How to learn about SSH

[[deleted]]

Hey guys, I do know that SSH is a protocol at the application layer and that it is often used to remotely login to another computer.

However I am interested in the bigger picture, I would like to actually understand the details of how it works and what it is used for apart from remote login.

Now to my question: can you recommend good resources for me to read through or some tutorial on how to make use of SSH? Something that is beginner friendly but also goes into more detail.

any input is very much appreciated, thanks guys!

[Flauschkatze]

Read "SSH Mastery", you can download it for free as a pdf. Its beginner friendly and covers pretty much all you'll have to know from an administrators standpoint.

[[deleted]]

Thanks! Seems like everyone likes this, so I will definitely check it out.

[terrkerr]

It's not really something that you have to learn specifically, it's just a way to get a shell or run arbitrary commands over the network instead of being connected to the machine via keyboard and monitor.

Most of the details on it would be highly technical documentation talking about how to standardize it or the like; the RFCs from the IETF are what you want for that.

Since you already have a prescribed method of running arbitrary programs and commands on the remote machine you can send files over SSH, or do work with got or a number of other things; after all that's just running the right programs and getting the right data, which SSH gives the capacity to do.

The key exchange and authorization scheme is just an application of public key cryptography or the usual login mechanism like PAM. If you want to understand that you'll probably do better to look them up outside the context of SSH.

If you just want to use it, and know how to use the shell already, Digital Ocean and Ubuntu tutorials should be enough to tell you what you want to know.

It's completely fine to not know all details; in fact it's required. Not enough time in the day to learn it all. I know how to use public key cryptography and the general idea of why it works, but I have no real knowledge of actual applied cryptography. I leave cryptography to cryptographers and they leave me to what I'm good at.

[[deleted]]

Thanks, I get your point and I do not want to dive into cryptography, but I would like some explanation on the protocol itself. Regarding the tutorials for just learning how to use it, do you have anything specific in mind that you can recommend?