MimiKeePass

Main features:

• password-based SSH authentication with OpenSSH with the password stored in KeepPass (.kdbx) files.

Other features:

• can serve password from multiple KeePass files;
• automatically reloads the .kdbx file on change;
• support for socket-activation;
• support for exiting after some idle duration;
• support for KeePass field references;
• some support for bastions.

Basic usage

Running the KeePass daemon

Running the MimiKeePass daemon:

mimikeepass serve ./secrets.kdbx

This will prompt for the KeePass file(s) password(s) and will provide passwords to client applications.

CLI interface

mimikeepass password --url http://www.example.com --username john

OpenSSH client

In your KeePass file, add an entry for your SSH server:

• URL of the form ssh://server1.example.com;
• login johndoe;
• password.

The OpenSSH integration supports password-based authentication. You might need to disable keyboard interactive authentication for this server in you OpenSSH client configuration (~/.ssh/ssh_config):

Host server1.example.com
User johndoe
PreferredAuthentications publickey,password

Run OpenSSH with MimiKeePass integration:

miikeepass-run ssh server1.example.com

OpenSSH client with SSH bastion

If you have a bestion server which accepts connections of the form:

Host bastion.example.com
User [email protected]
PreferredAuthentications publickey,password

Host server1.example.com
Hostname bastion.example.com
User root@XXXX@server1:SSH:XXXX:[email protected]
PreferredAuthentications publickey,password

Host server1.example.com
Hostname bastion.example.com
User root@XXXX@server2:SSH:XXXX:[email protected]
PreferredAuthentications publickey,password

You can use a shared KeePass entry:

• URL of the form ssh://bastion.example.com;
• login [email protected];
• password.

Stability

CLI interface is probably going to be quite stable.

Python API is not stable (for now).

Protocol (varlink) interface is not stable (for now).

Potential impovements

• logging
• support for OpenVPN (using the management interface)
• notifications using OSC 777, OSC 99, OSC 9
• notifications using BEL
• FreeDesktop notifications
• optional integration with FreeDesktop Secret Service?

Questions

OpenSSH integration

Why using password based authentication when you can use public key authentication?

If you can use public key authentication authentication, you probably should. However sometimes, you need to connect to SSH servers which do not support public key authentication for some reason.

Misc.

Why not using Secret Service (possibly with KeePassXC support for the Secret Service interface)?

You can only have a single Secret Service daemon running in your session at the same time. However, you might want to have some secrets stored in your system Secret Service and other password stored in a KeePass file. Using a dedicated daemon which is not using the Secret Service API makes it possible to run a Mimikeepass independently of your system Secret Service daemon.

You can even launch several independant MimiKeePass daemons (using different sockets). This is achieved using the MIMIKEEPASS_SOCKET environment variable.