How to establish SFTP connection to a server using a ppk file

punitpawar has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

So I want to connect to a SFTP server using a ppk file that is provided to me. I am able to establish the SFTP connection to this server using a client like FileZilla and using an utility like Pageant ( to upload the PPK file ). However I am not able to achieve this task of connecting to the server via Perl. Please find my code snippet below which I am using to establish the connection

use Net::SFTP;
use Net::SSH::Perl::Auth;

#!/usr/bin/perl 

$ENV{HOME} = "C:\\Perl\\myscripts\\etc";

my $host = 'test.secure01.batch.netgiro.com';
my %args = (
user => 'vistaprint_test',
ssh_args => { identity_files => ["/home/ssh/id_rsa"], 
protocol=>'2,1',
debug=>'true'} );

my $sftp = Net::SFTP->new($host, %args);
print "connected!";
[download]

-------------------------------- SO for my ssh_args hash above, I am not sure what value should I include for the key 'Identity_files' I tried to point it to the PPK file which I have with me...but it did not help at all.... I get the following output

DEVPPAWAR: Reading configuration data C:\Perl\myscripts\etc/.ssh/confi
+g
DEVPPAWAR: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
DEVPPAWAR: Connecting to test.secure01.batch.netgiro.com, port 22.
DEVPPAWAR: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSS
+H_4.3
DEVPPAWAR: Net::SSH::Perl Version 1.34, protocol version 2.0.
DEVPPAWAR: No compat match: OpenSSH_4.3.
DEVPPAWAR: Connection established.
DEVPPAWAR: Sent key-exchange init (KEXINIT), wait response.
DEVPPAWAR: Algorithms, c->s: 3des-cbc hmac-sha1 none
DEVPPAWAR: Algorithms, s->c: 3des-cbc hmac-sha1 none
DEVPPAWAR: Entering Diffie-Hellman Group 1 key exchange.
DEVPPAWAR: Sent DH public key, waiting for reply.
DEVPPAWAR: Received host key, type 'ssh-dss'.
DEVPPAWAR: Host 'test.secure01.batch.netgiro.com' is known and matches
+ the host
key.
DEVPPAWAR: Computing shared secret key.
DEVPPAWAR: Verifying server signature.
DEVPPAWAR: Waiting for NEWKEYS message.
DEVPPAWAR: Send NEWKEYS.
DEVPPAWAR: Enabling encryption/MAC/compression.
DEVPPAWAR: Sending request for user-authentication service.
DEVPPAWAR: Service accepted: ssh-userauth.
DEVPPAWAR: Trying empty user-authentication request.
DEVPPAWAR: Authentication methods that can continue: publickey,gssapi-
+with-mic,p
assword.
DEVPPAWAR: Next method to try is publickey.
DEVPPAWAR: Next method to try is password.
DEVPPAWAR: Trying password authentication.
DEVPPAWAR: Will not query passphrase in batch mode.
DEVPPAWAR: Authentication methods that can continue: publickey,gssapi-
+with-mic,password.
.
.
.
DEVPPAWAR: Next method to try is publickey.
DEVPPAWAR: Next method to try is password.
Permission denied at C:/strawberry/perl/site/lib/Net/SFTP.pm line 62
[download]

Any help on this would be highly appreciated....I am on a Windows machine . Please let me know if any more info is needed .... Thanks a lot for the help !!!

Comment on How to establish SFTP connection to a server using a ppk file Select or Download Code

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Re: How to establish SFTP connection to a server using a ppk file by thewebsi (Scribe) on Jul 20, 2012 at 06:27 UTC
Mostly responding because no one else has... PPK is a file format used by PuTTY (which Pageant is part of), and not really by any other software. The SSH (.pub) open standard is much more common, and supported by Net::SFTP. You can use PuTTYGen to export to the OpenSSH format, and use that instead. Arnon Weinberg Back2Front - The Web Site People	[reply]
Re^2: How to establish SFTP connection to a server using a ppk file by punitpawar (Sexton) on Jul 20, 2012 at 15:32 UTC
HI Arnon, Thanks for the reply.So the ppk file which I am currently using to load via Pagent has the following content : `PuTTY-User-Key-File-2: ssh-rsa Encryption: none Comment: imported-openssh-key Public-Lines: 4 AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAIEAlZaCpbUY1cVpO3D8i74QA0PnlExO2hOpS+mh ...bl +a bla bla Private-Lines: 8 AAAAgDNJi+EK4/GFgypSn7riFB5gbKffpgGgV006KOcQnKv2d3G2mRUaT5zHkk08 ...bl +a bla bla Private-MAC: 21d2a17d1378533ce907f67ca647f217ab35c548` [download] So by just looking at the file I guess it includes the publi c and private key which it uses to connect to the SFTP server. I tried to export the OPen SSH format as you mentioned earlier via puttygen for this file and saved the file as "Identity" . But not sure if there is a need for me to load the same file twice and save it once as Private Key and then for Public key.....PLease correct me If I am wrong here...This is only because I have one file which I assume has public and private key both in it.....(coz th eppk file says "public lines ....Private lines" Also what would be the arguments that I would need to given in my hash (ssh_args) for identity files ? Do the Identity files point to the public or private key location folder ? Currently by default it generates a file known as "Known_hosts2" in my home directory... IF you could give me some guidance on this that would be great... Thanks again for your time and help !!	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: How to establish SFTP connection to a server using a ppk file by thewebsi (Scribe) on Jul 20, 2012 at 18:45 UTC
This is stepping outside the realm of Perl now, and is more of an SSH question. Typically the client only needs one file - the private key / identity - which is installed locally, and would be referred to by your Net::SFTP call (in identity_files). The public key is installed on the server-side, which I assume is already done if you connected successfully via FileZilla. The known_hosts file is something else, not really related to this. You might want to spend a few minutes reading up about SSH to learn more. Arnon Weinberg Back2Front - The Web Site People	[reply]