Remote-access Guide

ssh for remote access

by Jovany Hermann Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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SSH or Secure Shell is a network protocol that connects users to a remote computer over a secure connection. This allows administrators and other authorized users to connect to secure computers over a network that is not secure, like the Internet. This is accomplished through the use of encryption.May 2, 2022

Does SSH allow you to access a computer remotely?

SSH, or Secure Socket Shell, provides users with secure access to remote machines via an encrypted connection. All data sent from the client (your computer) is encrypted. Only when the data reaches the remote server will it decrypt.

How do I remotely connect to SSH?

How to Connect via SSHOpen the SSH terminal on your machine and run the following command: ssh your_username@host_ip_address. ... Type in your password and hit Enter. ... When you are connecting to a server for the very first time, it will ask you if you want to continue connecting.More items...•

What is SSH used for?

SSH or Secure Shell is a network communication protocol that enables two computers to communicate (c.f http or hypertext transfer protocol, which is the protocol used to transfer hypertext such as web pages) and share data.

How do I access a server remotely?

Remote Desktop to Your Server From a Local Windows ComputerClick the Start button.Click Run...Type “mstsc” and press the Enter key.Next to Computer: type in the IP address of your server.Click Connect.If all goes well, you will see the Windows login prompt.

How do I access a Linux server remotely?

Connect to Linux Remotely Using SSH in PuTTYSelect Session > Host Name.Input the Linux computer's network name, or enter the IP address you noted earlier.Select SSH, then Open.When prompted to accept the certificate for the connection, do so.Enter the username and password to sign in to your Linux device.

How do I connect to a SSH server in Windows?

Windows operating systemsStart PuTTY.In the Host Name (or IP address) text box, type the hostname or IP address of the server where your account is located.In the Port text box, type 7822. ... Confirm that the Connection type radio button is set to SSH.Click Open.More items...

How do I SSH into Linux from Windows?

How to connect via SSH:Open the list of your servers. Click the one you need and click the button "Instructions". ... Open a terminal (for Linux) or a command line (for Windows) on your computer. Enter the command: ssh [username]@[server IP] ... The connection will ask for a password.

How do I connect to a remote server with PuTTY?

Open Putty and enter your Hostname or IP Address in the Hostname or IP Address field. The default port will be 22. Click on the Open button to open the command line window. In the command line window type in the SSH username at the login as prompt and press enter on your keyboard.

What is SSH in Linux?

SSH, or Secure Shell, is a protocol used to securely log onto remote systems. It is the most common way to access remote Linux servers. In this guide, we will discuss how to use SSH to connect to a remote system.

Why is SSH so popular?

SSH has remained popular because it is secure, light-weight, and useful in diverse situations.

How does key based authentication work?

Key-based authentication works by creating a pair of keys: a private key and a public key. The private key is located on the client machine and is secured and kept secret. The public key can be given to anyone or placed on any server you wish to access.

What happens when you use a key pair?

When you attempt to connect using a key-pair, the server will use the public key to create a message for the client computer that can only be read with the private key. The client computer then sends the appropriate response back to the server and the server will know that the client is legitimate.

Can you use SSH to log into a server?

If you have created SSH keys, you can enhance your server’s security by disabling password-only authentication. Apart from the console, the only way to log into your server will be through the private key that pairs with the public key you have installed on the server.

What is SSH2?

What we use today and call SSH is officially known as SSH2, the second version of the SSH protocol which became the standard for SSH in 2006. SSH1, the original version of the protocol, was developed in 1995, but over time, various security flaws were exposed. SSH2 uses the Diffie-Hellman key exchange and message authentication codes as an integrity check to overcome those flaws and greatly improve security. So far, there are no known exploitable vulnerabilities in SSH2 (which we'll just refer to as SSH from now on).

What is SSH in computer security?

SSH or Secure Shell is a network protocol that connects users to a remote computer over a secure connection. This allows administrators and other authorized users to connect to secure computers over a network that is not secure, like the Internet. This is accomplished through the use of encryption.

Getting Started With SSH

By default, most Linux systems include the ssh client and server applications. The packages that include ssh tools in RHEL and Fedora distributions are openssh, openssh-server, and openssh-client. Use the grep command to fetch ssh tools from the installed list:

How to Use SSH Client Tools

Among many other tools to utilize SSH protocol for Linux system remote access, the most frequently used are the ssh command for remote code execution and log in, where scp and rsync are useful in copying one or more files between the client and server.

Getting to Know SSH

The article is a guide for the most widely used protocol for remote management of Linux servers. We display how to use the most important SSH commands with some tips and tricks to ease the task of file copy and management.

What Does SSH Mean?

The acronym SSH stands for "Secure Shell." The SSH protocol was designed as a secure alternative to unsecured remote shell protocols. It utilizes a client-server paradigm, in which clients and servers communicate via a secure channel.

A Brief SSH History

SSH was created by Tatu Ylönen in 1995. The protocol was designed to prevent password-sniffing attacks at the Helsinki University of Technology. The first version of the protocol, now called SSH-1, was designed to replace unsecured protocols such as rsh, rlogin, and Telnet. It started as freeware but soon became proprietary software.

SSH Terminology

The following table contains some terms you may encounter when working with SSH:

SSH Uses

SSH is widely used in data centers to provide secure management, remote access to resources, software patches, and updates. The protocol also enables protected router management, server hardware maintenance, and virtualization platform administration.

How to Use SSH?

Connecting to an SSH server is performed using an SSH client. Most Unix-based and Unix-like operating systems come with the daemon and the client preinstalled. On these systems, the SSH client is available in the terminal.

How Secure is SSH?

When used with standard security precautions, the SSH protocol is considered to be highly secure. However, human factors play a significant role in maintaining the security of SSH connections.

Before You Begin

Ensure you have a Linux server with an SSH server (like OpenSSH) installed. Most Linux distributions have an SSH server preinstalled. If you wish to deploy a new server, follow the Getting Started guide to create a Linode.

Open the Terminal

On your local Windows computer, open the terminal application you wish to use. The terminal allows you to access your operating system’s shell environment and run programs through the command line, such as the SSH command.

Connecting to the Remote Server Over SSH from Windows

Once you’ve opened your preferred Windows SSH client (Command Prompt, PowerShell, or WSL), you can run the ssh command to connect to your server.

Ending the SSH Session

After you are done, log out of the session by typing exit. The terminal then shows something similar to:

Sending Commands Over SSH

Instead of using SSH to open your remote server’s console, you can run commands on your server without leaving your local shell environment. This can enable you to quickly run commands both locally and remotely in the same terminal window.

Going Further

If SSH isn’t connecting you to your Linode, you may need to investigate the state of your server. See the guide Troubleshooting SSH for assistance.

What is SSH in Visual Studio?

The Visual Studio Code Remote - SSH extension allows you to open a remote folder on any remote machine, virtual machine, or container with a running SSH server and take full advantage of VS Code's feature set. Once connected to a server, you can interact with files and folders anywhere on the remote filesystem.

What is localforward in SSH?

If you have ports that you always want to forward, you can use the LocalForward directive in the same SSH config file you use to remember hosts and advanced settings .

How to close remote connection?

To close the connection when you finish editing files on the remote host, choose File > Close Remote Connection to disconnect from the host. The default configuration does not include a keyboard shortcut for this command. You can also simply exit VS Code to close the remote connection.

How to see which host you are connected to?

You can always refer to the Status bar to see which host you are connected to. Clicking on the Status bar item will provide a list of remote commands while you are connected. You can then open any folder or workspace on the remote machine using File > Open... or File > Open Workspace... just as you would locally!

Does Remote SSH work with Linux?

Working with local tools #. The Remote - SSH extension does not provide direct support for sync'ing source code or using local tools with content on a remote host. However, there are two ways to do this using common tools that will work with most Linux hosts. Specifically, you can:

Can extensions work on remote SSH?

Many extensions will work on remote SSH hosts without modification. However, in some cases, certain features may require changes. If you run into an extension issue, there is a summary of common problems and solutions that you can mention to the extension author when reporting the issue.

Can Docker run locally?

While the Docker extension can run both remotely and locally, if it is already installed locally, you will be unable to install on a remote SSH host without first uninstalling it locally. We will address this problem in a future VS Code release.

1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for employee access

Option 1) Leverage your existing LDAP user directory, for example an on-premise Active Directory together with a Time-based One-time Password (TOTP) to enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for your employees.

2. Temporary access to authorized targets - without passwords

PrivX provides role-based access controls (RBAC) to authorized targets that consist of both the target host and target account.

3. Restricted Windows RDP access to targets or applications

You can also grant limited RDP access to specific targets, for example RDP without file transfer or clipboard could be allowed for some PrivX users to login as self to access their Windows workstations. You can restrict access even further.

4. Restricted SSH access

Any target host running a secure shell server can be configured with PrivX Roles to allow restricted access. Secure Shell access via the PrivX GUI is restricted by design to Shell (terminal) and File Transfers only.

Remote access management made easy

Our solution, PrivX, is a quick-to-implement and scalable privileged access management (PAM) solution that extends to all employees working from home for establishing secure remote access to web applications. It’s a viable alternative for VPNs and other traditional remote secure access tools.

Suvi Lampila

Suvi Lampila is a Senior Technical Services Engineer at SSH.COM. Suvi has been with SSH since 2001 and she has held various positions in technical support, quality assurance and professional services both in Finland and Hong Kong.

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CORE Syntax

  • To connect to a remote system using SSH, we’ll use the sshcommand. If you are using Windows, you’ll need to install a version of OpenSSH in order to be able to ssh from a terminal. If you prefer to work in PowerShell, you can follow Microsoft’s documentation to add OpenSSH to PowerShell. If you would rather have a full Linux environment available, ...
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How Does Ssh Work?

  • SSH works by connecting a client program to an ssh server, called sshd. In the previous section, ssh was the client program. The ssh server was already running on the remote_hostthat we specified. On nearly all Linux environments, the sshdserver should start automatically. If it is not running for any reason, you may need to temporarily access your server through a web-based co…
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How to Configure Ssh

  • When you change the configuration of SSH, you are changing the settings of the sshd server. In Ubuntu, the main sshd configuration file is located at /etc/ssh/sshd_config. Back up the current version of this file before editing: Open it using nanoor your favourite text editor: You will want to leave most of the options in this file alone. However, there are a few you may want to take a loo…
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How to Log Into Ssh with Keys

  • While it is helpful to be able to log in to a remote system using passwords, it is faster and more secure to set up key-based authentication.
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Client-Side Options

  • There are a number of optional flags that you can provide when connecting through SSH. Some of these may be necessary to match the settings in the remote host’s sshdconfiguration. For instance, if you changed the port number in your sshdconfiguration, you will need to match that port on the client-side by typing: If you only want to execute a single command on a remote syst…
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Disabling Password Authentication

  • If you have created SSH keys, you can enhance your server’s security by disabling password-only authentication. Apart from the console, the only way to log into your server will be through the private key that pairs with the public key you have installed on the server. As root or user with sudo privileges, open the sshdconfiguration file: Locate the line that reads Password Authentica…
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Conclusion

  • Learning your way around SSH will greatly benefit any of your future cloud computing endeavours. As you use the various options, you will discover more advanced functionality that can make your life easier. SSH has remained popular because it is secure, light-weight, and useful in diverse situations. Next, you may want to learn about working with SFTPto perform command line file tr…
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