US 8,136,165 B2 · Securing a data transmission channel

Abstract

A method of establishing a secure communication channel between end nodes of an IP communication network via one or more intermediate nodes using the Secure Shell, SSH, protocol, the method comprising defining an SSH configuration file containing a plurality of sections, each section defining parameter values for a corresponding hop of the tunnel and an identification of the section defining parameter values for any subsequent hop. At that end node, a first instance of an SSH client is established, with the name of the configuration file being an initialization value for the first instance, and using the parameter values contained in a first section of the configuration file to establish a first SSH connection to the next node in the sequence. Following establishment of said first SSH connection, one or more further instances of the SSH client are established, with an identification of said configuration file and an identification of a corresponding section of the configuration file being an initialization value for an SSH instance, the or each further instance using the parameter values contained in the corresponding named section of the configuration file to establish an SSH connection to a subsequent node in the sequence over the already established SSH connection(s).

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method of establishing a secure communication channel between first and second computer devices of an IP communication network via one or more intermediate computer devices using a Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, the method comprising:

storing in a memory of the first computer device an SSH configuration file comprising a plurality of sections, each section defining parameter values for a corresponding hop of a multi-hop tunnel and an identification of the section defining parameter values for any subsequent hop;
at said first computer device, establishing a first instance of an SSH client, with a name of the SSH configuration file being an initialization value for the first instance, and using the parameter values within a first section of the SSH configuration file to establish a first SSH connection to a next intermediate computer device, in sequence, the next intermediate computer device being one of the one or more intermediate computer devices;
and
following establishment of said first SSH connection, establishing one or more further instances of the SSH client, with an identification of said SSH configuration file and an identification of a corresponding section of the SSH configuration file being an initialization value for a corresponding further instance of the SSH client, each further instance of the SSH client using the parameter values with the corresponding named section of the SSH configuration file to establish an SSH connection to a subsequent computer device in the sequence over the already established SSH connection(s), wherein a final SSH connection provides an end-to-end tunnel extending between said first and second computer devices via each of the said one or more intermediate computer devices.

1 more element

A non-transitory computer storage medium having stored thereon a program for causing a node of an IP-based communication network to establish a secure communication channel between first and second computer devices of an IP communication network via a sequence of one or more intermediate computer devices using a Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, by:

establishing a first SSH client instance at the first computer device, with an identification of a configuration file being an initialization value for the SSH client instance, the configuration file comprising a plurality of sections, each section defining parameter values for a corresponding hop of a multi-hop tunnel and an identification of the section defining parameter values for any subsequent hop;
establishing a first SSH connection to a first intermediate computer device in the sequence on the basis of the parameter values defined in a first section of the configuration file;
following establishment of the first SSH client instance, automatically establishing one or more further SSH client instances, with an identification of said configuration file and an identification of the corresponding section of the configuration file being an initialization value for a client;
and
each further SSH client instance using the parameter values within the corresponding named section of the configuration file to establish an SSH connection to a subsequent intermediate computer device in the sequence or to said second computer device over the already established SSH connection(s), wherein a first SSH connection provides an end-to-end tunnel extending between said first and second computer devices via each of the said one or more intermediate computer devices.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Securing a data transmission channel

Life of this patent

Securing a data transmission channel

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14