sshd —
OpenSSH
daemon
sshd |
[-46DdeiqTtV]
[-C connection_spec]
[-c host_certificate_file]
[-E log_file]
[-f config_file]
[-g login_grace_time]
[-h host_key_file]
[-o option]
[-p port]
[-u len] |
sshd (OpenSSH Daemon) is the daemon program for
ssh(1). It provides secure encrypted
communications between two untrusted hosts over an insecure network.
sshd listens for connections from clients. It is
normally started at boot from
/etc/init.d/ssh. It
forks a new daemon for each incoming connection. The forked daemons handle key
exchange, encryption, authentication, command execution, and data exchange.
sshd can be configured using command-line options
or a configuration file (by default
sshd_config(5)); command-line options override
values specified in the configuration file.
sshd
rereads its configuration file when it receives a hangup signal,
SIGHUP
, by executing itself with the name
and options it was started with, e.g.
/usr/sbin/sshd.
The options are as follows:
- -4
- Forces sshd to use IPv4
addresses only.
- -6
- Forces sshd to use IPv6
addresses only.
-
-C
connection_spec
- Specify the connection parameters to use for the
-T extended test mode. If provided, any
Match directives in the configuration file
that would apply are applied before the configuration is written to
standard output. The connection parameters are supplied as keyword=value
pairs and may be supplied in any order, either with multiple
-C options or as a comma-separated list. The
keywords are “addr”, “user”,
“host”, “laddr”, “lport”, and
“rdomain” and correspond to source address, user, resolved
source host name, local address, local port number and routing domain
respectively.
-
-c
host_certificate_file
- Specifies a path to a certificate file to identify
sshd during key exchange. The certificate
file must match a host key file specified using the
-h option or the
HostKey configuration directive.
- -D
- When this option is specified,
sshd will not detach and does not become a
daemon. This allows easy monitoring of
sshd.
- -d
- Debug mode. The server sends verbose debug output to
standard error, and does not put itself in the background. The server also
will not fork(2) and will only process one
connection. This option is only intended for debugging for the server.
Multiple -d options increase the debugging
level. Maximum is 3.
-
-E
log_file
- Append debug logs to
log_file instead of the system log.
- -e
- Write debug logs to standard error instead of the system
log.
-
-f
config_file
- Specifies the name of the configuration file. The default
is /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
sshd refuses to start if there is no
configuration file.
-
-g
login_grace_time
- Gives the grace time for clients to authenticate themselves
(default 120 seconds). If the client fails to authenticate the user within
this many seconds, the server disconnects and exits. A value of zero
indicates no limit.
-
-h
host_key_file
- Specifies a file from which a host key is read. This option
must be given if sshd is not run as root (as
the normal host key files are normally not readable by anyone but root).
The default is /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key,
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key and
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key. It is possible to
have multiple host key files for the different host key algorithms.
- -i
- Specifies that sshd is being
run from inetd(8).
-
-o
option
- Can be used to give options in the format used in the
configuration file. This is useful for specifying options for which there
is no separate command-line flag. For full details of the options, and
their values, see sshd_config(5).
-
-p
port
- Specifies the port on which the server listens for
connections (default 22). Multiple port options are permitted. Ports
specified in the configuration file with the
Port option are ignored when a command-line
port is specified. Ports specified using the
ListenAddress option override command-line
ports.
- -q
- Quiet mode. Nothing is sent to the system log. Normally the
beginning, authentication, and termination of each connection is
logged.
- -T
- Extended test mode. Check the validity of the configuration
file, output the effective configuration to stdout and then exit.
Optionally, Match rules may be applied by
specifying the connection parameters using one or more
-C options.
- -t
- Test mode. Only check the validity of the configuration
file and sanity of the keys. This is useful for updating
sshd reliably as configuration options may
change.
-
-u
len
- This option is used to specify the size of the field in the
utmp structure that holds the remote host
name. If the resolved host name is longer than
len, the dotted decimal value will be
used instead. This allows hosts with very long host names that overflow
this field to still be uniquely identified. Specifying
-u0 indicates that only dotted decimal
addresses should be put into the utmp file.
-u0 may also be used to prevent
sshd from making DNS requests unless the
authentication mechanism or configuration requires it. Authentication
mechanisms that may require DNS include
HostbasedAuthentication and using a
from="pattern-list" option in a key
file. Configuration options that require DNS include using a USER@HOST
pattern in AllowUsers or
DenyUsers.
- -V
- Display the version number and exit.
The OpenSSH SSH daemon supports SSH protocol 2 only. Each host has a
host-specific key, used to identify the host. Whenever a client connects, the
daemon responds with its public host key. The client compares the host key
against its own database to verify that it has not changed. Forward secrecy is
provided through a Diffie-Hellman key agreement. This key agreement results in
a shared session key. The rest of the session is encrypted using a symmetric
cipher. The client selects the encryption algorithm to use from those offered
by the server. Additionally, session integrity is provided through a
cryptographic message authentication code (MAC).
Finally, the server and the client enter an authentication dialog. The client
tries to authenticate itself using host-based authentication, public key
authentication, challenge-response authentication, or password authentication.
Regardless of the authentication type, the account is checked to ensure that it
is accessible. An account is not accessible if it is locked, listed in
DenyUsers or its group is listed in
DenyGroups . The definition of a locked account
is system dependent. Some platforms have their own account database (eg AIX)
and some modify the passwd field (
‘
*LK*
’ on Solaris and UnixWare,
‘
*
’ on HP-UX, containing
‘
Nologin
’ on Tru64, a leading
‘
*LOCKED*
’ on FreeBSD and a leading
‘
!
’ on most Linuxes). If there is a
requirement to disable password authentication for the account while allowing
still public-key, then the passwd field should be set to something other than
these values (eg ‘
NP
’ or
‘
*NP*
’ ).
If the client successfully authenticates itself, a dialog for preparing the
session is entered. At this time the client may request things like allocating
a pseudo-tty, forwarding X11 connections, forwarding TCP connections, or
forwarding the authentication agent connection over the secure channel.
After this, the client either requests an interactive shell or execution or a
non-interactive command, which
sshd will execute
via the user's shell using its
-c option. The
sides then enter session mode. In this mode, either side may send data at any
time, and such data is forwarded to/from the shell or command on the server
side, and the user terminal in the client side.
When the user program terminates and all forwarded X11 and other connections
have been closed, the server sends command exit status to the client, and both
sides exit.
When a user successfully logs in,
sshd does the
following:
- If the login is on a tty, and no command has been
specified, prints last login time and
/etc/motd (unless prevented in the
configuration file or by ~/.hushlogin; see
the FILES section).
- If the login is on a tty, records login time.
- Checks /etc/nologin; if it
exists, prints contents and quits (unless root).
- Changes to run with normal user privileges.
- Sets up basic environment.
- Reads the file
~/.ssh/environment, if it exists, and users
are allowed to change their environment. See the
PermitUserEnvironment option in
sshd_config(5).
- Changes to user's home directory.
- If ~/.ssh/rc exists and the
sshd_config(5)
PermitUserRC option is set, runs it; else if
/etc/ssh/sshrc exists, runs it; otherwise
runs xauth(1). The “rc” files
are given the X11 authentication protocol and cookie in standard input.
See SSHRC, below.
- Runs user's shell or command. All commands are run under
the user's login shell as specified in the system password database.
If the file
~/.ssh/rc exists,
sh(1) runs it after reading the environment files
but before starting the user's shell or command. It must not produce any
output on stdout; stderr must be used instead. If X11 forwarding is in use, it
will receive the "proto cookie" pair in its standard input (and
DISPLAY
in its environment). The script
must call
xauth(1) because
sshd will not run xauth automatically to add X11
cookies.
The primary purpose of this file is to run any initialization routines which may
be needed before the user's home directory becomes accessible; AFS is a
particular example of such an environment.
This file will probably contain some initialization code followed by something
similar to:
if read proto cookie && [ -n "$DISPLAY" ]; then
if [ `echo $DISPLAY | cut -c1-10` = 'localhost:' ]; then
# X11UseLocalhost=yes
echo add unix:`echo $DISPLAY |
cut -c11-` $proto $cookie
else
# X11UseLocalhost=no
echo add $DISPLAY $proto $cookie
fi | xauth -q -
fi
If this file does not exist,
/etc/ssh/sshrc is run,
and if that does not exist either, xauth is used to add the cookie.
AuthorizedKeysFile specifies the files containing
public keys for public key authentication; if this option is not specified,
the default is
~/.ssh/authorized_keys and
~/.ssh/authorized_keys2. Each line of the file
contains one key (empty lines and lines starting with a
‘
#
’ are ignored as comments). Public
keys consist of the following space-separated fields: options, keytype,
base64-encoded key, comment. The options field is optional. The supported key
types are:
The comment field is not used for anything (but may be convenient for the user
to identify the key).
Note that lines in this file can be several hundred bytes long (because of the
size of the public key encoding) up to a limit of 8 kilobytes, which permits
RSA keys up to 16 kilobits. You don't want to type them in; instead, copy the
id_dsa.pub,
id_ecdsa.pub,
id_ecdsa_sk.pub,
id_ed25519.pub,
id_ed25519_sk.pub, or the
id_rsa.pub file and edit it.
sshd enforces a minimum RSA key modulus size of
1024 bits.
The options (if present) consist of comma-separated option specifications. No
spaces are permitted, except within double quotes. The following option
specifications are supported (note that option keywords are case-insensitive):
- agent-forwarding
- Enable authentication agent forwarding previously disabled
by the restrict option.
- cert-authority
- Specifies that the listed key is a certification authority
(CA) that is trusted to validate signed certificates for user
authentication.
Certificates may encode access restrictions similar to these key options. If
both certificate restrictions and key options are present, the most
restrictive union of the two is applied.
- command="command"
- Specifies that the command is executed whenever this key is
used for authentication. The command supplied by the user (if any) is
ignored. The command is run on a pty if the client requests a pty;
otherwise it is run without a tty. If an 8-bit clean channel is required,
one must not request a pty or should specify
no-pty. A quote may be included in the
command by quoting it with a backslash.
This option might be useful to restrict certain public keys to perform just
a specific operation. An example might be a key that permits remote
backups but nothing else. Note that the client may specify TCP and/or X11
forwarding unless they are explicitly prohibited, e.g. using the
restrict key option.
The command originally supplied by the client is available in the
SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND
environment
variable. Note that this option applies to shell, command or subsystem
execution. Also note that this command may be superseded by a
sshd_config(5)
ForceCommand directive.
If a command is specified and a forced-command is embedded in a certificate
used for authentication, then the certificate will be accepted only if the
two commands are identical.
- environment="NAME=value"
- Specifies that the string is to be added to the environment
when logging in using this key. Environment variables set this way
override other default environment values. Multiple options of this type
are permitted. Environment processing is disabled by default and is
controlled via the PermitUserEnvironment
option.
- expiry-time="timespec"
- Specifies a time after which the key will not be accepted.
The time may be specified as a YYYYMMDD[Z] date or a YYYYMMDDHHMM[SS][Z]
time. Dates and times will be interpreted in the system time zone unless
suffixed by a Z character, in which case they will be interpreted in the
UTC time zone.
- from="pattern-list"
- Specifies that in addition to public key authentication,
either the canonical name of the remote host or its IP address must be
present in the comma-separated list of patterns. See PATTERNS in
ssh_config(5) for more information on
patterns.
In addition to the wildcard matching that may be applied to hostnames or
addresses, a from stanza may match IP
addresses using CIDR address/masklen notation.
The purpose of this option is to optionally increase security: public key
authentication by itself does not trust the network or name servers or
anything (but the key); however, if somebody somehow steals the key, the
key permits an intruder to log in from anywhere in the world. This
additional option makes using a stolen key more difficult (name servers
and/or routers would have to be compromised in addition to just the
key).
- no-agent-forwarding
- Forbids authentication agent forwarding when this key is
used for authentication.
- no-port-forwarding
- Forbids TCP forwarding when this key is used for
authentication. Any port forward requests by the client will return an
error. This might be used, e.g. in connection with the
command option.
- no-pty
- Prevents tty allocation (a request to allocate a pty will
fail).
- no-user-rc
- Disables execution of
~/.ssh/rc.
- no-X11-forwarding
- Forbids X11 forwarding when this key is used for
authentication. Any X11 forward requests by the client will return an
error.
- permitlisten="[host:]port"
- Limit remote port forwarding with the
ssh(1) -R option
such that it may only listen on the specified host (optional) and port.
IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing the address in square
brackets. Multiple permitlisten options may
be applied separated by commas. Hostnames may include wildcards as
described in the PATTERNS section in
ssh_config(5). A port specification of
* matches any port. Note that the setting of
GatewayPorts may further restrict listen
addresses. Note that ssh(1) will send a
hostname of “localhost” if a listen host was not specified
when the forwarding was requested, and that this name is treated
differently to the explicit localhost addresses “127.0.0.1”
and “::1”.
- permitopen="host:port"
- Limit local port forwarding with the
ssh(1) -L option
such that it may only connect to the specified host and port. IPv6
addresses can be specified by enclosing the address in square brackets.
Multiple permitopen options may be applied
separated by commas. No pattern matching or name lookup is performed on
the specified hostnames, they must be literal host names and/or addresses.
A port specification of * matches any
port.
- port-forwarding
- Enable port forwarding previously disabled by the
restrict option.
- principals="principals"
- On a cert-authority line,
specifies allowed principals for certificate authentication as a
comma-separated list. At least one name from the list must appear in the
certificate's list of principals for the certificate to be accepted. This
option is ignored for keys that are not marked as trusted certificate
signers using the cert-authority option.
- pty
- Permits tty allocation previously disabled by the
restrict option.
- no-touch-required
- Do not require demonstration of user presence for
signatures made using this key. This option only makes sense for the FIDO
authenticator algorithms ecdsa-sk and
ed25519-sk.
- verify-required
- Require that signatures made using this key attest that
they verified the user, e.g. via a PIN. This option only makes sense for
the FIDO authenticator algorithms ecdsa-sk
and ed25519-sk.
- restrict
- Enable all restrictions, i.e. disable port, agent and X11
forwarding, as well as disabling PTY allocation and execution of
~/.ssh/rc. If any future restriction
capabilities are added to authorized_keys files, they will be included in
this set.
- tunnel="n"
- Force a tun(4) device on the
server. Without this option, the next available device will be used if the
client requests a tunnel.
- user-rc
- Enables execution of ~/.ssh/rc
previously disabled by the restrict
option.
- X11-forwarding
- Permits X11 forwarding previously disabled by the
restrict option.
An example authorized_keys file:
# Comments are allowed at start of line. Blank lines are allowed.
# Plain key, no restrictions
ssh-rsa ...
# Forced command, disable PTY and all forwarding
restrict,command="dump /home" ssh-rsa ...
# Restriction of ssh -L forwarding destinations
permitopen="192.0.2.1:80",permitopen="192.0.2.2:25" ssh-rsa ...
# Restriction of ssh -R forwarding listeners
permitlisten="localhost:8080",permitlisten="[::1]:22000" ssh-rsa ...
# Configuration for tunnel forwarding
tunnel="0",command="sh /etc/netstart tun0" ssh-rsa ...
# Override of restriction to allow PTY allocation
restrict,pty,command="nethack" ssh-rsa ...
# Allow FIDO key without requiring touch
no-touch-required [email protected] ...
# Require user-verification (e.g. PIN or biometric) for FIDO key
verify-required [email protected] ...
# Trust CA key, allow touch-less FIDO if requested in certificate
cert-authority,no-touch-required,principals="user_a" ssh-rsa ...
The
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts and
~/.ssh/known_hosts files contain host public keys
for all known hosts. The global file should be prepared by the administrator
(optional), and the per-user file is maintained automatically: whenever the
user connects to an unknown host, its key is added to the per-user file.
Each line in these files contains the following fields: marker (optional),
hostnames, keytype, base64-encoded key, comment. The fields are separated by
spaces.
The marker is optional, but if it is present then it must be one of
“@cert-authority”, to indicate that the line contains a
certification authority (CA) key, or “@revoked”, to indicate
that the key contained on the line is revoked and must not ever be accepted.
Only one marker should be used on a key line.
Hostnames is a comma-separated list of patterns
(‘
*
’ and
‘
?
’ act as wildcards); each pattern in
turn is matched against the host name. When
sshd
is authenticating a client, such as when using
HostbasedAuthentication, this will be the
canonical client host name. When
ssh(1) is
authenticating a server, this will be the host name given by the user, the
value of the
ssh(1)
HostkeyAlias if it was specified, or the
canonical server hostname if the
ssh(1)
CanonicalizeHostname option was used.
A pattern may also be preceded by ‘
!
’ to
indicate negation: if the host name matches a negated pattern, it is not
accepted (by that line) even if it matched another pattern on the line. A
hostname or address may optionally be enclosed within
‘
[
’ and
‘
]
’ brackets then followed by
‘
:
’ and a non-standard port number.
Alternately, hostnames may be stored in a hashed form which hides host names and
addresses should the file's contents be disclosed. Hashed hostnames start with
a ‘
|
’ character. Only one hashed
hostname may appear on a single line and none of the above negation or
wildcard operators may be applied.
The keytype and base64-encoded key are taken directly from the host key; they
can be obtained, for example, from
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub. The optional
comment field continues to the end of the line, and is not used.
Lines starting with ‘
#
’ and empty lines
are ignored as comments.
When performing host authentication, authentication is accepted if any matching
line has the proper key; either one that matches exactly or, if the server has
presented a certificate for authentication, the key of the certification
authority that signed the certificate. For a key to be trusted as a
certification authority, it must use the “@cert-authority”
marker described above.
The known hosts file also provides a facility to mark keys as revoked, for
example when it is known that the associated private key has been stolen.
Revoked keys are specified by including the “@revoked” marker at
the beginning of the key line, and are never accepted for authentication or as
certification authorities, but instead will produce a warning from
ssh(1) when they are encountered.
It is permissible (but not recommended) to have several lines or different host
keys for the same names. This will inevitably happen when short forms of host
names from different domains are put in the file. It is possible that the
files contain conflicting information; authentication is accepted if valid
information can be found from either file.
Note that the lines in these files are typically hundreds of characters long,
and you definitely don't want to type in the host keys by hand. Rather,
generate them by a script,
ssh-keyscan(1) or by
taking, for example,
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub and adding the host
names at the front.
ssh-keygen(1) also offers
some basic automated editing for
~/.ssh/known_hosts including removing hosts
matching a host name and converting all host names to their hashed
representations.
An example ssh_known_hosts file:
# Comments allowed at start of line
cvs.example.net,192.0.2.10 ssh-rsa AAAA1234.....=
# A hashed hostname
|1|JfKTdBh7rNbXkVAQCRp4OQoPfmI=|USECr3SWf1JUPsms5AqfD5QfxkM= ssh-rsa
AAAA1234.....=
# A revoked key
@revoked * ssh-rsa AAAAB5W...
# A CA key, accepted for any host in *.mydomain.com or *.mydomain.org
@cert-authority *.mydomain.org,*.mydomain.com ssh-rsa AAAAB5W...
- ~/.hushlogin
- This file is used to suppress printing the last login time
and /etc/motd, if
PrintLastLog and
PrintMotd, respectively, are enabled. It does
not suppress printing of the banner specified by
Banner.
- ~/.rhosts
- This file is used for host-based authentication (see
ssh(1) for more information). On some
machines this file may need to be world-readable if the user's home
directory is on an NFS partition, because
sshd 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.
- ~/.ssh/
- This directory is the default location for all
user-specific configuration 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.
- ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
- Lists the public keys (DSA, ECDSA, Ed25519, RSA) that can
be used for logging in as this user. The format of this file is described
above. The content of the file is not highly sensitive, but the
recommended permissions are read/write for the user, and not accessible by
others.
If this file, the ~/.ssh directory, or the
user's home directory are writable by other users, then the file could be
modified or replaced by unauthorized users. In this case,
sshd will not allow it to be used unless the
StrictModes option has been set to
“no”.
- ~/.ssh/environment
- This file is read into the environment at login (if it
exists). It can only contain empty lines, comment lines (that start with
‘
#
’), and assignment lines of the
form name=value. The file should be writable only by the user; it need not
be readable by anyone else. Environment processing is disabled by default
and is controlled via the
PermitUserEnvironment option.
- ~/.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. The format of this file is described above. This file should be
writable only by root/the owner and can, but need not be, world-readable.
- ~/.ssh/rc
- Contains initialization routines to be run before the
user's home directory becomes accessible. This file should be writable
only by the user, and need not be readable by anyone else.
- /etc/hosts.allow
-
- /etc/hosts.deny
- Access controls that should be enforced by tcp-wrappers are
defined here. Further details are described in
hosts_access(5).
- /etc/hosts.equiv
- This file is for host-based authentication (see
ssh(1)). It should only be writable by root.
- /etc/ssh/moduli
- Contains Diffie-Hellman groups used for the
"Diffie-Hellman Group Exchange" key exchange method. The file
format is described in moduli(5). If no
usable groups are found in this file then fixed internal groups will be
used.
- /etc/motd
- See motd(5).
- /etc/nologin
- If this file exists, sshd
refuses to let anyone except root log in. The contents of the file are
displayed to anyone trying to log in, and non-root connections are
refused. The file should be world-readable.
- /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv
- This file is used in exactly the same way as
hosts.equiv, but allows host-based
authentication without permitting login with rlogin/rsh.
- /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
-
- /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
-
- /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
- These files contain the private parts of the host keys.
These files should only be owned by root, readable only by root, and not
accessible to others. Note that sshd does not
start if these files are group/world-accessible.
- /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
-
- /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
-
- /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
- These files contain the public parts of the host keys.
These files should be world-readable but writable only by root. Their
contents should match the respective private parts. These files are not
really used for anything; they are provided for the convenience of the
user so their contents can be copied to known hosts files. These files are
created using ssh-keygen(1).
- /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. The format of this file is described
above. This file should be writable only by root/the owner and should be
world-readable.
- /etc/ssh/sshd_config
- Contains configuration data for
sshd. The file format and configuration
options are described in sshd_config(5).
- /etc/ssh/sshrc
- Similar to ~/.ssh/rc, it can
be used to specify machine-specific login-time initializations globally.
This file should be writable only by root, and should be world-readable.
- /run/sshd
-
chroot(2) directory used by
sshd during privilege separation in the
pre-authentication phase. The directory should not contain any files and
must be owned by root and not group or world-writable.
- /run/sshd.pid
- Contains the process ID of the
sshd listening for connections (if there are
several daemons running concurrently for different ports, this contains
the process ID of the one started last). The content of this file is not
sensitive; it can be world-readable.
scp(1),
sftp(1),
ssh(1),
ssh-add(1),
ssh-agent(1),
ssh-keygen(1),
ssh-keyscan(1),
chroot(2),
hosts_access(5),
moduli(5),
sshd_config(5),
inetd(8),
sftp-server(8)
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.
Niels Provos and Markus Friedl contributed support for privilege
separation.