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Linux & Terminal · Cheatsheet

SSH Commands Cheatsheet

SSH connections, key management, SCP/SFTP transfers, tunnels, and security hardening

54 commands 8 sections

Basic Connections

  • ssh user@host Connect to remote host
  • ssh user@host -p 2222 Connect on custom port
  • ssh -i ~/.ssh/key.pem user@host Connect with specific key file
  • ssh -v user@host Verbose mode for debugging
  • ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no user@host Relaxes host-key checks and can accept changed keys; avoid this for normal connections
  • ssh -J jump@bastion user@target Connect via jump host (ProxyJump)
  • ssh user@host "command" Run single command remotely
  • ssh -t user@host "sudo command" Force TTY allocation for sudo

Key Management

  • ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "email@example.com" Generate Ed25519 key pair
  • ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 Generate 4096-bit RSA key pair
  • ssh-copy-id user@host Copy public key to remote host
  • ssh-keygen -l -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub Show key fingerprint
  • ssh-keygen -p -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 Change passphrase on existing key
  • ssh-keygen -R hostname Remove host from known_hosts
  • cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub Display public key for copying

SSH Agent

  • eval "$(ssh-agent -s)" Start SSH agent in current shell
  • ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 Add key to SSH agent
  • ssh-add -l List keys loaded in agent
  • ssh-add -D Remove all keys from agent
  • ssh-add -t 3600 ~/.ssh/key Add key with 1-hour lifetime
  • ssh -A user@host Forward agent to remote host

File Transfer (SCP & SFTP)

  • scp file.txt user@host:/remote/path/ Copy file to remote host
  • scp user@host:/remote/file.txt ./local/ Copy file from remote host
  • scp -r ./dir user@host:/remote/ Copy directory recursively
  • scp -P 2222 file.txt user@host:/path/ Copy via custom port
  • sftp user@host Start interactive SFTP session
  • sftp> put localfile remotepath Upload file via SFTP
  • sftp> get remotefile localpath Download file via SFTP
  • rsync -avz ./src user@host:/dest Sync files efficiently over SSH

Port Forwarding & Tunnels

  • ssh -L 8080:localhost:80 user@host Local port forward (access remote:80 via local:8080)
  • ssh -R 9090:localhost:3000 user@host Remote port forward (expose local:3000)
  • ssh -D 1080 user@host Dynamic SOCKS proxy tunnel
  • ssh -L 5432:db-server:5432 user@bastion Tunnel to internal database
  • ssh -fN -L 8080:localhost:80 user@host Background tunnel (no shell)
  • ssh -O exit user@host Close a background tunnel

SSH Config File

  • Host myserver Define a connection alias
  • HostName 192.168.1.100 Server address for alias
  • User deploy Default username for connection
  • Port 2222 Custom port for connection
  • IdentityFile ~/.ssh/deploy_key Specific key for this host
  • ProxyJump bastion Jump through another host
  • Host * Wildcard: apply to all connections
  • ServerAliveInterval 60 Send keepalive every 60 seconds

Security & Hardening

  • PermitRootLogin no Disable root SSH login (sshd_config)
  • PasswordAuthentication no Disable password login (key only)
  • AllowUsers deploy admin Allow only specific users
  • Port 2222 Change default SSH port
  • MaxAuthTries 3 Limit authentication attempts
  • sudo systemctl restart sshd Restart SSH daemon after changes
  • chmod 700 ~/.ssh Correct .ssh directory permissions
  • chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 Correct private key permissions

Sources

  • https://man.openbsd.org/ssh OpenSSH client: connections, forwarding, and control commands.
  • https://man.openbsd.org/ssh_config OpenSSH client configuration, including host-key verification.
  • https://man.openbsd.org/sshd_config OpenSSH server authentication and access settings.

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