Granting SSH access to a Ruby on Rails user

Rails
1

I installed Rails and Rubygems on a web server for a customer who wants
to install a Ruby on Rails application that he developped.

He needs SSH access to interact with Ruby, so I’ll have to grant him
access, but I want him to only play around in his /home directory, as
this server also hosts other customers. How could I do that?

Thanks,

2

Basic users in *nix systems are restrictied to only changing things in
their
home directory. Be sure not to put the user in any groups that are more
powerful (e.g. wheel)

~ Ben

3

On 12 Jan 2006, at 19:25, Charles wrote:

I installed Rails and Rubygems on a web server for a customer who
wants
to install a Ruby on Rails application that he developped.

He needs SSH access to interact with Ruby, so I’ll have to grant him
access, but I want him to only play around in his /home directory, as
this server also hosts other customers. How could I do that?

Setup a Jailshell:

More secure, use Jailkit:

Or sell him a VM to play with :smiley:

Yours,
Craig

Craig W. | t: +44 (0)131 516 8595 | e: [email protected]
Xeriom.NET | f: +44 (0)131 661 0689 | w: http://xeriom.net

4

On Thu, 2006-01-12 at 20:25 +0100, Charles wrote:

I installed Rails and Rubygems on a web server for a customer who wants
to install a Ruby on Rails application that he developped.

He needs SSH access to interact with Ruby, so I’ll have to grant him
access, but I want him to only play around in his /home directory, as
this server also hosts other customers. How could I do that?

This is more of a question for a Unix user group not a Rails list. :slight_smile:

If you provide them SSH and have Ruby and RubyGems (with Rails
installed)… they should be able to play with it.

Robby

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5

Hi all,

On Friday 13 January 2006 06:50, Robby R. tried to type something
like:

If you provide them SSH and have Ruby and RubyGems (with Rails
installed)… they should be able to play with it.
Or you can build a rail app to have them do so … :slight_smile:

This was also meant seriously. I run a (small) hosting company, and have
people use rssh (rssh - restricted shell for scp/sftp). This is a child
forked
by ssh and therewith people can run sftp. A friend of mine runs
dreamwaver (a
win/flash dev app), and uploads with sftp very nicely.

So with a web app you can have people install gems, or you can provide
them
with a default set, and make them available yourself when requested.

Depending on the people who login on, the following is good to keep in
mind.
When people have access to a shell prompt over ssh, they’re past the
outside
perimiter (your firewall), and you have to keep a closer look at
software
exploits, rootkits and other flaws within your system.

A jailed ssh environment, can be done but has some angles, you should
look at.

regards,

Gerard.

Robby

–
“Who cares if it doesn’t do anything? It was made with our new
Triple-Iso-Bifurcated-Krypton-Gate-MOS process …”

My $Grtz =~ Gerard;
~
:wq!