SSH, or secure shell, is the mainstay of remote access and administration in the Linux world, and the lack of any straightforward equivalent has always been an awkward feature of the Windows world. While there are various third-party options, Windows lacks both a native SSH client, for connecting to Linux machines, and it lacks an SSH server, to support inbound connections from Linux machines.
The PowerShell team announced that this is going to change: Microsoft is going to work with and contribute to OpenSSH, the de facto standard SSH implementation in the Unix world, to bring its SSH client and server to Windows.
Possible plot twist: Is this newfound support for the SSH protocol and the OpenSSH project actually a new "in" for the NSA to sneak a new backdoor into the protocol?
(Score: 5, Informative) by jummama on Thursday June 04 2015, @05:34PM
It would be 100% compliant with the BSD license to have their own secret patches, and only distribute those patches in binary form.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday June 04 2015, @06:11PM
Yes, but that would only affect Windows users, not the OpenSSH project itself. If MS is in the NSA pocket like the OP and Editor implied, what's the point? They could already compromise ANY SSH client running on Windows if they can own the OS itself. If I own the input, hardware, display, memory, network, and storage stacks in the OS, you can't do anything with software I can't see anyway.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday June 04 2015, @06:34PM
Giving Microsoft the (historically unwarranted) benefit of the doubt.....
When every windows machine has powershell acting as the endpoint of an inward ssh connection, the juiciness of the target does become rather sweet. I suspect we are going to have to watch this implementation very closely for a while and pay close attention to inbound connection attempts.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday June 04 2015, @08:02PM
There are plenty of ways to remote a windows machine already, including those built into powershell now. I imagine that this will also be something that has to be turned on, it won't be on by default.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 04 2015, @08:51PM
You're faith in Microsoft's default practices seems somewhat misplaced.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday June 04 2015, @11:31PM
Considering you have to manually install things like the telnet client (not server, client) on Windows these days I don't think they are misplaced at all.