Installing and Configuring sshd on Vista

From Ben's Writing

Requirements

• Cygwin

Installation

• Install the following Cygwin packages
  • openshh
  • tcp_wrappers
  • zlib

Configuration

• To start the configuration of your SSH Server open a Cygwin terminal, with Administrator privelages (using runas or by right clicking on the short-cut, clicking on the Advanced... button and checking Run as Administrator box) and type:

$ ssh-host-config 

The script will prompt you for a few things:

• Should privilege separation be used? Yes
• Should this script create a local user 'sshd' on this machine? Yes
• Do you want to install sshd as service? Yes
• Should this script create a new local account 'ssh_server' which has the required privileges? No
• Which value should the environment variable CYGWIN have when sshd starts? ntsc tty

The script will then congratulate you on compleating the install.

• Now you need to do the manual stuff.
• Try running /usr/sbin/sshd -D, if you get the message:

/var/empty must be owned by root and not group or world-writable.

Then you will need to do some fidling; otherwise, you are probably all set, you lucky duck.

• If you need to fiddle, open up the Services application in the Administrative Tools section of the Control Panel.
  • Find the CYGWIN sshd service
  • Click on the Log On tab
  • Select the This account: option, rather than the Local System Account and type ".\sshd" in the text area (no quotes)
  • Enter the password for the sshd account
  • Click OK

Finally, start your SSH server by typing net start sshd