A.P. Lawrence

Best of the Newsgroups: secure printing ssh

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From: Bob Rasmussen <ras@anzio.com>
Subject: Re: Encryption of printer files
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 08:29:39 -0700 References: <nRHza.19690$io.358154@iad-read.news.verio.net>

On Tue, 27 May 2003, moncho wrote:

> > 1. Some of the HP JetDirect devices appear to have SSL support. I have not
> > determined what kind of host level support there is.
>
> I believe this is thru their SD Express printing.
>
> http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?lc=en&docName=bpj07078

That's a start, but I find it difficult to get the big picture from HP
documents.

> ...
> If a person connects via a VPN connection with SSH how does
> pass-thru printing work?

I should have mentioned VPN as another solution. A VPN provides some
security for printing. Note that SSH and VPN are independent protocols.

Unix and Linux Support

>
> How are you able to send the print job back thru the tty?
>
> If you have any links that explains this, it would really help.

Passthru printing works with most terminal emulation products. A piece of
code on the server sends out a "printer on" escape sequence, then print
data, then a "printer off" sequence. See "A Guide to Passthrough Printing"
at http://www.anzio.com/support/whitepapers/printguide.htm

> >
> > We are also working on a feature called "back channel printing", again in
> > an SSH connection. With this feature, the multiplexing nature of SSH is
> > used to create a back channel, using a different pty on the host system.
> > Printout can be routed to that pty (which can be soft-linked to a knowable
> > name), and it again travels over the authenticated, encrypted session. In
> > this approach, the print data positively can not mix with the screen data,
> > and the Unix spooler can be used if desired.
>
> What do you mean by "soft-linked to a knowable name"?

The back channel is created on some pty, but that can change every time.
So how will the primary process know where to send the print data? The
solution is to soft-link the back channel's pty to a name based on the
username, primary pty, etc.

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras@anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi@anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
            fax: (US) 503-624-0760
            web: http://www.anzio.com

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