Windows

Windows: Use Windows WSL openssh client with PuTTY agent

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Hi,

newer versions of the PuTTY-CAC agent can act as ssh agent for Windows WSL 1 ssh clients.

Putty can open UNIX sockets which the wsl ssh client can use.

This can be done by starting the putty agent with the parameter –unix

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D:\> D:\PuTTY-CAC\pageant.exe pageant --unix C:\Users\michael\.ssh\agent.sock

In your WSL environment set the variable SSH_AUTH_SOCK

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SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/mnt/c/Users/michael/.ssh/agent.sock

or add an include to your /mnt/c/Users/michael/.ssh/config

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IdentityAgent /mnt/c/Users/michael/.ssh/agent.sock
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michael@wsl ~ # ssh root@10.10.10.220
 ____            _          _   _  _   ____
|  _ \ ___   ___| | ___ __ (_) | || | | __ )
| |_) / _ \ / __| |/ / '_ \| | | || |_|  _ \
|  _ < (_) | (__|   <| |_) | | |__   _| |_) |
|_| \_\___/ \___|_|\_\ .__/|_|    |_| |____/
                     |_|
Welcome to Armbian 20.11 Bionic with Linux 5.9.11-rockchip64
 
System load:   49%               Up time:       88 days 4:10
Memory usage:  10% of 3.71G     Zram usage:    12% of 1.85G     IP:            10.10.10.220
CPU temp:      39°C             Usage of /:    42% of 29G

For WSL 2 this wouldn’t work because each WSL 2 instance has its own kernel could not reach the PuTTY agent socket /mnt/c/Users/michael/.ssh/agent.sock

A helper/mapper is needed. This can be done by my .NET Application PageantRelayNamedPipe or the .NET Core Application PageantRelaySocket.
Download the one of the last release

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, keep in mind PageantRelaySocket requires the installation .NET core. and extract it to C:\Users\michael\.ssh\

Then prepare your Environment. Create a folder .ssh in your Userprofile folder.

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D:\> mkdir %USERPROFILE%\.ssh

Configure your PuTTY Auth Agents command line parameter. When you use PageantRelayNamedPipe then add –openssh-config

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D:\PuTTY-CAC\pageant.exe --openssh-config C:\Users\michael\.ssh\pageant.conf

If you want to use PageantRelaySocket then add –unix

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D:\PuTTY-CAC\pageant.exe --unix C:\Users\michael\.ssh\agent.sock

Note: For a simple configuration pageant.conf and agent.sock are hardcoded in PageantRelayNamedPipe and PageantRelaySocket .

Then prepare your WSL 2 instance.

Enter instance

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PS D:\> wsl -d Debian

Install requiered packages

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michael@debdev-wsl:/mnt/c/Users/Michael$ sudo apt install socat iproute2

Start the PuTTY agent forwarding (NamedPipe Version)

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michael@debdev-wsl:/mnt/c/Users/Michael$ export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/home/michael/.ssh/agent.sock"
michael@debdev-wsl:/mnt/c/Users/Michael$ rm $SSH_AUTH_SOCK
michael@debdev-wsl:/mnt/c/Users/Michael$ setsid nohup socat UNIX-LISTEN:"$SSH_AUTH_SOCK,fork" EXEC:"/mnt/c/users/michael/.ssh/PageantRelayNamedPipe.exe" &
nohup: ignoring input and appending output to 'nohup.out'

Start the PuTTY agent forwarding (Socket Version)

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michael@debdev-wsl:/mnt/c/Users/Michael$ export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/home/michael/.ssh/agent.sock"
michael@debdev-wsl:/mnt/c/Users/Michael$ rm $SSH_AUTH_SOCK
michael@debdev-wsl:/mnt/c/Users/Michael$ setsid nohup socat UNIX-LISTEN:"$SSH_AUTH_SOCK,fork" EXEC:"/mnt/c/users/michael/.ssh/PageantRelaySocket.exe" &
nohup: ignoring input and appending output to 'nohup.out'

Then not try to connect

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michael@debdev-wsl ~ # ssh root@10.10.10.220
 ____            _          _   _  _   ____
|  _ \ ___   ___| | ___ __ (_) | || | | __ )
| |_) / _ \ / __| |/ / '_ \| | | || |_|  _ \
|  _ < (_) | (__|   <| |_) | | |__   _| |_) |
|_| \_\___/ \___|_|\_\ .__/|_|    |_| |____/
                     |_|
Welcome to Armbian 20.11 Bionic with Linux 5.9.11-rockchip64
 
System load:   2%               Up time:       88 days 4:10
Memory usage:  10% of 3.71G     Zram usage:    23% of 1.85G     IP:            10.10.10.220
CPU temp:      45°C             Usage of /:    55% of 29G

Troubleshooting WSL2: If forwarding won’t work.
Start socat in foreground. In most cases this gives some hints whats going wrong: Omit leading “setsid nohup” and trailing “&”:

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michael@debdev ~ # socat UNIX-LISTEN:"$SSH_AUTH_SOCK,fork" EXEC:"/mnt/c/users/michael/.ssh/PageantRelaySocket.exe"

Michael

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