SSH tools for Windows

Safe Connection

This article presents advanced Secure Shell (SSH) functionality and SSH-based tools for use on Windows. It does not question the fact that both Linux (vsftpd, proftpd) and Windows (IIS) let you operate a secure FTP server with standard tools and that there are countless secure and powerful FTP clients. The charm of SSH consists above all in being able to use remote logins, file transfers, port forwarding, VPN, and other functions ad hoc without extensive preparatory measures. For SSH, you only need to run the SSH daemon, sshd, on the (Linux) server.

SSH offers maximum security thanks to these three properties:

• Encryption of transferred data, including login information.
• Protection against manipulation of the transferred data (data integrity).
• Authentication of the communication partner.

SSH always uses transmission encryption; it can use the default host key to ensure the integrity of the connection or the hosts, and it supports peer authentication. Although SSH "only" works by default with usernames and passwords, it also optionally supports asymmetric DSA and RSA key pairs.

SSH Basics

The free Linux SSH Version, OpenSSH, is a spin-off of the classic SSH from 1999. The popular Windows SSH client PuTTY, developed by Simon Tatham, is also a free SSH implementation. It is subject to the MIT license and is currently at version 0.62 from 2011. All versions of SSH are largely compatible.

The term Secure Shell is the umbrella for a bunch of remote access tools. The entire SSH suite contains the following tools:

• ssh – Replaces rsh, rlogin, and telnet.
• scp – Replaces rcp.
• sftp – Replaces ftp.
• sshd – The SSH server

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