Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Adding to this: while certs are indeed well-supported by OpenSSH, it's not always the SSH daemon used on alternate or embedded platforms.

For example, OpenWRT used Dropbear [1] instead, which does not support certs. Also, Java programs that implement SSH stuff, like Jenkins, may be doing so using Apache Mina [2] which, though the underlying library supports certs, it is buggy [3] and requires the application to add the UX to also support it.

[1] https://matt.ucc.asn.au/dropbear/dropbear.html

[2] https://mina.apache.org/sshd-project/

[3] I've been dealing for years with NullPointerExceptions causing the connection to crash when presented with certain ed25519 certificates.



You can just replace dropbear with openssh on OpenWRT. That was one of the first things I did, since DropBear also doesn't support hardware backed (sk) keys. Just move it to 2222 and disable the service.

I reenabled DB on that alt port when I did the recent major update, just in case, but it wasn't necessary. After the upgrade, OpenSSH was alive and ready.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: