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StrictHostChecking with JSCH API [duplicate]

I'm running a java program where I transfer a file from one folder to another, using Java SFTP. The problem I'm having is that I'm getting the following error in my Java SFTP (using JSch) :
C:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\oracle_common\jdk\bin\javaw.exe
-server -classpath C:\JDeveloper\mywork\Java_Hello_World.adf;C:\JDeveloper\mywork\Java_Hello_World\Client\classes;C:\Users\ADMIN\Downloads\jsch-0.1.53.jar
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=C:\Users\IBM_AD~1\AppData\Local\Temp\trustStore5840796204189742395.jks
FileTransfer com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException: UnknownHostKey: 127.0.0.1.
RSA key fingerprint is a2:39:3f:44:88:e9:1f:d7:d1:71:f4:85:98:fb:90:dc
at com.jcraft.jsch.Session.checkHost(Session.java:797) at
com.jcraft.jsch.Session.connect(Session.java:342) at
com.jcraft.jsch.Session.connect(Session.java:183) at
FileTransfer.main(FileTransfer.java:33) Process exited with exit code
0.
The following is my code so far:
FileTransfer fileTransfer = new FileTransfer();
JSch jsch = new JSch();
try {
String host = "127.0.0.1";
int port = 22;
String user = "user";
Session session = jsch.getSession(user, host, port);
session = jsch.getSession("username", "127.0.0.1", 22);
session.connect(); // bug here , java.net.ConnectException
ChannelSftp sftp = null;
sftp = (ChannelSftp)session.openChannel("sftp") ; //channel;
//extra config code
java.util.Properties config = new java.util.Properties();
config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
session.setConfig(config);
// end extra config code
sftp.rename("C:\\Users\\ADMIN\\Desktop\\Work\\ConnectOne_Bancorp\\Java_Work\\SFTP_1\\house.bmp", "C:\\Users\\ADMIN\\Desktop\\Work\\ConnectOne_Bancorp\\Java_Work\\SFTP_2\\house.bmp");
session.disconnect();
} catch (JSchException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (SftpException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} //end-catch
My Cygwin is set up, and I checked (with netstat -a -b ) that it's running.

You are trying to skip a host key checking by setting StrictHostKeyChecking to no.
But you have to do that before the checking, i.e. before the session.connect().
Anyway, you should never do this, unless you do not care about security. The host key checking is there to protect you from man-in-the-middle attacks.
Instead, set up an expected host key to let JSch verify it.
For example:
Call JSch.setKnownHosts providing a path to a .ssh/known_hosts-like file.
To generate the .ssh/known_hosts-like file, you can use an ssh-keyscan command from OpenSSH. If you are connecting from a *nix server, you should have the command available, just run
ssh-keyscan example.com > known_hosts
It will have a format like:
example.com ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAQEA0hVqZOvZ7yWgie9OHdTORJVI5fJJoH1yEGamAd5G3werH0z7e9ybtq1mGUeRkJtea7bzru0ISR0EZ9HIONoGYrDmI7S+BiwpDBUKjva4mAsvzzvsy6Ogy/apkxm6Kbcml8u4wjxaOw3NKzKqeBvR3pc+nQVA+SJUZq8D2XBRd4EDUFXeLzwqwen9G7gSLGB1hJkSuRtGRfOHbLUuCKNR8RV82i3JvlSnAwb3MwN0m3WGdlJA8J+5YAg4e6JgSKrsCObZK7W1R6iuyuH1zA+dtAHyDyYVHB4FnYZPL0hgz2PSb9c+iDEiFcT/lT4/dQ+kRW6DYn66lS8peS8zCJ9CSQ==
And reference the generated known_hosts file in your JSch code.
If you are on Windows, you can get a Windows build of ssh-keyscan from Win32-OpenSSH project or Git for Windows.
Call JSch.getHostKeyRepository().add() to provide the expected host key (e.g. hard-coded, as your other credentials).
See Creating JSch HostKey instance from a public key in .pub format.

jsch version : 0.1.55
my problem solved by running :
ssh-keyscan -t rsa <HOST_NAME> >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
ssh-keyscan -t rsa <IP_ADDRESS_OF_HOST_NAME> >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
**in my case jsch was looking for ip address in known_hosts file
jsch.setKnownHosts(System.getProperty("user.home")+"/.ssh/known_hosts");

Aside: by "Cygwin" I assume you mean sshd or sftpd, because Cygwin itself doesn't do SSH.
Anyway, if you want Jsch client to accept any key from the host, move the .setConfig calls that sets StrictHostKeyChecking no so it is before session.connect(). Alternatively you must provide access to a store containing the correct key(s) for your hosts(s) as #Martin explains -- and you should always do that when connecting to anything other than "localhost" or possibly a machine certain to be on the same, physically-secure network segment (such as a wired LAN hub within a single room).

JSch: Login to Destination Server from Jump Server. Jump server asks for passphrase for key which accepts an empty string

This is how it looks like when I attempt to connect to the destination server from the jump server.
SSH Screen
Firstly, it prompts me for the username and password of the jump server.
Once logged in, I attempt to connect to the destination server. This is where that passphrase prompt comes in. All I need to do is hit enter when prompted for the passphrase and I will be prompted for the password.
Here's a snippet of my code:
Session jumpServerSession = jsch.getSession(jumpServerHostUsername, jumpServerHostName, 22);
jumpServerSession.setPassword(jumpServerPassword);
java.util.Properties config = new java.util.Properties();
config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
jumpServerSession.setConfig(config);
jumpServerSession.connect();
int assinged_port = jumpServerSession.setPortForwardingL(0, targetServerHostname, 22);
System.out.println("portforwarding: "+
"localhost:"+assinged_port+" -> "+targetServerHostname+":"+22);
//Main server connection session started
Session targetServerSession = jsch.getSession("root", targetServerHostname, 22);
targetServerSession.setHostKeyAlias(targetServerHostname);
targetServerSession.setPassword(targetServerPassword);
targetServerSession.setIdentityRepository(null);
java.util.Properties config1 = new java.util.Properties();
config1.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
targetServerSession.setConfig(config1);
targetServerSession.connect();
Error Message
As you can see from the console output above, the connection gets timed out which is unsurprising since I couldn't find a way to just send that empty passphrase. I googled quite a bit and found a few articles (using Robot and setting config to "PreferredAuthentications", "publickey,keyboard-interactive,password"). They didn't work for me. Finally, I am unable to download the key from the jump server as well. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Edit: Apologies. I don't have enough reputation to post the images.

If the private key is not encrypted, there's nothing to be done in JSch. It will just use the key.
But I do not see you specifying your private key anywhere. If you expect the local JSch to somehow magically use the .ssh/id_da the key on the jump server, it won't. The JSch does not even know the jump server exists. You need the private key on the local machine and let JSch know about it.

What is use of config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no") in JSch

java.util.Properties config = new java.util.Properties();
config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
session.setConfig(config);
In above code why we need to set StrictHostKeyChecking value as no while connection to SFTP through JSch API?

You should NOT set it actually. You lose much of the SSH/SFTP security by doing to.
The option tells the JSch SSH/SFTP library not to verify public key of the SSH/SFTP server. You are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, if you do not verify the public key. Of course, unless you are connecting within a private trusted network (so you do not care for security/encryption).
Read about SSH/SFTP host keys:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ssh_verifying_the_host_key

StrictHostKeyChecking values: ask | yes | no
default: ask
If this property is set to yes, JSch will never automatically add host keys to the $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts file, and refuses to connect to hosts whose host key has changed. This property forces the user to manually add all new hosts.
If this property is set to no, JSch will automatically add new host keys to the user known hosts files.
If this property is set to ask, new host keys will be added to the user known host files only after the user has confirmed that is what they really want to do, and JSch will refuse to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.

SFTP connection through Java asking for weird authentication

So I'm writing a little program that needs to connect to a remote server through SFTP, pull down a file, and then processes the file. I came across JSch through some answers here and it looked perfect for the task. So far, easy to use and I've got it working, with one minor thing I'd like to fix. I'm using the following code to connect and pull the file down:
JSch jsch = new JSch();
Session session = null;
try {
session = jsch.getSession("username", "127.0.0.1", 22);
session.setConfig("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
session.setPassword("password");
session.connect();
Channel channel = session.openChannel("sftp");
channel.connect();
ChannelSftp sftpChannel = (ChannelSftp) channel;
sftpChannel.cd(REMOTE_FTP_DIR);
sftpChannel.lcd(INCOMING_DIR);
sftpChannel.get(TMP_FILE, TMP_FILE);
sftpChannel.exit();
session.disconnect();
} catch (JSchException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (SftpException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
So this works and I get the file. I'm running this code on a linux server and when I run the code JSch asks me for my Kerberos username and password. It looks like:
Kerberos username [george]:
Kerberos password for george:
I just hit enter for both questions and then the program seems to continue on with no problems. However I need this code to be automated through a cron task and so I'd rather not having it pausing the program to ask me these two questions. Is there something I'm not supplying it so that it won't ask this? Something I need to do to stop it asking? Hopefully someone has some ideas. Thanks.

Thought I'd post an answer here since in case anyone else ends up running into a similar issue. Turns out I am missing a piece of code that makes all the difference. I just needed to add
session.setConfig("PreferredAuthentications",
"publickey,keyboard-interactive,password");
before
session.connect();
and everything works perfectly now.

While the solution in the self-accepted answer is correct, it lacks any explanation.
The problem is that the OP have a Kerberos/GSSAPI authentication set as the preferred (the JSch default). Yet OP does not seem to actually use/want it, as OP claims not to specify any username or password for the Kerberos prompts.
This problem can appear spontaneously, when either Kerberos gets installed on the the client PC or the server starts to support Kerberos.
The solution is to remove the Kerberos/GSSAPI (gssapi-with-mic) from the list of preferred authentication methods in JSch:
session.setConfig(
"PreferredAuthentications", "publickey,keyboard-interactive,password");

All answers are correct, I'll just add here the way it can be done for Spring Integration when trying to integrate with an SFTP server.
So, if you are using SFTP Spring Integration and the weird user and password for Kerberos is prompting in the same way the OP is asking.
Then modify your Spring configuration (I'm using Java Spring Integration config, if you are using XML config you can try to translate it yourself - I really don't like XML config :P ):
So in the bean you are using as SessionFactory you need to add this change in config:
#Bean
public SessionFactory<LsEntry> sftpSessionFactory() {
DefaultSftpSessionFactory factory = new DefaultSftpSessionFactory(true);
factory.setHost("hostname");
factory.setPort(22);
factory.setUser("username");
factory.setPassword("superstrongpassword");
factory.setAllowUnknownKeys(true);
factory.setSessionConfig(buildSessionProperties());
return new CachingSessionFactory<>(factory);
}
/**
* Build JSch property PreferredAuthentications without "gssapi-with-mic"
* This way it won't prompt for Kerberos authentication every time it tries to connect
* to the SFTP.
*/
private Properties buildSessionProperties() {
Properties sessionProperties = new Properties();
sessionProperties.setProperty("PreferredAuthentications", "publickey,keyboard-interactive,password");
return sessionProperties;
}

How to SSH to a server behind another SSH server using JSch?

I need to be able to ssh from a Java program into a remote server, and from there SSH to another server. I have credentials for both servers on my client.
The commands will be passed automatically from within the app as regular strings (no user input). I need to be able to run those custom commands on the second server and be able to decide what commands to issue during runtime, based on the output and some simple logic.
Can I use JSch to do that and if yes, where should I start look into? (Examples, info)
=============================================================
ADDED:
Exception in thread "main" com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException:
UnknownHostKey: host.net. RSA key fingerprint is 'blahblahblah'
as till now, I am solving this problem by modifying the known_hosts file and adding host manually in there.
Can I bypass this little problem by settings an option somewhere telling the JSch to press YES automatically when this YES-NO question is asked?

To connect to a second server behind a firewall, there are in principle two options.
The naive one would be to call ssh on the first server (from an exec channel), indicating the right server. This would need agent forwarding with JSch, and also doesn't provide the JSch API to access the second server, only the ssh command line.
The better one would be to use the connection to the first server to build up a TCP Tunnel, and use this tunnel to connect to the second server. The JSch Wiki contains a ProxySSH class (together with some example code) which allows to use a JSch session as a tunnel for a second JSch session. (Disclaimer: This class was written mainly by me, with some support from the JSch author.)
When you have your connection to the second server, use either a shell channel or a series of exec channels to execute your commands. (See Shell, Exec or Subsystem Channel in the JSch Wiki for an overview, and the Javadocs for details.)
For your unknown-host-key problem:
The secure version would be to collect all host keys (in a secure way) before and put them in the known_hosts file. (If you simply trust the key which is presented to you, you are vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. If these are of no concern in your network, since it is physically secured, good for you.)
The convenient version is setting the configuration option StrictHostKeyChecking to no - this will add unknown host keys to the host keys file:
JSch.setConfig("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
(You can also set it individually on the sessions, if you only want to set it for the proxied sessions and not for the tunnel session. Or override it for the tunnel session with yesor ask - there the MITM danger might be greater.)
A middle way would be to enable actually asking the user (which then should compare the fingerprints to some list) - for this, implement the UserInfo interface and provide the object to the session. (The JSch Wiki contains an example implementation using Swing JOptionPanes, which you can simply use if your client program runs on a system with GUI.)
For the saving of accepted host keys to work, you must use the JSch.setKnownHosts method with a file name argument, not the one with an InputStream argument - else your accepting will have to be repeated for each restart of your client.

Use an SSH tunnel, aka local port forwarding, to open an SSH/SFTP connection to B via A.
Session sessionA = jsch.getSession("usernameA", "hostA");
// ...
sessionA.connect();
int forwardedPort = sessionA.setPortForwardingL(0, "hostB", 22);
Session sessionB = jsch.getSession("usernameB", "localhost", forwardedPort);
// ...
sessionB.connect();
// Use sessionB here for shell/exec/sftp
You may need to deal with UnknownHostKey exception.

This can help anyone. Works fine:
public static void sesionA(){
try {
Session sessionA = jSch.getSession(username, hostA);
Properties config = new Properties();
config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
sessionA.setConfig(config);
sessionA.setPassword(passwordA);
sessionA.connect();
if(sessionA.isConnected()) {
System.out.println("Connected host A!");
forwardedPort = 2222;
sessionA.setPortForwardingL(forwardedPort, hostB, 22);
}
} catch (JSchException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static void sesionB(){
try {
Session sessionB = jSch.getSession(username, "localhost", forwardedPort);
Properties config = new Properties();
config.put("StrictHostKeyChecking", "no");
sessionB.setConfig(config);
sessionB.setPassword(passwordB);
sessionB.connect();
if(sessionB.isConnected()) {
System.out.println("Connected host B!");
}
}
}