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VBScript

Get SSH Server Authentication Methods

See more SSH Examples

Demonstrates getting the authentication methods advertised by an SSH server. Connect first but do not authenticate, then call GetAuthMethods, which returns a lowercase, comma-separated list such as publickey,password,keyboard-interactive.

Important: Querying the authentication methods intentionally disconnects from the server, so reconnect before authenticating.

Background: Knowing what a server accepts lets a client choose the right authentication path rather than guessing — for example, falling back to keyboard-interactive when password authentication is not offered, or failing fast with a clear message when only public-key is allowed. It is also useful diagnostically when authentication fails for reasons that are not obvious from the error text.

Chilkat VBScript Downloads

VBScript
Dim fso, outFile
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
'Create a Unicode (utf-16) output text file.
Set outFile = fso.CreateTextFile("output.txt", True, True)

success = 0

'  This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
'  See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

'  Demonstrates getting the authentication methods advertised by an SSH server.

set ssh = CreateObject("Chilkat.Ssh")

port = 22

'  The server must be connected, but not yet authenticated.
success = ssh.Connect("ssh.example.com",port)
If (success = 0) Then
    outFile.WriteLine(ssh.LastErrorText)
    WScript.Quit
End If

'  Returns a lowercase, comma-separated list, such as:
'      publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
authMethods = ssh.GetAuthMethods()
If (ssh.LastMethodSuccess = 0) Then
    outFile.WriteLine(ssh.LastErrorText)
    WScript.Quit
End If

outFile.WriteLine("Authentication methods supported by this server: " & authMethods)

'  IMPORTANT: Querying the authentication methods intentionally disconnects from the server.
'  Reconnect before authenticating.
success = ssh.Connect("ssh.example.com",port)
If (success = 0) Then
    outFile.WriteLine(ssh.LastErrorText)
    WScript.Quit
End If

'  Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
'  from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
password = "mySshPassword"

success = ssh.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin",password)
If (success = 0) Then
    outFile.WriteLine(ssh.LastErrorText)
    WScript.Quit
End If

outFile.WriteLine("SSH authentication successful.")

ssh.Disconnect 

outFile.Close