[mosh-devel] mosh without ssh?

[Keith Winstein]

Hello Weiwu,

The "mosh" wrapper script does use ssh, but only to remotely execute a
"mosh-server" on the server (running as the user) and collect the
session key it prints out.

Others have replaced SSH with HTTPS (the user authenticates with a
password or X.509 certificates and then gets the secret key in the Web
connection), or remctl (Kerberos). You could even use NFS by putting
files in magic places. Could these work for you instead?

Pretty much _any_ means of getting the server to start a mosh-server
process and convey the session key back to you would work. That's why
I think writing our own authenticating daemon on top of all the
existing ones is probably unnecessary.

If all else fails, you could remove the 60-second timeout from
mosh-server and just start 100 processes when you do have a
connection, and then save the corresponding port numbers and session
keys. Then just feed one of them to mosh-client when you feel like
starting a new session. (See timeout_if_no_client in
src/frontend/mosh-server.cc for this timeout.) I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Keith

On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 11:46 AM, Weiwu Zhang <zhangweiwu at realss.com> wrote:
> Hello. I believe many are attracted to mosh like me because they
> cannot run ssh, and sad to realize, although advertised as a
> replacement of ssh, mosh depends on ssh.
>
> The reasons users prefer not to use ssh could be because it is plain
> out blocked. Like in Iran, or stemed, like in China†.
>
> Nobody talked about it in email archive (at least I didn't find). So
> is there any plan to dæmonize mosh? Or to write an authenticating
> dæmon for mosh. I would write one, but my hands are full for the year.
>
> Best regards.
>
> † If constant data transfer over a threshold is detected, our national
> firewall would sometimes "halt" ssh, like giving it a speed of 1 byte
> per minute. This is to maintain basic utility of ssh and prevent it
> being used as a proxy to access 'harmful content'.
>
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