Network Working Group                                          T. Ylonen
Request for Comments: 4251              SSH Communications Security Corp
Category: Standards Track                                C. Lonvick, Ed.
                                                    Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                           January 2006


             The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Architecture

Status of This Memo

  This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
  Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
  improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
  Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
  and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

  The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol is a protocol for secure remote login
  and other secure network services over an insecure network.  This
  document describes the architecture of the SSH protocol, as well as
  the notation and terminology used in SSH protocol documents.  It also
  discusses the SSH algorithm naming system that allows local
  extensions.  The SSH protocol consists of three major components: The
  Transport Layer Protocol provides server authentication,
  confidentiality, and integrity with perfect forward secrecy.  The
  User Authentication Protocol authenticates the client to the server.
  The Connection Protocol multiplexes the encrypted tunnel into several
  logical channels.  Details of these protocols are described in
  separate documents.
















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Table of Contents

  1. Introduction ....................................................3
  2. Contributors ....................................................3
  3. Conventions Used in This Document ...............................4
  4. Architecture ....................................................4
     4.1. Host Keys ..................................................4
     4.2. Extensibility ..............................................6
     4.3. Policy Issues ..............................................6
     4.4. Security Properties ........................................7
     4.5. Localization and Character Set Support .....................7
  5. Data Type Representations Used in the SSH Protocols .............8
  6. Algorithm and Method Naming ....................................10
  7. Message Numbers ................................................11
  8. IANA Considerations ............................................12
  9. Security Considerations ........................................13
     9.1. Pseudo-Random Number Generation ...........................13
     9.2. Control Character Filtering ...............................14
     9.3. Transport .................................................14
          9.3.1. Confidentiality ....................................14
          9.3.2. Data Integrity .....................................16
          9.3.3. Replay .............................................16
          9.3.4. Man-in-the-middle ..................................17
          9.3.5. Denial of Service ..................................19
          9.3.6. Covert Channels ....................................20
          9.3.7. Forward Secrecy ....................................20
          9.3.8. Ordering of Key Exchange Methods ...................20
          9.3.9. Traffic Analysis ...................................21
     9.4. Authentication Protocol ...................................21
          9.4.1. Weak Transport .....................................21
          9.4.2. Debug Messages .....................................22
          9.4.3. Local Security Policy ..............................22
          9.4.4. Public Key Authentication ..........................23
          9.4.5. Password Authentication ............................23
          9.4.6. Host-Based Authentication ..........................23
     9.5. Connection Protocol .......................................24
          9.5.1. End Point Security .................................24
          9.5.2. Proxy Forwarding ...................................24
          9.5.3. X11 Forwarding .....................................24
  10. References ....................................................26
     10.1. Normative References .....................................26
     10.2. Informative References ...................................26
  Authors' Addresses ................................................29
  Trademark Notice ..................................................29







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1.  Introduction

  Secure Shell (SSH) is a protocol for secure remote login and other
  secure network services over an insecure network.  It consists of
  three major components:

  o  The Transport Layer Protocol [SSH-TRANS] provides server
     authentication, confidentiality, and integrity.  It may optionally
     also provide compression.  The transport layer will typically be
     run over a TCP/IP connection, but might also be used on top of any
     other reliable data stream.

  o  The User Authentication Protocol [SSH-USERAUTH] authenticates the
     client-side user to the server.  It runs over the transport layer
     protocol.

  o  The Connection Protocol [SSH-CONNECT] multiplexes the encrypted
     tunnel into several logical channels.  It runs over the user
     authentication protocol.

  The client sends a service request once a secure transport layer
  connection has been established.  A second service request is sent
  after user authentication is complete.  This allows new protocols to
  be defined and coexist with the protocols listed above.

  The connection protocol provides channels that can be used for a wide
  range of purposes.  Standard methods are provided for setting up
  secure interactive shell sessions and for forwarding ("tunneling")
  arbitrary TCP/IP ports and X11 connections.

2.  Contributors

  The major original contributors of this set of documents have been:
  Tatu Ylonen, Tero Kivinen, Timo J. Rinne, Sami Lehtinen (all of SSH
  Communications Security Corp), and Markku-Juhani O. Saarinen
  (University of Jyvaskyla).  Darren Moffat was the original editor of
  this set of documents and also made very substantial contributions.

  Many people contributed to the development of this document over the
  years.  People who should be acknowledged include Mats Andersson, Ben
  Harris, Bill Sommerfeld, Brent McClure, Niels Moller, Damien Miller,
  Derek Fawcus, Frank Cusack, Heikki Nousiainen, Jakob Schlyter, Jeff
  Van Dyke, Jeffrey Altman, Jeffrey Hutzelman, Jon Bright, Joseph
  Galbraith, Ken Hornstein, Markus Friedl, Martin Forssen, Nicolas
  Williams, Niels Provos, Perry Metzger, Peter Gutmann, Simon
  Josefsson, Simon Tatham, Wei Dai, Denis Bider, der Mouse, and
  Tadayoshi Kohno.  Listing their names here does not mean that they
  endorse this document, but that they have contributed to it.



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3.  Conventions Used in This Document

  All documents related to the SSH protocols shall use the keywords
  "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD",
  "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" to describe
  requirements.  These keywords are to be interpreted as described in
  [RFC2119].

  The keywords "PRIVATE USE", "HIERARCHICAL ALLOCATION", "FIRST COME
  FIRST SERVED", "EXPERT REVIEW", "SPECIFICATION REQUIRED", "IESG
  APPROVAL", "IETF CONSENSUS", and "STANDARDS ACTION" that appear in
  this document when used to describe namespace allocation are to be
  interpreted as described in [RFC2434].

  Protocol fields and possible values to fill them are defined in this
  set of documents.  Protocol fields will be defined in the message
  definitions.  As an example, SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA is defined as
  follows.

     byte      SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_DATA
     uint32    recipient channel
     string    data

  Throughout these documents, when the fields are referenced, they will
  appear within single quotes.  When values to fill those fields are
  referenced, they will appear within double quotes.  Using the above
  example, possible values for 'data' are "foo" and "bar".

4.  Architecture

4.1.  Host Keys

  Each server host SHOULD have a host key.  Hosts MAY have multiple
  host keys using multiple different algorithms.  Multiple hosts MAY
  share the same host key.  If a host has keys at all, it MUST have at
  least one key that uses each REQUIRED public key algorithm (DSS
  [FIPS-186-2]).

  The server host key is used during key exchange to verify that the
  client is really talking to the correct server.  For this to be
  possible, the client must have a priori knowledge of the server's
  public host key.

  Two different trust models can be used:

  o  The client has a local database that associates each host name (as
     typed by the user) with the corresponding public host key.  This
     method requires no centrally administered infrastructure, and no



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     third-party coordination.  The downside is that the database of
     name-to-key associations may become burdensome to maintain.

  o  The host name-to-key association is certified by a trusted
     certification authority (CA).  The client only knows the CA root
     key, and can verify the validity of all host keys certified by
     accepted CAs.

  The second alternative eases the maintenance problem, since ideally
  only a single CA key needs to be securely stored on the client.  On
  the other hand, each host key must be appropriately certified by a
  central authority before authorization is possible.  Also, a lot of
  trust is placed on the central infrastructure.

  The protocol provides the option that the server name - host key
  association is not checked when connecting to the host for the first
  time.  This allows communication without prior communication of host
  keys or certification.  The connection still provides protection
  against passive listening; however, it becomes vulnerable to active
  man-in-the-middle attacks.  Implementations SHOULD NOT normally allow
  such connections by default, as they pose a potential security
  problem.  However, as there is no widely deployed key infrastructure
  available on the Internet at the time of this writing, this option
  makes the protocol much more usable during the transition time until
  such an infrastructure emerges, while still providing a much higher
  level of security than that offered by older solutions (e.g., telnet
  [RFC0854] and rlogin [RFC1282]).

  Implementations SHOULD try to make the best effort to check host
  keys.  An example of a possible strategy is to only accept a host key
  without checking the first time a host is connected, save the key in
  a local database, and compare against that key on all future
  connections to that host.

  Implementations MAY provide additional methods for verifying the
  correctness of host keys, e.g., a hexadecimal fingerprint derived
  from the SHA-1 hash [FIPS-180-2] of the public key.  Such
  fingerprints can easily be verified by using telephone or other
  external communication channels.

  All implementations SHOULD provide an option not to accept host keys
  that cannot be verified.

  The members of this Working Group believe that 'ease of use' is
  critical to end-user acceptance of security solutions, and no
  improvement in security is gained if the new solutions are not used.
  Thus, providing the option not to check the server host key is




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  believed to improve the overall security of the Internet, even though
  it reduces the security of the protocol in configurations where it is
  allowed.

4.2.  Extensibility

  We believe that the protocol will evolve over time, and some
  organizations will want to use their own encryption, authentication,
  and/or key exchange methods.  Central registration of all extensions
  is cumbersome, especially for experimental or classified features.
  On the other hand, having no central registration leads to conflicts
  in method identifiers, making interoperability difficult.

  We have chosen to identify algorithms, methods, formats, and
  extension protocols with textual names that are of a specific format.
  DNS names are used to create local namespaces where experimental or
  classified extensions can be defined without fear of conflicts with
  other implementations.

  One design goal has been to keep the base protocol as simple as
  possible, and to require as few algorithms as possible.  However, all
  implementations MUST support a minimal set of algorithms to ensure
  interoperability (this does not imply that the local policy on all
  hosts would necessarily allow these algorithms).  The mandatory
  algorithms are specified in the relevant protocol documents.

  Additional algorithms, methods, formats, and extension protocols can
  be defined in separate documents.  See Section 6, Algorithm Naming,
  for more information.

4.3.  Policy Issues

  The protocol allows full negotiation of encryption, integrity, key
  exchange, compression, and public key algorithms and formats.
  Encryption, integrity, public key, and compression algorithms can be
  different for each direction.

  The following policy issues SHOULD be addressed in the configuration
  mechanisms of each implementation:

  o  Encryption, integrity, and compression algorithms, separately for
     each direction.  The policy MUST specify which is the preferred
     algorithm (e.g., the first algorithm listed in each category).

  o  Public key algorithms and key exchange method to be used for host
     authentication.  The existence of trusted host keys for different
     public key algorithms also affects this choice.




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  o  The authentication methods that are to be required by the server
     for each user.  The server's policy MAY require multiple
     authentication for some or all users.  The required algorithms MAY
     depend on the location from where the user is trying to gain
     access.

  o  The operations that the user is allowed to perform using the
     connection protocol.  Some issues are related to security; for
     example, the policy SHOULD NOT allow the server to start sessions
     or run commands on the client machine, and MUST NOT allow
     connections to the authentication agent unless forwarding such
     connections has been requested.  Other issues, such as which
     TCP/IP ports can be forwarded and by whom, are clearly issues of
     local policy.  Many of these issues may involve traversing or
     bypassing firewalls, and are interrelated with the local security
     policy.

4.4.  Security Properties

  The primary goal of the SSH protocol is to improve security on the
  Internet.  It attempts to do this in a way that is easy to deploy,
  even at the cost of absolute security.

  o  All encryption, integrity, and public key algorithms used are
     well-known, well-established algorithms.

  o  All algorithms are used with cryptographically sound key sizes
     that are believed to provide protection against even the strongest
     cryptanalytic attacks for decades.

  o  All algorithms are negotiated, and in case some algorithm is
     broken, it is easy to switch to some other algorithm without
     modifying the base protocol.

  Specific concessions were made to make widespread, fast deployment
  easier.  The particular case where this comes up is verifying that
  the server host key really belongs to the desired host; the protocol
  allows the verification to be left out, but this is NOT RECOMMENDED.
  This is believed to significantly improve usability in the short
  term, until widespread Internet public key infrastructures emerge.

4.5.  Localization and Character Set Support

  For the most part, the SSH protocols do not directly pass text that
  would be displayed to the user.  However, there are some places where
  such data might be passed.  When applicable, the character set for





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  the data MUST be explicitly specified.  In most places, ISO-10646
  UTF-8 encoding is used [RFC3629].  When applicable, a field is also
  provided for a language tag [RFC3066].

  One big issue is the character set of the interactive session.  There
  is no clear solution, as different applications may display data in
  different formats.  Different types of terminal emulation may also be
  employed in the client, and the character set to be used is
  effectively determined by the terminal emulation.  Thus, no place is
  provided for directly specifying the character set or encoding for
  terminal session data.  However, the terminal emulation type (e.g.,
  "vt100") is transmitted to the remote site, and it implicitly
  specifies the character set and encoding.  Applications typically use
  the terminal type to determine what character set they use, or the
  character set is determined using some external means.  The terminal
  emulation may also allow configuring the default character set.  In
  any case, the character set for the terminal session is considered
  primarily a client local issue.

  Internal names used to identify algorithms or protocols are normally
  never displayed to users, and must be in US-ASCII.

  The client and server user names are inherently constrained by what
  the server is prepared to accept.  They might, however, occasionally
  be displayed in logs, reports, etc.  They MUST be encoded using ISO
  10646 UTF-8, but other encodings may be required in some cases.  It
  is up to the server to decide how to map user names to accepted user
  names.  Straight bit-wise, binary comparison is RECOMMENDED.

  For localization purposes, the protocol attempts to minimize the
  number of textual messages transmitted.  When present, such messages
  typically relate to errors, debugging information, or some externally
  configured data.  For data that is normally displayed, it SHOULD be
  possible to fetch a localized message instead of the transmitted
  message by using a numerical code.  The remaining messages SHOULD be
  configurable.

5.  Data Type Representations Used in the SSH Protocols

  byte

     A byte represents an arbitrary 8-bit value (octet).  Fixed length
     data is sometimes represented as an array of bytes, written
     byte[n], where n is the number of bytes in the array.







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  boolean

     A boolean value is stored as a single byte.  The value 0
     represents FALSE, and the value 1 represents TRUE.  All non-zero
     values MUST be interpreted as TRUE; however, applications MUST NOT
     store values other than 0 and 1.

  uint32

     Represents a 32-bit unsigned integer.  Stored as four bytes in the
     order of decreasing significance (network byte order).  For
     example: the value 699921578 (0x29b7f4aa) is stored as 29 b7 f4
     aa.

  uint64

     Represents a 64-bit unsigned integer.  Stored as eight bytes in
     the order of decreasing significance (network byte order).

  string

     Arbitrary length binary string.  Strings are allowed to contain
     arbitrary binary data, including null characters and 8-bit
     characters.  They are stored as a uint32 containing its length
     (number of bytes that follow) and zero (= empty string) or more
     bytes that are the value of the string.  Terminating null
     characters are not used.

     Strings are also used to store text.  In that case, US-ASCII is
     used for internal names, and ISO-10646 UTF-8 for text that might
     be displayed to the user.  The terminating null character SHOULD
     NOT normally be stored in the string.  For example: the US-ASCII
     string "testing" is represented as 00 00 00 07 t e s t i n g.  The
     UTF-8 mapping does not alter the encoding of US-ASCII characters.

  mpint

     Represents multiple precision integers in two's complement format,
     stored as a string, 8 bits per byte, MSB first.  Negative numbers
     have the value 1 as the most significant bit of the first byte of
     the data partition.  If the most significant bit would be set for
     a positive number, the number MUST be preceded by a zero byte.
     Unnecessary leading bytes with the value 0 or 255 MUST NOT be
     included.  The value zero MUST be stored as a string with zero
     bytes of data.

     By convention, a number that is used in modular computations in
     Z_n SHOULD be represented in the range 0 <= x < n.



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        Examples:

        value (hex)        representation (hex)
        -----------        --------------------
        0                  00 00 00 00
        9a378f9b2e332a7    00 00 00 08 09 a3 78 f9 b2 e3 32 a7
        80                 00 00 00 02 00 80
        -1234              00 00 00 02 ed cc
        -deadbeef          00 00 00 05 ff 21 52 41 11

  name-list

     A string containing a comma-separated list of names.  A name-list
     is represented as a uint32 containing its length (number of bytes
     that follow) followed by a comma-separated list of zero or more
     names.  A name MUST have a non-zero length, and it MUST NOT
     contain a comma (",").  As this is a list of names, all of the
     elements contained are names and MUST be in US-ASCII.  Context may
     impose additional restrictions on the names.  For example, the
     names in a name-list may have to be a list of valid algorithm
     identifiers (see Section 6 below), or a list of [RFC3066] language
     tags.  The order of the names in a name-list may or may not be
     significant.  Again, this depends on the context in which the list
     is used.  Terminating null characters MUST NOT be used, neither
     for the individual names, nor for the list as a whole.

      Examples:

      value                      representation (hex)
      -----                      --------------------
      (), the empty name-list    00 00 00 00
      ("zlib")                   00 00 00 04 7a 6c 69 62
      ("zlib,none")              00 00 00 09 7a 6c 69 62 2c 6e 6f 6e 65

6.  Algorithm and Method Naming

  The SSH protocols refer to particular hash, encryption, integrity,
  compression, and key exchange algorithms or methods by name.  There
  are some standard algorithms and methods that all implementations
  MUST support.  There are also algorithms and methods that are defined
  in the protocol specification, but are OPTIONAL.  Furthermore, it is
  expected that some organizations will want to use their own
  algorithms or methods.

  In this protocol, all algorithm and method identifiers MUST be
  printable US-ASCII, non-empty strings no longer than 64 characters.
  Names MUST be case-sensitive.




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  There are two formats for algorithm and method names:

  o  Names that do not contain an at-sign ("@") are reserved to be
     assigned by IETF CONSENSUS.  Examples include "3des-cbc", "sha-1",
     "hmac-sha1", and "zlib" (the doublequotes are not part of the
     name).  Names of this format are only valid if they are first
     registered with the IANA.  Registered names MUST NOT contain an
     at-sign ("@"), comma (","), whitespace, control characters (ASCII
     codes 32 or less), or the ASCII code 127 (DEL).  Names are case-
     sensitive, and MUST NOT be longer than 64 characters.

  o  Anyone can define additional algorithms or methods by using names
     in the format name@domainname, e.g., "[email protected]".
     The format of the part preceding the at-sign is not specified;
     however, these names MUST be printable US-ASCII strings, and MUST
     NOT contain the comma character (","), whitespace, control
     characters (ASCII codes 32 or less), or the ASCII code 127 (DEL).
     They MUST have only a single at-sign in them.  The part following
     the at-sign MUST be a valid, fully qualified domain name [RFC1034]
     controlled by the person or organization defining the name.  Names
     are case-sensitive, and MUST NOT be longer than 64 characters.  It
     is up to each domain how it manages its local namespace.  It
     should be noted that these names resemble STD 11 [RFC0822] email
     addresses.  This is purely coincidental and has nothing to do with
     STD 11 [RFC0822].

7.  Message Numbers

  SSH packets have message numbers in the range 1 to 255.  These
  numbers have been allocated as follows:

  Transport layer protocol:

     1 to 19    Transport layer generic (e.g., disconnect, ignore,
                debug, etc.)
     20 to 29   Algorithm negotiation
     30 to 49   Key exchange method specific (numbers can be reused
                for different authentication methods)

  User authentication protocol:

     50 to 59   User authentication generic
     60 to 79   User authentication method specific (numbers can be
                reused for different authentication methods)







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  Connection protocol:

     80 to 89   Connection protocol generic
     90 to 127  Channel related messages

  Reserved for client protocols:

     128 to 191 Reserved

  Local extensions:

     192 to 255 Local extensions

8.  IANA Considerations

  This document is part of a set.  The instructions for the IANA for
  the SSH protocol, as defined in this document, [SSH-USERAUTH],
  [SSH-TRANS], and [SSH-CONNECT], are detailed in [SSH-NUMBERS].  The
  following is a brief summary for convenience, but note well that
  [SSH-NUMBERS] contains the actual instructions to the IANA, which may
  be superseded in the future.

  Allocation of the following types of names in the SSH protocols is
  assigned by IETF consensus:

  o  Service Names
     *  Authentication Methods
     *  Connection Protocol Channel Names
     *  Connection Protocol Global Request Names
     *  Connection Protocol Channel Request Names

  o  Key Exchange Method Names

  o  Assigned Algorithm Names
     *  Encryption Algorithm Names
     *  MAC Algorithm Names
     *  Public Key Algorithm Names
     *  Compression Algorithm Names

  These names MUST be printable US-ASCII strings, and MUST NOT contain
  the characters at-sign ("@"), comma (","), whitespace, control
  characters (ASCII codes 32 or less), or the ASCII code 127 (DEL).
  Names are case-sensitive, and MUST NOT be longer than 64 characters.

  Names with the at-sign ("@") are locally defined extensions and are
  not controlled by the IANA.





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  Each category of names listed above has a separate namespace.
  However, using the same name in multiple categories SHOULD be avoided
  to minimize confusion.

  Message numbers (see Section 7) in the range of 0 to 191 are
  allocated via IETF CONSENSUS, as described in [RFC2434].  Message
  numbers in the 192 to 255 range (local extensions) are reserved for
  PRIVATE USE, also as described in [RFC2434].

9.  Security Considerations

  In order to make the entire body of Security Considerations more
  accessible, Security Considerations for the transport,
  authentication, and connection documents have been gathered here.

  The transport protocol [SSH-TRANS] provides a confidential channel
  over an insecure network.  It performs server host authentication,
  key exchange, encryption, and integrity protection.  It also derives
  a unique session id that may be used by higher-level protocols.

  The authentication protocol [SSH-USERAUTH] provides a suite of
  mechanisms that can be used to authenticate the client user to the
  server.  Individual mechanisms specified in the authentication
  protocol use the session id provided by the transport protocol and/or
  depend on the security and integrity guarantees of the transport
  protocol.

  The connection protocol [SSH-CONNECT] specifies a mechanism to
  multiplex multiple streams (channels) of data over the confidential
  and authenticated transport.  It also specifies channels for
  accessing an interactive shell, for proxy-forwarding various external
  protocols over the secure transport (including arbitrary TCP/IP
  protocols), and for accessing secure subsystems on the server host.

9.1.  Pseudo-Random Number Generation

  This protocol binds each session key to the session by including
  random, session specific data in the hash used to produce session
  keys.  Special care should be taken to ensure that all of the random
  numbers are of good quality.  If the random data here (e.g., Diffie-
  Hellman (DH) parameters) are pseudo-random, then the pseudo-random
  number generator should be cryptographically secure (i.e., its next
  output not easily guessed even when knowing all previous outputs)
  and, furthermore, proper entropy needs to be added to the pseudo-
  random number generator.  [RFC4086] offers suggestions for sources of
  random numbers and entropy.  Implementers should note the importance
  of entropy and the well-meant, anecdotal warning about the difficulty
  in properly implementing pseudo-random number generating functions.



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  The amount of entropy available to a given client or server may
  sometimes be less than what is required.  In this case, one must
  either resort to pseudo-random number generation regardless of
  insufficient entropy or refuse to run the protocol.  The latter is
  preferable.

9.2.  Control Character Filtering

  When displaying text to a user, such as error or debug messages, the
  client software SHOULD replace any control characters (except tab,
  carriage return, and newline) with safe sequences to avoid attacks by
  sending terminal control characters.

9.3.  Transport

9.3.1.  Confidentiality

  It is beyond the scope of this document and the Secure Shell Working
  Group to analyze or recommend specific ciphers other than the ones
  that have been established and accepted within the industry.  At the
  time of this writing, commonly used ciphers include 3DES, ARCFOUR,
  twofish, serpent, and blowfish.  AES has been published by The US
  Federal Information Processing Standards as [FIPS-197], and the
  cryptographic community has accepted AES as well.  As always,
  implementers and users should check current literature to ensure that
  no recent vulnerabilities have been found in ciphers used within
  products.  Implementers should also check to see which ciphers are
  considered to be relatively stronger than others and should recommend
  their use to users over relatively weaker ciphers.  It would be
  considered good form for an implementation to politely and
  unobtrusively notify a user that a stronger cipher is available and
  should be used when a weaker one is actively chosen.

  The "none" cipher is provided for debugging and SHOULD NOT be used
  except for that purpose.  Its cryptographic properties are
  sufficiently described in [RFC2410], which will show that its use
  does not meet the intent of this protocol.

  The relative merits of these and other ciphers may also be found in
  current literature.  Two references that may provide information on
  the subject are [SCHNEIER] and [KAUFMAN].  Both of these describe the
  CBC mode of operation of certain ciphers and the weakness of this
  scheme.  Essentially, this mode is theoretically vulnerable to chosen
  cipher-text attacks because of the high predictability of the start
  of packet sequence.  However, this attack is deemed difficult and not
  considered fully practicable, especially if relatively long block
  sizes are used.




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  Additionally, another CBC mode attack may be mitigated through the
  insertion of packets containing SSH_MSG_IGNORE.  Without this
  technique, a specific attack may be successful.  For this attack
  (commonly known as the Rogaway attack [ROGAWAY], [DAI], [BELLARE]) to
  work, the attacker would need to know the Initialization Vector (IV)
  of the next block that is going to be encrypted.  In CBC mode that is
  the output of the encryption of the previous block.  If the attacker
  does not have any way to see the packet yet (i.e., it is in the
  internal buffers of the SSH implementation or even in the kernel),
  then this attack will not work.  If the last packet has been sent out
  to the network (i.e., the attacker has access to it), then he can use
  the attack.

  In the optimal case, an implementer would need to add an extra packet
  only if the packet has been sent out onto the network and there are
  no other packets waiting for transmission.  Implementers may wish to
  check if there are any unsent packets awaiting transmission;
  unfortunately, it is not normally easy to obtain this information
  from the kernel or buffers.  If there are no unsent packets, then a
  packet containing SSH_MSG_IGNORE SHOULD be sent.  If a new packet is
  added to the stream every time the attacker knows the IV that is
  supposed to be used for the next packet, then the attacker will not
  be able to guess the correct IV, thus the attack will never be
  successful.

  As an example, consider the following case:

     Client                                                  Server
     ------                                                  ------
     TCP(seq=x, len=500)             ---->
      contains Record 1

                         [500 ms passes, no ACK]

     TCP(seq=x, len=1000)            ---->
      contains Records 1,2

                                                               ACK

  1. The Nagle algorithm + TCP retransmits mean that the two records
     get coalesced into a single TCP segment.

  2. Record 2 is not at the beginning of the TCP segment and never will
     be because it gets ACKed.

  3. Yet, the attack is possible because Record 1 has already been
     seen.




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  As this example indicates, it is unsafe to use the existence of
  unflushed data in the TCP buffers proper as a guide to whether an
  empty packet is needed, since when the second write() is performed
  the buffers will contain the un-ACKed Record 1.

  On the other hand, it is perfectly safe to have the following
  situation:

     Client                                                  Server
     ------                                                  ------
     TCP(seq=x, len=500)             ---->
        contains SSH_MSG_IGNORE

     TCP(seq=y, len=500)             ---->
        contains Data

     Provided that the IV for the second SSH Record is fixed after the
     data for the Data packet is determined, then the following should
     be performed:

        read from user
        encrypt null packet
        encrypt data packet

9.3.2.  Data Integrity

  This protocol does allow the Data Integrity mechanism to be disabled.
  Implementers SHOULD be wary of exposing this feature for any purpose
  other than debugging.  Users and administrators SHOULD be explicitly
  warned anytime the "none" MAC is enabled.

  So long as the "none" MAC is not used, this protocol provides data
  integrity.

  Because MACs use a 32-bit sequence number, they might start to leak
  information after 2**32 packets have been sent.  However, following
  the rekeying recommendations should prevent this attack.  The
  transport protocol [SSH-TRANS] recommends rekeying after one gigabyte
  of data, and the smallest possible packet is 16 bytes.  Therefore,
  rekeying SHOULD happen after 2**28 packets at the very most.

9.3.3.  Replay

  The use of a MAC other than "none" provides integrity and
  authentication.  In addition, the transport protocol provides a
  unique session identifier (bound in part to pseudo-random data that
  is part of the algorithm and key exchange process) that can be used
  by higher level protocols to bind data to a given session and prevent



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  replay of data from prior sessions.  For example, the authentication
  protocol ([SSH-USERAUTH]) uses this to prevent replay of signatures
  from previous sessions.  Because public key authentication exchanges
  are cryptographically bound to the session (i.e., to the initial key
  exchange), they cannot be successfully replayed in other sessions.
  Note that the session id can be made public without harming the
  security of the protocol.

  If two sessions have the same session id (hash of key exchanges),
  then packets from one can be replayed against the other.  It must be
  stressed that the chances of such an occurrence are, needless to say,
  minimal when using modern cryptographic methods.  This is all the
  more true when specifying larger hash function outputs and DH
  parameters.

  Replay detection using monotonically increasing sequence numbers as
  input to the MAC, or HMAC in some cases, is described in [RFC2085],
  [RFC2246], [RFC2743], [RFC1964], [RFC2025], and [RFC4120].  The
  underlying construct is discussed in [RFC2104].  Essentially, a
  different sequence number in each packet ensures that at least this
  one input to the MAC function will be unique and will provide a
  nonrecurring MAC output that is not predictable to an attacker.  If
  the session stays active long enough, however, this sequence number
  will wrap.  This event may provide an attacker an opportunity to
  replay a previously recorded packet with an identical sequence number
  but only if the peers have not rekeyed since the transmission of the
  first packet with that sequence number.  If the peers have rekeyed,
  then the replay will be detected since the MAC check will fail.  For
  this reason, it must be emphasized that peers MUST rekey before a
  wrap of the sequence numbers.  Naturally, if an attacker does attempt
  to replay a captured packet before the peers have rekeyed, then the
  receiver of the duplicate packet will not be able to validate the MAC
  and it will be discarded.  The reason that the MAC will fail is
  because the receiver will formulate a MAC based upon the packet
  contents, the shared secret, and the expected sequence number.  Since
  the replayed packet will not be using that expected sequence number
  (the sequence number of the replayed packet will have already been
  passed by the receiver), the calculated MAC will not match the MAC
  received with the packet.

9.3.4.  Man-in-the-middle

  This protocol makes no assumptions or provisions for an
  infrastructure or means for distributing the public keys of hosts.
  It is expected that this protocol will sometimes be used without
  first verifying the association between the server host key and the
  server host name.  Such usage is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle
  attacks.  This section describes this and encourages administrators



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  and users to understand the importance of verifying this association
  before any session is initiated.

  There are three cases of man-in-the-middle attacks to consider.  The
  first is where an attacker places a device between the client and the
  server before the session is initiated.  In this case, the attack
  device is trying to mimic the legitimate server and will offer its
  public key to the client when the client initiates a session.  If it
  were to offer the public key of the server, then it would not be able
  to decrypt or sign the transmissions between the legitimate server
  and the client unless it also had access to the private key of the
  host.  The attack device will also, simultaneously to this, initiate
  a session to the legitimate server, masquerading itself as the
  client.  If the public key of the server had been securely
  distributed to the client prior to that session initiation, the key
  offered to the client by the attack device will not match the key
  stored on the client.  In that case, the user SHOULD be given a
  warning that the offered host key does not match the host key cached
  on the client.  As described in Section 4.1, the user may be free to
  accept the new key and continue the session.  It is RECOMMENDED that
  the warning provide sufficient information to the user of the client
  device so the user may make an informed decision.  If the user
  chooses to continue the session with the stored public key of the
  server (not the public key offered at the start of the session), then
  the session-specific data between the attacker and server will be
  different between the client-to-attacker session and the attacker-
  to-server sessions due to the randomness discussed above.  From this,
  the attacker will not be able to make this attack work since the
  attacker will not be able to correctly sign packets containing this
  session-specific data from the server, since he does not have the
  private key of that server.

  The second case that should be considered is similar to the first
  case in that it also happens at the time of connection, but this case
  points out the need for the secure distribution of server public
  keys.  If the server public keys are not securely distributed, then
  the client cannot know if it is talking to the intended server.  An
  attacker may use social engineering techniques to pass off server
  keys to unsuspecting users and may then place a man-in-the-middle
  attack device between the legitimate server and the clients.  If this
  is allowed to happen, then the clients will form client-to-attacker
  sessions, and the attacker will form attacker-to-server sessions and
  will be able to monitor and manipulate all of the traffic between the
  clients and the legitimate servers.  Server administrators are
  encouraged to make host key fingerprints available for checking by
  some means whose security does not rely on the integrity of the
  actual host keys.  Possible mechanisms are discussed in Section 4.1
  and may also include secured Web pages, physical pieces of paper,



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  etc.  Implementers SHOULD provide recommendations on how best to do
  this with their implementation.  Because the protocol is extensible,
  future extensions to the protocol may provide better mechanisms for
  dealing with the need to know the server's host key before
  connecting.  For example, making the host key fingerprint available
  through a secure DNS lookup, or using Kerberos ([RFC4120]) over
  GSS-API ([RFC1964]) during key exchange to authenticate the server
  are possibilities.

  In the third man-in-the-middle case, attackers may attempt to
  manipulate packets in transit between peers after the session has
  been established.  As described in Section 9.3.3, a successful attack
  of this nature is very improbable.  As in Section 9.3.3, this
  reasoning does assume that the MAC is secure and that it is
  infeasible to construct inputs to a MAC algorithm to give a known
  output.  This is discussed in much greater detail in Section 6 of
  [RFC2104].  If the MAC algorithm has a vulnerability or is weak
  enough, then the attacker may be able to specify certain inputs to
  yield a known MAC.  With that, they may be able to alter the contents
  of a packet in transit.  Alternatively, the attacker may be able to
  exploit the algorithm vulnerability or weakness to find the shared
  secret by reviewing the MACs from captured packets.  In either of
  those cases, an attacker could construct a packet or packets that
  could be inserted into an SSH stream.  To prevent this, implementers
  are encouraged to utilize commonly accepted MAC algorithms, and
  administrators are encouraged to watch current literature and
  discussions of cryptography to ensure that they are not using a MAC
  algorithm that has a recently found vulnerability or weakness.

  In summary, the use of this protocol without a reliable association
  of the binding between a host and its host keys is inherently
  insecure and is NOT RECOMMENDED.  However, it may be necessary in
  non-security-critical environments, and will still provide protection
  against passive attacks.  Implementers of protocols and applications
  running on top of this protocol should keep this possibility in mind.

9.3.5.  Denial of Service

  This protocol is designed to be used over a reliable transport.  If
  transmission errors or message manipulation occur, the connection is
  closed.  The connection SHOULD be re-established if this occurs.
  Denial of service attacks of this type (wire cutter) are almost
  impossible to avoid.

  In addition, this protocol is vulnerable to denial of service attacks
  because an attacker can force the server to go through the CPU and
  memory intensive tasks of connection setup and key exchange without
  authenticating.  Implementers SHOULD provide features that make this



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  more difficult, for example, only allowing connections from a subset
  of clients known to have valid users.

9.3.6.  Covert Channels

  The protocol was not designed to eliminate covert channels.  For
  example, the padding, SSH_MSG_IGNORE messages, and several other
  places in the protocol can be used to pass covert information, and
  the recipient has no reliable way of verifying whether such
  information is being sent.

9.3.7.  Forward Secrecy

  It should be noted that the Diffie-Hellman key exchanges may provide
  perfect forward secrecy (PFS).  PFS is essentially defined as the
  cryptographic property of a key-establishment protocol in which the
  compromise of a session key or long-term private key after a given
  session does not cause the compromise of any earlier session
  [ANSI-T1.523-2001].  SSH sessions resulting from a key exchange using
  the diffie-hellman methods described in the section Diffie-Hellman
  Key Exchange of [SSH-TRANS] (including "diffie-hellman-group1-sha1"
  and "diffie-hellman-group14-sha1") are secure even if private
  keying/authentication material is later revealed, but not if the
  session keys are revealed.  So, given this definition of PFS, SSH
  does have PFS.  However, this property is not commuted to any of the
  applications or protocols using SSH as a transport.  The transport
  layer of SSH provides confidentiality for password authentication and
  other methods that rely on secret data.

  Of course, if the DH private parameters for the client and server are
  revealed, then the session key is revealed, but these items can be
  thrown away after the key exchange completes.  It's worth pointing
  out that these items should not be allowed to end up on swap space
  and that they should be erased from memory as soon as the key
  exchange completes.

9.3.8.  Ordering of Key Exchange Methods

  As stated in the section on Algorithm Negotiation of [SSH-TRANS],
  each device will send a list of preferred methods for key exchange.
  The most-preferred method is the first in the list.  It is
  RECOMMENDED that the algorithms be sorted by cryptographic strength,
  strongest first.  Some additional guidance for this is given in
  [RFC3766].







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9.3.9.  Traffic Analysis

  Passive monitoring of any protocol may give an attacker some
  information about the session, the user, or protocol specific
  information that they would otherwise not be able to garner.  For
  example, it has been shown that traffic analysis of an SSH session
  can yield information about the length of the password - [Openwall]
  and [USENIX].  Implementers should use the SSH_MSG_IGNORE packet,
  along with the inclusion of random lengths of padding, to thwart
  attempts at traffic analysis.  Other methods may also be found and
  implemented.

9.4.  Authentication Protocol

  The purpose of this protocol is to perform client user
  authentication.  It assumes that this runs over a secure transport
  layer protocol, which has already authenticated the server machine,
  established an encrypted communications channel, and computed a
  unique session identifier for this session.

  Several authentication methods with different security
  characteristics are allowed.  It is up to the server's local policy
  to decide which methods (or combinations of methods) it is willing to
  accept for each user.  Authentication is no stronger than the weakest
  combination allowed.

  The server may go into a sleep period after repeated unsuccessful
  authentication attempts to make key search more difficult for
  attackers.  Care should be taken so that this doesn't become a self-
  denial of service vector.

9.4.1.  Weak Transport

  If the transport layer does not provide confidentiality,
  authentication methods that rely on secret data SHOULD be disabled.
  If it does not provide strong integrity protection, requests to
  change authentication data (e.g., a password change) SHOULD be
  disabled to prevent an attacker from modifying the ciphertext without
  being noticed, or rendering the new authentication data unusable
  (denial of service).

  The assumption stated above, that the Authentication Protocol only
  runs over a secure transport that has previously authenticated the
  server, is very important to note.  People deploying SSH are reminded
  of the consequences of man-in-the-middle attacks if the client does
  not have a very strong a priori association of the server with the
  host key of that server.  Specifically, for the case of the
  Authentication Protocol, the client may form a session to a man-in-



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  the-middle attack device and divulge user credentials such as their
  username and password.  Even in the cases of authentication where no
  user credentials are divulged, an attacker may still gain information
  they shouldn't have by capturing key-strokes in much the same way
  that a honeypot works.

9.4.2.  Debug Messages

  Special care should be taken when designing debug messages.  These
  messages may reveal surprising amounts of information about the host
  if not properly designed.  Debug messages can be disabled (during
  user authentication phase) if high security is required.
  Administrators of host machines should make all attempts to
  compartmentalize all event notification messages and protect them
  from unwarranted observation.  Developers should be aware of the
  sensitive nature of some of the normal event and debug messages, and
  may want to provide guidance to administrators on ways to keep this
  information away from unauthorized people.  Developers should
  consider minimizing the amount of sensitive information obtainable by
  users during the authentication phase, in accordance with the local
  policies.  For this reason, it is RECOMMENDED that debug messages be
  initially disabled at the time of deployment and require an active
  decision by an administrator to allow them to be enabled.  It is also
  RECOMMENDED that a message expressing this concern be presented to
  the administrator of a system when the action is taken to enable
  debugging messages.

9.4.3.  Local Security Policy

  The implementer MUST ensure that the credentials provided validate
  the professed user and also MUST ensure that the local policy of the
  server permits the user the access requested.  In particular, because
  of the flexible nature of the SSH connection protocol, it may not be
  possible to determine the local security policy, if any, that should
  apply at the time of authentication because the kind of service being
  requested is not clear at that instant.  For example, local policy
  might allow a user to access files on the server, but not start an
  interactive shell.  However, during the authentication protocol, it
  is not known whether the user will be accessing files, attempting to
  use an interactive shell, or even both.  In any event, where local
  security policy for the server host exists, it MUST be applied and
  enforced correctly.

  Implementers are encouraged to provide a default local policy and
  make its parameters known to administrators and users.  At the
  discretion of the implementers, this default policy may be along the
  lines of anything-goes where there are no restrictions placed upon
  users, or it may be along the lines of excessively-restrictive, in



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  which case, the administrators will have to actively make changes to
  the initial default parameters to meet their needs.  Alternatively,
  it may be some attempt at providing something practical and
  immediately useful to the administrators of the system so they don't
  have to put in much effort to get SSH working.  Whatever choice is
  made must be applied and enforced as required above.

9.4.4  Public Key Authentication

  The use of public key authentication assumes that the client host has
  not been compromised.  It also assumes that the private key of the
  server host has not been compromised.

  This risk can be mitigated by the use of passphrases on private keys;
  however, this is not an enforceable policy.  The use of smartcards,
  or other technology to make passphrases an enforceable policy is
  suggested.

  The server could require both password and public key authentication;
  however, this requires the client to expose its password to the
  server (see the section on Password Authentication below.)

9.4.5.  Password Authentication

  The password mechanism, as specified in the authentication protocol,
  assumes that the server has not been compromised.  If the server has
  been compromised, using password authentication will reveal a valid
  username/password combination to the attacker, which may lead to
  further compromises.

  This vulnerability can be mitigated by using an alternative form of
  authentication.  For example, public key authentication makes no
  assumptions about security on the server.

9.4.6.  Host-Based Authentication

  Host-based authentication assumes that the client has not been
  compromised.  There are no mitigating strategies, other than to use
  host-based authentication in combination with another authentication
  method.











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9.5.  Connection Protocol

9.5.1.  End Point Security

  End point security is assumed by the connection protocol.  If the
  server has been compromised, any terminal sessions, port forwarding,
  or systems accessed on the host are compromised.  There are no
  mitigating factors for this.

  If the client has been compromised, and the server fails to stop the
  attacker at the authentication protocol, all services exposed (either
  as subsystems or through forwarding) will be vulnerable to attack.
  Implementers SHOULD provide mechanisms for administrators to control
  which services are exposed to limit the vulnerability of other
  services.  These controls might include controlling which machines
  and ports can be targeted in port-forwarding operations, which users
  are allowed to use interactive shell facilities, or which users are
  allowed to use exposed subsystems.

9.5.2.  Proxy Forwarding

  The SSH connection protocol allows for proxy forwarding of other
  protocols such as SMTP, POP3, and HTTP.  This may be a concern for
  network administrators who wish to control the access of certain
  applications by users located outside of their physical location.
  Essentially, the forwarding of these protocols may violate site-
  specific security policies, as they may be undetectably tunneled
  through a firewall.  Implementers SHOULD provide an administrative
  mechanism to control the proxy forwarding functionality so that
  site-specific security policies may be upheld.

  In addition, a reverse proxy forwarding functionality is available,
  which, again, can be used to bypass firewall controls.

  As indicated above, end-point security is assumed during proxy
  forwarding operations.  Failure of end-point security will compromise
  all data passed over proxy forwarding.

9.5.3.  X11 Forwarding

  Another form of proxy forwarding provided by the SSH connection
  protocol is the forwarding of the X11 protocol.  If end-point
  security has been compromised, X11 forwarding may allow attacks
  against the X11 server.  Users and administrators should, as a matter
  of course, use appropriate X11 security mechanisms to prevent
  unauthorized use of the X11 server.  Implementers, administrators,
  and users who wish to further explore the security mechanisms of X11
  are invited to read [SCHEIFLER] and analyze previously reported



Ylonen & Lonvick            Standards Track                    [Page 24]

RFC 4251               SSH Protocol Architecture            January 2006


  problems with the interactions between SSH forwarding and X11 in CERT
  vulnerabilities VU#363181 and VU#118892 [CERT].

  X11 display forwarding with SSH, by itself, is not sufficient to
  correct well known problems with X11 security [VENEMA].  However, X11
  display forwarding in SSH (or other secure protocols), combined with
  actual and pseudo-displays that accept connections only over local
  IPC mechanisms authorized by permissions or access control lists
  (ACLs), does correct many X11 security problems, as long as the
  "none" MAC is not used.  It is RECOMMENDED that X11 display
  implementations default to allow the display to open only over local
  IPC.  It is RECOMMENDED that SSH server implementations that support
  X11 forwarding default to allow the display to open only over local
  IPC.  On single-user systems, it might be reasonable to default to
  allow the local display to open over TCP/IP.

  Implementers of the X11 forwarding protocol SHOULD implement the
  magic cookie access-checking spoofing mechanism, as described in
  [SSH-CONNECT], as an additional mechanism to prevent unauthorized use
  of the proxy.































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RFC 4251               SSH Protocol Architecture            January 2006


10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

  [SSH-TRANS]        Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell
                     (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol", RFC 4253, January
                     2006.

  [SSH-USERAUTH]     Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell
                     (SSH) Authentication Protocol", RFC 4252, January
                     2006.

  [SSH-CONNECT]      Ylonen, T. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure Shell
                     (SSH) Connection Protocol", RFC 4254, January
                     2006.

  [SSH-NUMBERS]      Lehtinen, S. and C. Lonvick, Ed., "The Secure
                     Shell (SSH) Protocol Assigned Numbers", RFC 4250,
                     January 2006.

  [RFC2119]          Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to
                     Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
                     March 1997.

  [RFC2434]          Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for
                     Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs",
                     BCP 26, RFC 2434, October 1998.

  [RFC3066]          Alvestrand, H., "Tags for the Identification of
                     Languages", BCP 47, RFC 3066, January 2001.

  [RFC3629]          Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of
                     ISO 10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

10.2.  Informative References

  [RFC0822]          Crocker, D., "Standard for the format of ARPA
                     Internet text messages", STD 11, RFC 822, August
                     1982.

  [RFC0854]          Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "Telnet Protocol
                     Specification", STD 8, RFC 854, May 1983.

  [RFC1034]          Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and
                     facilities", STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.






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RFC 4251               SSH Protocol Architecture            January 2006


  [RFC1282]          Kantor, B., "BSD Rlogin", RFC 1282, December 1991.

  [RFC4120]          Neuman, C., Yu, T., Hartman, S., and K. Raeburn,
                     "The Kerberos Network Authentication Service
                     (V5)", RFC 4120, July 2005.

  [RFC1964]          Linn, J., "The Kerberos Version 5 GSS-API
                     Mechanism", RFC 1964, June 1996.

  [RFC2025]          Adams, C., "The Simple Public-Key GSS-API
                     Mechanism (SPKM)", RFC 2025, October 1996.

  [RFC2085]          Oehler, M. and R. Glenn, "HMAC-MD5 IP
                     Authentication with Replay Prevention", RFC 2085,
                     February 1997.

  [RFC2104]          Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti, "HMAC:
                     Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication", RFC
                     2104, February 1997.

  [RFC2246]          Dierks, T. and C. Allen, "The TLS Protocol Version
                     1.0", RFC 2246, January 1999.

  [RFC2410]          Glenn, R. and S. Kent, "The NULL Encryption
                     Algorithm and Its Use With IPsec", RFC 2410,
                     November 1998.

  [RFC2743]          Linn, J., "Generic Security Service Application
                     Program Interface Version 2, Update 1", RFC 2743,
                     January 2000.

  [RFC3766]          Orman, H. and P. Hoffman, "Determining Strengths
                     For Public Keys Used For Exchanging Symmetric
                     Keys", BCP 86, RFC 3766, April 2004.

  [RFC4086]          Eastlake, D., 3rd, Schiller, J., and S. Crocker,
                     "Randomness Requirements for Security", BCP 106,
                     RFC 4086, June 2005.

  [FIPS-180-2]       US National Institute of Standards and Technology,
                     "Secure Hash Standard (SHS)", Federal Information
                     Processing Standards Publication 180-2, August
                     2002.

  [FIPS-186-2]       US National Institute of Standards and Technology,
                     "Digital Signature Standard (DSS)", Federal
                     Information Processing Standards Publication 186-
                     2, January 2000.



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RFC 4251               SSH Protocol Architecture            January 2006


  [FIPS-197]         US National Institute of Standards and Technology,
                     "Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)", Federal
                     Information Processing Standards Publication 197,
                     November 2001.

  [ANSI-T1.523-2001] American National Standards Institute, Inc.,
                     "Telecom Glossary 2000", ANSI T1.523-2001,
                     February 2001.

  [SCHNEIER]         Schneier, B., "Applied Cryptography Second
                     Edition:  protocols algorithms and source in code
                     in C", John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY, 1996.

  [SCHEIFLER]        Scheifler, R., "X Window System : The Complete
                     Reference to Xlib, X Protocol, Icccm, Xlfd, 3rd
                     edition.", Digital Press, ISBN 1555580882,
                     February 1992.

  [KAUFMAN]          Kaufman, C., Perlman, R., and M. Speciner,
                     "Network Security: PRIVATE Communication in a
                     PUBLIC World", Prentice Hall Publisher, 1995.

  [CERT]             CERT Coordination Center, The.,
                     "http://www.cert.org/nav/index_red.html".

  [VENEMA]           Venema, W., "Murphy's Law and Computer Security",
                     Proceedings of 6th USENIX Security Symposium, San
                     Jose CA
                     http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/
                     proceedings/sec96/venema.html, July 1996.

  [ROGAWAY]          Rogaway, P., "Problems with Proposed IP
                     Cryptography", Unpublished paper
                     http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/ papers/draft-
                     rogaway-ipsec-comments-00.txt, 1996.

  [DAI]              Dai, W., "An attack against SSH2 protocol", Email
                     to the SECSH Working Group [email protected]
                     ftp:// ftp.ietf.org/ietf-mail-archive/secsh/2002-
                     02.mail, Feb 2002.

  [BELLARE]          Bellaire, M., Kohno, T., and C. Namprempre,
                     "Authenticated Encryption in SSH: Fixing the SSH
                     Binary Packet Protocol", Proceedings of the 9th
                     ACM Conference on Computer and Communications
                     Security, Sept 2002.





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RFC 4251               SSH Protocol Architecture            January 2006


  [Openwall]         Solar Designer and D. Song, "SSH Traffic Analysis
                     Attacks", Presentation given at HAL2001 and
                     NordU2002 Conferences, Sept 2001.

  [USENIX]           Song, X.D., Wagner, D., and X. Tian, "Timing
                     Analysis of Keystrokes and SSH Timing Attacks",
                     Paper given at 10th USENIX Security Symposium,
                     2001.

Authors' Addresses

  Tatu Ylonen
  SSH Communications Security Corp
  Valimotie 17
  00380 Helsinki
  Finland

  EMail: [email protected]


  Chris Lonvick (editor)
  Cisco Systems, Inc.
  12515 Research Blvd.
  Austin  78759
  USA

  EMail: [email protected]

Trademark Notice

  "ssh" is a registered trademark in the United States and/or other
  countries.



















Ylonen & Lonvick            Standards Track                    [Page 29]

RFC 4251               SSH Protocol Architecture            January 2006


Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

  This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
  contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
  retain all their rights.

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  "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
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  ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
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Acknowledgement

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