• Supported Platforms
• Banyan Desktop App Capabilities
  • Device Registration
  • Browser-based Authentication Flow
  • Configuration and Log Files
  • TLS Proxy
  • Banyan Tunnel Service
  • Short-lived Certificates
  • One-click SSH Access
  • One-click Kubernetes Access
  • Run Diagnostic Tool for troubleshooting

Banyan’s Desktop App allows your end users to register their device with Banyan and access Banyan-secured Services.

Supported Platforms

Detailed installation instructions for your users to install the Banyan Desktop App can be found in the Support Portal.

Even though the Banyan Desktop App runs in user-space, an end user must have administrative privileges on their device in order to install the app. If your users do not have admin privileges, you can use a Device Manager to distribute the Banyan App.

The Banyan Desktop App can be installed on the following platforms:

Banyan Desktop App Capabilities

Device Registration

The Banyan App securely registers an end user’s device, allowing organizations to roll out a zero-trust security model, whereby corporate applications are only accessible to registered devices. By default, Banyan’s “Device Registration” flow is designed for that security model, and it requires the end user to perform the following steps:

1. Provide the Invite Code needed to register a device to an organization
2. Authenticate with the organization’s Identity Provider
3. Set device ownership type
4. (Optional) Verify email address via an One Time Passcode (OTP) mechanism

Once the end user has completed these steps, a Trusted Device Certificate is issued for the device and placed in the device’s keychain or certificate manager. Read more in our article on Trusted Device Certificate management and expiration.

Browser-based Authentication Flow

Banyan’s Desktop App listens on a local port at localhost:8118 to facilitate user authentication via a browser-based standards-compliant OpenID Connect flow.

However, if the device has another application running on port 8118, the Desktop App will raise an error, displaying a message of the following type:

In this scenario, the end user must stop the application that is using port 8118 before the Desktop App authentication flow can proceed.

Configuration and Log Files

The Desktop App automatically installs a config.json file and logs files when an end user installs the Desktop App on their device. Occasionally, when troubleshooting issues with the Banyan Desktop App, we may ask you to send us the configuration file and log file from the app.

Banyan’s Desktop App places these files in a specific directory depending on your Operating System:

TLS Proxy

In order for your end users to access infrastructure services, they need to use the banyanproxy component of the Desktop App. When you run the installer, the Banyan Desktop App places the banyanproxy executable in a specific directory. Then, when the Desktop App is running, and the user connects, it launches the banyanproxy executable to set up the connection.

The banyanproxy executable location depends on your Operating System:

The banyanproxy functions as a forward proxy to establish the secure connection, using the TrustCert, between the end user’s device and the TCP service, via Banyan’s Netagent.

The banyanproxy has the following capabilities, in order to support any type of TCP client and service.

Banyan Tunnel Service

In order for end users to connect to Service Tunnels, the Banyan App must install the Tunnel Service which creates and maintains the WireGuard tunnel interface. This one-time installation requires admin privileges and is triggered when the end user connects to their first Service Tunnel. The service runs on port 8119.

Currently, Linux users must install the WireGuard tools manually via https://www.wireguard.com/install/. We are looking to automate this via the Banyan App in an upcoming release.

Occasionally, when troubleshooting issues with the Tunnel Service, log files may need to be obtained from the device.

The Tunnel Service logs are located in the following locations depending on your Operating System:

Short-lived Certificates

When an end user logs in via the Desktop App, a cryptographic key-pair is generated and two short-lived certificates are obtained for use in authenticating the user and device. The X.509 format TrustCert is used for Mutually-authenticated TLS. The SSH format SSHCert is used for SSH certificate authentication.

In addition to short-lived certificates, Banyan requires a valid device certificate in order to access protected services. Upon registering a device, Banyan issues a trusted device certificate to the device and places it in the device’s keychain or certificate manager.

Both the short-lived X.509 certificate login-cert.pem and the short-lived SSH certificate login-key.pem-cert.pub use the same private key login-key.pem.

Banyan’s Desktop App places the certs and key files in a specific directory depending on your Operating System. Because these certificates are short-lived, they can be stored safely in the file system (instead of your device certificate manager).

You can use standard openssl and ssh-keygen commands to examine the short-lived certificates.

$> openssl x509 -in login-cert.pem -noout -text

Certificate:
    Data:
        Version: 3 (0x2)
        Serial Number:
            17:dd:b3:7c:3a:aa:71:42:90:1d:a7:ab:43:db:2d:df:69:fc:52:3d
        Signature Algorithm: sha512WithRSAEncryption
        Issuer: O = novpntest, OU = Certificate Authority, CN = testorg Banyan Private Root CA
        Validity
            Not Before: Jul  2 04:57:00 2020 GMT
            Not After : Jul  3 03:57:00 2020 GMT
        Subject: OU = "Banyan Client carly@banyanops.com", CN = Banyan Client carly@banyanops.com
        Subject Public Key Info:
            Public Key Algorithm: rsaEncryption
                RSA Public-Key: (2048 bit)
                Modulus:
                    00:c7:10:a7:8d:9f:18:06:f3:4e:1f:4b:20:f6:27:

...

$> ssh-keygen -L -f login-key.pem-cert.pub

login-key.pem-cert.pub:
        Type: ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com user certificate
        Public key: RSA-CERT SHA256:yv/nypkONDQF+rS8pJd5pJvItB7Y7wol1KjJfIxhMdE
        Signing CA: RSA SHA256:LGvtbCthk48jqxuggCJKAw6stao7VDIvd2OuRipczcs
        Key ID: "carly@banyanops.com ABCD8BL00KH"
        Serial: 0
        Valid: from 2020-07-01T22:02:21 to 2020-07-02T21:02:21
        Principals:
                ANY
                new-role
        Critical Options: (none)
        Extensions:
                permit-X11-forwarding
                permit-agent-forwarding
                permit-port-forwarding
                permit-pty
                permit-user-rc

One-click SSH Access

You can define a service of type SSH for your end users. Now, when your end user selects Connect in the Desktop App to connect to the SSH service, the Desktop App will automatically update the device’s SSH Config file with the banyanproxy settings needed.

The Desktop App uses an SSH config location depending on the Operating System of the device:

When an end user connects to a SSH service, the app places Banyan’s SSH configurations in a file called banyan.config in the SSH config location. The app also add the SSH Include command to the .config file to incorporate Banyan’s SSH configurations.

Prior to Desktop App 1.10, the app would write to the device’s SSH config file directly. In Desktop App 1.10 and later, the app places Banyan’s SSH configurations in a file called banyan.config.

If the SSH Config directory or file doesn’t exist, the Desktop App will automatically create it. However, if the SSH Config file or directory is not writable, end users will see an error message when they try to connect to an SSH service.

One-click Kubernetes Access

You can define a service of type Kubernetes for your end users. Now, when your end user connects to the Kubernetes API service, the Desktop App will automatically create the Kube Config file with the banyanproxy and token settings needed.

The Desktop App uses a Kubernetes config location depending on the Operating System of the device:

When an end user connects to a Kubernetes service, the app creates a kube config file banyan in the Kube Config location. To make the Banyan Kubernetes Service the default method to access their cluster, your end users can set the KUBECONFIG env variable and the use the config use-context commands as detailed in the kubectl docs.

This feature uses the proxy-url capability available in kubectl v1.19+. If your end users are using an older version of kubectl they will need to add https_proxy env var in front of their kubectl commands.

Run Diagnostic Tool for troubleshooting

If, in any case, end users are encountering issues (e.g., cannot access a service or register a device) and want to diagnose the issue in the Banyan Desktop App, they can use the Run Diagnostic tool. End users can also use this diagnostic tool to package logs to send to their administrator.

• Navigate from Settings > Help in your app. Select the Run Diagnostic Tool. This will pull up a Health Check panel that confirms whether you want to run a health check. Select Run.

• The Health Check menu will display a list of your device’s properties, the status of your sessions and services, and your device features (showing which security measures you have in place and whether your system is up-to-date).

• At the bottom of the Health Check menu, you’ll see a View Log Files button. Select View Log Files to download your app log.