Ubuntu Manpage: sshd_config — OpenSSH SSH daemon configuration file

Provided by: openssh-server_7.6p1-4ubuntu0.7_amd64

NAME

       sshd_config — OpenSSH SSH daemon configuration file

DESCRIPTION

sshd(8) reads configuration data from /etc/ssh/sshd_config (or the file specified with -f on the command
line). The file contains keyword-argument pairs, one per line. Lines starting with ‘#’ and empty lines
are interpreted as comments. Arguments may optionally be enclosed in double quotes (") in order to
represent arguments containing spaces.

Note that the Debian openssh-server package sets several options as standard in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
which are not the default in sshd(8):

• ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
• X11Forwarding yes
• PrintMotd no
• AcceptEnv LANG LC_*
• Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server
• UsePAM yes

The possible keywords and their meanings are as follows (note that keywords are case-insensitive and
arguments are case-sensitive):

AcceptEnv
Specifies what environment variables sent by the client will be copied into the session's
environ(7). See SendEnv in ssh_config(5) for how to configure the client. The TERM environment
variable is always sent whenever the client requests a pseudo-terminal as it is required by the
protocol. Variables are specified by name, which may contain the wildcard characters ‘*’ and
‘?’. Multiple environment variables may be separated by whitespace or spread across multiple
AcceptEnv directives. Be warned that some environment variables could be used to bypass
restricted user environments. For this reason, care should be taken in the use of this
directive. The default is not to accept any environment variables.

AddressFamily
Specifies which address family should be used by sshd(8). Valid arguments are any (the default),
inet (use IPv4 only), or inet6 (use IPv6 only).

AllowAgentForwarding
Specifies whether ssh-agent(1) forwarding is permitted. The default is yes. Note that disabling
agent forwarding does not improve security unless users are also denied shell access, as they can
always install their own forwarders.

AllowGroups
This keyword can be followed by a list of group name patterns, separated by spaces. If
specified, login is allowed only for users whose primary group or supplementary group list
matches one of the patterns. Only group names are valid; a numerical group ID is not recognized.
By default, login is allowed for all groups. The allow/deny directives are processed in the
following order: DenyUsers, AllowUsers, DenyGroups, and finally AllowGroups.

See PATTERNS in ssh_config(5) for more information on patterns.

AllowStreamLocalForwarding
Specifies whether StreamLocal (Unix-domain socket) forwarding is permitted. The available
options are yes (the default) or all to allow StreamLocal forwarding, no to prevent all
StreamLocal forwarding, local to allow local (from the perspective of ssh(1)) forwarding only or
remote to allow remote forwarding only. Note that disabling StreamLocal forwarding does not
improve security unless users are also denied shell access, as they can always install their own
forwarders.

AllowTcpForwarding
Specifies whether TCP forwarding is permitted. The available options are yes (the default) or
all to allow TCP forwarding, no to prevent all TCP forwarding, local to allow local (from the
perspective of ssh(1)) forwarding only or remote to allow remote forwarding only. Note that
disabling TCP forwarding does not improve security unless users are also denied shell access, as
they can always install their own forwarders.

AllowUsers
This keyword can be followed by a list of user name patterns, separated by spaces. If specified,
login is allowed only for user names that match one of the patterns. Only user names are valid;
a numerical user ID is not recognized. By default, login is allowed for all users. If the
pattern takes the form USER@HOST then USER and HOST are separately checked, restricting logins to
particular users from particular hosts. HOST criteria may additionally contain addresses to
match in CIDR address/masklen format. The allow/deny directives are processed in the following
order: DenyUsers, AllowUsers, DenyGroups, and finally AllowGroups.

See PATTERNS in ssh_config(5) for more information on patterns.

AuthenticationMethods
Specifies the authentication methods that must be successfully completed for a user to be granted
access. This option must be followed by one or more comma-separated lists of authentication
method names, or by the single string any to indicate the default behaviour of accepting any
single authentication method. If the default is overridden, then successful authentication
requires completion of every method in at least one of these lists.

For example, "publickey,password publickey,keyboard-interactive" would require the user to
complete public key authentication, followed by either password or keyboard interactive
authentication. Only methods that are next in one or more lists are offered at each stage, so
for this example it would not be possible to attempt password or keyboard-interactive
authentication before public key.

For keyboard interactive authentication it is also possible to restrict authentication to a
specific device by appending a colon followed by the device identifier bsdauth, pam, or skey,
depending on the server configuration. For example, "keyboard-interactive:bsdauth" would
restrict keyboard interactive authentication to the bsdauth device.

If the publickey method is listed more than once, sshd(8) verifies that keys that have been used
successfully are not reused for subsequent authentications. For example, "publickey,publickey"
requires successful authentication using two different public keys.

Note that each authentication method listed should also be explicitly enabled in the
configuration.

The available authentication methods are: "gssapi-with-mic", "hostbased", "keyboard-interactive",
"none" (used for access to password-less accounts when PermitEmptyPassword is enabled),
"password" and "publickey".

AuthorizedKeysCommand
Specifies a program to be used to look up the user's public keys. The program must be owned by
root, not writable by group or others and specified by an absolute path. Arguments to
AuthorizedKeysCommand accept the tokens described in the “TOKENS” section. If no arguments are
specified then the username of the target user is used.

The program should produce on standard output zero or more lines of authorized_keys output (see
“AUTHORIZED_KEYS” in sshd(8)). If a key supplied by AuthorizedKeysCommand does not successfully
authenticate and authorize the user then public key authentication continues using the usual
AuthorizedKeysFile files. By default, no AuthorizedKeysCommand is run.

AuthorizedKeysCommandUser
Specifies the user under whose account the AuthorizedKeysCommand is run. It is recommended to
use a dedicated user that has no other role on the host than running authorized keys commands.
If AuthorizedKeysCommand is specified but AuthorizedKeysCommandUser is not, then sshd(8) will
refuse to start.

AuthorizedKeysFile
Specifies the file that contains the public keys used for user authentication. The format is
described in the “AUTHORIZED_KEYS FILE FORMAT” section of sshd(8). Arguments to
AuthorizedKeysFile accept the tokens described in the “TOKENS” section. After expansion,
AuthorizedKeysFile is taken to be an absolute path or one relative to the user's home directory.
Multiple files may be listed, separated by whitespace. Alternately this option may be set to
none to skip checking for user keys in files. The default is ".ssh/authorized_keys
.ssh/authorized_keys2".

AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand
Specifies a program to be used to generate the list of allowed certificate principals as per
AuthorizedPrincipalsFile. The program must be owned by root, not writable by group or others and
specified by an absolute path. Arguments to AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand accept the tokens
described in the “TOKENS” section. If no arguments are specified then the username of the target
user is used.

The program should produce on standard output zero or more lines of AuthorizedPrincipalsFile
output. If either AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand or AuthorizedPrincipalsFile is specified, then
certificates offered by the client for authentication must contain a principal that is listed.
By default, no AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand is run.

AuthorizedPrincipalsCommandUser
Specifies the user under whose account the AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand is run. It is recommended
to use a dedicated user that has no other role on the host than running authorized principals
commands. If AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand is specified but AuthorizedPrincipalsCommandUser is
not, then sshd(8) will refuse to start.

AuthorizedPrincipalsFile
Specifies a file that lists principal names that are accepted for certificate authentication.
When using certificates signed by a key listed in TrustedUserCAKeys, this file lists names, one
of which must appear in the certificate for it to be accepted for authentication. Names are
listed one per line preceded by key options (as described in “AUTHORIZED_KEYS FILE FORMAT” in
sshd(8)). Empty lines and comments starting with ‘#’ are ignored.

Arguments to AuthorizedPrincipalsFile accept the tokens described in the “TOKENS” section. After
expansion, AuthorizedPrincipalsFile is taken to be an absolute path or one relative to the user's
home directory. The default is none, i.e. not to use a principals file – in this case, the
username of the user must appear in a certificate's principals list for it to be accepted.

Note that AuthorizedPrincipalsFile is only used when authentication proceeds using a CA listed in
TrustedUserCAKeys and is not consulted for certification authorities trusted via
~/.ssh/authorized_keys, though the principals= key option offers a similar facility (see sshd(8)
for details).

Banner The contents of the specified file are sent to the remote user before authentication is allowed.
If the argument is none then no banner is displayed. By default, no banner is displayed.

ChallengeResponseAuthentication
Specifies whether challenge-response authentication is allowed (e.g. via PAM). The default is
yes.

ChrootDirectory
Specifies the pathname of a directory to chroot(2) to after authentication. At session startup
sshd(8) checks that all components of the pathname are root-owned directories which are not
writable by any other user or group. After the chroot, sshd(8) changes the working directory to
the user's home directory. Arguments to ChrootDirectory accept the tokens described in the
“TOKENS” section.

The ChrootDirectory must contain the necessary files and directories to support the user's
session. For an interactive session this requires at least a shell, typically sh(1), and basic
/dev nodes such as null(4), zero(4), stdin(4), stdout(4), stderr(4), and tty(4) devices. For
file transfer sessions using SFTP no additional configuration of the environment is necessary if
the in-process sftp-server is used, though sessions which use logging may require /dev/log inside
the chroot directory on some operating systems (see sftp-server(8) for details).

For safety, it is very important that the directory hierarchy be prevented from modification by
other processes on the system (especially those outside the jail). Misconfiguration can lead to
unsafe environments which sshd(8) cannot detect.

The default is none, indicating not to chroot(2).

Ciphers
Specifies the ciphers allowed. Multiple ciphers must be comma-separated. If the specified value
begins with a ‘+’ character, then the specified ciphers will be appended to the default set
instead of replacing them. If the specified value begins with a ‘-’ character, then the
specified ciphers (including wildcards) will be removed from the default set instead of replacing
them.

The supported ciphers are:

3des-cbc
aes128-cbc
aes192-cbc
aes256-cbc
aes128-ctr
aes192-ctr
aes256-ctr
aes128-gcm@openssh.com
aes256-gcm@openssh.com
chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com

The default is:

chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,
aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,
aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com

The list of available ciphers may also be obtained using "ssh -Q cipher".

ClientAliveCountMax
Sets the number of client alive messages which may be sent without sshd(8) receiving any messages
back from the client. If this threshold is reached while client alive messages are being sent,
sshd will disconnect the client, terminating the session. It is important to note that the use
of client alive messages is very different from TCPKeepAlive. The client alive messages are sent
through the encrypted channel and therefore will not be spoofable. The TCP keepalive option
enabled by TCPKeepAlive is spoofable. The client alive mechanism is valuable when the client or
server depend on knowing when a connection has become inactive.

The default value is 3. If ClientAliveInterval is set to 15, and ClientAliveCountMax is left at
the default, unresponsive SSH clients will be disconnected after approximately 45 seconds.

ClientAliveInterval
Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received from the client,
sshd(8) will send a message through the encrypted channel to request a response from the client.
The default is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the client.

Compression
Specifies whether compression is enabled after the user has authenticated successfully. The
argument must be yes, delayed (a legacy synonym for yes) or no. The default is yes.

DebianBanner
Specifies whether the distribution-specified extra version suffix is included during initial
protocol handshake. The default is yes.

DenyGroups
This keyword can be followed by a list of group name patterns, separated by spaces. Login is
disallowed for users whose primary group or supplementary group list matches one of the patterns.
Only group names are valid; a numerical group ID is not recognized. By default, login is allowed
for all groups. The allow/deny directives are processed in the following order: DenyUsers,
AllowUsers, DenyGroups, and finally AllowGroups.

See PATTERNS in ssh_config(5) for more information on patterns.

DenyUsers
This keyword can be followed by a list of user name patterns, separated by spaces. Login is
disallowed for user names that match one of the patterns. Only user names are valid; a numerical
user ID is not recognized. By default, login is allowed for all users. If the pattern takes the
form USER@HOST then USER and HOST are separately checked, restricting logins to particular users
from particular hosts. HOST criteria may additionally contain addresses to match in CIDR
address/masklen format. The allow/deny directives are processed in the following order:
DenyUsers, AllowUsers, DenyGroups, and finally AllowGroups.

See PATTERNS in ssh_config(5) for more information on patterns.

DisableForwarding
Disables all forwarding features, including X11, ssh-agent(1), TCP and StreamLocal. This option
overrides all other forwarding-related options and may simplify restricted configurations.

ExposeAuthInfo
Writes a temporary file containing a list of authentication methods and public credentials (e.g.
keys) used to authenticate the user. The location of the file is exposed to the user session
through the SSH_USER_AUTH environment variable. The default is no.

FingerprintHash
Specifies the hash algorithm used when logging key fingerprints. Valid options are: md5 and
sha256. The default is sha256.

ForceCommand
Forces the execution of the command specified by ForceCommand, ignoring any command supplied by
the client and ~/.ssh/rc if present. The command is invoked by using the user's login shell with
the -c option. This applies to shell, command, or subsystem execution. It is most useful inside
a Match block. The command originally supplied by the client is available in the
SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND environment variable. Specifying a command of internal-sftp will force the
use of an in-process SFTP server that requires no support files when used with ChrootDirectory.
The default is none.

GatewayPorts
Specifies whether remote hosts are allowed to connect to ports forwarded for the client. By
default, sshd(8) binds remote port forwardings to the loopback address. This prevents other
remote hosts from connecting to forwarded ports. GatewayPorts can be used to specify that sshd
should allow remote port forwardings to bind to non-loopback addresses, thus allowing other hosts
to connect. The argument may be no to force remote port forwardings to be available to the local
host only, yes to force remote port forwardings to bind to the wildcard address, or
clientspecified to allow the client to select the address to which the forwarding is bound. The
default is no.

GSSAPIAuthentication
Specifies whether user authentication based on GSSAPI is allowed. The default is no.

GSSAPIKeyExchange
Specifies whether key exchange based on GSSAPI is allowed. GSSAPI key exchange doesn't rely on
ssh keys to verify host identity. The default is no.

GSSAPICleanupCredentials
Specifies whether to automatically destroy the user's credentials cache on logout. The default
is yes.

GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck
Determines whether to be strict about the identity of the GSSAPI acceptor a client authenticates
against. If set to yes then the client must authenticate against the host service on the current
hostname. If set to no then the client may authenticate against any service key stored in the
machine's default store. This facility is provided to assist with operation on multi homed
machines. The default is yes.

GSSAPIStoreCredentialsOnRekey
Controls whether the user's GSSAPI credentials should be updated following a successful
connection rekeying. This option can be used to accepted renewed or updated credentials from a
compatible client. The default is no.

HostbasedAcceptedKeyTypes
Specifies the key types that will be accepted for hostbased authentication as a comma-separated
pattern list. Alternately if the specified value begins with a ‘+’ character, then the specified
key types will be appended to the default set instead of replacing them. If the specified value
begins with a ‘-’ character, then the specified key types (including wildcards) will be removed
from the default set instead of replacing them. The default for this option is:

ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com,
ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com,
ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com,
ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,
ssh-rsa-cert-v01@openssh.com,
ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,
ssh-ed25519,ssh-rsa

The list of available key types may also be obtained using "ssh -Q key".

HostbasedAuthentication
Specifies whether rhosts or /etc/hosts.equiv authentication together with successful public key
client host authentication is allowed (host-based authentication). The default is no.

HostbasedUsesNameFromPacketOnly
Specifies whether or not the server will attempt to perform a reverse name lookup when matching
the name in the ~/.shosts, ~/.rhosts, and /etc/hosts.equiv files during HostbasedAuthentication.
A setting of yes means that sshd(8) uses the name supplied by the client rather than attempting
to resolve the name from the TCP connection itself. The default is no.

HostCertificate
Specifies a file containing a public host certificate. The certificate's public key must match a
private host key already specified by HostKey. The default behaviour of sshd(8) is not to load
any certificates.

HostKey
Specifies a file containing a private host key used by SSH. The defaults are
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key, /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key and /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.

Note that sshd(8) will refuse to use a file if it is group/world-accessible and that the
HostKeyAlgorithms option restricts which of the keys are actually used by sshd(8).

It is possible to have multiple host key files. It is also possible to specify public host key
files instead. In this case operations on the private key will be delegated to an ssh-agent(1).

HostKeyAgent
Identifies the UNIX-domain socket used to communicate with an agent that has access to the
private host keys. If the string "SSH_AUTH_SOCK" is specified, the location of the socket will
be read from the SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment variable.

HostKeyAlgorithms
Specifies the host key algorithms that the server offers. The default for this option is:

The list of available key types may also be obtained using "ssh -Q key".

IgnoreRhosts
Specifies that .rhosts and .shosts files will not be used in HostbasedAuthentication.

/etc/hosts.equiv and /etc/ssh/shosts.equiv are still used. The default is yes.

IgnoreUserKnownHosts
Specifies whether sshd(8) should ignore the user's ~/.ssh/known_hosts during
HostbasedAuthentication. The default is no.

IPQoS Specifies the IPv4 type-of-service or DSCP class for the connection. Accepted values are af11,
af12, af13, af21, af22, af23, af31, af32, af33, af41, af42, af43, cs0, cs1, cs2, cs3, cs4, cs5,
cs6, cs7, ef, lowdelay, throughput, reliability, a numeric value, or none to use the operating
system default. This option may take one or two arguments, separated by whitespace. If one
argument is specified, it is used as the packet class unconditionally. If two values are
specified, the first is automatically selected for interactive sessions and the second for non-
interactive sessions. The default is lowdelay for interactive sessions and throughput for non-
interactive sessions.

KbdInteractiveAuthentication
Specifies whether to allow keyboard-interactive authentication. The argument to this keyword
must be yes or no. The default is to use whatever value ChallengeResponseAuthentication is set
to (by default yes).

KerberosAuthentication
Specifies whether the password provided by the user for PasswordAuthentication will be validated
through the Kerberos KDC. To use this option, the server needs a Kerberos servtab which allows
the verification of the KDC's identity. The default is no.

KerberosGetAFSToken
If AFS is active and the user has a Kerberos 5 TGT, attempt to acquire an AFS token before
accessing the user's home directory. The default is no.

KerberosOrLocalPasswd
If password authentication through Kerberos fails then the password will be validated via any
additional local mechanism such as /etc/passwd. The default is yes.

KerberosTicketCleanup
Specifies whether to automatically destroy the user's ticket cache file on logout. The default
is yes.

KexAlgorithms
Specifies the available KEX (Key Exchange) algorithms. Multiple algorithms must be comma-
separated. Alternately if the specified value begins with a ‘+’ character, then the specified
methods will be appended to the default set instead of replacing them. If the specified value
begins with a ‘-’ character, then the specified methods (including wildcards) will be removed
from the default set instead of replacing them. The supported algorithms are:

curve25519-sha256
curve25519-sha256@libssh.org
diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
diffie-hellman-group14-sha1
diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1
diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
ecdh-sha2-nistp256
ecdh-sha2-nistp384
ecdh-sha2-nistp521

The default is:

curve25519-sha256,curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,
ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,
diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,
diffie-hellman-group14-sha1

The list of available key exchange algorithms may also be obtained using "ssh -Q kex".

ListenAddress
Specifies the local addresses sshd(8) should listen on. The following forms may be used:

ListenAddress host|IPv4_addr|IPv6_addr
ListenAddress host|IPv4_addr:port
ListenAddress [host|IPv6_addr]:port

If port is not specified, sshd will listen on the address and all Port options specified. The
default is to listen on all local addresses. Multiple ListenAddress options are permitted.

LoginGraceTime
The server disconnects after this time if the user has not successfully logged in. If the value
is 0, there is no time limit. The default is 120 seconds.

LogLevel
Gives the verbosity level that is used when logging messages from sshd(8). The possible values
are: QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2, and DEBUG3. The default is INFO.
DEBUG and DEBUG1 are equivalent. DEBUG2 and DEBUG3 each specify higher levels of debugging
output. Logging with a DEBUG level violates the privacy of users and is not recommended.

MACs Specifies the available MAC (message authentication code) algorithms. The MAC algorithm is used
for data integrity protection. Multiple algorithms must be comma-separated. If the specified
value begins with a ‘+’ character, then the specified algorithms will be appended to the default
set instead of replacing them. If the specified value begins with a ‘-’ character, then the
specified algorithms (including wildcards) will be removed from the default set instead of
replacing them.

The algorithms that contain "-etm" calculate the MAC after encryption (encrypt-then-mac). These
are considered safer and their use recommended. The supported MACs are:

hmac-md5
hmac-md5-96
hmac-sha1
hmac-sha1-96
hmac-sha2-256
hmac-sha2-512
umac-64@openssh.com
umac-128@openssh.com
hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com
hmac-md5-96-etm@openssh.com
hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com
hmac-sha1-96-etm@openssh.com
hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com
hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com
umac-64-etm@openssh.com
umac-128-etm@openssh.com

The default is:

umac-64-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,
hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,
hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com,
umac-64@openssh.com,umac-128@openssh.com,
hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1

The list of available MAC algorithms may also be obtained using "ssh -Q mac".

Match Introduces a conditional block. If all of the criteria on the Match line are satisfied, the
keywords on the following lines override those set in the global section of the config file,
until either another Match line or the end of the file. If a keyword appears in multiple Match
blocks that are satisfied, only the first instance of the keyword is applied.

The arguments to Match are one or more criteria-pattern pairs or the single token All which
matches all criteria. The available criteria are User, Group, Host, LocalAddress, LocalPort, and
Address. The match patterns may consist of single entries or comma-separated lists and may use
the wildcard and negation operators described in the “PATTERNS” section of ssh_config(5).

The patterns in an Address criteria may additionally contain addresses to match in CIDR
address/masklen format, such as 192.0.2.0/24 or 2001:db8::/32. Note that the mask length
provided must be consistent with the address - it is an error to specify a mask length that is
too long for the address or one with bits set in this host portion of the address. For example,
192.0.2.0/33 and 192.0.2.0/8, respectively.

Only a subset of keywords may be used on the lines following a Match keyword. Available keywords
are AcceptEnv, AllowAgentForwarding, AllowGroups, AllowStreamLocalForwarding, AllowTcpForwarding,
AllowUsers, AuthenticationMethods, AuthorizedKeysCommand, AuthorizedKeysCommandUser,
AuthorizedKeysFile, AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand, AuthorizedPrincipalsCommandUser,
AuthorizedPrincipalsFile, Banner, ChrootDirectory, ClientAliveCountMax, ClientAliveInterval,
DenyGroups, DenyUsers, ForceCommand, GatewayPorts, GSSAPIAuthentication,
HostbasedAcceptedKeyTypes, HostbasedAuthentication, HostbasedUsesNameFromPacketOnly, IPQoS,
KbdInteractiveAuthentication, KerberosAuthentication, LogLevel, MaxAuthTries, MaxSessions,
PasswordAuthentication, PermitEmptyPasswords, PermitOpen, PermitRootLogin, PermitTTY,
PermitTunnel, PermitUserRC, PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes, PubkeyAuthentication, RekeyLimit,
RevokedKeys, StreamLocalBindMask, StreamLocalBindUnlink, TrustedUserCAKeys, X11DisplayOffset,
X11Forwarding and X11UseLocalHost.

MaxAuthTries
Specifies the maximum number of authentication attempts permitted per connection. Once the
number of failures reaches half this value, additional failures are logged. The default is 6.

MaxSessions
Specifies the maximum number of open shell, login or subsystem (e.g. sftp) sessions permitted per
network connection. Multiple sessions may be established by clients that support connection
multiplexing. Setting MaxSessions to 1 will effectively disable session multiplexing, whereas
setting it to 0 will prevent all shell, login and subsystem sessions while still permitting
forwarding. The default is 10.

MaxStartups
Specifies the maximum number of concurrent unauthenticated connections to the SSH daemon.
Additional connections will be dropped until authentication succeeds or the LoginGraceTime
expires for a connection. The default is 10:30:100.

Alternatively, random early drop can be enabled by specifying the three colon separated values
start:rate:full (e.g. "10:30:60"). sshd(8) will refuse connection attempts with a probability of
rate/100 (30%) if there are currently start (10) unauthenticated connections. The probability
increases linearly and all connection attempts are refused if the number of unauthenticated
connections reaches full (60).

PasswordAuthentication
Specifies whether password authentication is allowed. The default is yes.

PermitEmptyPasswords
When password authentication is allowed, it specifies whether the server allows login to accounts
with empty password strings. The default is no.

PermitOpen
Specifies the destinations to which TCP port forwarding is permitted. The forwarding
specification must be one of the following forms:

PermitOpen host:port
PermitOpen IPv4_addr:port
PermitOpen [IPv6_addr]:port

Multiple forwards may be specified by separating them with whitespace. An argument of any can be
used to remove all restrictions and permit any forwarding requests. An argument of none can be
used to prohibit all forwarding requests. The wildcard ‘*’ can be used for host or port to allow
all hosts or ports, respectively. By default all port forwarding requests are permitted.

PermitRootLogin
Specifies whether root can log in using ssh(1). The argument must be yes, prohibit-password,
without-password, forced-commands-only, or no. The default is prohibit-password.

If this option is set to prohibit-password or without-password, password and keyboard-interactive
authentication are disabled for root.

If this option is set to forced-commands-only, root login with public key authentication will be
allowed, but only if the command option has been specified (which may be useful for taking remote
backups even if root login is normally not allowed). All other authentication methods are
disabled for root.

If this option is set to no, root is not allowed to log in.

PermitTTY
Specifies whether pty(4) allocation is permitted. The default is yes.

PermitTunnel
Specifies whether tun(4) device forwarding is allowed. The argument must be yes, point-to-point
(layer 3), ethernet (layer 2), or no. Specifying yes permits both point-to-point and ethernet.
The default is no.

Independent of this setting, the permissions of the selected tun(4) device must allow access to
the user.

PermitUserEnvironment
Specifies whether ~/.ssh/environment and environment= options in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys are
processed by sshd(8). The default is no. Enabling environment processing may enable users to
bypass access restrictions in some configurations using mechanisms such as LD_PRELOAD.

PermitUserRC
Specifies whether any ~/.ssh/rc file is executed. The default is yes.

PidFile
Specifies the file that contains the process ID of the SSH daemon, or none to not write one. The
default is /run/sshd.pid.

Port Specifies the port number that sshd(8) listens on. The default is 22. Multiple options of this
type are permitted. See also ListenAddress.

PrintLastLog
Specifies whether sshd(8) should print the date and time of the last user login when a user logs
in interactively. The default is yes.

PrintMotd
Specifies whether sshd(8) should print /etc/motd when a user logs in interactively. (On some
systems it is also printed by the shell, /etc/profile, or equivalent.) The default is yes.

PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes
Specifies the key types that will be accepted for public key authentication as a comma-separated
pattern list. Alternately if the specified value begins with a ‘+’ character, then the specified
key types will be appended to the default set instead of replacing them. If the specified value
begins with a ‘-’ character, then the specified key types (including wildcards) will be removed
from the default set instead of replacing them. The default for this option is:

The list of available key types may also be obtained using "ssh -Q key".

PubkeyAuthentication
Specifies whether public key authentication is allowed. The default is yes.

RekeyLimit
Specifies the maximum amount of data that may be transmitted before the session key is
renegotiated, optionally followed a maximum amount of time that may pass before the session key
is renegotiated. The first argument is specified in bytes and may have a suffix of ‘K’, ‘M’, or
‘G’ to indicate Kilobytes, Megabytes, or Gigabytes, respectively. The default is between ‘1G’
and ‘4G’, depending on the cipher. The optional second value is specified in seconds and may use
any of the units documented in the “TIME FORMATS” section. The default value for RekeyLimit is
default none, which means that rekeying is performed after the cipher's default amount of data
has been sent or received and no time based rekeying is done.

RevokedKeys
Specifies revoked public keys file, or none to not use one. Keys listed in this file will be
refused for public key authentication. Note that if this file is not readable, then public key
authentication will be refused for all users. Keys may be specified as a text file, listing one
public key per line, or as an OpenSSH Key Revocation List (KRL) as generated by ssh-keygen(1).
For more information on KRLs, see the KEY REVOCATION LISTS section in ssh-keygen(1).

StreamLocalBindMask
Sets the octal file creation mode mask (umask) used when creating a Unix-domain socket file for
local or remote port forwarding. This option is only used for port forwarding to a Unix-domain
socket file.

The default value is 0177, which creates a Unix-domain socket file that is readable and writable
only by the owner. Note that not all operating systems honor the file mode on Unix-domain socket
files.

StreamLocalBindUnlink
Specifies whether to remove an existing Unix-domain socket file for local or remote port
forwarding before creating a new one. If the socket file already exists and
StreamLocalBindUnlink is not enabled, sshd will be unable to forward the port to the Unix-domain
socket file. This option is only used for port forwarding to a Unix-domain socket file.

The argument must be yes or no. The default is no.

StrictModes
Specifies whether sshd(8) should check file modes and ownership of the user's files and home
directory before accepting login. This is normally desirable because novices sometimes
accidentally leave their directory or files world-writable. The default is yes. Note that this
does not apply to ChrootDirectory, whose permissions and ownership are checked unconditionally.

Subsystem
Configures an external subsystem (e.g. file transfer daemon). Arguments should be a subsystem
name and a command (with optional arguments) to execute upon subsystem request.

The command sftp-server implements the SFTP file transfer subsystem.

Alternately the name internal-sftp implements an in-process SFTP server. This may simplify
configurations using ChrootDirectory to force a different filesystem root on clients.

By default no subsystems are defined.

SyslogFacility
Gives the facility code that is used when logging messages from sshd(8). The possible values
are: DAEMON, USER, AUTH, LOCAL0, LOCAL1, LOCAL2, LOCAL3, LOCAL4, LOCAL5, LOCAL6, LOCAL7. The
default is AUTH.

TCPKeepAlive
Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the other side. If they are
sent, death of the connection or crash of one of the machines will be properly noticed. However,
this means that connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people find it
annoying. On the other hand, if TCP keepalives are not sent, sessions may hang indefinitely on
the server, leaving "ghost" users and consuming server resources.

The default is yes (to send TCP keepalive messages), and the server will notice if the network
goes down or the client host crashes. This avoids infinitely hanging sessions.

To disable TCP keepalive messages, the value should be set to no.

This option was formerly called KeepAlive.

TrustedUserCAKeys
Specifies a file containing public keys of certificate authorities that are trusted to sign user
certificates for authentication, or none to not use one. Keys are listed one per line; empty
lines and comments starting with ‘#’ are allowed. If a certificate is presented for
authentication and has its signing CA key listed in this file, then it may be used for
authentication for any user listed in the certificate's principals list. Note that certificates
that lack a list of principals will not be permitted for authentication using TrustedUserCAKeys.
For more details on certificates, see the CERTIFICATES section in ssh-keygen(1).

UseDNS Specifies whether sshd(8) should look up the remote host name, and to check that the resolved
host name for the remote IP address maps back to the very same IP address.

If this option is set to no (the default) then only addresses and not host names may be used in
~/.ssh/authorized_keys from and sshd_config Match Host directives.

UsePAM Enables the Pluggable Authentication Module interface. If set to yes this will enable PAM
authentication using ChallengeResponseAuthentication and PasswordAuthentication in addition to
PAM account and session module processing for all authentication types.

Because PAM challenge-response authentication usually serves an equivalent role to password
authentication, you should disable either PasswordAuthentication or
ChallengeResponseAuthentication.

If UsePAM is enabled, you will not be able to run sshd(8) as a non-root user. The default is no.

VersionAddendum
Optionally specifies additional text to append to the SSH protocol banner sent by the server upon
connection. The default is none.

X11DisplayOffset
Specifies the first display number available for sshd(8)'s X11 forwarding. This prevents sshd
from interfering with real X11 servers. The default is 10.

X11Forwarding
Specifies whether X11 forwarding is permitted. The argument must be yes or no. The default is
no.

When X11 forwarding is enabled, there may be additional exposure to the server and to client
displays if the sshd(8) proxy display is configured to listen on the wildcard address (see
X11UseLocalhost), though this is not the default. Additionally, the authentication spoofing and
authentication data verification and substitution occur on the client side. The security risk of
using X11 forwarding is that the client's X11 display server may be exposed to attack when the
SSH client requests forwarding (see the warnings for ForwardX11 in ssh_config(5)). A system
administrator may have a stance in which they want to protect clients that may expose themselves
to attack by unwittingly requesting X11 forwarding, which can warrant a no setting.

Note that disabling X11 forwarding does not prevent users from forwarding X11 traffic, as users
can always install their own forwarders.

X11UseLocalhost
Specifies whether sshd(8) should bind the X11 forwarding server to the loopback address or to the
wildcard address. By default, sshd binds the forwarding server to the loopback address and sets
the hostname part of the DISPLAY environment variable to localhost. This prevents remote hosts
from connecting to the proxy display. However, some older X11 clients may not function with this
configuration. X11UseLocalhost may be set to no to specify that the forwarding server should be
bound to the wildcard address. The argument must be yes or no. The default is yes.

XAuthLocation
Specifies the full pathname of the xauth(1) program, or none to not use one. The default is
/usr/bin/xauth.

TIME FORMATS

       sshd(8) command-line arguments and configuration file options that specify time may be expressed using  a
       sequence of the form: time[qualifier], where time is a positive integer value and qualifier is one of the
       following:

             ⟨none⟩  seconds
             s | S   seconds
             m | M   minutes
             h | H   hours
             d | D   days
             w | W   weeks

       Each member of the sequence is added together to calculate the total time value.

       Time format examples:

             600     600 seconds (10 minutes)
             10m     10 minutes
             1h30m   1 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes)

TOKENS

       Arguments to some keywords can make use of tokens, which are expanded at runtime:

             %%    A literal ‘%’.
             %F    The fingerprint of the CA key.
             %f    The fingerprint of the key or certificate.
             %h    The home directory of the user.
             %i    The key ID in the certificate.
             %K    The base64-encoded CA key.
             %k    The base64-encoded key or certificate for authentication.
             %s    The serial number of the certificate.
             %T    The type of the CA key.
             %t    The key or certificate type.
             %u    The username.

       AuthorizedKeysCommand accepts the tokens %%, %f, %h, %k, %t, and %u.

       AuthorizedKeysFile accepts the tokens %%, %h, and %u.

       AuthorizedPrincipalsCommand accepts the tokens %%, %F, %f, %h, %i, %K, %k, %s, %T, %t, and %u.

       AuthorizedPrincipalsFile accepts the tokens %%, %h, and %u.

       ChrootDirectory accepts the tokens %%, %h, and %u.

FILES

       /etc/ssh/sshd_config
               Contains  configuration  data  for sshd(8).  This file should be writable by root only, but it is
               recommended (though not necessary) that it be world-readable.

AUTHORS

       OpenSSH is a derivative of the original and free ssh 1.2.12 release by Tatu Ylonen.  Aaron Campbell,  Bob
       Beck,  Markus Friedl, Niels Provos, Theo de Raadt and Dug Song removed many bugs, re-added newer features
       and created OpenSSH.  Markus Friedl contributed the support for SSH protocol versions 1.5 and 2.0.  Niels
       Provos and Markus Friedl contributed support for privilege separation.

Debian                                         September 27, 2017                                 SSHD_CONFIG(5)

NAME

DESCRIPTION

TIME FORMATS

TOKENS

FILES

SEE ALSO

AUTHORS