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 1.55 2005/06/06 11:20:36 djm 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.
282 Specify the path to the control socket used for connection sharing as described
288 will be substituted by the target host name,
292 by the remote login username.
293 .It Cm DynamicForward
294 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded
295 over the secure channel, and the application
296 protocol is then used to determine where to connect to from the
298 The argument must be a port number.
299 Currently the SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, and
301 will act as a SOCKS server.
302 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and
303 additional forwardings can be given on the command line.
304 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
305 .It Cm EnableSSHKeysign
306 Setting this option to
308 in the global client configuration file
309 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
310 enables the use of the helper program
313 .Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
320 This option should be placed in the non-hostspecific section.
323 for more information.
325 Sets the escape character (default:
327 The escape character can also
328 be set on the command line.
329 The argument should be a single character,
331 followed by a letter, or
333 to disable the escape
334 character entirely (making the connection transparent for binary
337 Specifies whether the connection to the authentication agent (if any)
338 will be forwarded to the remote machine.
346 Agent forwarding should be enabled with caution.
347 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
348 (for the agent's Unix-domain socket)
349 can access the local agent through the forwarded connection.
350 An attacker cannot obtain key material from the agent,
351 however they can perform operations on the keys that enable them to
352 authenticate using the identities loaded into the agent.
354 Specifies whether X11 connections will be automatically redirected
355 over the secure channel and
365 X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution.
366 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
367 (for the user's X11 authorization database)
368 can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection.
369 An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring
371 .Cm ForwardX11Trusted
372 option is also enabled.
373 .It Cm ForwardX11Trusted
374 If this option is set to
376 then remote X11 clients will have full access to the original X11 display.
378 If this option is set to
380 then remote X11 clients will be considered untrusted and prevented
381 from stealing or tampering with data belonging to trusted X11
385 token used for the session will be set to expire after 20 minutes.
386 Remote clients will be refused access after this time.
391 See the X11 SECURITY extension specification for full details on
392 the restrictions imposed on untrusted clients.
394 Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to local
398 binds local port forwardings to the loopback address.
399 This prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
401 can be used to specify that
403 should bind local port forwardings to the wildcard address,
404 thus allowing remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports.
411 .It Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile
412 Specifies a file to use for the global
413 host key database instead of
414 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts .
415 .It Cm GSSAPIAuthentication
416 Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed.
419 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
420 .It Cm GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
421 Forward (delegate) credentials to the server.
424 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
425 .It Cm HashKnownHosts
428 should hash host names and addresses when they are added to
429 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
430 These hashed names may be used normally by
434 but they do not reveal identifying information should the file's contents
438 Note that hashing of names and addresses will not be retrospectively applied
439 to existing known hosts files, but these may be manually hashed using
441 .It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
442 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with public key
450 This option applies to protocol version 2 only and
452 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication .
453 .It Cm HostKeyAlgorithms
454 Specifies the protocol version 2 host key algorithms
455 that the client wants to use in order of preference.
456 The default for this option is:
457 .Dq ssh-rsa,ssh-dss .
459 Specifies an alias that should be used instead of the
460 real host name when looking up or saving the host key
461 in the host key database files.
462 This option is useful for tunneling ssh connections
463 or for multiple servers running on a single host.
465 Specifies the real host name to log into.
466 This can be used to specify nicknames or abbreviations for hosts.
467 Default is the name given on the command line.
468 Numeric IP addresses are also permitted (both on the command line and in
472 Specifies a file from which the user's RSA or DSA authentication identity
476 for protocol version 1, and
480 for protocol version 2.
481 Additionally, any identities represented by the authentication agent
482 will be used for authentication.
483 The file name may use the tilde
484 syntax to refer to a user's home directory.
485 It is possible to have
486 multiple identity files specified in configuration files; all these
487 identities will be tried in sequence.
488 .It Cm IdentitiesOnly
491 should only use the authentication identity files configured in the
496 offers more identities.
497 The argument to this keyword must be
501 This option is intented for situations where
503 offers many different identities.
506 .It Cm KbdInteractiveDevices
507 Specifies the list of methods to use in keyboard-interactive authentication.
508 Multiple method names must be comma-separated.
509 The default is to use the server specified list.
511 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded over
512 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the remote machine.
513 The first argument must be
515 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
517 and the second argument must be
518 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
519 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets or
520 by using an alternative syntax:
521 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
523 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
524 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional forwardings can be
525 given on the command line.
526 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
527 By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
532 may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
537 indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
540 indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
542 Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
544 The possible values are:
545 QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2 and DEBUG3.
547 DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.
548 DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of verbose output.
550 Specifies the MAC (message authentication code) algorithms
551 in order of preference.
552 The MAC algorithm is used in protocol version 2
553 for data integrity protection.
554 Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
556 .Dq hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96 .
557 .It Cm NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
558 This option can be used if the home directory is shared across machines.
559 In this case localhost will refer to a different machine on each of
560 the machines and the user will get many warnings about changed host keys.
561 However, this option disables host authentication for localhost.
562 The argument to this keyword must be
566 The default is to check the host key for localhost.
567 .It Cm NumberOfPasswordPrompts
568 Specifies the number of password prompts before giving up.
569 The argument to this keyword must be an integer.
571 .It Cm PasswordAuthentication
572 Specifies whether to use password authentication.
573 The argument to this keyword must be
580 Specifies the port number to connect on the remote host.
582 .It Cm PreferredAuthentications
583 Specifies the order in which the client should try protocol 2
584 authentication methods.
585 This allows a client to prefer one method (e.g.\&
586 .Cm keyboard-interactive )
587 over another method (e.g.\&
589 The default for this option is:
590 .Dq hostbased,publickey,keyboard-interactive,password .
592 Specifies the protocol versions
594 should support in order of preference.
595 The possible values are
599 Multiple versions must be comma-separated.
604 tries version 2 and falls back to version 1
605 if version 2 is not available.
607 Specifies the command to use to connect to the server.
609 string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
611 In the command string,
613 will be substituted by the host name to
617 The command can be basically anything,
618 and should read from its standard input and write to its standard output.
619 It should eventually connect an
621 server running on some machine, or execute
624 Host key management will be done using the
625 HostName of the host being connected (defaulting to the name typed by
627 Setting the command to
629 disables this option entirely.
632 is not available for connects with a proxy command.
634 This directive is useful in conjunction with
636 and its proxy support.
637 For example, the following directive would connect via an HTTP proxy at
639 .Bd -literal -offset 3n
640 ProxyCommand /usr/bin/nc -X connect -x 192.0.2.0:8080 %h %p
642 .It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
643 Specifies whether to try public key authentication.
644 The argument to this keyword must be
650 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
652 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the remote machine be forwarded over
653 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the local machine.
654 The first argument must be
656 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
658 and the second argument must be
659 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
660 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets
661 or by using an alternative syntax:
662 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
664 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
665 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional
666 forwardings can be given on the command line.
667 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
671 is not specified, the default is to only bind to loopback addresses.
676 or an empty string, then the forwarding is requested to listen on all
680 will only succeed if the server's
682 option is enabled (see
683 .Xr sshd_config 5 ) .
684 .It Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
685 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with RSA host
693 This option applies to protocol version 1 only and requires
696 .It Cm RSAAuthentication
697 Specifies whether to try RSA authentication.
698 The argument to this keyword must be
702 RSA authentication will only be
703 attempted if the identity file exists, or an authentication agent is
707 Note that this option applies to protocol version 1 only.
709 Specifies what variables from the local
711 should be sent to the server.
712 Note that environment passing is only supported for protocol 2, the
713 server must also support it, and the server must be configured to
714 accept these environment variables.
719 for how to configure the server.
720 Variables are specified by name, which may contain the wildcard characters
724 Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread
728 The default is not to send any environment variables.
729 .It Cm ServerAliveInterval
730 Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
733 will send a message through the encrypted
734 channel to request a response from the server.
736 is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server.
737 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
738 .It Cm ServerAliveCountMax
739 Sets the number of server alive messages (see above) which may be
742 receiving any messages back from the server.
743 If this threshold is reached while server alive messages are being sent,
745 will disconnect from the server, terminating the session.
746 It is important to note that the use of server alive messages is very
750 The server alive messages are sent through the encrypted channel
751 and therefore will not be spoofable.
752 The TCP keepalive option enabled by
755 The server alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
756 server depend on knowing when a connection has become inactive.
758 The default value is 3.
760 .Cm ServerAliveInterval
761 (above) is set to 15, and
762 .Cm ServerAliveCountMax
763 is left at the default, if the server becomes unresponsive ssh
764 will disconnect after approximately 45 seconds.
765 .It Cm SmartcardDevice
766 Specifies which smartcard device to use.
767 The argument to this keyword is the device
769 should use to communicate with a smartcard used for storing the user's
771 By default, no device is specified and smartcard support is not activated.
772 .It Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
773 If this flag is set to
776 will never automatically add host keys to the
777 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
778 file, and refuses to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
779 This provides maximum protection against trojan horse attacks,
780 however, can be annoying when the
781 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
782 file is poorly maintained, or connections to new hosts are
784 This option forces the user to manually
786 If this flag is set to
789 will automatically add new host keys to the
790 user known hosts files.
791 If this flag is set to
794 will be added to the user known host files only after the user
795 has confirmed that is what they really want to do, and
797 will refuse to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
799 known hosts will be verified automatically in all cases.
808 Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
810 If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
811 of the machines will be properly noticed.
812 However, this means that
813 connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
818 (to send TCP keepalive messages), and the client will notice
819 if the network goes down or the remote host dies.
820 This is important in scripts, and many users want it too.
822 To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to
824 .It Cm UsePrivilegedPort
825 Specifies whether to use a privileged port for outgoing connections.
836 Note that this option must be set to
839 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
842 Specifies the user to log in as.
843 This can be useful when a different user name is used on different machines.
844 This saves the trouble of
845 having to remember to give the user name on the command line.
846 .It Cm UserKnownHostsFile
847 Specifies a file to use for the user
848 host key database instead of
849 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
850 .It Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS
851 Specifies whether to verify the remote key using DNS and SSHFP resource
853 If this option is set to
855 the client will implicitly trust keys that match a secure fingerprint
857 Insecure fingerprints will be handled as if this option was set to
859 If this option is set to
861 information on fingerprint match will be displayed, but the user will still
862 need to confirm new host keys according to the
863 .Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
872 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
874 Specifies the full pathname of the
878 .Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
883 This is the per-user configuration file.
884 The format of this file is described above.
885 This file is used by the
888 Because of the potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
889 read/write for the user, and not accessible by others.
890 .It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
891 Systemwide configuration file.
892 This file provides defaults for those
893 values that are not specified in the user's configuration file, and
894 for those users who do not have a configuration file.
895 This file must be world-readable.
900 OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
901 ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
902 Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
903 Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
904 removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
906 Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
907 protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.