Subj : Re: icy_term
To   : esc
From : fusion
Date : Sat Aug 26 2023 06:51 pm

On 26 Aug 2023, esc said the following...
 
 es> Gotcha, that's cool. I've been toying with the idea of writing a simple
 es> BBS frontend to handle all inbound connections and then route them

if you're going to do SSH i'd use libssh (not related to libssh2). it allows a bit more freedom in how the ssh session progresses. for example as far as 'ssh' the protocol is concerned, by the time you're verifying username and password, all the encryption stuff is done, so you could have an ssh login prompt that is an entire ansi with cursor positioning stuff. if you use PuTTY, or perhaps others, ssh would then behave exactly like telnet. no weird jank with passwords nor the ugly ssh username prompt.

you could also check if the user pre-sent login/password. if they did, save it. if one isn't provided, simply set the user as (for ssh) logged in. no prompt no nothin. the bbs login would progress just like over telnet. but if they sent one, you could have your sshd watch for login: once just like a scriptable telnet client would and pre-fill that data.

maybe if you use a script like "press escape to load the bbs" you can make that script accept the IP address of the user by pressing another character, so then the IP is passed somehow to the BBS as well.

or do some weird stuff like if they use the pre-filled login/pass, maybe the login/pass changes which bbs the sshd telnets to locally.

i duno, there's some cool stuff that could be done with it i think.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
 * Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

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