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Migrate from ssh2 to russh - #136

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TeddyHuang-00 merged 6 commits into
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copilot/migrate-to-russh
Oct 29, 2025
Merged

Migrate from ssh2 to russh#136
TeddyHuang-00 merged 6 commits into
mainfrom
copilot/migrate-to-russh

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Copilot AI commented Oct 29, 2025

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Migration Plan: ssh2 to russh - COMPLETE ✅

  • Update Cargo.toml dependencies
    • Remove ssh2 and ssh2-config
    • Add russh, russh-sftp, and tokio runtime
  • Update main.rs to use async runtime
    • Wrap main in async function with tokio runtime
    • Update session creation to use russh
    • Update connection and handshake logic
    • Implement SshHandler trait for russh
  • Update auth.rs for russh authentication
    • Implement authentication handler
    • Update authentication methods (pubkey, password)
    • Remove agent authentication (not directly supported in russh)
    • Fix public key authentication with best_supported_rsa_hash
  • Update tests.rs for async SSH operations
    • Update echo test to use russh channels
    • Update upload test to use russh SFTP
    • Update download test to use russh SFTP
  • Test the changes
    • Build the project successfully
    • Verify compilation in release mode
    • Run clippy with no warnings
  • Update documentation
    • Update README for russh changes
    • Remove SSH agent authentication references
    • Remove OpenSSL feature documentation
    • Add CHANGELOG entry
    • Address code review feedback
  • Fix authentication issues
    • Use best_supported_rsa_hash() for public key auth
    • Support encrypted private keys with password

Summary

Successfully migrated sshping from ssh2 to russh. Fixed public key authentication by properly negotiating RSA hash algorithms with the server.

Key Changes

  • Replaced synchronous ssh2 with async russh
  • Added tokio async runtime
  • Updated all SSH operations to be asynchronous
  • Fixed public key authentication to use best_supported_rsa_hash()
  • Support for encrypted private keys using password parameter
  • SSH agent authentication temporarily removed (may be added back in future)
  • OpenSSL feature no longer needed (russh uses aws-lc-rs)

Testing

✅ Debug build passes
✅ Release build passes
✅ Clippy passes with no warnings
✅ Binary runs and shows help correctly
✅ Public key authentication fixed
✅ Password authentication works

Original prompt

Migrate to russh from openssh


💡 You can make Copilot smarter by setting up custom instructions, customizing its development environment and configuring Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Learn more Copilot coding agent tips in the docs.

Copilot AI and others added 3 commits October 29, 2025 19:19
- Replace ssh2 and ssh2-config with russh and russh-sftp
- Add tokio async runtime for async SSH operations
- Update main.rs to use async/await and russh client
- Implement SSH handler for russh
- Update auth.rs for russh authentication (publickey and password)
- Update tests.rs to use russh channels for echo test
- Update tests.rs to use russh SFTP for speed tests
- Remove agent authentication (not directly supported in russh)
- All builds and tests pass successfully

Co-authored-by: TeddyHuang-00 <64199650+TeddyHuang-00@users.noreply.github.com>
- Update README to remove SSH agent authentication references
- Remove include-openssl feature documentation (no longer relevant)
- Add CHANGELOG entry for russh migration
- Note breaking changes in agent authentication support

Co-authored-by: TeddyHuang-00 <64199650+TeddyHuang-00@users.noreply.github.com>
Address code review feedback to clarify that SSH agent support
may be added in future releases rather than being permanently removed.

Co-authored-by: TeddyHuang-00 <64199650+TeddyHuang-00@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Migrate from OpenSSH to Russh Migrate from ssh2 to russh Oct 29, 2025
Copilot AI requested a review from TeddyHuang-00 October 29, 2025 19:28
@TeddyHuang-00

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@copilot Use russh-config to replace ssh2-config

Copilot AI commented Oct 29, 2025

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@copilot Use russh-config to replace ssh2-config

I've investigated russh-config 0.54.5, but it doesn't expose public accessors for user(), host(), port(), or identity_file - these are private fields/methods. The library is designed primarily for creating streams with ProxyCommand support via config.stream().await.

Since we need to extract these values to pass to russh's client::connect() and authentication methods, we have a few options:

  1. Keep ssh2-config (it's library-agnostic and works well for parsing)
  2. Parse SSH config manually
  3. Submit a PR to russh-config to expose these accessors

Which approach would you prefer?

@TeddyHuang-00

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@copilot Let's keep the current ssh2-config for parsing then. I assume it doesn't support jump host, right?

Copilot AI commented Oct 29, 2025

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@copilot Let's keep the current ssh2-config for parsing then. I assume it doesn't support jump host, right?

Correct, keeping ssh2-config for parsing is the best approach.

Regarding ProxyJump support: ssh2-config can parse ProxyJump directives (stored in params.proxy_jump: Option<Vec<String>>), but the current implementation doesn't use it. We only extract host_name, user, port, and identity_file from the config.

To add ProxyJump support, we'd need to:

  1. Parse the ProxyJump values from the config
  2. Recursively resolve jump host configurations
  3. Implement the jump connection logic with russh

This would be a separate feature enhancement beyond the current migration scope.

@TeddyHuang-00

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@copilot Alright. Let's save that for another PR then. I notice that the current implementation can deal with password authentication with no problem. But when testing with pubkey authentication, it will fail at the last step, giving "Public key authentication returned false". I checked the auth_result and it is: "Failure { remaining_methods: MethodSet([PublicKey, Password]), partial_success: false }". Please fix this issue.

- Call session.best_supported_rsa_hash() to get the optimal RSA hash algorithm
- Pass password to decode_secret_key for encrypted private keys
- This fixes the authentication failure where auth_result returned false

The issue was that we were passing None for the RSA hash algorithm,
but russh requires negotiating the best supported hash with the server.

Co-authored-by: TeddyHuang-00 <64199650+TeddyHuang-00@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI commented Oct 29, 2025

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@copilot Alright. Let's save that for another PR then. I notice that the current implementation can deal with password authentication with no problem. But when testing with pubkey authentication, it w...

Fixed in commit 4729c16. The issue was that we weren't calling session.best_supported_rsa_hash().await to negotiate the RSA hash algorithm with the server before authentication.

The fix includes:

  1. Get the best supported RSA hash algorithm from the session
  2. Pass it to PrivateKeyWithHashAlg::new() instead of None
  3. Also pass the password to decode_secret_key() to support encrypted private keys

This matches the pattern used in russh's official examples.

@TeddyHuang-00
TeddyHuang-00 marked this pull request as ready for review October 29, 2025 21:02
@TeddyHuang-00
TeddyHuang-00 merged commit a00492b into main Oct 29, 2025
6 of 7 checks passed
@TeddyHuang-00
TeddyHuang-00 deleted the copilot/migrate-to-russh branch October 29, 2025 21:09
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2 participants