mindterm – ssh connections via web browsers

Yesterday, I was writing about a webmail
application. The main reason I was installing that was to access my mail via a
web broswer. I spend time at sites without ssh access.

Today I was
told about an ssh connection which can be acheived via a web broswer: mindterm. For a list of features, see http://www.mindbright.se/mindterm/. In
short, mindterm is a java applet which acts as a terminal. It is also ssh
capable.

Installing

Remember, I have the entire ports tree
installed. So it was easy.

# cd /usr/ports/security/mindterm-binary
# make install

This installs files to /usr/local/share/java/mindterm/. I just copied
these files to somewhere on my fileserver:

cp /usr/local/share/java/mindterm/mindterm* /path/to/my/web/files/

To run the applet, browse to the file mindterm-ssh.html and the ssh
connection will begin.

Problems

None that I know of. But have a look at this screen (about 36KB) which shows what to expect when
you login.

I’m having someone look into the random number generation which mindterm
uses. As with anything, you should be cautious when it comes to security. I want to
know more. Watch this space.

I’ve heard reports of mindterm not working with IE5.01. I used Netscape 4.74 with
success. I’ve been told Netscape 4.08 works.

You may wish to look into signing that java code. See http://www.securingjava.com/appdx-c/ for
details.