Client¶
SSH client & key policies
-
class
paramiko.client.
SSHClient
¶ A high-level representation of a session with an SSH server. This class wraps
Transport
,Channel
, andSFTPClient
to take care of most aspects of authenticating and opening channels. A typical use case is:client = SSHClient() client.load_system_host_keys() client.connect('ssh.example.com') stdin, stdout, stderr = client.exec_command('ls -l')
You may pass in explicit overrides for authentication and server host key checking. The default mechanism is to try to use local key files or an SSH agent (if one is running).
Instances of this class may be used as context managers.
New in version 1.6.
-
__init__
()¶ Create a new SSHClient.
-
load_system_host_keys
(filename=None)¶ Load host keys from a system (read-only) file. Host keys read with this method will not be saved back by
save_host_keys
.This method can be called multiple times. Each new set of host keys will be merged with the existing set (new replacing old if there are conflicts).
If
filename
is left asNone
, an attempt will be made to read keys from the user’s local “known hosts” file, as used by OpenSSH, and no exception will be raised if the file can’t be read. This is probably only useful on posix.Parameters: filename (str) – the filename to read, or None
Raises: IOError
– if a filename was provided and the file could not be read
-
load_host_keys
(filename)¶ Load host keys from a local host-key file. Host keys read with this method will be checked after keys loaded via
load_system_host_keys
, but will be saved back bysave_host_keys
(so they can be modified). The missing host key policyAutoAddPolicy
adds keys to this set and saves them, when connecting to a previously-unknown server.This method can be called multiple times. Each new set of host keys will be merged with the existing set (new replacing old if there are conflicts). When automatically saving, the last hostname is used.
Parameters: filename (str) – the filename to read Raises: IOError
– if the filename could not be read
-
save_host_keys
(filename)¶ Save the host keys back to a file. Only the host keys loaded with
load_host_keys
(plus any added directly) will be saved – not any host keys loaded withload_system_host_keys
.Parameters: filename (str) – the filename to save to Raises: IOError
– if the file could not be written
-
get_host_keys
()¶ Get the local
HostKeys
object. This can be used to examine the local host keys or change them.Returns: the local host keys as a HostKeys
object.
-
set_log_channel
(name)¶ Set the channel for logging. The default is
"paramiko.transport"
but it can be set to anything you want.Parameters: name (str) – new channel name for logging
-
set_missing_host_key_policy
(policy)¶ Set policy to use when connecting to servers without a known host key.
Specifically:
- A policy is a “policy class” (or instance thereof), namely some
subclass of
MissingHostKeyPolicy
such asRejectPolicy
(the default),AutoAddPolicy
,WarningPolicy
, or a user-created subclass. - A host key is known when it appears in the client object’s cached
host keys structures (those manipulated by
load_system_host_keys
and/orload_host_keys
).
Parameters: policy (MissingHostKeyPolicy) – the policy to use when receiving a host key from a previously-unknown server - A policy is a “policy class” (or instance thereof), namely some
subclass of
-
connect
(hostname, port=22, username=None, password=None, pkey=None, key_filename=None, timeout=None, allow_agent=True, look_for_keys=True, compress=False, sock=None, gss_auth=False, gss_kex=False, gss_deleg_creds=True, gss_host=None, banner_timeout=None, auth_timeout=None, gss_trust_dns=True, passphrase=None)¶ Connect to an SSH server and authenticate to it. The server’s host key is checked against the system host keys (see
load_system_host_keys
) and any local host keys (load_host_keys
). If the server’s hostname is not found in either set of host keys, the missing host key policy is used (seeset_missing_host_key_policy
). The default policy is to reject the key and raise anSSHException
.Authentication is attempted in the following order of priority:
- The
pkey
orkey_filename
passed in (if any)key_filename
may contain OpenSSH public certificate paths as well as regular private-key paths; when files ending in-cert.pub
are found, they are assumed to match a private key, and both components will be loaded. (The private key itself does not need to be listed inkey_filename
for this to occur - just the certificate.)
- Any key we can find through an SSH agent
- Any “id_rsa”, “id_dsa”, “id_ecdsa”, or “id_ed25519” key
discoverable in
~/.ssh/
- When OpenSSH-style public certificates exist that match an
existing such private key (so e.g. one has
id_rsa
andid_rsa-cert.pub
) the certificate will be loaded alongside the private key and used for authentication.
- When OpenSSH-style public certificates exist that match an
existing such private key (so e.g. one has
- Plain username/password auth, if a password was given
If a private key requires a password to unlock it, and a password is passed in, that password will be used to attempt to unlock the key.
Parameters: - hostname (str) – the server to connect to
- port (int) – the server port to connect to
- username (str) – the username to authenticate as (defaults to the current local username)
- password (str) – Used for password authentication; is also used for private key
decryption if
passphrase
is not given. - passphrase (str) – Used for decrypting private keys.
- pkey (PKey) – an optional private key to use for authentication
- key_filename (str) – the filename, or list of filenames, of optional private key(s) and/or certs to try for authentication
- timeout (float) – an optional timeout (in seconds) for the TCP connect
- allow_agent (bool) – set to False to disable connecting to the SSH agent
- look_for_keys (bool) – set to False to disable searching for discoverable private key
files in
~/.ssh/
- compress (bool) – set to True to turn on compression
- sock (socket) – an open socket or socket-like object (such as a
Channel
) to use for communication to the target host - gss_auth (bool) –
True
if you want to use GSS-API authentication - gss_kex (bool) – Perform GSS-API Key Exchange and user authentication
- gss_deleg_creds (bool) – Delegate GSS-API client credentials or not
- gss_host (str) – The targets name in the kerberos database. default: hostname
- gss_trust_dns (bool) – Indicates whether or not the DNS is trusted to securely
canonicalize the name of the host being connected to (default
True
). - banner_timeout (float) – an optional timeout (in seconds) to wait for the SSH banner to be presented.
- auth_timeout (float) – an optional timeout (in seconds) to wait for an authentication response.
Raises: BadHostKeyException
– if the server’s host key could not be verifiedRaises: AuthenticationException
– if authentication failedRaises: SSHException
– if there was any other error connecting or establishing an SSH sessionRaises: socket.error – if a socket error occurred while connecting
Changed in version 1.15: Added the
banner_timeout
,gss_auth
,gss_kex
,gss_deleg_creds
andgss_host
arguments.Changed in version 2.3: Added the
gss_trust_dns
argument.Changed in version 2.4: Added the
passphrase
argument.- The
-
close
()¶ Close this SSHClient and its underlying
Transport
.Warning
Failure to do this may, in some situations, cause your Python interpreter to hang at shutdown (often due to race conditions). It’s good practice to
close
your client objects anytime you’re done using them, instead of relying on garbage collection.
-
exec_command
(command, bufsize=-1, timeout=None, get_pty=False, environment=None)¶ Execute a command on the SSH server. A new
Channel
is opened and the requested command is executed. The command’s input and output streams are returned as Pythonfile
-like objects representing stdin, stdout, and stderr.Parameters: - command (str) – the command to execute
- bufsize (int) – interpreted the same way as by the built-in
file()
function in Python - timeout (int) – set command’s channel timeout. See
Channel.settimeout
- get_pty (bool) – Request a pseudo-terminal from the server (default
False
). SeeChannel.get_pty
- environment (dict) –
a dict of shell environment variables, to be merged into the default environment that the remote command executes within.
Warning
Servers may silently reject some environment variables; see the warning in
Channel.set_environment_variable
for details.
Returns: the stdin, stdout, and stderr of the executing command, as a 3-tuple
Raises: SSHException
– if the server fails to execute the commandChanged in version 1.10: Added the
get_pty
kwarg.
-
invoke_shell
(term='vt100', width=80, height=24, width_pixels=0, height_pixels=0, environment=None)¶ Start an interactive shell session on the SSH server. A new
Channel
is opened and connected to a pseudo-terminal using the requested terminal type and size.Parameters: - term (str) – the terminal type to emulate (for example,
"vt100"
) - width (int) – the width (in characters) of the terminal window
- height (int) – the height (in characters) of the terminal window
- width_pixels (int) – the width (in pixels) of the terminal window
- height_pixels (int) – the height (in pixels) of the terminal window
- environment (dict) – the command’s environment
Returns: a new
Channel
connected to the remote shellRaises: SSHException
– if the server fails to invoke a shell- term (str) – the terminal type to emulate (for example,
-
open_sftp
()¶ Open an SFTP session on the SSH server.
Returns: a new SFTPClient
session object
-
-
class
paramiko.client.
MissingHostKeyPolicy
¶ Interface for defining the policy that
SSHClient
should use when the SSH server’s hostname is not in either the system host keys or the application’s keys. Pre-made classes implement policies for automatically adding the key to the application’sHostKeys
object (AutoAddPolicy
), and for automatically rejecting the key (RejectPolicy
).This function may be used to ask the user to verify the key, for example.
-
missing_host_key
(client, hostname, key)¶ Called when an
SSHClient
receives a server key for a server that isn’t in either the system or localHostKeys
object. To accept the key, simply return. To reject, raised an exception (which will be passed to the calling application).
-
__weakref__
¶ list of weak references to the object (if defined)
-
-
class
paramiko.client.
AutoAddPolicy
¶ Policy for automatically adding the hostname and new host key to the local
HostKeys
object, and saving it. This is used bySSHClient
.
-
class
paramiko.client.
RejectPolicy
¶ Policy for automatically rejecting the unknown hostname & key. This is used by
SSHClient
.