3 .\" Author: Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
4 .\" Copyright (c) 1995 Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>, Espoo, Finland
5 .\" All rights reserved
7 .\" As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software
8 .\" can be used freely for any purpose. Any derived versions of this
9 .\" software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is
10 .\" incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be
11 .\" called by a name other than "ssh" or "Secure Shell".
13 .\" Copyright (c) 1999,2000 Markus Friedl. All rights reserved.
14 .\" Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron Campbell. All rights reserved.
15 .\" Copyright (c) 1999 Theo de Raadt. All rights reserved.
17 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
18 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
20 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
21 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
22 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
23 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
24 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
26 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
27 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
28 .\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
29 .\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
30 .\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
31 .\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
32 .\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
33 .\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
34 .\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
35 .\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
37 .\" $OpenBSD: sshd_config.5,v 1.84 2008/03/25 11:58:02 djm Exp $
38 .Dd $Mdocdate: March 27 2008 $
43 .Nd OpenSSH SSH daemon configuration file
45 .Nm /etc/ssh/sshd_config
48 reads configuration data from
49 .Pa /etc/ssh/sshd_config
50 (or the file specified with
53 The file contains keyword-argument pairs, one per line.
56 and empty lines are interpreted as comments.
57 Arguments may optionally be enclosed in double quotes
59 in order to represent arguments containing spaces.
62 keywords and their meanings are as follows (note that
63 keywords are case-insensitive and arguments are case-sensitive):
66 Specifies what environment variables sent by the client will be copied into
73 for how to configure the client.
74 Note that environment passing is only supported for protocol 2.
75 Variables are specified by name, which may contain the wildcard characters
79 Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread
83 Be warned that some environment variables could be used to bypass restricted
85 For this reason, care should be taken in the use of this directive.
86 The default is not to accept any environment variables.
88 Specifies which address family should be used by
99 This keyword can be followed by a list of group name patterns, separated
101 If specified, login is allowed only for users whose primary
102 group or supplementary group list matches one of the patterns.
103 Only group names are valid; a numerical group ID is not recognized.
104 By default, login is allowed for all groups.
105 The allow/deny directives are processed in the following order:
116 for more information on patterns.
117 .It Cm AllowTcpForwarding
118 Specifies whether TCP forwarding is permitted.
121 Note that disabling TCP forwarding does not improve security unless
122 users are also denied shell access, as they can always install their
125 This keyword can be followed by a list of user name patterns, separated
127 If specified, login is allowed only for user names that
128 match one of the patterns.
129 Only user names are valid; a numerical user ID is not recognized.
130 By default, login is allowed for all users.
131 If the pattern takes the form USER@HOST then USER and HOST
132 are separately checked, restricting logins to particular
133 users from particular hosts.
134 The allow/deny directives are processed in the following order:
145 for more information on patterns.
146 .It Cm AuthorizedKeysFile
147 Specifies the file that contains the public keys that can be used
148 for user authentication.
149 .Cm AuthorizedKeysFile
150 may contain tokens of the form %T which are substituted during connection
152 The following tokens are defined: %% is replaced by a literal '%',
153 %h is replaced by the home directory of the user being authenticated, and
154 %u is replaced by the username of that user.
156 .Cm AuthorizedKeysFile
157 is taken to be an absolute path or one relative to the user's home
160 .Dq .ssh/authorized_keys .
162 The contents of the specified file are sent to the remote user before
163 authentication is allowed.
166 then no banner is displayed.
167 This option is only available for protocol version 2.
168 By default, no banner is displayed.
169 .It Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication
170 Specifies whether challenge-response authentication is allowed.
171 All authentication styles from
176 .It Cm ChrootDirectory
179 to after authentication.
180 This path, and all its components, must be root-owned directories that are
181 not writable by any other user or group.
183 The path may contain the following tokens that are expanded at runtime once
184 the connecting user has been authenticated: %% is replaced by a literal '%',
185 %h is replaced by the home directory of the user being authenticated, and
186 %u is replaced by the username of that user.
190 must contain the necessary files and directories to support the
192 For an interactive session this requires at least a shell, typically
206 For file transfer sessions using
208 no additional configuration of the environment is necessary if the
209 in-process sftp server is used (see
213 The default is not to
216 Specifies the ciphers allowed for protocol version 2.
217 Multiple ciphers must be comma-separated.
218 The supported ciphers are
233 .Bd -literal -offset 3n
234 aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour128,
235 arcfour256,arcfour,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,aes128-ctr,
236 aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr
238 .It Cm ClientAliveCountMax
239 Sets the number of client alive messages (see below) which may be
242 receiving any messages back from the client.
243 If this threshold is reached while client alive messages are being sent,
244 sshd will disconnect the client, terminating the session.
245 It is important to note that the use of client alive messages is very
249 The client alive messages are sent through the encrypted channel
250 and therefore will not be spoofable.
251 The TCP keepalive option enabled by
254 The client alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
255 server depend on knowing when a connection has become inactive.
257 The default value is 3.
259 .Cm ClientAliveInterval
260 (see below) is set to 15, and
261 .Cm ClientAliveCountMax
262 is left at the default, unresponsive SSH clients
263 will be disconnected after approximately 45 seconds.
264 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
265 .It Cm ClientAliveInterval
266 Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
269 will send a message through the encrypted
270 channel to request a response from the client.
272 is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the client.
273 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
275 Specifies whether compression is allowed, or delayed until
276 the user has authenticated successfully.
285 This keyword can be followed by a list of group name patterns, separated
287 Login is disallowed for users whose primary group or supplementary
288 group list matches one of the patterns.
289 Only group names are valid; a numerical group ID is not recognized.
290 By default, login is allowed for all groups.
291 The allow/deny directives are processed in the following order:
302 for more information on patterns.
304 This keyword can be followed by a list of user name patterns, separated
306 Login is disallowed for user names that match one of the patterns.
307 Only user names are valid; a numerical user ID is not recognized.
308 By default, login is allowed for all users.
309 If the pattern takes the form USER@HOST then USER and HOST
310 are separately checked, restricting logins to particular
311 users from particular hosts.
312 The allow/deny directives are processed in the following order:
323 for more information on patterns.
325 Forces the execution of the command specified by
327 ignoring any command supplied by the client and
330 The command is invoked by using the user's login shell with the -c option.
331 This applies to shell, command, or subsystem execution.
332 It is most useful inside a
335 The command originally supplied by the client is available in the
336 .Ev SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND
337 environment variable.
338 Specifying a command of
340 will force the use of an in-process sftp server that requires no support
342 .Cm ChrootDirectory .
344 Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to ports
345 forwarded for the client.
348 binds remote port forwardings to the loopback address.
349 This prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
351 can be used to specify that sshd
352 should allow remote port forwardings to bind to non-loopback addresses, thus
353 allowing other hosts to connect.
356 to force remote port forwardings to be available to the local host only,
358 to force remote port forwardings to bind to the wildcard address, or
360 to allow the client to select the address to which the forwarding is bound.
363 .It Cm GSSAPIAuthentication
364 Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed.
367 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
368 .It Cm GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
369 Specifies whether delegated credentials are stored in the user's environment.
372 .It Cm GSSAPIKeyExchange
373 Specifies whether key exchange based on GSSAPI is allowed. GSSAPI key exchange
374 doesn't rely on ssh keys to verify host identity.
377 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
378 .It Cm GSSAPICleanupCredentials
379 Specifies whether to automatically destroy the user's credentials cache
383 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
384 .It Cm GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck
385 Determines whether to be strict about the identity of the GSSAPI acceptor
386 a client authenticates against. If
388 then the client must authenticate against the
390 service on the current hostname. If
392 then the client may authenticate against any service key stored in the
393 machine's default store. This facility is provided to assist with operation
394 on multi homed machines.
397 Note that this option applies only to protocol version 2 GSSAPI connections,
400 may only work with recent Kerberos GSSAPI libraries.
401 .It Cm GSSAPICredentialsPath
402 If specified, the delegated GSSAPI credential is stored in the
403 given path, overwriting any existing credentials.
404 Paths can be specified with syntax similar to the AuthorizedKeysFile
405 option (i.e., accepting %h and %u tokens).
406 When using this option,
407 setting 'GssapiCleanupCredentials no' is recommended,
408 so logging out of one session
409 doesn't remove the credentials in use by another session of
411 Currently only implemented for the GSI mechanism.
412 .It Cm GSIAllowLimitedProxy
413 Specifies whether to accept limited proxy credentials for
417 .It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
418 Specifies whether rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv authentication together
419 with successful public key client host authentication is allowed
420 (host-based authentication).
421 This option is similar to
422 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
423 and applies to protocol version 2 only.
426 .It Cm HostbasedUsesNameFromPacketOnly
427 Specifies whether or not the server will attempt to perform a reverse
428 name lookup when matching the name in the
434 .Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
439 uses the name supplied by the client rather than
440 attempting to resolve the name from the TCP connection itself.
444 Specifies a file containing a private host key
447 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
448 for protocol version 1, and
449 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
451 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
452 for protocol version 2.
455 will refuse to use a file if it is group/world-accessible.
456 It is possible to have multiple host key files.
458 keys are used for version 1 and
462 are used for version 2 of the SSH protocol.
468 files will not be used in
469 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
471 .Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
475 .Pa /etc/shosts.equiv
479 .It Cm IgnoreUserKnownHosts
482 should ignore the user's
483 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
485 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
487 .Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
490 .It Cm KerberosAuthentication
491 Specifies whether the password provided by the user for
492 .Cm PasswordAuthentication
493 will be validated through the Kerberos KDC.
494 To use this option, the server needs a
495 Kerberos servtab which allows the verification of the KDC's identity.
498 .It Cm KerberosGetAFSToken
499 If AFS is active and the user has a Kerberos 5 TGT, attempt to acquire
500 an AFS token before accessing the user's home directory.
503 .It Cm KerberosOrLocalPasswd
504 If password authentication through Kerberos fails then
505 the password will be validated via any additional local mechanism
510 .It Cm KerberosTicketCleanup
511 Specifies whether to automatically destroy the user's ticket cache
515 .It Cm KeyRegenerationInterval
516 In protocol version 1, the ephemeral server key is automatically regenerated
517 after this many seconds (if it has been used).
518 The purpose of regeneration is to prevent
519 decrypting captured sessions by later breaking into the machine and
521 The key is never stored anywhere.
522 If the value is 0, the key is never regenerated.
523 The default is 3600 (seconds).
525 Specifies the local addresses
528 The following forms may be used:
530 .Bl -item -offset indent -compact
534 .Ar host No | Ar IPv4_addr No | Ar IPv6_addr
539 .Ar host No | Ar IPv4_addr No : Ar port
545 .Ar host No | Ar IPv6_addr Oc : Ar port
552 sshd will listen on the address and all prior
555 The default is to listen on all local addresses.
558 options are permitted.
561 options must precede this option for non-port qualified addresses.
562 .It Cm LoginGraceTime
563 The server disconnects after this time if the user has not
564 successfully logged in.
565 If the value is 0, there is no time limit.
566 The default is 120 seconds.
568 Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
570 The possible values are:
571 QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2, and DEBUG3.
573 DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.
574 DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of debugging output.
575 Logging with a DEBUG level violates the privacy of users and is not recommended.
577 Specifies the available MAC (message authentication code) algorithms.
578 The MAC algorithm is used in protocol version 2
579 for data integrity protection.
580 Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
582 .Bd -literal -offset indent
583 hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com,
584 hmac-ripemd160,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
587 Introduces a conditional block.
588 If all of the criteria on the
590 line are satisfied, the keywords on the following lines override those
591 set in the global section of the config file, until either another
593 line or the end of the file.
596 are one or more criteria-pattern pairs.
597 The available criteria are
603 Only a subset of keywords may be used on the lines following a
606 Available keywords are
607 .Cm AllowTcpForwarding ,
611 .Cm GSSApiAuthentication ,
612 .Cm KbdInteractiveAuthentication ,
613 .Cm KerberosAuthentication ,
614 .Cm PasswordAuthentication ,
616 .Cm PermitRootLogin ,
617 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication ,
618 .Cm RSAAuthentication ,
619 .Cm X11DisplayOffset ,
622 .Cm X11UseLocalHost .
624 Specifies the maximum number of authentication attempts permitted per
626 Once the number of failures reaches half this value,
627 additional failures are logged.
630 Specifies the maximum number of concurrent unauthenticated connections to the
632 Additional connections will be dropped until authentication succeeds or the
634 expires for a connection.
637 Alternatively, random early drop can be enabled by specifying
638 the three colon separated values
642 will refuse connection attempts with a probability of
645 if there are currently
648 unauthenticated connections.
649 The probability increases linearly and all connection attempts
650 are refused if the number of unauthenticated connections reaches
653 .It Cm PasswordAuthentication
654 Specifies whether password authentication is allowed.
657 .It Cm PermitEmptyPasswords
658 When password authentication is allowed, it specifies whether the
659 server allows login to accounts with empty password strings.
663 Specifies the destinations to which TCP port forwarding is permitted.
664 The forwarding specification must be one of the following forms:
666 .Bl -item -offset indent -compact
680 .Ar \&[ IPv6_addr \&] : port
684 Multiple forwards may be specified by separating them with whitespace.
687 can be used to remove all restrictions and permit any forwarding requests.
688 By default all port forwarding requests are permitted.
689 .It Cm PermitRootLogin
690 Specifies whether root can log in using
694 .Dq without-password ,
695 .Dq forced-commands-only ,
701 If this option is set to
702 .Dq without-password ,
703 password authentication is disabled for root.
705 If this option is set to
706 .Dq forced-commands-only ,
707 root login with public key authentication will be allowed,
710 option has been specified
711 (which may be useful for taking remote backups even if root login is
712 normally not allowed).
713 All other authentication methods are disabled for root.
715 If this option is set to
717 root is not allowed to log in.
721 device forwarding is allowed.
737 .It Cm PermitUserEnvironment
739 .Pa ~/.ssh/environment
743 .Pa ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
748 Enabling environment processing may enable users to bypass access
749 restrictions in some configurations using mechanisms such as
752 Specifies the file that contains the process ID of the
755 .Pa /var/run/sshd.pid .
757 Specifies the port number that
761 Multiple options of this type are permitted.
767 should print the date and time of the last user login when a user logs
776 when a user logs in interactively.
777 (On some systems it is also printed by the shell,
783 Specifies the protocol versions
786 The possible values are
790 Multiple versions must be comma-separated.
793 Note that the order of the protocol list does not indicate preference,
794 because the client selects among multiple protocol versions offered
800 .It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
801 Specifies whether public key authentication is allowed.
804 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
805 .It Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
806 Specifies whether rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv authentication together
807 with successful RSA host authentication is allowed.
810 This option applies to protocol version 1 only.
811 .It Cm RSAAuthentication
812 Specifies whether pure RSA authentication is allowed.
815 This option applies to protocol version 1 only.
817 Defines the number of bits in the ephemeral protocol version 1 server key.
818 The minimum value is 512, and the default is 768.
822 should check file modes and ownership of the
823 user's files and home directory before accepting login.
824 This is normally desirable because novices sometimes accidentally leave their
825 directory or files world-writable.
829 Configures an external subsystem (e.g. file transfer daemon).
830 Arguments should be a subsystem name and a command (with optional arguments)
831 to execute upon subsystem request.
837 file transfer subsystem.
841 implements an in-process
844 This may simplify configurations using
846 to force a different filesystem root on clients.
848 By default no subsystems are defined.
849 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
850 .It Cm SyslogFacility
851 Gives the facility code that is used when logging messages from
853 The possible values are: DAEMON, USER, AUTH, LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2,
854 LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7.
857 Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
859 If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
860 of the machines will be properly noticed.
861 However, this means that
862 connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
864 On the other hand, if TCP keepalives are not sent,
865 sessions may hang indefinitely on the server, leaving
867 users and consuming server resources.
871 (to send TCP keepalive messages), and the server will notice
872 if the network goes down or the client host crashes.
873 This avoids infinitely hanging sessions.
875 To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to
880 should look up the remote host name and check that
881 the resolved host name for the remote IP address maps back to the
882 very same IP address.
888 is used for interactive login sessions.
893 is never used for remote command execution.
894 Note also, that if this is enabled,
896 will be disabled because
898 does not know how to handle
902 .Cm UsePrivilegeSeparation
903 is specified, it will be disabled after authentication.
905 Enables the Pluggable Authentication Module interface.
908 this will enable PAM authentication using
909 .Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication
911 .Cm PasswordAuthentication
912 in addition to PAM account and session module processing for all
913 authentication types.
915 Because PAM challenge-response authentication usually serves an equivalent
916 role to password authentication, you should disable either
917 .Cm PasswordAuthentication
919 .Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication.
923 is enabled, you will not be able to run
928 .It Cm UsePrivilegeSeparation
931 separates privileges by creating an unprivileged child process
932 to deal with incoming network traffic.
933 After successful authentication, another process will be created that has
934 the privilege of the authenticated user.
935 The goal of privilege separation is to prevent privilege
936 escalation by containing any corruption within the unprivileged processes.
939 .It Cm X11DisplayOffset
940 Specifies the first display number available for
943 This prevents sshd from interfering with real X11 servers.
946 Specifies whether X11 forwarding is permitted.
954 When X11 forwarding is enabled, there may be additional exposure to
955 the server and to client displays if the
957 proxy display is configured to listen on the wildcard address (see
959 below), though this is not the default.
960 Additionally, the authentication spoofing and authentication data
961 verification and substitution occur on the client side.
962 The security risk of using X11 forwarding is that the client's X11
963 display server may be exposed to attack when the SSH client requests
964 forwarding (see the warnings for
968 A system administrator may have a stance in which they want to
969 protect clients that may expose themselves to attack by unwittingly
970 requesting X11 forwarding, which can warrant a
974 Note that disabling X11 forwarding does not prevent users from
975 forwarding X11 traffic, as users can always install their own forwarders.
976 X11 forwarding is automatically disabled if
979 .It Cm X11UseLocalhost
982 should bind the X11 forwarding server to the loopback address or to
983 the wildcard address.
985 sshd binds the forwarding server to the loopback address and sets the
988 environment variable to
990 This prevents remote hosts from connecting to the proxy display.
991 However, some older X11 clients may not function with this
996 to specify that the forwarding server should be bound to the wildcard
1004 .It Cm XAuthLocation
1005 Specifies the full pathname of the
1009 .Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
1013 command-line arguments and configuration file options that specify time
1014 may be expressed using a sequence of the form:
1016 .Ar time Op Ar qualifier ,
1020 is a positive integer value and
1022 is one of the following:
1024 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
1039 Each member of the sequence is added together to calculate
1040 the total time value.
1042 Time format examples:
1044 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
1046 600 seconds (10 minutes)
1050 1 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes)
1054 .It Pa /etc/ssh/sshd_config
1055 Contains configuration data for
1057 This file should be writable by root only, but it is recommended
1058 (though not necessary) that it be world-readable.
1063 OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
1064 ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
1065 Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
1066 Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
1067 removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
1069 Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
1070 protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.
1071 Niels Provos and Markus Friedl contributed support
1072 for privilege separation.