About SSH

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Overview

The program SSH (Secure Shell) provides an encrypted channel for logging into another computer over a network, executing commands on a remote computer, and moving files from one computer to another. SSH provides strong host-to-host and user authentication as well as secure encrypted communications over the internet.

Host key fingerprint

When connecting to a server for the first time, SSH presents you with a host key fingerprint for that server and asks you to confirm you wish to save the new host key to the local database. Before agreeing, you should compare this fingerprint with one you obtain by some other means (for example, by telephone) from the server administrators to avoid connecting to an impostor server. To avoid this message the next time you connect, click Yes.

Public key encryption

Rather than validating identities via passwords, SSH can also use public key encryption to authenticate remote hosts. For example, if you were to connect to a remote host called global.conspiracy.org (also running SSH), SSH would use this system to verify that this remote system is authentic. If you wish, you can set up SSH to use public key authentication rather than passwords for logging into your other accounts, much like the Unix rlogin program. For instructions, see Set up SSH public key authentication to connect to a remote system.

Learn more

To learn more, see the OpenSSH home page.

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Last modified on 2020-12-29 13:48:55.