HOW TO: Native SSHd on Android

oma · Sep 1, 2009

scp works just fine for me (in server mode, for copying stuff to/from my phone). What exactly was the command that failed?

seaweeduk · Sep 1, 2009

oma said:
scp works just fine for me (in server mode, for copying stuff to/from my phone). What exactly was the command that failed?

I was trying to copy a file from my server to my phone the command was

scp somefile root@phoneip:/sdcard

it prompts me for the password logs in then the error is shown

Proxin · Sep 2, 2009

Very interesting. I will keep an eye on this, thanks

oma · Sep 4, 2009

seaweeduk said:
I was trying to copy a file from my server to my phone the command was

scp somefile root@phoneip:/sdcard

it prompts me for the password logs in then the error is shown

Can you run dropbear with -F -E and post the output?

djungelmums · Oct 15, 2009

link to dropbear-files seems down

farmatito · Oct 15, 2009

To make dropbear work on cyanogen 4.0.4 with root password you need to:

1) Compile dropbear (statically linked with uClibc: this is needed because the native dropbear binary included in CyanogenMod 4.0.4
seems not to support correctly password protected logins, in the sense that you can login even when providing a wrong password!!!)
2) Copy the new dropbear binary to the phone

Code:

adb push dropbear /sdcard/dropbear
adb push dropbearkey /sdcard/dropbearkey

Code:

$ su
# mkdir /data/local/bin
# cp /sdcard/dropbear /data/local/bin/dropbear
# cp /sdcard/dropbear /data/local/bin/dropbearkey
# chmod 755 /data/local/bin/dropbear
# chmod 755 /data/local/bin/dropbearkey
# chown root.root /data/local/bin/dropbear
# chown root.root /data/local/bin/dropbearkey
# busybox mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3  /system
# echo "root:x:0:0::/:/system/bin/sh" > /etc/passwd
# echo "root::14531:0:99999:7:::" > /etc/shadow
# echo "root:x:0:" > /etc/group
# echo "root:!::" > /etc/gshadow
# echo "/system/bin/sh" > /etc/shells
# echo "PATH=\"/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin:/system/xbin/bb:/data/local/bin\"" > /etc/profile
# echo "export PATH" >> /etc/profile
# busybox passwd 
Changing password for root
New password:
Bad password: too weak
Retype password:
Password for root changed by root
# mkdir /data/dropbear
# /data/local/bin/dropbearkey -t rsa -f /data/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
# /data/local/bin/dropbearkey -t dss -f /data/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key
# ln -s /data/dropbear /system/etc/dropbear
# busybox mount -o remount,ro /dev/block/mtdblock3  /system

Then as root to run your own compiled version call it with the full path:

Code:

/data/local/bin/dropbear

or add this line to your userinit.sh if you want to run it always.
Finally you can log in over wifi (or maybe over the internet):

Code:

debian:~$ ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx's password:
/data/dropbear #

To test that everything is setup correctly try to login with a wrong password to see if your attempt is correctly denied:

Code:

ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx's password:
Permission denied, please try again.

Enjoy

thknave · Nov 5, 2009

I'm trying all this on my MT3G with Cyanogen 4.2.3, and all was going fine until i try changing the password with "busybox passwd", to which i get the following error...

Code:

passwd: applet not found

I'm not even sure how to proceed from here, any ideas?

pentace · Nov 5, 2009

cookzitall said:
can someone explain wat exactly running dropbear on the g1 allows us 2 do? im just a little confused

If you are confused you dont need this.

Google ssh client.

farmatito · Nov 6, 2009

thknave said:
I'm trying all this on my MT3G with Cyanogen 4.2.3, and all was going fine until i try changing the password with "busybox passwd", to which i get the following error...

Code:

passwd: applet not found

I'm not even sure how to proceed from here, any ideas?

Yes you need a version of busybox with password management built in
as the one attached. Put it somewhere on your phone.

Code:

adb push busybox.bin /data/local/bin/busybox
adb shell
chown root.root /data/local/bin/busybox
chmod 4755 /data/local/bin/busybox

and call it as

Code:

/data/local/bin/busybox passwd

AC!D · Nov 12, 2009

hm, i hope the new busybox and dropbear get their ways into the next cyanogen release...

geertsky · Dec 4, 2009

passwd

If you're able to build all you want... why not compile passwd?
Or maybe copy a passwd file from your work station...
Anyway's... lots of Z's from me!!!
Thanks a million!!! Nice work!

glitchsys · Jan 6, 2010

You have to create a ssh key, I found this:

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Connect_to_Your_Android_Device_with_SSH

spektro · Feb 17, 2010

oma said:
I don't have the original binaries posted in this thread, but I have ones I compiled myself. It's dropbear-0.52 with patches from:

Mostly the former with just the openpty function from the latter (because it couldn't open a pty otherwise on my Samsung Galaxy).

Just put dropbear, dropbearkey and scp in /system/bin and then start dropbear as described in the first link.

Yay, thanks a lot, this one works nice.
One thing that maybe isn´t clear at first is that you need to generate the rsa.secret file using this:

dropbearkey -t rsa -f /data/local/rsa/rsa.secret

and so you start the daemon with any password, lets say, "alpine" with this:

dropbear -A -N root -U 0 -G 0 -C alpine -r /data/local/rsa/rsa.secret -p 0.0.0.0:22

But manually issue that command everytime you boot your device is a pain. Any hint about how to make it start automatically? Sorry for this question, but i´m new to this. Comming from "unofficial" iPhone dev scene... Thanks

Firerat · Feb 17, 2010

spektro said:
Yay, thanks a lot, this one works nice.
One thing that maybe isn´t clear at first is that you need to generate the rsa.secret file using this:

dropbearkey -t rsa -f /data/local/rsa/rsa.secret

and so you start the daemon with any password, lets say, "alpine" with this:

dropbear -A -N root -U 0 -G 0 -C alpine -r /data/local/rsa/rsa.secret -p 0.0.0.0:22

But manually issue that command everytime you boot your device is a pain. Any hint about how to make it start automatically? Sorry for this question, but i´m new to this. Comming from "unofficial" iPhone dev scene... Thanks

you can make life a little easier

Code:

echo "dropbear -A -N root -U 0 -G 0 -C alpine -r /data/local/rsa/rsa.secret -p 0.0.0.0:22" >> /sdcard/startdropbear.sh

now all you have to do is

Code:

sh /sdcard/startdropbear.sh

normally I would say put in init.d , but this ROM ( Cannon complete ) doesn't seem to have one !
grrr, already had to fix busybox links, now I may have to look deeper...
but have a read of files found in /system/etc/init.d
they may give you some clue as to where you can put things for auto run ;~) ,
often a file called userinit.conf in either /system/sd/ or /data/ can't quite remember, init.d files, if well commented will help

Edit :
you can also put the startdropbear.sh in /system/bin
and make it executable, so you can just type startdropbear.sh

Code:

busybox mount -o rw,remount /system
cp /sdcard/startdropbear.sh /system/bin/
chmod 4755 /system/bin/startdropbear.sh
busybox mount -o ro,remount /system

but keep it handy on SD for when you switch ROMs

spektro · Feb 19, 2010

Hi Firehat

Thanks for the heads up on this. I actually took some time researching before posting this.
I actually have a nexus one here, and searched the entire filesystem for a place or file to be edited in order to have this command running automatically on boot or something.
Still no luck here, since this seems to be a tiny linux thing running, and a lot of things were left out. So there´s no init.d, or system/etc/init.d or anything i could find that seems closer to it.
Also did a .sh and gave it the execute permission for any user, also setting it´s group and ownership the same as some scripts i found in the filesystem, and placed this script into the same directories the other scripts are placed, but still no go about having it being auto executed.

ttabbal · Feb 19, 2010

spektro said:
Hi Firehat

Thanks for the heads up on this. I actually took some time researching before posting this.
I actually have a nexus one here, and searched the entire filesystem for a place or file to be edited in order to have this command running automatically on boot or something.
Still no luck here, since this seems to be a tiny linux thing running, and a lot of things were left out. So there´s no init.d, or system/etc/init.d or anything i could find that seems closer to it.
Also did a .sh and gave it the execute permission for any user, also setting it´s group and ownership the same as some scripts i found in the filesystem, and placed this script into the same directories the other scripts are placed, but still no go about having it being auto executed.

Ask the developer of the ROM you are using. Many of them include a provision to run a userinit.sh or there is some other way to add things to the startup. Most donut ROMs seem to look for /system/sd/userinit.sh. OpenEclair has this as well, and has the init.d directory. It is ROM specific though. Personally, I just use GScript and enable SSHd when I want it. I don't want it running all the time.

spektro · Feb 19, 2010

Thanks for the clarification. I noticed there´s a file called init.rc, which is used by init binary, right after the kernel boot process. This rc file has a bunch of commands to be issued. So, i pulled it from the phone, added the line i want, mounted the filesystem with rw permission and put the modified rc file back, but after a reboot, the init.rc file gets overwritten and everything goes back to how it was before the mod i did. Well, i guess i´ll have to live with this .sh i did and start it manually whenever i need through a terminal window.

gloomyboy · Feb 21, 2010

error after connecting

Hi I am using the files from this thread and the general information to run it on a DSTL1 with a donut rom.

dropbear starts ok with

Code:

if [ ! -d /etc/dropbear/ ]
	then
		/system/bin/mkdir /etc/dropbear/
	fi
	if [ ! -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key ]
	then
		/system/bin/dropbearkey -t rsa -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key 
	fi
	if [ ! -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key ]
	then
		/system/bin/dropbearkey -t dss -f /etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key 
fi
/system/bin/logwrapper /system/bin/dropbear -A -N root -U 0 -G 0 -C cocacola &

The trouble is when I connect with an ssh client, I authenticate and receive:

Code:

sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

Then I am able to enter cd and pwd
but no other commands work including ls (so it is not a usable shell like this)

Could somebody point me in the right direction regarding what needs to be in place for the shell to work properly?

IronWolve · Feb 22, 2010

So this is over wifi right? If its on the telco, its most likely nat'ed IP.

gloomyboy · Feb 23, 2010

It is over wifi. I ssh to the local wifi ip on port 22, get prompted for username and password, and then comes the error and the fact I have only cd and pwd but no other commands

HOW TO: Native SSHd on Android

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