KURDISTAN REGIONAL GOVRENMENT-IRAQ MINISTRY OF

HIGHER EDUCATION & SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHERBIL

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY KOYA TECHNICAL INSTITUTE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
SECOND STAGE_3RD SEMESTER (2023-2024)

Secure-Shell
Prepared By :

Mohammed_Nazm
Nawshad_Nawshirwan
Sarmad_Sabah

Supervised By:
Kamaran_Manguri
 CONTENTS

summary..................................................................1
Secure Shell..............................................................2
Definition ....................................................................3
Authentication: OpenSSH key management.........................4
Use............………………………………….……...5

Historical development…………………………….…….…6
OpenSSH and OSSH...................................................7
Uses…………………………………………………….8
Architecture………………………………..9
Algorithms………………………………….10
Vulnerabilities………………………………………..11
See also………………………………………………12

Benefits and Limitations of SSH.....................13

References…………………………………………………14

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 summary

Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol used for

securely operating network services over an unsecured network.
It primarily provides encrypted remote login and command
execution capabilities, allowing users to access and manage
remote systems and servers.

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4
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 Secure Shell

The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for

operating network services securely over an unsecured network.[1] Its most
notable applications are remote login and command-line execution.
SSH applications are based on a client–server architecture, connecting
an SSH client instance with an SSH server.[2] SSH operates as a layered
protocol suite comprising three principal hierarchical components:
the transport layer provides server authentication, confidentiality, and
integrity; the user authentication protocol validates the user to the server;
and the connection protocol multiplexes the encrypted tunnel into multiple
logical communication channels.[1]
SSH was designed on Unix-like operating systems, as a replacement
for Telnet and for unsecured remote Unix shell protocols, such as the
Berkeley Remote Shell (rsh) and the related rlogin and rexec protocols,
which all use insecure, plaintext transmission of authentication tokens.
SSH was first designed in 1995 by Finnish computer scientist Tatu Ylönen.
Subsequent development of the protocol suite proceeded in several
developer groups, producing several variants of implementation. The
protocol specification distinguishes two major versions, referred to as SSH-1
and SSH-2. The most commonly implemented software stack is OpenSSH,
released in 1999 as open-source software by the OpenBSD developers.
Implementations are distributed for all types of operating systems in
common use, including embedded systems.

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 Definition

SSH uses public-key cryptography to authenticate the remote

computer and allow it to authenticate the user, if necessary.[2]
SSH may be used in several methodologies. In the simplest
manner, both ends of a communication channel use automatically
generated public-private key pairs to encrypt a network connection,
and then use a password to authenticate the user.
When the public-private key pair is generated by the user manually,
the authentication is essentially performed when the key pair is
created, and a session may then be opened automatically without a
password prompt. In this scenario, the public key is placed on all
computers that must allow access to the owner of the matching
private key, which the owner keeps private. While authentication is
based on the private key, the key is never transferred through the
network during authentication. SSH only verifies that the same
person offering the public key also owns the matching private key.
In all versions of SSH it is important to verify unknown public keys,
i.e. associate the public keys with identities, before accepting them
as valid. Accepting an attacker's public key without validation will
authorize an unauthorized attacker as a valid user.

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 Authentication: OpenSSH key management

On Unix-like systems, the list of authorized public keys is typically stored in

the home directory of the user that is allowed to log in remotely, in the
file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys .[3] This file is respected by SSH only if it is
not writable by anything apart from the owner and root. When the public key
is present on the remote end and the matching private key is present on the
local end, typing in the password is no longer required. However, for
additional security the private key itself can be locked with a passphrase.
The private key can also be looked for in standard places, and its full path
can be specified as a command line setting (the option -i for ssh). The ssh-
keygen utility produces the public and private keys, always in pairs.
SSH also supports password-based authentication that is encrypted by
automatically generated keys. In this case, the attacker could imitate the
legitimate server side, ask for the password, and obtain it (man-in-the-middle
attack). However, this is possible only if the two sides have never
authenticated before, as SSH remembers the key that the server side
previously used. The SSH client raises a warning before accepting the key of
a new, previously unknown server. Password authentication can be disabled
from the server side.

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Use

SSH is typically used to log into a remote machine and execute commands,
but it also supports tunneling, forwarding TCP ports and X11 connections; it
can transfer files using the associated SSH file transfer (SFTP) or secure
copy (SCP) protocols.[2] SSH uses the client–server model.
An SSH client program is typically used for establishing connections to an
SSH daemon, such as sshd, accepting remote connections. Both are
commonly present on most modern operating systems, including macOS,
most distributions
of Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris and OpenVMS. Notably,
versions of Windows prior to Windows 10 version 1709 do not include SSH
by default. Proprietary, freeware and open source (e.g. PuTTY,[4] and the
version of OpenSSH which is part of Cygwin[5]) versions of various levels of
complexity and completeness exist. File managers for UNIX-like systems
(e.g. Konqueror) can use the FISH protocol to provide a split-pane GUI with
drag-and-drop. The open source Windows program WinSCP[6] provides
similar file management (synchronization, copy, remote delete) capability
using PuTTY as a back-end. Both WinSCP[7] and PuTTY[8] are available
packaged to run directly off a USB drive, without requiring installation on the
client machine. The secure shell extension to the Chrome browser also
allows SSH connections without any software installation and even allows
SSH from a Chromebook computer. Setting up an SSH server in Windows
typically involves enabling a feature in Settings app. In Windows 10 version
1709, an official Win32 port of OpenSSH is available.
SSH is important in cloud computing to solve connectivity problems, avoiding
the security issues of exposing a cloud-based virtual machine directly on the
Internet. An SSH tunnel can provide a secure path over the Internet, through
a firewall to a virtual machine.[9]
The IANA has assigned TCP port 22, UDP port 22 and SCTP port 22 for this
protocol.[10] IANA had listed the standard TCP port 22 for SSH servers as one
of the well-known ports as early as 2001.[11] SSH can also be run
using SCTP rather than TCP as the connection oriented transport layer
protocol.[12]

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 Historical development

Version 1[edit]
In 1995, Tatu Ylönen, a researcher at Helsinki University of Technology,
Finland, designed the first version of the protocol (now called SSH-1)
prompted by a password-sniffing attack at his university network.[13] The
goal of SSH was to replace the
earlier rlogin, TELNET, FTP[14] and rsh protocols, which did not provide
strong authentication nor guarantee confidentiality. He chose the port
number 22 because it is between telnet (port 23) and ftp (port 21).[15]

Ylönen released his implementation as freeware in July 1995, and the tool
quickly gained in popularity. Towards the end of 1995, the SSH user base
had grown to 20000 users in fifty countries.[citation needed]
In December 1995, Ylönen founded SSH Communications Security to
market and develop SSH. The original version of the SSH software used
various pieces of free software, such as GNU libgmp, but later versions
released by SSH Communications Security evolved into
increasingly proprietary software.
It was estimated that by 2000 the number of users had grown to 2 million.
[16]

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Version 2[edit]
"Secsh" was the official Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) name
for the IETF working group responsible for version 2 of the SSH protocol.
[17]
In 2006, a revised version of the protocol, SSH-2, was adopted as a
standard. This version is incompatible with SSH-1. SSH-2 features both
security and feature improvements over SSH-1. Better security, for
example, comes through Diffie–Hellman key exchange and
strong integrity checking via message authentication codes. New features
of SSH-2 include the ability to run any number of shell sessions over a
single SSH connection.[18] Due to SSH-2's superiority and popularity over
SSH-1, some implementations such as libssh (v0.8.0+),
[19]
Lsh[20] and Dropbear[21] support only the SSH-2 protocol.
Version 1.99[edit]
In January 2006, well after version 2.1 was
established, RFC 4253 specified that an SSH server supporting 2.0 as
well as prior versions should identify its protocol version as 1.99.[22] This
version number does not reflect a historical software revision, but a
method to identify backward compatibility.

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OpenSSH and OSSH

In 1999, developers, desiring availability of a free software version,

restarted software development from the 1.2.12 release of the original
SSH program, which was the last released under an open source license.
[23]
This served as a code base for Björn Grönvall's OSSH software.
[24]
Shortly thereafter, OpenBSD developers forked Grönvall's code and
created OpenSSH, which shipped with Release 2.6 of OpenBSD. From
this version, a "portability" branch was formed to port OpenSSH to other
operating systems.[25]
As of 2005, OpenSSH was the single most popular SSH implementation,
being the default version in a large number of operating system
distributions. OSSH meanwhile has become obsolete.[26] OpenSSH
continues to be maintained and supports the SSH-2 protocol, having
expunged SSH-1 support from the codebase in the OpenSSH 7.6
release.

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Uses

SSH is a protocol that can be used for many applications across many
platforms including most Unix variants (Linux,
the BSDs including Apple's macOS, and Solaris), as well as Microsoft
Windows. Some of the applications below may require features that are
only available or compatible with specific SSH clients or servers. For
example, using the SSH protocol to implement a VPN is possible, but
presently only with the OpenSSH server and client implementation.

 For login to a shell on a remote host (replacing Telnet and rlogin)

 For executing a single command on a remote host (replacing rsh)
 For setting up automatic (passwordless) login to a remote server
(for example, using OpenSSH[27])
 In combination with rsync to back up, copy and mirror files
efficiently and securely
 For forwarding a port
 For tunneling (not to be confused with a VPN,
which routes packets between different networks,
or bridges two broadcast domains into one).
 For using as a full-fledged encrypted VPN. Note that
only OpenSSH server and client supports this feature.
 For forwarding X from a remote host (possible through multiple
intermediate hosts)
 For browsing the web through an encrypted proxy connection with
SSH clients that support the SOCKS protocol.
 For securely mounting a directory on a remote server as
a filesystem on a local computer using SSHFS.
 For automated remote monitoring and management of servers
through one or more of the mechanisms discussed above.
 For development on a mobile or embedded device that supports
SSH.
 For securing file transfer protocols.

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File transfer protocols[edit]
The Secure Shell protocols are used in several file transfer mechanisms.

 Secure copy (SCP), which evolved from RCP protocol over SSH
 rsync, intended to be more efficient than SCP. Generally runs
over an SSH connection.
 SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), a secure alternative
to FTP (not to be confused with FTP over SSH or FTPS)
 Files transferred over shell protocol (FISH), released in 1998,
which evolved from Unix shell commands over SSH
 Fast and Secure Protocol (FASP), aka Aspera, uses SSH for
control and UDP ports for data transfer.

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Architecture

The SSH protocol has a layered architecture with three separate

components:

 The transport layer (RFC 4253) typically uses the Transmission

Control Protocol (TCP) of TCP/IP, reserving port number 22 as a
server listening port. This layer handles initial key exchange as
well as server authentication, and sets up encryption,
compression, and integrity verification. It exposes to the upper
layer an interface for sending and receiving plaintext packets with
a size of up to 32,768 bytes each, but more can be allowed by
each implementation. The transport layer also arranges for key
re-exchange, usually after 1 GB of data has been transferred or
after one hour has passed, whichever occurs first.
 The user authentication layer (RFC 4252) handles client
authentication, and provides a suite of authentication algorithms.
Authentication is client-driven: when one is prompted for a
password, it may be the SSH client prompting, not the server. The
server merely responds to the client's authentication requests.
Widely used user-authentication methods include the following:
o password: a method for straightforward password
authentication, including a facility allowing a password to
be changed. Not all programs implement this method.
o publickey: a method for public-key-based authentication,
usually supporting at least DSA, ECDSA or RSA keypairs,
with other implementations also
supporting X.509 certificates.
o keyboard-interactive (RFC 4256): a versatile method
where the server sends one or more prompts to enter
information and the client displays them and sends back
responses keyed-in by the user. Used to provide one-time
password authentication such as S/Key or SecurID. Used
by some OpenSSH configurations when PAM is the
underlying host-authentication provider to effectively
provide password authentication, sometimes leading to

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 inability to log in with a client that supports just the
plain password authentication method.
o GSSAPI authentication methods which provide an
extensible scheme to perform SSH authentication using
external mechanisms such as Kerberos 5 or NTLM,
providing single sign-on capability to SSH sessions.
These methods are usually implemented by commercial
SSH implementations for use in organizations, though
OpenSSH does have a working GSSAPI implementation.
 The connection layer (RFC 4254) defines the concept of
channels, channel requests, and global requests, which define the
SSH services provided. A single SSH connection can be
multiplexed into multiple logical channels simultaneously, each
transferring data bidirectionally. Channel requests are used to
relay out-of-band channel-specific data, such as the changed size
of a terminal window, or the exit code of a server-side process.
Additionally, each channel performs its own flow control using the
receive window size. The SSH client requests a server-side port
to be forwarded using a global request. Standard channel types
include:
o shell for terminal shells, SFTP and exec requests
(including SCP transfers)
o direct-tcpip for client-to-server forwarded connections
o forwarded-tcpip for server-to-client forwarded connections
 The SSHFP DNS record (RFC 4255) provides the public host key
fingerprints in order to aid in verifying the authenticity of the host.
This open architecture provides considerable flexibility, allowing the use
of SSH for a variety of purposes beyond a secure shell. The functionality
of the transport layer alone is comparable to Transport Layer
Security (TLS); the user-authentication layer is highly extensible with
custom authentication methods; and the connection layer provides the
ability to multiplex many secondary sessions into a single SSH
connection, a feature comparable to BEEP and not available in TLS.

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 Algorithms

 EdDSA,[28] ECDSA, RSA and DSA for public-key cryptography.[29]

 ECDH and Diffie–Hellman for key exchange.[29]
 HMAC, AEAD and UMAC for MAC.[30]
 AES (and deprecated RC4, 3DES, DES[31]) for symmetric
encryption.
 AES-GCM[32] and ChaCha20-Poly1305 for AEAD encryption.
 SHA (and deprecated MD5) for key fingerprint.

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Vulnerabilities

SSH-1[edit]
In 1998, a vulnerability was described in SSH 1.5 which allowed the
unauthorized insertion of content into an encrypted SSH stream due to
insufficient data integrity protection from CRC-32 used in this version of
the protocol.[33][34] A fix known as SSH Compensation Attack
Detector[35] was introduced into most implementations. Many of these
updated implementations contained a new integer
overflow vulnerability[36] that allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code
with the privileges of the SSH daemon, typically root.
In January 2001 a vulnerability was discovered that allows attackers to
modify the last block of an IDEA-encrypted session.[37] The same month,
another vulnerability was discovered that allowed a malicious server to
forward a client authentication to another server.[38]
Since SSH-1 has inherent design flaws which make it vulnerable, it is now
generally considered obsolete and should be avoided by explicitly
disabling fallback to SSH-1.[38] Most modern servers and clients support
SSH-2.[39]
CBC plaintext recovery[edit]
In November 2008, a theoretical vulnerability was discovered for all
versions of SSH which allowed recovery of up to 32 bits of plaintext from
a block of ciphertext that was encrypted using what was then the
standard default encryption mode, CBC.[40] The most straightforward
solution is to use CTR, counter mode, instead of CBC mode, since this
renders SSH resistant to the attack.[40]
Suspected decryption by NSA[edit]
On December 28, 2014 Der Spiegel published classified
information[41] leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden which suggests
that the National Security Agency may be able to decrypt some SSH
traffic. The technical details associated with such a process were not
disclosed. A 2017 analysis of the CIA hacking
tools BothanSpy and Gyrfalcon suggested that the SSH protocol was not
compromised.[4
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 See also

 Brute-force attack
 Comparison of SSH clients
 Comparison of SSH servers
 Corkscrew
 Ident
 OpenSSH
 Secure Shell tunneling
 Web-based SSH

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Benefits and Limitations of SSH

SSH replaced the conventional remote shell protocols like Telnet, FTP, rsh
(remote shell), rlogin (remote login), and rexec (remote execution) that
exchanged information, including passwords in plain text. These older protocols
were insecure and prone to security breaches. It led to the adoption of more
secure SSH protocols.

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References

https://www.minitool.com/lib/what-is-
ssh.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell

https://www.ssh.com/academy/ssh

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/what-ssh-and-how-
do-i-use-it

https://www.ssh.com/academy/ssh

https://techtarget.com/searchsecurity/
definition/Secure-Shell

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