How to SSH into a server from a node.js application? - linux

Question

var exec = require('child_process').exec;
exec('ssh my_ip',function(err,stdout,stderr){
console.log(err,stdout,stderr);
});
This just freezes - I guess, because ssh my_ip asks for password, is interactive, etc. How to do it correctly?

Answer 1

There's a node.js module written to perform tasks in SSH using node called ssh2 by mscdex. It can be found here. An example for what you're wanting (from the readme) would be:
var Connection = require('ssh2');
var c = new Connection();
c.on('connect', function() {
console.log('Connection :: connect');
});
c.on('ready', function() {
console.log('Connection :: ready');
c.exec('uptime', function(err, stream) {
if (err) throw err;
stream.on('data', function(data, extended) {
console.log((extended === 'stderr' ? 'STDERR: ' : 'STDOUT: ')
+ data);
});
stream.on('end', function() {
console.log('Stream :: EOF');
});
stream.on('close', function() {
console.log('Stream :: close');
});
stream.on('exit', function(code, signal) {
console.log('Stream :: exit :: code: ' + code + ', signal: ' + signal);
c.end();
});
});
});
c.on('error', function(err) {
console.log('Connection :: error :: ' + err);
});
c.on('end', function() {
console.log('Connection :: end');
});
c.on('close', function(had_error) {
console.log('Connection :: close');
});
c.connect({
host: '192.168.100.100',
port: 22,
username: 'frylock',
privateKey: require('fs').readFileSync('/here/is/my/key')
});

Answer 2

The other library on this page has a lower level API.
So I've wrote a lightweight wrapper for it. node-ssh which is also available on GitHub under the MIT license.
Here's an example on how to use it.
var driver, ssh;
driver = require('node-ssh');
ssh = new driver();
ssh.connect({
host: 'localhost',
username: 'steel',
privateKey: '/home/steel/.ssh/id_rsa'
})
.then(function() {
// Source, Target
ssh.putFile('/home/steel/.ssh/id_rsa', '/home/steel/.ssh/id_rsa_bkp').then(function() {
console.log("File Uploaded to the Remote Server");
}, function(error) {
console.log("Error here");
console.log(error);
});
// Command
ssh.exec('hh_client', ['--check'], { cwd: '/var/www/html' }).then(function(result) {
console.log('STDOUT: ' + result.stdout);
console.log('STDERR: ' + result.stderr);
});
});

Answer 3

The best way is to use promisify and async/await. Example:
const { promisify } = require('util');
const exec = promisify(require('child_process').exec);
export default async function (req, res) {
const { username, host, password } = req.query;
const { command } = req.body;
let output = {
stdout: '',
stderr: '',
};
try {
output = await exec(`sshpass -p ${password} ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no ${username}#${host} ${command}`);
} catch (error) {
output.stderr = error.stderr;
}
return res.status(200).send({ data: output, message: 'Output from the command' });
}

Answer 4

Check my code:
// redirect to https:
app.use((req, res, next) => {
if(req.connection.encrypted === true) // or (req.protocol === 'https') for express
return next();
console.log('redirect to https => ' + req.url);
res.redirect("https://" + req.headers.host + req.url);
});

Answer 5

pure js/node way to ssh into hosts. Special thanks to
ttfreeman. assumes ssh keys are on host. No need for request object.
const { promisify } = require('util');
const exec = promisify(require('child_process').exec);
require('dotenv').config()
//SSH into host and run CMD
const ssh = async (command, host) => {
let output ={};
try {
output['stdin'] = await exec(`ssh -o -v ${host} ${command}`)
} catch (error) {
output['stderr'] = error.stderr
}
return output
}
exports.ssh = ssh