SSH

SSH (Secure SHell) is telnet tool on Unix-like operating systems.]]

In addition to remote terminal access provided by the main binary, the SSH suite of programs has grown to include other tools such as  (Secure Copy Program) and  (Secure File Transfer Protocol).

Originally, SSH was not free. However, today the most popular and de-facto standard implementation of SSH is OpenBSD's OpenSSH, which comes pre-installed on Gentoo.

Check install
Most deployments of Gentoo Linux will already have OpenSSH installed on the system. This can be checked by running the command. If it is installed a usage statement should be printed:

If no usage statement is printed is either corrupted or not installed. It is also possible that a user is simply rebuilding OpenSSH to include a new USE configuration. Whatever the case, proceed on to view possible USE settings.

Emerge
After changing the necessary USE flags, do not forget to install (or rebuild) OpenSSH:

Create keys
In order to provide a secure shell, cryptographic keys are used to manage the encryption, decryption, and hashing functionalities offered by SSH.

On the first start of the SSH service, system keys will be generated. Keys can be (re)generated using the command.

To generate the keys for SSH protocol version 2 (DSA and RSA algorithms):

The article Secure Secure Shell suggests using Ed25519 and RSA public key algorithms with:

Server configuration
The SSH server is usually configured in the file, though it is also possible to perform further configuration in OpenRC's, including changing the location of the configuration file. For detailed information on how to configure the server see the sshd_config man page.

Users should study 's OpenSSH guide for a security focused configuration.

The server provides means to validate its configuration using test mode:

Client configuration
The client and related programs (,, etc.) can be configured using the following files:



For more information read the manual:

Intrusion prevention
SSH is a commonly attacked service. Tools such as sshguard and fail2ban monitor logs and black list remote users who have repeatedly attempted, yet failed to login. Utilize them as needed to secure a frequently attacked system.

OpenRC
Add the OpenSSH daemon to the default runlevel:

Start the sshd daemon with:

The OpenSSH server can be controlled like any other OpenRC-managed service:

systemd
To have the OpenSSH daemon start when the system starts:

To start the OpenSSH daemon now:

To check if the service has started:

Escape sequences
During an active SSH session, pressing the tilde key starts an escape sequence. Enter the following for a list of options:

Passwordless authentication
Handy for git server management.

Client
On the client, if not already done, create a key pair. This can be done by running the following command (of course, not entering a passphrase):

Server
Make sure an account for the user exists on the server, and then place the clients' file into the server's  file in the user's home directory. This can be done by running the following command on the client computer (here, the user's passphrase on the server needs to be entered):

Afterwards a passwordless login should be possible doing

Then on the server, the file should be set to.

Single machine testing
The above procedure can be tested out locally:

Troubleshooting
There are 3 different levels of debug modes that can help troubleshooting issues. With the  option SSH prints debugging messages about its progress. This is helpful in debugging connection, authentication, and configuration problems. Multiple  options increase the verbosity. Maximum verbosity is three levels deep.

Death of long-lived connections
Many internet access devices perform Network Address Translation (NAT), a process that enables devices on a private network such as that typically found in a home or business place to access foreign networks, such as the internet, despite only having a single IP address on that network. Unfortunately, not all NAT devices are created equal, and some of them incorrectly close long-lived, occasional-use TCP connections such as those used by SSH. This is generally observable as a sudden inability to interact with the remote server, even though the client program has not exited.

In order to resolve the issue, OpenSSH clients and servers can be configured to send a 'keep alive', or invisible message aimed at maintaining and confirming the live status of the link:


 * To enable keep alive for all clients connecting to your local server, set  (or some other value, in seconds) within the  file.
 * To enable keep alive for all servers connected to by your local client, set  (or some other value, in seconds) within the  file.

X11 forwarding, not forwarding, or tunneling
Problem: After having made the necessary changes to the configuration files for permitting X11 forwarding, it is discovered X applications are executing on the server and are not being forwarded to the client.

Solution: What is likely occurring during SSH login into the remote server or host, the DISPLAY variable is either being unset or is being set after the SSH session sets it.

Test for this scenario perform the following after logging in remotely:

The output should be something similar to  or   using server side   setting. If the usual  is not displayed, check to make sure the DISPLAY variable within  is not being unset or re-initializing. If it is, remove or comment out any custom initialization of the DISPLAY variable to prevent the code in from executing during a SSH login:

Be sure to substitute  in the command above with the proper username.

A trick that works to complete this task would be to define an alias within the users' file.

ssh-agent
OpenSSH comes with, a daemon to cache and prevent from frequent ssh password entries. When run, the environment variable SSH_AUTH_SOCK is used to point to ssh-agent's communication socket. The normal way to setup is to run it as the top most process of the user's session. Otherwise the environment variables will not be visible inside the session.

Depending on the way the graphical user session is configured to launch, it can be tricky to find a suitable way to launch. As an example for the display manager, you may edit and change  from

into

To tell the password once per session, either run   manually or make use of the   option.

Recent Xfce will start (and ) automatically. If both are installed both will be started which makes identity management esp. with SmartCards more complicated. Either stop XFCE from autostarting at least SSH's agent or disable both and use your shell, X-session or similar.

External resources

 * Securing OpenSSH - Gentoo developer documentation.
 * — SSH Proxy Command -- connect.c
 * https://lonesysadmin.net/2011/11/08/ssh-escape-sequences-aka-kill-dead-ssh-sessions/amp/ - A blog entry on escape sequences.
 * https://hackaday.com/2017/10/18/practical-public-key-cryptography/ - Practical public key cryptography (Hackaday).
 * SSH on wiki.archlinux.org