Home | History | Annotate | Line # | Download | only in dist
PROTOCOL revision 1.22
      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 http://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 http://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 http://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-miller-secsh-compression-delayed-00.txt
     35 
     36 1.3. transport: New public key algorithms "ssh-rsa-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com",
     37      "ssh-dsa-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com",
     38      "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com",
     39      "ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com" and
     40      "ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01 (a] openssh.com"
     41 
     42 OpenSSH introduces new public key algorithms to support certificate
     43 authentication for users and host keys. These methods are documented
     44 in the file PROTOCOL.certkeys
     45 
     46 1.4. transport: Elliptic Curve cryptography
     47 
     48 OpenSSH supports ECC key exchange and public key authentication as
     49 specified in RFC5656. Only the ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, ecdsa-sha2-nistp384
     50 and ecdsa-sha2-nistp521 curves over GF(p) are supported. Elliptic
     51 curve points encoded using point compression are NOT accepted or
     52 generated.
     53 
     54 1.5 transport: Protocol 2 Encrypt-then-MAC MAC algorithms
     55 
     56 OpenSSH supports MAC algorithms, whose names contain "-etm", that
     57 perform the calculations in a different order to that defined in RFC
     58 4253. These variants use the so-called "encrypt then MAC" ordering,
     59 calculating the MAC over the packet ciphertext rather than the
     60 plaintext. This ordering closes a security flaw in the SSH transport
     61 protocol, where decryption of unauthenticated ciphertext provided a
     62 "decryption oracle" that could, in conjunction with cipher flaws, reveal
     63 session plaintext.
     64 
     65 Specifically, the "-etm" MAC algorithms modify the transport protocol
     66 to calculate the MAC over the packet ciphertext and to send the packet
     67 length unencrypted. This is necessary for the transport to obtain the
     68 length of the packet and location of the MAC tag so that it may be
     69 verified without decrypting unauthenticated data.
     70 
     71 As such, the MAC covers:
     72 
     73       mac = MAC(key, sequence_number || packet_length || encrypted_packet)
     74 
     75 where "packet_length" is encoded as a uint32 and "encrypted_packet"
     76 contains:
     77 
     78       byte      padding_length
     79       byte[n1]  payload; n1 = packet_length - padding_length - 1
     80       byte[n2]  random padding; n2 = padding_length
     81 
     82 1.6 transport: AES-GCM
     83 
     84 OpenSSH supports the AES-GCM algorithm as specified in RFC 5647.
     85 Because of problems with the specification of the key exchange
     86 the behaviour of OpenSSH differs from the RFC as follows:
     87 
     88 AES-GCM is only negotiated as the cipher algorithms
     89 "aes128-gcm (a] openssh.com" or "aes256-gcm (a] openssh.com" and never as
     90 an MAC algorithm. Additionally, if AES-GCM is selected as the cipher
     91 the exchanged MAC algorithms are ignored and there doesn't have to be
     92 a matching MAC.
     93 
     94 1.7 transport: chacha20-poly1305 (a] openssh.com authenticated encryption
     95 
     96 OpenSSH supports authenticated encryption using ChaCha20 and Poly1305
     97 as described in PROTOCOL.chacha20poly1305.
     98 
     99 1.8 transport: curve25519-sha256 (a] libssh.org key exchange algorithm
    100 
    101 OpenSSH supports the use of ECDH in Curve25519 for key exchange as
    102 described at:
    103 http://git.libssh.org/users/aris/libssh.git/plain/doc/curve25519-sha256@libssh.org.txt?h=curve25519
    104 
    105 This is identical to curve25519-sha256 as later published in RFC8731.
    106 
    107 1.9 transport: ping facility
    108 
    109 OpenSSH implements a transport level ping message SSH2_MSG_PING
    110 and a corresponding SSH2_MSG_PONG reply.
    111 
    112 #define SSH2_MSG_PING	192
    113 #define SSH2_MSG_PONG	193
    114 
    115 The ping message is simply:
    116 
    117 	byte		SSH_MSG_PING
    118 	string		data
    119 
    120 The reply copies the data (which may be the empty string) from the
    121 ping:
    122 
    123 	byte		SSH_MSG_PONG
    124 	string		data
    125 
    126 Replies are sent in order. They are sent immediately except when rekeying
    127 is in progress, in which case they are queued until rekeying completes.
    128 
    129 The server advertises support for these messages using the
    130 SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO mechanism (RFC8308), with the following message:
    131 
    132 	string		"ping (a] openssh.com"
    133 	string		"0" (version)
    134 
    135 The ping/reply message is implemented at the transport layer rather
    136 than as a named global or channel request to allow pings with very
    137 short packet lengths, which would not be possible with other
    138 approaches.
    139 
    140 2. Connection protocol changes
    141 
    142 2.1. connection: Channel write close extension "eow (a] openssh.com"
    143 
    144 The SSH connection protocol (rfc4254) provides the SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF
    145 message to allow an endpoint to signal its peer that it will send no
    146 more data over a channel. Unfortunately, there is no symmetric way for
    147 an endpoint to request that its peer should cease sending data to it
    148 while still keeping the channel open for the endpoint to send data to
    149 the peer.
    150 
    151 This is desirable, since it saves the transmission of data that would
    152 otherwise need to be discarded and it allows an endpoint to signal local
    153 processes of the condition, e.g. by closing the corresponding file
    154 descriptor.
    155 
    156 OpenSSH implements a channel extension message to perform this
    157 signalling: "eow (a] openssh.com" (End Of Write). This message is sent by
    158 an endpoint when the local output of a session channel is closed or
    159 experiences a write error. The message is formatted as follows:
    160 
    161 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_REQUEST
    162 	uint32		recipient channel
    163 	string		"eow (a] openssh.com"
    164 	boolean		FALSE
    165 
    166 On receiving this message, the peer SHOULD cease sending data of
    167 the channel and MAY signal the process from which the channel data
    168 originates (e.g. by closing its read file descriptor).
    169 
    170 As with the symmetric SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF message, the channel does
    171 remain open after a "eow (a] openssh.com" has been sent and more data may
    172 still be sent in the other direction. This message does not consume
    173 window space and may be sent even if no window space is available.
    174 
    175 NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt
    176 of this message (in contravention of RFC4254 section 5.4), this
    177 message is only sent to OpenSSH peers (identified by banner).
    178 Other SSH implementations may be listed to receive this message
    179 upon request.
    180 
    181 2.2. connection: disallow additional sessions extension
    182      "no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com"
    183 
    184 Most SSH connections will only ever request a single session, but a
    185 attacker may abuse a running ssh client to surreptitiously open
    186 additional sessions under their control. OpenSSH provides a global
    187 request "no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com" to mitigate this attack.
    188 
    189 When an OpenSSH client expects that it will never open another session
    190 (i.e. it has been started with connection multiplexing disabled), it
    191 will send the following global request:
    192 
    193 	byte		SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    194 	string		"no-more-sessions (a] openssh.com"
    195 	char		want-reply
    196 
    197 On receipt of such a message, an OpenSSH server will refuse to open
    198 future channels of type "session" and instead immediately abort the
    199 connection.
    200 
    201 Note that this is not a general defence against compromised clients
    202 (that is impossible), but it thwarts a simple attack.
    203 
    204 NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt
    205 of this message, the no-more-sessions request is only sent to OpenSSH
    206 servers (identified by banner). Other SSH implementations may be
    207 listed to receive this message upon request.
    208 
    209 2.3. connection: Tunnel forward extension "tun (a] openssh.com"
    210 
    211 OpenSSH supports layer 2 and layer 3 tunnelling via the "tun (a] openssh.com"
    212 channel type. This channel type supports forwarding of network packets
    213 with datagram boundaries intact between endpoints equipped with
    214 interfaces like the BSD tun(4) device. Tunnel forwarding channels are
    215 requested by the client with the following packet:
    216 
    217 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
    218 	string		"tun (a] openssh.com"
    219 	uint32		sender channel
    220 	uint32		initial window size
    221 	uint32		maximum packet size
    222 	uint32		tunnel mode
    223 	uint32		remote unit number
    224 
    225 The "tunnel mode" parameter specifies whether the tunnel should forward
    226 layer 2 frames or layer 3 packets. It may take one of the following values:
    227 
    228 	SSH_TUNMODE_POINTOPOINT  1		/* layer 3 packets */
    229 	SSH_TUNMODE_ETHERNET     2		/* layer 2 frames */
    230 
    231 The "tunnel unit number" specifies the remote interface number, or may
    232 be 0x7fffffff to allow the server to automatically choose an interface. A
    233 server that is not willing to open a client-specified unit should refuse
    234 the request with a SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_FAILURE error. On successful
    235 open, the server should reply with SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_SUCCESS.
    236 
    237 Once established the client and server may exchange packet or frames
    238 over the tunnel channel by encapsulating them in SSH protocol strings
    239 and sending them as channel data. This ensures that packet boundaries
    240 are kept intact. Specifically, packets are transmitted using normal
    241 SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA packets:
    242 
    243 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA
    244 	uint32		recipient channel
    245 	string		data
    246 
    247 The contents of the "data" field for layer 3 packets is:
    248 
    249 	uint32			packet length
    250 	uint32			address family
    251 	byte[packet length - 4]	packet data
    252 
    253 The "address family" field identifies the type of packet in the message.
    254 It may be one of:
    255 
    256 	SSH_TUN_AF_INET		2		/* IPv4 */
    257 	SSH_TUN_AF_INET6	24		/* IPv6 */
    258 
    259 The "packet data" field consists of the IPv4/IPv6 datagram itself
    260 without any link layer header.
    261 
    262 The contents of the "data" field for layer 2 packets is:
    263 
    264 	uint32			packet length
    265 	byte[packet length]	frame
    266 
    267 The "frame" field contains an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frame, including
    268 header.
    269 
    270 2.4. connection: Unix domain socket forwarding
    271 
    272 OpenSSH supports local and remote Unix domain socket forwarding
    273 using the "streamlocal" extension.  Forwarding is initiated as per
    274 TCP sockets but with a single path instead of a host and port.
    275 
    276 Similar to direct-tcpip, direct-streamlocal is sent by the client
    277 to request that the server make a connection to a Unix domain socket.
    278 
    279 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
    280 	string		"direct-streamlocal (a] openssh.com"
    281 	uint32		sender channel
    282 	uint32		initial window size
    283 	uint32		maximum packet size
    284 	string		socket path
    285 	string		reserved
    286 	uint32		reserved
    287 
    288 Similar to forwarded-tcpip, forwarded-streamlocal is sent by the
    289 server when the client has previously send the server a streamlocal-forward
    290 GLOBAL_REQUEST.
    291 
    292 	byte		SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN
    293 	string		"forwarded-streamlocal (a] openssh.com"
    294 	uint32		sender channel
    295 	uint32		initial window size
    296 	uint32		maximum packet size
    297 	string		socket path
    298 	string		reserved for future use
    299 
    300 The reserved field is not currently defined and is ignored on the
    301 remote end.  It is intended to be used in the future to pass
    302 information about the socket file, such as ownership and mode.
    303 The client currently sends the empty string for this field.
    304 
    305 Similar to tcpip-forward, streamlocal-forward is sent by the client
    306 to request remote forwarding of a Unix domain socket.
    307 
    308 	byte		SSH2_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    309 	string		"streamlocal-forward (a] openssh.com"
    310 	boolean		TRUE
    311 	string		socket path
    312 
    313 Similar to cancel-tcpip-forward, cancel-streamlocal-forward is sent
    314 by the client cancel the forwarding of a Unix domain socket.
    315 
    316 	byte		SSH2_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    317 	string		"cancel-streamlocal-forward (a] openssh.com"
    318 	boolean		FALSE
    319 	string		socket path
    320 
    321 2.5. connection: hostkey update and rotation "hostkeys-00 (a] openssh.com"
    322 and "hostkeys-prove-00 (a] openssh.com"
    323 
    324 OpenSSH supports a protocol extension allowing a server to inform
    325 a client of all its protocol v.2 host keys after user-authentication
    326 has completed.
    327 
    328 	byte		SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    329 	string		"hostkeys-00 (a] openssh.com"
    330 	char		0 /* want-reply */
    331 	string[]	hostkeys
    332 
    333 Upon receiving this message, a client should check which of the
    334 supplied host keys are present in known_hosts.
    335 
    336 Note that the server may send key types that the client does not
    337 support. The client should disregard such keys if they are received.
    338 
    339 If the client identifies any keys that are not present for the host,
    340 it should send a "hostkeys-prove (a] openssh.com" message to request the
    341 server prove ownership of the private half of the key.
    342 
    343 	byte		SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST
    344 	string		"hostkeys-prove-00 (a] openssh.com"
    345 	char		1 /* want-reply */
    346 	string[]	hostkeys
    347 
    348 When a server receives this message, it should generate a signature
    349 using each requested key over the following:
    350 
    351 	string		"hostkeys-prove-00 (a] openssh.com"
    352 	string		session identifier
    353 	string		hostkey
    354 
    355 These signatures should be included in the reply, in the order matching
    356 the hostkeys in the request:
    357 
    358 	byte		SSH_MSG_REQUEST_SUCCESS
    359 	string[]	signatures
    360 
    361 When the client receives this reply (and not a failure), it should
    362 validate the signatures and may update its known_hosts file, adding keys
    363 that it has not seen before and deleting keys for the server host that
    364 are no longer offered.
    365 
    366 These extensions let a client learn key types that it had not previously
    367 encountered, thereby allowing it to potentially upgrade from weaker
    368 key algorithms to better ones. It also supports graceful key rotation:
    369 a server may offer multiple keys of the same type for a period (to
    370 give clients an opportunity to learn them using this extension) before
    371 removing the deprecated key from those offered.
    372 
    373 2.6. connection: SIGINFO support for "signal" channel request
    374 
    375 The SSH channels protocol (RFC4254 section 6.9) supports sending a
    376 signal to a session attached to a channel. OpenSSH supports one
    377 extension signal "INFO (a] openssh.com" that allows sending SIGINFO on
    378 BSD-derived systems.
    379 
    380 3. Authentication protocol changes
    381 
    382 3.1. Host-bound public key authentication
    383 
    384 This is trivial change to the traditional "publickey" authentication
    385 method. The authentication request is identical to the original method
    386 but for the name and one additional field:
    387 
    388 	byte		SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST
    389 	string		username
    390 	string		"ssh-connection"
    391 	string		"publickey-hostbound-v00 (a] openssh.com"
    392 	bool		has_signature
    393 	string		pkalg
    394 	string		public key
    395 	string		server host key
    396 
    397 Because the entire SSH2_MSG_USERAUTH_REQUEST message is included in
    398 the signed data, this ensures that a binding between the destination
    399 user, the server identity and the session identifier is visible to the
    400 signer. OpenSSH uses this binding via signed data to implement per-key
    401 restrictions in ssh-agent.
    402 
    403 A server may advertise this method using the SSH2_MSG_EXT_INFO
    404 mechanism (RFC8308), with the following message:
    405 
    406 	string		"publickey-hostbound (a] openssh.com"
    407 	string		"0" (version)
    408 
    409 Clients should prefer host-bound authentication when advertised by
    410 server.
    411 
    412 4. SFTP protocol changes
    413 
    414 4.1. sftp: Reversal of arguments to SSH_FXP_SYMLINK
    415 
    416 When OpenSSH's sftp-server was implemented, the order of the arguments
    417 to the SSH_FXP_SYMLINK method was inadvertently reversed. Unfortunately,
    418 the reversal was not noticed until the server was widely deployed. Since
    419 fixing this to follow the specification would cause incompatibility, the
    420 current order was retained. For correct operation, clients should send
    421 SSH_FXP_SYMLINK as follows:
    422 
    423 	uint32		id
    424 	string		targetpath
    425 	string		linkpath
    426 
    427 4.2. sftp: Server extension announcement in SSH_FXP_VERSION
    428 
    429 OpenSSH's sftp-server lists the extensions it supports using the
    430 standard extension announcement mechanism in the SSH_FXP_VERSION server
    431 hello packet:
    432 
    433 	uint32		3		/* protocol version */
    434 	string		ext1-name
    435 	string		ext1-version
    436 	string		ext2-name
    437 	string		ext2-version
    438 	...
    439 	string		extN-name
    440 	string		extN-version
    441 
    442 Each extension reports its integer version number as an ASCII encoded
    443 string, e.g. "1". The version will be incremented if the extension is
    444 ever changed in an incompatible way. The server MAY advertise the same
    445 extension with multiple versions (though this is unlikely). Clients MUST
    446 check the version number before attempting to use the extension.
    447 
    448 4.3. sftp: Extension request "posix-rename (a] openssh.com"
    449 
    450 This operation provides a rename operation with POSIX semantics, which
    451 are different to those provided by the standard SSH_FXP_RENAME in
    452 draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt. This request is implemented as a
    453 SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the following format:
    454 
    455 	uint32		id
    456 	string		"posix-rename (a] openssh.com"
    457 	string		oldpath
    458 	string		newpath
    459 
    460 On receiving this request the server will perform the POSIX operation
    461 rename(oldpath, newpath) and will respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    462 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    463 "1".
    464 
    465 4.4. sftp: Extension requests "statvfs (a] openssh.com" and
    466          "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com"
    467 
    468 These requests correspond to the statvfs and fstatvfs POSIX system
    469 interfaces. The "statvfs (a] openssh.com" request operates on an explicit
    470 pathname, and is formatted as follows:
    471 
    472 	uint32		id
    473 	string		"statvfs (a] openssh.com"
    474 	string		path
    475 
    476 The "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com" operates on an open file handle:
    477 
    478 	uint32		id
    479 	string		"fstatvfs (a] openssh.com"
    480 	string		handle
    481 
    482 These requests return a SSH_FXP_STATUS reply on failure. On success they
    483 return the following SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY reply:
    484 
    485 	uint32		id
    486 	uint64		f_bsize		/* file system block size */
    487 	uint64		f_frsize	/* fundamental fs block size */
    488 	uint64		f_blocks	/* number of blocks (unit f_frsize) */
    489 	uint64		f_bfree		/* free blocks in file system */
    490 	uint64		f_bavail	/* free blocks for non-root */
    491 	uint64		f_files		/* total file inodes */
    492 	uint64		f_ffree		/* free file inodes */
    493 	uint64		f_favail	/* free file inodes for to non-root */
    494 	uint64		f_fsid		/* file system id */
    495 	uint64		f_flag		/* bit mask of f_flag values */
    496 	uint64		f_namemax	/* maximum filename length */
    497 
    498 The values of the f_flag bitmask are as follows:
    499 
    500 	#define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_RDONLY	0x1	/* read-only */
    501 	#define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_NOSUID	0x2	/* no setuid */
    502 
    503 Both the "statvfs (a] openssh.com" and "fstatvfs (a] openssh.com" extensions are
    504 advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version "2".
    505 
    506 4.5. sftp: Extension request "hardlink (a] openssh.com"
    507 
    508 This request is for creating a hard link to a regular file. This
    509 request is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the
    510 following format:
    511 
    512 	uint32		id
    513 	string		"hardlink (a] openssh.com"
    514 	string		oldpath
    515 	string		newpath
    516 
    517 On receiving this request the server will perform the operation
    518 link(oldpath, newpath) and will respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    519 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    520 "1".
    521 
    522 4.6. sftp: Extension request "fsync (a] openssh.com"
    523 
    524 This request asks the server to call fsync(2) on an open file handle.
    525 
    526 	uint32		id
    527 	string		"fsync (a] openssh.com"
    528 	string		handle
    529 
    530 On receiving this request, a server will call fsync(handle_fd) and will
    531 respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    532 
    533 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    534 "1".
    535 
    536 4.7. sftp: Extension request "lsetstat (a] openssh.com"
    537 
    538 This request is like the "setstat" command, but sets file attributes on
    539 symlinks.  It is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the
    540 following format:
    541 
    542 	uint32		id
    543 	string		"lsetstat (a] openssh.com"
    544 	string		path
    545 	ATTRS		attrs
    546 
    547 See the "setstat" command for more details.
    548 
    549 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    550 "1".
    551 
    552 4.8. sftp: Extension request "limits (a] openssh.com"
    553 
    554 This request is used to determine various limits the server might impose.
    555 Clients should not attempt to exceed these limits as the server might sever
    556 the connection immediately.
    557 
    558 	uint32		id
    559 	string		"limits (a] openssh.com"
    560 
    561 The server will respond with a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY reply:
    562 
    563 	uint32		id
    564 	uint64		max-packet-length
    565 	uint64		max-read-length
    566 	uint64		max-write-length
    567 	uint64		max-open-handles
    568 
    569 The 'max-packet-length' applies to the total number of bytes in a
    570 single SFTP packet.  Servers SHOULD set this at least to 34000.
    571 
    572 The 'max-read-length' is the largest length in a SSH_FXP_READ packet.
    573 Even if the client requests a larger size, servers will usually respond
    574 with a shorter SSH_FXP_DATA packet.  Servers SHOULD set this at least to
    575 32768.
    576 
    577 The 'max-write-length' is the largest length in a SSH_FXP_WRITE packet
    578 the server will accept.  Servers SHOULD set this at least to 32768.
    579 
    580 The 'max-open-handles' is the maximum number of active handles that the
    581 server allows (e.g. handles created by SSH_FXP_OPEN and SSH_FXP_OPENDIR
    582 packets).  Servers MAY count internal file handles against this limit
    583 (e.g. system logging or stdout/stderr), so clients SHOULD NOT expect to
    584 open this many handles in practice.
    585 
    586 If the server doesn't enforce a specific limit, then the field may be
    587 set to 0.  This implies the server relies on the OS to enforce limits
    588 (e.g. available memory or file handles), and such limits might be
    589 dynamic.  The client SHOULD take care to not try to exceed reasonable
    590 limits.
    591 
    592 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    593 "1".
    594 
    595 4.9. sftp: Extension request "expand-path (a] openssh.com"
    596 
    597 This request supports canonicalisation of relative paths and
    598 those that need tilde-expansion, i.e. "~", "~/..." and "~user/..."
    599 These paths are expanded using shell-like rules and the resultant
    600 path is canonicalised similarly to SSH2_FXP_REALPATH.
    601 
    602 It is implemented as a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the following
    603 format:
    604 
    605 	uint32		id
    606 	string		"expand-path (a] openssh.com"
    607 	string		path
    608 
    609 Its reply is the same format as that of SSH2_FXP_REALPATH.
    610 
    611 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    612 "1".
    613 
    614 4.10. sftp: Extension request "copy-data"
    615 
    616 This request asks the server to copy data from one open file handle and
    617 write it to a different open file handle.  This avoids needing to transfer
    618 the data across the network twice (a download followed by an upload).
    619 
    620 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
    621 	uint32		id
    622 	string		"copy-data"
    623 	string		read-from-handle
    624 	uint64		read-from-offset
    625 	uint64		read-data-length
    626 	string		write-to-handle
    627 	uint64		write-to-offset
    628 
    629 The server will copy read-data-length bytes starting from
    630 read-from-offset from the read-from-handle and write them to
    631 write-to-handle starting from write-to-offset, and then respond with a
    632 SSH_FXP_STATUS message.
    633 
    634 It's equivalent to issuing a series of SSH_FXP_READ requests on
    635 read-from-handle and a series of requests of SSH_FXP_WRITE on
    636 write-to-handle.
    637 
    638 If read-from-handle and write-to-handle are the same, the server will
    639 fail the request and respond with a SSH_FX_INVALID_PARAMETER message.
    640 
    641 If read-data-length is 0, then the server will read data from the
    642 read-from-handle until EOF is reached.
    643 
    644 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    645 "1".
    646 
    647 This request is identical to the "copy-data" request documented in:
    648 
    649 https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-extensions-00#section-7
    650 
    651 4.11. sftp: Extension request "home-directory"
    652 
    653 This request asks the server to expand the specified user's home directory.
    654 An empty username implies the current user.  This can be used by the client
    655 to expand ~/ type paths locally.
    656 
    657 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
    658 	uint32		id
    659 	string		"home-directory"
    660 	string		username
    661 
    662 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    663 "1".
    664 
    665 This provides similar information as the "expand-path (a] openssh.com" extension.
    666 
    667 This request is identical to the "home-directory" request documented in:
    668 
    669 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-extensions-00#section-5
    670 
    671 4.12. sftp: Extension request "users-groups-by-id (a] openssh.com"
    672 
    673 This request asks the server to return user and/or group names that
    674 correspond to one or more IDs (e.g. as returned from a SSH_FXP_STAT
    675 request). This may be used by the client to provide usernames in
    676 directory listings.
    677 
    678 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED
    679 	uint32		id
    680 	string		"users-groups-by-id (a] openssh.com"
    681 	string		uids
    682 	string		gids
    683 
    684 Where "uids" and "gids" consists of one or more integer user or group
    685 identifiers:
    686 
    687 	uint32		id-0
    688 	...
    689 
    690 The server will reply with a SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY:
    691 
    692 	byte		SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY
    693 	string		usernames
    694 	string		groupnames
    695 
    696 Where "username" and "groupnames" consists of names in identical request
    697 order to "uids" and "gids" respectively:
    698 
    699 	string		name-0
    700 	...
    701 
    702 If a name cannot be identified for a given user or group ID, an empty
    703 string will be returned in its place.
    704 
    705 It is acceptable for either "uids" or "gids" to be an empty set, in
    706 which case the respective "usernames" or "groupnames" list will also
    707 be empty.
    708 
    709 This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version
    710 "1".
    711 
    712 5. Miscellaneous changes
    713 
    714 5.1 Public key format
    715 
    716 OpenSSH public keys, as generated by ssh-keygen(1) and appearing in
    717 authorized_keys files, are formatted as a single line of text consisting
    718 of the public key algorithm name followed by a base64-encoded key blob.
    719 The public key blob (before base64 encoding) is the same format used for
    720 the encoding of public keys sent on the wire: as described in RFC4253
    721 section 6.6 for RSA and DSA keys, RFC5656 section 3.1 for ECDSA keys
    722 and the "New public key formats" section of PROTOCOL.certkeys for the
    723 OpenSSH certificate formats.
    724 
    725 5.2 Private key format
    726 
    727 OpenSSH private keys, as generated by ssh-keygen(1) use the format
    728 described in PROTOCOL.key by default. As a legacy option, PEM format
    729 (RFC7468) private keys are also supported for RSA, DSA and ECDSA keys
    730 and were the default format before OpenSSH 7.8.
    731 
    732 5.3 KRL format
    733 
    734 OpenSSH supports a compact format for Key Revocation Lists (KRLs). This
    735 format is described in the PROTOCOL.krl file.
    736 
    737 5.4 Connection multiplexing
    738 
    739 OpenSSH's connection multiplexing uses messages as described in
    740 PROTOCOL.mux over a Unix domain socket for communications between a
    741 master instance and later clients.
    742 
    743 5.5. Agent protocol extensions
    744 
    745 OpenSSH extends the usual agent protocol. These changes are documented
    746 in the PROTOCOL.agent file.
    747 
    748 $OpenBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.48 2022/11/07 01:53:01 dtucker Exp $
    749 $OpenBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.49 2023/08/28 03:28:43 djm Exp $
    750 $NetBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.22 2023/10/25 20:19:57 christos Exp $
    751