SSH public key: Perl parsing library

SSH public keys are encoded in a special binary format, typically represented to end users as either one-liner OpenSSH format or multi-line PEM format (commerical SSH). Text wrapper carries extra information about user who created the key, comment, etc, but the inner binary is always base64-encoded and follows the same internal format.

This format spec deals with this internal binary format (called "blob" in openssh sources) only. Buffer is expected to be raw binary and not base64-d. Implementation closely follows code in OpenSSH.

KS implementation details

License: CC0-1.0

This page hosts a formal specification of SSH public key using Kaitai Struct. This specification can be automatically translated into a variety of programming languages to get a parsing library.

Perl source code to parse SSH public key

SshPublicKey.pm

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# This is a generated file! Please edit source .ksy file and use kaitai-struct-compiler to rebuild

use strict;
use warnings;
use IO::KaitaiStruct 0.009_000;
use Encode;

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{key_name} = SshPublicKey::Cstring->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    my $_on = $self->key_name()->value();
    if ($_on eq "ssh-rsa") {
        $self->{body} = SshPublicKey::KeyRsa->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    }
    elsif ($_on eq "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256") {
        $self->{body} = SshPublicKey::KeyEcdsa->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    }
    elsif ($_on eq "ssh-ed25519") {
        $self->{body} = SshPublicKey::KeyEd25519->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    }
    elsif ($_on eq "ssh-dss") {
        $self->{body} = SshPublicKey::KeyDsa->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    }
}

sub key_name {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{key_name};
}

sub body {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{body};
}

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey::KeyRsa;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{rsa_e} = SshPublicKey::Bignum2->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{rsa_n} = SshPublicKey::Bignum2->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
}

sub key_length {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{key_length} if ($self->{key_length});
    $self->{key_length} = $self->rsa_n()->length_in_bits();
    return $self->{key_length};
}

sub rsa_e {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{rsa_e};
}

sub rsa_n {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{rsa_n};
}

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey::KeyEd25519;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{len_pk} = $self->{_io}->read_u4be();
    $self->{pk} = $self->{_io}->read_bytes($self->len_pk());
}

sub len_pk {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{len_pk};
}

sub pk {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{pk};
}

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey::KeyEcdsa;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{curve_name} = SshPublicKey::Cstring->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{ec} = SshPublicKey::EllipticCurve->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
}

sub curve_name {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{curve_name};
}

sub ec {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{ec};
}

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey::Cstring;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{len} = $self->{_io}->read_u4be();
    $self->{value} = Encode::decode("ASCII", $self->{_io}->read_bytes($self->len()));
}

sub len {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{len};
}

sub value {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{value};
}

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey::KeyDsa;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{dsa_p} = SshPublicKey::Bignum2->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{dsa_q} = SshPublicKey::Bignum2->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{dsa_g} = SshPublicKey::Bignum2->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{dsa_pub_key} = SshPublicKey::Bignum2->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
}

sub dsa_p {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{dsa_p};
}

sub dsa_q {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{dsa_q};
}

sub dsa_g {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{dsa_g};
}

sub dsa_pub_key {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{dsa_pub_key};
}

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey::EllipticCurve;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{len} = $self->{_io}->read_u4be();
    $self->{body} = $self->{_io}->read_bytes($self->len());
}

sub len {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{len};
}

sub body {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{body};
}

########################################################################
package SshPublicKey::Bignum2;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{len} = $self->{_io}->read_u4be();
    $self->{body} = $self->{_io}->read_bytes($self->len());
}

sub length_in_bits {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{length_in_bits} if ($self->{length_in_bits});
    $self->{length_in_bits} = (($self->len() - 1) * 8);
    return $self->{length_in_bits};
}

sub len {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{len};
}

sub body {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{body};
}

1;