Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | This documents OpenSSH's deviations and extensions to the published SSH |
| 2 | protocol. |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Note that OpenSSH's sftp and sftp-server implement revision 3 of the SSH |
| 5 | filexfer protocol described in: |
| 6 | |
| 7 | http://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt |
| 8 | |
Darren Tucker | a2e1048 | 2010-01-09 22:25:14 +1100 | [diff] [blame] | 9 | Newer versions of the draft will not be supported, though some features |
| 10 | are individually implemented as extensions described below. |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 11 | |
Damien Miller | 1e18beb | 2008-06-30 00:07:00 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 12 | The protocol used by OpenSSH's ssh-agent is described in the file |
| 13 | PROTOCOL.agent |
| 14 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 15 | 1. Transport protocol changes |
| 16 | |
| 17 | 1.1. transport: Protocol 2 MAC algorithm "umac-64@openssh.com" |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 18 | |
| 19 | This is a new transport-layer MAC method using the UMAC algorithm |
| 20 | (rfc4418). This method is identical to the "umac-64" method documented |
| 21 | in: |
| 22 | |
| 23 | http://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-miller-secsh-umac-01.txt |
| 24 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 25 | 1.2. transport: Protocol 2 compression algorithm "zlib@openssh.com" |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 26 | |
| 27 | This transport-layer compression method uses the zlib compression |
| 28 | algorithm (identical to the "zlib" method in rfc4253), but delays the |
| 29 | start of compression until after authentication has completed. This |
| 30 | avoids exposing compression code to attacks from unauthenticated users. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | The method is documented in: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | http://www.openssh.com/txt/draft-miller-secsh-compression-delayed-00.txt |
| 35 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 36 | 1.3. transport: New public key algorithms "ssh-rsa-cert-v00@openssh.com", |
| 37 | "ssh-dsa-cert-v00@openssh.com", |
| 38 | "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256-cert-v01@openssh.com", |
| 39 | "ecdsa-sha2-nistp384-cert-v01@openssh.com" and |
| 40 | "ecdsa-sha2-nistp521-cert-v01@openssh.com" |
Damien Miller | 0a80ca1 | 2010-02-27 07:55:05 +1100 | [diff] [blame] | 41 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 42 | OpenSSH introduces new public key algorithms to support certificate |
Damien Miller | 0a80ca1 | 2010-02-27 07:55:05 +1100 | [diff] [blame] | 43 | authentication for users and hostkeys. These methods are documented in |
| 44 | the file PROTOCOL.certkeys |
| 45 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 46 | 1.4. transport: Elliptic Curve cryptography |
| 47 | |
| 48 | OpenSSH supports ECC key exchange and public key authentication as |
| 49 | specified in RFC5656. Only the ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, ecdsa-sha2-nistp384 |
| 50 | and ecdsa-sha2-nistp521 curves over GF(p) are supported. Elliptic |
| 51 | curve points encoded using point compression are NOT accepted or |
| 52 | generated. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | 2. Connection protocol changes |
| 55 | |
| 56 | 2.1. connection: Channel write close extension "eow@openssh.com" |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 57 | |
| 58 | The SSH connection protocol (rfc4254) provides the SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF |
| 59 | message to allow an endpoint to signal its peer that it will send no |
| 60 | more data over a channel. Unfortunately, there is no symmetric way for |
| 61 | an endpoint to request that its peer should cease sending data to it |
| 62 | while still keeping the channel open for the endpoint to send data to |
| 63 | the peer. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | This is desirable, since it saves the transmission of data that would |
| 66 | otherwise need to be discarded and it allows an endpoint to signal local |
| 67 | processes of the condition, e.g. by closing the corresponding file |
| 68 | descriptor. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | OpenSSH implements a channel extension message to perform this |
Darren Tucker | 1f781b1 | 2008-07-02 22:33:16 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 71 | signalling: "eow@openssh.com" (End Of Write). This message is sent by |
| 72 | an endpoint when the local output of a session channel is closed or |
| 73 | experiences a write error. The message is formatted as follows: |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 74 | |
| 75 | byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_REQUEST |
| 76 | uint32 recipient channel |
| 77 | string "eow@openssh.com" |
| 78 | boolean FALSE |
| 79 | |
| 80 | On receiving this message, the peer SHOULD cease sending data of |
| 81 | the channel and MAY signal the process from which the channel data |
| 82 | originates (e.g. by closing its read file descriptor). |
| 83 | |
| 84 | As with the symmetric SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EOF message, the channel does |
| 85 | remain open after a "eow@openssh.com" has been sent and more data may |
| 86 | still be sent in the other direction. This message does not consume |
| 87 | window space and may be sent even if no window space is available. |
| 88 | |
Damien Miller | 6385e75 | 2009-02-14 18:00:52 +1100 | [diff] [blame] | 89 | NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt |
| 90 | of this message (in contravention of RFC4254 section 5.4), this |
| 91 | message is only sent to OpenSSH peers (identified by banner). |
| 92 | Other SSH implementations may be whitelisted to receive this message |
| 93 | upon request. |
| 94 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 95 | 2.2. connection: disallow additional sessions extension |
| 96 | "no-more-sessions@openssh.com" |
Darren Tucker | 8901fa9 | 2008-06-11 09:34:01 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 97 | |
| 98 | Most SSH connections will only ever request a single session, but a |
| 99 | attacker may abuse a running ssh client to surreptitiously open |
| 100 | additional sessions under their control. OpenSSH provides a global |
| 101 | request "no-more-sessions@openssh.com" to mitigate this attack. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | When an OpenSSH client expects that it will never open another session |
| 104 | (i.e. it has been started with connection multiplexing disabled), it |
| 105 | will send the following global request: |
| 106 | |
| 107 | byte SSH_MSG_GLOBAL_REQUEST |
| 108 | string "no-more-sessions@openssh.com" |
| 109 | char want-reply |
| 110 | |
| 111 | On receipt of such a message, an OpenSSH server will refuse to open |
| 112 | future channels of type "session" and instead immediately abort the |
| 113 | connection. |
| 114 | |
| 115 | Note that this is not a general defence against compromised clients |
| 116 | (that is impossible), but it thwarts a simple attack. |
| 117 | |
Damien Miller | 6385e75 | 2009-02-14 18:00:52 +1100 | [diff] [blame] | 118 | NB. due to certain broken SSH implementations aborting upon receipt |
| 119 | of this message, the no-more-sessions request is only sent to OpenSSH |
| 120 | servers (identified by banner). Other SSH implementations may be |
| 121 | whitelisted to receive this message upon request. |
| 122 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 123 | 2.3. connection: Tunnel forward extension "tun@openssh.com" |
Darren Tucker | e5d9829 | 2008-06-13 04:53:27 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 124 | |
Damien Miller | bd45afb | 2008-06-30 00:04:57 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 125 | OpenSSH supports layer 2 and layer 3 tunnelling via the "tun@openssh.com" |
Darren Tucker | e5d9829 | 2008-06-13 04:53:27 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 126 | channel type. This channel type supports forwarding of network packets |
Damien Miller | bd45afb | 2008-06-30 00:04:57 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 127 | with datagram boundaries intact between endpoints equipped with |
Darren Tucker | e5d9829 | 2008-06-13 04:53:27 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 128 | interfaces like the BSD tun(4) device. Tunnel forwarding channels are |
| 129 | requested by the client with the following packet: |
| 130 | |
| 131 | byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN |
| 132 | string "tun@openssh.com" |
| 133 | uint32 sender channel |
| 134 | uint32 initial window size |
| 135 | uint32 maximum packet size |
| 136 | uint32 tunnel mode |
| 137 | uint32 remote unit number |
| 138 | |
| 139 | The "tunnel mode" parameter specifies whether the tunnel should forward |
| 140 | layer 2 frames or layer 3 packets. It may take one of the following values: |
| 141 | |
| 142 | SSH_TUNMODE_POINTOPOINT 1 /* layer 3 packets */ |
| 143 | SSH_TUNMODE_ETHERNET 2 /* layer 2 frames */ |
| 144 | |
| 145 | The "tunnel unit number" specifies the remote interface number, or may |
Darren Tucker | f2705c8 | 2010-01-08 18:54:17 +1100 | [diff] [blame] | 146 | be 0x7fffffff to allow the server to automatically chose an interface. A |
| 147 | server that is not willing to open a client-specified unit should refuse |
| 148 | the request with a SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_FAILURE error. On successful |
| 149 | open, the server should reply with SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN_SUCCESS. |
Darren Tucker | e5d9829 | 2008-06-13 04:53:27 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 150 | |
| 151 | Once established the client and server may exchange packet or frames |
| 152 | over the tunnel channel by encapsulating them in SSH protocol strings |
| 153 | and sending them as channel data. This ensures that packet boundaries |
| 154 | are kept intact. Specifically, packets are transmitted using normal |
| 155 | SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA packets: |
| 156 | |
| 157 | byte SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA |
| 158 | uint32 recipient channel |
| 159 | string data |
| 160 | |
| 161 | The contents of the "data" field for layer 3 packets is: |
| 162 | |
| 163 | uint32 packet length |
| 164 | uint32 address family |
| 165 | byte[packet length - 4] packet data |
| 166 | |
| 167 | The "address family" field identifies the type of packet in the message. |
| 168 | It may be one of: |
| 169 | |
| 170 | SSH_TUN_AF_INET 2 /* IPv4 */ |
| 171 | SSH_TUN_AF_INET6 24 /* IPv6 */ |
| 172 | |
| 173 | The "packet data" field consists of the IPv4/IPv6 datagram itself |
| 174 | without any link layer header. |
| 175 | |
Darren Tucker | f2705c8 | 2010-01-08 18:54:17 +1100 | [diff] [blame] | 176 | The contents of the "data" field for layer 2 packets is: |
Darren Tucker | e5d9829 | 2008-06-13 04:53:27 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 177 | |
| 178 | uint32 packet length |
| 179 | byte[packet length] frame |
| 180 | |
Damien Miller | bd45afb | 2008-06-30 00:04:57 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 181 | The "frame" field contains an IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frame, including |
Darren Tucker | e5d9829 | 2008-06-13 04:53:27 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 182 | header. |
| 183 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 184 | 3. SFTP protocol changes |
| 185 | |
| 186 | 3.1. sftp: Reversal of arguments to SSH_FXP_SYMLINK |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 187 | |
| 188 | When OpenSSH's sftp-server was implemented, the order of the arguments |
Damien Miller | bd45afb | 2008-06-30 00:04:57 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 189 | to the SSH_FXP_SYMLINK method was inadvertently reversed. Unfortunately, |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 190 | the reversal was not noticed until the server was widely deployed. Since |
| 191 | fixing this to follow the specification would cause incompatibility, the |
| 192 | current order was retained. For correct operation, clients should send |
| 193 | SSH_FXP_SYMLINK as follows: |
| 194 | |
| 195 | uint32 id |
| 196 | string targetpath |
| 197 | string linkpath |
| 198 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 199 | 3.2. sftp: Server extension announcement in SSH_FXP_VERSION |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 200 | |
| 201 | OpenSSH's sftp-server lists the extensions it supports using the |
| 202 | standard extension announcement mechanism in the SSH_FXP_VERSION server |
| 203 | hello packet: |
| 204 | |
| 205 | uint32 3 /* protocol version */ |
| 206 | string ext1-name |
| 207 | string ext1-version |
| 208 | string ext2-name |
| 209 | string ext2-version |
| 210 | ... |
| 211 | string extN-name |
| 212 | string extN-version |
| 213 | |
| 214 | Each extension reports its integer version number as an ASCII encoded |
| 215 | string, e.g. "1". The version will be incremented if the extension is |
| 216 | ever changed in an incompatible way. The server MAY advertise the same |
| 217 | extension with multiple versions (though this is unlikely). Clients MUST |
Damien Miller | bd45afb | 2008-06-30 00:04:57 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 218 | check the version number before attempting to use the extension. |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 219 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 220 | 3.3. sftp: Extension request "posix-rename@openssh.com" |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 221 | |
| 222 | This operation provides a rename operation with POSIX semantics, which |
| 223 | are different to those provided by the standard SSH_FXP_RENAME in |
| 224 | draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-02.txt. This request is implemented as a |
| 225 | SSH_FXP_EXTENDED request with the following format: |
| 226 | |
| 227 | uint32 id |
| 228 | string "posix-rename@openssh.com" |
| 229 | string oldpath |
| 230 | string newpath |
| 231 | |
| 232 | On receiving this request the server will perform the POSIX operation |
| 233 | rename(oldpath, newpath) and will respond with a SSH_FXP_STATUS message. |
| 234 | This extension is advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version |
| 235 | "1". |
| 236 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 237 | 3.4. sftp: Extension requests "statvfs@openssh.com" and |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 238 | "fstatvfs@openssh.com" |
| 239 | |
| 240 | These requests correspond to the statvfs and fstatvfs POSIX system |
| 241 | interfaces. The "statvfs@openssh.com" request operates on an explicit |
| 242 | pathname, and is formatted as follows: |
| 243 | |
| 244 | uint32 id |
| 245 | string "statvfs@openssh.com" |
| 246 | string path |
| 247 | |
Damien Miller | bd45afb | 2008-06-30 00:04:57 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 248 | The "fstatvfs@openssh.com" operates on an open file handle: |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 249 | |
| 250 | uint32 id |
| 251 | string "fstatvfs@openssh.com" |
| 252 | string handle |
| 253 | |
| 254 | These requests return a SSH_FXP_STATUS reply on failure. On success they |
| 255 | return the following SSH_FXP_EXTENDED_REPLY reply: |
| 256 | |
| 257 | uint32 id |
Darren Tucker | cd2ada6 | 2008-06-09 23:49:09 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 258 | uint64 f_bsize /* file system block size */ |
| 259 | uint64 f_frsize /* fundamental fs block size */ |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 260 | uint64 f_blocks /* number of blocks (unit f_frsize) */ |
| 261 | uint64 f_bfree /* free blocks in file system */ |
| 262 | uint64 f_bavail /* free blocks for non-root */ |
| 263 | uint64 f_files /* total file inodes */ |
| 264 | uint64 f_ffree /* free file inodes */ |
| 265 | uint64 f_favail /* free file inodes for to non-root */ |
Darren Tucker | 17ec5d4 | 2008-06-09 23:47:37 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 266 | uint64 f_fsid /* file system id */ |
Darren Tucker | cd2ada6 | 2008-06-09 23:49:09 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 267 | uint64 f_flag /* bit mask of f_flag values */ |
| 268 | uint64 f_namemax /* maximum filename length */ |
Damien Miller | 58a8114 | 2008-05-19 16:11:56 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 269 | |
| 270 | The values of the f_flag bitmask are as follows: |
| 271 | |
| 272 | #define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_RDONLY 0x1 /* read-only */ |
| 273 | #define SSH_FXE_STATVFS_ST_NOSUID 0x2 /* no setuid */ |
| 274 | |
Damien Miller | c9c96f2 | 2008-07-05 15:17:48 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 275 | Both the "statvfs@openssh.com" and "fstatvfs@openssh.com" extensions are |
| 276 | advertised in the SSH_FXP_VERSION hello with version "2". |
Darren Tucker | 17ec5d4 | 2008-06-09 23:47:37 +1000 | [diff] [blame] | 277 | |
Damien Miller | eb8b60e | 2010-08-31 22:41:14 +1000 | [diff] [blame^] | 278 | $OpenBSD: PROTOCOL,v 1.16 2010/08/31 11:54:45 djm Exp $ |