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 1.61 2005/07/08 12:53:10 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 Use the specified address on the local machine as the source address of
141 Only useful on systems with more than one address.
142 Note that this option does not work if
143 .Cm UsePrivilegedPort
146 .It Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication
147 Specifies whether to use challenge response authentication.
148 The argument to this keyword must be
155 If this flag is set to
157 ssh will additionally check the host IP address in the
160 This allows ssh to detect if a host key changed due to DNS spoofing.
161 If the option is set to
163 the check will not be executed.
167 Specifies the cipher to use for encrypting the session
168 in protocol version 1.
176 is only supported in the
178 client for interoperability with legacy protocol 1 implementations
179 that do not support the
182 Its use is strongly discouraged due to cryptographic weaknesses.
186 Specifies the ciphers allowed for protocol version 2
187 in order of preference.
188 Multiple ciphers must be comma-separated.
189 The supported ciphers are
205 ``aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour128,
206 arcfour256,arcfour,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,aes128-ctr,
207 aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr''
209 .It Cm ClearAllForwardings
210 Specifies that all local, remote and dynamic port forwardings
211 specified in the configuration files or on the command line be
213 This option is primarily useful when used from the
215 command line to clear port forwardings set in
216 configuration files, and is automatically set by
227 Specifies whether to use compression.
234 .It Cm CompressionLevel
235 Specifies the compression level to use if compression is enabled.
236 The argument must be an integer from 1 (fast) to 9 (slow, best).
237 The default level is 6, which is good for most applications.
238 The meaning of the values is the same as in
240 Note that this option applies to protocol version 1 only.
241 .It Cm ConnectionAttempts
242 Specifies the number of tries (one per second) to make before exiting.
243 The argument must be an integer.
244 This may be useful in scripts if the connection sometimes fails.
246 .It Cm ConnectTimeout
247 Specifies the timeout (in seconds) used when connecting to the ssh
248 server, instead of using the default system TCP timeout.
249 This value is used only when the target is down or really unreachable,
250 not when it refuses the connection.
252 Enables the sharing of multiple sessions over a single network connection.
256 will listen for connections on a control socket specified using the
259 Additional sessions can connect to this socket using the same
266 These sessions will reuse the master instance's network connection rather
267 than initiating new ones.
272 to listen for control connections, but require confirmation using the
274 program before they are accepted (see
281 will continue without connecting to a master instance.
285 forwarding is supported over these multiplexed connections, however the
286 display and agent fowarded will be the one belonging to the master
287 connection i.e. it is not possible to forward multiple displays or agents.
289 Two additional options allow for opportunistic multiplexing: try to use a
290 master connection but fall back to creating a new one if one does not already
296 The latter requires confirmation like the
300 Specify the path to the control socket used for connection sharing as described
303 section above or the string
305 to disable connection sharing.
308 will be substituted by the target host name,
312 by the remote login username.
313 It is recommended that any
315 used for opportunistic connection sharing include
316 all three of these escape sequences.
317 This ensures that shared connections are uniquely identified.
318 .It Cm DynamicForward
319 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded
320 over the secure channel, and the application
321 protocol is then used to determine where to connect to from the
323 The argument must be a port number.
324 Currently the SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, and
326 will act as a SOCKS server.
327 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and
328 additional forwardings can be given on the command line.
329 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
330 .It Cm EnableSSHKeysign
331 Setting this option to
333 in the global client configuration file
334 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
335 enables the use of the helper program
338 .Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
345 This option should be placed in the non-hostspecific section.
348 for more information.
350 Sets the escape character (default:
352 The escape character can also
353 be set on the command line.
354 The argument should be a single character,
356 followed by a letter, or
358 to disable the escape
359 character entirely (making the connection transparent for binary
362 Specifies whether the connection to the authentication agent (if any)
363 will be forwarded to the remote machine.
371 Agent forwarding should be enabled with caution.
372 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
373 (for the agent's Unix-domain socket)
374 can access the local agent through the forwarded connection.
375 An attacker cannot obtain key material from the agent,
376 however they can perform operations on the keys that enable them to
377 authenticate using the identities loaded into the agent.
379 Specifies whether X11 connections will be automatically redirected
380 over the secure channel and
390 X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution.
391 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
392 (for the user's X11 authorization database)
393 can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection.
394 An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring
396 .Cm ForwardX11Trusted
397 option is also enabled.
398 .It Cm ForwardX11Trusted
399 If this option is set to
401 then remote X11 clients will have full access to the original X11 display.
403 If this option is set to
405 then remote X11 clients will be considered untrusted and prevented
406 from stealing or tampering with data belonging to trusted X11
410 token used for the session will be set to expire after 20 minutes.
411 Remote clients will be refused access after this time.
416 See the X11 SECURITY extension specification for full details on
417 the restrictions imposed on untrusted clients.
419 Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to local
423 binds local port forwardings to the loopback address.
424 This prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
426 can be used to specify that
428 should bind local port forwardings to the wildcard address,
429 thus allowing remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports.
436 .It Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile
437 Specifies a file to use for the global
438 host key database instead of
439 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts .
440 .It Cm GSSAPIAuthentication
441 Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed.
444 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
445 .It Cm GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
446 Forward (delegate) credentials to the server.
449 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
450 .It Cm HashKnownHosts
453 should hash host names and addresses when they are added to
454 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
455 These hashed names may be used normally by
459 but they do not reveal identifying information should the file's contents
463 Note that hashing of names and addresses will not be retrospectively applied
464 to existing known hosts files, but these may be manually hashed using
466 .It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
467 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with public key
475 This option applies to protocol version 2 only and
477 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication .
478 .It Cm HostKeyAlgorithms
479 Specifies the protocol version 2 host key algorithms
480 that the client wants to use in order of preference.
481 The default for this option is:
482 .Dq ssh-rsa,ssh-dss .
484 Specifies an alias that should be used instead of the
485 real host name when looking up or saving the host key
486 in the host key database files.
487 This option is useful for tunneling ssh connections
488 or for multiple servers running on a single host.
490 Specifies the real host name to log into.
491 This can be used to specify nicknames or abbreviations for hosts.
492 Default is the name given on the command line.
493 Numeric IP addresses are also permitted (both on the command line and in
497 Specifies a file from which the user's RSA or DSA authentication identity
501 for protocol version 1, and
505 for protocol version 2.
506 Additionally, any identities represented by the authentication agent
507 will be used for authentication.
508 The file name may use the tilde
509 syntax to refer to a user's home directory.
510 It is possible to have
511 multiple identity files specified in configuration files; all these
512 identities will be tried in sequence.
513 .It Cm IdentitiesOnly
516 should only use the authentication identity files configured in the
521 offers more identities.
522 The argument to this keyword must be
526 This option is intented for situations where
528 offers many different identities.
531 .It Cm KbdInteractiveDevices
532 Specifies the list of methods to use in keyboard-interactive authentication.
533 Multiple method names must be comma-separated.
534 The default is to use the server specified list.
536 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded over
537 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the remote machine.
538 The first argument must be
540 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
542 and the second argument must be
543 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
544 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets or
545 by using an alternative syntax:
546 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
548 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
549 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional forwardings can be
550 given on the command line.
551 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
552 By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
557 may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
562 indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
565 indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
567 Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
569 The possible values are:
570 QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2 and DEBUG3.
572 DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.
573 DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of verbose output.
575 Specifies the MAC (message authentication code) algorithms
576 in order of preference.
577 The MAC algorithm is used in protocol version 2
578 for data integrity protection.
579 Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
581 .Dq hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96 .
582 .It Cm NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
583 This option can be used if the home directory is shared across machines.
584 In this case localhost will refer to a different machine on each of
585 the machines and the user will get many warnings about changed host keys.
586 However, this option disables host authentication for localhost.
587 The argument to this keyword must be
591 The default is to check the host key for localhost.
592 .It Cm NumberOfPasswordPrompts
593 Specifies the number of password prompts before giving up.
594 The argument to this keyword must be an integer.
596 .It Cm PasswordAuthentication
597 Specifies whether to use password authentication.
598 The argument to this keyword must be
605 Specifies the port number to connect on the remote host.
607 .It Cm PreferredAuthentications
608 Specifies the order in which the client should try protocol 2
609 authentication methods.
610 This allows a client to prefer one method (e.g.\&
611 .Cm keyboard-interactive )
612 over another method (e.g.\&
614 The default for this option is:
615 .Dq hostbased,publickey,keyboard-interactive,password .
617 Specifies the protocol versions
619 should support in order of preference.
620 The possible values are
624 Multiple versions must be comma-separated.
629 tries version 2 and falls back to version 1
630 if version 2 is not available.
632 Specifies the command to use to connect to the server.
634 string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
636 In the command string,
638 will be substituted by the host name to
642 The command can be basically anything,
643 and should read from its standard input and write to its standard output.
644 It should eventually connect an
646 server running on some machine, or execute
649 Host key management will be done using the
650 HostName of the host being connected (defaulting to the name typed by
652 Setting the command to
654 disables this option entirely.
657 is not available for connects with a proxy command.
659 This directive is useful in conjunction with
661 and its proxy support.
662 For example, the following directive would connect via an HTTP proxy at
664 .Bd -literal -offset 3n
665 ProxyCommand /usr/bin/nc -X connect -x 192.0.2.0:8080 %h %p
667 .It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
668 Specifies whether to try public key authentication.
669 The argument to this keyword must be
675 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
677 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the remote machine be forwarded over
678 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the local machine.
679 The first argument must be
681 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
683 and the second argument must be
684 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
685 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets
686 or by using an alternative syntax:
687 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
689 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
690 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional
691 forwardings can be given on the command line.
692 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
696 is not specified, the default is to only bind to loopback addresses.
701 or an empty string, then the forwarding is requested to listen on all
705 will only succeed if the server's
707 option is enabled (see
708 .Xr sshd_config 5 ) .
709 .It Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
710 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with RSA host
718 This option applies to protocol version 1 only and requires
721 .It Cm RSAAuthentication
722 Specifies whether to try RSA authentication.
723 The argument to this keyword must be
727 RSA authentication will only be
728 attempted if the identity file exists, or an authentication agent is
732 Note that this option applies to protocol version 1 only.
734 Specifies what variables from the local
736 should be sent to the server.
737 Note that environment passing is only supported for protocol 2, the
738 server must also support it, and the server must be configured to
739 accept these environment variables.
744 for how to configure the server.
745 Variables are specified by name, which may contain the wildcard characters
749 Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread
753 The default is not to send any environment variables.
754 .It Cm ServerAliveInterval
755 Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
758 will send a message through the encrypted
759 channel to request a response from the server.
761 is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server.
762 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
763 .It Cm ServerAliveCountMax
764 Sets the number of server alive messages (see above) which may be
767 receiving any messages back from the server.
768 If this threshold is reached while server alive messages are being sent,
770 will disconnect from the server, terminating the session.
771 It is important to note that the use of server alive messages is very
775 The server alive messages are sent through the encrypted channel
776 and therefore will not be spoofable.
777 The TCP keepalive option enabled by
780 The server alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
781 server depend on knowing when a connection has become inactive.
783 The default value is 3.
785 .Cm ServerAliveInterval
786 (above) is set to 15, and
787 .Cm ServerAliveCountMax
788 is left at the default, if the server becomes unresponsive ssh
789 will disconnect after approximately 45 seconds.
790 .It Cm SmartcardDevice
791 Specifies which smartcard device to use.
792 The argument to this keyword is the device
794 should use to communicate with a smartcard used for storing the user's
796 By default, no device is specified and smartcard support is not activated.
797 .It Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
798 If this flag is set to
801 will never automatically add host keys to the
802 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
803 file, and refuses to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
804 This provides maximum protection against trojan horse attacks,
805 however, can be annoying when the
806 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
807 file is poorly maintained, or connections to new hosts are
809 This option forces the user to manually
811 If this flag is set to
814 will automatically add new host keys to the
815 user known hosts files.
816 If this flag is set to
819 will be added to the user known host files only after the user
820 has confirmed that is what they really want to do, and
822 will refuse to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
824 known hosts will be verified automatically in all cases.
833 Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
835 If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
836 of the machines will be properly noticed.
837 However, this means that
838 connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
843 (to send TCP keepalive messages), and the client will notice
844 if the network goes down or the remote host dies.
845 This is important in scripts, and many users want it too.
847 To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to
849 .It Cm UsePrivilegedPort
850 Specifies whether to use a privileged port for outgoing connections.
861 Note that this option must be set to
864 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
867 Specifies the user to log in as.
868 This can be useful when a different user name is used on different machines.
869 This saves the trouble of
870 having to remember to give the user name on the command line.
871 .It Cm UserKnownHostsFile
872 Specifies a file to use for the user
873 host key database instead of
874 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
875 .It Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS
876 Specifies whether to verify the remote key using DNS and SSHFP resource
878 If this option is set to
880 the client will implicitly trust keys that match a secure fingerprint
882 Insecure fingerprints will be handled as if this option was set to
884 If this option is set to
886 information on fingerprint match will be displayed, but the user will still
887 need to confirm new host keys according to the
888 .Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
897 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
899 Specifies the full pathname of the
903 .Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
908 This is the per-user configuration file.
909 The format of this file is described above.
910 This file is used by the
913 Because of the potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
914 read/write for the user, and not accessible by others.
915 .It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
916 Systemwide configuration file.
917 This file provides defaults for those
918 values that are not specified in the user's configuration file, and
919 for those users who do not have a configuration file.
920 This file must be world-readable.
925 OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
926 ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
927 Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
928 Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
929 removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
931 Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
932 protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.