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      1 This documents OpenSSH's deviations and extensions to the published SSH
      2 protocol.
      3 
      4 Note that OpenSSH's sftp and sftp-server implement revision 3 of the SSH
      5 filexfer protocol described in:
      6 
      7 https://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt
      8 
      9 Newer versions of the draft will not be supported, though some features
     10 are individually implemented as extensions described below.
     11 
     12 The protocol used by OpenSSH's ssh-agent is described in the file
     13 PROTOCOL.agent
     14 
     15 1. Transport protocol changes
     16 
     17 1.1. transport: Protocol 2 MAC algorithm "umac-64 (a] openssh.com"
     18 
     19 This is a new transport-layer MAC method using the UMAC algorithm
     20 (rfc4418). This method is identical to the "umac-64" method documented
     21 in:
     22 
     23 https://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-miller-secsh-umac-01.txt
     24 
     25 1.2. transport: Protocol 2 compression algorithm "zlib (a] openssh.com"
     26 
     27 This transport-layer compression method uses the zlib compression
     28 algorithm (identical to the "zlib" method in rfc4253), but delays the
     29 start of compression until after authentication has completed. This
     30 avoids exposing compression code to attacks from unauthenticated users.
     31 
     32 The method is documented in:
     33 
     34 https://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-miller-secsh-compression-delayed-00.txt
     35 
     36 1.3. transport: Certificate key algorithms
     37 
     38 OpenSSH introduces new public key algorithms to support certificate
     39 authentication for users and host keys. These methods are documented
     40 in at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-miller-ssh-cert/
     41 
     42 1.4. transport: Elliptic Curve cryptography
     43 
     44 OpenSSH supports ECC key exchange and public key authentication as
     45 specified in RFC5656. Only the ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, ecdsa-sha2-nistp384
     46 and ecdsa-sha2-nistp521 curves over GF(p) are supported. Elliptic
     47 curve points encoded using point compression are NOT accepted or
     48 generated.
     49 
     50 1.5 transport: Protocol 2 Encrypt-then-MAC MAC algorithms
     51 
     52 OpenSSH supports MAC algorithms, whose names contain "-etm", that
     53 perform the calculations in a different order to that defined in RFC
     54 4253. These variants use the so-called "encrypt then MAC" ordering,
     55 calculating the MAC over the packet ciphertext rather than the
     56 plaintext. This ordering closes a security flaw in the SSH transport
     57 protocol, where decryption of unauthenticated ciphertext provided a
     58 "decryption oracle" that could, in conjunction with cipher flaws, reveal
     59 session plaintext.
     60 
     61 Specifically, the "-etm" MAC algorithms modify the transport protocol
     62 to calculate the MAC over the packet ciphertext and to send the packet
     63 length unencrypted. This is necessary for the transport to obtain the
     64 length of the packet and location of the MAC tag so that it may be
     65 verified without decrypting unauthenticated data.
     66 
     67 As such, the MAC covers:
     68 
     69       mac = MAC(key, sequence_number || packet_length || encrypted_packet)
     70 
     71 where "packet_length" is encoded as a uint32 and "encrypted_packet"
     72 contains:
     73 
     74       byte      padding_length
     75       byte[n1]  payload; n1 = packet_length - padding_length - 1
     76       byte[n2]  random padding; n2 = padding_length
     77 
     78 1.6 transport: AES-GCM
     79 
     80 OpenSSH supports the AES-GCM algorithm as specified in RFC 5647.
     81 Because of problems with the design of the algorithm negotiation in this
     82 RFC, OpenSSH (and other SSH implementations) use different rules as
     83 described in:
     84 
     85 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-miller-sshm-aes-gcm/
     86 
     87 1.7 transport: chacha20-poly1305 (a] openssh.com authenticated encryption
     88 
     89 OpenSSH supports authenticated encryption using ChaCha20 and Poly1305
     90 as described in:
     91 
     92 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-sshm-chacha20-poly1305/
     93 
     94 1.8 transport: ping facility
     95 
     96 OpenSSH implements a transport level ping message SSH2_MSG_PING
     97 and a corresponding SSH2_MSG_PONG reply.
     98 
     99 #define SSH2_MSG_PING	192
    100 #define SSH2_MSG_PONG	193
    101 
    102 The ping message is simply:
    103 
    104 	byte		SSH_MSG_PING
    105 	string		data
    106 
    107 The reply copies the data (which may be the empty string) from the
    108 ping:
    109 
    110 	byte		SSH_MSG_PONG
    111 	string		data
    112 
    113 Replies are sent in order. They are sent immediately except when rekeying
    114 is in progress, in which case they are queued until rekeying completes.
    115 
    116 The server advertises support for these messages using the
    117 SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO mechanism (RFC8308), with the following message:
    118 
    119 	string		"ping (a] openssh.com"
    120 	string		"0" (version)
    121 
    122 The ping/reply message is implemented at the transport layer rather
    123 than as a named global or channel request to allow pings with very
    124 short packet lengths, which would not be possible with other
    125 approaches.
    126 
    127 1.9 transport: strict key exchange extension
    128 
    129 OpenSSH supports a number of transport-layer hardening measures
    130 designed to thwart the so-called "Terrapin" attack against the
    131 early SSH protocol. These are collectively referred to as
    132 "strict KEX" and documented in an Internet-Draft:
    133 
    134 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-miller-sshm-strict-kex/
    135 
    136 1.10 transport: SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO during user authentication
    137 
    138 This protocol extension allows the SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO to be sent
    139 during user authentication. RFC8308 does allow a second
    140 SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO notification, but it may only be sent at the end
    141 of user authentication and this is too late to signal per-user
    142 server signature algorithms.
    143 
    144 Support for receiving the SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO message during user
    145 authentication is signalled by the client including a
    146 "ext-info-in-auth (a] openssh.com" key via its initial SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO
    147 set after the SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS message.
    148 
    149 A server that supports this extension MAY send a second
    150 SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO message any time after the client's first
    151 SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST, regardless of whether it succeed or fails.
    152 The client SHOULD be prepared to update the server-sig-algs that
    153 it received during an earlier SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO with the later one.
    154 
    155 2. Connection protocol changes
    156 
    157 2.1. connection: Channel write close extension "eow (a] openssh.com"
    158 
    159 The SSH connection protocol (rfc4254) provides the SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF
    160 message to allow an endpoint to signal its peer that it will send no
    161 more data over a channel. Unfortunately, there is no symmetric way for
    162 an endpoint to request that its peer should cease sending data to it
    163 while still keeping the channel open for the endpoint to send data to
    164 the peer.
    165 
    166 This is desirable, since it saves the transmission of data that would
    167 otherwise need to be discarded and it allows an endpoint to signal local
    168 processes of the condition, e.g. by closing the corresponding file
    169 descriptor.
    170 
    171 OpenSSH implements a channel extension message to perform this
    172 signalling: "eow (a] openssh.com" (End Of Write). This message is sent by
    173 an endpoint when the local output of a session channel is closed or
    174 experiences a write error. The message is formatted as follows:
    175 
    176 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_REQUEST
    177 	uint32		recipient channel
    178 	string		"eow (a] openssh.com"
    179 	boolean		FALSE
    180 
    181 On receiving this message, the peer SHOULD cease sending data of
    182 the channel and MAY signal the process from which the channel data
    183 originates (e.g. by closing its read file descriptor).
    184 
    185 As with the symmetric SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF message, the channel does
    186 remain open after a "eow (a] openssh.com" has been sent and more data may
    187 still be sent in the other direction. This message does not consume
    188 window space and may be sent even if no window space is available.
    189 
    190 NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt
    191 of this message (in contravention of RFC4254 section 5.4), this
    192 message is only sent to OpenSSH peers (identified by banner).
    193 Other SSH implementations may be listed to receive this message
    194 upon request.
    195 
    196 2.2. connection: disallow additional sessions extension
    197      "no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com"
    198 
    199 Most SSH connections will only ever request a single session, but a
    200 attacker may abuse a running ssh client to surreptitiously open
    201 additional sessions under their control. OpenSSH provides a global
    202 request "no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com" to mitigate this attack.
    203 
    204 When an OpenSSH client expects that it will never open another session
    205 (i.e. it has been started with connection multiplexing disabled), it
    206 will send the following global request:
    207 
    208 	byte		SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    209 	string		"no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com"
    210 	char		want-reply
    211 
    212 On receipt of such a message, an OpenSSH server will refuse to open
    213 future channels of type "session" and instead immediately abort the
    214 connection.
    215 
    216 Note that this is not a general defence against compromised clients
    217 (that is impossible), but it thwarts a simple attack.
    218 
    219 NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt
    220 of this message, the no-more-sessions request is only sent to OpenSSH
    221 servers (identified by banner). Other SSH implementations may be
    222 listed to receive this message upon request.
    223 
    224 2.3. connection: Tunnel forward extension "tun (a] openssh.com"
    225 
    226 OpenSSH supports layer 2 and layer 3 tunnelling via the "tun (a] openssh.com"
    227 channel type. This channel type supports forwarding of network packets
    228 with datagram boundaries intact between endpoints equipped with
    229 interfaces like the BSD tun(4) device. Tunnel forwarding channels are
    230 requested by the client with the following packet:
    231 
    232 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
    233 	string		"tun (a] openssh.com"
    234 	uint32		sender channel
    235 	uint32		initial window size
    236 	uint32		maximum packet size
    237 	uint32		tunnel mode
    238 	uint32		remote unit number
    239 
    240 The "tunnel mode" parameter specifies whether the tunnel should forward
    241 layer 2 frames or layer 3 packets. It may take one of the following values:
    242 
    243 	SSH_TUNMODE_POINTOPOINT  1		/* layer 3 packets */
    244 	SSH_TUNMODE_ETHERNET     2		/* layer 2 frames */
    245 
    246 The "tunnel unit number" specifies the remote interface number, or may
    247 be 0x7fffffff to allow the server to automatically choose an interface. A
    248 server that is not willing to open a client-specified unit should refuse
    249 the request with a SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_FAILURE error. On successful
    250 open, the server should reply with SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_SUCCESS.
    251 
    252 Once established the client and server may exchange packet or frames
    253 over the tunnel channel by encapsulating them in SSH protocol strings
    254 and sending them as channel data. This ensures that packet boundaries
    255 are kept intact. Specifically, packets are transmitted using normal
    256 SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA packets:
    257 
    258 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA
    259 	uint32		recipient channel
    260 	string		data
    261 
    262 The contents of the "data" field for layer 3 packets is:
    263 
    264 	uint32			packet length
    265 	uint32			address family
    266 	byte[packet length - 4]	packet data
    267 
    268 The "address family" field identifies the type of packet in the message.
    269 It may be one of:
    270 
    271 	SSH_TUN_AF_INET		2		/* IPv4 */
    272 	SSH_TUN_AF_INET6	24		/* IPv6 */
    273 
    274 The "packet data" field consists of the IPv4/IPv6 datagram itself
    275 without any link layer header.
    276 
    277 The contents of the "data" field for layer 2 packets is:
    278 
    279 	uint32			packet length
    280 	byte[packet length]	frame
    281 
    282 The "frame" field contains an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frame, including
    283 header.
    284 
    285 2.4. connection: Unix domain socket forwarding
    286 
    287 OpenSSH supports local and remote Unix domain socket forwarding
    288 using the "streamlocal" extension.  Forwarding is initiated as per
    289 TCP sockets but with a single path instead of a host and port.
    290 
    291 Similar to direct-tcpip, direct-streamlocal is sent by the client
    292 to request that the server make a connection to a Unix domain socket.
    293 
    294 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
    295 	string		"direct-streamlocal (a] openssh.com"
    296 	uint32		sender channel
    297 	uint32		initial window size
    298 	uint32		maximum packet size
    299 	string		socket path
    300 	string		reserved
    301 	uint32		reserved
    302 
    303 Similar to forwarded-tcpip, forwarded-streamlocal is sent by the
    304 server when the client has previously send the server a streamlocal-forward
    305 GLOBAL_REQUEST.
    306 
    307 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
    308 	string		"forwarded-streamlocal (a] openssh.com"
    309 	uint32		sender channel
    310 	uint32		initial window size
    311 	uint32		maximum packet size
    312 	string		socket path
    313 	string		reserved for future use
    314 
    315 The reserved field is not currently defined and is ignored on the
    316 remote end.  It is intended to be used in the future to pass
    317 information about the socket file, such as ownership and mode.
    318 The client currently sends the empty string for this field.
    319 
    320 Similar to tcpip-forward, streamlocal-forward is sent by the client
    321 to request remote forwarding of a Unix domain socket.
    322 
    323 	byte		SSH2_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    324 	string		"streamlocal-forward (a] openssh.com"
    325 	boolean		TRUE
    326 	string		socket path
    327 
    328 Similar to cancel-tcpip-forward, cancel-streamlocal-forward is sent
    329 by the client cancel the forwarding of a Unix domain socket.
    330 
    331 	byte		SSH2_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    332 	string		"cancel-streamlocal-forward (a] openssh.com"
    333 	boolean		FALSE
    334 	string		socket path
    335 
    336 2.5. connection: hostkey update and rotation "hostkeys-00 (a] openssh.com"
    337 and "hostkeys-prove-00 (a] openssh.com"
    338 
    339 OpenSSH supports a protocol extension allowing a server to inform
    340 a client of all its protocol v.2 host keys after user-authentication
    341 has completed. This is documented in an Internet-Draft
    342 
    343 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-miller-sshm-hostkey-update/
    344 
    345 2.6. connection: SIGINFO support for "signal" channel request
    346 
    347 The SSH channels protocol (RFC4254 section 6.9) supports sending a
    348 signal to a session attached to a channel. OpenSSH supports one
    349 extension signal "INFO (a] openssh.com" that allows sending SIGINFO on
    350 BSD-derived systems.
    351 
    352 3. Authentication protocol changes
    353 
    354 3.1. Host-bound public key authentication
    355 
    356 This is trivial change to the traditional "publickey" authentication
    357 method. The authentication request is identical to the original method
    358 but for the name and one additional field:
    359 
    360 	byte		SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST
    361 	string		username
    362 	string		"ssh-connection"
    363 	string		"publickey-hostbound-v00 (a] openssh.com"
    364 	bool		has_signature
    365 	string		pkalg
    366 	string		public key
    367 	string		server host key
    368 
    369 Because the entire SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST message is included in
    370 the signed data, this ensures that a binding between the destination
    371 user, the server identity and the session identifier is visible to the
    372 signer. OpenSSH uses this binding via signed data to implement per-key
    373 restrictions in ssh-agent.
    374 
    375 A server may advertise this method using the SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO
    376 mechanism (RFC8308), with the following message:
    377 
    378 	string		"publickey-hostbound (a] openssh.com"
    379 	string		"0" (version)
    380 
    381 Clients should prefer host-bound authentication when advertised by
    382 server.
    383 
    384 4. SFTP protocol changes
    385 
    386 4.1. sftp: Reversal of arguments to SSH_FXP_SYMLINK
    387 
    388 When OpenSSH's sftp-server was implemented, the order of the arguments
    389 to the SSH_FXP_SYMLINK method was inadvertently reversed. Unfortunately,
    390 the reversal was not noticed until the server was widely deployed. Since
    391 fixing this to follow the specification would cause incompatibility, the
    392 current order was retained. For correct operation, clients should send
    393 SSH_FXP_SYMLINK as follows:
    394 
    395 	uint32		id
    396 	string		targetpath
    397 	string		linkpath
    398 
    399 4.2. sftp: Server extension announcement in SSH_FXP_VERSION
    400 
    401 OpenSSH's sftp-server lists the extensions it supports using the
    402 standard extension announcement mechanism in the SSH_FXP_VERSION server
    403 hello packet:
    404 
    405 	uint32		3		/* protocol version */
    406 	string		ext1-name
    407 	string		ext1-version
    408 	string		ext2-name
    409 	string		ext2-version
    410 	...
    411 	string		extN-name
    412 	string		extN-version
    413 
    414 Each extension reports its integer version number as an ASCII encoded
    415 string, e.g. "1". The version will be incremented if the extension is
    416 ever changed in an incompatible way. The server MAY advertise the same
    417 extension with multiple versions (though this is unlikely). Clients MUST
    418 check the version number before attempting to use the extension.
    419 
    420 4.3. sftp: Extension request "posix-rename (a] openssh.com"
    421 
    422 This operation provides a rename operation with POSIX semantics, which
    423 are different to those provided by the standard SSH_FXP_RENAME in
    424 draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt. This request is implemented as a
    425 SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the following format:
    426 
    427 	uint32		id
    428 	string		"posix-rename (a] openssh.com"
    429 	string		oldpath
    430 	string		newpath
    431 
    432 On receiving this request the server will perform the POSIX operation
    433 rename(oldpath, newpath) and will respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    434 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    435 "1".
    436 
    437 4.4. sftp: Extension requests "statvfs (a] openssh.com" and
    438          "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com"
    439 
    440 These requests correspond to the statvfs and fstatvfs POSIX system
    441 interfaces. The "statvfs (a] openssh.com" request operates on an explicit
    442 pathname, and is formatted as follows:
    443 
    444 	uint32		id
    445 	string		"statvfs (a] openssh.com"
    446 	string		path
    447 
    448 The "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com" operates on an open file handle:
    449 
    450 	uint32		id
    451 	string		"fstatvfs (a] openssh.com"
    452 	string		handle
    453 
    454 These requests return a SSH_FXP_STATUS reply on failure. On success they
    455 return the following SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY reply:
    456 
    457 	uint32		id
    458 	uint64		f_bsize		/* file system block size */
    459 	uint64		f_frsize	/* fundamental fs block size */
    460 	uint64		f_blocks	/* number of blocks (unit f_frsize) */
    461 	uint64		f_bfree		/* free blocks in file system */
    462 	uint64		f_bavail	/* free blocks for non-root */
    463 	uint64		f_files		/* total file inodes */
    464 	uint64		f_ffree		/* free file inodes */
    465 	uint64		f_favail	/* free file inodes for to non-root */
    466 	uint64		f_fsid		/* file system id */
    467 	uint64		f_flag		/* bit mask of f_flag values */
    468 	uint64		f_namemax	/* maximum filename length */
    469 
    470 The values of the f_flag bitmask are as follows:
    471 
    472 	#define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_RDONLY	0x1	/* read-only */
    473 	#define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_NOSUID	0x2	/* no setuid */
    474 
    475 Both the "statvfs (a] openssh.com" and "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com" extensions are
    476 advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version "2".
    477 
    478 4.5. sftp: Extension request "hardlink (a] openssh.com"
    479 
    480 This request is for creating a hard link to a regular file. This
    481 request is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the
    482 following format:
    483 
    484 	uint32		id
    485 	string		"hardlink (a] openssh.com"
    486 	string		oldpath
    487 	string		newpath
    488 
    489 On receiving this request the server will perform the operation
    490 link(oldpath, newpath) and will respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    491 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    492 "1".
    493 
    494 4.6. sftp: Extension request "fsync (a] openssh.com"
    495 
    496 This request asks the server to call fsync(2) on an open file handle.
    497 
    498 	uint32		id
    499 	string		"fsync (a] openssh.com"
    500 	string		handle
    501 
    502 On receiving this request, a server will call fsync(handle_fd) and will
    503 respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    504 
    505 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    506 "1".
    507 
    508 4.7. sftp: Extension request "lsetstat (a] openssh.com"
    509 
    510 This request is like the "setstat" command, but sets file attributes on
    511 symlinks.  It is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the
    512 following format:
    513 
    514 	uint32		id
    515 	string		"lsetstat (a] openssh.com"
    516 	string		path
    517 	ATTRS		attrs
    518 
    519 See the "setstat" command for more details.
    520 
    521 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    522 "1".
    523 
    524 4.8. sftp: Extension request "limits (a] openssh.com"
    525 
    526 This request is used to determine various limits the server might impose.
    527 Clients should not attempt to exceed these limits as the server might sever
    528 the connection immediately.
    529 
    530 	uint32		id
    531 	string		"limits (a] openssh.com"
    532 
    533 The server will respond with a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY reply:
    534 
    535 	uint32		id
    536 	uint64		max-packet-length
    537 	uint64		max-read-length
    538 	uint64		max-write-length
    539 	uint64		max-open-handles
    540 
    541 The 'max-packet-length' applies to the total number of bytes in a
    542 single SFTP packet.  Servers SHOULD set this at least to 34000.
    543 
    544 The 'max-read-length' is the largest length in a SSH_FXP_READ packet.
    545 Even if the client requests a larger size, servers will usually respond
    546 with a shorter SSH_FXP_DATA packet.  Servers SHOULD set this at least to
    547 32768.
    548 
    549 The 'max-write-length' is the largest length in a SSH_FXP_WRITE packet
    550 the server will accept.  Servers SHOULD set this at least to 32768.
    551 
    552 The 'max-open-handles' is the maximum number of active handles that the
    553 server allows (e.g. handles created by SSH_FXP_OPEN and SSH_FXP_OPENDIR
    554 packets).  Servers MAY count internal file handles against this limit
    555 (e.g. system logging or stdout/stderr), so clients SHOULD NOT expect to
    556 open this many handles in practice.
    557 
    558 If the server doesn't enforce a specific limit, then the field may be
    559 set to 0.  This implies the server relies on the OS to enforce limits
    560 (e.g. available memory or file handles), and such limits might be
    561 dynamic.  The client SHOULD take care to not try to exceed reasonable
    562 limits.
    563 
    564 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    565 "1".
    566 
    567 4.9. sftp: Extension request "expand-path (a] openssh.com"
    568 
    569 This request supports canonicalisation of relative paths and
    570 those that need tilde-expansion, i.e. "~", "~/..." and "~user/..."
    571 These paths are expanded using shell-like rules and the resultant
    572 path is canonicalised similarly to SSH2_FXP_REALPATH.
    573 
    574 It is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the following
    575 format:
    576 
    577 	uint32		id
    578 	string		"expand-path (a] openssh.com"
    579 	string		path
    580 
    581 Its reply is the same format as that of SSH2_FXP_REALPATH.
    582 
    583 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    584 "1".
    585 
    586 4.10. sftp: Extension request "copy-data"
    587 
    588 This request asks the server to copy data from one open file handle and
    589 write it to a different open file handle.  This avoids needing to transfer
    590 the data across the network twice (a download followed by an upload).
    591 
    592 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
    593 	uint32		id
    594 	string		"copy-data"
    595 	string		read-from-handle
    596 	uint64		read-from-offset
    597 	uint64		read-data-length
    598 	string		write-to-handle
    599 	uint64		write-to-offset
    600 
    601 The server will copy read-data-length bytes starting from
    602 read-from-offset from the read-from-handle and write them to
    603 write-to-handle starting from write-to-offset, and then respond with a
    604 SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    605 
    606 It's equivalent to issuing a series of SSH_FXP_READ requests on
    607 read-from-handle and a series of requests of SSH_FXP_WRITE on
    608 write-to-handle.
    609 
    610 If read-from-handle and write-to-handle are the same, the server will
    611 fail the request and respond with a SSH_FX_INVALID_PARAMETER message.
    612 
    613 If read-data-length is 0, then the server will read data from the
    614 read-from-handle until EOF is reached.
    615 
    616 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    617 "1".
    618 
    619 This request is identical to the "copy-data" request documented in:
    620 
    621 https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-extensions-00#section-7
    622 
    623 4.11. sftp: Extension request "home-directory"
    624 
    625 This request asks the server to expand the specified user's home directory.
    626 An empty username implies the current user.  This can be used by the client
    627 to expand ~/ type paths locally.
    628 
    629 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
    630 	uint32		id
    631 	string		"home-directory"
    632 	string		username
    633 
    634 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    635 "1".
    636 
    637 This provides similar information as the "expand-path (a] openssh.com" extension.
    638 
    639 This request is identical to the "home-directory" request documented in:
    640 
    641 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-extensions-00#section-5
    642 
    643 4.12. sftp: Extension request "users-groups-by-id (a] openssh.com"
    644 
    645 This request asks the server to return user and/or group names that
    646 correspond to one or more IDs (e.g. as returned from a SSH_FXP_STAT
    647 request). This may be used by the client to provide usernames in
    648 directory listings.
    649 
    650 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
    651 	uint32		id
    652 	string		"users-groups-by-id (a] openssh.com"
    653 	string		uids
    654 	string		gids
    655 
    656 Where "uids" and "gids" consists of one or more integer user or group
    657 identifiers:
    658 
    659 	uint32		id-0
    660 	...
    661 
    662 The server will reply with a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY:
    663 
    664 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY
    665 	uint32		id
    666 	string		usernames
    667 	string		groupnames
    668 
    669 Where "username" and "groupnames" consists of names in identical request
    670 order to "uids" and "gids" respectively:
    671 
    672 	string		name-0
    673 	...
    674 
    675 If a name cannot be identified for a given user or group ID, an empty
    676 string will be returned in its place.
    677 
    678 It is acceptable for either "uids" or "gids" to be an empty set, in
    679 which case the respective "usernames" or "groupnames" list will also
    680 be empty.
    681 
    682 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    683 "1".
    684 
    685 5. Miscellaneous changes
    686 
    687 5.1 Public key format
    688 
    689 OpenSSH public keys, as generated by ssh-keygen(1) and appearing in
    690 authorized_keys files, are formatted as a single line of text consisting
    691 of the public key algorithm name followed by a base64-encoded key blob.
    692 The public key blob (before base64 encoding) is the same format used for
    693 the encoding of public keys sent on the wire: as described in RFC4253
    694 section 6.6 for RSA keys, RFC5656 section 3.1 for ECDSA keys and
    695 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-miller-ssh-cert/
    696 for the OpenSSH certificate formats.
    697 
    698 5.2 Private key format
    699 
    700 OpenSSH private keys, as generated by ssh-keygen(1) use the format
    701 described in PROTOCOL.key by default. As a legacy option, PEM format
    702 (RFC7468) private keys are also supported for RSA and ECDSA keys
    703 and were the default format before OpenSSH 7.8.
    704 
    705 5.3 KRL format
    706 
    707 OpenSSH supports a compact format for Key Revocation Lists (KRLs). This
    708 format is described in the PROTOCOL.krl file.
    709 
    710 5.4 Connection multiplexing
    711 
    712 OpenSSH's connection multiplexing uses messages as described in
    713 PROTOCOL.mux over a Unix domain socket for communications between a
    714 master instance and later clients.
    715 
    716 5.5. Agent protocol extensions
    717 
    718 OpenSSH extends the usual agent protocol. These changes are documented
    719 in the PROTOCOL.agent file.
    720 
    721 $OpenBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.60 2026/02/09 22:09:48 dtucker Exp $
    722 $NetBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.26 2026/04/08 18:58:40 christos Exp $
    723