Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 2011, 4, 311-315
doi:10.4236/jsea.2011.45034 Published Online May 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jsea)
311
Secure File Multi Transfer Protocol Design
Murali Krishna, Pradeep Jamwal, K. S. R. Chaitanya, B. Vinod Kumar
Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering, Visakha p at nam, India.
Received March 28th, 2011; revised April 22nd, 2011; accepted April 30th, 2011.
ABSTRACT
As the internet grows in popularity and therefore also in size more and more transmission takes place mainly because
the technology is more readily available and applications have become more user friendly allowing entry to less so-
phisticated user o ver a broad spectrum. Most data tran sfer are mainly text based not secure and vulnerable to various
forms of security risks. So the model tha t uses SSH for securing channel like intranet/internet which provid es client au-
thentication encryp tion and decryption with high d egree of security by transferring the data in an encrypted format, up
on this model enhances the efficiency of data transmission by encrypting or decrypting the data with AES in Counter
Mode. AES is a symmetric key encryption standard. Moreover the permutation controlled by data can be performed at
high speed in generic cpu. This scheme also expands the key space without costing more to run. And also finally
through the combination of secure shell (ssh) and AES (Counter Mode) not only enhances the security of communica-
tion channel. It also provides various applications like remote user creation, remote user deletion, remote command
execution, remote system shutdown, remote file transfer applications in a highly secure manner.
Keywords: Remote SSH, AES, Remote Administration
1. Introduction
This paper addresses the problem of providing a secure
means of client to client or server to server or client to
server over an insecure channel like internet. The paper
aims to use the SSH and AES in Counter Mode which is
the enhanced algorithm for securing the transmission
channel between any two remote computers.
1.1. Secure Shell
SSH™ (or Secure Shell) is a protocol which facilitates
secure communication between two systems using a cli-
ent/server architecture and allows users to log into server
host systems remotely. Unlike other remote communica-
tion protocols, such as FTP or Telnet, SSH encrypts the
login session, making it impossible for intruders to col-
lect unencrypted passwords.
SSH is designed to replace older, less secure terminal
applications used to log into remote hosts, such as telnet
or rsh. A related program called scp replaces older pro-
grams designed to copy files between hosts, such as rcp.
Because these older applications do not encrypt pass-
words transmitted between the client and the server,
avoid them whenever possible. Using secure methods to
log into remote systems decreases the risks for both the
client system and the remote host. This increasing the
remote file transfer solutions and it also increases the
popularity has been fueled by the broader availability of
commercially developed and supported client and server
applications for windows, Unix and other platforms and
by the effort of the OPENSSH [1] project to develop an
open source im pl ementati on.
1.2. Features of SSH:
The SSH protocol provides the following safeguards:
 After an initial connection, the client can verify that it
is connecting to the same server it had connected to pre-
viously.
 The client transmits its authentication information to
the server using strong, 128-bit encryption.
 All data sent and received during a session is trans-
ferred using 128-bit encryption, making intercepted
transmissions extremely difficult to decrypt and read.
The client can forward X11 [2] applications from the
server. This technique, called X11 forwarding, provides a
secure means to use graphical applications over a net-
work. Because the SSH protocol encrypts everything
sends and receives, it can be used to secure otherwise
insecure protocols. Using a technique called port for-
warding, an SSH server can become a conduit to secur-
ing otherwise insecure protocols, like POP, and increase-

Secure File Multi Transfer Protocol Design
312
ing overall system and data insecurity.
According to Shannon [3] claims that SSH has three
main capabilities. Secure command shell: such as those
available to Linux, UNIX, Windows or the familiar DOS
prompt, provide the ability to execute programs and other
commands, usually with character input and output. Port
forwarding: allows TCP/IP applications data to be se-
curely transmitted over insecure ch annels.
Secure file transfer: SFTP is an interactive file transfer
protocol which performs all operations over the SSH
transport layer and is replacement for the original SCP
protocol existed in SSH. It is highly recommended that
SFTP is used to perform the file transfer in preference to
the legacy FTP protocol. As in the latter, authentication
details are transmitted in plain text format and such may
be compromised through “password sniffing” attacks.
The former also uses the same port as the SSH server,
eliminating the need to open another port on the firewall
of the router.
According to the van Shannon [3] the SSH protocol
provides four basic security benefits. Which are user au-
thentication, data encryption, and data integrity?
Authentication: public based and host based authenti-
cation .of these, public key authentication is one of the
most secure methods to authenticate using SSH. Public
key authentication uses a public/private key pair, gener-
ated typically by using key generation utility.
Data Encryption: when a client establishes a connec-
tion with SSH server or independent servers they must
agree with cipher they will use to encrypt and decrypt
data. The server generally supports the list of ciphers it
supports. And the client then selects the first cipher in its
list that matches one on the server’s list. Session keys are
the “shared keys” described above and are randomly
generated. Both the client and server use the same key
for both encryption and decryption.
Data Integrity: even with SSH encryption, the data
being sent over the network could still be vulnerable to
someone inserting unwanted data into the data. SSH uses
HMAC algorithms to greatly improve up on SSH’s sim-
ple 32-bit CRC data integ rity checking method.
SSH enabled applications are gaining popularity be-
cause of the security they supply for the task carried out
over the network. Some of the popular one are putty,
SSH client for windows and VNC over SSH [4]. As a
security protocols’ has not been as popular as SSL [5].
1.3. The Realization of AES Algorithm
Figure 1 describes AES is a symmetric block cipher
having variable key and fixed data length. The key
lengths can be independently chosen as 128, 192 or 256
bits, which result in 10, 12 and 14 rounds of operation
Figure 1. Rounds in AES algorithm.
respectively. The data length is howeve r fixed to 128 bits.
The input as well as intermediate data can be considered
as a matrix with four rows and four columns called state.
Each element of the matrix is composed of eight bits,
therefore enabling efficient implementation of AES on 8
bit platforms also. AES is mainly used to ensure secrecy
in important communications, such as those of govern-
ment covert operations, military leaders, and diplomats
SubBytes-a non-linear substitution step where each
byte is replaced with another according to a lookup table.
ShiftRows-a transposition step where each row of the
state is shifted cyclically a certain number of steps.
Mix Columns-a mixing operation which operates on
the columns of the state, combining the four bytes in
each column.
AddRou ndK ey- each byte of the state is combined
with the round key using bitwise XOR.
AES in Counter Mode: CTR mode (CM) is also
known as integer counter mode (ICM) and segmented
integer counter (SIC) mode. Counter mode turns a block
cipher into a stream cipher as shown in Figure 2. It gen-
erates the next key stream block by encrypting succes-
sive values of a “counter”. The counter can be any func-
tion which produces a sequence which is guaranteed not
to repeat for a long time, although an actual counter is

Secure File Multi Transfer Protocol Design313
Figure 2. Counter mode encry ption.
the simplest and most popular. The usage of a simple
deterministic input function used to be controversial;
critics argued that “deliberately exposing a cryptosystem
to a known systematic input represents an unnecessary
risk.” By now, CTR mode is widely accepted, and prob-
lems resulting from the input function are recognized as a
weakness of the underlying block cipher instead of the
CTR mode. Nevertheless, there are specialized attacks
like a Hardware Fault Attack that is based on the usage
of a simple counter function as input. CTR mode has
similar characteristics to OFB, but also allows a random
access property during decryption. CTR mode is well
suited to operation on a multi-pro c- essor machine where
blocks can be encrypted in parallel.
2. Contribution
The running time that DES took as much as irrational
DES. i.e. the confidentiality of the key is enhanced
without spending more time, secondly based on the same
plain text and key, the cipher text of DES after several
simulation is the same, but it is random about the DES
with irrational numbers. i.e. the key space is expanded
through increasing the randomness of sub- keys and it is
combined with secure shell protocol the proposed model
provides maximum amount of security to an insecure
communication link between remote clients and servers.
This model enhances the security of communication
channel. In which some of the following aspects are
unique. The system offers supreme security due to dou-
ble encryption. i.e. once with irrational DES and once
with RSA in builtness of SSH protocol. SSH is normally
used to secure applications like Telnet, and FTP but in
this model it is used very similar to SSL. Like SSL, it
runs over TCP/IP and secures the data sent between
TCP/IP or client/server applications, retaining all the
security benefits of SSH. Not only that SSH also pro-
vides various administration applications like remote
command execution, remote user creation or deletion or
remote shutdown or reboot or file transfer application in
an highly secure manner.
3. Desighn and Implementation
Figure 1 and Figure 6 showed the arrangement of high
level secure communicatio n of clients to server or clients
to clients.
3.1. SSH Server Application Implementation
The GUI is where the user interact s with the system. It
receives data input from user and displays received in-
formation in both encrypted format and sent data also.
3.2. SSH Client Application Implementation
The process of setting up an SSH secured communica-
tion channel is as follows:- configure the encryption al-
gorithms for use from client to server and from server to
client—configure the hash algorithm used in both direc-
tions—use this properties (containing the configurations)
object and use this as parameter for establishing a SSH
connection and subsequently returning a handle on the
connection by means of an object—use the toolkit’s
password authentication method s-instantiate the channel
class, and use the channel object as a parameter for the
open channel method (of SSH connection object).
Through SSH connection and with irrational DES the
multiple messages also can be passed to the various cli-
ent to servers.
Automatic login remote host
The person under consideration is the system adminis-
trator. He has different responsibilities while working in
a network. He may have a requirement to login to client
systems and do the necessary modifications. For this, if
he is coerced to key in the password then there is a high
probability for the password to be sniffed and intruders
attacking the system? To overcome these hurdles we
have provided the feature, automatic login to remote host
which shown in Figure 3.
Creating users/Deleting users
The system administrator has the responsibility of su-
pervising the network. In this effort, he might be required
users in the system. So, this feature allows him to create
users which are shown in Figure 4.
Steps:
1) Connect to the remote host through secure shell.
2) Provide proper password through secure shell.
3) Crate the users through command “user add” by
sending command in encrypted format using secure shell.
Execution of command(eg. ls, cat, finger, find)
Unix supports commands like cat, finger, find etc. each
command is a file. The commands are executed to ac-
complish different functionalities. For example, “ls”
command is used to list all the files. So, this feature al-
lows administrator to execute the different commands
which are shown in Figure 5. And the steps follows for
remote command execution are:
Steps:
1) Connect to the remote host through secure shell.
2) Provide proper password through secure shell.

Secure File Multi Transfer Protocol Design
314
Figure 3. SSH remote acce sing.
Figure 4. SSH remote user creation or deletion.
Figure 5. SSH remote command execution.
Figure 6. Secure file transfer.
3) Execution of any command will be done by passing
corresponding executable command.
Rebooting/shut down of remote system
In some cases, after installing the software the system
may be required to reboot. In this regard, the system ad-
ministrator can reboot the remote system after the soft-
ware has been installed.
Steps:
1) Connect to the remote host through secure shell.
2) Provide proper password thorough secure shell.
3) Reboot or shut down of the remote system will be
done through the “power off” command.
4. Tests & Results
This section provides some of the tests carried out and
presents their results.
4.1. Channel Confidentiality
Verifying whether the data can be transmitted between
client and server is in fact encrypted both with AES with
counter mode and SSH protocol which protecting the sys-
tem against passive attacks which is shown in:

Secure File Multi Transfer Protocol Design
315
Data: Hai how ru This is our project
SSH with AES with Counter Mode:
Encrypted data:
  P PDXABF F[FZV FCAXXV > l
Encrypted data SSH with AES in C o unt er M ode.
4.2. SSH with AES in Counter Mode Time
Comparisons
Table 1 describes the comparison of encryption or de-
cryption time periods with existing DES and SSH with
irrational DES.
EAESt—encryption time period for existing AES.
EAESCTRt—encryption time period for SSH with
AES in Counter Mode.
DAESt—decryption time period for existing AES.
DAESCTRt—decryption time period for SSH with
AES in Counter Mode.
4.3. SSH with AES in Counter Mode Cipher
Text Comparisons
Table 2 describes about the cipher text generation for
Table 1. Time comparisons for AES vs AES with counter
mode.
Data
Size Eaest Eaesctrt Daest Daesctrt
1 KB 411 msec 413 msec 407 ms 409 ms
512 B 298 msec 299 msec 276 ms 277 ms
256 B 159.4 ms 160 msec 147.4 ms 148 ms
128 B 84.7 ms 85 ms 85.7 ms 86 ms
Table 2. Cipher text comparisons for AES SSH AESCTR.
Paes Caes Paesctr Caesctr
Hai how ru
This is our
project
Cbcc883cd0d
3be-
aafo66259c76
328078b
Hai how r u
This is our
project

PPD XAB

FF[

FZ

VFCAXX

V>l
existing AES and SSH with AES with Counter Mode in
which the cipher text for the same plain text is always
different with existing DES whereas differ in SSH with
AES in Counter Mode which causes a high security of
protection against the attacks for the message.
CAES—cipher text for existing AES.
CAESCTR—cipher text for SSH with AES in Counter
Mode.
PAES—plain text for existing AES.
PAESCTR—plain text for SSH with AES in Counter
Mode.
5. Conclusions
The results presented in Section 4 are extremely good.
They clearly showed that: the data being transmitted be-
tween client and server is in fact encrypted, protecting
the system against passive attacks. And not only that the
running time that existing AES took as much as that of
SSH with Counter Mode in AES. And the confidentiality
of the key is enhanced without spending more time. And
the based on the same plain text and the key the cipher
text of AES after several simulation is not same but it is
random about the SSH with Counter Mode in AES.
REFERENCES
[1] Open SSH, “The Open SSH Project [Online],” 2002.
http://www.openssh.org
[2] A. J. Menezes, “Elliptic Curve Public Key Cryptosys-
tems,” 1st Edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Dordrecht, 1993.
[3] C. E. Shannon, “Communication Theory of Secrecy Sys-
tems,” Bell Systems Technical Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4,
1949, pp. 656-715.
[4] SSH Tools, “Open Source SSH Toolkit for Java
[Online],” 2003. http://www.sshtools.com.
[5] J. Daemen and V. Rijmen, “AES—the Advanced Encryp-
tion Standard,” Springer, Berlin, 2002.