xref: /openbsd-src/usr.bin/ssh/ssh_config.5 (revision 58fbf5d6aa35e3d66f2c32c61d2f38824a990e85)
1.\"
2.\" Author: Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
3.\" Copyright (c) 1995 Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>, Espoo, Finland
4.\"                    All rights reserved
5.\"
6.\" As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software
7.\" can be used freely for any purpose.  Any derived versions of this
8.\" software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is
9.\" incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be
10.\" called by a name other than "ssh" or "Secure Shell".
11.\"
12.\" Copyright (c) 1999,2000 Markus Friedl.  All rights reserved.
13.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron Campbell.  All rights reserved.
14.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Theo de Raadt.  All rights reserved.
15.\"
16.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
17.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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19.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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21.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
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23.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
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35.\"
36.\" $OpenBSD: ssh_config.5,v 1.347 2021/02/15 20:43:15 markus Exp $
37.Dd $Mdocdate: February 15 2021 $
38.Dt SSH_CONFIG 5
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm ssh_config
42.Nd OpenSSH client configuration file
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44.Xr ssh 1
45obtains configuration data from the following sources in
46the following order:
47.Pp
48.Bl -enum -offset indent -compact
49.It
50command-line options
51.It
52user's configuration file
53.Pq Pa ~/.ssh/config
54.It
55system-wide configuration file
56.Pq Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
57.El
58.Pp
59For each parameter, the first obtained value
60will be used.
61The configuration files contain sections separated by
62.Cm Host
63specifications, and that section is only applied for hosts that
64match one of the patterns given in the specification.
65The matched host name is usually the one given on the command line
66(see the
67.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
68option for exceptions).
69.Pp
70Since the first obtained value for each parameter is used, more
71host-specific declarations should be given near the beginning of the
72file, and general defaults at the end.
73.Pp
74The file contains keyword-argument pairs, one per line.
75Lines starting with
76.Ql #
77and empty lines are interpreted as comments.
78Arguments may optionally be enclosed in double quotes
79.Pq \&"
80in order to represent arguments containing spaces.
81Configuration options may be separated by whitespace or
82optional whitespace and exactly one
83.Ql = ;
84the latter format is useful to avoid the need to quote whitespace
85when specifying configuration options using the
86.Nm ssh ,
87.Nm scp ,
88and
89.Nm sftp
90.Fl o
91option.
92.Pp
93The possible
94keywords and their meanings are as follows (note that
95keywords are case-insensitive and arguments are case-sensitive):
96.Bl -tag -width Ds
97.It Cm Host
98Restricts the following declarations (up to the next
99.Cm Host
100or
101.Cm Match
102keyword) to be only for those hosts that match one of the patterns
103given after the keyword.
104If more than one pattern is provided, they should be separated by whitespace.
105A single
106.Ql *
107as a pattern can be used to provide global
108defaults for all hosts.
109The host is usually the
110.Ar hostname
111argument given on the command line
112(see the
113.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
114keyword for exceptions).
115.Pp
116A pattern entry may be negated by prefixing it with an exclamation mark
117.Pq Sq !\& .
118If a negated entry is matched, then the
119.Cm Host
120entry is ignored, regardless of whether any other patterns on the line
121match.
122Negated matches are therefore useful to provide exceptions for wildcard
123matches.
124.Pp
125See
126.Sx PATTERNS
127for more information on patterns.
128.It Cm Match
129Restricts the following declarations (up to the next
130.Cm Host
131or
132.Cm Match
133keyword) to be used only when the conditions following the
134.Cm Match
135keyword are satisfied.
136Match conditions are specified using one or more criteria
137or the single token
138.Cm all
139which always matches.
140The available criteria keywords are:
141.Cm canonical ,
142.Cm final ,
143.Cm exec ,
144.Cm host ,
145.Cm originalhost ,
146.Cm user ,
147and
148.Cm localuser .
149The
150.Cm all
151criteria must appear alone or immediately after
152.Cm canonical
153or
154.Cm final .
155Other criteria may be combined arbitrarily.
156All criteria but
157.Cm all ,
158.Cm canonical ,
159and
160.Cm final
161require an argument.
162Criteria may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark
163.Pq Sq !\& .
164.Pp
165The
166.Cm canonical
167keyword matches only when the configuration file is being re-parsed
168after hostname canonicalization (see the
169.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
170option).
171This may be useful to specify conditions that work with canonical host
172names only.
173.Pp
174The
175.Cm final
176keyword requests that the configuration be re-parsed (regardless of whether
177.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
178is enabled), and matches only during this final pass.
179If
180.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
181is enabled, then
182.Cm canonical
183and
184.Cm final
185match during the same pass.
186.Pp
187The
188.Cm exec
189keyword executes the specified command under the user's shell.
190If the command returns a zero exit status then the condition is considered true.
191Commands containing whitespace characters must be quoted.
192Arguments to
193.Cm exec
194accept the tokens described in the
195.Sx TOKENS
196section.
197.Pp
198The other keywords' criteria must be single entries or comma-separated
199lists and may use the wildcard and negation operators described in the
200.Sx PATTERNS
201section.
202The criteria for the
203.Cm host
204keyword are matched against the target hostname, after any substitution
205by the
206.Cm Hostname
207or
208.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
209options.
210The
211.Cm originalhost
212keyword matches against the hostname as it was specified on the command-line.
213The
214.Cm user
215keyword matches against the target username on the remote host.
216The
217.Cm localuser
218keyword matches against the name of the local user running
219.Xr ssh 1
220(this keyword may be useful in system-wide
221.Nm
222files).
223.It Cm AddKeysToAgent
224Specifies whether keys should be automatically added to a running
225.Xr ssh-agent 1 .
226If this option is set to
227.Cm yes
228and a key is loaded from a file, the key and its passphrase are added to
229the agent with the default lifetime, as if by
230.Xr ssh-add 1 .
231If this option is set to
232.Cm ask ,
233.Xr ssh 1
234will require confirmation using the
235.Ev SSH_ASKPASS
236program before adding a key (see
237.Xr ssh-add 1
238for details).
239If this option is set to
240.Cm confirm ,
241each use of the key must be confirmed, as if the
242.Fl c
243option was specified to
244.Xr ssh-add 1 .
245If this option is set to
246.Cm no ,
247no keys are added to the agent.
248Alternately, this option may be specified as a time interval
249using the format described in the
250.Sx TIME FORMATS
251section of
252.Xr sshd_config 5
253to specify the key's lifetime in
254.Xr ssh-agent 1 ,
255after which it will automatically be removed.
256The argument must be
257.Cm no
258(the default),
259.Cm yes ,
260.Cm confirm
261(optionally followed by a time interval),
262.Cm ask
263or a time interval.
264.It Cm AddressFamily
265Specifies which address family to use when connecting.
266Valid arguments are
267.Cm any
268(the default),
269.Cm inet
270(use IPv4 only), or
271.Cm inet6
272(use IPv6 only).
273.It Cm BatchMode
274If set to
275.Cm yes ,
276user interaction such as password prompts and host key confirmation requests
277will be disabled.
278This option is useful in scripts and other batch jobs where no user
279is present to interact with
280.Xr ssh 1 .
281The argument must be
282.Cm yes
283or
284.Cm no
285(the default).
286.It Cm BindAddress
287Use the specified address on the local machine as the source address of
288the connection.
289Only useful on systems with more than one address.
290.It Cm BindInterface
291Use the address of the specified interface on the local machine as the
292source address of the connection.
293.It Cm CanonicalDomains
294When
295.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
296is enabled, this option specifies the list of domain suffixes in which to
297search for the specified destination host.
298.It Cm CanonicalizeFallbackLocal
299Specifies whether to fail with an error when hostname canonicalization fails.
300The default,
301.Cm yes ,
302will attempt to look up the unqualified hostname using the system resolver's
303search rules.
304A value of
305.Cm no
306will cause
307.Xr ssh 1
308to fail instantly if
309.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
310is enabled and the target hostname cannot be found in any of the domains
311specified by
312.Cm CanonicalDomains .
313.It Cm CanonicalizeHostname
314Controls whether explicit hostname canonicalization is performed.
315The default,
316.Cm no ,
317is not to perform any name rewriting and let the system resolver handle all
318hostname lookups.
319If set to
320.Cm yes
321then, for connections that do not use a
322.Cm ProxyCommand
323or
324.Cm ProxyJump ,
325.Xr ssh 1
326will attempt to canonicalize the hostname specified on the command line
327using the
328.Cm CanonicalDomains
329suffixes and
330.Cm CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
331rules.
332If
333.Cm CanonicalizeHostname
334is set to
335.Cm always ,
336then canonicalization is applied to proxied connections too.
337.Pp
338If this option is enabled, then the configuration files are processed
339again using the new target name to pick up any new configuration in matching
340.Cm Host
341and
342.Cm Match
343stanzas.
344.It Cm CanonicalizeMaxDots
345Specifies the maximum number of dot characters in a hostname before
346canonicalization is disabled.
347The default, 1,
348allows a single dot (i.e. hostname.subdomain).
349.It Cm CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
350Specifies rules to determine whether CNAMEs should be followed when
351canonicalizing hostnames.
352The rules consist of one or more arguments of
353.Ar source_domain_list : Ns Ar target_domain_list ,
354where
355.Ar source_domain_list
356is a pattern-list of domains that may follow CNAMEs in canonicalization,
357and
358.Ar target_domain_list
359is a pattern-list of domains that they may resolve to.
360.Pp
361For example,
362.Qq *.a.example.com:*.b.example.com,*.c.example.com
363will allow hostnames matching
364.Qq *.a.example.com
365to be canonicalized to names in the
366.Qq *.b.example.com
367or
368.Qq *.c.example.com
369domains.
370.It Cm CASignatureAlgorithms
371Specifies which algorithms are allowed for signing of certificates
372by certificate authorities (CAs).
373The default is:
374.Bd -literal -offset indent
375ssh-ed25519,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,
376ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
377.Ed
378.Pp
379.Xr ssh 1
380will not accept host certificates signed using algorithms other than those
381specified.
382.It Cm CertificateFile
383Specifies a file from which the user's certificate is read.
384A corresponding private key must be provided separately in order
385to use this certificate either
386from an
387.Cm IdentityFile
388directive or
389.Fl i
390flag to
391.Xr ssh 1 ,
392via
393.Xr ssh-agent 1 ,
394or via a
395.Cm PKCS11Provider
396or
397.Cm SecurityKeyProvider .
398.Pp
399Arguments to
400.Cm CertificateFile
401may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory,
402the tokens described in the
403.Sx TOKENS
404section and environment variables as described in the
405.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
406section.
407.Pp
408It is possible to have multiple certificate files specified in
409configuration files; these certificates will be tried in sequence.
410Multiple
411.Cm CertificateFile
412directives will add to the list of certificates used for
413authentication.
414.It Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication
415Specifies whether to use challenge-response authentication.
416The argument to this keyword must be
417.Cm yes
418(the default)
419or
420.Cm no .
421.It Cm CheckHostIP
422If set to
423.Cm yes
424.Xr ssh 1
425will additionally check the host IP address in the
426.Pa known_hosts
427file.
428This allows it to detect if a host key changed due to DNS spoofing
429and will add addresses of destination hosts to
430.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
431in the process, regardless of the setting of
432.Cm StrictHostKeyChecking .
433If the option is set to
434.Cm no
435(the default),
436the check will not be executed.
437.It Cm Ciphers
438Specifies the ciphers allowed and their order of preference.
439Multiple ciphers must be comma-separated.
440If the specified list begins with a
441.Sq +
442character, then the specified ciphers will be appended to the default set
443instead of replacing them.
444If the specified list begins with a
445.Sq -
446character, then the specified ciphers (including wildcards) will be removed
447from the default set instead of replacing them.
448If the specified list begins with a
449.Sq ^
450character, then the specified ciphers will be placed at the head of the
451default set.
452.Pp
453The supported ciphers are:
454.Bd -literal -offset indent
4553des-cbc
456aes128-cbc
457aes192-cbc
458aes256-cbc
459aes128-ctr
460aes192-ctr
461aes256-ctr
462aes128-gcm@openssh.com
463aes256-gcm@openssh.com
464chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com
465.Ed
466.Pp
467The default is:
468.Bd -literal -offset indent
469chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,
470aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,
471aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com
472.Ed
473.Pp
474The list of available ciphers may also be obtained using
475.Qq ssh -Q cipher .
476.It Cm ClearAllForwardings
477Specifies that all local, remote, and dynamic port forwardings
478specified in the configuration files or on the command line be
479cleared.
480This option is primarily useful when used from the
481.Xr ssh 1
482command line to clear port forwardings set in
483configuration files, and is automatically set by
484.Xr scp 1
485and
486.Xr sftp 1 .
487The argument must be
488.Cm yes
489or
490.Cm no
491(the default).
492.It Cm Compression
493Specifies whether to use compression.
494The argument must be
495.Cm yes
496or
497.Cm no
498(the default).
499.It Cm ConnectionAttempts
500Specifies the number of tries (one per second) to make before exiting.
501The argument must be an integer.
502This may be useful in scripts if the connection sometimes fails.
503The default is 1.
504.It Cm ConnectTimeout
505Specifies the timeout (in seconds) used when connecting to the
506SSH server, instead of using the default system TCP timeout.
507This timeout is applied both to establishing the connection and to performing
508the initial SSH protocol handshake and key exchange.
509.It Cm ControlMaster
510Enables the sharing of multiple sessions over a single network connection.
511When set to
512.Cm yes ,
513.Xr ssh 1
514will listen for connections on a control socket specified using the
515.Cm ControlPath
516argument.
517Additional sessions can connect to this socket using the same
518.Cm ControlPath
519with
520.Cm ControlMaster
521set to
522.Cm no
523(the default).
524These sessions will try to reuse the master instance's network connection
525rather than initiating new ones, but will fall back to connecting normally
526if the control socket does not exist, or is not listening.
527.Pp
528Setting this to
529.Cm ask
530will cause
531.Xr ssh 1
532to listen for control connections, but require confirmation using
533.Xr ssh-askpass 1 .
534If the
535.Cm ControlPath
536cannot be opened,
537.Xr ssh 1
538will continue without connecting to a master instance.
539.Pp
540X11 and
541.Xr ssh-agent 1
542forwarding is supported over these multiplexed connections, however the
543display and agent forwarded will be the one belonging to the master
544connection i.e. it is not possible to forward multiple displays or agents.
545.Pp
546Two additional options allow for opportunistic multiplexing: try to use a
547master connection but fall back to creating a new one if one does not already
548exist.
549These options are:
550.Cm auto
551and
552.Cm autoask .
553The latter requires confirmation like the
554.Cm ask
555option.
556.It Cm ControlPath
557Specify the path to the control socket used for connection sharing as described
558in the
559.Cm ControlMaster
560section above or the string
561.Cm none
562to disable connection sharing.
563Arguments to
564.Cm ControlPath
565may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory,
566the tokens described in the
567.Sx TOKENS
568section and environment variables as described in the
569.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
570section.
571It is recommended that any
572.Cm ControlPath
573used for opportunistic connection sharing include
574at least %h, %p, and %r (or alternatively %C) and be placed in a directory
575that is not writable by other users.
576This ensures that shared connections are uniquely identified.
577.It Cm ControlPersist
578When used in conjunction with
579.Cm ControlMaster ,
580specifies that the master connection should remain open
581in the background (waiting for future client connections)
582after the initial client connection has been closed.
583If set to
584.Cm no
585(the default),
586then the master connection will not be placed into the background,
587and will close as soon as the initial client connection is closed.
588If set to
589.Cm yes
590or 0,
591then the master connection will remain in the background indefinitely
592(until killed or closed via a mechanism such as the
593.Qq ssh -O exit ) .
594If set to a time in seconds, or a time in any of the formats documented in
595.Xr sshd_config 5 ,
596then the backgrounded master connection will automatically terminate
597after it has remained idle (with no client connections) for the
598specified time.
599.It Cm DynamicForward
600Specifies that a TCP port on the local machine be forwarded
601over the secure channel, and the application
602protocol is then used to determine where to connect to from the
603remote machine.
604.Pp
605The argument must be
606.Sm off
607.Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port .
608.Sm on
609IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets.
610By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
611.Cm GatewayPorts
612setting.
613However, an explicit
614.Ar bind_address
615may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
616The
617.Ar bind_address
618of
619.Cm localhost
620indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
621empty address or
622.Sq *
623indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
624.Pp
625Currently the SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, and
626.Xr ssh 1
627will act as a SOCKS server.
628Multiple forwardings may be specified, and
629additional forwardings can be given on the command line.
630Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
631.It Cm EnableSSHKeysign
632Setting this option to
633.Cm yes
634in the global client configuration file
635.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
636enables the use of the helper program
637.Xr ssh-keysign 8
638during
639.Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
640The argument must be
641.Cm yes
642or
643.Cm no
644(the default).
645This option should be placed in the non-hostspecific section.
646See
647.Xr ssh-keysign 8
648for more information.
649.It Cm EscapeChar
650Sets the escape character (default:
651.Ql ~ ) .
652The escape character can also
653be set on the command line.
654The argument should be a single character,
655.Ql ^
656followed by a letter, or
657.Cm none
658to disable the escape
659character entirely (making the connection transparent for binary
660data).
661.It Cm ExitOnForwardFailure
662Specifies whether
663.Xr ssh 1
664should terminate the connection if it cannot set up all requested
665dynamic, tunnel, local, and remote port forwardings, (e.g.\&
666if either end is unable to bind and listen on a specified port).
667Note that
668.Cm ExitOnForwardFailure
669does not apply to connections made over port forwardings and will not,
670for example, cause
671.Xr ssh 1
672to exit if TCP connections to the ultimate forwarding destination fail.
673The argument must be
674.Cm yes
675or
676.Cm no
677(the default).
678.It Cm FingerprintHash
679Specifies the hash algorithm used when displaying key fingerprints.
680Valid options are:
681.Cm md5
682and
683.Cm sha256
684(the default).
685.It Cm ForwardAgent
686Specifies whether the connection to the authentication agent (if any)
687will be forwarded to the remote machine.
688The argument may be
689.Cm yes ,
690.Cm no
691(the default),
692an explicit path to an agent socket or the name of an environment variable
693(beginning with
694.Sq $ )
695in which to find the path.
696.Pp
697Agent forwarding should be enabled with caution.
698Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
699(for the agent's Unix-domain socket)
700can access the local agent through the forwarded connection.
701An attacker cannot obtain key material from the agent,
702however they can perform operations on the keys that enable them to
703authenticate using the identities loaded into the agent.
704.It Cm ForwardX11
705Specifies whether X11 connections will be automatically redirected
706over the secure channel and
707.Ev DISPLAY
708set.
709The argument must be
710.Cm yes
711or
712.Cm no
713(the default).
714.Pp
715X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution.
716Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
717(for the user's X11 authorization database)
718can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection.
719An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring
720if the
721.Cm ForwardX11Trusted
722option is also enabled.
723.It Cm ForwardX11Timeout
724Specify a timeout for untrusted X11 forwarding
725using the format described in the
726.Sx TIME FORMATS
727section of
728.Xr sshd_config 5 .
729X11 connections received by
730.Xr ssh 1
731after this time will be refused.
732Setting
733.Cm ForwardX11Timeout
734to zero will disable the timeout and permit X11 forwarding for the life
735of the connection.
736The default is to disable untrusted X11 forwarding after twenty minutes has
737elapsed.
738.It Cm ForwardX11Trusted
739If this option is set to
740.Cm yes ,
741remote X11 clients will have full access to the original X11 display.
742.Pp
743If this option is set to
744.Cm no
745(the default),
746remote X11 clients will be considered untrusted and prevented
747from stealing or tampering with data belonging to trusted X11
748clients.
749Furthermore, the
750.Xr xauth 1
751token used for the session will be set to expire after 20 minutes.
752Remote clients will be refused access after this time.
753.Pp
754See the X11 SECURITY extension specification for full details on
755the restrictions imposed on untrusted clients.
756.It Cm GatewayPorts
757Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to local
758forwarded ports.
759By default,
760.Xr ssh 1
761binds local port forwardings to the loopback address.
762This prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
763.Cm GatewayPorts
764can be used to specify that ssh
765should bind local port forwardings to the wildcard address,
766thus allowing remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports.
767The argument must be
768.Cm yes
769or
770.Cm no
771(the default).
772.It Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile
773Specifies one or more files to use for the global
774host key database, separated by whitespace.
775The default is
776.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts ,
777.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 .
778.It Cm GSSAPIAuthentication
779Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed.
780The default is
781.Cm no .
782.It Cm GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
783Forward (delegate) credentials to the server.
784The default is
785.Cm no .
786.It Cm HashKnownHosts
787Indicates that
788.Xr ssh 1
789should hash host names and addresses when they are added to
790.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
791These hashed names may be used normally by
792.Xr ssh 1
793and
794.Xr sshd 8 ,
795but they do not visually reveal identifying information if the
796file's contents are disclosed.
797The default is
798.Cm no .
799Note that existing names and addresses in known hosts files
800will not be converted automatically,
801but may be manually hashed using
802.Xr ssh-keygen 1 .
803.It Cm HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
804Specifies the key types that will be used for hostbased authentication
805as a comma-separated list of patterns.
806Alternately if the specified list begins with a
807.Sq +
808character, then the specified key types will be appended to the default set
809instead of replacing them.
810If the specified list begins with a
811.Sq -
812character, then the specified key types (including wildcards) will be removed
813from the default set instead of replacing them.
814If the specified list begins with a
815.Sq ^
816character, then the specified key types will be placed at the head of the
817default set.
818The default for this option is:
819.Bd -literal -offset 3n
820ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
821ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
822ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,
823ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,
824sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
825sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
826rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,
827rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
828ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,
829ssh-ed25519,
830ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
831sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,
832sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com,
833rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
834.Ed
835.Pp
836The
837.Fl Q
838option of
839.Xr ssh 1
840may be used to list supported key types.
841This was formerly named HostbasedKeyTypes.
842.It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
843Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with public key
844authentication.
845The argument must be
846.Cm yes
847or
848.Cm no
849(the default).
850.It Cm HostKeyAlgorithms
851Specifies the host key algorithms
852that the client wants to use in order of preference.
853Alternately if the specified list begins with a
854.Sq +
855character, then the specified key types will be appended to the default set
856instead of replacing them.
857If the specified list begins with a
858.Sq -
859character, then the specified key types (including wildcards) will be removed
860from the default set instead of replacing them.
861If the specified list begins with a
862.Sq ^
863character, then the specified key types will be placed at the head of the
864default set.
865The default for this option is:
866.Bd -literal -offset 3n
867ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
868ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
869ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,
870ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,
871sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
872sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
873rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,
874rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
875ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,
876ssh-ed25519,
877ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
878sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com,
879sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,
880rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
881.Ed
882.Pp
883If hostkeys are known for the destination host then this default is modified
884to prefer their algorithms.
885.Pp
886The list of available key types may also be obtained using
887.Qq ssh -Q HostKeyAlgorithms .
888.It Cm HostKeyAlias
889Specifies an alias that should be used instead of the
890real host name when looking up or saving the host key
891in the host key database files and when validating host certificates.
892This option is useful for tunneling SSH connections
893or for multiple servers running on a single host.
894.It Cm Hostname
895Specifies the real host name to log into.
896This can be used to specify nicknames or abbreviations for hosts.
897Arguments to
898.Cm Hostname
899accept the tokens described in the
900.Sx TOKENS
901section.
902Numeric IP addresses are also permitted (both on the command line and in
903.Cm Hostname
904specifications).
905The default is the name given on the command line.
906.It Cm IdentitiesOnly
907Specifies that
908.Xr ssh 1
909should only use the configured authentication identity and certificate files
910(either the default files, or those explicitly configured in the
911.Nm
912files
913or passed on the
914.Xr ssh 1
915command-line),
916even if
917.Xr ssh-agent 1
918or a
919.Cm PKCS11Provider
920or
921.Cm SecurityKeyProvider
922offers more identities.
923The argument to this keyword must be
924.Cm yes
925or
926.Cm no
927(the default).
928This option is intended for situations where ssh-agent
929offers many different identities.
930.It Cm IdentityAgent
931Specifies the
932.Ux Ns -domain
933socket used to communicate with the authentication agent.
934.Pp
935This option overrides the
936.Ev SSH_AUTH_SOCK
937environment variable and can be used to select a specific agent.
938Setting the socket name to
939.Cm none
940disables the use of an authentication agent.
941If the string
942.Qq SSH_AUTH_SOCK
943is specified, the location of the socket will be read from the
944.Ev SSH_AUTH_SOCK
945environment variable.
946Otherwise if the specified value begins with a
947.Sq $
948character, then it will be treated as an environment variable containing
949the location of the socket.
950.Pp
951Arguments to
952.Cm IdentityAgent
953may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory,
954the tokens described in the
955.Sx TOKENS
956section and environment variables as described in the
957.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
958section.
959.It Cm IdentityFile
960Specifies a file from which the user's DSA, ECDSA, authenticator-hosted ECDSA,
961Ed25519, authenticator-hosted Ed25519 or RSA authentication identity is read.
962The default is
963.Pa ~/.ssh/id_dsa ,
964.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa ,
965.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk ,
966.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 ,
967.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk
968and
969.Pa ~/.ssh/id_rsa .
970Additionally, any identities represented by the authentication agent
971will be used for authentication unless
972.Cm IdentitiesOnly
973is set.
974If no certificates have been explicitly specified by
975.Cm CertificateFile ,
976.Xr ssh 1
977will try to load certificate information from the filename obtained by
978appending
979.Pa -cert.pub
980to the path of a specified
981.Cm IdentityFile .
982.Pp
983Arguments to
984.Cm IdentityFile
985may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory
986or the tokens described in the
987.Sx TOKENS
988section.
989.Pp
990It is possible to have
991multiple identity files specified in configuration files; all these
992identities will be tried in sequence.
993Multiple
994.Cm IdentityFile
995directives will add to the list of identities tried (this behaviour
996differs from that of other configuration directives).
997.Pp
998.Cm IdentityFile
999may be used in conjunction with
1000.Cm IdentitiesOnly
1001to select which identities in an agent are offered during authentication.
1002.Cm IdentityFile
1003may also be used in conjunction with
1004.Cm CertificateFile
1005in order to provide any certificate also needed for authentication with
1006the identity.
1007.It Cm IgnoreUnknown
1008Specifies a pattern-list of unknown options to be ignored if they are
1009encountered in configuration parsing.
1010This may be used to suppress errors if
1011.Nm
1012contains options that are unrecognised by
1013.Xr ssh 1 .
1014It is recommended that
1015.Cm IgnoreUnknown
1016be listed early in the configuration file as it will not be applied
1017to unknown options that appear before it.
1018.It Cm Include
1019Include the specified configuration file(s).
1020Multiple pathnames may be specified and each pathname may contain
1021.Xr glob 7
1022wildcards and, for user configurations, shell-like
1023.Sq ~
1024references to user home directories.
1025Wildcards will be expanded and processed in lexical order.
1026Files without absolute paths are assumed to be in
1027.Pa ~/.ssh
1028if included in a user configuration file or
1029.Pa /etc/ssh
1030if included from the system configuration file.
1031.Cm Include
1032directive may appear inside a
1033.Cm Match
1034or
1035.Cm Host
1036block
1037to perform conditional inclusion.
1038.It Cm IPQoS
1039Specifies the IPv4 type-of-service or DSCP class for connections.
1040Accepted values are
1041.Cm af11 ,
1042.Cm af12 ,
1043.Cm af13 ,
1044.Cm af21 ,
1045.Cm af22 ,
1046.Cm af23 ,
1047.Cm af31 ,
1048.Cm af32 ,
1049.Cm af33 ,
1050.Cm af41 ,
1051.Cm af42 ,
1052.Cm af43 ,
1053.Cm cs0 ,
1054.Cm cs1 ,
1055.Cm cs2 ,
1056.Cm cs3 ,
1057.Cm cs4 ,
1058.Cm cs5 ,
1059.Cm cs6 ,
1060.Cm cs7 ,
1061.Cm ef ,
1062.Cm le ,
1063.Cm lowdelay ,
1064.Cm throughput ,
1065.Cm reliability ,
1066a numeric value, or
1067.Cm none
1068to use the operating system default.
1069This option may take one or two arguments, separated by whitespace.
1070If one argument is specified, it is used as the packet class unconditionally.
1071If two values are specified, the first is automatically selected for
1072interactive sessions and the second for non-interactive sessions.
1073The default is
1074.Cm af21
1075(Low-Latency Data)
1076for interactive sessions and
1077.Cm cs1
1078(Lower Effort)
1079for non-interactive sessions.
1080.It Cm KbdInteractiveAuthentication
1081Specifies whether to use keyboard-interactive authentication.
1082The argument to this keyword must be
1083.Cm yes
1084(the default)
1085or
1086.Cm no .
1087.It Cm KbdInteractiveDevices
1088Specifies the list of methods to use in keyboard-interactive authentication.
1089Multiple method names must be comma-separated.
1090The default is to use the server specified list.
1091The methods available vary depending on what the server supports.
1092For an OpenSSH server,
1093it may be zero or more of:
1094.Cm bsdauth ,
1095.Cm pam ,
1096and
1097.Cm skey .
1098.It Cm KexAlgorithms
1099Specifies the available KEX (Key Exchange) algorithms.
1100Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
1101If the specified list begins with a
1102.Sq +
1103character, then the specified methods will be appended to the default set
1104instead of replacing them.
1105If the specified list begins with a
1106.Sq -
1107character, then the specified methods (including wildcards) will be removed
1108from the default set instead of replacing them.
1109If the specified list begins with a
1110.Sq ^
1111character, then the specified methods will be placed at the head of the
1112default set.
1113The default is:
1114.Bd -literal -offset indent
1115curve25519-sha256,curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,
1116ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,
1117diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,
1118diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,
1119diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,
1120diffie-hellman-group14-sha256
1121.Ed
1122.Pp
1123The list of available key exchange algorithms may also be obtained using
1124.Qq ssh -Q kex .
1125.It Cm KnownHostsCommand
1126Specifies a command to use to obtain a list of host keys, in addition to
1127those listed in
1128.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1129and
1130.Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile .
1131This command is executed after the files have been read.
1132It may write host key lines to standard output in identical format to the
1133usual files (described in the
1134.Sx VERIFYING HOST KEYS
1135section in
1136.Xr ssh 1 ) .
1137Arguments to
1138.Cm KnownHostsCommand
1139accept the tokens described in the
1140.Sx TOKENS
1141section.
1142The command may be invoked multiple times per connection: once when preparing
1143the preference list of host key algorithms to use, again to obtain the
1144host key for the requested host name and, if
1145.Cm CheckHostIP
1146is enabled, one more time to obtain the host key matching the server's
1147address.
1148If the command exits abnormally or returns a non-zero exit status then the
1149connection is terminated.
1150.It Cm LocalCommand
1151Specifies a command to execute on the local machine after successfully
1152connecting to the server.
1153The command string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
1154the user's shell.
1155Arguments to
1156.Cm LocalCommand
1157accept the tokens described in the
1158.Sx TOKENS
1159section.
1160.Pp
1161The command is run synchronously and does not have access to the
1162session of the
1163.Xr ssh 1
1164that spawned it.
1165It should not be used for interactive commands.
1166.Pp
1167This directive is ignored unless
1168.Cm PermitLocalCommand
1169has been enabled.
1170.It Cm LocalForward
1171Specifies that a TCP port on the local machine be forwarded over
1172the secure channel to the specified host and port from the remote machine.
1173The first argument specifies the listener and may be
1174.Sm off
1175.Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
1176.Sm on
1177or a Unix domain socket path.
1178The second argument is the destination and may be
1179.Ar host : Ns Ar hostport
1180or a Unix domain socket path if the remote host supports it.
1181.Pp
1182IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets.
1183Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional forwardings can be
1184given on the command line.
1185Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
1186By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
1187.Cm GatewayPorts
1188setting.
1189However, an explicit
1190.Ar bind_address
1191may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
1192The
1193.Ar bind_address
1194of
1195.Cm localhost
1196indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
1197empty address or
1198.Sq *
1199indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
1200Unix domain socket paths may use the tokens described in the
1201.Sx TOKENS
1202section and environment variables as described in the
1203.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1204section.
1205.It Cm LogLevel
1206Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
1207.Xr ssh 1 .
1208The possible values are:
1209QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2, and DEBUG3.
1210The default is INFO.
1211DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.
1212DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of verbose output.
1213.It Cm LogVerbose
1214Specify one or more overrides to LogLevel.
1215An override consists of a pattern lists that matches the source file, function
1216and line number to force detailed logging for.
1217For example, an override pattern of:
1218.Bd -literal -offset indent
1219kex.c:*:1000,*:kex_exchange_identification():*,packet.c:*
1220.Ed
1221.Pp
1222would enable detailed logging for line 1000 of
1223.Pa kex.c ,
1224everything in the
1225.Fn kex_exchange_identification
1226function, and all code in the
1227.Pa packet.c
1228file.
1229This option is intended for debugging and no overrides are enabled by default.
1230.It Cm MACs
1231Specifies the MAC (message authentication code) algorithms
1232in order of preference.
1233The MAC algorithm is used for data integrity protection.
1234Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
1235If the specified list begins with a
1236.Sq +
1237character, then the specified algorithms will be appended to the default set
1238instead of replacing them.
1239If the specified list begins with a
1240.Sq -
1241character, then the specified algorithms (including wildcards) will be removed
1242from the default set instead of replacing them.
1243If the specified list begins with a
1244.Sq ^
1245character, then the specified algorithms will be placed at the head of the
1246default set.
1247.Pp
1248The algorithms that contain
1249.Qq -etm
1250calculate the MAC after encryption (encrypt-then-mac).
1251These are considered safer and their use recommended.
1252.Pp
1253The default is:
1254.Bd -literal -offset indent
1255umac-64-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,
1256hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,
1257hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com,
1258umac-64@openssh.com,umac-128@openssh.com,
1259hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
1260.Ed
1261.Pp
1262The list of available MAC algorithms may also be obtained using
1263.Qq ssh -Q mac .
1264.It Cm NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
1265Disable host authentication for localhost (loopback addresses).
1266The argument to this keyword must be
1267.Cm yes
1268or
1269.Cm no
1270(the default).
1271.It Cm NumberOfPasswordPrompts
1272Specifies the number of password prompts before giving up.
1273The argument to this keyword must be an integer.
1274The default is 3.
1275.It Cm PasswordAuthentication
1276Specifies whether to use password authentication.
1277The argument to this keyword must be
1278.Cm yes
1279(the default)
1280or
1281.Cm no .
1282.It Cm PermitLocalCommand
1283Allow local command execution via the
1284.Ic LocalCommand
1285option or using the
1286.Ic !\& Ns Ar command
1287escape sequence in
1288.Xr ssh 1 .
1289The argument must be
1290.Cm yes
1291or
1292.Cm no
1293(the default).
1294.It Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1295Specifies the destinations to which remote TCP port forwarding is permitted when
1296.Cm RemoteForward
1297is used as a SOCKS proxy.
1298The forwarding specification must be one of the following forms:
1299.Pp
1300.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
1301.It
1302.Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1303.Sm off
1304.Ar host : port
1305.Sm on
1306.It
1307.Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1308.Sm off
1309.Ar IPv4_addr : port
1310.Sm on
1311.It
1312.Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1313.Sm off
1314.Ar \&[ IPv6_addr \&] : port
1315.Sm on
1316.El
1317.Pp
1318Multiple forwards may be specified by separating them with whitespace.
1319An argument of
1320.Cm any
1321can be used to remove all restrictions and permit any forwarding requests.
1322An argument of
1323.Cm none
1324can be used to prohibit all forwarding requests.
1325The wildcard
1326.Sq *
1327can be used for host or port to allow all hosts or ports respectively.
1328Otherwise, no pattern matching or address lookups are performed on supplied
1329names.
1330.It Cm PKCS11Provider
1331Specifies which PKCS#11 provider to use or
1332.Cm none
1333to indicate that no provider should be used (the default).
1334The argument to this keyword is a path to the PKCS#11 shared library
1335.Xr ssh 1
1336should use to communicate with a PKCS#11 token providing keys for user
1337authentication.
1338.It Cm Port
1339Specifies the port number to connect on the remote host.
1340The default is 22.
1341.It Cm PreferredAuthentications
1342Specifies the order in which the client should try authentication methods.
1343This allows a client to prefer one method (e.g.\&
1344.Cm keyboard-interactive )
1345over another method (e.g.\&
1346.Cm password ) .
1347The default is:
1348.Bd -literal -offset indent
1349gssapi-with-mic,hostbased,publickey,
1350keyboard-interactive,password
1351.Ed
1352.It Cm ProxyCommand
1353Specifies the command to use to connect to the server.
1354The command
1355string extends to the end of the line, and is executed
1356using the user's shell
1357.Ql exec
1358directive to avoid a lingering shell process.
1359.Pp
1360Arguments to
1361.Cm ProxyCommand
1362accept the tokens described in the
1363.Sx TOKENS
1364section.
1365The command can be basically anything,
1366and should read from its standard input and write to its standard output.
1367It should eventually connect an
1368.Xr sshd 8
1369server running on some machine, or execute
1370.Ic sshd -i
1371somewhere.
1372Host key management will be done using the
1373.Cm Hostname
1374of the host being connected (defaulting to the name typed by the user).
1375Setting the command to
1376.Cm none
1377disables this option entirely.
1378Note that
1379.Cm CheckHostIP
1380is not available for connects with a proxy command.
1381.Pp
1382This directive is useful in conjunction with
1383.Xr nc 1
1384and its proxy support.
1385For example, the following directive would connect via an HTTP proxy at
1386192.0.2.0:
1387.Bd -literal -offset 3n
1388ProxyCommand /usr/bin/nc -X connect -x 192.0.2.0:8080 %h %p
1389.Ed
1390.It Cm ProxyJump
1391Specifies one or more jump proxies as either
1392.Xo
1393.Sm off
1394.Op Ar user No @
1395.Ar host
1396.Op : Ns Ar port
1397.Sm on
1398or an ssh URI
1399.Xc .
1400Multiple proxies may be separated by comma characters and will be visited
1401sequentially.
1402Setting this option will cause
1403.Xr ssh 1
1404to connect to the target host by first making a
1405.Xr ssh 1
1406connection to the specified
1407.Cm ProxyJump
1408host and then establishing a
1409TCP forwarding to the ultimate target from there.
1410Setting the host to
1411.Cm none
1412disables this option entirely.
1413.Pp
1414Note that this option will compete with the
1415.Cm ProxyCommand
1416option - whichever is specified first will prevent later instances of the
1417other from taking effect.
1418.Pp
1419Note also that the configuration for the destination host (either supplied
1420via the command-line or the configuration file) is not generally applied
1421to jump hosts.
1422.Pa ~/.ssh/config
1423should be used if specific configuration is required for jump hosts.
1424.It Cm ProxyUseFdpass
1425Specifies that
1426.Cm ProxyCommand
1427will pass a connected file descriptor back to
1428.Xr ssh 1
1429instead of continuing to execute and pass data.
1430The default is
1431.Cm no .
1432.It Cm PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
1433Specifies the signature algorithms that will be used for public key
1434authentication as a comma-separated list of patterns.
1435If the specified list begins with a
1436.Sq +
1437character, then the algorithms after it will be appended to the default
1438instead of replacing it.
1439If the specified list begins with a
1440.Sq -
1441character, then the specified algorithms (including wildcards) will be removed
1442from the default set instead of replacing them.
1443If the specified list begins with a
1444.Sq ^
1445character, then the specified algorithms will be placed at the head of the
1446default set.
1447The default for this option is:
1448.Bd -literal -offset 3n
1449ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1450ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1451ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1452ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1453sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1454sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1455rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1456rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1457ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1458ssh-ed25519,
1459ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
1460sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,
1461sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com,
1462rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
1463.Ed
1464.Pp
1465The list of available key types may also be obtained using
1466.Qq ssh -Q PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms .
1467.It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
1468Specifies whether to try public key authentication.
1469The argument to this keyword must be
1470.Cm yes
1471(the default)
1472or
1473.Cm no .
1474.It Cm RekeyLimit
1475Specifies the maximum amount of data that may be transmitted before the
1476session key is renegotiated, optionally followed by a maximum amount of
1477time that may pass before the session key is renegotiated.
1478The first argument is specified in bytes and may have a suffix of
1479.Sq K ,
1480.Sq M ,
1481or
1482.Sq G
1483to indicate Kilobytes, Megabytes, or Gigabytes, respectively.
1484The default is between
1485.Sq 1G
1486and
1487.Sq 4G ,
1488depending on the cipher.
1489The optional second value is specified in seconds and may use any of the
1490units documented in the TIME FORMATS section of
1491.Xr sshd_config 5 .
1492The default value for
1493.Cm RekeyLimit
1494is
1495.Cm default none ,
1496which means that rekeying is performed after the cipher's default amount
1497of data has been sent or received and no time based rekeying is done.
1498.It Cm RemoteCommand
1499Specifies a command to execute on the remote machine after successfully
1500connecting to the server.
1501The command string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
1502the user's shell.
1503Arguments to
1504.Cm RemoteCommand
1505accept the tokens described in the
1506.Sx TOKENS
1507section.
1508.It Cm RemoteForward
1509Specifies that a TCP port on the remote machine be forwarded over
1510the secure channel.
1511The remote port may either be forwarded to a specified host and port
1512from the local machine, or may act as a SOCKS 4/5 proxy that allows a remote
1513client to connect to arbitrary destinations from the local machine.
1514The first argument is the listening specification and may be
1515.Sm off
1516.Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
1517.Sm on
1518or, if the remote host supports it, a Unix domain socket path.
1519If forwarding to a specific destination then the second argument must be
1520.Ar host : Ns Ar hostport
1521or a Unix domain socket path,
1522otherwise if no destination argument is specified then the remote forwarding
1523will be established as a SOCKS proxy.
1524When acting as a SOCKS proxy the destination of the connection can be
1525restricted by
1526.Cm PermitRemoteOpen .
1527.Pp
1528IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets.
1529Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional
1530forwardings can be given on the command line.
1531Privileged ports can be forwarded only when
1532logging in as root on the remote machine.
1533Unix domain socket paths may use the tokens described in the
1534.Sx TOKENS
1535section and environment variables as described in the
1536.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1537section.
1538.Pp
1539If the
1540.Ar port
1541argument is 0,
1542the listen port will be dynamically allocated on the server and reported
1543to the client at run time.
1544.Pp
1545If the
1546.Ar bind_address
1547is not specified, the default is to only bind to loopback addresses.
1548If the
1549.Ar bind_address
1550is
1551.Ql *
1552or an empty string, then the forwarding is requested to listen on all
1553interfaces.
1554Specifying a remote
1555.Ar bind_address
1556will only succeed if the server's
1557.Cm GatewayPorts
1558option is enabled (see
1559.Xr sshd_config 5 ) .
1560.It Cm RequestTTY
1561Specifies whether to request a pseudo-tty for the session.
1562The argument may be one of:
1563.Cm no
1564(never request a TTY),
1565.Cm yes
1566(always request a TTY when standard input is a TTY),
1567.Cm force
1568(always request a TTY) or
1569.Cm auto
1570(request a TTY when opening a login session).
1571This option mirrors the
1572.Fl t
1573and
1574.Fl T
1575flags for
1576.Xr ssh 1 .
1577.It Cm RevokedHostKeys
1578Specifies revoked host public keys.
1579Keys listed in this file will be refused for host authentication.
1580Note that if this file does not exist or is not readable,
1581then host authentication will be refused for all hosts.
1582Keys may be specified as a text file, listing one public key per line, or as
1583an OpenSSH Key Revocation List (KRL) as generated by
1584.Xr ssh-keygen 1 .
1585For more information on KRLs, see the KEY REVOCATION LISTS section in
1586.Xr ssh-keygen 1 .
1587.It Cm SecurityKeyProvider
1588Specifies a path to a library that will be used when loading any
1589FIDO authenticator-hosted keys, overriding the default of using
1590the built-in USB HID support.
1591.Pp
1592If the specified value begins with a
1593.Sq $
1594character, then it will be treated as an environment variable containing
1595the path to the library.
1596.It Cm SendEnv
1597Specifies what variables from the local
1598.Xr environ 7
1599should be sent to the server.
1600The server must also support it, and the server must be configured to
1601accept these environment variables.
1602Note that the
1603.Ev TERM
1604environment variable is always sent whenever a
1605pseudo-terminal is requested as it is required by the protocol.
1606Refer to
1607.Cm AcceptEnv
1608in
1609.Xr sshd_config 5
1610for how to configure the server.
1611Variables are specified by name, which may contain wildcard characters.
1612Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread
1613across multiple
1614.Cm SendEnv
1615directives.
1616.Pp
1617See
1618.Sx PATTERNS
1619for more information on patterns.
1620.Pp
1621It is possible to clear previously set
1622.Cm SendEnv
1623variable names by prefixing patterns with
1624.Pa - .
1625The default is not to send any environment variables.
1626.It Cm ServerAliveCountMax
1627Sets the number of server alive messages (see below) which may be
1628sent without
1629.Xr ssh 1
1630receiving any messages back from the server.
1631If this threshold is reached while server alive messages are being sent,
1632ssh will disconnect from the server, terminating the session.
1633It is important to note that the use of server alive messages is very
1634different from
1635.Cm TCPKeepAlive
1636(below).
1637The server alive messages are sent through the encrypted channel
1638and therefore will not be spoofable.
1639The TCP keepalive option enabled by
1640.Cm TCPKeepAlive
1641is spoofable.
1642The server alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
1643server depend on knowing when a connection has become unresponsive.
1644.Pp
1645The default value is 3.
1646If, for example,
1647.Cm ServerAliveInterval
1648(see below) is set to 15 and
1649.Cm ServerAliveCountMax
1650is left at the default, if the server becomes unresponsive,
1651ssh will disconnect after approximately 45 seconds.
1652.It Cm ServerAliveInterval
1653Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
1654from the server,
1655.Xr ssh 1
1656will send a message through the encrypted
1657channel to request a response from the server.
1658The default
1659is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server.
1660.It Cm SetEnv
1661Directly specify one or more environment variables and their contents to
1662be sent to the server.
1663Similarly to
1664.Cm SendEnv ,
1665the server must be prepared to accept the environment variable.
1666.It Cm StreamLocalBindMask
1667Sets the octal file creation mode mask
1668.Pq umask
1669used when creating a Unix-domain socket file for local or remote
1670port forwarding.
1671This option is only used for port forwarding to a Unix-domain socket file.
1672.Pp
1673The default value is 0177, which creates a Unix-domain socket file that is
1674readable and writable only by the owner.
1675Note that not all operating systems honor the file mode on Unix-domain
1676socket files.
1677.It Cm StreamLocalBindUnlink
1678Specifies whether to remove an existing Unix-domain socket file for local
1679or remote port forwarding before creating a new one.
1680If the socket file already exists and
1681.Cm StreamLocalBindUnlink
1682is not enabled,
1683.Nm ssh
1684will be unable to forward the port to the Unix-domain socket file.
1685This option is only used for port forwarding to a Unix-domain socket file.
1686.Pp
1687The argument must be
1688.Cm yes
1689or
1690.Cm no
1691(the default).
1692.It Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
1693If this flag is set to
1694.Cm yes ,
1695.Xr ssh 1
1696will never automatically add host keys to the
1697.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
1698file, and refuses to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
1699This provides maximum protection against man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks,
1700though it can be annoying when the
1701.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
1702file is poorly maintained or when connections to new hosts are
1703frequently made.
1704This option forces the user to manually
1705add all new hosts.
1706.Pp
1707If this flag is set to
1708.Dq accept-new
1709then ssh will automatically add new host keys to the user
1710known hosts files, but will not permit connections to hosts with
1711changed host keys.
1712If this flag is set to
1713.Dq no
1714or
1715.Dq off ,
1716ssh will automatically add new host keys to the user known hosts files
1717and allow connections to hosts with changed hostkeys to proceed,
1718subject to some restrictions.
1719If this flag is set to
1720.Cm ask
1721(the default),
1722new host keys
1723will be added to the user known host files only after the user
1724has confirmed that is what they really want to do, and
1725ssh will refuse to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
1726The host keys of
1727known hosts will be verified automatically in all cases.
1728.It Cm SyslogFacility
1729Gives the facility code that is used when logging messages from
1730.Xr ssh 1 .
1731The possible values are: DAEMON, USER, AUTH, LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2,
1732LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7.
1733The default is USER.
1734.It Cm TCPKeepAlive
1735Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
1736other side.
1737If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
1738of the machines will be properly noticed.
1739However, this means that
1740connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
1741find it annoying.
1742.Pp
1743The default is
1744.Cm yes
1745(to send TCP keepalive messages), and the client will notice
1746if the network goes down or the remote host dies.
1747This is important in scripts, and many users want it too.
1748.Pp
1749To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to
1750.Cm no .
1751See also
1752.Cm ServerAliveInterval
1753for protocol-level keepalives.
1754.It Cm Tunnel
1755Request
1756.Xr tun 4
1757device forwarding between the client and the server.
1758The argument must be
1759.Cm yes ,
1760.Cm point-to-point
1761(layer 3),
1762.Cm ethernet
1763(layer 2),
1764or
1765.Cm no
1766(the default).
1767Specifying
1768.Cm yes
1769requests the default tunnel mode, which is
1770.Cm point-to-point .
1771.It Cm TunnelDevice
1772Specifies the
1773.Xr tun 4
1774devices to open on the client
1775.Pq Ar local_tun
1776and the server
1777.Pq Ar remote_tun .
1778.Pp
1779The argument must be
1780.Sm off
1781.Ar local_tun Op : Ar remote_tun .
1782.Sm on
1783The devices may be specified by numerical ID or the keyword
1784.Cm any ,
1785which uses the next available tunnel device.
1786If
1787.Ar remote_tun
1788is not specified, it defaults to
1789.Cm any .
1790The default is
1791.Cm any:any .
1792.It Cm UpdateHostKeys
1793Specifies whether
1794.Xr ssh 1
1795should accept notifications of additional hostkeys from the server sent
1796after authentication has completed and add them to
1797.Cm UserKnownHostsFile .
1798The argument must be
1799.Cm yes ,
1800.Cm no
1801or
1802.Cm ask .
1803This option allows learning alternate hostkeys for a server
1804and supports graceful key rotation by allowing a server to send replacement
1805public keys before old ones are removed.
1806.Pp
1807Additional hostkeys are only accepted if the key used to authenticate the
1808host was already trusted or explicitly accepted by the user, the host was
1809authenticated via
1810.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1811(i.e. not
1812.Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile )
1813and the host was authenticated using a plain key and not a certificate.
1814.Pp
1815.Cm UpdateHostKeys
1816is enabled by default if the user has not overridden the default
1817.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1818setting and has not enabled
1819.Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS ,
1820otherwise
1821.Cm UpdateHostKeys
1822will be set to
1823.Cm no .
1824.Pp
1825If
1826.Cm UpdateHostKeys
1827is set to
1828.Cm ask ,
1829then the user is asked to confirm the modifications to the known_hosts file.
1830Confirmation is currently incompatible with
1831.Cm ControlPersist ,
1832and will be disabled if it is enabled.
1833.Pp
1834Presently, only
1835.Xr sshd 8
1836from OpenSSH 6.8 and greater support the
1837.Qq hostkeys@openssh.com
1838protocol extension used to inform the client of all the server's hostkeys.
1839.It Cm User
1840Specifies the user to log in as.
1841This can be useful when a different user name is used on different machines.
1842This saves the trouble of
1843having to remember to give the user name on the command line.
1844.It Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1845Specifies one or more files to use for the user
1846host key database, separated by whitespace.
1847Each filename may use tilde notation to refer to the user's home directory,
1848the tokens described in the
1849.Sx TOKENS
1850section and environment variables as described in the
1851.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1852section.
1853The default is
1854.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts ,
1855.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts2 .
1856.It Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS
1857Specifies whether to verify the remote key using DNS and SSHFP resource
1858records.
1859If this option is set to
1860.Cm yes ,
1861the client will implicitly trust keys that match a secure fingerprint
1862from DNS.
1863Insecure fingerprints will be handled as if this option was set to
1864.Cm ask .
1865If this option is set to
1866.Cm ask ,
1867information on fingerprint match will be displayed, but the user will still
1868need to confirm new host keys according to the
1869.Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
1870option.
1871The default is
1872.Cm no .
1873.Pp
1874See also
1875.Sx VERIFYING HOST KEYS
1876in
1877.Xr ssh 1 .
1878.It Cm VisualHostKey
1879If this flag is set to
1880.Cm yes ,
1881an ASCII art representation of the remote host key fingerprint is
1882printed in addition to the fingerprint string at login and
1883for unknown host keys.
1884If this flag is set to
1885.Cm no
1886(the default),
1887no fingerprint strings are printed at login and
1888only the fingerprint string will be printed for unknown host keys.
1889.It Cm XAuthLocation
1890Specifies the full pathname of the
1891.Xr xauth 1
1892program.
1893The default is
1894.Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
1895.El
1896.Sh PATTERNS
1897A
1898.Em pattern
1899consists of zero or more non-whitespace characters,
1900.Sq *
1901(a wildcard that matches zero or more characters),
1902or
1903.Sq ?\&
1904(a wildcard that matches exactly one character).
1905For example, to specify a set of declarations for any host in the
1906.Qq .co.uk
1907set of domains,
1908the following pattern could be used:
1909.Pp
1910.Dl Host *.co.uk
1911.Pp
1912The following pattern
1913would match any host in the 192.168.0.[0-9] network range:
1914.Pp
1915.Dl Host 192.168.0.?
1916.Pp
1917A
1918.Em pattern-list
1919is a comma-separated list of patterns.
1920Patterns within pattern-lists may be negated
1921by preceding them with an exclamation mark
1922.Pq Sq !\& .
1923For example,
1924to allow a key to be used from anywhere within an organization
1925except from the
1926.Qq dialup
1927pool,
1928the following entry (in authorized_keys) could be used:
1929.Pp
1930.Dl from=\&"!*.dialup.example.com,*.example.com\&"
1931.Pp
1932Note that a negated match will never produce a positive result by itself.
1933For example, attempting to match
1934.Qq host3
1935against the following pattern-list will fail:
1936.Pp
1937.Dl from=\&"!host1,!host2\&"
1938.Pp
1939The solution here is to include a term that will yield a positive match,
1940such as a wildcard:
1941.Pp
1942.Dl from=\&"!host1,!host2,*\&"
1943.Sh TOKENS
1944Arguments to some keywords can make use of tokens,
1945which are expanded at runtime:
1946.Pp
1947.Bl -tag -width XXXX -offset indent -compact
1948.It %%
1949A literal
1950.Sq % .
1951.It \&%C
1952Hash of %l%h%p%r.
1953.It %d
1954Local user's home directory.
1955.It %f
1956The fingerprint of the server's host key.
1957.It %H
1958The
1959.Pa known_hosts
1960hostname or address that is being searched for.
1961.It %h
1962The remote hostname.
1963.It \%%I
1964A string describing the reason for a
1965.Cm KnownHostsCommand
1966execution: either
1967.Cm ADDRESS
1968when looking up a host by address (only when
1969.Cm CheckHostIP
1970is enabled),
1971.Cm HOSTNAME
1972when searching by hostname, or
1973.Cm ORDER
1974when preparing the host key algorithm preference list to use for the
1975destination host.
1976.It %i
1977The local user ID.
1978.It %K
1979The base64 encoded host key.
1980.It %k
1981The host key alias if specified, otherwise the orignal remote hostname given
1982on the command line.
1983.It %L
1984The local hostname.
1985.It %l
1986The local hostname, including the domain name.
1987.It %n
1988The original remote hostname, as given on the command line.
1989.It %p
1990The remote port.
1991.It %r
1992The remote username.
1993.It \&%T
1994The local
1995.Xr tun 4
1996or
1997.Xr tap 4
1998network interface assigned if
1999tunnel forwarding was requested, or
2000.Qq NONE
2001otherwise.
2002.It %t
2003The type of the server host key, e.g.
2004.Cm ssh-ed25519
2005.It %u
2006The local username.
2007.El
2008.Pp
2009.Cm CertificateFile ,
2010.Cm ControlPath ,
2011.Cm IdentityAgent ,
2012.Cm IdentityFile ,
2013.Cm KnownHostsCommand ,
2014.Cm LocalForward ,
2015.Cm Match exec ,
2016.Cm RemoteCommand ,
2017.Cm RemoteForward ,
2018and
2019.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
2020accept the tokens %%, %C, %d, %h, %i, %L, %l, %n, %p, %r, and %u.
2021.Pp
2022.Cm KnownHostsCommand
2023additionally accepts the tokens %f, %H, %I, %K and %t.
2024.Pp
2025.Cm Hostname
2026accepts the tokens %% and %h.
2027.Pp
2028.Cm LocalCommand
2029accepts all tokens.
2030.Pp
2031.Cm ProxyCommand
2032accepts the tokens %%, %h, %n, %p, and %r.
2033.Sh ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
2034Arguments to some keywords can be expanded at runtime from environment
2035variables on the client by enclosing them in
2036.Ic ${} ,
2037for example
2038.Ic ${HOME}/.ssh
2039would refer to the user's .ssh directory.
2040If a specified environment variable does not exist then an error will be
2041returned and the setting for that keyword will be ignored.
2042.Pp
2043The keywords
2044.Cm CertificateFile ,
2045.Cm ControlPath ,
2046.Cm IdentityAgent ,
2047.Cm IdentityFile
2048.Cm KnownHostsCommand ,
2049and
2050.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
2051support environment variables.
2052The keywords
2053.Cm LocalForward
2054and
2055.Cm RemoteForward
2056support environment variables only for Unix domain socket paths.
2057.Sh FILES
2058.Bl -tag -width Ds
2059.It Pa ~/.ssh/config
2060This is the per-user configuration file.
2061The format of this file is described above.
2062This file is used by the SSH client.
2063Because of the potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
2064read/write for the user, and not writable by others.
2065.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
2066Systemwide configuration file.
2067This file provides defaults for those
2068values that are not specified in the user's configuration file, and
2069for those users who do not have a configuration file.
2070This file must be world-readable.
2071.El
2072.Sh SEE ALSO
2073.Xr ssh 1
2074.Sh AUTHORS
2075.An -nosplit
2076OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
2077ssh 1.2.12 release by
2078.An Tatu Ylonen .
2079.An Aaron Campbell , Bob Beck , Markus Friedl ,
2080.An Niels Provos , Theo de Raadt
2081and
2082.An Dug Song
2083removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
2084created OpenSSH.
2085.An Markus Friedl
2086contributed the support for SSH protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.
2087