03-10-2013
Even if you encrypt the password somehow you would have to provide a mechanism available to the script to decrypt it, so you gain nothing. It is a fact that "ftp" uses clear-text passwords and this intrinsic insecurity cannot be changed or alleviated in any way. As the password is sent clear-text over the net in the login process every interested party can sniff it from there too. There is no way to prevent this. (Btw., the same is true for "telnet" and the other classical means of connecting from one system to the other.)
The only way is to use a securified means of communication: ssh/scp to be precise. In this case the password gets transmitted in an encrypted form, so sniffing is ruled out. You can also set up a "chain of trust" between two user/host-combinations so that userA from hostA can connect as userB to hostB without using a password (so you don't have to state one in your script) but using an exchanged secret both involved parties know. The basic procedure is to connect once, identified by the password and then to store the other hosts secret to a config file so that further connections do not need a password any more.
We have several threads dealing with the setup of such a mechanism, so i suggest you do a forum search for "scp" and/or "ssh" installation.
I hope this helps.
bakunin
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LEARN ABOUT OPENSOLARIS
scp
scp(1) User Commands scp(1)
NAME
scp - secure copy (remote file copy program)
SYNOPSIS
scp [-pqrvBC46] [-F ssh_config] [-S program] [-P port]
[-c cipher] [-i identity_file] [-o ssh_option]
[ [user@]host1:]file1 []... [ [user@]host2:]file2
DESCRIPTION
The scp utility copies files between hosts on a network. It uses ssh(1) for data transfer, and uses the same authentication and provides
the same security as ssh(1). Unlike rcp(1), scp will ask for passwords or passphrases if they are needed for authentication.
Any file name may contain a host and user specification to indicate that the file is to be copied to/from that host. Copies between two
remote hosts are permitted.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-4 Forces scp to use IPv4 addresses only.
-6 Forces scp to use IPv6 addresses only.
-B Selects batch mode. (Prevents asking for passwords or passphrases.)
-c cipher Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data transfer. This option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-C Compression enable. Passes the -C flag to ssh(1) to enable compression.
-F ssh_config Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for ssh(1.).
-i identity_file Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for RSA authentication is read. This option is directly passed
to ssh(1).
-o ssh_option The given option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-p Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from the original file.
-P port Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host. Notice that this option is written with a capital `P', because -p
is already reserved for preserving the times and modes of the file in rcp(1).
-q Disables the progress meter.
-r Recursively copies entire directories.
-S program Specifies the name of the program to use for the encrypted connection. The program must understand ssh(1) options.
-v Verbose mode. Causes scp and ssh(1) to print debugging messages about their progress. This is helpful in debugging con-
nection, authentication, and configuration problems.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
host1, host2,... The name(s) of the host from or to which the file is to be copied.
file1, file2,... The file(s) to be copied.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
1 An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |SUNWsshu |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Evolving |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO
rcp(1), ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), sshd(1M), ssh_config(4), attributes(5)
NOTES
Generally, use of scp with password or keyboard-interactive authentication method and two remote hosts does not work. It does work with
either the pubkey, hostbased or gssapi-keyex authentication method. For the pubkey authentication method, either private keys not pro-
tected by a passphrase, or an explicit ssh agent forwarding have to be used. The gssapi-keyex authentication method works with the ker-
beros_v5 GSS-API mechanism, but only if the GSSAPIDelegateCredentials option is enabled.
SunOS 5.11 22 Jun 2007 scp(1)