Windows – How to add/remove drives to Windows OpenSSH SFTP server

opensshsftpwindows 10winscp

I've setup the built-in OpenSSH in Windows 10 and connected remotely via WinSCP SFTP protocol. I seem to have access to all folders in my C: drive, but I cannot access the external drives of my computer. Going to the "root" folder just lists the C: drive. I tried creating a soft directory symlinks in a directory that I can access, but that doesn't seem to work. They appear as files in WinSCP and I cannot access them. How can I add them? Also, is there a way to restrict access to certain folders if I wanted to share access to only certain folders of my server?

Best Answer

While some Windows SFTP servers do implement a virtual root folder which lists available drives, Win32-OpenSSH does not. It redirects the root folder / to /C:/ (or maybe to a system drive).

If you want to visit another drive, you have to manually change a working directory.

In WinSCP GUI, you can do that using "Open Directory" command and typing a path to the desired drive, like /D:/.
In command-line SFTP clients, like OpenSSH sftp, PuTTY psftp or WinSCP scripting, you can use cd command, like:
```
cd /D:/
```

There's actually WinSCP FAQ for How do I change drive on the remote panel?

Regarding your attempt to solve this using a symlink: A symlink really shows as a file in WinSCP (as the server presents it as an unknown file type). But a directory junction shows as a directory (the server presents it as a regular directory, not a link). Though since WinSCP 5.14.2, you can make WinSCP try to enter "file" using Ctrl+PgDn.

Related Solutions

How to add pointers to filesystems outside the chrooted environment – using chrooted SFTP via OpenSSH

You can't use symlinks, that is true. Symbolic links are relative to root directory (/), and in chroot that is chroot's root, not your filesystem root.

Here's proftpd documentation page explaining the same thing.

SFTP – How to Perform Over Double Server Hop

In essence, without the GUI or other conveniences:

ssh -o ProxyCommand='ssh myfirsthop nc -w 10 %h %p' mydestination

You can make this default by editing the config file, by default ~/.ssh/config

Host mydestination, mydest2, mydest3
ProxyCommand ssh myfirsthop nc -w 10 %h %p

This then allows you to do

ssh mydestination
scp mydest2:file.txt ./
scp file.txt mydest3:/tmp/

Of course, with that kind of magic you can easily

mkdir -pv /tmp/mydest3tmp          # create mountpoint
sshfs mydest3:/tmp /tmp/dest3tmp/  # mount :)

On windows, you'd use WinSCP which comes with (I think IIRC) PLINK (from Putty suite). I suppose the default location for the ssh config file is different (I'd have to google for it), but I'm sure it works more or less the same.

Note that the only thing you need for this to work is 'netcat (nc)' on the middle server (first hop). It is an ubiquitous tool on linux/UNIX[1]; It is quite easy to build a statically linked version that should work if you can copy it there in the first place.

[1] note that there are some flavours, so the -w option might need to be dropped/spelled differently

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to add pointers to filesystems outside the chrooted environment – using chrooted SFTP via OpenSSH

SFTP – How to Perform Over Double Server Hop

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