Mystic BBS: Accepting new users via SSH? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cfriedel1234 · 2019-04-24 05:53 Hi. New to Mystic and have a question to anyone who could help. I'd like the BBS I am creating to be SSH only, but still allow for new users to create accounts. The problem is, because SSH requires a username, the preuser screen and the username login never shows, meaning new users cannot create new accounts. ​ Looking into this, the only way I can see to allow this is to create a limited account, then create an option in the limited user's main menu to go to the newuser menu and create a new user. This is kind of a kludge though as it requires a dummy user on the BBS that people would have to know about. Would rather avoid telnet if possible. Anyone happen to know of any other ways I could have the SSH login show the preuser page and the user login prompt so that new users could be made without the dummy user? Appreciate the help. Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OldSchoolBBSer · 2019-04-24 15:23 Unsure how feasible this is, but wondered the same in past. Best I can figure is to write a python script for "guest"/"anonymous" user and set it as the shell. Then have the script automate account creation for the BBS somehow. Then telnet connection can just be set similarly to spit out "Use 'guest' to setup BBS account over SSH." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OldSchoolBBSer · 2019-04-24 15:25 password would also be guest/anonymous. Also, I'm referring to trying to run a BBS on linux for that, so it'd probably have to be Synchronet. No clue how it'd be done on Windows host. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dperry324 · 2019-04-24 17:39 Maybe have a web-based new user sign-up? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -CatX- · 2019-04-24 19:08 To my knowledge this has not been done before but it's certainly feasible. If I were to do it on my BBS I'd make a MPL or python program for it, as those have direct access to the database files and can also check the input using predefined functions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -CatX- · 2019-04-24 19:08 Mystic BBS supports both linux and windows ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dustyshackleford · 2019-04-24 21:26 I don't think you need an intermediary script to do this but you have the right idea with the shell. In the past I have created a unix user 'bbs' without a password, set the shell to be the bbs logging on in local mode (so just running mystic in this case), and added a message along the lines of "Log in as user 'bbs' to access the BBS" to `/etc/issue`. Mystic prompts for username when it opens and the host kills the connection when the "shell" exits. Has been a few years since I set this up but I don't think I had to do anything further. Keep in mind this is using OpenSSH and not the built in stuff. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cfriedel1234 · 2019-04-25 03:33 I'll try this out. Thanks for the help! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cfriedel1234 · 2019-04-25 03:34 Thanks to everyone for the input. I am going to try setting up mystic as the shell and setting the issue so that it lets people know to log in as BBS. I'll post here if that didn't work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OldSchoolBBSer · 2019-04-25 18:40 Does this drop user to a shell over telnet to get the message or does Mystic show message itself and then drops without allowing user to shell? Confused. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OldSchoolBBSer · 2019-04-25 19:19 Hey, I just found this. https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/change-openssh- sshd-server-login-banner.html l was thinking about PAM, but it looks like SSH2 may have the option. If user does 'ssh whatever.com' it should still send a username, so I think they could still see the banner. Then just have "Please reconnect using un:bbs, pw:bbs for BBS and account creation." Ideally, there may be a way to have it drop right away after message. It reminded though, I've seen un:bbs, pw:bbs used for SSH as the "unwritten standard" bbs account similar to how un:anonymous, pw:anonymous used to be common back in the day. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- denzuko · 2022-08-08 21:39 Well one option here is to enable a standard unix `guest` account (e.g. `ssh guest@myboard.example.com`) with a custom shell that drops a user into the new user creation menu via `/mysticbbs/mystic -NEWUSER`