please decrypt your manuals

[Keisial]

Doru Georgescu wrote:
>>> Plus, are you sure that the server never uses
>>>       
>> /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts? It uses ~/.ssh/known_hosts,
>> according to sshd_config manual. If I guessed rightly,
>> because that manual also does not fully specify the files it
>> refers. 
>>     
>>>    
>>>       
>> That only applies to ssh v1 RhostsRSAAuthentication. You
>> shouldn't use
>> that (but it's a good point, anyway).
>>     
> You know this from the manuals? :-) 
>   

Yes. sshd_config(5)
> IgnoreUserKnownHosts
>               Specifies  whether  sshd(8) should ignore the user's
> ~/.ssh/known_hosts during RhostsRSAAuthentication or
> HostbasedAuthentication.
>               The default is ``no''.

>     RhostsRSAAuthentication
>               Specifies whether rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv
> authentication together with successful RSA  host  authentication  is 
> allowed.   The
>               default is ``no''.  This option applies to protocol
> version 1 only.


And seems I was wrong since I missed:
> HostbasedAuthentication
>               Specifies  whether  rhosts  or  /etc/hosts.equiv 
> authentication together with successful public key client host
> authentication is
>               allowed (host-based authentication).  This option is
> similar to RhostsRSAAuthentication and applies to protocol  version 
> 2  only.
>               The default is ``no''.


     

>>> This procedure ensures that only the server can
>>>       
>> decrypt messages from the client, but still the client can
>> receive messages from anybody in the middle and it can not
>> tell if they come from the server or from the
>> man-in-the-middle. So the server is not authenticated to the
>> client. It goes one way only, as you see, the server does
>> not supply any password or authentication key. I guess this
>> is less important, because the client only displays messages
>> from the server, it does not run commands from the server. 
>>
>> I'm not the most qualified one to explain this but... here
>> I go. Anyone
>> is welcome to fix me should I say something wrong.
>>
>> - C connects to S
>> - They perform a Diffie-Hellman key exchange, and establish
>> a private
>> communication using a ephimeral key and a symmetrical
>> cipher.
>>
>> From this point on, they know they are talking to someone
>> other and the
>> connection cannot be read, or modified in any way.
>>     
> They may be talking with a man in the middle. 
>   

Right. That's why I said "someone", not "the server".


>> - S signs a token with its private key, so that C can
>> verify that it is
>> really the server it wants to talk to
> Maybe the S's host key is used for authentication of S in front of C. 
>
> Indeed (ssh man): 
>
>      /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
>      /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
>      /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
>              These three files contain the private parts of the host keys and are used
>              for host-based authentication. 
>
> So S is authenticated in front of C with a token, and this authentication is based on the human in front of C's console recognizing the hash (fingerprint) of the S's public host key. 
>   

Yes?
The server says: I am server owning this private key Foo, and I prove it
by signing this token. The human is used to confirm it is really the server.