ProxyCommand with sudo

Question

I'm trying to set up SSH so that I can easily log into an server that is accessible only via a sudo to an intermediate server.

From the command line, logging into it is of the form:

sudo -u admin ssh destination.server.com

This works without problems -- fair enough. However, the following variants do not work in a ProxyCommand:

ProxyCommand sudo -u admin ssh destination.server.com

Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a terminal.

ProxyCommand sudo -u admin ssh -t -t destination.server.com

tcgetattr: Invalid argument

This last variant appears to actually exchange information with the destination server, but then it hangs:

OpenSSH_4.3p2, OpenSSL 0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 01 Jul 2008
debug1: Reading configuration data /home/me/.ssh/config
debug1: Applying options for destination
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Executing proxy command: exec sudo -u admin ssh -t -t destination.server.com
debug1: identity file ...
debug1: identity file ...
debug1: identity file ...
debug1: loaded 3 keys
tcgetattr: Invalid argument
debug1: ssh_exchange_identification: Last login: Fri Jan  4 22:48:26 2013 from intermediate.server.com

I have the feeling that there is something I'm missing in the sudo / ssh interaction inside a ProxyCommand, but haven't been able to figure it out.

Answer 1

If you want ease of typing:

alias dest_on_server='sudo -u admin ssh destination.server.com'

then dest_on_server gets you there. Of course, replace dest_on_server with whatever short name you want.

The next alternative is ssh in the long way and add your own public key in the $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file. Make note of the user id, then ssh [e-mail].