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Overview

Netmate Connect is a command line app built to save network and systems engineers time. It saves time by automating the process of looking up IP addresses, usernames, passwords, etc when connecting to network devices and servers through applications such as Telnet or SSH terminals.

Connect runs inside the terminal of your choice and uses the system Telnet and SSH applications to connect. It stores information about the devices you connect to in a local Badger database which can and should be encrypted using AES-256.

Connecting to a device is as simple as opening up your terminal and typing ct <name> where name is whatever you have called the device.

Features​

  • Specific support for the following device types:
    • Cisco ASA
    • Cisco IOS
    • Cisco Nexus
    • Console (for access to a console port - no login required)
    • Linux
    • HP
    • Open Conect (Cisco AnyConnect and Palo Alto Global Protect client)
    • goTeleport (Open Infrastructure Access Platform)
  • Connect via intermediate hop devices
  • Support for backup IPs and paths
  • Session logging
  • Automate commands from the Connect command line or from command files
  • Automate configuration deployment to multiple devices in parallel
  • Platform specific macros (user defined macros are planned)

Security​

Database​

To ensure device information including usernames and passwords aren't readable when stored in the local database it needs to be encrypted. The trade off with enabling encryption is that you'll need to enter the encryption key every time you use Connect so that it can access the database.

You can enable encryption when you first run Connect or you can enable/disable at any time by updating the configuration (run ct -config to edit configuration).

Netmate recommends using encryption to keep your data safe, however, if you don't want to have to type a key all the time, a less secure option would be to have the database located on an encrypted volume. This would obviously still be able to be read by anyone accessing the machine while the volume is open, but at least not able to be read if a laptop was lost or stolen.

Session Logs​

If you use the session logging facility in Netmate Connect, you'll need to consider what information may be visible in the logs and the security of the log location. For instance, when viewing router configurations you may see plain text or easily reversable Cisco passwords and these would be visible in the logs. For this reason it is recommended to keep logs in a secure location such as an encrypted volume.

Updates​

Connect automatically checks Netmate servers for updates in the background when the app is run if a check has not been completed in the past 24hrs. If an update is available, Connect will auto update, and the next time you run you will have the latest version.

Software information such as license ,machine identifier, current version, etc will be sent to the Netmate server to validate the software so it can be updated. Personal information such as device credentials are never sent to Netmate.