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Resources

Department Secure Shell (SSH) Software

The department is moving away from unsecured telnet and ftp connections to the more secure connectivity provided through SSH. Secure Shell (SSH) is a program to log into another computer over a network, to execute commands in a remote machine, and to move files from one machine to another. It provides strong authentication and secure communications over unsecured channels. It is intended as a replacement for ftp, rcp, rexec, rlogin, rsh and telnet.

Our central timesharing systems are running SSH, protocol v 3.0. SSH, protocol v 2.x will also connect to these systems. Users are advised to obtain a copy of SSH (preferably v 3.x) and experiment.

Users without SSH installed may wish to use our web SSH interface.

Users interested in obtaining more information on SSH should check SSH Communications Security and their frequently asked questions page. Although SSH Communications is a for profit company selling SSH software, they provide a free license to Universities and not-for-profits, also our main campus computing center, CCIT, has obtained a campus wide site license for a number of SSH Communications client and server products. Users may obtain the more current SSH version for Linux and Windows systems usually at the SSH site.

For folks running the classic Mac OS 9.x and earlier versions, the department suggests NiftyTelnet 1.1 SSH r3 by Jonas Wallden. NiftyTelnet 1.1 SSH r3 is an enhanced version of Chris Newman's NiftyTelnet 1.1 application which adds support for encrypted terminal sessions using the SSH protocol. For Mac users running any version of Mac OS X, the ssh/scp/sftp tools are built-in and available via the command line within the Terminal application. The Terminal application is available in Mac OS X in the /Applications/Utilities directory in Finder.

Another free SSH product for Windows still found on many department systems is TeraTerm SSH by Robert O'Callahan. TTSSH is a free SSH client for Windows. It is implemented as an extension DLL for TeraTerm Pro. TeraTerm Pro is a free terminal emulator/telnet client for Windows, and its source is available. TTSSH adds SSH capabilities to TeraTerm Pro without sacrificing any of TeraTerm existing functionality. TTSSH is also free to download and use and its source is available too, with an open source/free software license.

For Linux systems, the department is using SSH Version 1.2.23, protocol version 1.5. The software consists of SSH (client), sshd (server), scp, sdist, and the auxiliary programs ssh-keygen, ssh-agent, ssh-add, and make-ssh-known-hosts. The software was originally written by Tatu Ylonen in Finland. It is now being maintained by SSH Communications Security and Data Fellows .

For more information, try opening a search engine like AskJeeves on your favorite browser and inquire about SSH software or see the web pages concerning SSH at CCIT.

For information on using Secure Socket Layers (SSL) with department supported mail readers, see Thunderbird E-mail Settings or Pine E-mail Settings.

Last updated Tuesday, 10-Jun-2008 08:23:38 MST, by Tom Lowry
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