SSH.NET 2025.0.0

SSH.NET

SSH.NET is a Secure Shell (SSH-2) library for .NET, optimized for parallelism.

Key Features

• Execution of SSH command using both synchronous and asynchronous methods
• SFTP functionality for both synchronous and asynchronous operations
• SCP functionality
• Remote, dynamic and local port forwarding
• Interactive shell/terminal implementation
• Authentication via publickey, password and keyboard-interactive methods, including multi-factor
• Connection via SOCKS4, SOCKS5 or HTTP proxy

How to Use

Run a command

using (var client = new SshClient("sftp.foo.com", "guest", new PrivateKeyFile("path/to/my/key")))
{
    client.Connect();
    using SshCommand cmd = client.RunCommand("echo 'Hello World!'");
    Console.WriteLine(cmd.Result); // "Hello World!\n"
}

Upload and list files using SFTP

using (var client = new SftpClient("sftp.foo.com", "guest", "pwd"))
{
    client.Connect();

    using (FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(@"C:\tmp\test-file.txt"))
    {
        client.UploadFile(fs, "/home/guest/test-file.txt");
    }

    foreach (ISftpFile file in client.ListDirectory("/home/guest/"))
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"{file.FullName} {file.LastWriteTime}");
    }
}

Main Types

The main types provided by this library are:

• Renci.SshNet.SshClient
• Renci.SshNet.SftpClient
• Renci.SshNet.ScpClient
• Renci.SshNet.PrivateKeyFile
• Renci.SshNet.SshCommand
• Renci.SshNet.ShellStream

Additional Documentation

• Further examples
• Logging
• API browser

Encryption Methods

SSH.NET supports the following encryption methods:

• aes128-ctr
• aes192-ctr
• aes256-ctr
• aes128-gcm<span></span>@openssh.com
• aes256-gcm<span></span>@openssh.com
• chacha20-poly1305<span></span>@openssh.com
• aes128-cbc
• aes192-cbc
• aes256-cbc
• 3des-cbc

Key Exchange Methods

SSH.NET supports the following key exchange methods:

• mlkem768x25519-sha256
• sntrup761x25519-sha512
• sntrup761x25519-sha512<span></span>@openssh.com
• curve25519-sha256
• curve25519-sha256<span></span>@libssh.org
• ecdh-sha2-nistp256
• ecdh-sha2-nistp384
• ecdh-sha2-nistp521
• diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256
• diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1
• diffie-hellman-group16-sha512
• diffie-hellman-group14-sha256
• diffie-hellman-group14-sha1
• diffie-hellman-group1-sha1

Public Key Authentication

SSH.NET supports the following private key formats:

• RSA in
  • OpenSSL traditional PEM format ("BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY")
  • OpenSSL PKCS#8 PEM format ("BEGIN PRIVATE KEY", "BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY")
  • ssh.com format ("BEGIN SSH2 ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY")
  • OpenSSH key format ("BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY")
  • PuTTY private key format ("PuTTY-User-Key-File-2", "PuTTY-User-Key-File-3")
• DSA in
  • OpenSSL traditional PEM format ("BEGIN DSA PRIVATE KEY")
  • OpenSSL PKCS#8 PEM format ("BEGIN PRIVATE KEY", "BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY")
  • ssh.com format ("BEGIN SSH2 ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY")
  • PuTTY private key format ("PuTTY-User-Key-File-2", "PuTTY-User-Key-File-3")
• ECDSA 256/384/521 in
  • OpenSSL traditional PEM format ("BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY")
  • OpenSSL PKCS#8 PEM format ("BEGIN PRIVATE KEY", "BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY")
  • OpenSSH key format ("BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY")
  • PuTTY private key format ("PuTTY-User-Key-File-2", "PuTTY-User-Key-File-3")
• ED25519 in
  • OpenSSL PKCS#8 PEM format ("BEGIN PRIVATE KEY", "BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY")
  • OpenSSH key format ("BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY")
  • PuTTY private key format ("PuTTY-User-Key-File-2", "PuTTY-User-Key-File-3")

Private keys in OpenSSL traditional PEM format can be encrypted using one of the following cipher methods:

• DES-EDE3-CBC
• DES-EDE3-CFB
• AES-128-CBC
• AES-192-CBC
• AES-256-CBC

Private keys in OpenSSL PKCS#8 PEM format can be encrypted using any cipher method BouncyCastle supports.

Private keys in ssh.com format can be encrypted using the following cipher method:

• 3des-cbc

Private keys in OpenSSH key format can be encrypted using one of the following cipher methods:

• 3des-cbc
• aes128-cbc
• aes192-cbc
• aes256-cbc
• aes128-ctr
• aes192-ctr
• aes256-ctr
• aes128-gcm<span></span>@openssh.com
• aes256-gcm<span></span>@openssh.com
• chacha20-poly1305<span></span>@openssh.com

Private keys in PuTTY private key format can be encrypted using the following cipher method:

• aes256-cbc

Host Key Algorithms

SSH.NET supports the following host key algorithms:

• ssh-ed25519
• ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
• ecdsa-sha2-nistp384
• ecdsa-sha2-nistp521
• rsa-sha2-512
• rsa-sha2-256
• ssh-rsa
• ssh-dss

Message Authentication Code

SSH.NET supports the following MAC algorithms:

• hmac-sha2-256
• hmac-sha2-512
• hmac-sha1
• hmac-sha2-256-etm<span></span>@openssh.com
• hmac-sha2-512-etm<span></span>@openssh.com
• hmac-sha1-etm<span></span>@openssh.com

Compression

SSH.NET supports the following compression algorithms:

• none (default)
• zlib<span></span>@openssh.com

Framework Support

SSH.NET supports the following target frameworks:

• .NETFramework 4.6.2 (and higher)
• .NET Standard 2.0 and 2.1
• .NET 8 (and higher)

Building the library

The library has no special requirements to build, other than an up-to-date .NET SDK. See also CONTRIBUTING.md.

Using Pre-Release NuGet Package

If you need an unreleased bugfix or feature, you can use the Pre-Release NuGet packages from the develop branch which are published to the GitHub NuGet Registry. In order to pull packages from the registry you first have to create a Personal Access Token with the read:packages permissions. Then add a NuGet Source for SSH.NET:

Note: you may have to add --store-password-in-clear-text on non-Windows platforms.

dotnet nuget add source --name SSH.NET --username <username> --password <personalaccesstoken> https://nuget.pkg.github.com/sshnet/index.json

Then you can add the the package as described here.

Supporting SSH.NET

Do you or your company rely on SSH.NET in your projects? If you want to encourage us to keep on going and show us that you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a sponsor through GitHub Sponsors.