sshserve 0.1.0a1

Userland non-daemon SSH server inheriting current user privileges, with shell, exec, SFTP, and TCP forwarding on POSIX systems.

Userland non-daemon SSH server that inherits the current user privileges and serves whatever that user can access, with shell, exec, SFTP, and TCP forwarding on POSIX systems.

Novelty

This project is intentionally positioned between telnetd-style ad hoc sharing and a full system sshd deployment.

What is novel here is the combination of:

• userland operation with no system daemon setup
• current-user privilege inheritance instead of a separate service account model
• quick startup for temporary ad hoc sharing
• one small foreground server process
• shell, exec, SFTP, local forwarding, and reverse forwarding together
• real SSH transport and host keys instead of telnet

In other words, this is not trying to replace a hardened multi-user OpenSSH installation. It is trying to provide a quick, dirty, but still encrypted SSH sharing tool for scenarios where telnetd would historically have been used.

Installation

pip install sshshare

Usage

Start the server:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f host_ed25519
sshserve --username alice --password secret --host 127.0.0.1 --port 2222 --host-key host_ed25519

Connect from another terminal with SFTP:

sftp -P 2222 alice@127.0.0.1

Open an interactive shell over SSH:

ssh -p 2222 alice@127.0.0.1

Run a remote command:

ssh -p 2222 alice@127.0.0.1 'pwd && ls'

Use local port forwarding through the server:

ssh -L 8080:127.0.0.1:80 -p 2222 alice@127.0.0.1

Use remote port forwarding through the server:

ssh -R 9090:127.0.0.1:90 -p 2222 alice@127.0.0.1

Use a passphrase-protected Ed25519 host key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f host_ed25519
sshserve --username alice --password secret --host 127.0.0.1 --port 2222 --host-key host_ed25519 --host-key-passphrase your-passphrase

Notes:

• The SFTP root is the real filesystem root /.
• Accessible files and directories are whatever the current OS user running sshserve can access.
• Shell sessions and exec commands inherit the current user privileges.
• Shell sessions and exec commands start in the current working directory of the sshserve process.
• Password authentication is supported and --username / --password are required.
• PTY shell access is supported on POSIX systems.
• Direct TCP forwarding and reverse TCP forwarding are supported.
• --host-key is required and must point to an Ed25519 private key file.
• This implementation is POSIX-only because process launching uses ctypes-unicode-proclaunch and PTY handling uses POSIX APIs.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please submit pull requests or open issues on the GitHub repository.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.