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: ssh_config.5,v 1.59 2005/07/04 11:29:51 jmc Exp $
38 .Dd September 25, 1999
43 .Nd OpenSSH SSH client configuration files
45 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
47 .It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
51 obtains configuration data from the following sources in
53 .Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
57 user's configuration file
60 system-wide configuration file
61 .Pq Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
64 For each parameter, the first obtained value
66 The configuration files contain sections separated by
68 specifications, and that section is only applied for hosts that
69 match one of the patterns given in the specification.
70 The matched host name is the one given on the command line.
72 Since the first obtained value for each parameter is used, more
73 host-specific declarations should be given near the beginning of the
74 file, and general defaults at the end.
76 The configuration file has the following format:
78 Empty lines and lines starting with
82 Otherwise a line is of the format
83 .Dq keyword arguments .
84 Configuration options may be separated by whitespace or
85 optional whitespace and exactly one
87 the latter format is useful to avoid the need to quote whitespace
88 when specifying configuration options using the
97 keywords and their meanings are as follows (note that
98 keywords are case-insensitive and arguments are case-sensitive):
101 Restricts the following declarations (up to the next
103 keyword) to be only for those hosts that match one of the patterns
104 given after the keyword.
108 can be used as wildcards in the
112 as a pattern can be used to provide global
113 defaults for all hosts.
116 argument given on the command line (i.e., the name is not converted to
117 a canonicalized host name before matching).
119 Specifies which address family to use when connecting.
129 passphrase/password querying will be disabled.
130 This option is useful in scripts and other batch jobs where no user
131 is present to supply the password.
139 Specify the interface to transmit from on machines with multiple
140 interfaces or aliased addresses.
141 Note that this option does not work if
142 .Cm UsePrivilegedPort
145 .It Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication
146 Specifies whether to use challenge response authentication.
147 The argument to this keyword must be
154 If this flag is set to
156 ssh will additionally check the host IP address in the
159 This allows ssh to detect if a host key changed due to DNS spoofing.
160 If the option is set to
162 the check will not be executed.
166 Specifies the cipher to use for encrypting the session
167 in protocol version 1.
175 is only supported in the
177 client for interoperability with legacy protocol 1 implementations
178 that do not support the
181 Its use is strongly discouraged due to cryptographic weaknesses.
185 Specifies the ciphers allowed for protocol version 2
186 in order of preference.
187 Multiple ciphers must be comma-separated.
188 The supported ciphers are
204 ``aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour128,
205 arcfour256,arcfour,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,aes128-ctr,
206 aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr''
208 .It Cm ClearAllForwardings
209 Specifies that all local, remote and dynamic port forwardings
210 specified in the configuration files or on the command line be
212 This option is primarily useful when used from the
214 command line to clear port forwardings set in
215 configuration files, and is automatically set by
226 Specifies whether to use compression.
233 .It Cm CompressionLevel
234 Specifies the compression level to use if compression is enabled.
235 The argument must be an integer from 1 (fast) to 9 (slow, best).
236 The default level is 6, which is good for most applications.
237 The meaning of the values is the same as in
239 Note that this option applies to protocol version 1 only.
240 .It Cm ConnectionAttempts
241 Specifies the number of tries (one per second) to make before exiting.
242 The argument must be an integer.
243 This may be useful in scripts if the connection sometimes fails.
245 .It Cm ConnectTimeout
246 Specifies the timeout (in seconds) used when connecting to the ssh
247 server, instead of using the default system TCP timeout.
248 This value is used only when the target is down or really unreachable,
249 not when it refuses the connection.
251 Enables the sharing of multiple sessions over a single network connection.
255 will listen for connections on a control socket specified using the
258 Additional sessions can connect to this socket using the same
265 These sessions will reuse the master instance's network connection rather
266 than initiating new ones.
271 to listen for control connections, but require confirmation using the
273 program before they are accepted (see
280 will continue without connecting to a master instance.
284 forwarding is supported over these multiplexed connections, however the
285 display and agent fowarded will be the one belonging to the master
286 connection i.e. it is not possible to forward multiple displays or agents.
288 Two additional options allow for opportunistic multiplexing: try to use a
289 master connection but fall back to creating a new one if one does not already
295 The latter requires confirmation like the
299 Specify the path to the control socket used for connection sharing as described
302 section above or the string
304 to disable connection sharing.
307 will be substituted by the target host name,
311 by the remote login username.
312 It is recommended that any
314 used for opportunistic connection sharing include
315 all three of these escape sequences.
316 This ensures that shared connections are uniquely identified.
317 .It Cm DynamicForward
318 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded
319 over the secure channel, and the application
320 protocol is then used to determine where to connect to from the
322 The argument must be a port number.
323 Currently the SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, and
325 will act as a SOCKS server.
326 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and
327 additional forwardings can be given on the command line.
328 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
329 .It Cm EnableSSHKeysign
330 Setting this option to
332 in the global client configuration file
333 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
334 enables the use of the helper program
337 .Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
344 This option should be placed in the non-hostspecific section.
347 for more information.
349 Sets the escape character (default:
351 The escape character can also
352 be set on the command line.
353 The argument should be a single character,
355 followed by a letter, or
357 to disable the escape
358 character entirely (making the connection transparent for binary
361 Specifies whether the connection to the authentication agent (if any)
362 will be forwarded to the remote machine.
370 Agent forwarding should be enabled with caution.
371 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
372 (for the agent's Unix-domain socket)
373 can access the local agent through the forwarded connection.
374 An attacker cannot obtain key material from the agent,
375 however they can perform operations on the keys that enable them to
376 authenticate using the identities loaded into the agent.
378 Specifies whether X11 connections will be automatically redirected
379 over the secure channel and
389 X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution.
390 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
391 (for the user's X11 authorization database)
392 can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection.
393 An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring
395 .Cm ForwardX11Trusted
396 option is also enabled.
397 .It Cm ForwardX11Trusted
398 If this option is set to
400 then remote X11 clients will have full access to the original X11 display.
402 If this option is set to
404 then remote X11 clients will be considered untrusted and prevented
405 from stealing or tampering with data belonging to trusted X11
409 token used for the session will be set to expire after 20 minutes.
410 Remote clients will be refused access after this time.
415 See the X11 SECURITY extension specification for full details on
416 the restrictions imposed on untrusted clients.
418 Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to local
422 binds local port forwardings to the loopback address.
423 This prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
425 can be used to specify that
427 should bind local port forwardings to the wildcard address,
428 thus allowing remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports.
435 .It Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile
436 Specifies a file to use for the global
437 host key database instead of
438 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts .
439 .It Cm GSSAPIAuthentication
440 Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed.
443 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
444 .It Cm GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
445 Forward (delegate) credentials to the server.
448 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
449 .It Cm HashKnownHosts
452 should hash host names and addresses when they are added to
453 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
454 These hashed names may be used normally by
458 but they do not reveal identifying information should the file's contents
462 Note that hashing of names and addresses will not be retrospectively applied
463 to existing known hosts files, but these may be manually hashed using
465 .It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
466 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with public key
474 This option applies to protocol version 2 only and
476 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication .
477 .It Cm HostKeyAlgorithms
478 Specifies the protocol version 2 host key algorithms
479 that the client wants to use in order of preference.
480 The default for this option is:
481 .Dq ssh-rsa,ssh-dss .
483 Specifies an alias that should be used instead of the
484 real host name when looking up or saving the host key
485 in the host key database files.
486 This option is useful for tunneling ssh connections
487 or for multiple servers running on a single host.
489 Specifies the real host name to log into.
490 This can be used to specify nicknames or abbreviations for hosts.
491 Default is the name given on the command line.
492 Numeric IP addresses are also permitted (both on the command line and in
496 Specifies a file from which the user's RSA or DSA authentication identity
500 for protocol version 1, and
504 for protocol version 2.
505 Additionally, any identities represented by the authentication agent
506 will be used for authentication.
507 The file name may use the tilde
508 syntax to refer to a user's home directory.
509 It is possible to have
510 multiple identity files specified in configuration files; all these
511 identities will be tried in sequence.
512 .It Cm IdentitiesOnly
515 should only use the authentication identity files configured in the
520 offers more identities.
521 The argument to this keyword must be
525 This option is intented for situations where
527 offers many different identities.
530 .It Cm KbdInteractiveDevices
531 Specifies the list of methods to use in keyboard-interactive authentication.
532 Multiple method names must be comma-separated.
533 The default is to use the server specified list.
535 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded over
536 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the remote machine.
537 The first argument must be
539 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
541 and the second argument must be
542 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
543 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets or
544 by using an alternative syntax:
545 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
547 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
548 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional forwardings can be
549 given on the command line.
550 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
551 By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
556 may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
561 indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
564 indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
566 Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
568 The possible values are:
569 QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2 and DEBUG3.
571 DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.
572 DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of verbose output.
574 Specifies the MAC (message authentication code) algorithms
575 in order of preference.
576 The MAC algorithm is used in protocol version 2
577 for data integrity protection.
578 Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
580 .Dq hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96 .
581 .It Cm NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
582 This option can be used if the home directory is shared across machines.
583 In this case localhost will refer to a different machine on each of
584 the machines and the user will get many warnings about changed host keys.
585 However, this option disables host authentication for localhost.
586 The argument to this keyword must be
590 The default is to check the host key for localhost.
591 .It Cm NumberOfPasswordPrompts
592 Specifies the number of password prompts before giving up.
593 The argument to this keyword must be an integer.
595 .It Cm PasswordAuthentication
596 Specifies whether to use password authentication.
597 The argument to this keyword must be
604 Specifies the port number to connect on the remote host.
606 .It Cm PreferredAuthentications
607 Specifies the order in which the client should try protocol 2
608 authentication methods.
609 This allows a client to prefer one method (e.g.\&
610 .Cm keyboard-interactive )
611 over another method (e.g.\&
613 The default for this option is:
614 .Dq hostbased,publickey,keyboard-interactive,password .
616 Specifies the protocol versions
618 should support in order of preference.
619 The possible values are
623 Multiple versions must be comma-separated.
628 tries version 2 and falls back to version 1
629 if version 2 is not available.
631 Specifies the command to use to connect to the server.
633 string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
635 In the command string,
637 will be substituted by the host name to
641 The command can be basically anything,
642 and should read from its standard input and write to its standard output.
643 It should eventually connect an
645 server running on some machine, or execute
648 Host key management will be done using the
649 HostName of the host being connected (defaulting to the name typed by
651 Setting the command to
653 disables this option entirely.
656 is not available for connects with a proxy command.
658 This directive is useful in conjunction with
660 and its proxy support.
661 For example, the following directive would connect via an HTTP proxy at
663 .Bd -literal -offset 3n
664 ProxyCommand /usr/bin/nc -X connect -x 192.0.2.0:8080 %h %p
666 .It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
667 Specifies whether to try public key authentication.
668 The argument to this keyword must be
674 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
676 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the remote machine be forwarded over
677 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the local machine.
678 The first argument must be
680 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
682 and the second argument must be
683 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
684 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets
685 or by using an alternative syntax:
686 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
688 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
689 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional
690 forwardings can be given on the command line.
691 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
695 is not specified, the default is to only bind to loopback addresses.
700 or an empty string, then the forwarding is requested to listen on all
704 will only succeed if the server's
706 option is enabled (see
707 .Xr sshd_config 5 ) .
708 .It Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
709 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with RSA host
717 This option applies to protocol version 1 only and requires
720 .It Cm RSAAuthentication
721 Specifies whether to try RSA authentication.
722 The argument to this keyword must be
726 RSA authentication will only be
727 attempted if the identity file exists, or an authentication agent is
731 Note that this option applies to protocol version 1 only.
733 Specifies what variables from the local
735 should be sent to the server.
736 Note that environment passing is only supported for protocol 2, the
737 server must also support it, and the server must be configured to
738 accept these environment variables.
743 for how to configure the server.
744 Variables are specified by name, which may contain the wildcard characters
748 Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread
752 The default is not to send any environment variables.
753 .It Cm ServerAliveInterval
754 Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
757 will send a message through the encrypted
758 channel to request a response from the server.
760 is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server.
761 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
762 .It Cm ServerAliveCountMax
763 Sets the number of server alive messages (see above) which may be
766 receiving any messages back from the server.
767 If this threshold is reached while server alive messages are being sent,
769 will disconnect from the server, terminating the session.
770 It is important to note that the use of server alive messages is very
774 The server alive messages are sent through the encrypted channel
775 and therefore will not be spoofable.
776 The TCP keepalive option enabled by
779 The server alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
780 server depend on knowing when a connection has become inactive.
782 The default value is 3.
784 .Cm ServerAliveInterval
785 (above) is set to 15, and
786 .Cm ServerAliveCountMax
787 is left at the default, if the server becomes unresponsive ssh
788 will disconnect after approximately 45 seconds.
789 .It Cm SmartcardDevice
790 Specifies which smartcard device to use.
791 The argument to this keyword is the device
793 should use to communicate with a smartcard used for storing the user's
795 By default, no device is specified and smartcard support is not activated.
796 .It Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
797 If this flag is set to
800 will never automatically add host keys to the
801 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
802 file, and refuses to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
803 This provides maximum protection against trojan horse attacks,
804 however, can be annoying when the
805 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
806 file is poorly maintained, or connections to new hosts are
808 This option forces the user to manually
810 If this flag is set to
813 will automatically add new host keys to the
814 user known hosts files.
815 If this flag is set to
818 will be added to the user known host files only after the user
819 has confirmed that is what they really want to do, and
821 will refuse to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
823 known hosts will be verified automatically in all cases.
832 Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
834 If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
835 of the machines will be properly noticed.
836 However, this means that
837 connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
842 (to send TCP keepalive messages), and the client will notice
843 if the network goes down or the remote host dies.
844 This is important in scripts, and many users want it too.
846 To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to
848 .It Cm UsePrivilegedPort
849 Specifies whether to use a privileged port for outgoing connections.
860 Note that this option must be set to
863 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
866 Specifies the user to log in as.
867 This can be useful when a different user name is used on different machines.
868 This saves the trouble of
869 having to remember to give the user name on the command line.
870 .It Cm UserKnownHostsFile
871 Specifies a file to use for the user
872 host key database instead of
873 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
874 .It Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS
875 Specifies whether to verify the remote key using DNS and SSHFP resource
877 If this option is set to
879 the client will implicitly trust keys that match a secure fingerprint
881 Insecure fingerprints will be handled as if this option was set to
883 If this option is set to
885 information on fingerprint match will be displayed, but the user will still
886 need to confirm new host keys according to the
887 .Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
896 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
898 Specifies the full pathname of the
902 .Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
907 This is the per-user configuration file.
908 The format of this file is described above.
909 This file is used by the
912 Because of the potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
913 read/write for the user, and not accessible by others.
914 .It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
915 Systemwide configuration file.
916 This file provides defaults for those
917 values that are not specified in the user's configuration file, and
918 for those users who do not have a configuration file.
919 This file must be world-readable.
924 OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
925 ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
926 Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
927 Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
928 removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
930 Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
931 protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.