PROTOCOL revision 1.23 1 1.1 christos This documents OpenSSH's deviations and extensions to the published SSH
2 1.1 christos protocol.
3 1.1 christos
4 1.1 christos Note that OpenSSH's sftp and sftp-server implement revision 3 of the SSH
5 1.1 christos filexfer protocol described in:
6 1.1 christos
7 1.1 christos http://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt
8 1.1 christos
9 1.2 christos Newer versions of the draft will not be supported, though some features
10 1.2 christos are individually implemented as extensions described below.
11 1.1 christos
12 1.1 christos The protocol used by OpenSSH's ssh-agent is described in the file
13 1.1 christos PROTOCOL.agent
14 1.1 christos
15 1.2 christos 1. Transport protocol changes
16 1.2 christos
17 1.2 christos 1.1. transport: Protocol 2 MAC algorithm "umac-64 (a] openssh.com"
18 1.1 christos
19 1.1 christos This is a new transport-layer MAC method using the UMAC algorithm
20 1.1 christos (rfc4418). This method is identical to the "umac-64" method documented
21 1.1 christos in:
22 1.1 christos
23 1.1 christos http://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-miller-secsh-umac-01.txt
24 1.1 christos
25 1.2 christos 1.2. transport: Protocol 2 compression algorithm "zlib (a] openssh.com"
26 1.1 christos
27 1.1 christos This transport-layer compression method uses the zlib compression
28 1.1 christos algorithm (identical to the "zlib" method in rfc4253), but delays the
29 1.1 christos start of compression until after authentication has completed. This
30 1.1 christos avoids exposing compression code to attacks from unauthenticated users.
31 1.1 christos
32 1.1 christos The method is documented in:
33 1.1 christos
34 1.1 christos http://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-miller-secsh-compression-delayed-00.txt
35 1.1 christos
36 1.10 christos 1.3. transport: New public key algorithms "ssh-rsa-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com",
37 1.10 christos "ssh-dsa-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com",
38 1.2 christos "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com",
39 1.2 christos "ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com" and
40 1.2 christos "ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com"
41 1.2 christos
42 1.2 christos OpenSSH introduces new public key algorithms to support certificate
43 1.5 christos authentication for users and host keys. These methods are documented
44 1.5 christos in the file PROTOCOL.certkeys
45 1.2 christos
46 1.2 christos 1.4. transport: Elliptic Curve cryptography
47 1.2 christos
48 1.2 christos OpenSSH supports ECC key exchange and public key authentication as
49 1.2 christos specified in RFC5656. Only the ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, ecdsa-sha2-nistp384
50 1.2 christos and ecdsa-sha2-nistp521 curves over GF(p) are supported. Elliptic
51 1.2 christos curve points encoded using point compression are NOT accepted or
52 1.2 christos generated.
53 1.2 christos
54 1.3 christos 1.5 transport: Protocol 2 Encrypt-then-MAC MAC algorithms
55 1.3 christos
56 1.3 christos OpenSSH supports MAC algorithms, whose names contain "-etm", that
57 1.3 christos perform the calculations in a different order to that defined in RFC
58 1.3 christos 4253. These variants use the so-called "encrypt then MAC" ordering,
59 1.3 christos calculating the MAC over the packet ciphertext rather than the
60 1.3 christos plaintext. This ordering closes a security flaw in the SSH transport
61 1.3 christos protocol, where decryption of unauthenticated ciphertext provided a
62 1.3 christos "decryption oracle" that could, in conjunction with cipher flaws, reveal
63 1.3 christos session plaintext.
64 1.3 christos
65 1.3 christos Specifically, the "-etm" MAC algorithms modify the transport protocol
66 1.3 christos to calculate the MAC over the packet ciphertext and to send the packet
67 1.3 christos length unencrypted. This is necessary for the transport to obtain the
68 1.3 christos length of the packet and location of the MAC tag so that it may be
69 1.3 christos verified without decrypting unauthenticated data.
70 1.3 christos
71 1.3 christos As such, the MAC covers:
72 1.3 christos
73 1.3 christos mac = MAC(key, sequence_number || packet_length || encrypted_packet)
74 1.3 christos
75 1.3 christos where "packet_length" is encoded as a uint32 and "encrypted_packet"
76 1.3 christos contains:
77 1.3 christos
78 1.3 christos byte padding_length
79 1.3 christos byte[n1] payload; n1 = packet_length - padding_length - 1
80 1.3 christos byte[n2] random padding; n2 = padding_length
81 1.3 christos
82 1.3 christos 1.6 transport: AES-GCM
83 1.3 christos
84 1.3 christos OpenSSH supports the AES-GCM algorithm as specified in RFC 5647.
85 1.3 christos Because of problems with the specification of the key exchange
86 1.3 christos the behaviour of OpenSSH differs from the RFC as follows:
87 1.3 christos
88 1.3 christos AES-GCM is only negotiated as the cipher algorithms
89 1.3 christos "aes128-gcm (a] openssh.com" or "aes256-gcm (a] openssh.com" and never as
90 1.3 christos an MAC algorithm. Additionally, if AES-GCM is selected as the cipher
91 1.3 christos the exchanged MAC algorithms are ignored and there doesn't have to be
92 1.3 christos a matching MAC.
93 1.3 christos
94 1.4 christos 1.7 transport: chacha20-poly1305 (a] openssh.com authenticated encryption
95 1.4 christos
96 1.4 christos OpenSSH supports authenticated encryption using ChaCha20 and Poly1305
97 1.4 christos as described in PROTOCOL.chacha20poly1305.
98 1.4 christos
99 1.4 christos 1.8 transport: curve25519-sha256 (a] libssh.org key exchange algorithm
100 1.4 christos
101 1.4 christos OpenSSH supports the use of ECDH in Curve25519 for key exchange as
102 1.4 christos described at:
103 1.4 christos http://git.libssh.org/users/aris/libssh.git/plain/doc/curve25519-sha256@libssh.org.txt?h=curve25519
104 1.4 christos
105 1.20 christos This is identical to curve25519-sha256 as later published in RFC8731.
106 1.20 christos
107 1.22 christos 1.9 transport: ping facility
108 1.22 christos
109 1.22 christos OpenSSH implements a transport level ping message SSH2_MSG_PING
110 1.22 christos and a corresponding SSH2_MSG_PONG reply.
111 1.22 christos
112 1.22 christos #define SSH2_MSG_PING 192
113 1.22 christos #define SSH2_MSG_PONG 193
114 1.22 christos
115 1.22 christos The ping message is simply:
116 1.22 christos
117 1.22 christos byte SSH_MSG_PING
118 1.22 christos string data
119 1.22 christos
120 1.22 christos The reply copies the data (which may be the empty string) from the
121 1.22 christos ping:
122 1.22 christos
123 1.22 christos byte SSH_MSG_PONG
124 1.22 christos string data
125 1.22 christos
126 1.22 christos Replies are sent in order. They are sent immediately except when rekeying
127 1.22 christos is in progress, in which case they are queued until rekeying completes.
128 1.22 christos
129 1.22 christos The server advertises support for these messages using the
130 1.22 christos SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO mechanism (RFC8308), with the following message:
131 1.22 christos
132 1.22 christos string "ping (a] openssh.com"
133 1.22 christos string "0" (version)
134 1.22 christos
135 1.22 christos The ping/reply message is implemented at the transport layer rather
136 1.22 christos than as a named global or channel request to allow pings with very
137 1.22 christos short packet lengths, which would not be possible with other
138 1.22 christos approaches.
139 1.22 christos
140 1.23 christos 1.9 transport: strict key exchange extension
141 1.23 christos
142 1.23 christos OpenSSH supports a number of transport-layer hardening measures under
143 1.23 christos a "strict KEX" feature. This feature is signalled similarly to the
144 1.23 christos RFC8308 ext-info feature: by including a additional algorithm in the
145 1.23 christos initiial SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT kex_algorithms field. The client may append
146 1.23 christos "kex-strict-c-v00 (a] openssh.com" to its kex_algorithms and the server
147 1.23 christos may append "kex-strict-s-v00 (a] openssh.com". These pseudo-algorithms
148 1.23 christos are only valid in the initial SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT and MUST be ignored
149 1.23 christos if they are present in subsequent SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT packets.
150 1.23 christos
151 1.23 christos When an endpoint that supports this extension observes this algorithm
152 1.23 christos name in a peer's KEXINIT packet, it MUST make the following changes to
153 1.23 christos the the protocol:
154 1.23 christos
155 1.23 christos a) During initial KEX, terminate the connection if any unexpected or
156 1.23 christos out-of-sequence packet is received. This includes terminating the
157 1.23 christos connection if the first packet received is not SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT.
158 1.23 christos Unexpected packets for the purpose of strict KEX include messages
159 1.23 christos that are otherwise valid at any time during the connection such as
160 1.23 christos SSH2_MSG_DEBUG and SSH2_MSG_IGNORE.
161 1.23 christos b) After sending or receiving a SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS message, reset the
162 1.23 christos packet sequence number to zero. This behaviour persists for the
163 1.23 christos duration of the connection (i.e. not just the first
164 1.23 christos SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS).
165 1.23 christos
166 1.23 christos 1.10 transport: SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO during user authentication
167 1.23 christos
168 1.23 christos This protocol extension allows the SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO to be sent
169 1.23 christos during user authentication. RFC8308 does allow a second
170 1.23 christos SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO notification, but it may only be sent at the end
171 1.23 christos of user authentication and this is too late to signal per-user
172 1.23 christos server signature algorithms.
173 1.23 christos
174 1.23 christos Support for receiving the SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO message during user
175 1.23 christos authentication is signalled by the client including a
176 1.23 christos "ext-info-in-auth (a] openssh.com" key via its initial SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO
177 1.23 christos set after the SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS message.
178 1.23 christos
179 1.23 christos A server that supports this extension MAY send a second
180 1.23 christos SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO message any time after the client's first
181 1.23 christos SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST, regardless of whether it succeed or fails.
182 1.23 christos The client SHOULD be prepared to update the server-sig-algs that
183 1.23 christos it received during an earlier SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO with the later one.
184 1.23 christos
185 1.2 christos 2. Connection protocol changes
186 1.2 christos
187 1.2 christos 2.1. connection: Channel write close extension "eow (a] openssh.com"
188 1.1 christos
189 1.1 christos The SSH connection protocol (rfc4254) provides the SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF
190 1.1 christos message to allow an endpoint to signal its peer that it will send no
191 1.1 christos more data over a channel. Unfortunately, there is no symmetric way for
192 1.1 christos an endpoint to request that its peer should cease sending data to it
193 1.1 christos while still keeping the channel open for the endpoint to send data to
194 1.1 christos the peer.
195 1.1 christos
196 1.1 christos This is desirable, since it saves the transmission of data that would
197 1.1 christos otherwise need to be discarded and it allows an endpoint to signal local
198 1.1 christos processes of the condition, e.g. by closing the corresponding file
199 1.1 christos descriptor.
200 1.1 christos
201 1.1 christos OpenSSH implements a channel extension message to perform this
202 1.1 christos signalling: "eow (a] openssh.com" (End Of Write). This message is sent by
203 1.1 christos an endpoint when the local output of a session channel is closed or
204 1.1 christos experiences a write error. The message is formatted as follows:
205 1.1 christos
206 1.1 christos byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_REQUEST
207 1.1 christos uint32 recipient channel
208 1.1 christos string "eow (a] openssh.com"
209 1.1 christos boolean FALSE
210 1.1 christos
211 1.1 christos On receiving this message, the peer SHOULD cease sending data of
212 1.1 christos the channel and MAY signal the process from which the channel data
213 1.1 christos originates (e.g. by closing its read file descriptor).
214 1.1 christos
215 1.1 christos As with the symmetric SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF message, the channel does
216 1.1 christos remain open after a "eow (a] openssh.com" has been sent and more data may
217 1.1 christos still be sent in the other direction. This message does not consume
218 1.1 christos window space and may be sent even if no window space is available.
219 1.1 christos
220 1.1 christos NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt
221 1.1 christos of this message (in contravention of RFC4254 section 5.4), this
222 1.1 christos message is only sent to OpenSSH peers (identified by banner).
223 1.15 christos Other SSH implementations may be listed to receive this message
224 1.1 christos upon request.
225 1.1 christos
226 1.2 christos 2.2. connection: disallow additional sessions extension
227 1.2 christos "no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com"
228 1.1 christos
229 1.1 christos Most SSH connections will only ever request a single session, but a
230 1.1 christos attacker may abuse a running ssh client to surreptitiously open
231 1.1 christos additional sessions under their control. OpenSSH provides a global
232 1.1 christos request "no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com" to mitigate this attack.
233 1.1 christos
234 1.1 christos When an OpenSSH client expects that it will never open another session
235 1.1 christos (i.e. it has been started with connection multiplexing disabled), it
236 1.1 christos will send the following global request:
237 1.1 christos
238 1.1 christos byte SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
239 1.1 christos string "no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com"
240 1.1 christos char want-reply
241 1.1 christos
242 1.1 christos On receipt of such a message, an OpenSSH server will refuse to open
243 1.1 christos future channels of type "session" and instead immediately abort the
244 1.1 christos connection.
245 1.1 christos
246 1.1 christos Note that this is not a general defence against compromised clients
247 1.1 christos (that is impossible), but it thwarts a simple attack.
248 1.1 christos
249 1.1 christos NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt
250 1.1 christos of this message, the no-more-sessions request is only sent to OpenSSH
251 1.1 christos servers (identified by banner). Other SSH implementations may be
252 1.15 christos listed to receive this message upon request.
253 1.1 christos
254 1.2 christos 2.3. connection: Tunnel forward extension "tun (a] openssh.com"
255 1.1 christos
256 1.1 christos OpenSSH supports layer 2 and layer 3 tunnelling via the "tun (a] openssh.com"
257 1.1 christos channel type. This channel type supports forwarding of network packets
258 1.6 christos with datagram boundaries intact between endpoints equipped with
259 1.1 christos interfaces like the BSD tun(4) device. Tunnel forwarding channels are
260 1.1 christos requested by the client with the following packet:
261 1.1 christos
262 1.1 christos byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
263 1.1 christos string "tun (a] openssh.com"
264 1.1 christos uint32 sender channel
265 1.1 christos uint32 initial window size
266 1.1 christos uint32 maximum packet size
267 1.1 christos uint32 tunnel mode
268 1.1 christos uint32 remote unit number
269 1.1 christos
270 1.1 christos The "tunnel mode" parameter specifies whether the tunnel should forward
271 1.1 christos layer 2 frames or layer 3 packets. It may take one of the following values:
272 1.1 christos
273 1.1 christos SSH_TUNMODE_POINTOPOINT 1 /* layer 3 packets */
274 1.1 christos SSH_TUNMODE_ETHERNET 2 /* layer 2 frames */
275 1.1 christos
276 1.1 christos The "tunnel unit number" specifies the remote interface number, or may
277 1.14 christos be 0x7fffffff to allow the server to automatically choose an interface. A
278 1.2 christos server that is not willing to open a client-specified unit should refuse
279 1.2 christos the request with a SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_FAILURE error. On successful
280 1.2 christos open, the server should reply with SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_SUCCESS.
281 1.1 christos
282 1.1 christos Once established the client and server may exchange packet or frames
283 1.1 christos over the tunnel channel by encapsulating them in SSH protocol strings
284 1.1 christos and sending them as channel data. This ensures that packet boundaries
285 1.1 christos are kept intact. Specifically, packets are transmitted using normal
286 1.1 christos SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA packets:
287 1.1 christos
288 1.1 christos byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA
289 1.1 christos uint32 recipient channel
290 1.1 christos string data
291 1.1 christos
292 1.1 christos The contents of the "data" field for layer 3 packets is:
293 1.1 christos
294 1.1 christos uint32 packet length
295 1.1 christos uint32 address family
296 1.1 christos byte[packet length - 4] packet data
297 1.1 christos
298 1.1 christos The "address family" field identifies the type of packet in the message.
299 1.1 christos It may be one of:
300 1.1 christos
301 1.1 christos SSH_TUN_AF_INET 2 /* IPv4 */
302 1.1 christos SSH_TUN_AF_INET6 24 /* IPv6 */
303 1.1 christos
304 1.1 christos The "packet data" field consists of the IPv4/IPv6 datagram itself
305 1.1 christos without any link layer header.
306 1.1 christos
307 1.2 christos The contents of the "data" field for layer 2 packets is:
308 1.1 christos
309 1.1 christos uint32 packet length
310 1.1 christos byte[packet length] frame
311 1.1 christos
312 1.1 christos The "frame" field contains an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frame, including
313 1.1 christos header.
314 1.1 christos
315 1.4 christos 2.4. connection: Unix domain socket forwarding
316 1.4 christos
317 1.4 christos OpenSSH supports local and remote Unix domain socket forwarding
318 1.4 christos using the "streamlocal" extension. Forwarding is initiated as per
319 1.4 christos TCP sockets but with a single path instead of a host and port.
320 1.4 christos
321 1.4 christos Similar to direct-tcpip, direct-streamlocal is sent by the client
322 1.4 christos to request that the server make a connection to a Unix domain socket.
323 1.4 christos
324 1.4 christos byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
325 1.4 christos string "direct-streamlocal (a] openssh.com"
326 1.4 christos uint32 sender channel
327 1.4 christos uint32 initial window size
328 1.4 christos uint32 maximum packet size
329 1.4 christos string socket path
330 1.8 christos string reserved
331 1.8 christos uint32 reserved
332 1.4 christos
333 1.4 christos Similar to forwarded-tcpip, forwarded-streamlocal is sent by the
334 1.4 christos server when the client has previously send the server a streamlocal-forward
335 1.4 christos GLOBAL_REQUEST.
336 1.4 christos
337 1.4 christos byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
338 1.4 christos string "forwarded-streamlocal (a] openssh.com"
339 1.4 christos uint32 sender channel
340 1.4 christos uint32 initial window size
341 1.4 christos uint32 maximum packet size
342 1.4 christos string socket path
343 1.4 christos string reserved for future use
344 1.4 christos
345 1.4 christos The reserved field is not currently defined and is ignored on the
346 1.4 christos remote end. It is intended to be used in the future to pass
347 1.4 christos information about the socket file, such as ownership and mode.
348 1.4 christos The client currently sends the empty string for this field.
349 1.4 christos
350 1.4 christos Similar to tcpip-forward, streamlocal-forward is sent by the client
351 1.4 christos to request remote forwarding of a Unix domain socket.
352 1.4 christos
353 1.4 christos byte SSH2_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
354 1.4 christos string "streamlocal-forward (a] openssh.com"
355 1.4 christos boolean TRUE
356 1.4 christos string socket path
357 1.4 christos
358 1.4 christos Similar to cancel-tcpip-forward, cancel-streamlocal-forward is sent
359 1.4 christos by the client cancel the forwarding of a Unix domain socket.
360 1.4 christos
361 1.4 christos byte SSH2_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
362 1.4 christos string "cancel-streamlocal-forward (a] openssh.com"
363 1.4 christos boolean FALSE
364 1.4 christos string socket path
365 1.4 christos
366 1.5 christos 2.5. connection: hostkey update and rotation "hostkeys-00 (a] openssh.com"
367 1.5 christos and "hostkeys-prove-00 (a] openssh.com"
368 1.5 christos
369 1.5 christos OpenSSH supports a protocol extension allowing a server to inform
370 1.5 christos a client of all its protocol v.2 host keys after user-authentication
371 1.5 christos has completed.
372 1.5 christos
373 1.5 christos byte SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
374 1.5 christos string "hostkeys-00 (a] openssh.com"
375 1.16 christos char 0 /* want-reply */
376 1.5 christos string[] hostkeys
377 1.5 christos
378 1.5 christos Upon receiving this message, a client should check which of the
379 1.11 christos supplied host keys are present in known_hosts.
380 1.11 christos
381 1.11 christos Note that the server may send key types that the client does not
382 1.14 christos support. The client should disregard such keys if they are received.
383 1.11 christos
384 1.11 christos If the client identifies any keys that are not present for the host,
385 1.11 christos it should send a "hostkeys-prove (a] openssh.com" message to request the
386 1.11 christos server prove ownership of the private half of the key.
387 1.5 christos
388 1.5 christos byte SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
389 1.5 christos string "hostkeys-prove-00 (a] openssh.com"
390 1.5 christos char 1 /* want-reply */
391 1.5 christos string[] hostkeys
392 1.5 christos
393 1.5 christos When a server receives this message, it should generate a signature
394 1.5 christos using each requested key over the following:
395 1.5 christos
396 1.5 christos string "hostkeys-prove-00 (a] openssh.com"
397 1.5 christos string session identifier
398 1.5 christos string hostkey
399 1.5 christos
400 1.5 christos These signatures should be included in the reply, in the order matching
401 1.5 christos the hostkeys in the request:
402 1.5 christos
403 1.5 christos byte SSH_MSG_REQUEST_SUCCESS
404 1.5 christos string[] signatures
405 1.5 christos
406 1.5 christos When the client receives this reply (and not a failure), it should
407 1.5 christos validate the signatures and may update its known_hosts file, adding keys
408 1.5 christos that it has not seen before and deleting keys for the server host that
409 1.5 christos are no longer offered.
410 1.5 christos
411 1.5 christos These extensions let a client learn key types that it had not previously
412 1.5 christos encountered, thereby allowing it to potentially upgrade from weaker
413 1.5 christos key algorithms to better ones. It also supports graceful key rotation:
414 1.5 christos a server may offer multiple keys of the same type for a period (to
415 1.5 christos give clients an opportunity to learn them using this extension) before
416 1.5 christos removing the deprecated key from those offered.
417 1.5 christos
418 1.13 christos 2.6. connection: SIGINFO support for "signal" channel request
419 1.13 christos
420 1.13 christos The SSH channels protocol (RFC4254 section 6.9) supports sending a
421 1.13 christos signal to a session attached to a channel. OpenSSH supports one
422 1.13 christos extension signal "INFO (a] openssh.com" that allows sending SIGINFO on
423 1.13 christos BSD-derived systems.
424 1.13 christos
425 1.18 christos 3. Authentication protocol changes
426 1.2 christos
427 1.18 christos 3.1. Host-bound public key authentication
428 1.18 christos
429 1.18 christos This is trivial change to the traditional "publickey" authentication
430 1.18 christos method. The authentication request is identical to the original method
431 1.18 christos but for the name and one additional field:
432 1.18 christos
433 1.18 christos byte SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST
434 1.18 christos string username
435 1.18 christos string "ssh-connection"
436 1.18 christos string "publickey-hostbound-v00 (a] openssh.com"
437 1.18 christos bool has_signature
438 1.18 christos string pkalg
439 1.18 christos string public key
440 1.18 christos string server host key
441 1.18 christos
442 1.18 christos Because the entire SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST message is included in
443 1.18 christos the signed data, this ensures that a binding between the destination
444 1.18 christos user, the server identity and the session identifier is visible to the
445 1.18 christos signer. OpenSSH uses this binding via signed data to implement per-key
446 1.18 christos restrictions in ssh-agent.
447 1.18 christos
448 1.18 christos A server may advertise this method using the SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO
449 1.18 christos mechanism (RFC8308), with the following message:
450 1.18 christos
451 1.18 christos string "publickey-hostbound (a] openssh.com"
452 1.18 christos string "0" (version)
453 1.18 christos
454 1.18 christos Clients should prefer host-bound authentication when advertised by
455 1.18 christos server.
456 1.18 christos
457 1.18 christos 4. SFTP protocol changes
458 1.18 christos
459 1.18 christos 4.1. sftp: Reversal of arguments to SSH_FXP_SYMLINK
460 1.1 christos
461 1.1 christos When OpenSSH's sftp-server was implemented, the order of the arguments
462 1.1 christos to the SSH_FXP_SYMLINK method was inadvertently reversed. Unfortunately,
463 1.1 christos the reversal was not noticed until the server was widely deployed. Since
464 1.1 christos fixing this to follow the specification would cause incompatibility, the
465 1.1 christos current order was retained. For correct operation, clients should send
466 1.1 christos SSH_FXP_SYMLINK as follows:
467 1.1 christos
468 1.1 christos uint32 id
469 1.1 christos string targetpath
470 1.1 christos string linkpath
471 1.1 christos
472 1.18 christos 4.2. sftp: Server extension announcement in SSH_FXP_VERSION
473 1.1 christos
474 1.1 christos OpenSSH's sftp-server lists the extensions it supports using the
475 1.1 christos standard extension announcement mechanism in the SSH_FXP_VERSION server
476 1.1 christos hello packet:
477 1.1 christos
478 1.1 christos uint32 3 /* protocol version */
479 1.1 christos string ext1-name
480 1.1 christos string ext1-version
481 1.1 christos string ext2-name
482 1.1 christos string ext2-version
483 1.1 christos ...
484 1.1 christos string extN-name
485 1.1 christos string extN-version
486 1.1 christos
487 1.1 christos Each extension reports its integer version number as an ASCII encoded
488 1.1 christos string, e.g. "1". The version will be incremented if the extension is
489 1.1 christos ever changed in an incompatible way. The server MAY advertise the same
490 1.1 christos extension with multiple versions (though this is unlikely). Clients MUST
491 1.1 christos check the version number before attempting to use the extension.
492 1.1 christos
493 1.18 christos 4.3. sftp: Extension request "posix-rename (a] openssh.com"
494 1.1 christos
495 1.1 christos This operation provides a rename operation with POSIX semantics, which
496 1.1 christos are different to those provided by the standard SSH_FXP_RENAME in
497 1.1 christos draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt. This request is implemented as a
498 1.1 christos SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the following format:
499 1.1 christos
500 1.1 christos uint32 id
501 1.1 christos string "posix-rename (a] openssh.com"
502 1.1 christos string oldpath
503 1.1 christos string newpath
504 1.1 christos
505 1.1 christos On receiving this request the server will perform the POSIX operation
506 1.1 christos rename(oldpath, newpath) and will respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
507 1.1 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
508 1.1 christos "1".
509 1.1 christos
510 1.18 christos 4.4. sftp: Extension requests "statvfs (a] openssh.com" and
511 1.1 christos "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com"
512 1.1 christos
513 1.1 christos These requests correspond to the statvfs and fstatvfs POSIX system
514 1.1 christos interfaces. The "statvfs (a] openssh.com" request operates on an explicit
515 1.1 christos pathname, and is formatted as follows:
516 1.1 christos
517 1.1 christos uint32 id
518 1.1 christos string "statvfs (a] openssh.com"
519 1.1 christos string path
520 1.1 christos
521 1.1 christos The "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com" operates on an open file handle:
522 1.1 christos
523 1.1 christos uint32 id
524 1.1 christos string "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com"
525 1.1 christos string handle
526 1.1 christos
527 1.1 christos These requests return a SSH_FXP_STATUS reply on failure. On success they
528 1.1 christos return the following SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY reply:
529 1.1 christos
530 1.1 christos uint32 id
531 1.1 christos uint64 f_bsize /* file system block size */
532 1.1 christos uint64 f_frsize /* fundamental fs block size */
533 1.1 christos uint64 f_blocks /* number of blocks (unit f_frsize) */
534 1.1 christos uint64 f_bfree /* free blocks in file system */
535 1.1 christos uint64 f_bavail /* free blocks for non-root */
536 1.1 christos uint64 f_files /* total file inodes */
537 1.1 christos uint64 f_ffree /* free file inodes */
538 1.1 christos uint64 f_favail /* free file inodes for to non-root */
539 1.1 christos uint64 f_fsid /* file system id */
540 1.1 christos uint64 f_flag /* bit mask of f_flag values */
541 1.1 christos uint64 f_namemax /* maximum filename length */
542 1.1 christos
543 1.1 christos The values of the f_flag bitmask are as follows:
544 1.1 christos
545 1.1 christos #define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_RDONLY 0x1 /* read-only */
546 1.1 christos #define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_NOSUID 0x2 /* no setuid */
547 1.1 christos
548 1.1 christos Both the "statvfs (a] openssh.com" and "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com" extensions are
549 1.1 christos advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version "2".
550 1.1 christos
551 1.18 christos 4.5. sftp: Extension request "hardlink (a] openssh.com"
552 1.2 christos
553 1.2 christos This request is for creating a hard link to a regular file. This
554 1.2 christos request is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the
555 1.2 christos following format:
556 1.2 christos
557 1.2 christos uint32 id
558 1.2 christos string "hardlink (a] openssh.com"
559 1.2 christos string oldpath
560 1.2 christos string newpath
561 1.2 christos
562 1.2 christos On receiving this request the server will perform the operation
563 1.2 christos link(oldpath, newpath) and will respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
564 1.2 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
565 1.2 christos "1".
566 1.2 christos
567 1.18 christos 4.6. sftp: Extension request "fsync (a] openssh.com"
568 1.4 christos
569 1.4 christos This request asks the server to call fsync(2) on an open file handle.
570 1.4 christos
571 1.4 christos uint32 id
572 1.4 christos string "fsync (a] openssh.com"
573 1.4 christos string handle
574 1.4 christos
575 1.19 christos On receiving this request, a server will call fsync(handle_fd) and will
576 1.4 christos respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
577 1.4 christos
578 1.4 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
579 1.4 christos "1".
580 1.4 christos
581 1.18 christos 4.7. sftp: Extension request "lsetstat (a] openssh.com"
582 1.16 christos
583 1.16 christos This request is like the "setstat" command, but sets file attributes on
584 1.16 christos symlinks. It is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the
585 1.16 christos following format:
586 1.16 christos
587 1.16 christos uint32 id
588 1.16 christos string "lsetstat (a] openssh.com"
589 1.16 christos string path
590 1.16 christos ATTRS attrs
591 1.16 christos
592 1.16 christos See the "setstat" command for more details.
593 1.16 christos
594 1.16 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
595 1.16 christos "1".
596 1.16 christos
597 1.18 christos 4.8. sftp: Extension request "limits (a] openssh.com"
598 1.16 christos
599 1.16 christos This request is used to determine various limits the server might impose.
600 1.16 christos Clients should not attempt to exceed these limits as the server might sever
601 1.16 christos the connection immediately.
602 1.16 christos
603 1.16 christos uint32 id
604 1.16 christos string "limits (a] openssh.com"
605 1.16 christos
606 1.16 christos The server will respond with a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY reply:
607 1.16 christos
608 1.16 christos uint32 id
609 1.16 christos uint64 max-packet-length
610 1.16 christos uint64 max-read-length
611 1.16 christos uint64 max-write-length
612 1.16 christos uint64 max-open-handles
613 1.16 christos
614 1.16 christos The 'max-packet-length' applies to the total number of bytes in a
615 1.16 christos single SFTP packet. Servers SHOULD set this at least to 34000.
616 1.16 christos
617 1.16 christos The 'max-read-length' is the largest length in a SSH_FXP_READ packet.
618 1.16 christos Even if the client requests a larger size, servers will usually respond
619 1.16 christos with a shorter SSH_FXP_DATA packet. Servers SHOULD set this at least to
620 1.16 christos 32768.
621 1.16 christos
622 1.16 christos The 'max-write-length' is the largest length in a SSH_FXP_WRITE packet
623 1.16 christos the server will accept. Servers SHOULD set this at least to 32768.
624 1.16 christos
625 1.16 christos The 'max-open-handles' is the maximum number of active handles that the
626 1.16 christos server allows (e.g. handles created by SSH_FXP_OPEN and SSH_FXP_OPENDIR
627 1.16 christos packets). Servers MAY count internal file handles against this limit
628 1.16 christos (e.g. system logging or stdout/stderr), so clients SHOULD NOT expect to
629 1.16 christos open this many handles in practice.
630 1.16 christos
631 1.16 christos If the server doesn't enforce a specific limit, then the field may be
632 1.16 christos set to 0. This implies the server relies on the OS to enforce limits
633 1.16 christos (e.g. available memory or file handles), and such limits might be
634 1.16 christos dynamic. The client SHOULD take care to not try to exceed reasonable
635 1.16 christos limits.
636 1.16 christos
637 1.16 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
638 1.16 christos "1".
639 1.16 christos
640 1.18 christos 4.9. sftp: Extension request "expand-path (a] openssh.com"
641 1.17 christos
642 1.17 christos This request supports canonicalisation of relative paths and
643 1.17 christos those that need tilde-expansion, i.e. "~", "~/..." and "~user/..."
644 1.17 christos These paths are expanded using shell-like rules and the resultant
645 1.17 christos path is canonicalised similarly to SSH2_FXP_REALPATH.
646 1.17 christos
647 1.17 christos It is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the following
648 1.17 christos format:
649 1.17 christos
650 1.17 christos uint32 id
651 1.17 christos string "expand-path (a] openssh.com"
652 1.17 christos string path
653 1.17 christos
654 1.17 christos Its reply is the same format as that of SSH2_FXP_REALPATH.
655 1.17 christos
656 1.17 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
657 1.17 christos "1".
658 1.17 christos
659 1.19 christos 4.10. sftp: Extension request "copy-data"
660 1.19 christos
661 1.19 christos This request asks the server to copy data from one open file handle and
662 1.19 christos write it to a different open file handle. This avoids needing to transfer
663 1.19 christos the data across the network twice (a download followed by an upload).
664 1.19 christos
665 1.19 christos byte SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
666 1.19 christos uint32 id
667 1.19 christos string "copy-data"
668 1.19 christos string read-from-handle
669 1.19 christos uint64 read-from-offset
670 1.19 christos uint64 read-data-length
671 1.19 christos string write-to-handle
672 1.19 christos uint64 write-to-offset
673 1.19 christos
674 1.19 christos The server will copy read-data-length bytes starting from
675 1.19 christos read-from-offset from the read-from-handle and write them to
676 1.19 christos write-to-handle starting from write-to-offset, and then respond with a
677 1.19 christos SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
678 1.19 christos
679 1.19 christos It's equivalent to issuing a series of SSH_FXP_READ requests on
680 1.19 christos read-from-handle and a series of requests of SSH_FXP_WRITE on
681 1.19 christos write-to-handle.
682 1.19 christos
683 1.19 christos If read-from-handle and write-to-handle are the same, the server will
684 1.19 christos fail the request and respond with a SSH_FX_INVALID_PARAMETER message.
685 1.19 christos
686 1.19 christos If read-data-length is 0, then the server will read data from the
687 1.19 christos read-from-handle until EOF is reached.
688 1.19 christos
689 1.19 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
690 1.19 christos "1".
691 1.19 christos
692 1.19 christos This request is identical to the "copy-data" request documented in:
693 1.19 christos
694 1.19 christos https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-extensions-00#section-7
695 1.19 christos
696 1.20 christos 4.11. sftp: Extension request "home-directory"
697 1.20 christos
698 1.20 christos This request asks the server to expand the specified user's home directory.
699 1.20 christos An empty username implies the current user. This can be used by the client
700 1.20 christos to expand ~/ type paths locally.
701 1.20 christos
702 1.20 christos byte SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
703 1.20 christos uint32 id
704 1.20 christos string "home-directory"
705 1.20 christos string username
706 1.20 christos
707 1.20 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
708 1.20 christos "1".
709 1.20 christos
710 1.20 christos This provides similar information as the "expand-path (a] openssh.com" extension.
711 1.20 christos
712 1.20 christos This request is identical to the "home-directory" request documented in:
713 1.20 christos
714 1.20 christos https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-extensions-00#section-5
715 1.20 christos
716 1.20 christos 4.12. sftp: Extension request "users-groups-by-id (a] openssh.com"
717 1.20 christos
718 1.21 christos This request asks the server to return user and/or group names that
719 1.20 christos correspond to one or more IDs (e.g. as returned from a SSH_FXP_STAT
720 1.20 christos request). This may be used by the client to provide usernames in
721 1.20 christos directory listings.
722 1.20 christos
723 1.20 christos byte SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
724 1.20 christos uint32 id
725 1.20 christos string "users-groups-by-id (a] openssh.com"
726 1.20 christos string uids
727 1.20 christos string gids
728 1.20 christos
729 1.20 christos Where "uids" and "gids" consists of one or more integer user or group
730 1.20 christos identifiers:
731 1.20 christos
732 1.20 christos uint32 id-0
733 1.20 christos ...
734 1.20 christos
735 1.20 christos The server will reply with a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY:
736 1.20 christos
737 1.20 christos byte SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY
738 1.20 christos string usernames
739 1.20 christos string groupnames
740 1.20 christos
741 1.20 christos Where "username" and "groupnames" consists of names in identical request
742 1.20 christos order to "uids" and "gids" respectively:
743 1.20 christos
744 1.20 christos string name-0
745 1.20 christos ...
746 1.20 christos
747 1.20 christos If a name cannot be identified for a given user or group ID, an empty
748 1.20 christos string will be returned in its place.
749 1.20 christos
750 1.20 christos It is acceptable for either "uids" or "gids" to be an empty set, in
751 1.20 christos which case the respective "usernames" or "groupnames" list will also
752 1.20 christos be empty.
753 1.20 christos
754 1.20 christos This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
755 1.20 christos "1".
756 1.20 christos
757 1.18 christos 5. Miscellaneous changes
758 1.12 christos
759 1.18 christos 5.1 Public key format
760 1.12 christos
761 1.12 christos OpenSSH public keys, as generated by ssh-keygen(1) and appearing in
762 1.12 christos authorized_keys files, are formatted as a single line of text consisting
763 1.12 christos of the public key algorithm name followed by a base64-encoded key blob.
764 1.12 christos The public key blob (before base64 encoding) is the same format used for
765 1.12 christos the encoding of public keys sent on the wire: as described in RFC4253
766 1.12 christos section 6.6 for RSA and DSA keys, RFC5656 section 3.1 for ECDSA keys
767 1.12 christos and the "New public key formats" section of PROTOCOL.certkeys for the
768 1.12 christos OpenSSH certificate formats.
769 1.12 christos
770 1.18 christos 5.2 Private key format
771 1.12 christos
772 1.12 christos OpenSSH private keys, as generated by ssh-keygen(1) use the format
773 1.12 christos described in PROTOCOL.key by default. As a legacy option, PEM format
774 1.12 christos (RFC7468) private keys are also supported for RSA, DSA and ECDSA keys
775 1.12 christos and were the default format before OpenSSH 7.8.
776 1.12 christos
777 1.18 christos 5.3 KRL format
778 1.12 christos
779 1.12 christos OpenSSH supports a compact format for Key Revocation Lists (KRLs). This
780 1.12 christos format is described in the PROTOCOL.krl file.
781 1.12 christos
782 1.18 christos 5.4 Connection multiplexing
783 1.12 christos
784 1.12 christos OpenSSH's connection multiplexing uses messages as described in
785 1.12 christos PROTOCOL.mux over a Unix domain socket for communications between a
786 1.12 christos master instance and later clients.
787 1.12 christos
788 1.18 christos 5.5. Agent protocol extensions
789 1.18 christos
790 1.18 christos OpenSSH extends the usual agent protocol. These changes are documented
791 1.18 christos in the PROTOCOL.agent file.
792 1.18 christos
793 1.23 christos $OpenBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.51 2023/12/18 14:45:49 djm Exp $
794 1.3 christos $NetBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.23 2023/12/20 17:15:20 christos Exp $
795