SSH
Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network.[1] The standard TCP port for SSH is 22. The best known example application is for remote login to computer systems by users.
SSH provides a secure channel over an unsecured network in a client-server architecture, connecting an SSH client application with an SSH server. Common applications include remote command-line login and remote command execution, but any network service can be secured with SSH. The protocol specification distinguishes between two major versions, referred to as SSH-1 and SSH-2.
The most visible application of the protocol is for access to shell accounts on Unix-like operating systems, but it sees some limited use on Windows as well. In 2015, Microsoft announced that they would include native support for SSH in a future release.
SSH was designed as a replacement for Telnet and for unsecured remote shell protocols such as the Berkeley rlogin, rsh, and rexec protocols. Those protocols send information, notably passwords, in plaintext, rendering them susceptible to interception and disclosure using packet analysis. The encryption used by SSH is intended to provide confidentiality and integrity of data over an unsecured network, such as the Internet.
Configuration
Enabling SSH only requires you to add service ssh port NN
, where ‘NN’ is
the port you want SSH to listen on. By default, SSH runs on port 22.
set service ssh port 22
Options
Listening address - Specify the IPv4/IPv6 listening address for connection requests. Multiple
listen-address
nodes can be defined.set service ssh listen-address <address>
Allow
root
login, this can be set to allowroot
logins on SSH connections, however it is not advisable to use this setting as this bears serious security risks. The default system user possesses all required privileges.set service ssh allow-root
Allowed ciphers - A number of allowed ciphers can be specified, use multiple occurrences to allow multiple ciphers.
set service ssh ciphers <cipher>
Available ciphers:
3des-cbc
aes128-cbc
aes192-cbc
aes256-cbc
aes128-ctr
aes192-ctr
aes256-ctr
arcfour128
arcfour256
arcfour
blowfish-cbc
cast128-cbc
Disable password authentication - If SSH key authentication is set up, password-based user authentication can be disabled. This hardens security!
set service ssh disable-password-authentication
Disable host validation - Disable the host validation through reverse DNS lookups.
set service ssh disable-host-validation
MAC algorithms - Specifies the available MAC (message authentication code) algorithms. The MAC algorithm is used in protocol version 2 for data integrity protection. Multiple algorithms can be entered.
set service ssh macs <macs>
Supported MACs:
hmac-md5
hmac-md5-96
hmac-ripemd160
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-ripemd160-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
Key Authentication
It is highly recommended to use SSH Key authentication. By default there is
only one user (vyos
), and you can assign any number of keys to that user.
You can generate a ssh key with the ssh-keygen
command on your local
machine, which will (by default) save it as ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
which is in
three parts:
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAA...VByBD5lKwEWB username@host.example.com
Only the type (ssh-rsa
) and the key (AAAB3N...
) are used. Note that
the key will usually be several hundred characters long, and you will need to
copy and paste it. Some terminal emulators may accidentally split this over
several lines. Be attentive when you paste it that it only pastes as a single
line. The third part is simply an identifier, and is for your own reference.
Assign SSH Key to user
Under the user (in this example, vyos
), add the public key and the type.
The identifier is simply a string that is relevant to you.
set system login user vyos authentication public-keys 'identifier' key "AAAAB3Nz...."
set system login user vyos authentication public-keys 'identifier' type ssh-rsa"
You can assign multiple keys to the same user by changing the identifier. In
the following example, both Unicron and xrobau will be able to SSH into VyOS
as the vyos
user using their own keys.
set system login user vyos authentication public-keys 'Unicron' key "AAAAB3Nz...."
set system login user vyos authentication public-keys 'Unicron' type ssh-rsa
set system login user vyos authentication public-keys 'xrobau' key "AAAAQ39x...."
set system login user vyos authentication public-keys 'xrobau' type ssh-rsa