xref: /openbsd-src/usr.bin/ssh/ssh_config.5 (revision ff0e7be1ebbcc809ea8ad2b6dafe215824da9e46)
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
20.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
21.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
22.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
23.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
24.\"
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27.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
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35.\"
36.\" $OpenBSD: ssh_config.5,v 1.380 2023/03/27 03:56:11 dtucker Exp $
37.Dd $Mdocdate: March 27 2023 $
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
59Unless noted otherwise, for 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.
344A value of
345.Cm none
346disables the use of a
347.Cm ProxyJump
348host.
349.It Cm CanonicalizeMaxDots
350Specifies the maximum number of dot characters in a hostname before
351canonicalization is disabled.
352The default, 1,
353allows a single dot (i.e. hostname.subdomain).
354.It Cm CanonicalizePermittedCNAMEs
355Specifies rules to determine whether CNAMEs should be followed when
356canonicalizing hostnames.
357The rules consist of one or more arguments of
358.Ar source_domain_list : Ns Ar target_domain_list ,
359where
360.Ar source_domain_list
361is a pattern-list of domains that may follow CNAMEs in canonicalization,
362and
363.Ar target_domain_list
364is a pattern-list of domains that they may resolve to.
365.Pp
366For example,
367.Qq *.a.example.com:*.b.example.com,*.c.example.com
368will allow hostnames matching
369.Qq *.a.example.com
370to be canonicalized to names in the
371.Qq *.b.example.com
372or
373.Qq *.c.example.com
374domains.
375.Pp
376A single argument of
377.Qq none
378causes no CNAMEs to be considered for canonicalization.
379This is the default behaviour.
380.It Cm CASignatureAlgorithms
381Specifies which algorithms are allowed for signing of certificates
382by certificate authorities (CAs).
383The default is:
384.Bd -literal -offset indent
385ssh-ed25519,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,
386ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
387sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,
388sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com,
389rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256
390.Ed
391.Pp
392If the specified list begins with a
393.Sq +
394character, then the specified algorithms will be appended to the default set
395instead of replacing them.
396If the specified list begins with a
397.Sq -
398character, then the specified algorithms (including wildcards) will be removed
399from the default set instead of replacing them.
400.Pp
401.Xr ssh 1
402will not accept host certificates signed using algorithms other than those
403specified.
404.It Cm CertificateFile
405Specifies a file from which the user's certificate is read.
406A corresponding private key must be provided separately in order
407to use this certificate either
408from an
409.Cm IdentityFile
410directive or
411.Fl i
412flag to
413.Xr ssh 1 ,
414via
415.Xr ssh-agent 1 ,
416or via a
417.Cm PKCS11Provider
418or
419.Cm SecurityKeyProvider .
420.Pp
421Arguments to
422.Cm CertificateFile
423may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory,
424the tokens described in the
425.Sx TOKENS
426section and environment variables as described in the
427.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
428section.
429.Pp
430It is possible to have multiple certificate files specified in
431configuration files; these certificates will be tried in sequence.
432Multiple
433.Cm CertificateFile
434directives will add to the list of certificates used for
435authentication.
436.It Cm CheckHostIP
437If set to
438.Cm yes ,
439.Xr ssh 1
440will additionally check the host IP address in the
441.Pa known_hosts
442file.
443This allows it to detect if a host key changed due to DNS spoofing
444and will add addresses of destination hosts to
445.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
446in the process, regardless of the setting of
447.Cm StrictHostKeyChecking .
448If the option is set to
449.Cm no
450(the default),
451the check will not be executed.
452.It Cm Ciphers
453Specifies the ciphers allowed and their order of preference.
454Multiple ciphers must be comma-separated.
455If the specified list begins with a
456.Sq +
457character, then the specified ciphers will be appended to the default set
458instead of replacing them.
459If the specified list begins with a
460.Sq -
461character, then the specified ciphers (including wildcards) will be removed
462from the default set instead of replacing them.
463If the specified list begins with a
464.Sq ^
465character, then the specified ciphers will be placed at the head of the
466default set.
467.Pp
468The supported ciphers are:
469.Bd -literal -offset indent
4703des-cbc
471aes128-cbc
472aes192-cbc
473aes256-cbc
474aes128-ctr
475aes192-ctr
476aes256-ctr
477aes128-gcm@openssh.com
478aes256-gcm@openssh.com
479chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com
480.Ed
481.Pp
482The default is:
483.Bd -literal -offset indent
484chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,
485aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,
486aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com
487.Ed
488.Pp
489The list of available ciphers may also be obtained using
490.Qq ssh -Q cipher .
491.It Cm ClearAllForwardings
492Specifies that all local, remote, and dynamic port forwardings
493specified in the configuration files or on the command line be
494cleared.
495This option is primarily useful when used from the
496.Xr ssh 1
497command line to clear port forwardings set in
498configuration files, and is automatically set by
499.Xr scp 1
500and
501.Xr sftp 1 .
502The argument must be
503.Cm yes
504or
505.Cm no
506(the default).
507.It Cm Compression
508Specifies whether to use compression.
509The argument must be
510.Cm yes
511or
512.Cm no
513(the default).
514.It Cm ConnectionAttempts
515Specifies the number of tries (one per second) to make before exiting.
516The argument must be an integer.
517This may be useful in scripts if the connection sometimes fails.
518The default is 1.
519.It Cm ConnectTimeout
520Specifies the timeout (in seconds) used when connecting to the
521SSH server, instead of using the default system TCP timeout.
522This timeout is applied both to establishing the connection and to performing
523the initial SSH protocol handshake and key exchange.
524.It Cm ControlMaster
525Enables the sharing of multiple sessions over a single network connection.
526When set to
527.Cm yes ,
528.Xr ssh 1
529will listen for connections on a control socket specified using the
530.Cm ControlPath
531argument.
532Additional sessions can connect to this socket using the same
533.Cm ControlPath
534with
535.Cm ControlMaster
536set to
537.Cm no
538(the default).
539These sessions will try to reuse the master instance's network connection
540rather than initiating new ones, but will fall back to connecting normally
541if the control socket does not exist, or is not listening.
542.Pp
543Setting this to
544.Cm ask
545will cause
546.Xr ssh 1
547to listen for control connections, but require confirmation using
548.Xr ssh-askpass 1 .
549If the
550.Cm ControlPath
551cannot be opened,
552.Xr ssh 1
553will continue without connecting to a master instance.
554.Pp
555X11 and
556.Xr ssh-agent 1
557forwarding is supported over these multiplexed connections, however the
558display and agent forwarded will be the one belonging to the master
559connection i.e. it is not possible to forward multiple displays or agents.
560.Pp
561Two additional options allow for opportunistic multiplexing: try to use a
562master connection but fall back to creating a new one if one does not already
563exist.
564These options are:
565.Cm auto
566and
567.Cm autoask .
568The latter requires confirmation like the
569.Cm ask
570option.
571.It Cm ControlPath
572Specify the path to the control socket used for connection sharing as described
573in the
574.Cm ControlMaster
575section above or the string
576.Cm none
577to disable connection sharing.
578Arguments to
579.Cm ControlPath
580may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory,
581the tokens described in the
582.Sx TOKENS
583section and environment variables as described in the
584.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
585section.
586It is recommended that any
587.Cm ControlPath
588used for opportunistic connection sharing include
589at least %h, %p, and %r (or alternatively %C) and be placed in a directory
590that is not writable by other users.
591This ensures that shared connections are uniquely identified.
592.It Cm ControlPersist
593When used in conjunction with
594.Cm ControlMaster ,
595specifies that the master connection should remain open
596in the background (waiting for future client connections)
597after the initial client connection has been closed.
598If set to
599.Cm no
600(the default),
601then the master connection will not be placed into the background,
602and will close as soon as the initial client connection is closed.
603If set to
604.Cm yes
605or 0,
606then the master connection will remain in the background indefinitely
607(until killed or closed via a mechanism such as the
608.Qq ssh -O exit ) .
609If set to a time in seconds, or a time in any of the formats documented in
610.Xr sshd_config 5 ,
611then the backgrounded master connection will automatically terminate
612after it has remained idle (with no client connections) for the
613specified time.
614.It Cm DynamicForward
615Specifies that a TCP port on the local machine be forwarded
616over the secure channel, and the application
617protocol is then used to determine where to connect to from the
618remote machine.
619.Pp
620The argument must be
621.Sm off
622.Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port .
623.Sm on
624IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets.
625By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
626.Cm GatewayPorts
627setting.
628However, an explicit
629.Ar bind_address
630may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
631The
632.Ar bind_address
633of
634.Cm localhost
635indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
636empty address or
637.Sq *
638indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
639.Pp
640Currently the SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 protocols are supported, and
641.Xr ssh 1
642will act as a SOCKS server.
643Multiple forwardings may be specified, and
644additional forwardings can be given on the command line.
645Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
646.It Cm EnableEscapeCommandline
647Enables the command line option in the
648.Cm EscapeChar
649menu for interactive sessions (default
650.Ql ~C ) .
651By default, the command line is disabled.
652.It Cm EnableSSHKeysign
653Setting this option to
654.Cm yes
655in the global client configuration file
656.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
657enables the use of the helper program
658.Xr ssh-keysign 8
659during
660.Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
661The argument must be
662.Cm yes
663or
664.Cm no
665(the default).
666This option should be placed in the non-hostspecific section.
667See
668.Xr ssh-keysign 8
669for more information.
670.It Cm EscapeChar
671Sets the escape character (default:
672.Ql ~ ) .
673The escape character can also
674be set on the command line.
675The argument should be a single character,
676.Ql ^
677followed by a letter, or
678.Cm none
679to disable the escape
680character entirely (making the connection transparent for binary
681data).
682.It Cm ExitOnForwardFailure
683Specifies whether
684.Xr ssh 1
685should terminate the connection if it cannot set up all requested
686dynamic, tunnel, local, and remote port forwardings, (e.g.\&
687if either end is unable to bind and listen on a specified port).
688Note that
689.Cm ExitOnForwardFailure
690does not apply to connections made over port forwardings and will not,
691for example, cause
692.Xr ssh 1
693to exit if TCP connections to the ultimate forwarding destination fail.
694The argument must be
695.Cm yes
696or
697.Cm no
698(the default).
699.It Cm FingerprintHash
700Specifies the hash algorithm used when displaying key fingerprints.
701Valid options are:
702.Cm md5
703and
704.Cm sha256
705(the default).
706.It Cm ForkAfterAuthentication
707Requests
708.Nm ssh
709to go to background just before command execution.
710This is useful if
711.Nm ssh
712is going to ask for passwords or passphrases, but the user
713wants it in the background.
714This implies the
715.Cm StdinNull
716configuration option being set to
717.Dq yes .
718The recommended way to start X11 programs at a remote site is with
719something like
720.Ic ssh -f host xterm ,
721which is the same as
722.Ic ssh host xterm
723if the
724.Cm ForkAfterAuthentication
725configuration option is set to
726.Dq yes .
727.Pp
728If the
729.Cm ExitOnForwardFailure
730configuration option is set to
731.Dq yes ,
732then a client started with the
733.Cm ForkAfterAuthentication
734configuration option being set to
735.Dq yes
736will wait for all remote port forwards to be successfully established
737before placing itself in the background.
738The argument to this keyword must be
739.Cm yes
740(same as the
741.Fl f
742option) or
743.Cm no
744(the default).
745.It Cm ForwardAgent
746Specifies whether the connection to the authentication agent (if any)
747will be forwarded to the remote machine.
748The argument may be
749.Cm yes ,
750.Cm no
751(the default),
752an explicit path to an agent socket or the name of an environment variable
753(beginning with
754.Sq $ )
755in which to find the path.
756.Pp
757Agent forwarding should be enabled with caution.
758Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
759(for the agent's Unix-domain socket)
760can access the local agent through the forwarded connection.
761An attacker cannot obtain key material from the agent,
762however they can perform operations on the keys that enable them to
763authenticate using the identities loaded into the agent.
764.It Cm ForwardX11
765Specifies whether X11 connections will be automatically redirected
766over the secure channel and
767.Ev DISPLAY
768set.
769The argument must be
770.Cm yes
771or
772.Cm no
773(the default).
774.Pp
775X11 forwarding should be enabled with caution.
776Users with the ability to bypass file permissions on the remote host
777(for the user's X11 authorization database)
778can access the local X11 display through the forwarded connection.
779An attacker may then be able to perform activities such as keystroke monitoring
780if the
781.Cm ForwardX11Trusted
782option is also enabled.
783.It Cm ForwardX11Timeout
784Specify a timeout for untrusted X11 forwarding
785using the format described in the
786.Sx TIME FORMATS
787section of
788.Xr sshd_config 5 .
789X11 connections received by
790.Xr ssh 1
791after this time will be refused.
792Setting
793.Cm ForwardX11Timeout
794to zero will disable the timeout and permit X11 forwarding for the life
795of the connection.
796The default is to disable untrusted X11 forwarding after twenty minutes has
797elapsed.
798.It Cm ForwardX11Trusted
799If this option is set to
800.Cm yes ,
801remote X11 clients will have full access to the original X11 display.
802.Pp
803If this option is set to
804.Cm no
805(the default),
806remote X11 clients will be considered untrusted and prevented
807from stealing or tampering with data belonging to trusted X11
808clients.
809Furthermore, the
810.Xr xauth 1
811token used for the session will be set to expire after 20 minutes.
812Remote clients will be refused access after this time.
813.Pp
814See the X11 SECURITY extension specification for full details on
815the restrictions imposed on untrusted clients.
816.It Cm GatewayPorts
817Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to local
818forwarded ports.
819By default,
820.Xr ssh 1
821binds local port forwardings to the loopback address.
822This prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
823.Cm GatewayPorts
824can be used to specify that ssh
825should bind local port forwardings to the wildcard address,
826thus allowing remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports.
827The argument must be
828.Cm yes
829or
830.Cm no
831(the default).
832.It Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile
833Specifies one or more files to use for the global
834host key database, separated by whitespace.
835The default is
836.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts ,
837.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts2 .
838.It Cm GSSAPIAuthentication
839Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed.
840The default is
841.Cm no .
842.It Cm GSSAPIDelegateCredentials
843Forward (delegate) credentials to the server.
844The default is
845.Cm no .
846.It Cm HashKnownHosts
847Indicates that
848.Xr ssh 1
849should hash host names and addresses when they are added to
850.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts .
851These hashed names may be used normally by
852.Xr ssh 1
853and
854.Xr sshd 8 ,
855but they do not visually reveal identifying information if the
856file's contents are disclosed.
857The default is
858.Cm no .
859Note that existing names and addresses in known hosts files
860will not be converted automatically,
861but may be manually hashed using
862.Xr ssh-keygen 1 .
863.It Cm HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms
864Specifies the signature algorithms that will be used for hostbased
865authentication as a comma-separated list of patterns.
866Alternately if the specified list begins with a
867.Sq +
868character, then the specified signature algorithms will be appended
869to the default set instead of replacing them.
870If the specified list begins with a
871.Sq -
872character, then the specified signature algorithms (including wildcards)
873will be removed from the default set instead of replacing them.
874If the specified list begins with a
875.Sq ^
876character, then the specified signature algorithms will be placed
877at the head of the default set.
878The default for this option is:
879.Bd -literal -offset 3n
880ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
881ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
882ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,
883ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,
884sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
885sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
886rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,
887rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
888ssh-ed25519,
889ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
890sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,
891sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com,
892rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256
893.Ed
894.Pp
895The
896.Fl Q
897option of
898.Xr ssh 1
899may be used to list supported signature algorithms.
900This was formerly named HostbasedKeyTypes.
901.It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
902Specifies whether to try rhosts based authentication with public key
903authentication.
904The argument must be
905.Cm yes
906or
907.Cm no
908(the default).
909.It Cm HostKeyAlgorithms
910Specifies the host key signature algorithms
911that the client wants to use in order of preference.
912Alternately if the specified list begins with a
913.Sq +
914character, then the specified signature algorithms will be appended to
915the default set instead of replacing them.
916If the specified list begins with a
917.Sq -
918character, then the specified signature algorithms (including wildcards)
919will be removed from the default set instead of replacing them.
920If the specified list begins with a
921.Sq ^
922character, then the specified signature algorithms will be placed
923at the head of the default set.
924The default for this option is:
925.Bd -literal -offset 3n
926ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
927ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
928ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,
929ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,
930sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
931sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
932rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,
933rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
934ssh-ed25519,
935ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
936sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com,
937sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,
938rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256
939.Ed
940.Pp
941If hostkeys are known for the destination host then this default is modified
942to prefer their algorithms.
943.Pp
944The list of available signature algorithms may also be obtained using
945.Qq ssh -Q HostKeyAlgorithms .
946.It Cm HostKeyAlias
947Specifies an alias that should be used instead of the
948real host name when looking up or saving the host key
949in the host key database files and when validating host certificates.
950This option is useful for tunneling SSH connections
951or for multiple servers running on a single host.
952.It Cm Hostname
953Specifies the real host name to log into.
954This can be used to specify nicknames or abbreviations for hosts.
955Arguments to
956.Cm Hostname
957accept the tokens described in the
958.Sx TOKENS
959section.
960Numeric IP addresses are also permitted (both on the command line and in
961.Cm Hostname
962specifications).
963The default is the name given on the command line.
964.It Cm IdentitiesOnly
965Specifies that
966.Xr ssh 1
967should only use the configured authentication identity and certificate files
968(either the default files, or those explicitly configured in the
969.Nm
970files
971or passed on the
972.Xr ssh 1
973command-line),
974even if
975.Xr ssh-agent 1
976or a
977.Cm PKCS11Provider
978or
979.Cm SecurityKeyProvider
980offers more identities.
981The argument to this keyword must be
982.Cm yes
983or
984.Cm no
985(the default).
986This option is intended for situations where ssh-agent
987offers many different identities.
988.It Cm IdentityAgent
989Specifies the
990.Ux Ns -domain
991socket used to communicate with the authentication agent.
992.Pp
993This option overrides the
994.Ev SSH_AUTH_SOCK
995environment variable and can be used to select a specific agent.
996Setting the socket name to
997.Cm none
998disables the use of an authentication agent.
999If the string
1000.Qq SSH_AUTH_SOCK
1001is specified, the location of the socket will be read from the
1002.Ev SSH_AUTH_SOCK
1003environment variable.
1004Otherwise if the specified value begins with a
1005.Sq $
1006character, then it will be treated as an environment variable containing
1007the location of the socket.
1008.Pp
1009Arguments to
1010.Cm IdentityAgent
1011may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory,
1012the tokens described in the
1013.Sx TOKENS
1014section and environment variables as described in the
1015.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1016section.
1017.It Cm IdentityFile
1018Specifies a file from which the user's DSA, ECDSA, authenticator-hosted ECDSA,
1019Ed25519, authenticator-hosted Ed25519 or RSA authentication identity is read.
1020You can also specify a public key file to use the corresponding
1021private key that is loaded in
1022.Xr ssh-agent 1
1023when the private key file is not present locally.
1024The default is
1025.Pa ~/.ssh/id_rsa ,
1026.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa ,
1027.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa_sk ,
1028.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 ,
1029.Pa ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_sk
1030and
1031.Pa ~/.ssh/id_dsa .
1032Additionally, any identities represented by the authentication agent
1033will be used for authentication unless
1034.Cm IdentitiesOnly
1035is set.
1036If no certificates have been explicitly specified by
1037.Cm CertificateFile ,
1038.Xr ssh 1
1039will try to load certificate information from the filename obtained by
1040appending
1041.Pa -cert.pub
1042to the path of a specified
1043.Cm IdentityFile .
1044.Pp
1045Arguments to
1046.Cm IdentityFile
1047may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory
1048or the tokens described in the
1049.Sx TOKENS
1050section.
1051.Pp
1052It is possible to have
1053multiple identity files specified in configuration files; all these
1054identities will be tried in sequence.
1055Multiple
1056.Cm IdentityFile
1057directives will add to the list of identities tried (this behaviour
1058differs from that of other configuration directives).
1059.Pp
1060.Cm IdentityFile
1061may be used in conjunction with
1062.Cm IdentitiesOnly
1063to select which identities in an agent are offered during authentication.
1064.Cm IdentityFile
1065may also be used in conjunction with
1066.Cm CertificateFile
1067in order to provide any certificate also needed for authentication with
1068the identity.
1069.It Cm IgnoreUnknown
1070Specifies a pattern-list of unknown options to be ignored if they are
1071encountered in configuration parsing.
1072This may be used to suppress errors if
1073.Nm
1074contains options that are unrecognised by
1075.Xr ssh 1 .
1076It is recommended that
1077.Cm IgnoreUnknown
1078be listed early in the configuration file as it will not be applied
1079to unknown options that appear before it.
1080.It Cm Include
1081Include the specified configuration file(s).
1082Multiple pathnames may be specified and each pathname may contain
1083.Xr glob 7
1084wildcards and, for user configurations, shell-like
1085.Sq ~
1086references to user home directories.
1087Wildcards will be expanded and processed in lexical order.
1088Files without absolute paths are assumed to be in
1089.Pa ~/.ssh
1090if included in a user configuration file or
1091.Pa /etc/ssh
1092if included from the system configuration file.
1093.Cm Include
1094directive may appear inside a
1095.Cm Match
1096or
1097.Cm Host
1098block
1099to perform conditional inclusion.
1100.It Cm IPQoS
1101Specifies the IPv4 type-of-service or DSCP class for connections.
1102Accepted values are
1103.Cm af11 ,
1104.Cm af12 ,
1105.Cm af13 ,
1106.Cm af21 ,
1107.Cm af22 ,
1108.Cm af23 ,
1109.Cm af31 ,
1110.Cm af32 ,
1111.Cm af33 ,
1112.Cm af41 ,
1113.Cm af42 ,
1114.Cm af43 ,
1115.Cm cs0 ,
1116.Cm cs1 ,
1117.Cm cs2 ,
1118.Cm cs3 ,
1119.Cm cs4 ,
1120.Cm cs5 ,
1121.Cm cs6 ,
1122.Cm cs7 ,
1123.Cm ef ,
1124.Cm le ,
1125.Cm lowdelay ,
1126.Cm throughput ,
1127.Cm reliability ,
1128a numeric value, or
1129.Cm none
1130to use the operating system default.
1131This option may take one or two arguments, separated by whitespace.
1132If one argument is specified, it is used as the packet class unconditionally.
1133If two values are specified, the first is automatically selected for
1134interactive sessions and the second for non-interactive sessions.
1135The default is
1136.Cm af21
1137(Low-Latency Data)
1138for interactive sessions and
1139.Cm cs1
1140(Lower Effort)
1141for non-interactive sessions.
1142.It Cm KbdInteractiveAuthentication
1143Specifies whether to use keyboard-interactive authentication.
1144The argument to this keyword must be
1145.Cm yes
1146(the default)
1147or
1148.Cm no .
1149.Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication
1150is a deprecated alias for this.
1151.It Cm KbdInteractiveDevices
1152Specifies the list of methods to use in keyboard-interactive authentication.
1153Multiple method names must be comma-separated.
1154The default is to use the server specified list.
1155The methods available vary depending on what the server supports.
1156For an OpenSSH server,
1157it may be zero or more of:
1158.Cm bsdauth ,
1159.Cm pam ,
1160and
1161.Cm skey .
1162.It Cm KexAlgorithms
1163Specifies the available KEX (Key Exchange) algorithms.
1164Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
1165If the specified list begins with a
1166.Sq +
1167character, then the specified algorithms will be appended to the default set
1168instead of replacing them.
1169If the specified list begins with a
1170.Sq -
1171character, then the specified algorithms (including wildcards) will be removed
1172from the default set instead of replacing them.
1173If the specified list begins with a
1174.Sq ^
1175character, then the specified algorithms will be placed at the head of the
1176default set.
1177The default is:
1178.Bd -literal -offset indent
1179sntrup761x25519-sha512@openssh.com,
1180curve25519-sha256,curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,
1181ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,
1182diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,
1183diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,
1184diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,
1185diffie-hellman-group14-sha256
1186.Ed
1187.Pp
1188The list of available key exchange algorithms may also be obtained using
1189.Qq ssh -Q kex .
1190.It Cm KnownHostsCommand
1191Specifies a command to use to obtain a list of host keys, in addition to
1192those listed in
1193.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1194and
1195.Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile .
1196This command is executed after the files have been read.
1197It may write host key lines to standard output in identical format to the
1198usual files (described in the
1199.Sx VERIFYING HOST KEYS
1200section in
1201.Xr ssh 1 ) .
1202Arguments to
1203.Cm KnownHostsCommand
1204accept the tokens described in the
1205.Sx TOKENS
1206section.
1207The command may be invoked multiple times per connection: once when preparing
1208the preference list of host key algorithms to use, again to obtain the
1209host key for the requested host name and, if
1210.Cm CheckHostIP
1211is enabled, one more time to obtain the host key matching the server's
1212address.
1213If the command exits abnormally or returns a non-zero exit status then the
1214connection is terminated.
1215.It Cm LocalCommand
1216Specifies a command to execute on the local machine after successfully
1217connecting to the server.
1218The command string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
1219the user's shell.
1220Arguments to
1221.Cm LocalCommand
1222accept the tokens described in the
1223.Sx TOKENS
1224section.
1225.Pp
1226The command is run synchronously and does not have access to the
1227session of the
1228.Xr ssh 1
1229that spawned it.
1230It should not be used for interactive commands.
1231.Pp
1232This directive is ignored unless
1233.Cm PermitLocalCommand
1234has been enabled.
1235.It Cm LocalForward
1236Specifies that a TCP port on the local machine be forwarded over
1237the secure channel to the specified host and port from the remote machine.
1238The first argument specifies the listener and may be
1239.Sm off
1240.Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
1241.Sm on
1242or a Unix domain socket path.
1243The second argument is the destination and may be
1244.Ar host : Ns Ar hostport
1245or a Unix domain socket path if the remote host supports it.
1246.Pp
1247IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets.
1248Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional forwardings can be
1249given on the command line.
1250Only the superuser can forward privileged ports.
1251By default, the local port is bound in accordance with the
1252.Cm GatewayPorts
1253setting.
1254However, an explicit
1255.Ar bind_address
1256may be used to bind the connection to a specific address.
1257The
1258.Ar bind_address
1259of
1260.Cm localhost
1261indicates that the listening port be bound for local use only, while an
1262empty address or
1263.Sq *
1264indicates that the port should be available from all interfaces.
1265Unix domain socket paths may use the tokens described in the
1266.Sx TOKENS
1267section and environment variables as described in the
1268.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1269section.
1270.It Cm LogLevel
1271Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
1272.Xr ssh 1 .
1273The possible values are:
1274QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2, and DEBUG3.
1275The default is INFO.
1276DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.
1277DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of verbose output.
1278.It Cm LogVerbose
1279Specify one or more overrides to LogLevel.
1280An override consists of a pattern lists that matches the source file, function
1281and line number to force detailed logging for.
1282For example, an override pattern of:
1283.Bd -literal -offset indent
1284kex.c:*:1000,*:kex_exchange_identification():*,packet.c:*
1285.Ed
1286.Pp
1287would enable detailed logging for line 1000 of
1288.Pa kex.c ,
1289everything in the
1290.Fn kex_exchange_identification
1291function, and all code in the
1292.Pa packet.c
1293file.
1294This option is intended for debugging and no overrides are enabled by default.
1295.It Cm MACs
1296Specifies the MAC (message authentication code) algorithms
1297in order of preference.
1298The MAC algorithm is used for data integrity protection.
1299Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
1300If the specified list begins with a
1301.Sq +
1302character, then the specified algorithms will be appended to the default set
1303instead of replacing them.
1304If the specified list begins with a
1305.Sq -
1306character, then the specified algorithms (including wildcards) will be removed
1307from the default set instead of replacing them.
1308If the specified list begins with a
1309.Sq ^
1310character, then the specified algorithms will be placed at the head of the
1311default set.
1312.Pp
1313The algorithms that contain
1314.Qq -etm
1315calculate the MAC after encryption (encrypt-then-mac).
1316These are considered safer and their use recommended.
1317.Pp
1318The default is:
1319.Bd -literal -offset indent
1320umac-64-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,
1321hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,
1322hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com,
1323umac-64@openssh.com,umac-128@openssh.com,
1324hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
1325.Ed
1326.Pp
1327The list of available MAC algorithms may also be obtained using
1328.Qq ssh -Q mac .
1329.It Cm NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost
1330Disable host authentication for localhost (loopback addresses).
1331The argument to this keyword must be
1332.Cm yes
1333or
1334.Cm no
1335(the default).
1336.It Cm NumberOfPasswordPrompts
1337Specifies the number of password prompts before giving up.
1338The argument to this keyword must be an integer.
1339The default is 3.
1340.It Cm PasswordAuthentication
1341Specifies whether to use password authentication.
1342The argument to this keyword must be
1343.Cm yes
1344(the default)
1345or
1346.Cm no .
1347.It Cm PermitLocalCommand
1348Allow local command execution via the
1349.Ic LocalCommand
1350option or using the
1351.Ic !\& Ns Ar command
1352escape sequence in
1353.Xr ssh 1 .
1354The argument must be
1355.Cm yes
1356or
1357.Cm no
1358(the default).
1359.It Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1360Specifies the destinations to which remote TCP port forwarding is permitted when
1361.Cm RemoteForward
1362is used as a SOCKS proxy.
1363The forwarding specification must be one of the following forms:
1364.Pp
1365.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
1366.It
1367.Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1368.Sm off
1369.Ar host : port
1370.Sm on
1371.It
1372.Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1373.Sm off
1374.Ar IPv4_addr : port
1375.Sm on
1376.It
1377.Cm PermitRemoteOpen
1378.Sm off
1379.Ar \&[ IPv6_addr \&] : port
1380.Sm on
1381.El
1382.Pp
1383Multiple forwards may be specified by separating them with whitespace.
1384An argument of
1385.Cm any
1386can be used to remove all restrictions and permit any forwarding requests.
1387An argument of
1388.Cm none
1389can be used to prohibit all forwarding requests.
1390The wildcard
1391.Sq *
1392can be used for host or port to allow all hosts or ports respectively.
1393Otherwise, no pattern matching or address lookups are performed on supplied
1394names.
1395.It Cm PKCS11Provider
1396Specifies which PKCS#11 provider to use or
1397.Cm none
1398to indicate that no provider should be used (the default).
1399The argument to this keyword is a path to the PKCS#11 shared library
1400.Xr ssh 1
1401should use to communicate with a PKCS#11 token providing keys for user
1402authentication.
1403.It Cm Port
1404Specifies the port number to connect on the remote host.
1405The default is 22.
1406.It Cm PreferredAuthentications
1407Specifies the order in which the client should try authentication methods.
1408This allows a client to prefer one method (e.g.\&
1409.Cm keyboard-interactive )
1410over another method (e.g.\&
1411.Cm password ) .
1412The default is:
1413.Bd -literal -offset indent
1414gssapi-with-mic,hostbased,publickey,
1415keyboard-interactive,password
1416.Ed
1417.It Cm ProxyCommand
1418Specifies the command to use to connect to the server.
1419The command
1420string extends to the end of the line, and is executed
1421using the user's shell
1422.Ql exec
1423directive to avoid a lingering shell process.
1424.Pp
1425Arguments to
1426.Cm ProxyCommand
1427accept the tokens described in the
1428.Sx TOKENS
1429section.
1430The command can be basically anything,
1431and should read from its standard input and write to its standard output.
1432It should eventually connect an
1433.Xr sshd 8
1434server running on some machine, or execute
1435.Ic sshd -i
1436somewhere.
1437Host key management will be done using the
1438.Cm Hostname
1439of the host being connected (defaulting to the name typed by the user).
1440Setting the command to
1441.Cm none
1442disables this option entirely.
1443Note that
1444.Cm CheckHostIP
1445is not available for connects with a proxy command.
1446.Pp
1447This directive is useful in conjunction with
1448.Xr nc 1
1449and its proxy support.
1450For example, the following directive would connect via an HTTP proxy at
1451192.0.2.0:
1452.Bd -literal -offset 3n
1453ProxyCommand /usr/bin/nc -X connect -x 192.0.2.0:8080 %h %p
1454.Ed
1455.It Cm ProxyJump
1456Specifies one or more jump proxies as either
1457.Xo
1458.Sm off
1459.Op Ar user No @
1460.Ar host
1461.Op : Ns Ar port
1462.Sm on
1463or an ssh URI
1464.Xc .
1465Multiple proxies may be separated by comma characters and will be visited
1466sequentially.
1467Setting this option will cause
1468.Xr ssh 1
1469to connect to the target host by first making a
1470.Xr ssh 1
1471connection to the specified
1472.Cm ProxyJump
1473host and then establishing a
1474TCP forwarding to the ultimate target from there.
1475Setting the host to
1476.Cm none
1477disables this option entirely.
1478.Pp
1479Note that this option will compete with the
1480.Cm ProxyCommand
1481option - whichever is specified first will prevent later instances of the
1482other from taking effect.
1483.Pp
1484Note also that the configuration for the destination host (either supplied
1485via the command-line or the configuration file) is not generally applied
1486to jump hosts.
1487.Pa ~/.ssh/config
1488should be used if specific configuration is required for jump hosts.
1489.It Cm ProxyUseFdpass
1490Specifies that
1491.Cm ProxyCommand
1492will pass a connected file descriptor back to
1493.Xr ssh 1
1494instead of continuing to execute and pass data.
1495The default is
1496.Cm no .
1497.It Cm PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms
1498Specifies the signature algorithms that will be used for public key
1499authentication as a comma-separated list of patterns.
1500If the specified list begins with a
1501.Sq +
1502character, then the algorithms after it will be appended to the default
1503instead of replacing it.
1504If the specified list begins with a
1505.Sq -
1506character, then the specified algorithms (including wildcards) will be removed
1507from the default set instead of replacing them.
1508If the specified list begins with a
1509.Sq ^
1510character, then the specified algorithms will be placed at the head of the
1511default set.
1512The default for this option is:
1513.Bd -literal -offset 3n
1514ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1515ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1516ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1517ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1518sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1519sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1520rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1521rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
1522ssh-ed25519,
1523ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
1524sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,
1525sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256@openssh.com,
1526rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256
1527.Ed
1528.Pp
1529The list of available signature algorithms may also be obtained using
1530.Qq ssh -Q PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms .
1531.It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
1532Specifies whether to try public key authentication.
1533The argument to this keyword must be
1534.Cm yes
1535(the default),
1536.Cm no ,
1537.Cm unbound
1538or
1539.Cm host-bound .
1540The final two options enable public key authentication while respectively
1541disabling or enabling the OpenSSH host-bound authentication protocol
1542extension required for restricted
1543.Xr ssh-agent 1
1544forwarding.
1545.It Cm RekeyLimit
1546Specifies the maximum amount of data that may be transmitted or received
1547before the session key is renegotiated, optionally followed by a maximum
1548amount of time that may pass before the session key is renegotiated.
1549The first argument is specified in bytes and may have a suffix of
1550.Sq K ,
1551.Sq M ,
1552or
1553.Sq G
1554to indicate Kilobytes, Megabytes, or Gigabytes, respectively.
1555The default is between
1556.Sq 1G
1557and
1558.Sq 4G ,
1559depending on the cipher.
1560The optional second value is specified in seconds and may use any of the
1561units documented in the TIME FORMATS section of
1562.Xr sshd_config 5 .
1563The default value for
1564.Cm RekeyLimit
1565is
1566.Cm default none ,
1567which means that rekeying is performed after the cipher's default amount
1568of data has been sent or received and no time based rekeying is done.
1569.It Cm RemoteCommand
1570Specifies a command to execute on the remote machine after successfully
1571connecting to the server.
1572The command string extends to the end of the line, and is executed with
1573the user's shell.
1574Arguments to
1575.Cm RemoteCommand
1576accept the tokens described in the
1577.Sx TOKENS
1578section.
1579.It Cm RemoteForward
1580Specifies that a TCP port on the remote machine be forwarded over
1581the secure channel.
1582The remote port may either be forwarded to a specified host and port
1583from the local machine, or may act as a SOCKS 4/5 proxy that allows a remote
1584client to connect to arbitrary destinations from the local machine.
1585The first argument is the listening specification and may be
1586.Sm off
1587.Oo Ar bind_address : Oc Ar port
1588.Sm on
1589or, if the remote host supports it, a Unix domain socket path.
1590If forwarding to a specific destination then the second argument must be
1591.Ar host : Ns Ar hostport
1592or a Unix domain socket path,
1593otherwise if no destination argument is specified then the remote forwarding
1594will be established as a SOCKS proxy.
1595When acting as a SOCKS proxy, the destination of the connection can be
1596restricted by
1597.Cm PermitRemoteOpen .
1598.Pp
1599IPv6 addresses can be specified by enclosing addresses in square brackets.
1600Multiple forwardings may be specified, and additional
1601forwardings can be given on the command line.
1602Privileged ports can be forwarded only when
1603logging in as root on the remote machine.
1604Unix domain socket paths may use the tokens described in the
1605.Sx TOKENS
1606section and environment variables as described in the
1607.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1608section.
1609.Pp
1610If the
1611.Ar port
1612argument is 0,
1613the listen port will be dynamically allocated on the server and reported
1614to the client at run time.
1615.Pp
1616If the
1617.Ar bind_address
1618is not specified, the default is to only bind to loopback addresses.
1619If the
1620.Ar bind_address
1621is
1622.Ql *
1623or an empty string, then the forwarding is requested to listen on all
1624interfaces.
1625Specifying a remote
1626.Ar bind_address
1627will only succeed if the server's
1628.Cm GatewayPorts
1629option is enabled (see
1630.Xr sshd_config 5 ) .
1631.It Cm RequestTTY
1632Specifies whether to request a pseudo-tty for the session.
1633The argument may be one of:
1634.Cm no
1635(never request a TTY),
1636.Cm yes
1637(always request a TTY when standard input is a TTY),
1638.Cm force
1639(always request a TTY) or
1640.Cm auto
1641(request a TTY when opening a login session).
1642This option mirrors the
1643.Fl t
1644and
1645.Fl T
1646flags for
1647.Xr ssh 1 .
1648.It Cm RequiredRSASize
1649Specifies the minimum RSA key size (in bits) that
1650.Xr ssh 1
1651will accept.
1652User authentication keys smaller than this limit will be ignored.
1653Servers that present host keys smaller than this limit will cause the
1654connection to be terminated.
1655The default is
1656.Cm 1024
1657bits.
1658Note that this limit may only be raised from the default.
1659.It Cm RevokedHostKeys
1660Specifies revoked host public keys.
1661Keys listed in this file will be refused for host authentication.
1662Note that if this file does not exist or is not readable,
1663then host authentication will be refused for all hosts.
1664Keys may be specified as a text file, listing one public key per line, or as
1665an OpenSSH Key Revocation List (KRL) as generated by
1666.Xr ssh-keygen 1 .
1667For more information on KRLs, see the KEY REVOCATION LISTS section in
1668.Xr ssh-keygen 1 .
1669Arguments to
1670.Cm RevokedHostKeys
1671may use the tilde syntax to refer to a user's home directory,
1672the tokens described in the
1673.Sx TOKENS
1674section and environment variables as described in the
1675.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1676section.
1677.It Cm SecurityKeyProvider
1678Specifies a path to a library that will be used when loading any
1679FIDO authenticator-hosted keys, overriding the default of using
1680the built-in USB HID support.
1681.Pp
1682If the specified value begins with a
1683.Sq $
1684character, then it will be treated as an environment variable containing
1685the path to the library.
1686.It Cm SendEnv
1687Specifies what variables from the local
1688.Xr environ 7
1689should be sent to the server.
1690The server must also support it, and the server must be configured to
1691accept these environment variables.
1692Note that the
1693.Ev TERM
1694environment variable is always sent whenever a
1695pseudo-terminal is requested as it is required by the protocol.
1696Refer to
1697.Cm AcceptEnv
1698in
1699.Xr sshd_config 5
1700for how to configure the server.
1701Variables are specified by name, which may contain wildcard characters.
1702Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread
1703across multiple
1704.Cm SendEnv
1705directives.
1706.Pp
1707See
1708.Sx PATTERNS
1709for more information on patterns.
1710.Pp
1711It is possible to clear previously set
1712.Cm SendEnv
1713variable names by prefixing patterns with
1714.Pa - .
1715The default is not to send any environment variables.
1716.It Cm ServerAliveCountMax
1717Sets the number of server alive messages (see below) which may be
1718sent without
1719.Xr ssh 1
1720receiving any messages back from the server.
1721If this threshold is reached while server alive messages are being sent,
1722ssh will disconnect from the server, terminating the session.
1723It is important to note that the use of server alive messages is very
1724different from
1725.Cm TCPKeepAlive
1726(below).
1727The server alive messages are sent through the encrypted channel
1728and therefore will not be spoofable.
1729The TCP keepalive option enabled by
1730.Cm TCPKeepAlive
1731is spoofable.
1732The server alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
1733server depend on knowing when a connection has become unresponsive.
1734.Pp
1735The default value is 3.
1736If, for example,
1737.Cm ServerAliveInterval
1738(see below) is set to 15 and
1739.Cm ServerAliveCountMax
1740is left at the default, if the server becomes unresponsive,
1741ssh will disconnect after approximately 45 seconds.
1742.It Cm ServerAliveInterval
1743Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
1744from the server,
1745.Xr ssh 1
1746will send a message through the encrypted
1747channel to request a response from the server.
1748The default
1749is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server.
1750.It Cm SessionType
1751May be used to either request invocation of a subsystem on the remote system,
1752or to prevent the execution of a remote command at all.
1753The latter is useful for just forwarding ports.
1754The argument to this keyword must be
1755.Cm none
1756(same as the
1757.Fl N
1758option),
1759.Cm subsystem
1760(same as the
1761.Fl s
1762option) or
1763.Cm default
1764(shell or command execution).
1765.It Cm SetEnv
1766Directly specify one or more environment variables and their contents to
1767be sent to the server.
1768Similarly to
1769.Cm SendEnv ,
1770with the exception of the
1771.Ev TERM
1772variable, the server must be prepared to accept the environment variable.
1773.It Cm StdinNull
1774Redirects stdin from
1775.Pa /dev/null
1776(actually, prevents reading from stdin).
1777Either this or the equivalent
1778.Fl n
1779option must be used when
1780.Nm ssh
1781is run in the background.
1782The argument to this keyword must be
1783.Cm yes
1784(same as the
1785.Fl n
1786option) or
1787.Cm no
1788(the default).
1789.It Cm StreamLocalBindMask
1790Sets the octal file creation mode mask
1791.Pq umask
1792used when creating a Unix-domain socket file for local or remote
1793port forwarding.
1794This option is only used for port forwarding to a Unix-domain socket file.
1795.Pp
1796The default value is 0177, which creates a Unix-domain socket file that is
1797readable and writable only by the owner.
1798Note that not all operating systems honor the file mode on Unix-domain
1799socket files.
1800.It Cm StreamLocalBindUnlink
1801Specifies whether to remove an existing Unix-domain socket file for local
1802or remote port forwarding before creating a new one.
1803If the socket file already exists and
1804.Cm StreamLocalBindUnlink
1805is not enabled,
1806.Nm ssh
1807will be unable to forward the port to the Unix-domain socket file.
1808This option is only used for port forwarding to a Unix-domain socket file.
1809.Pp
1810The argument must be
1811.Cm yes
1812or
1813.Cm no
1814(the default).
1815.It Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
1816If this flag is set to
1817.Cm yes ,
1818.Xr ssh 1
1819will never automatically add host keys to the
1820.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts
1821file, and refuses to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
1822This provides maximum protection against man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks,
1823though it can be annoying when the
1824.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
1825file is poorly maintained or when connections to new hosts are
1826frequently made.
1827This option forces the user to manually
1828add all new hosts.
1829.Pp
1830If this flag is set to
1831.Cm accept-new
1832then ssh will automatically add new host keys to the user's
1833.Pa known_hosts
1834file, but will not permit connections to hosts with
1835changed host keys.
1836If this flag is set to
1837.Cm no
1838or
1839.Cm off ,
1840ssh will automatically add new host keys to the user known hosts files
1841and allow connections to hosts with changed hostkeys to proceed,
1842subject to some restrictions.
1843If this flag is set to
1844.Cm ask
1845(the default),
1846new host keys
1847will be added to the user known host files only after the user
1848has confirmed that is what they really want to do, and
1849ssh will refuse to connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
1850The host keys of
1851known hosts will be verified automatically in all cases.
1852.It Cm SyslogFacility
1853Gives the facility code that is used when logging messages from
1854.Xr ssh 1 .
1855The possible values are: DAEMON, USER, AUTH, LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2,
1856LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7.
1857The default is USER.
1858.It Cm TCPKeepAlive
1859Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
1860other side.
1861If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
1862of the machines will be properly noticed.
1863However, this means that
1864connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
1865find it annoying.
1866.Pp
1867The default is
1868.Cm yes
1869(to send TCP keepalive messages), and the client will notice
1870if the network goes down or the remote host dies.
1871This is important in scripts, and many users want it too.
1872.Pp
1873To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to
1874.Cm no .
1875See also
1876.Cm ServerAliveInterval
1877for protocol-level keepalives.
1878.It Cm Tunnel
1879Request
1880.Xr tun 4
1881device forwarding between the client and the server.
1882The argument must be
1883.Cm yes ,
1884.Cm point-to-point
1885(layer 3),
1886.Cm ethernet
1887(layer 2),
1888or
1889.Cm no
1890(the default).
1891Specifying
1892.Cm yes
1893requests the default tunnel mode, which is
1894.Cm point-to-point .
1895.It Cm TunnelDevice
1896Specifies the
1897.Xr tun 4
1898devices to open on the client
1899.Pq Ar local_tun
1900and the server
1901.Pq Ar remote_tun .
1902.Pp
1903The argument must be
1904.Sm off
1905.Ar local_tun Op : Ar remote_tun .
1906.Sm on
1907The devices may be specified by numerical ID or the keyword
1908.Cm any ,
1909which uses the next available tunnel device.
1910If
1911.Ar remote_tun
1912is not specified, it defaults to
1913.Cm any .
1914The default is
1915.Cm any:any .
1916.It Cm UpdateHostKeys
1917Specifies whether
1918.Xr ssh 1
1919should accept notifications of additional hostkeys from the server sent
1920after authentication has completed and add them to
1921.Cm UserKnownHostsFile .
1922The argument must be
1923.Cm yes ,
1924.Cm no
1925or
1926.Cm ask .
1927This option allows learning alternate hostkeys for a server
1928and supports graceful key rotation by allowing a server to send replacement
1929public keys before old ones are removed.
1930.Pp
1931Additional hostkeys are only accepted if the key used to authenticate the
1932host was already trusted or explicitly accepted by the user, the host was
1933authenticated via
1934.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1935(i.e. not
1936.Cm GlobalKnownHostsFile )
1937and the host was authenticated using a plain key and not a certificate.
1938.Pp
1939.Cm UpdateHostKeys
1940is enabled by default if the user has not overridden the default
1941.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1942setting and has not enabled
1943.Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS ,
1944otherwise
1945.Cm UpdateHostKeys
1946will be set to
1947.Cm no .
1948.Pp
1949If
1950.Cm UpdateHostKeys
1951is set to
1952.Cm ask ,
1953then the user is asked to confirm the modifications to the known_hosts file.
1954Confirmation is currently incompatible with
1955.Cm ControlPersist ,
1956and will be disabled if it is enabled.
1957.Pp
1958Presently, only
1959.Xr sshd 8
1960from OpenSSH 6.8 and greater support the
1961.Qq hostkeys@openssh.com
1962protocol extension used to inform the client of all the server's hostkeys.
1963.It Cm User
1964Specifies the user to log in as.
1965This can be useful when a different user name is used on different machines.
1966This saves the trouble of
1967having to remember to give the user name on the command line.
1968.It Cm UserKnownHostsFile
1969Specifies one or more files to use for the user
1970host key database, separated by whitespace.
1971Each filename may use tilde notation to refer to the user's home directory,
1972the tokens described in the
1973.Sx TOKENS
1974section and environment variables as described in the
1975.Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
1976section.
1977A value of
1978.Cm none
1979causes
1980.Xr ssh 1
1981to ignore any user-specific known hosts files.
1982The default is
1983.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts ,
1984.Pa ~/.ssh/known_hosts2 .
1985.It Cm VerifyHostKeyDNS
1986Specifies whether to verify the remote key using DNS and SSHFP resource
1987records.
1988If this option is set to
1989.Cm yes ,
1990the client will implicitly trust keys that match a secure fingerprint
1991from DNS.
1992Insecure fingerprints will be handled as if this option was set to
1993.Cm ask .
1994If this option is set to
1995.Cm ask ,
1996information on fingerprint match will be displayed, but the user will still
1997need to confirm new host keys according to the
1998.Cm StrictHostKeyChecking
1999option.
2000The default is
2001.Cm no .
2002.Pp
2003See also
2004.Sx VERIFYING HOST KEYS
2005in
2006.Xr ssh 1 .
2007.It Cm VisualHostKey
2008If this flag is set to
2009.Cm yes ,
2010an ASCII art representation of the remote host key fingerprint is
2011printed in addition to the fingerprint string at login and
2012for unknown host keys.
2013If this flag is set to
2014.Cm no
2015(the default),
2016no fingerprint strings are printed at login and
2017only the fingerprint string will be printed for unknown host keys.
2018.It Cm XAuthLocation
2019Specifies the full pathname of the
2020.Xr xauth 1
2021program.
2022The default is
2023.Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
2024.El
2025.Sh PATTERNS
2026A
2027.Em pattern
2028consists of zero or more non-whitespace characters,
2029.Sq *
2030(a wildcard that matches zero or more characters),
2031or
2032.Sq ?\&
2033(a wildcard that matches exactly one character).
2034For example, to specify a set of declarations for any host in the
2035.Qq .co.uk
2036set of domains,
2037the following pattern could be used:
2038.Pp
2039.Dl Host *.co.uk
2040.Pp
2041The following pattern
2042would match any host in the 192.168.0.[0-9] network range:
2043.Pp
2044.Dl Host 192.168.0.?
2045.Pp
2046A
2047.Em pattern-list
2048is a comma-separated list of patterns.
2049Patterns within pattern-lists may be negated
2050by preceding them with an exclamation mark
2051.Pq Sq !\& .
2052For example,
2053to allow a key to be used from anywhere within an organization
2054except from the
2055.Qq dialup
2056pool,
2057the following entry (in authorized_keys) could be used:
2058.Pp
2059.Dl from=\&"!*.dialup.example.com,*.example.com\&"
2060.Pp
2061Note that a negated match will never produce a positive result by itself.
2062For example, attempting to match
2063.Qq host3
2064against the following pattern-list will fail:
2065.Pp
2066.Dl from=\&"!host1,!host2\&"
2067.Pp
2068The solution here is to include a term that will yield a positive match,
2069such as a wildcard:
2070.Pp
2071.Dl from=\&"!host1,!host2,*\&"
2072.Sh TOKENS
2073Arguments to some keywords can make use of tokens,
2074which are expanded at runtime:
2075.Pp
2076.Bl -tag -width XXXX -offset indent -compact
2077.It %%
2078A literal
2079.Sq % .
2080.It \&%C
2081Hash of %l%h%p%r.
2082.It %d
2083Local user's home directory.
2084.It %f
2085The fingerprint of the server's host key.
2086.It %H
2087The
2088.Pa known_hosts
2089hostname or address that is being searched for.
2090.It %h
2091The remote hostname.
2092.It \%%I
2093A string describing the reason for a
2094.Cm KnownHostsCommand
2095execution: either
2096.Cm ADDRESS
2097when looking up a host by address (only when
2098.Cm CheckHostIP
2099is enabled),
2100.Cm HOSTNAME
2101when searching by hostname, or
2102.Cm ORDER
2103when preparing the host key algorithm preference list to use for the
2104destination host.
2105.It %i
2106The local user ID.
2107.It %K
2108The base64 encoded host key.
2109.It %k
2110The host key alias if specified, otherwise the original remote hostname given
2111on the command line.
2112.It %L
2113The local hostname.
2114.It %l
2115The local hostname, including the domain name.
2116.It %n
2117The original remote hostname, as given on the command line.
2118.It %p
2119The remote port.
2120.It %r
2121The remote username.
2122.It \&%T
2123The local
2124.Xr tun 4
2125or
2126.Xr tap 4
2127network interface assigned if
2128tunnel forwarding was requested, or
2129.Qq NONE
2130otherwise.
2131.It %t
2132The type of the server host key, e.g.
2133.Cm ssh-ed25519 .
2134.It %u
2135The local username.
2136.El
2137.Pp
2138.Cm CertificateFile ,
2139.Cm ControlPath ,
2140.Cm IdentityAgent ,
2141.Cm IdentityFile ,
2142.Cm KnownHostsCommand ,
2143.Cm LocalForward ,
2144.Cm Match exec ,
2145.Cm RemoteCommand ,
2146.Cm RemoteForward ,
2147.Cm RevokedHostKeys ,
2148and
2149.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
2150accept the tokens %%, %C, %d, %h, %i, %k, %L, %l, %n, %p, %r, and %u.
2151.Pp
2152.Cm KnownHostsCommand
2153additionally accepts the tokens %f, %H, %I, %K and %t.
2154.Pp
2155.Cm Hostname
2156accepts the tokens %% and %h.
2157.Pp
2158.Cm LocalCommand
2159accepts all tokens.
2160.Pp
2161.Cm ProxyCommand
2162and
2163.Cm ProxyJump
2164accept the tokens %%, %h, %n, %p, and %r.
2165.Sh ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
2166Arguments to some keywords can be expanded at runtime from environment
2167variables on the client by enclosing them in
2168.Ic ${} ,
2169for example
2170.Ic ${HOME}/.ssh
2171would refer to the user's .ssh directory.
2172If a specified environment variable does not exist then an error will be
2173returned and the setting for that keyword will be ignored.
2174.Pp
2175The keywords
2176.Cm CertificateFile ,
2177.Cm ControlPath ,
2178.Cm IdentityAgent ,
2179.Cm IdentityFile ,
2180.Cm KnownHostsCommand ,
2181and
2182.Cm UserKnownHostsFile
2183support environment variables.
2184The keywords
2185.Cm LocalForward
2186and
2187.Cm RemoteForward
2188support environment variables only for Unix domain socket paths.
2189.Sh FILES
2190.Bl -tag -width Ds
2191.It Pa ~/.ssh/config
2192This is the per-user configuration file.
2193The format of this file is described above.
2194This file is used by the SSH client.
2195Because of the potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
2196read/write for the user, and not writable by others.
2197.It Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_config
2198Systemwide configuration file.
2199This file provides defaults for those
2200values that are not specified in the user's configuration file, and
2201for those users who do not have a configuration file.
2202This file must be world-readable.
2203.El
2204.Sh SEE ALSO
2205.Xr ssh 1
2206.Sh AUTHORS
2207.An -nosplit
2208OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
2209ssh 1.2.12 release by
2210.An Tatu Ylonen .
2211.An Aaron Campbell , Bob Beck , Markus Friedl ,
2212.An Niels Provos , Theo de Raadt
2213and
2214.An Dug Song
2215removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
2216created OpenSSH.
2217.An Markus Friedl
2218contributed the support for SSH protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.
2219