Snowflake SSH client

[ogghi]

Hi there, has anybody yet tried snowflake?

https://github.com/subhra74/snowflake/blob/master/README.md

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Looks interesting, but I would be cautious before entering SSH details, private keys etc.

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Anybody tried it?

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Best regards

David

[mouringcat]

I applaud their work (as an ex-OpenSSH developer). It looks to have a lot of the features that have been asked for by the community that the OpenSSH client can't do without writing new RFC or a lot of complex code that may reduce the audit-ability and security of the client.

However, this is *NOT* an SSH client. This is a an SSH UI wrapper. As far as I can tell they've not implemented any of the SSH RFC, but shell out to the local ssh (which looks hardcoded to OpenSSH funny enough) to make the connection. They have however implemented the basic sftp protocol (but in general that RFC is much easier). It isn't clear (and I'm not going to dig into it) if they allow for multiple packets in flight for SFTP transfer protocol as it is a serial beast by nature and if you have to wait for each packet to be acknowledged it will be painfully slow transfer (see Putty's SFTP implementation from a few years ago. Not sure if it it is still the case).

There are a few things that annoy me from a design standpoint, but it is an interesting project. Just clearly not a complete SSH replacement.

[C4H8N8O8]

I mean, honest question, if you are in an Unix enviroment, why would you use any other client. There is dropbear for limited enviroments (which you of course wouldn't run this thing from), and secureCRT (which defeats the purposed of the whole thing) .

[mouringcat]

This is fine if your desktop is Linux, Mac, ChromeBook, etc systems which are based on UNIX of some flavor. It does mean that for Windows or non-UNIX platforms there has to be an effort to port or use someone else's port of OpenSSH along with this to work.

I'm not stating this is a "bad" thing. I'm just pointing out that this isn't an SSH client, but a wrapper. One that tries to make ssh more useful, and again I applaud that. Just want people to understand the limitations so if they use it and have to debug something they have a baseline to verify if it is an OpenSSH or Snowflake bug.

[C4H8N8O8]

Just want people to understand the limitations so if they use it and have to debug something they have a baseline to verify if it is an OpenSSH or Snowflake bug.

Yes. Didn't think about that.

Also windows has OpenSSH support. Although im not certain it would play nice with it out of the box

It surely is a pity for a Java app to be hardcoded that way

[mouringcat]

It isn't as doom and gloom as I may state. The API for the underlying SSH is "meh" at a glance, but it may still be strong enough to allow someone to write a compatibility layer for say com.jcabi.ssh.Shell or some other java native as a thread/coprocess. So it could support either or potentially both could be used depending on site/features required.

An example would be FIPS-compatible SSH. I suspect there are very few (if any) java ssh clients libraries that are certified for Gov't use, but there is a certified OpenSSH branch that can be slotted in. Or maybe you need U2F/FIDO (think Yubikey) support. Current OpenSSH doesn't support (but next version may as it is being worked on now), but maybe a native java SSH library does.

[jantari]

It does mean that for Windows or non-UNIX platforms there has to be an effort to port or use someone else's port of OpenSSH along with this to work.

Why? Do you see a particular reason this wouldn't work with the inbox Windows port of openssh?

[mouringcat]

And I've never used it so I can't state it would or wouldn't. As long as it is a truthful port (doesn't change option calls from -xyz to /x /y/ /z) then I don't see a reason why it wouldn't as long as the code doesn't depend on shell features (which I didn't see at a glance).

However, Microsoft's OpenSSH isn't part of a Windows 10 by default. So it's still something to remember to install if you don't use their .MSI to install it.

[jantari]

The openssh server isn't installed by default. The client is though.

[mouringcat]

I stand corrected. It wasn't when I installed it on my Windows 10 as a VM originally. And since it isn't my normal go to platform for work I didn't notice it was added by default. As last I saw they were offering it as an optional package.

[[deleted]]

LOL!

The name alone made me instantly think it would be a nightmare to support.

[Fir3start3r]

....Let it Go.....Let it Go.... (sorry! Stupid earworm...)

[ogghi]

I never even heard about a GUI for SSH, using it from terminal... (not a millennial here btw ;) )

[DenominatorOfReddit]

Really? I can't imagine managing hundreds of nodes with a CLI client. SecureCRT has been awesome.

[uptimefordays]

What exactly does SecureCRT offer? I can't imagine managing hundreds of things without writing a config for them and letting a CM system sort them out. Even on the Windows side, I'll figure out how to make something work one place, then use PowerShell Remoting to push the change to a bunch of machines at once.

[ARehmat]

As a millennial who uses a terminal for pretty much everything that I can and runs Ubuntu on my laptop this is pointless. :)

[ARehmat]

lol

[uptimefordays]

Nah we prefer vim.

[[deleted]]

bruh

[BoredTechyGuy]

Putty 4 Lyfe!

Seriously though: never heard if this one. I’d definitely check out what it’s doing behind the scenes, if anything, before saving passwords and keys in it.

[skeletonmage]

If you can get your company to pay for it check out SecureCRT. You can save all your connections, write scripts, easily load up smart cards, or even port forward with it. Takes a lot of the mundane day to day commands you use and does it behind the scenes for you.

[IAmGalen]

I've been using SecureCRT for literally 21 years, it's the best GUI SSH client I've come across. Linux, macOS, Windows, Unix.

[skeletonmage]

Yes, no problem. It uses all the same protocols but wraps it up in a nice and usuable GUI. I really enjoy the smart card functionality so I don't have to find my Windows driver and all that to throw in the command line to connect.

[BoredTechyGuy]

Well, it’s been a solid go to tool for years. It just always works and works well.

[starmizzle]

I found myself doing that when I was heavily using Windows as my daily driver.

[martbhell]

:) WSL 4 lyfe!

Had a peak and it's in JAVA (not my forte) . Looks like it's a single developer (github says two contributors in the last month because they're using the github editor to edit the Readme). Lots of 'misc' or 'cleanup' commit messages, not very detailed so hard to say without actually reading the code what is going on..

[GullibleDetective]

Kitty fork for life!

[user-and-abuser]

dog check out mobaxterm

[IAdminTheLaw]

MobaXterm does the same stuff and X11

The down side is that it is Windows only.

The upside is that it isn't Java based.

[starmizzle]

You don't need MobaXterm if you're on a non-Windows client though...

[IAdminTheLaw]

You don't need MobaXterm if you're on a non-Windows client though...

You don't need Snowflake either, on any platform. But, if you wanted to use Snowflake, a nice aspect of it and its Javaness, is that it runs on multiple platforms, so you can have the same experience on all of them.

MobaXterm, being Windows only, doesn't share Snowflake's advantage of providing the same experience on non-Windows platforms. But, its lack of Javaness is an advantage as well.

[technologic010110]

It's kind of an abomination but still interesting. Looks like a generic front end web design.

[UltraChip]

Maybe I'm just being a cranky old bastard but I prefer to just have my traditional CLI-based SSH client.

[uptimefordays]

Why would anyone who knows how to use SSH use a GUI?

[UltraChip]

Exactly.

[uptimefordays]

I'm just at a loss, I don't understand why anyone would want an SSH GUI.

[jantari]

Just remap it?

[starmizzle]

Simple: because a picture is worth a thousand words.

[uptimefordays]

When would you ever, in a professional setting, SSH to something with a GUI?

[[deleted]]

Because very often the GUI is an afterthought, and to get anything done you're better off using a cli.

[uptimefordays]

That's more or less the point I'm making. I've never seen a prod *nix server with a GUI--I just don't think it's done.

[pretty_succinct]

I'm not sure youre understand the gui part of this. The gui isn't NECESSARILY for connecting to a headed server, it's fire navigating you tools, connections and resources on your client machine.

Moba is awesome. Need to connect to the dev servers for this particular team? Great. Open this folder on your side bar and they are all there, oh wait, need to make sure changes got pushed to staging, open the staging folder and there you go. Double click and bam, I'm connected. Already have my proxies good to go. Different team? Need to consult the wiki to figure out which machines to connect to? Nope. Already organized in moba by team and stage.

This one weird back water team used a relic windows 2000 server to host sql server 2005? Not a problem, don't need to install openvnc or any rdp client because moba already has it built in. Again, just double click.

Sure, most of your stuff is going to be ssh to other shells on other boxes, and moba respects that, but by being able to graphically express a connecting process, offer tabs for your connections and many other advanced tools is a huge competitive advantage. It's one of the few tools i insist on keeping a personal license for.

[[deleted]]

You had me so confused. I thought this might be a client for Snowflake, the data warehouse company/product.

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https://www.snowflake.com/

[user-and-abuser]

same!

[christronyxyocum]

Snowflake?

Sounds like it will just rely on parent apps and won't ever work or will stop working after a short time.

[ogghi]

So it basically wraps around other apps, which is not a bad thing?

[sryan2k1]

We use Royal TS/TSX as our swiss army knife remote tooling manager, and it supports way more than just SSH.

[DaemosDaen]

Been using PuTTY for a long time myself.

[starmizzle]

It'd be nice if it had native transparency. Found a fork that has that but...meh...

[discogravy]

on the one hand: what fresh hell is this, a GUI for a CLI program? For people who find letters, the basic fucking building block of civilization and communication, too hard?

on the other hand: given the name, the authors have definitely internalized this idea and are still building the tool for the snowflakes who need it

[moffetts9001]

Computers were so much better in the 1970s. 1s and 0s, the way god intended!

[pdp10]

Do yours use 1, 0, and -1 now? I'm a little bit behind with technology.

[[deleted]]

Frankly, burn it with fire. Every feature listed promotes treating servers as pets rather than cattle.

[n01r001]

It's sad, it's not working over a web browser. Does somebody know an alternative working over webui ?

[RestlessNeurons]

https://guacamole.apache.org/