Dawa Ometto created GUACAMOLE-1898:
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             Summary: Add prompting for SSH and SFTP credentials
                 Key: GUACAMOLE-1898
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/GUACAMOLE-1898
             Project: Guacamole
          Issue Type: New Feature
          Components: SSH
            Reporter: Dawa Ometto


At present, Guacamole supports prompting users for additional connection 
information  when such information is missing for RDP and VNC connections. I 
would like to suggest implementing the same for SFTP connections made from the 
Guacamole Menu, and perhaps for SSH connections generally. This would address 
usecases where users cannot authenticate the SSH connection with the same 
credentials as the RDP/VNC connection (one such case would be when using 
time-based passwords for SSH).

There are some questions to be considered:

1) Implement prompting just for SFTP or for all SSH connections?

2) Make prompting configurable by the user (e.g. via a new connection setting 
`sftp-prompt-password`), or prompt automatically?

Regarding 1: at present, SSH connections use the terminal to prompt the user 
for credentials. The advantage of this is that it accommodates any 
authentication flow, including flows that prompt the user for more than one 
password (e.g. 2FA, and some SSO solutions that work with custom login shells). 
So replacing the terminal login prompt with a Guacamole login prompt may be 
undesirable. By contrast, SFTP connections at present require pre-configured 
credentials, which makes them far less versatile than SSH connections.

Regarding 2: using a new configuration option to enable prompting would mean 
that the user can decide whether to use a Guacamole prompt or the terminal to 
authenticate normal SSH connections, and thus address 1). But if it is 
preferred to enable prompts only for SFTP, the user could also be prompted 
automatically, if and only if: a) no key and no username or password has been 
supplied b) ssh server supports keyboard-interactive c) login without password 
fails.

So in summary, I would suggest to:

A) prompt for both SSH and SFTP connections if and only if the user has 
explicitly requested a Guacamole prompt through new configuration options.

B) prompt only for SFTP connections when credentials are missing (analogous to 
how RDP/VNC credential prompting currently works).

 



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