, cert },
+            })
+            .await
+            .map_err(|_| crate::Error::SendError)?;
+        self.wait_recv_reply().await
+    }
+
     /// Authenticate using a custom method that implements the
     /// [`Signer`][auth::Signer] trait. Currently, this crate only provides an
     /// implementation for an [SSH

russh/src/lib.rs

@@ -116,6 +116,7 @@ pub mod mac;
 
 mod compression;
 mod key;
+mod cert;
 mod msg;
 mod negotiation;
 mod ssh_read;