existing SSH connection set up by an instance of GUI PuTTY. The one
special case is that PSCP and PSFTP will \e{never} act as upstreams.
+It is possible to test programmatically for the existence of a live
+upstream using Plink. See \k{plink-option-shareexists}.
+
\H{config-ssh-kex} The Kex panel
The Kex panel (short for \q{\i{key exchange}}) allows you to configure
The Auth panel allows you to configure \i{authentication} options for
SSH sessions.
-\S{config-ssh-noauth} \q{Bypass authentication entirely}
-
-\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.auth.bypass}
-
-In SSH-2, it is possible to establish a connection without using SSH's
-mechanisms to identify or authenticate oneself to the server. Some
-servers may prefer to handle authentication in the data channel, for
-instance, or may simply require no authentication whatsoever.
-
-By default, PuTTY assumes the server requires authentication (most
-do), and thus must provide a username. If you find you are getting
-unwanted username prompts, you could try checking this option.
-
-This option only affects SSH-2 connections. SSH-1 connections always
-require an authentication step.
-
\S{config-ssh-banner} \q{Display pre-authentication banner}
\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.auth.banner}
By unchecking this option, display of the banner can be suppressed
entirely.
+\S{config-ssh-noauth} \q{Bypass authentication entirely}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.auth.bypass}
+
+In SSH-2, it is in principle possible to establish a connection
+without using SSH's mechanisms to identify or prove who you are
+to the server. An SSH server could prefer to handle authentication
+in the data channel, for instance, or simply require no user
+authentication whatsoever.
+
+By default, PuTTY assumes the server requires authentication (we've
+never heard of one that doesn't), and thus must start this process
+with a username. If you find you are getting username prompts that
+you cannot answer, you could try enabling this option. However,
+most SSH servers will reject this.
+
+This is not the option you want if you have a username and just want
+PuTTY to remember it; for that see \k{config-username}.
+It's also probably not what if you're trying to set up passwordless
+login to a mainstream SSH server; depending on the server, you
+probably wanted public-key authentication (\k{pubkey})
+or perhaps GSSAPI authentication (\k{config-ssh-auth-gssapi}).
+(These are still forms of authentication, even if you don't have to
+interact with them.)
+
+This option only affects SSH-2 connections. SSH-1 connections always
+require an authentication step.
+
\S{config-ssh-tryagent} \q{Attempt authentication using Pageant}
\cfg{winhelp-topic}{ssh.auth.pageant}
\k{puttygen-conversions}.
You can use the authentication agent \i{Pageant} so that you do not
-need to explicitly configure a key here; see \k{pageant}. If a file
-is specified here with Pageant running, PuTTY will first try asking
-Pageant to authenticate with that key, and ignore any other keys
-Pageant may have. If that fails, PuTTY will ask for a passphrase as
-normal.
+need to explicitly configure a key here; see \k{pageant}.
+
+If a private key file is specified here with Pageant running, PuTTY
+will first try asking Pageant to authenticate with that key, and
+ignore any other keys Pageant may have. If that fails, PuTTY will ask
+for a passphrase as normal. You can also specify a \e{public} key file
+in this case (in RFC 4716 or OpenSSH format), as that's sufficient to
+identify the key to Pageant, but of course if Pageant isn't present
+PuTTY can't fall back to using this file itself.
\H{config-ssh-auth-gssapi} The \i{GSSAPI} panel
authentication exchange to a library elsewhere on the client
machine, which in principle can authenticate in many different ways
but in practice is usually used with the \i{Kerberos} \i{single sign-on}
-protocol.
+protocol to implement \i{passwordless login}.
GSSAPI is only available in the SSH-2 protocol.
projects / PuTTY.git / blobdiff