Replace Dropbear SSH with OpenSSH.

[unsynaps]

Has anyone replaced the built in Dropbear SSH with OpenSSH?
I would like to do this because of this bug that still has not b een addressed.

Wondering if someone has working instructions because if you mess something up you are basically 'locked out' and have to factory default.

 

[sfx2000]

Openssh-server is in entware - so enjoy!

You don't need to replace Dropbear with Openssh-Server, just run it on a different port

The "bug" you mention in the link - not a dropbear bug, it's a client one...

Ssh connection to router gets reset every few seconds

I have trouble keeping my ssh connection from my Mac to the router alive. It stays connected for only about 30 seconds if I leave it idle, as you can see below (the timing includes the time to enter password): $ time ssh admin@192.168.1.5 admin@192.168.1.5's password: ASUSWRT-Merlin RT-AC68U...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Martinski]

Has anyone replaced the built in Dropbear SSH with OpenSSH?
I would like to do this because of this bug that still has not b een addressed.

Wondering if someone has working instructions because if you mess something up you are basically 'locked out' and have to factory default.

Since Dropbear is built into the F/W, you can't actually replace it in the sense that you cannot remove it and put something else in its place. But you can certainly install the OpenSSH server as an alternative method while still leaving the built-in Dropbear server active to be your fallback just in case the OpenSSH server fails to run for some reason (e.g. USB-attached disk where Entware is installed does not get mounted during a reboot).

Here's a post with instructions to install & set up an OpenSSH server:

Solved - SFTP - Key Only access via FileZilla client to RT-AC68U

The thread title is what I'd like to achieve i.e. SFTP access to my RT-AC68U Router via a FileZilla client, but only using a passphrase protected private key and its paired public public key, so not using a User ID and password for SFTP access. AFAIK Dropbear that is supplied by Asus by default...

www.snbforums.com

I would also suggest trying an experiment by running a new Dropbear server instance with the following command:

/usr/sbin/dropbear -p IP:PORT -s -j -k -K 15

Where "IP" is the router's IP address, and "PORT" is a new listening port number (*must* be different from your current Dropbear server port). The "-K 15" is the "keepalive" option set in seconds. Now have your SSH client open a new connection using the new listening PORT number set in the above command and see if the problem still persists.

My 2 cents.

 

[Crimliar]

If like me, there are times when you get interrupted and leave your session for an hour or two, then you might be interested in using MOSH instead.

 

[slackjaw99]

Has anyone replaced the built in Dropbear SSH with OpenSSH?
I would like to do this because of this bug that still has not b een addressed.

Wondering if someone has working instructions because if you mess something up you are basically 'locked out' and have to factory default.

I was considering it given dropbear doesn't support sftp/scp, but the resource footprint of OpenSSH vs Dropbear is significantly larger so decided against.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I was considering it given dropbear doesn't support sftp...

It does if you install the standalone Entware package openssh-sftp-server

 

[RMerlin]

scp works fine with Dropbear.

 

[Matteo Guglielmi]

my two cents:

aptitude install dropbear-bin

mkdir -p ~/tmp ; cd ~/tmp

cp /etc/ssh/ssh_host_{ecdsa,ed25519,rsa}_key ./

# conver openssh keys to PEM (dropbearconvert can only read keys in PEM format)

ssh-keygen -p -f ssh_host_ecdsa_key -m pem
ssh-keygen -p -f ssh_host_ed25519_key -m pem
ssh-keygen -p -f ssh_host_rsa_key -m pem

# conver PEM openssh keys to dropbear format

dropbearconvert openssh dropbear ssh_host_ecdsa_key dropbear_ecdsa_host_key
dropbearconvert openssh dropbear ssh_host_ed25519_key dropbear_ed25519_host_key
dropbearconvert openssh dropbear ssh_host_rsa_key dropbear_rsa_host_key

scp dropbear_*_key admin@<ASUS_IP>:/jffs/.ssh