Private key used for authentication.

A Variant value.  SAFEARRAY(VT_UI1) or LPDISPATCH (IKeys *) for VC users.

object.PrivateKey [= value]

The PrivateKey Property syntax has these parts:

The PrivateKey property is used when you want to authenticate with the server using your private/public key pair, instead of using a Password. This is a feature that should be supported by all SSH servers. It is available only for the SSH2 protocol!

The idea of using keys is this: you own a private key (which no one else knows). You supply the server with the public key that corresponds to your private key. Once you initiate a connection, wodSSHTunnel will request PublicKey authentication. The server will check its internal list of public keys (usually stored in -/.ssh/authorized_keys2 or -/.ssh2/authorized files) and if a match is found, it will send a request to wodSFTP to prove that you own the private key. Internally, wodSSHTunnel will sign some data using the key that you provided and the server will check the signature. If they match, it will allow you to log in. Some servers will also require you to enter a password, in which case this makes the server even more secure.

To generate a PrivateKey that you can use with the server, use the Keys object (included in the setup package) like this (VB sample):

Dim key As New WODSSHKeyLib.Keys
key.Generate RSAkey ' 1024 bits is default
key.Save RSAkey, "C:\my_rsa_key.txt", "My secret password"

The above sample will generate your private key and store it to file on disk, protected with a password. You can continue your code like this:

Tunnel1.Login = "johndoe"
Tunnel1.PrivateKey = key ' or also key.PrivateKey(RSAkey)
Tunnel1.Authentication = authPubkey
'.......
Tunnel1.Connect

As generation of keys may be lengthy process (for keys with a large number of bits it can take few seconds), you should not generate it every time you need to use it. Instead, as you have saved it, you should try to reload it from disk. A typical example might look like this:

Dim key As New WODSSHKeyLib.Keys
On Error Resume Next
' try to load previously saved key
key.Load "C:\my_rsa_key.txt", "My secret password"
If Err <> 0 Then 'key was not saved yet
        key.Generate RSAkey ' 1024 bits is default
        key.Save RSAkey, "C:\my_rsa_key.txt", "My secret password"
         ' next time you run this code it will be able to load it from the disk,
         ' so expensive Generate will not be called anymore.
End If

Now that you have created your PrivateKey, you should let the server know about it. You should do this by pasting your public key to the appropriate files on the server. For SSH servers (version 2), these are:

-/.ssh2/authorization which should have some text like Key somefile.pub on a separate line of the file or
-/.ssh2/somefile.pub which should contain your public key, as returned by the Keys.PublicKeySSH property.

For an OpenSSH server, you should paste the contents of the Keys.PublicKeyOpenSSH property to:

-/.ssh/authorized_keys2 as a new line in the file.

For VC users, you can prepare a returned key (loaded from file, for example) by converting it to a SAFEARRAY like this:

(Buffer holds key data and Bufsize holds key len)

SAFEARRAY *psa;
SAFEARRAYBOUND rgsabound[1];
char HUGEP *data;

rgsabound[0].lLbound=0;
rgsabound[0].cElements=Bufsize;

psa = SafeArrayCreate(VT_UI1,1,rgsabound);
if (!psa)
return WSA_NOTOUGH_MEMORY;

SafeArrayAccessData(psa, (void HUGEP* FAR*)&data);

memcpy(data,Buffer, Bufsize);
SafeArrayUnaccessData(psa);

VARIANT var;
var.vt =VT_ARRAY | VT_UI1;
var.parray=psa;

Now you can pass this VARIANT to the PrivateKey property. You can also pass LPDISPATCH from the IKeys object directly in the same manner:

VARIANT var;
var.vt = VT_DISPATCH;
var.pdispVal = (LPDISPATCH)your_keys_object_instance

and it will work too.