| OpenSSH
for Windows |
The OpenSSH website is located at www.openssh.com
This website hosts a Windows installer package of Openssh for Windows that is actively maintained and current.
The sshwindows package hasn't been maintained for a long time
and is woefully out of date. I've been rolling my own
versions of this installer for quite a while and figured others might
find this useful as well.
I'll walk you through installation
and setup of the OpenSSH package for
Windows. First download the latest version (or the version of your choice), and head to the bottom of the page for a quick walk-thru
If you are looking for OpenSSH binaries for Windows 2000, XP, or 2003, head over to the OpenSSH installers for Windows 2000/XP/2003 page
for links to the latest binaries that will work with those particular operating systems.
If you are looking for older OpenSSH binaries that have been hosted on this site in the past, head over to the older OpenSSH installer page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As was pointed out, the Windows OpenSSH installer could be even more useful to people if it had additional language support. To contribute, download Descriptions.zip. Open the zip and edit Descriptions.nsi and email the updated language descriptions (Descriptions.nsi) to me at admin<AT>mls-software.com with a note as to how you would like to be credited and I'll get that included in the release. First to respond will get the credit, and I'll cross languages off the list as they come in. Based on the download history, the following countries primary languages would be the most useful: China, Japan, India, Russia, Italy, Ukraine, Netherlands. Languages currently supported: German - creopard.de, Danish - Tox, Portuguese (Brazil) - HackerOrientado, Spanish - zaquintar, French - MirrorBrain, Chinese_Simple - Wair56. Thanks for your help.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NOTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Version
OpenSSH 9.9p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.9p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
Older Versions
OpenSSH 9.8p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.8p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.7p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.7p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.6p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.6p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.5p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.5p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.4p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.4p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.3p2-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.3p2-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.3p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.3p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.2p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.2p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included). Sorry for being so late on this one - I had to update my script to pick up the new SSL libraries and the binary did not work after building with NSIS and I didn't have time to debug what was wrong. Two fixes were required: 1) The deprecated --env parameters to opensshd needed to be removed. 2) A bug (?) in cygwin/cygrunsrv was corrupting the text that was written into the service - I have just reverted to the prior versions I had.
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.1p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.1p1-1 installer for x64 binaries. x86 is no longer supported by Cygwin (although the 9.0p1-1 x86 are still included).
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 9.0p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 9.0p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries.
This update also included language support for Traditional Chinese.
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.9p1-1-v1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.9p1-1-v1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries.
This version includes ssh-sk-helper.exe, cygfido2-1.dll, and cygcbor-0.dll so I hope it provides Yubikey support (I have no way to test that)
NOTE: The correct/updated OpenSSL library is included (libssl1.1-1.1.1m-1) and dependencies for rsync have been fixed.
The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.9p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.9p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This version includes ssh-sk-helper.exe, cygfido2-1.dll, and cygcbor-0.dll so I hope it provides Yubikey support (I have no way to test that)
NOTE: I have two dependency issues to fix that I was notified about: 1) The OpenSSL library did not update correctly; 2) The dependencies for rsync have changed. I'll be working on fixing that and should have a new version uploaded within the next few days (as of 28 Feb 2022). The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.8p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.8p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This version includes ssh-sk-helper.exe, cygfido2-1.dll, and cygcbor-0.dll so I hope it provides Yubikey support (I have no way to test that) The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.7p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.7p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This version includes ssh-sk-helper.exe, cygfido2-1.dll, and cygcbor-0.dll so I hope it provides Yubikey support (I have no way to test that) The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.5p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.5p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This version includes ssh-sk-helper.exe, cygfido2-1.dll, and cygcbor-0.dll (which was missing last time) so I hope it provides Yubikey support (I have no way to test that) The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.4p1-2
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.4p1-2 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This version includes ssh-sk-helper.exe and cygfido2-1.dll so I hope it provides Yubikey support (I have no way to test that) The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.4p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.4p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. Happy Halloween! The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-)
OpenSSH 8.3p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.3p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-) I have updated the libraries I'm using so now Chinese and Russian language translations should show up correctly.
OpenSSH 8.2p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.2p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-) I also missed a file last time that caused you not to be able to connect to the sshd service running on your Windows system - that has been remedied (cygwin-console-helper.exe). I had hoped to fix Chinese and Russian language translations so they showed up correctly, however, there are some bugs in the unicode library that I updated/ported that I haven't fixed yet. Thanks to the Simon H. who sent me some clues on how to fix that issue. I should hopefully have this fixed by next rev.
OpenSSH 8.1p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.1p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-) I tweaked the default firewall rules based on a suggestion from John B. Please note - for some reason the Chinese and Russian language translations aren't showing up in my drop down for languages. If anybody knows how to fix that...I'd take a hint. Also, the Russian language translations don't show up as Russian characters, I have strange symbols - as such, I don't know that the file I was provided actually is correct. Any Russian speakers care to review the Decriptions.nsi from the source file and provide some verification or update that would be appreciated. I use Notepad++ as my editor so please check out that file with that editor. Thanks!
OpenSSH 8.0p1-2
This is an updated OpenSSH 8.0p1-2 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-) I incorporated some suggestions from Bill S. Russian langauge translations added (anonymous contributor). Please note - for some reason the Chinese and Russian language translations aren't showing up in my drop down for languages. If anybody knows how to fix that...I'd take a hint. Also, the Russian language translations don't show up as Russian characters, I have strange symbols - as such, I don't know that the file I was provided actually is correct. Any Russian speakers care to review the Decriptions.nsi from the source file and provide some verification or update that would be appreciated. I use Notepad++ as my editor so please check out that file with that editor. Thanks!
OpenSSH 7.9p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.9p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-) No new languages this release - more languages would be welcome.
OpenSSH 7.8p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.8p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-) No new languages this release - more languages would be welcome.
OpenSSH 7.7p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.7p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. The random password that is generated WILL NOT work with Windows Server causing the service to be unable to start - you MUST REPLACE THAT PASSWORD WITH SOMETHING THAT MEETS THE COMPLEXITY REQUIREMENTS OF A SERVER. Frankly, that password should be replaced in all cases...but people tend to be lazy :-) Finally, this release includes language support for Simplified Chinese - more languages would be welcome.
OpenSSH 7.6p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.6p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. There was a major change to this release - for security reasons the password associated with the sshd_server account is randomly generated (instead of D0ntGu3$$M3). You may change the password during the install process, but it was brought to my attention that many people probably weren't changing the D0ntGu3$$M3 password and that was of course a HUGE security risk. Finally, this release includes language support for Spanish and French - more languages would be welcome.
OpenSSH 7.5p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.5p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. There was a major change to this release - for security reasons the server (sshd) MUST run with privilege seperation. As such, the installer and sshd_config file were updated to support this change. This brings with it a caveat - the installer has a default password for the sshd_server account (which is required for privilege seperation) - the password is D0ntGu3$$M3. YOU MUST PICK YOUR OWN PASSWORD FOR YOUR SYSTEM IF YOU ARE USING THE SERVER. I also changed the installer to install the server by default UNLESS you specify only the client via the installer or via a /clientonly=1 if you are using the command line switches. The rysnc command was also added to the binary directory. The final change was the removal of the pop-up windows that showed up during install - this change has been requested in the past and was requested again -- I have removed the windows as they just clutter things up. Finally, this release includes language support for German, Danish, and Portuguese (Brazil) - more languages would be welcome.
OpenSSH 7.4p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.4p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This release includes language support for German and Danish - more languages would be welcome. Includes a fix to the x86 install directory.
OpenSSH 7.3p1-2
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.3p1-2 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This includes a small fix to the uninstall $INSTDIR variable so a user selected installation directory is used (Thanks Jacob T for pointing out the error).
OpenSSH 7.3p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.3p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. This includes a small fix to the silent install $INSTDIR variable so a user selected installation directory is not overwritten.
OpenSSH 7.2p2-1-v1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.2p2-1-v1 installer (no changes to the version of OpenSSH) for both x86 and x64 binaries. I included an incorrect cygwin1.dll for x64 builds causing both ls.exe and mv.exe to fail.
OpenSSH 7.2p2-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.2p2-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries.
OpenSSH 7.2p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.2p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. I made a couple small tweaks - spaces are allowed in the service password and using large passwords should not cause a prompt.
OpenSSH 7.1p2-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.1p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries. I also took this opportunity to clean up the files to only the minimal dependencies. Let me know if you run into any missing file warnings.
OpenSSH 7.1p1-1
This is an updated OpenSSH 7.1p1-1 installer for both x86 and x64 binaries.
Once you've downloaded the executable, start it up to be greeted with
the OpenSSH splash screen followed by the welcome and license screen.
You can select the defaults all the way through the
installation process if desired - these should work for most
intallations:
The first point where you get to make some choices is the choose
component dialog.
Select
Client - to install the ssh
client command line tools (if you want to connect to other ssh servers
Server - to install the ssh server command line application (if you
want to provide an ssh server for others to connect to)
Start Menu Shortcuts - a few start menu
shortcuts
The
next screen that requires some explanation is the "Choose account under
which to execute SSHD". The SSH Daemon (SSHD) can run as
either
Local_System or SSHD_Server. If you are using Windows Server (2003/2008/2008R2/etc.)
you
will likely have to run this as SSHD_Server, however all others should
be able to run this as Local_System. The default password
that is
filled in for you is "D0ntGu3$$M3" - I would recommend changing it!
You can change this
later by
using the Services Control Panel.
If you choose "Run as SSHD_Server", then you will be presented with the
privilege seperation option.
In general, it
should be OK to not use priviledge seperation unless you are running
Windows 2003.
If
you are running the sshd server, select the port. The default
port for ssh is 22, however you may select whatever you want (but then
you'll have to pass that in as on -p option when you connect)
You may now select the keysize. The default keysize of 2048 is probably sufficient, however if
you are truly concerned about your network privacy 4096 would be a good next choice.
You can
configure ssh for either local users or domain users. This
determines how the password file is setup and you should probably
choose
Local users.
OpenSSH will begin to install and configure itself for your system.
At this point, openssh is setup and configured for your system.
To
try this out, open up a command prompt (cmd.exe) and try:
ssh -v (For OpenSSH 6.3 and below)
ssh -V (For OpenSSH 6.4 and above)
which will show you the version information.
If you
installed the openssh server, it will start automatically after the
installation completes.
You may also open up a command prompt with administrator
priviledges and try:
net start opensshd
which should cause the opensshd daemon service to start
To stop the service (if/when you want to):
net stop opensshd
You can also stop/start the openssh service from the Services control
panel applet.
If you experience problems with the service, look in /var/log as it
might have a clue why the service is failing to start.
The original source code for sshwindows
came from SourceForge.net.
|
|
