What is SSH ?
SSH is a network protocol that allows secure connection between different computers. SSH protocol also referred to as Secure Shell, provides many functionalities like,
- Strong connection and security
- Strong authentication
- Maintains connection integrity
- Strong encryption.
In general, there are different ways for logging in to a remote machine,
- Know the password of that machine.
- SSH public and private keys.
- Host-based authentication
Well, in case of a password, when one would want to gain access to the remote machine, the user will have to enter the password each time. This led to the introduction of SSH keys, the public key and the private key.
The scenario, before SSH came into the picture –
Telnet, was the application protocol that provided bidirectional interactive but textual-based communication between two remote systems connected on an insecure network. This was a problem because any type of data that was sent over such a network, could easily be leaked – whether that be normal data or some private data like user credentials. Thus, SSH gained much popularity as it was a cryptographic-based secured network protocol.
#linux #security #encryption #risks #ssh
