How to Install OpenSSH in Sun Solaris 10

(SPARC)
Package Management, SSH, Solaris 10 Add comments
Jan 212008
OpenSSH is a free opensource version of the SSH connectivity tools. OpenSSH encrypts all
traffic (including passwords) to effectively eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and
other attacks unlike Telnet,rlogin or ftp where the data is not encrypted and transmitted in plain
text. Additionally, OpenSSH provides secure tunneling capabilities and several authentication
methods, and supports all SSH protocol versions.
Solaris 10 is by default installed with SSH server and the clients. However, if you have chosen to
ignore SSH at the time of installation or have started the install with a minimal install then you
may need to install OpenSSH manually.
The easiest way to install OpenSSH in Sun Solaris is to use the pre-compiled packages from
sunfreeware.
The following are the packages that are required to be installed for OpenSSH to work properly in
Solaris 10:
OpenSSL (Latest stable: openssl-0.9.8f)
ZLib (Latest stable: zlib-1.2.3)
GNU Compiler Collection (gcc Latest stable: libgcc-3.4.6)
TCPWrapper (Optional tcp_wrappers-7.6)
and OpenSSH itself (Latest Stable: openssh-4.7p1)
To start of, download the packages from the following sunfreeware.com links for sun solaris 10
Sparc:
gcc
ftp://ftp.sunfreeware.com/pub/freeware/sparc/10/libgcc-3.4.6-sol10-sparc-local.gz
Zlib
ftp://ftp.sunfreeware.com/pub/freeware/sparc/10/zlib-1.2.3-sol10-sparc-local.gz
OpenSSL
ftp://ftp.sunfreeware.com/pub/freeware/sparc/10/openssl-0.9.8f-sol10-sparc-local.gz
OpenSSH
ftp://ftp.sunfreeware.com/pub/freeware/sparc/10/openssh-4.7p1-sol10-sparc-local.gz
Once done, upload the files onto the server so we can start to unzip the files and install.
Unzip and install gcc
 solaris10# gunzip libgcc-3.4.6-sol9-sparc-local.gz
solaris10# pkgadd -d libgcc-3.4.6-sol9-sparc-local
…
…
Installation of <SMCgcc> was successful.
Unzip and install zlib
solaris10# gunzip zlib-1.2.1-sol9-sparc-local.gz
solaris10# pkgadd -d zlib-1.2.1-sol9-sparc-local
…
…
Installation of <SMCzlib> was successful.
Unzip and install OpenSSL
solaris10# gunzip openssl-0.9.8f-sol9-sparc-local.gz
solaris10# pkgadd -d openssl-0.9.8f-sol9-sparc-local
…
…
Installation of <SMCossl> was successful.
Unzip and install OpenSSH
solaris10# gunzip openssh-4.7p1-sol9-sparc-local.gz
solaris10# pkgadd -d openssh-4.7p1-sol9-sparc-local
The packages are now installed.
Create /var/empty directory
solaris10# mkdir /var/empty
Change directory ownership to Root user and sys group
solaris10# chown root:sys /var/empty
Change permissions
solaris10# chmod 755 /var/empty
Add sshd user & group
solaris10# groupadd ssh
solaris10# # useradd -g sshd -c ‘sshd privsep’ -d /var/empty -s /bin/false sshd
Edit the default /usr/local/sshd_config file and make the following changes:
Replace the line
Subsystem sftp /usr/libexec/sftp-server
with
Subsystem sftp /usr/local/libexec/sftp-server
Generate Keys for the server
solaris10# ssh-keygen -t rsa1 -f /usr/local/etc/ssh_host_key -N “”
solaris10# ssh-keygen -t dsa -f /usr/local/etc/ssh_host_dsa_key -N “”
solaris10# ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /usr/local/etc/ssh_host_rsa_key -N “”
Enable OpenSSH server daemon sshd to run at the system startup
Edit /lib/svc/method/sshd file and change the path for the SSH DIR, KEYGEN & the start
daemon as follows:
SSHDIR=/usr/local/etc/ssh
KEYGEN=”/usr/local/bin/ssh-keygen -q”
‘start’)
/usr/local/sbin/sshd
That is it. All done and ready to go. Try connecting to the server using a ssh client like PUTTY.