Topic: Secure Chat over SSH ?

[fpausp]

I would like to chat via SSH protocol, is there a way with SME9 to do it ?

[Daniel B.]

Chat with who ? Is SSH a requirement, and if so, why

[fpausp]

OK, I think I found a solution, this can be made over ssh:

http://www.computerhope.com/unix/talk.htm

thanks...

[DanB35]

If talk (which isn't included with SME9) is what you're after, then SSH has nothing to do with what you're looking for.  Is it your goal that users who are logged into the shell (whether via SSH, telnet, or locally at the console) on your SME server be able to chat?  If so, then yes, talk should do the job, and 'yum install talk' should get it installed.  If you're looking to do something different, please explain further so we can help you.

[Stefano]

I would like to chat via SSH protocol, is there a way with SME9 to do it ?

can you elaborate a bit more?

[fpausp]

I try to find a way for me and my users to communicate (chat) over a secure way. SSH is already installed and used from the server-admin, the firewall is prepared and so on ...

The last thing is to find a nice (graphical) user interface who uses the ssh protocol ?

The user(s) of course must have permission to connect ...

[DanB35]

The last thing is to find a nice (graphical) user interface who uses the ssh protocol ?

You mean a GUI SSH client?  Depends on the client OS, of course.  For Windoze, PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) has been the go-to choice for a long time.  I've recently seen Bitvise (https://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client-download) recommended as well.  If you mean a GUI talk client, I don't think there is such a thing.

Unless there's some other reason that your users are logging in via SSH, though, it seems that a better solution would be a a purpose-designed chat system--either a chat server of some sort, or a web-based chat system.  I'd thought we had wiki articles discussing both types of systems, but I'm not finding them with a quick look. Edit:  It looks like Openfire (https://wiki.contribs.org/Openfire) would do the job.

[fpausp]

OpenFire looks vy nice and with https it should also be secure. I will try it in the next few days...

Thank you all.

Best

[DanB35]

Another option would be Prosody (https://wiki.contribs.org/Prosody).  I think I'd tend to favor something that isn't Java-based, the way Openfire is, but the write-up for Openfire is considerably more comprehensive than what's presently there for Prosody.

In either case, I'd suggest setting up the system to use LDAP authentication, so it will always authenticate users against the SME user database.  And since both are XMPP servers, you have plenty of choices for client apps (including a text-mode Linux client, if you like), as well as web-based clients (like Kaiwa, http://getkaiwa.com/), to use with them.

[guest22]

I am almost ready with a howto for http://mattermost.org

[DanB35]

Great.  Have you made any progress on getting Prosody to authenticate by LDAP?  I worked on that for a while this afternoon but wasn't able to make any progress.

[guest22]

Have you made any progress on getting Prosody to authenticate by LDAP?

Not yet (time..) Basically you need to load the ldap related modules (there are 2 of them, need to find out which one works best) and fill in the LDAP credentials.

[guest22]

Great.

DanB35,

any opinion on Mattermost? I simply came across it, but have no experience with it, not with Slack.

TIA

[guest22]

@Moderator, can this topic be move to SME Server 9.x contribs please?

[Stefano]

moving to SME 9.x Contribs section as requested

[DanB35]

any opinion on Mattermost? I simply came across it, but have no experience with it, not with Slack.

None at all, I'm afraid.  It just isn't a product space I've paid a lot of attention to lately.  Though I'm thinking I might play with installing a chat server, just to mess with it.