Twisted Network Programming Essentials

Chapter 10. SSH

SSH, the Secure SHell, is an essential tool for many developers and administrators. SSH provides a way to establish encrypted, authenticated connections. The most common use of an SSH connection is to get a remote shell, but it’s possible to do many other things through SSH as well, including transferring files and tunneling other connections.

The twisted.conch package adds SSH support to Twisted. This chapter shows how you can use the modules in twisted.conch to build SSH servers and clients.

Setting Up a Custom SSH Server

The command line is an incredibly efficient interface for certain tasks. System administrators love the ability to manage applications by typing commands without having to click through a graphical user interface. An SSH shell is even better, as it’s accessible from anywhere on the Internet.

You can use twisted.conch to create an SSH server that provides access to a custom shell with commands you define. This shell will even support some extra features like command history, so that you can scroll through the commands you’ve already typed.

How Do I Do That?

Write a subclass of twisted.conch.recvline.HistoricRecvLine that implements your shell protocol. HistoricRecvLine is similar to twisted.protocols.basic.LineReceiver, but with higher-level features for controlling the terminal.

To make your shell available through SSH, you need to implement a few different classes that twisted.conch needs to build an SSH server. First, you need the twisted.cred