Re: [cobalt-users] GUI Security

[jk@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Jens Kristian Søgaard)]

Josha Richards <josha@xxxxxxxx> writes:

> I guess the problem is that I dont understand what : SSH to tunnel
> http sessions means.  Any help would be much appreciated!

SSH (secure shell) is a program in two parts: a server daemon and a
client program.

Normally this program is used as a secure (encrypted) replacement for
telnet. Here the client program is a simple telnet program with an
added encrypting layer.

Additionally other client programs can be used - like the scp (secure
copy) program, and another feature of ssh: secure tunnelling.

It means, that you can let the SSH program setup a serverport on your
localhost (fx port 8001). Whenever you connect to this port, a secure
connection is made from ssh to your server.

This means:

        8001      -> localhost : unencrypted
        localhost -> server    : encrypted
        server    -> httpd     : unencrypted

(here httpd is used as an example for the service you wish to connect
to)

The advantage of this scheme is, that the program at the localhost
(netscape) and the server daemon (httpd) needs to know nothing about
encrypting tunnels, ssh, or anything. It seems like a normal http
connection.

It is ssh that takes care of encrypting the contents from localhost to
server.


-- 
Jens Kristian Søgaard,
jk@xxxxxxxxxxxx -- http://www.jksoegaard.dk/
Søger du noget? -- http://www.google.com/