xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssh/sshd_config.5 (revision 11f0b352e05306cf6f1f85e9087022c0a92624a3)
1.\"  -*- nroff -*-
2.\"
3.\" Author: Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
4.\" Copyright (c) 1995 Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>, Espoo, Finland
5.\"                    All rights reserved
6.\"
7.\" As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software
8.\" can be used freely for any purpose.  Any derived versions of this
9.\" software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is
10.\" incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be
11.\" called by a name other than "ssh" or "Secure Shell".
12.\"
13.\" Copyright (c) 1999,2000 Markus Friedl.  All rights reserved.
14.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron Campbell.  All rights reserved.
15.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Theo de Raadt.  All rights reserved.
16.\"
17.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
18.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
19.\" are met:
20.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
21.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
22.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
23.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
24.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
25.\"
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28.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
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31.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
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36.\"
37.\" $OpenBSD: sshd_config.5,v 1.4 2002/06/22 16:45:29 stevesk Exp $
38.\" $FreeBSD$
39.Dd September 25, 1999
40.Dt SSHD_CONFIG 5
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm sshd_config
44.Nd OpenSSH SSH daemon configuration file
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
47.It Pa /etc/ssh/sshd_config
48.El
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50.Nm sshd
51reads configuration data from
52.Pa /etc/ssh/sshd_config
53(or the file specified with
54.Fl f
55on the command line).
56The file contains keyword-argument pairs, one per line.
57Lines starting with
58.Ql #
59and empty lines are interpreted as comments.
60.Pp
61The possible
62keywords and their meanings are as follows (note that
63keywords are case-insensitive and arguments are case-sensitive):
64.Bl -tag -width Ds
65.It Cm AFSTokenPassing
66Specifies whether an AFS token may be forwarded to the server.
67Default is
68.Dq no .
69.It Cm AllowGroups
70This keyword can be followed by a list of group name patterns, separated
71by spaces.
72If specified, login is allowed only for users whose primary
73group or supplementary group list matches one of the patterns.
74.Ql \&*
75and
76.Ql ?
77can be used as
78wildcards in the patterns.
79Only group names are valid; a numerical group ID is not recognized.
80By default, login is allowed for all groups.
81.Pp
82.It Cm AllowTcpForwarding
83Specifies whether TCP forwarding is permitted.
84The default is
85.Dq yes .
86Note that disabling TCP forwarding does not improve security unless
87users are also denied shell access, as they can always install their
88own forwarders.
89.Pp
90.It Cm AllowUsers
91This keyword can be followed by a list of user name patterns, separated
92by spaces.
93If specified, login is allowed only for users names that
94match one of the patterns.
95.Ql \&*
96and
97.Ql ?
98can be used as
99wildcards in the patterns.
100Only user names are valid; a numerical user ID is not recognized.
101By default, login is allowed for all users.
102If the pattern takes the form USER@HOST then USER and HOST
103are separately checked, restricting logins to particular
104users from particular hosts.
105.Pp
106.It Cm AuthorizedKeysFile
107Specifies the file that contains the public keys that can be used
108for user authentication.
109.Cm AuthorizedKeysFile
110may contain tokens of the form %T which are substituted during connection
111set-up. The following tokens are defined: %% is replaced by a literal '%',
112%h is replaced by the home directory of the user being authenticated and
113%u is replaced by the username of that user.
114After expansion,
115.Cm AuthorizedKeysFile
116is taken to be an absolute path or one relative to the user's home
117directory.
118The default is
119.Dq .ssh/authorized_keys .
120.It Cm Banner
121In some jurisdictions, sending a warning message before authentication
122may be relevant for getting legal protection.
123The contents of the specified file are sent to the remote user before
124authentication is allowed.
125This option is only available for protocol version 2.
126By default, no banner is displayed.
127.Pp
128.It Cm ChallengeResponseAuthentication
129Specifies whether challenge response authentication is allowed.
130All authentication styles from
131.Xr login.conf 5
132are supported.
133The default is
134.Dq yes .
135.It Cm Ciphers
136Specifies the ciphers allowed for protocol version 2.
137Multiple ciphers must be comma-separated.
138The default is
139.Pp
140.Bd -literal
141  ``aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,arcfour,
142    aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc''
143.Ed
144.It Cm ClientAliveInterval
145Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received
146from the client,
147.Nm sshd
148will send a message through the encrypted
149channel to request a response from the client.
150The default
151is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the client.
152This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
153.It Cm ClientAliveCountMax
154Sets the number of client alive messages (see above) which may be
155sent without
156.Nm sshd
157receiving any messages back from the client. If this threshold is
158reached while client alive messages are being sent,
159.Nm sshd
160will disconnect the client, terminating the session. It is important
161to note that the use of client alive messages is very different from
162.Cm KeepAlive
163(below). The client alive messages are sent through the
164encrypted channel and therefore will not be spoofable. The TCP keepalive
165option enabled by
166.Cm KeepAlive
167is spoofable. The client alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
168server depend on knowing when a connection has become inactive.
169.Pp
170The default value is 3. If
171.Cm ClientAliveInterval
172(above) is set to 15, and
173.Cm ClientAliveCountMax
174is left at the default, unresponsive ssh clients
175will be disconnected after approximately 45 seconds.
176.It Cm Compression
177Specifies whether compression is allowed.
178The argument must be
179.Dq yes
180or
181.Dq no .
182The default is
183.Dq yes .
184.It Cm DenyGroups
185This keyword can be followed by a list of group name patterns, separated
186by spaces.
187Login is disallowed for users whose primary group or supplementary
188group list matches one of the patterns.
189.Ql \&*
190and
191.Ql ?
192can be used as
193wildcards in the patterns.
194Only group names are valid; a numerical group ID is not recognized.
195By default, login is allowed for all groups.
196.Pp
197.It Cm DenyUsers
198This keyword can be followed by a list of user name patterns, separated
199by spaces.
200Login is disallowed for user names that match one of the patterns.
201.Ql \&*
202and
203.Ql ?
204can be used as wildcards in the patterns.
205Only user names are valid; a numerical user ID is not recognized.
206By default, login is allowed for all users.
207If the pattern takes the form USER@HOST then USER and HOST
208are separately checked, restricting logins to particular
209users from particular hosts.
210.It Cm GatewayPorts
211Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to ports
212forwarded for the client.
213By default,
214.Nm sshd
215binds remote port forwardings to the loopback address.  This
216prevents other remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports.
217.Cm GatewayPorts
218can be used to specify that
219.Nm sshd
220should bind remote port forwardings to the wildcard address,
221thus allowing remote hosts to connect to forwarded ports.
222The argument must be
223.Dq yes
224or
225.Dq no .
226The default is
227.Dq no .
228.It Cm HostbasedAuthentication
229Specifies whether rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv authentication together
230with successful public key client host authentication is allowed
231(hostbased authentication).
232This option is similar to
233.Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
234and applies to protocol version 2 only.
235The default is
236.Dq no .
237.It Cm HostKey
238Specifies a file containing a private host key
239used by SSH.
240The default is
241.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key
242for protocol version 1, and
243.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
244and
245.Pa /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
246for protocol version 2.
247Note that
248.Nm sshd
249will refuse to use a file if it is group/world-accessible.
250It is possible to have multiple host key files.
251.Dq rsa1
252keys are used for version 1 and
253.Dq dsa
254or
255.Dq rsa
256are used for version 2 of the SSH protocol.
257.It Cm IgnoreRhosts
258Specifies that
259.Pa .rhosts
260and
261.Pa .shosts
262files will not be used in
263.Cm RhostsAuthentication ,
264.Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
265or
266.Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
267.Pp
268.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
269and
270.Pa /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv
271are still used.
272The default is
273.Dq yes .
274.It Cm IgnoreUserKnownHosts
275Specifies whether
276.Nm sshd
277should ignore the user's
278.Pa $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts
279during
280.Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
281or
282.Cm HostbasedAuthentication .
283The default is
284.Dq no .
285.It Cm KeepAlive
286Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the
287other side.
288If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one
289of the machines will be properly noticed.
290However, this means that
291connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people
292find it annoying.
293On the other hand, if keepalives are not sent,
294sessions may hang indefinitely on the server, leaving
295.Dq ghost
296users and consuming server resources.
297.Pp
298The default is
299.Dq yes
300(to send keepalives), and the server will notice
301if the network goes down or the client host crashes.
302This avoids infinitely hanging sessions.
303.Pp
304To disable keepalives, the value should be set to
305.Dq no .
306.It Cm KerberosAuthentication
307Specifies whether Kerberos authentication is allowed.
308This can be in the form of a Kerberos ticket, or if
309.Cm PasswordAuthentication
310is yes, the password provided by the user will be validated through
311the Kerberos KDC.
312To use this option, the server needs a
313Kerberos servtab which allows the verification of the KDC's identity.
314Default is
315.Dq no .
316.It Cm KerberosOrLocalPasswd
317If set then if password authentication through Kerberos fails then
318the password will be validated via any additional local mechanism
319such as
320.Pa /etc/passwd .
321Default is
322.Dq yes .
323.It Cm KerberosTgtPassing
324Specifies whether a Kerberos TGT may be forwarded to the server.
325Default is
326.Dq no ,
327as this only works when the Kerberos KDC is actually an AFS kaserver.
328.It Cm KerberosTicketCleanup
329Specifies whether to automatically destroy the user's ticket cache
330file on logout.
331Default is
332.Dq yes .
333.It Cm KeyRegenerationInterval
334In protocol version 1, the ephemeral server key is automatically regenerated
335after this many seconds (if it has been used).
336The purpose of regeneration is to prevent
337decrypting captured sessions by later breaking into the machine and
338stealing the keys.
339The key is never stored anywhere.
340If the value is 0, the key is never regenerated.
341The default is 3600 (seconds).
342.It Cm ListenAddress
343Specifies the local addresses
344.Nm sshd
345should listen on.
346The following forms may be used:
347.Pp
348.Bl -item -offset indent -compact
349.It
350.Cm ListenAddress
351.Sm off
352.Ar host No | Ar IPv4_addr No | Ar IPv6_addr
353.Sm on
354.It
355.Cm ListenAddress
356.Sm off
357.Ar host No | Ar IPv4_addr No : Ar port
358.Sm on
359.It
360.Cm ListenAddress
361.Sm off
362.Oo
363.Ar host No | Ar IPv6_addr Oc : Ar port
364.Sm on
365.El
366.Pp
367If
368.Ar port
369is not specified,
370.Nm sshd
371will listen on the address and all prior
372.Cm Port
373options specified. The default is to listen on all local
374addresses.  Multiple
375.Cm ListenAddress
376options are permitted. Additionally, any
377.Cm Port
378options must precede this option for non port qualified addresses.
379.It Cm LoginGraceTime
380The server disconnects after this time if the user has not
381successfully logged in.
382If the value is 0, there is no time limit.
383The default is 120 (seconds).
384.It Cm LogLevel
385Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from
386.Nm sshd .
387The possible values are:
388QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2 and DEBUG3.
389The default is INFO.  DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent.  DEBUG2
390and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of debugging output.
391Logging with a DEBUG level violates the privacy of users
392and is not recommended.
393.It Cm MACs
394Specifies the available MAC (message authentication code) algorithms.
395The MAC algorithm is used in protocol version 2
396for data integrity protection.
397Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated.
398The default is
399.Dq hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,hmac-ripemd160,hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96 .
400.It Cm MaxStartups
401Specifies the maximum number of concurrent unauthenticated connections to the
402.Nm sshd
403daemon.
404Additional connections will be dropped until authentication succeeds or the
405.Cm LoginGraceTime
406expires for a connection.
407The default is 10.
408.Pp
409Alternatively, random early drop can be enabled by specifying
410the three colon separated values
411.Dq start:rate:full
412(e.g., "10:30:60").
413.Nm sshd
414will refuse connection attempts with a probability of
415.Dq rate/100
416(30%)
417if there are currently
418.Dq start
419(10)
420unauthenticated connections.
421The probability increases linearly and all connection attempts
422are refused if the number of unauthenticated connections reaches
423.Dq full
424(60).
425.It Cm PAMAuthenticationViaKbdInt
426Specifies whether PAM challenge response authentication is allowed. This
427allows the use of most PAM challenge response authentication modules, but
428it will allow password authentication regardless of whether
429.Cm PasswordAuthentication
430is enabled.
431.It Cm PasswordAuthentication
432Specifies whether password authentication is allowed.
433The default is
434.Dq yes .
435.It Cm PermitEmptyPasswords
436When password authentication is allowed, it specifies whether the
437server allows login to accounts with empty password strings.
438The default is
439.Dq no .
440.It Cm PermitRootLogin
441Specifies whether root can login using
442.Xr ssh 1 .
443The argument must be
444.Dq yes ,
445.Dq without-password ,
446.Dq forced-commands-only
447or
448.Dq no .
449The default is
450.Dq no .
451.Pp
452If this option is set to
453.Dq without-password
454password authentication is disabled for root.
455.Pp
456If this option is set to
457.Dq forced-commands-only
458root login with public key authentication will be allowed,
459but only if the
460.Ar command
461option has been specified
462(which may be useful for taking remote backups even if root login is
463normally not allowed). All other authentication methods are disabled
464for root.
465.Pp
466If this option is set to
467.Dq no
468root is not allowed to login.
469.It Cm PidFile
470Specifies the file that contains the process ID of the
471.Nm sshd
472daemon.
473The default is
474.Pa /var/run/sshd.pid .
475.It Cm Port
476Specifies the port number that
477.Nm sshd
478listens on.
479The default is 22.
480Multiple options of this type are permitted.
481See also
482.Cm ListenAddress .
483.It Cm PrintLastLog
484Specifies whether
485.Nm sshd
486should print the date and time when the user last logged in.
487The default is
488.Dq yes .
489.It Cm PrintMotd
490Specifies whether
491.Nm sshd
492should print
493.Pa /etc/motd
494when a user logs in interactively.
495(On some systems it is also printed by the shell,
496.Pa /etc/profile ,
497or equivalent.)
498The default is
499.Dq yes .
500.It Cm Protocol
501Specifies the protocol versions
502.Nm sshd
503should support.
504The possible values are
505.Dq 1
506and
507.Dq 2 .
508Multiple versions must be comma-separated.
509The default is
510.Dq 2,1 .
511.It Cm PubkeyAuthentication
512Specifies whether public key authentication is allowed.
513The default is
514.Dq yes .
515Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
516.It Cm RhostsAuthentication
517Specifies whether authentication using rhosts or
518.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
519files is sufficient.
520Normally, this method should not be permitted because it is insecure.
521.Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
522should be used
523instead, because it performs RSA-based host authentication in addition
524to normal rhosts or
525.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
526authentication.
527The default is
528.Dq no .
529This option applies to protocol version 1 only.
530.It Cm RhostsRSAAuthentication
531Specifies whether rhosts or
532.Pa /etc/hosts.equiv
533authentication together
534with successful RSA host authentication is allowed.
535The default is
536.Dq no .
537This option applies to protocol version 1 only.
538.It Cm RSAAuthentication
539Specifies whether pure RSA authentication is allowed.
540The default is
541.Dq yes .
542This option applies to protocol version 1 only.
543.It Cm ServerKeyBits
544Defines the number of bits in the ephemeral protocol version 1 server key.
545The minimum value is 512, and the default is 768.
546.It Cm StrictModes
547Specifies whether
548.Nm sshd
549should check file modes and ownership of the
550user's files and home directory before accepting login.
551This is normally desirable because novices sometimes accidentally leave their
552directory or files world-writable.
553The default is
554.Dq yes .
555.It Cm Subsystem
556Configures an external subsystem (e.g., file transfer daemon).
557Arguments should be a subsystem name and a command to execute upon subsystem
558request.
559The command
560.Xr sftp-server 8
561implements the
562.Dq sftp
563file transfer subsystem.
564By default no subsystems are defined.
565Note that this option applies to protocol version 2 only.
566.It Cm SyslogFacility
567Gives the facility code that is used when logging messages from
568.Nm sshd .
569The possible values are: DAEMON, USER, AUTH, LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2,
570LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7.
571The default is AUTH.
572.It Cm UseLogin
573Specifies whether
574.Xr login 1
575is used for interactive login sessions.
576The default is
577.Dq no .
578Note that
579.Xr login 1
580is never used for remote command execution.
581Note also, that if this is enabled,
582.Cm X11Forwarding
583will be disabled because
584.Xr login 1
585does not know how to handle
586.Xr xauth 1
587cookies.  If
588.Cm UsePrivilegeSeparation
589is specified, it will be disabled after authentication.
590.It Cm UsePrivilegeSeparation
591Specifies whether
592.Nm sshd
593separates privileges by creating an unprivileged child process
594to deal with incoming network traffic.  After successful authentication,
595another process will be created that has the privilege of the authenticated
596user.  The goal of privilege separation is to prevent privilege
597escalation by containing any corruption within the unprivileged processes.
598The default is
599.Dq yes .
600.It Cm VerifyReverseMapping
601Specifies whether
602.Nm sshd
603should try to verify the remote host name and check that
604the resolved host name for the remote IP address maps back to the
605very same IP address.
606The default is
607.Dq no .
608.It Cm VersionAddendum
609Specifies a string to append to the regular version string to identify
610OS- or site-specific modifications.
611.It Cm X11DisplayOffset
612Specifies the first display number available for
613.Nm sshd Ns 's
614X11 forwarding.
615This prevents
616.Nm sshd
617from interfering with real X11 servers.
618The default is 10.
619.It Cm X11Forwarding
620Specifies whether X11 forwarding is permitted.
621The default is
622.Dq no .
623Note that disabling X11 forwarding does not improve security in any
624way, as users can always install their own forwarders.
625X11 forwarding is automatically disabled if
626.Cm UseLogin
627is enabled.
628.It Cm X11UseLocalhost
629Specifies whether
630.Nm sshd
631should bind the X11 forwarding server to the loopback address or to
632the wildcard address.  By default,
633.Nm sshd
634binds the forwarding server to the loopback address and sets the
635hostname part of the
636.Ev DISPLAY
637environment variable to
638.Dq localhost .
639This prevents remote hosts from connecting to the fake display.
640However, some older X11 clients may not function with this
641configuration.
642.Cm X11UseLocalhost
643may be set to
644.Dq no
645to specify that the forwarding server should be bound to the wildcard
646address.
647The argument must be
648.Dq yes
649or
650.Dq no .
651The default is
652.Dq yes .
653.It Cm XAuthLocation
654Specifies the location of the
655.Xr xauth 1
656program.
657The default is
658.Pa /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth .
659.El
660.Ss Time Formats
661.Pp
662.Nm sshd
663command-line arguments and configuration file options that specify time
664may be expressed using a sequence of the form:
665.Sm off
666.Ar time Oo Ar qualifier Oc ,
667.Sm on
668where
669.Ar time
670is a positive integer value and
671.Ar qualifier
672is one of the following:
673.Pp
674.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
675.It Cm <none>
676seconds
677.It Cm s | Cm S
678seconds
679.It Cm m | Cm M
680minutes
681.It Cm h | Cm H
682hours
683.It Cm d | Cm D
684days
685.It Cm w | Cm W
686weeks
687.El
688.Pp
689Each member of the sequence is added together to calculate
690the total time value.
691.Pp
692Time format examples:
693.Pp
694.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
695.It 600
696600 seconds (10 minutes)
697.It 10m
69810 minutes
699.It 1h30m
7001 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes)
701.El
702.Sh FILES
703.Bl -tag -width Ds
704.It Pa /etc/ssh/sshd_config
705Contains configuration data for
706.Nm sshd .
707This file should be writable by root only, but it is recommended
708(though not necessary) that it be world-readable.
709.El
710.Sh AUTHORS
711OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free
712ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.
713Aaron Campbell, Bob Beck, Markus Friedl, Niels Provos,
714Theo de Raadt and Dug Song
715removed many bugs, re-added newer features and
716created OpenSSH.
717Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH
718protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.
719Niels Provos and Markus Friedl contributed support
720for privilege separation.
721.Sh SEE ALSO
722.Xr sshd 8
723