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 1.53 2005/05/20 11:23:32 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
202 ``aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour,
203 aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc''
205 .It Cm ClearAllForwardings
206 Specifies that all local, remote and dynamic port forwardings
207 specified in the configuration files or on the command line be
209 This option is primarily useful when used from the
211 command line to clear port forwardings set in
212 configuration files, and is automatically set by
223 Specifies whether to use compression.
230 .It Cm CompressionLevel
231 Specifies the compression level to use if compression is enabled.
232 The argument must be an integer from 1 (fast) to 9 (slow, best).
233 The default level is 6, which is good for most applications.
234 The meaning of the values is the same as in
236 Note that this option applies to protocol version 1 only.
237 .It Cm ConnectionAttempts
238 Specifies the number of tries (one per second) to make before exiting.
239 The argument must be an integer.
240 This may be useful in scripts if the connection sometimes fails.
242 .It Cm ConnectTimeout
243 Specifies the timeout (in seconds) used when connecting to the ssh
244 server, instead of using the default system TCP timeout.
245 This value is used only when the target is down or really unreachable,
246 not when it refuses the connection.
248 Enables the sharing of multiple sessions over a single network connection.
252 will listen for connections on a control socket specified using the
255 Additional sessions can connect to this socket using the same
262 These sessions will reuse the master instance's network connection rather
263 than initiating new ones.
268 to listen for control connections, but require confirmation using the
270 program before they are accepted (see
277 will continue without connecting to a master instance.
279 Specify the path to the control socket used for connection sharing.
283 .It Cm DynamicForward
284 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded
285 over the secure channel, and the application
286 protocol is then used to determine where to connect to from the
288 The argument must be a port number.
289 Currently the SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, and
291 will act as a SOCKS server.
292 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and
293 additional forwardings can be given on the command line.
294 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
295 .It Cm EnableSSHKeysign
296 Setting this option to
298 in the global client configuration file
299 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
300 enables the use of the helper program
303 .Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
310 This option should be placed in the non-hostspecific section.
313 for more information.
315 Sets the escape character (default:
317 The escape character can also
318 be set on the command line.
319 The argument should be a single character,
321 followed by a letter, or
323 to disable the escape
324 character entirely (making the connection transparent for binary
327 Specifies whether the connection to the authentication agent (if any)
328 will be forwarded to the remote machine.
336 Agent forwarding should be enabled with caution.
337 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
338 (for the agent's Unix-domain socket)
339 can access the local agent through the forwarded connection.
340 An attacker cannot obtain key material from the agent,
341 however they can perform operations on the keys that enable them to
342 authenticate using the identities loaded into the agent.
344 Specifies whether X11 connections will be automatically redirected
345 over the secure channel and
355 X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution.
356 Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
357 (for the user's X11 authorization database)
358 can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection.
359 An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring
361 .Cm ForwardX11Trusted
362 option is also enabled.
363 .It Cm ForwardX11Trusted
364 If this option is set to
366 then remote X11 clients will have full access to the original X11 display.
368 If this option is set to
370 then remote X11 clients will be considered untrusted and prevented
371 from stealing or tampering with data belonging to trusted X11
375 token used for the session will be set to expire after 20 minutes.
376 Remote clients will be refused access after this time.
381 See the X11 SECURITY extension specification for full details on
382 the restrictions imposed on untrusted clients.
384 Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to local
388 binds local port forwardings to the loopback address.
389 This prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
391 can be used to specify that
393 should bind local port forwardings to the wildcard address,
394 thus allowing remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports.
401 .It Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile
402 Specifies a file to use for the global
403 host key database instead of
404 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts .
405 .It Cm GSSAPIAuthentication
406 Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed.
409 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
410 .It Cm GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
411 Forward (delegate) credentials to the server.
414 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
415 .It Cm HashKnownHosts
418 should hash host names and addresses when they are added to
419 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
420 These hashed names may be used normally by
424 but they do not reveal identifying information should the file's contents
428 Note that hashing of names and addresses will not be retrospectively applied
429 to existing known hosts files, but these may be manually hashed using
431 .It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
432 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with public key
440 This option applies to protocol version 2 only and
442 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication .
443 .It Cm HostKeyAlgorithms
444 Specifies the protocol version 2 host key algorithms
445 that the client wants to use in order of preference.
446 The default for this option is:
447 .Dq ssh-rsa,ssh-dss .
449 Specifies an alias that should be used instead of the
450 real host name when looking up or saving the host key
451 in the host key database files.
452 This option is useful for tunneling ssh connections
453 or for multiple servers running on a single host.
455 Specifies the real host name to log into.
456 This can be used to specify nicknames or abbreviations for hosts.
457 Default is the name given on the command line.
458 Numeric IP addresses are also permitted (both on the command line and in
462 Specifies a file from which the user's RSA or DSA authentication identity
466 for protocol version 1, and
470 for protocol version 2.
471 Additionally, any identities represented by the authentication agent
472 will be used for authentication.
473 The file name may use the tilde
474 syntax to refer to a user's home directory.
475 It is possible to have
476 multiple identity files specified in configuration files; all these
477 identities will be tried in sequence.
478 .It Cm IdentitiesOnly
481 should only use the authentication identity files configured in the
486 offers more identities.
487 The argument to this keyword must be
491 This option is intented for situations where
493 offers many different identities.
496 .It Cm KbdInteractiveDevices
497 Specifies the list of methods to use in keyboard-interactive authentication.
498 Multiple method names must be comma-separated.
499 The default is to use the server specified list.
501 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the local machine be forwarded over
502 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the remote machine.
503 The first argument must be
505 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
507 and the second argument must be
508 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
509 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets or
510 by using an alternative syntax:
511 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
513 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
514 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional forwardings can be
515 given on the command line.
516 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
517 By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
522 may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
527 indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
530 indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
532 Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
534 The possible values are:
535 QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2 and DEBUG3.
537 DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.
538 DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of verbose output.
540 Specifies the MAC (message authentication code) algorithms
541 in order of preference.
542 The MAC algorithm is used in protocol version 2
543 for data integrity protection.
544 Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
546 .Dq hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96 .
547 .It Cm NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
548 This option can be used if the home directory is shared across machines.
549 In this case localhost will refer to a different machine on each of
550 the machines and the user will get many warnings about changed host keys.
551 However, this option disables host authentication for localhost.
552 The argument to this keyword must be
556 The default is to check the host key for localhost.
557 .It Cm NumberOfPasswordPrompts
558 Specifies the number of password prompts before giving up.
559 The argument to this keyword must be an integer.
561 .It Cm PasswordAuthentication
562 Specifies whether to use password authentication.
563 The argument to this keyword must be
570 Specifies the port number to connect on the remote host.
572 .It Cm PreferredAuthentications
573 Specifies the order in which the client should try protocol 2
574 authentication methods.
575 This allows a client to prefer one method (e.g.\&
576 .Cm keyboard-interactive )
577 over another method (e.g.\&
579 The default for this option is:
580 .Dq hostbased,publickey,keyboard-interactive,password .
582 Specifies the protocol versions
584 should support in order of preference.
585 The possible values are
589 Multiple versions must be comma-separated.
594 tries version 2 and falls back to version 1
595 if version 2 is not available.
597 Specifies the command to use to connect to the server.
599 string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
601 In the command string,
603 will be substituted by the host name to
607 The command can be basically anything,
608 and should read from its standard input and write to its standard output.
609 It should eventually connect an
611 server running on some machine, or execute
614 Host key management will be done using the
615 HostName of the host being connected (defaulting to the name typed by
617 Setting the command to
619 disables this option entirely.
622 is not available for connects with a proxy command.
624 This directive is useful in conjunction with
626 and its proxy support.
627 For example, the following directive would connect via an HTTP proxy at
629 .Bd -literal -offset 3n
630 ProxyCommand /usr/bin/nc -X connect -x 192.0.2.0:8080 %h %p
632 .It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
633 Specifies whether to try public key authentication.
634 The argument to this keyword must be
640 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
642 Specifies that a TCP/IP port on the remote machine be forwarded over
643 the secure channel to the specified host and port from the local machine.
644 The first argument must be
646 .Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
648 and the second argument must be
649 .Ar host : Ns Ar hostport .
650 IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets
651 or by using an alternative syntax:
652 .Oo Ar bind_address Ns / Oc Ns Ar port
654 .Ar host Ns / Ns Ar hostport .
655 Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional
656 forwardings can be given on the command line.
657 Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
661 is not specified, the default is to only bind to loopback addresses.
666 or an empty string, then the forwarding is requested to listen on all
670 will only succeed if the server's
672 option is enabled (see
673 .Xr sshd_config 5 ) .
674 .It Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
675 Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with RSA host
683 This option applies to protocol version 1 only and requires
686 .It Cm RSAAuthentication
687 Specifies whether to try RSA authentication.
688 The argument to this keyword must be
692 RSA authentication will only be
693 attempted if the identity file exists, or an authentication agent is
697 Note that this option applies to protocol version 1 only.
699 Specifies what variables from the local
701 should be sent to the server.
702 Note that environment passing is only supported for protocol 2, the
703 server must also support it, and the server must be configured to
704 accept these environment variables.
709 for how to configure the server.
710 Variables are specified by name, which may contain the wildcard characters
714 Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread
718 The default is not to send any environment variables.
719 .It Cm ServerAliveInterval
720 Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
723 will send a message through the encrypted
724 channel to request a response from the server.
726 is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server.
727 This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
728 .It Cm ServerAliveCountMax
729 Sets the number of server alive messages (see above) which may be
732 receiving any messages back from the server.
733 If this threshold is reached while server alive messages are being sent,
735 will disconnect from the server, terminating the session.
736 It is important to note that the use of server alive messages is very
740 The server alive messages are sent through the encrypted channel
741 and therefore will not be spoofable.
742 The TCP keepalive option enabled by
745 The server alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
746 server depend on knowing when a connection has become inactive.
748 The default value is 3.
750 .Cm ServerAliveInterval
751 (above) is set to 15, and
752 .Cm ServerAliveCountMax
753 is left at the default, if the server becomes unresponsive ssh
754 will disconnect after approximately 45 seconds.
755 .It Cm SmartcardDevice
756 Specifies which smartcard device to use.
757 The argument to this keyword is the device
759 should use to communicate with a smartcard used for storing the user's
761 By default, no device is specified and smartcard support is not activated.
762 .It Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
763 If this flag is set to
766 will never automatically add host keys to the
767 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
768 file, and refuses to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
769 This provides maximum protection against trojan horse attacks,
770 however, can be annoying when the
771 .Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
772 file is poorly maintained, or connections to new hosts are
774 This option forces the user to manually
776 If this flag is set to
779 will automatically add new host keys to the
780 user known hosts files.
781 If this flag is set to
784 will be added to the user known host files only after the user
785 has confirmed that is what they really want to do, and
787 will refuse to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
789 known hosts will be verified automatically in all cases.
798 Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
800 If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
801 of the machines will be properly noticed.
802 However, this means that
803 connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
808 (to send TCP keepalive messages), and the client will notice
809 if the network goes down or the remote host dies.
810 This is important in scripts, and many users want it too.
812 To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to
814 .It Cm UsePrivilegedPort
815 Specifies whether to use a privileged port for outgoing connections.
826 Note that this option must be set to
829 .Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
832 Specifies the user to log in as.
833 This can be useful when a different user name is used on different machines.
834 This saves the trouble of
835 having to remember to give the user name on the command line.
836 .It Cm UserKnownHostsFile
837 Specifies a file to use for the user
838 host key database instead of
839 .Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
840 .It Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS
841 Specifies whether to verify the remote key using DNS and SSHFP resource
843 If this option is set to
845 the client will implicitly trust keys that match a secure fingerprint
847 Insecure fingerprints will be handled as if this option was set to
849 If this option is set to
851 information on fingerprint match will be displayed, but the user will still
852 need to confirm new host keys according to the
853 .Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
862 Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
864 Specifies the full pathname of the
868 .Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
873 This is the per-user configuration file.
874 The format of this file is described above.
875 This file is used by the
878 Because of the potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
879 read/write for the user, and not accessible by others.
880 .It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
881 Systemwide configuration file.
882 This file provides defaults for those
883 values that are not specified in the user's configuration file, and
884 for those users who do not have a configuration file.
885 This file must be world-readable.
890 OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
891 ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
892 Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
893 Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
894 removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
896 Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
897 protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.