Defining General Settings

On the General page, you can select the cryptographic library to be used and define the Tectia tray icon settings.

Figure A.3. General settings

Configuration File

Shows the location of the user-specific Broker configuration file. The default location is "%APPDATA%\SSH\ssh-broker-config.xml" on Windows and "$HOME/.ssh2/ssh-broker-config.xml" on Linux.

Each time the configuration file is saved, a backup of the old configuration is stored in "%APPDATA%\SSH\ssh-broker-config.xml.bak" on Windows and "$HOME/.ssh2/ssh-broker-config.xml.bak" on Linux.

Cryptographic Library

Tectia Client can be operated in FIPS mode, using a version of the cryptographic library that has been validated according to the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2. In this mode, the cryptographic operations are performed according to the rules of the FIPS 140-2 standard. The OpenSSL cryptographic library is used in the FIPS mode.

Select whether to use the Standard or the FIPS 140-2 certified version of the cryptographic library.

For the default settings, see Defining Ciphers, Defining MACs, and for the profile-specific settings, see Defining Ciphers, and Defining MACs.

Connection Broker

Select whether to hide the Tectia tray icon from the Windows taskbar notification area, and whether to show the Exit and Configuration options in the shortcut menu.

File Security (Available on Linux, only)

Select the Check file and directory access permissions check box to enable checking the access permissions for the user-specific configuration file ($HOME/.ssh2/ssh-broker-config.xml) and the private key files. By default, file and directory access permissions are not checked.

When the file and directory access permissions are checked, the controls are applied as follows:

Expected permissions for the user configuration file: only the user has read and write rights. If the permissions are any wider, the Connection Broker will not start.
Expected permissions for the private key files: only the user has read and write rights. If the permissions are any wider, keys that do not pass the check will be ignored.

Defining Default Connection Settings

The Default Connection page allows you to edit the default settings for a user name (Defining Connection Settings), authentication (Defining Authentication), ciphers (Defining Ciphers), MACs (Defining MACs), KEXs Defining KEXs, server connections (Defining Server Connections), and tunneling (Defining Default Tunneling Settings).

Newly created connection profiles will inherit the default settings defined here. The values can be customized on the profile-specific tabbed pages and they override the default settings. See Defining Authentication, Defining Ciphers, Defining MACs, and Defining Server Connections.

Defining Connection Settings

On the Connection tab, you can define a default user name to be used when connecting to remote servers. This connection is useful when several users will be using profiles jointly, either with their own system user names or with a common user account.

Figure A.4. The user name and network address family settings for connections

Select the Use current Windows user name option, to automatically apply the Windows user name of the currently logged in user to connections to remote servers.

Select the Specify user name option and enter a generic user name. Note that the name is case sensitive.

The given user name will be used in connections unless another user name is specified in a connection profile or connection attempt. In case you select this option but leave the user name field empty, the Connection Broker will prompt the user for a user name.

In principle, you can enter value "%USERNAME%", but it has the same effect as selecting Use current Windows user name.

If you specify a host name or the profile contains a host name, the Connection Broker will try to resolve the address based on the Network address family setting. If you select inet, the Connection Broker will resolve the host name only with an IPv4 address. If you select inet6, the Connection Broker will resolve the host name only with an IPv6 address. Selecting Any means that the Connection Broker will resolve the host name with any IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) available.

	Note
	You can specify a direct IP address (either IPv4 or IPv6) for the connection using either the connection profile or the command line. This setting does not restrict the user specified network family address. For example, the connection will be established to a specified IPv4 address even if the network address family was set to IPv6.

Settings made in this tab take effect the next time a user logs in.

Defining Authentication

On the Authentication tab, you can define the default user authentication methods.

Figure A.5. Authentication methods for Tectia Client

Select the Use factory defaults check box to use the factory default authentication methods, or clear the check box to define a custom list of authentication methods.

In Tectia Client 6.3, the factory default authentication methods are, in order:

Public-key
Password
Keyboard-interactive
GSSAPI

The authentication methods are supported on all platforms, except for GSSAPI, which is not available on IBM z/OS.

To add a new authentication method to the list, click Add and select the method from the drop-down menu.

To remove an authentication method, select the method from the list and click Delete.

Use the arrow buttons to organize the preferred order of the authentication methods. The first method that is allowed by the Secure Shell server is used. Note that in some cases, the server may require several authentication methods to be passed before allowing login.

Possible methods for user authentication are:

Public-key: Users are requested to use public-key authentication. See also Defining User Authentication.
In the Public-key Authentication field, with setting Key selection mode you can define whether the public key is selected automatically or by the user. With the Key types setting you can select whether only certificates or plain public keys or both will be used to authenticate the user. By default, Tectia Client tries all public keys automatically.
To generate new public-key pairs and to upload the public part of the key to a server, click the Public-Key Authentication Wizard button.
Password: Users are requested to enter a password for authentication.
Keyboard-interactive: Keyboard-interactive is designed to allow the Secure Shell client to support several different types of authentication methods, including RSA SecurID, and PAM. For more information on keyboard-interactive, see User Authentication with Keyboard-Interactive.
GSSAPI: GSSAPI (Generic Security Service Application Programming Interface) is a common security service interface that allows different security mechanisms to be used via one interface. For more information on GSSAPI, see User Authentication with GSSAPI.

When using public-key authentication, you can also define which key types are used and how the keys are selected.

Key selection mode defines the policy Connection Broker uses when proposing user public keys to the server. Select the mode from the dropdown list. The options are:

Try available public keys automatically (the default). With this policy, the client will try the keys in the following order:
1. Keys with public key available and private key without a passphrase (no user interaction)
2. Keys with public key available but private key behind a passphrase (require a passphrase query, provided the key is accepted by the server)
3. The rest of the keys, meaning keys that require a passphrase for the public key as well as the private key.
Prompt user to select the public key - with this policy, the Connection Broker prompts the user to select the key from a list of available keys. If authentication with the selected key fails, the client will prompt the user again to select another key.

Key types defines whether only plain public keys or only certificates are tried during public-key authentication. Select the key type from the dropdown list. The default is to try both plain public keys and certificates.

By selecting Issuer must match server certificate issuer, you can make the Connection Broker filter the user certificates that will be included in the list presented to the user. The client-side user certificates can be filtered according to their issuer name that is compared to the certificate issuers requested or accepted by the server. By default, the filtering is not done. This option is useful when a user has several certificates with different access rights to the same server, for example for a testing role and for an administrator role. The Connection Broker chooses the relevant certificates that are applicable on the remote host, and the user can choose the correct certificate from the short-listed ones.

Defining Ciphers

On the Ciphers tab, you can define the encryption algorithms used.

Figure A.6. Defining a cipher list

Select the Use factory defaults check box to use the factory default algorithms, or define a cipher list using the arrow buttons. The ciphers are tried in the order they are specified.

The factory default ciphers are, in order:

CryptiCore (Tectia)
AES-128-CBC
AES-128-CTR
AES-192-CBC
AES-192-CTR
AES-256-CBC
AES-256-CTR
3DES

The ciphers that can operate in the FIPS mode are 3DES and both the CBC-mode and CTR-mode AES-128, AES-192, and AES-256.

Tectia proprietary algorithms are marked with (Tectia) and are operable with Tectia products only. They correspond to the algorithms that end with @ssh.com in the Connection Broker configuration file.

Defining MACs

On the MACs tab, you can configure the message integrity algorithms used.

Figure A.7. Defining a MAC list

Select the Use factory defaults check box to use the factory default algorithms, or define a MAC list using the arrow buttons. The MACs are tried in the order they are specified.

The factory default MACs are, in order:

CryptiCore (Tectia)
HMAC-SHA1
HMAC-SHA1-96
HMAC-SHA256-2 (Tectia/Old)
HMAC-SHA224 (Tectia)
HMAC-SHA256 (Tectia)
HMAC-SHA384 (Tectia)
HMAC-SHA512 (Tectia)

All the HMAC-SHA (both HMAC-SHA1 and HMAC-SHA2) algorithm variants listed above can operate in the FIPS mode.

Defining KEXs

On the KEXs tab, you can configure the key exhange methods used.

Figure A.8. Defining a KEX list

Select the Use factory defaults check box to use the factory default methods, or define a KEX list using the arrow buttons. The KEX methods are tried in the order they are specified.

The factory default KEXs are, in order:

DH-Group1-SHA1
DH-Group14-SHA256
DH-Group14-SHA1 (Tectia)
DH-GEX-SHA1
DH-GEX-SHA256

All the supported KEXs can operate in the FIPS mode on Windows and Linux. For more information on the FIPS-Certified Cryptographic Library, see FIPS-Certified Cryptographic Library.

Defining Server Connections

On the Server tab, you can define advanced server connection settings.

Figure A.9. Defining server connection settings

Use factory defaults

Select the check box to use the default values for the server connection settings.

Idle timeout

Specify how long idle time (after all connection channels are closed) is allowed for a connection before automatically closing the connection. The default is 5 seconds. Setting a longer time allows the connection to the server to remain open even after a session (for example, Tectia SSH Terminal GUI) is closed. During this time, a new session to the server can be initiated without re-authentication. Setting the time to 0 (zero) terminates the connection immediately when the last channel to the server is closed.

TCP Connection Timeout

Specify for how long a TCP connection will be attempted to a Secure Shell server. Define the timeout in seconds, and after that time the TCP connection will be released in case the remote server is down or unreachable. Setting the value as 0 (zero) means this Tectia setting is disabled and the system default TCP timeout will be used. By default, the system timeout is used.

Keepalive interval

Specify an interval (in seconds) for sending keepalive messages to a Secure Shell server. The default is 0, meaning that no keepalive messages are sent.

Exclusive connection

Select this check box if you want always a new connection opened, instead of reusing a currently open connection.

Show server banner

Select this check box if you want to have the server banner message file (if it exists) visible to users before login.

Show authentication success message

Unselect this check box if you do not want to have the AuthenticationSuccessMsg messages output and logged. By default the messages are enabled.

SFTP compatibility mode

Select a suitable mode for transferring files with SFTP. This setting affects the behaviour of the get/mget/sget and put/mput/sput commands and the recursion level used by the sftpg3 client. The following options are available:

Tectia (the default) - sftpg3 transfers files recursively from the current directory and all its subdirectories.
OpenSSH - copies only regular files and symbolic links from the specified directory, and no subdirectories are copied. Otherwise the semantics of the get command are unchanged.
FTP - the get/put commands are executed as sget/sput meaning that they transfer a single file, and no subdirectories are copied.

The recursion depth can be overridden by using the sftpg3 client's commands get/put/mget/mput with command-line option --max-depth="LEVEL". For more information, see sftpg3(1).

Defining Default Tunneling Settings

On the Tunneling tab, you can define the default settings for X11 connections and agent forwarding (tunneling). The defaults are applied to new connection profiles and to those connection profiles that do not have their own tunneling settings defined.

Figure A.10. Defining default tunneling settings

Select the Use factory defaults check box to apply the factory defaults for X11 and agent forwarding. According to the factory defaults, X11 forwarding is disabled (off) and agent forwarding is enabled (on).

To allow X11 forwarding on the client side, select the Tunnel X11 connections check box.

To disable agent forwarding on the client side, unselect the Allow Agent Forwarding check box.

Defining Proxy Rules

On the Proxy Rules page, you can define proxy rules to be used for connections.

Figure A.11. Defining proxy rules

To add a new proxy rule:

Click Add. The Proxy Rule dialog box opens.
Select the Type of the rule. The type can be Direct (no proxy), Socks4, Socks5, or Http.
Figure A.12. Defining proxy settings
For other types than direct, enter the proxy Server address and Port.
Select also whether the proxy rules applies to Any connection or only to connections to the specified Network. In the Network field, you can enter one or more conditions delimited by commas (,). The conditions can specify IP addresses or DNS names.
The IP address/port conditions have an address pattern and an optional port range (ip_pattern[:port_range]).
The ip_pattern may have one of the following forms:
- a single IP address x.x.x.x
- an IP address range of the form x.x.x.x-y.y.y.y
- an IP sub-network mask of the form x.x.x.x/y
The DNS name conditions consist of a hostname which may be a regular expression containing the characters "*" and "?" and a port range (name_pattern[:port_range]).
Click OK.

To edit a proxy rule, select a rule from the list and click Edit.

To delete a proxy rule, select a rule from the list and click Delete.

The rules are read from top down. Use the arrow button to change the order of the rules.

To use these general proxy rules with a connection profile, you must select to do so in the profile settings. See Defining Proxy Settings.

Defining Logging Settings

On the Logging page, you can enable logging and customize the information that will be logged in the event log. By default logging is disabled.

Figure A.13. Logging settings

To enable logging of Tectia Client internal events, select how the logs will be saved. In the Log Destination field:

Select File to have the log data saved in to a file named in the field on the right. Enter the exact file name or browse to an existing file.
Select Event Log to have the Tectia Client data stored in the Event Log of the host.

Each program-internal event has an associated Action and Type. They have reasonable default values, which are used if no explicit logging settings are made.

The action can be either log or discard.

The event type can be one of the following:

Informational
Warning
Error
Security success
Security failure

For a description of the log events, see Appendix E.

To change whether the event is logged or not, select an event from the list and click Log/Discard. You can select multiple events by holding down the SHIFT or CTRL key while clicking.

To customize the event action and type, select an event from the list and click Edit. You can select multiple events by holding down the SHIFT or CTRL key while clicking. The Edit Audit dialog box opens. Select the Action (log or discard) and the Type (informational, warning, error, security-success or security-failure) for the event and click OK.

Defining Clients Settings

On the Clients settings page, you can define settings related to clients.

Figure A.14. Client settings

GUI client

Use the Terminal selection option to define how the Tectia SSH Terminal GUI behaves when you select text with double-clicks. The options are:

select words (the default) - selects a word at time, and uses space and all punctuation characters as delimiters.
select paths - selects strings of characters between spaces, meaning a selection is extended over characters \/.-_ so that, for example, a path to a file can be selected by double-clicking anywhere in the path.

Use the Terminal bell option to define whether Tectia terminal repeats audible notifications from the destination server. This option is only applied to connections with Unix servers. The options are:

system default alert (the default), sounds the default alerts defined in the system on the destination server
using pc speaker beeps the user's PC speakers
disable mutes all audible notifications.

Select the Close window after disconnect option to define that also the Tectia SSH Terminal GUI window is to be closed while disconnecting from a server session by pressing CTRL+D. By default the terminal remains open, and only the server connection is closed.

Command line clients

The Quiet mode setting defines whether the command line clients should suppress warnings, error messages and authentication success messages. The setting affects the command line tools scpg3, sshg3 and sftpg3.