SSH(1) BSD Reference Manual SSH(1)
ssh - OpenSSH SSH client (remote login program)
ssh [-1246AaCfgMNnqsTtVvXxYy] [-b bind_address] [-c cipher_spec]
[-D [bind_address:]port] [-e escape_char] [-F configfile]
[-i identity_file] [-L [bind_address:]port:host:hostport]
[-l login_name] [-m mac_spec] [-O ctl_cmd] [-o option] [-p port]
[-R [bind_address:]port:host:hostport] [-S ctl_path]
[-w local_tun[:remote_tun]] [user@]hostname [command]
ssh (SSH client) is a program for logging into a remote machine and for
executing commands on a remote machine. It is intended to replace rlogin
and rsh, and provide secure encrypted communications between two untrust-
ed hosts over an insecure network. X11 connections and arbitrary TCP
ports can also be forwarded over the secure channel.
ssh connects and logs into the specified hostname (with optional user
name). The user must prove his/her identity to the remote machine using
one of several methods depending on the protocol version used (see
below).
If command is specified, it is executed on the remote host instead of a
login shell.
The options are as follows:
-1 Forces ssh to try protocol version 1 only.
-2 Forces ssh to try protocol version 2 only.
-4 Forces ssh to use IPv4 addresses only.
-6 Forces ssh to use IPv6 addresses only.
-A Enables forwarding of the authentication agent connection. This
can also be specified on a per-host basis in a configuration
file.
Agent forwarding should be enabled with caution. Users with the
ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host (for the
agent's Unix-domain socket) can access the local agent through
the forwarded connection. An attacker cannot obtain key material
from the agent, however they can perform operations on the keys
that enable them to authenticate using the identities loaded into
the agent.
-a Disables forwarding of the authentication agent connection.
-b bind_address
Use bind_address on the local machine as the source address of
the connection. Only useful on systems with more than one ad-
dress.
-C Requests compression of all data (including stdin, stdout,
stderr, and data for forwarded X11 and TCP connections). The
compression algorithm is the same used by gzip(1), and the
"level" can be controlled by the CompressionLevel option for pro-
tocol version 1. Compression is desirable on modem lines and oth-
er slow connections, but will only slow down things on fast net-
works. The default value can be set on a host-by-host basis in
the configuration files; see the Compression option.
-c cipher_spec
Selects the cipher specification for encrypting the session.
Protocol version 1 allows specification of a single cipher. The
supported values are "3des", "blowfish", and "des". 3des (triple-
des) is an encrypt-decrypt-encrypt triple with three different
keys. It is believed to be secure. blowfish is a fast block ci-
pher; it appears very secure and is much faster than 3des. des is
only supported in the ssh client for interoperability with legacy
protocol 1 implementations that do not support the 3des cipher.
Its use is strongly discouraged due to cryptographic weaknesses.
The default is "blowfish".
For protocol version 2, cipher_spec is a comma-separated list of
ciphers listed in order of preference. The supported ciphers and
default are documented in ssh_config(5).
-D [bind_address:]port
Specifies a local "dynamic" application-level port forwarding.
This works by allocating a socket to listen to port on the local
side, optionally bound to the specified bind_address. Whenever a
connection is made to this port, the connection is forwarded over
the secure channel, and the application protocol is then used to
determine where to connect to from the remote machine. Currently
the SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, and ssh will act
as a SOCKS server. Only root can forward privileged ports. Dynam-
ic port forwardings can also be specified in the configuration
file.
IPv6 addresses can be specified with an alternative syntax:
[bind_address/]port or by enclosing the address in square brack-
ets. Only the superuser can forward privileged ports. By default,
the local port is bound in accordance with the GatewayPorts set-
ting. However, an explicit bind_address may be used to bind the
connection to a specific address. The bind_address of "localhost"
indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only,
while an empty address or '*' indicates that the port should be
available from all interfaces.
-e escape_char
Sets the escape character for sessions with a pty (default: '~').
The escape character is only recognized at the beginning of a
line. The escape character followed by a dot ('.') closes the
connection; followed by control-Z suspends the connection; and
followed by itself sends the escape character once. Setting the
character to "none" disables any escapes and makes the session
fully transparent.
-F configfile
Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file. If a confi-
guration file is given on the command line, the system-wide con-
figuration file (/etc/ssh/ssh_config) will be ignored. The de-
fault for the per-user configuration file is ~/.etc/ssh/config.
If the user is the superuser and his home directory the root or
unset, /etc/ssh/root:config is used instead.
-f Requests ssh to go to background just before command execution.
This is useful if ssh is going to ask for passwords or
passphrases, but the user wants it in the background. This im-
plies -n. The recommended way to start X11 programs at a remote
site is with something like ssh -f host xterm.
If the ExitOnForwardFailure configuration option is set to "yes",
then a client started with -f will wait for all remote port for-
wards to be successfully established before placing itself in the
background.
-g Allows remote hosts to connect to local forwarded ports.
-I smartcard_device
Specify the device ssh should use to communicate with a smartcard
used for storing the user's private RSA key. This option is only
available if support for smartcard devices is compiled in (de-
fault is no support).
-i identity_file
Selects a file from which the identity (private key) for RSA or
DSA authentication is read. The default is ~/.etc/ssh/identity
for protocol version 1, and ~/.etc/ssh/id_rsa and
~/.etc/ssh/id_dsa for protocol version 2. Identity files may also
be specified on a per-host basis in the configuration file. It is
possible to have multiple -i options (and multiple identities
specified in configuration files).
-L [bind_address:]port:host:hostport
Specifies that the given port on the local (client) host is to be
forwarded to the given host and port on the remote side. This
works by allocating a socket to listen to port on the local side,
optionally bound to the specified bind_address. Whenever a con-
nection is made to this port, the connection is forwarded over
the secure channel, and a connection is made to host port
hostport from the remote machine. Port forwardings can also be
specified in the configuration file. IPv6 addresses can be speci-
fied with an alternative syntax:
[bind_address/]port/host/hostport or by enclosing the address in
square brackets. Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
GatewayPorts setting. However, an explicit bind_address may be
used to bind the connection to a specific address. The
bind_address of "localhost" indicates that the listening port be
bound for local use only, while an empty address or '*' indicates
that the port should be available from all interfaces.
-l login_name
Specifies the user to log in as on the remote machine. This also
may be specified on a per-host basis in the configuration file.
-M Places the ssh client into "master" mode for connection sharing.
Multiple -M options places ssh into "master" mode with confirma-
tion required before slave connections are accepted. Refer to the
description of ControlMaster in ssh_config(5) for details.
-m mac_spec
Additionally, for protocol version 2 a comma-separated list of
MAC (message authentication code) algorithms can be specified in
order of preference. See the MACs keyword for more information.
-N Do not execute a remote command. This is useful for just forward-
ing ports (protocol version 2 only).
-n Redirects stdin from /dev/null (actually, prevents reading from
stdin). This must be used when ssh is run in the background. A
common trick is to use this to run X11 programs on a remote
machine. For example, ssh -n shadows.cs.hut.fi emacs & will start
an emacs on shadows.cs.hut.fi, and the X11 connection will be au-
tomatically forwarded over an encrypted channel. The ssh program
will be put in the background. (This does not work if ssh needs
to ask for a password or passphrase; see also the -f option.)
-O ctl_cmd
Control an active connection multiplexing master process. When
the -O option is specified, the ctl_cmd argument is interpreted
and passed to the master process. Valid commands are: "check"
(check that the master process is running) and "exit" (request
the master to exit).
-o option
Can be used to give options in the format used in the configura-
tion file. This is useful for specifying options for which there
is no separate command-line flag. For full details of the options
listed below, and their possible values, see ssh_config(5).
AddressFamily
BatchMode
BindAddress
ChallengeResponseAuthentication
CheckHostIP
Cipher
Ciphers
ClearAllForwardings
Compression
CompressionLevel
ConnectionAttempts
ConnectTimeout
ControlMaster
ControlPath
DynamicForward
EscapeChar
ExitOnForwardFailure
ForwardAgent
ForwardX11
ForwardX11Trusted
GatewayPorts
GlobalKnownHostsFile
HashKnownHosts
Host
HostbasedAuthentication
HostKeyAlgorithms
HostKeyAlias
Hostname
IdentityFile
IdentitiesOnly
KbdInteractiveDevices
LocalCommand
LocalForward
LogLevel
MACs
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
NumberOfPasswordPrompts
PasswordAuthentication
PermitLocalCommand
Port
PreferredAuthentications
Protocol
ProxyCommand
PubkeyAuthentication
RekeyLimit
RemoteForward
RhostsRSAAuthentication
RSAAuthentication
SendEnv
ServerAliveInterval
ServerAliveCountMax
SmartcardDevice
StrictHostKeyChecking
TCPKeepAlive
Tunnel
TunnelDevice
UsePrivilegedPort
User
UserKnownHostsFile
VerifyHostKeyDNS
VisualHostKey
XAuthLocation
-p port
Port to connect to on the remote host. This can be specified on a
per-host basis in the configuration file.
-q Quiet mode. Causes most warning and diagnostic messages to be
suppressed.
-R [bind_address:]port:host:hostport
Specifies that the given port on the remote (server) host is to
be forwarded to the given host and port on the local side. This
works by allocating a socket to listen to port on the remote
side, and whenever a connection is made to this port, the connec-
tion is forwarded over the secure channel, and a connection is
made to host port hostport from the local machine.
Port forwardings can also be specified in the configuration file.
Privileged ports can be forwarded only when logging in as root on
the remote machine. IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing
the address in square braces or using an alternative syntax:
[bind_address/]host/port/hostport.
By default, the listening socket on the server will be bound to
the loopback interface only. This may be overridden by specifying
a bind_address. An empty bind_address, or the address '*', indi-
cates that the remote socket should listen on all interfaces.
Specifying a remote bind_address will only succeed if the
server's GatewayPorts option is enabled (see sshd_config(5)).
If the port argument is '0', the listen port will be dynamically
allocated on the server and reported to the client at run time.
-S ctl_path
Specifies the location of a control socket for connection shar-
ing. Refer to the description of ControlPath and ControlMaster in
ssh_config(5) for details.
-s May be used to request invocation of a subsystem on the remote
system. Subsystems are a feature of the SSH2 protocol which fa-
cilitate the use of SSH as a secure transport for other applica-
tions (eg. sftp(1)). The subsystem is specified as the remote
command.
-T Disable pseudo-tty allocation.
-t Force pseudo-tty allocation. This can be used to execute arbi-
trary screen-based programs on a remote machine, which can be
very useful, e.g. when implementing menu services. Multiple -t
options force tty allocation, even if ssh has no local tty.
-V Display the version number and exit.
-v Verbose mode. Causes ssh to print debugging messages about its
progress. This is helpful in debugging connection, authentica-
tion, and configuration problems. Multiple -v options increase
the verbosity. The maximum is 3.
-w local_tun[:remote_tun]
Requests tunnel device forwarding with the specified tun(4) dev-
ices between the client (local_tun) and the server (remote_tun).
The devices may be specified by numerical ID or the keyword
"any", which uses the next available tunnel device. If remote_tun
is not specified, it defaults to "any". See also the Tunnel and
TunnelDevice directives in ssh_config(5). If the Tunnel directive
is unset, it is set to the default tunnel mode, which is "point-
to-point".
-X Enables X11 forwarding. This can also be specified on a per-host
basis in a configuration file.
X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution. Users with the
ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host (for the
user's X authorisation database) can access the local X11 display
through the forwarded connection. An attacker may then be able to
perform activities such as keystroke monitoring.
For this reason, X11 forwarding is subjected to X11 SECURITY ex-
tension restrictions by default. Please refer to the ssh -Y op-
tion and the ForwardX11Trusted directive in ssh_config(5) for
more information.
-x Disables X11 forwarding.
-Y Enables trusted X11 forwarding. Trusted X11 forwardings are not
subjected to the X11 SECURITY extension controls.
-y Send log information using the syslog(3) system module. By de-
fault this information is sent to stderr.
ssh may additionally obtain configuration data from a per-user configura-
tion file and a system-wide configuration file. The file format and con-
figuration options are described in ssh_config(5).
ssh exits with the exit status of the remote command or with 255 if an
error occurred.
The OpenSSH SSH client supports SSH protocols 1 and 2. Protocol 2 is the
default, with ssh falling back to protocol 1 if it detects protocol 2 is
unsupported. These settings may be altered using the Protocol option in
ssh_config(5), or enforced using the -1 and -2 options (see above). Both
protocols support similar authentication methods, but protocol 2 is pre-
ferred since it provides additional mechanisms for confidentiality (the
traffic is encrypted using AES, 3DES, Blowfish, CAST128, or Arcfour) and
integrity (umac-64, hmac-ripemd160, hmac-sha1, hmac-md5). Protocol 1
lacks a strong mechanism for ensuring the integrity of the connection.
The methods available for authentication are: host-based authentication,
public key authentication, challenge-response authentication, and pass-
word authentication. Authentication methods are tried in the order speci-
fied above, though protocol 2 has a configuration option to change the
default order: PreferredAuthentications.
Host-based authentication works as follows: If the machine the user logs
in from is listed in /etc/hosts.equiv or /etc/shosts.equiv on the remote
machine, and the user names are the same on both sides, or if the files
~/.rhosts or ~/.shosts exist in the user's home directory on the remote
machine and contain a line containing the name of the client machine and
the name of the user on that machine, the user is considered for login.
Additionally, the server must be able to verify the client's host key
(see the description of /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and
~/.etc/ssh/known_hosts, below) for login to be permitted. This authenti-
cation method closes security holes due to IP spoofing, DNS spoofing, and
routing spoofing. [Note to the administrator: /etc/hosts.equiv,
~/.rhosts, and the rlogin/rsh protocol in general, are inherently in-
secure and should be disabled if security is desired.]
Public key authentication works as follows: The scheme is based on
public-key cryptography, using cryptosystems where encryption and decryp-
tion are done using separate keys, and it is unfeasible to derive the de-
cryption key from the encryption key. The idea is that each user creates
a public/private key pair for authentication purposes. The server knows
the public key, and only the user knows the private key. ssh implements
public key authentication protocol automatically, using either the RSA or
DSA algorithms. Protocol 1 is restricted to using only RSA keys, but pro-
tocol 2 may use either. The HISTORY section of ssl(8) contains a brief
discussion of the two algorithms.
The file ~/.etc/ssh/authorised_keys or, if the user is the superuser and
his home directory the root or unset, /etc/ssh/root:authorised_keys (or,
portably, ~/.ssh/authorized_keys) lists the public keys that are permit-
ted for logging in. When the user logs in, the ssh program tells the
server which key pair it would like to use for authentication. The client
proves that it has access to the private key and the server checks that
the corresponding public key is authorised to accept the account.
The user creates his/her key pair by running ssh-keygen(1). This stores
the private key in ~/.etc/ssh/identity (protocol 1), ~/.etc/ssh/id_dsa
(protocol 2 DSA), or ~/.etc/ssh/id_rsa (protocol 2 RSA) and stores the
public key in ~/.etc/ssh/identity.pub (protocol 1), ~/.etc/ssh/id_dsa.pub
(protocol 2 DSA), or ~/.etc/ssh/id_rsa.pub (protocol 2 RSA) in the user's
home directory. The user should then copy the public key to
~/.etc/ssh/authorised_keys (or, portably, ~/.ssh/authorized_keys) in
his/her home directory on the remote machine. If the user is the su-
peruser and his home directory the root or unset,
/etc/ssh/root:authorised_keys is used instead. The authorised_keys file
corresponds to the conventional ~/.rhosts file, and has one key per line,
though the lines can be very long. After this, the user can log in
without giving the password.
The most convenient way to use public key authentication may be with an
authentication agent. See ssh-agent(1) for more information.
Challenge-response authentication works as follows: The server sends an
arbitrary "challenge" text, and prompts for a response. Protocol 2 allows
multiple challenges and responses; protocol 1 is restricted to just one
challenge/response. Examples of challenge-response authentication include
BSD Authentication (see login.conf(5)) and PAM (some non-OpenBSD sys-
tems).
Finally, if other authentication methods fail, ssh prompts the user for a
password. The password is sent to the remote host for checking; however,
since all communications are encrypted, the password cannot be seen by
someone listening on the network.
ssh automatically maintains and checks a database containing identifica-
tion for all hosts it has ever been used with. Host keys are stored in
~/.etc/ssh/known_hosts in the user's home directory and
/etc/ssh/root:known_hosts if the user is the superuser and his home
directory the root or unset. Additionally, the file
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts is automatically checked for known hosts. Any
new hosts are automatically added to the user's file. If a host's iden-
tification ever changes, ssh warns about this and disables password au-
thentication to prevent server spoofing or man-in-the-middle attacks,
which could otherwise be used to circumvent the encryption. The
StrictHostKeyChecking option can be used to control logins to machines
whose host key is not known or has changed.
When the user's identity has been accepted by the server, the server ei-
ther executes the given command, or logs into the machine and gives the
user a normal shell on the remote machine. All communication with the re-
mote command or shell will be automatically encrypted.
If a pseudo-terminal has been allocated (normal login session), the user
may use the escape characters noted below.
If no pseudo-tty has been allocated, the session is transparent and can
be used to reliably transfer binary data. On most systems, setting the
escape character to "none" will also make the session transparent even if
a tty is used.
The session terminates when the command or shell on the remote machine
exits and all X11 and TCP connections have been closed.
When a pseudo-terminal has been requested, ssh supports a number of func-
tions through the use of an escape character.
A single tilde character can be sent as ~~ or by following the tilde by a
character other than those described below. The escape character must al-
ways follow a newline to be interpreted as special. The escape character
can be changed in configuration files using the EscapeChar configuration
directive or on the command line by the -e option.
The supported escapes (assuming the default '~') are:
~. Disconnect.
~^Z Background ssh.
~# List forwarded connections.
~& Background ssh at logout when waiting for forwarded connection /
X11 sessions to terminate.
~? Display a list of escape characters.
~B Send a BREAK to the remote system (only useful for SSH protocol
version 2 and if the peer supports it).
~C Open command line. Currently this allows the addition of port
forwardings using the -L, -R and -D options (see above). It also
allows the cancellation of existing remote port-forwardings using
-KR[bind_address:]port. !command allows the user to execute a lo-
cal command if the PermitLocalCommand option is enabled in
ssh_config(5). Basic help is available, using the -h option.
~R Request rekeying of the connection (only useful for SSH protocol
version 2 and if the peer supports it).
Forwarding of arbitrary TCP connections over the secure channel can be
specified either on the command line or in a configuration file. One pos-
sible application of TCP forwarding is a secure connection to a mail
server; another is going through firewalls.
In the example below, we look at encrypting communication between an IRC
client and server, even though the IRC server does not directly support
encrypted communications. This works as follows: the user connects to the
remote host using ssh, specifying a port to be used to forward connec-
tions to the remote server. After that it is possible to start the ser-
vice which is to be encrypted on the client machine, connecting to the
same local port, and ssh will encrypt and forward the connection.
The following example tunnels an IRC session from client machine
"127.0.0.1" (localhost) to remote server "server.example.com":
$ ssh -f -L 1234:localhost:6667 server.example.com sleep 10
$ irc -c '#users' -p 1234 pinky 127.0.0.1
This tunnels a connection to IRC server "server.example.com", joining
channel "#users", nickname "pinky", using port 1234. It doesn't matter
which port is used, as long as it's greater than 1023 (remember, only
root can open sockets on privileged ports) and doesn't conflict with any
ports already in use. The connection is forwarded to port 6667 on the re-
mote server, since that's the standard port for IRC services.
The -f option backgrounds ssh and the remote command "sleep 10" is speci-
fied to allow an amount of time (10 seconds, in the example) to start the
service which is to be tunnelled. If no connections are made within the
time specified, ssh will exit.
If the ForwardX11 variable is set to "yes" (or see the description of the
-X, -x, and -Y options above) and the user is using X11 (the DISPLAY en-
vironment variable is set), the connection to the X11 display is automat-
ically forwarded to the remote side in such a way that any X11 programs
started from the shell (or command) will go through the encrypted chan-
nel, and the connection to the real X server will be made from the local
machine. The user should not manually set DISPLAY. Forwarding of X11 con-
nections can be configured on the command line or in configuration files.
The DISPLAY value set by ssh will point to the server machine, but with a
display number greater than zero. This is normal, and happens because ssh
creates a "proxy" X server on the server machine for forwarding the con-
nections over the encrypted channel.
ssh will also automatically set up Xauthority data on the server machine.
For this purpose, it will generate a random authorisation cookie, store
it in Xauthority on the server, and verify that any forwarded connections
carry this cookie and replace it by the real cookie when the connection
is opened. The real authentication cookie is never sent to the server
machine (and no cookies are sent in the plain).
If the ForwardAgent variable is set to "yes" (or see the description of
the -A and -a options above) and the user is using an authentication
agent, the connection to the agent is automatically forwarded to the re-
mote side.
When connecting to a server for the first time, a fingerprint of the
server's public key is presented to the user (unless the option
StrictHostKeyChecking has been disabled). Fingerprints can be determined
using ssh-keygen(1):
$ ssh-keygen -l -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
If the fingerprint is already known, it can be matched and the key can be
accepted or rejected. Because of the difficulty of comparing host keys
just by looking at hex strings, there is also support to compare host
keys visually, using random art. By setting the VisualHostKey option to
"yes", a small ASCII graphic gets displayed on every login to a server,
no matter if the session itself is interactive or not. By learning the
pattern a known server produces, a user can easily find out that the host
key has changed when a completely different pattern is displayed. Because
these patterns are not unambiguous however, a pattern that looks similar
to the pattern remembered only gives a good probability that the host key
is the same, not guaranteed proof.
To get a listing of the fingerprints along with their random art for all
known hosts, the following command line can be used:
$ ssh-keygen -lv -f ~/.etc/ssh/known_hosts
If the fingerprint is unknown, an alternative method of verification is
available: SSH fingerprints verified by DNS. An additional resource
record (RR), SSHFP, is added to a zonefile and the connecting client is
able to match the fingerprint with that of the key presented.
In this example, we are connecting a client to a server,
"host.example.com". The SSHFP resource records should first be added to
the zonefile for host.example.com:
$ ssh-keygen -r host.example.com.
The output lines will have to be added to the zonefile. To check that the
zone is answering fingerprint queries:
$ dig -t SSHFP host.example.com
Finally the client connects:
$ ssh -o "VerifyHostKeyDNS ask" host.example.com
[...]
Matching host key fingerprint found in DNS.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
See the VerifyHostKeyDNS option in ssh_config(5) for more information.
SSH-BASED VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS
ssh contains support for Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnelling using
the tun(4) network pseudo-device, allowing two networks to be joined
securely. Use of this option is however, due to the reasons outlined at
http://sites.inka.de/sites/bigred/devel/tcp-tcp.html, discouraged in
favour of OpenVPN, until datagram transport is added. The sshd_config(5)
configuration option PermitTunnel controls whether the server supports
this, and at what level (layer 2 or 3 traffic).
The following example would connect client network 10.0.50.0/24 with re-
mote network 10.0.99.0/24 using a point-to-point connection from 10.1.1.1
to 10.1.1.2, provided that the SSH server running on the gateway to the
remote network, at 192.168.1.15, allows it.
On the client:
# ssh -f -w 0:1 192.168.1.15 true
# ifconfig tun0 10.1.1.1 10.1.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.252
# route add 10.0.99.0/24 10.1.1.2
On the server:
# ifconfig tun1 10.1.1.2 10.1.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.252
# route add 10.0.50.0/24 10.1.1.1
Client access may be more finely tuned via the /.etc/ssh/authorised_keys
file (see below) and the PermitRootLogin server option. The following en-
try would permit connections on tun(4) device 1 from user "jane" and on
tun device 2 from user "john", if PermitRootLogin is set to "forced-
commands-only":
tunnel="1",command="sh /etc/netstart tun1" ssh-rsa ... jane
tunnel="2",command="sh /etc/netstart tun2" ssh-rsa ... john
Since an SSH-based setup entails a fair amount of overhead, it may be
more suited to temporary setups, such as for wireless VPNs. More per-
manent VPNs are better provided by tools such as ipsecctl(8) and
isakmpd(8).
ssh will normally set the following environment variables:
DISPLAY The DISPLAY variable indicates the location of the
X11 server. It is automatically set by ssh to point
to a value of the form "hostname:n", where
"hostname" indicates the host where the shell runs,
and 'n' is an integer >= 1. ssh uses this special
value to forward X11 connections over the secure
channel. The user should normally not set DISPLAY
explicitly, as that will render the X11 connection
insecure (and will require the user to manually
copy any required authorisation cookies).
HOME Set to the path of the user's home directory.
LOGNAME Synonym for USER; set for compatibility with sys-
tems that use this variable.
MAIL Set to the path of the user's mailbox.
PATH Set to the default PATH, as specified when compil-
ing ssh.
SSH_ASKPASS If ssh needs a passphrase, it will read the
passphrase from the current terminal if it was run
from a terminal. If ssh does not have a terminal
associated with it but DISPLAY and SSH_ASKPASS are
set, it will execute the program specified by
SSH_ASKPASS and open an X11 window to read the
passphrase. This is particularly useful when cal-
ling ssh from a .xsession or related script. (Note
that on some machines it may be necessary to
redirect the input from /dev/null to make this
work.)
SSH_AUTH_SOCK Identifies the path of a UNIX-domain socket used to
communicate with the agent.
SSH_CONNECTION Identifies the client and server ends of the con-
nection. The variable contains four space-separated
values: client IP address, client port number,
server IP address, and server port number.
SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND This variable contains the original command line if
a forced command is executed. It can be used to ex-
tract the original arguments.
SSH_TTY This is set to the name of the tty (path to the
device) associated with the current shell or com-
mand. If the current session has no tty, this vari-
able is not set.
TZ This variable is set to indicate the present time
zone if it was set when the daemon was started
(i.e. the daemon passes the value on to new connec-
tions).
USER Set to the name of the user logging in.
Additionally, ssh reads ~/.etc/ssh/environment, and adds lines of the
format "VARNAME=value" to the environment if the file exists and users
are allowed to change their environment. For more information, see the
PermitUserEnvironment option in sshd_config(5).
~/.rhosts
This file is used for host-based authentication (see above). On
some machines this file may need to be world-readable if the
user's home directory is on an NFS partition, because sshd(8)
reads it as root. Additionally, this file must be owned by the
user, and must not have write permissions for anyone else. The
recommended permission for most machines is read/write for the
user, and not accessible by others.
~/.shosts
This file is used in exactly the same way as .rhosts, but allows
host-based authentication without permitting login with
rlogin/rsh.
~/.etc/ssh/
This directory is the default location for all user-specific con-
figuration and authentication information. There is no general
requirement to keep the entire contents of this directory secret,
but the recommended permissions are read/write/execute for the
user, and not accessible by others.
~/.etc/ssh/authorised_keys
Lists the public keys (RSA/DSA) that can be used for logging in
as this user. The format of this file is described in the sshd(8)
manual page. This file is not highly sensitive, but the recom-
mended permissions are read/write for the user, and not accessi-
ble by others.
/etc/ssh/root:authorised_keys
The same, for the superuser, if his home is the root directory or
unset.
~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Portable name for the above file.
~/.etc/ssh/config
This is the per-user configuration file. The file format and con-
figuration options are described in ssh_config(5). Because of the
potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
read/write for the user, and not accessible by others.
/etc/ssh/root:config
The same, for the superuser, if his home is the root directory or
unset.
~/.etc/ssh/environment
Contains additional definitions for environment variables; see
ENVIRONMENT, above.
~/.etc/ssh/identity
~/.etc/ssh/id_dsa
~/.etc/ssh/id_rsa
Contains the private key for authentication. These files contain
sensitive data and should be readable by the user but not acces-
sible by others (read/write/execute). ssh will simply ignore a
private key file if it is accessible by others. It is possible to
specify a passphrase when generating the key which will be used
to encrypt the sensitive part of this file using 3DES.
~/.etc/ssh/identity.pub
~/.etc/ssh/id_dsa.pub
~/.etc/ssh/id_rsa.pub
Contains the public key for authentication. These files are not
sensitive and can (but need not) be readable by anyone.
~/.etc/ssh/known_hosts
Contains a list of host keys for all hosts the user has logged
into that are not already in the systemwide list of known host
keys. See sshd(8) for further details of the format of this file.
/etc/ssh/root:known_hosts
The same, for the superuser, if his home is the root directory or
unset.
~/.etc/ssh/rc
Commands in this file are executed by ssh when the user logs in,
just before the user's shell (or command) is started. See the
sshd(8) manual page for more information.
/etc/hosts.equiv
This file is for host-based authentication (see above). It should
only be writable by root.
/etc/shosts.equiv
This file is used in exactly the same way as hosts.equiv, but al-
lows host-based authentication without permitting login with
rlogin/rsh.
/etc/ssh/ssh_config
Systemwide configuration file. The file format and configuration
options are described in ssh_config(5).
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
These three files contain the private parts of the host keys and
are used for host-based authentication. If protocol version 1 is
used, ssh must be setuid root, since the host key is readable
only by root. For protocol version 2, ssh uses ssh-keysign(8) to
access the host keys, eliminating the requirement that ssh be
setuid root when host-based authentication is used. By default
ssh is not setuid root.
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
Systemwide list of known host keys. This file should be prepared
by the system administrator to contain the public host keys of
all machines in the organization. It should be world-readable.
See sshd(8) for further details of the format of this file.
/etc/ssh/sshrc
Commands in this file are executed by ssh when the user logs in,
just before the user's shell (or command) is started. See the
sshd(8) manual page for more information.
scp(1), sftp(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh-keyscan(1),
tun(4), hosts.equiv(5), ssh_config(5), sshd(8), telnet(1)
The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Assigned Numbers, RFC 4250, 2006.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Architecture, RFC 4251, 2006.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol, RFC 4252, 2006.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol, RFC 4253, 2006.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Connection Protocol, RFC 4254, 2006.
Using DNS to Securely Publish Secure Shell (SSH) Key Fingerprints, RFC
4255, 2006.
Generic Message Exchange Authentication for the Secure Shell Protocol
(SSH), RFC 4256, 2006.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Session Channel Break Extension, RFC 4335, 2006.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Encryption Modes, RFC 4344, 2006.
Improved Arcfour Modes for the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer
Protocol, RFC 4345, 2006.
Diffie-Hellman Group Exchange for the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer
Protocol, RFC 4419, 2006.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Public Key File Format, RFC 4716, 2006.
A. Perrig and D. Song, Hash Visualization: a New Technique to improve
Real-World Security, 1999, International Workshop on Cryptographic
Techniques and E-Commerce (CrypTEC '99).
OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free ssh 1.2.12 release by
Tatu Ylonen. Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos, Theo
de Raadt and Dug Song removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
created OpenSSH. Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH protocol
versions 1.5 and 2.0.
MirBSD #10-current January 15, 2011 14