sFTP protocol

The sFTP protocol is a secure FTP protocol or ftp over SSH. This protocol differs from the FTPS protocol described earlier. Both are supported.

When sFTP is selected, you can authenticate through a password, a private/public key pair, or the combination of a password and private/public key pair. When the private/public key pair is used for authentication, both FTP client and the FTP server have their own pairs. Their public keys must be exchanged. In ION there is no key generation feature. To use this mode of authentication, perform these steps:

Ask your security provider for a Private/Public key pair for ION. You can also create a key pair for ION with a third party key generation tool that supports the OpenSSH format such as Puttygen..

Note: When using the PuTTYgen tool to generate a private key, use Export OpenSSH key function from Conversions menu. Do not click Save Private key. Otherwise private key is not exported in required OpenSSH format.
Import the Private key of ION’s pair together with its passphrase using Client Private Key Passphrase and Import the Client Private Key fields.
Share the Public key of ION’s pair with the FTP administrator of the file server.

Obtain the Public key of FTP server from the FTP administrator and import it into ION from the File connection point details page.

This table shows the sFTP specific properties:


Property	Description
Authentication using public and private keys	Select this check box to enable authentication using public and private keys.
Import Host public key	Import server public key in openSSH format, with this structure: <modeled host name> <public key type> <public key> An example: nlbanhoudetan01 ssh-rsa AAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAA…
Client Private Key Passphrase	Specify Client Private Key Passphrase.
Import User Private key	Import client private key in openSSH format. Private keys that are generated in OpenSSH format earlier than version 7.8 are supported only.

If a private/public key pair or a combination of password and private/public key pair is selected as the Authentication Method, you can define advanced sFTP connection properties by selecting the Show additional sFTP properties check box. This also applies to the sFTP from Cloud connection points. See sFTP Advanced Properties.

Note: ION supports dual authentication (password and private/public key pair) but does not require it. The server requests the private/public key and password authentication. When you select dual authentication, ION first authenticates through the private/public key pair. If the authentication is successful, then the password is not used.