LSH 1.2 release

[Niels Möller]

I'd like to announce a new version of LSH, the GNU implementation of
the secure shell protocols. LSH includes a client, a server, and a few
scripts and utility programs.

The LSH-1.2 release, and any following LSH-1.2.x updates, are intended
to be stable. New features will be added to LSH-1.3.x.

FEATURES

The most notable new features in LSH-1.2 are

o  Support for RSA keys, for both host and user authentication.

o  The "gateway" mode of operation, implemented by lsh -G and lshg.

o  Limited Kerberos support, comparable to that available for the
   original sshd.

o  An improved randomness generator that works also on systems that
   lack /dev/random.
   
Some of the older (LSH-1.0) features are

o  Strong encryption and data authentication.

o  Strong host authentication using public key techniques.

o  User authentication by either ordinary UN*X passwords
   or public key techniques.

o  Spawning of remote shells and commands, including pseudo tty support.

o  A "gateway" interface, that lets you create a single SSH connection
   to a remote host, and reuse that connection for later commands.
   Ideal for applications like remote CVS.

o  Forwarding of TCP connections, in both directions.

o  Zlib compression.

o  Experimental support for Secure Remote Password (SRP) authentication.

o  Experimental support for IPv6.

o  A draft manual.


COMPATIBILITY AND PORTABILITY

LSH implements the secsh protocol as defined by the latest drafts from
the IETF secsh working group. It interoperates with both SSH Inc's
SSH2 products and OpenSSH. Note that LSH is *not* compatible with
SSH1, although the lshd deamon can fall back to an SSH1 implementation
(e.g. OpenSSH or SSH Inc's) when an ssh1 client connects.

LSH is reported to have worked at least once on GNU/Linux on Sparc,
Intel, PPC and Alpha, FreeBSD, Solaris and IRIX. There may well be
portability problems left, please report them to me.


QUALITY

LSH is provided AS IS, ABSOLUTELY no GUARANTEES, etc. Please report
any bugs you find.


PLANNED FEATURES

Some features that are planned but not yet implemented are

o  Forwarding of X, ssh-agent, UDP.

o  Support for SPKI certificates, for both authorization and host
   authentication. 

o  Kerberos authentication.

o  A file transfer service.


COPYRIGHT

LSH is distributed under the terms and conditions of the GNU General
Public License. Unlike some other secsh implementations, you can use
LSH freely for any purpose.


AVAILABILITY AND FURTHER INFORMATION

The main LSH archive is located at

  ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/security/lsh

Discussions about LSH takes place on the psst mailing list. See the
psst home page, http://www.net.lut.ac.uk/psst, for details.


Happy hacking,
/Niels Möller, <address@hidden>