akr

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Akamai MFA FIDO2 SSH Agent and CLI

The akr command line utility is an SSH Agent which works with the Akamai MFA authenticator apps for iOS and Android. Akr enables your mobile device to perform SSH authentication using a FIDO2 key generated by the Akamai MFA app.

akr runs as an SSH agent: when you run ssh [user@server], SSH asks the agent for a FIDO2 private key signature operation. This request is routed to a paired mobile phone (running the Akamai MFA app), where the user decides whether to allow the operation or not. If allowed, the phone simply sends the signature back to the agent. Private keys never leaves the phone.

⚠️ akr is currently in early-preview mode! Please contact us with any issues you find or feature suggestions.

Getting Started

First run

  1. First, run akr setup to create configurations and start the agent
  2. Next, pair your device: run akr pair
  3. Scan the QR code with the Akamai MFA app
  4. Run akr generate --name mykey to generate your first SSH key in Akamai MFA. This will output your SSH public key.
  5. Add your public key to a server or github.com
  6. You’re all set!

Overview of Commands

Usage:
akr [options] [command] [arguments]

Options:

Syntax Description
-V, –version Display the version number for the akr client.
-h, –help Display usage information for akr client.

Commands:

Command Description Example
setup Setup the background daemon and updates ssh configuration akr setup --ssh-config-path <ssh_config_file_path>
pair Pair with your phone/tablet akr pair
generate Generate a new SSH credential akr generate --name <ssh_credential_name>
unpair Unpair from your phone/tablet akr unpair
load Load public keys from the Akamai MFA app on your phone/tablet akr load
status Get pairing info from your phone/tablet akr status
check Health check of all the dep systems and system configs akr check

Requirements

Installation instructions

macOS (brew)

brew install akamai/mfa/akr
brew install pinentry-mac

Debian

curl -SsL https://akamai.github.io/akr-pkg/ubuntu/KEY.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo curl -SsL -o /etc/apt/sources.list.d/akr.list https://akamai.github.io/akr-pkg/ubuntu/akr.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install akr
sudo apt install pinentry-tty

CentOS/RHEL

sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/akr.repo

[akr]
name=akr repository
baseurl=https://akamai.github.io/akr-pkg/rpm/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1

sudo yum -y update

sudo yum -y install akr
sudo yum -y install pinentry-gtk

CentOS-9/RHEL-9

sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/akr.repo

[akr]
name=akr repository
baseurl=https://akamai.github.io/akr-pkg/rpm-9/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1

sudo yum -y update

sudo yum -y install akr
sudo yum -y install pinentry-gtk

Build from source

akr is built entirely with Rust. Ensure you have Rust installed (https://rustup.rs) and run cargo build.

Notes on Configuration

Running akr setup updates your SSH config file and installs the akr ssh-agent as a background service on your system. To see what akr configures, run akr setup --print-only.

The SSH config additions looks as follows:

# Begin Akamai MFA SSH Config
Host *
	IdentityAgent /Users/<username>/.akr/akr-ssh-agent.sock
# End Akamai MFA SSH Config

This enables your native system SSH to communicate to the akr ssh-agent process over a unix socket.

Notes

  1. You can also use your existing local RSA, ECDSA, ED25519 keys with akr as well. When you run akr setup, any existing local keys directly inside ~/.ssh folder gets loaded into the ssh-agent.
  2. If you have an ECDSA key, please make sure the private key is in PEM format.

Security Disclosure

For any security related questions, please contact our security team. Please disclose any issues responsibly using our Akamai Security GPG Public Key and send communications to security@akamai.com.

License

Copyright (c) 2021, Akamai Technologies. All rights reserved.

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