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sshpass

NAME

sshpass - noninteractive ssh password provider

SYNOPSIS

sshpass [options] command arguments

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents the sshpass command.

sshpass is a utility designed for running ssh using the mode referred to as "keyboard-interactive" password authentication, but in non-interactive mode.

ssh uses direct TTY access to make sure that the password is indeed issued by an interactive keyboard user. Sshpass runs ssh in a dedicated tty, fooling it into thinking it is getting the password from an interactive user.

The command to run is specified after sshpass' own options. Typically it will be "ssh" with arguments, but it can just as well be any other command. The password prompt used by ssh is, however, currently hardcoded into sshpass.

Options

If not option is given, sshpass reads the password from the standard input. The user may give at most one alternative source for the password:

-ppassword

The password is given on the command line. Please note the section titled "SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS".

-ffilename

The password is the first line of the file filename.

-dnumber

number is a file descriptor inherited by sshpass from the runner. The password is read from the open file descriptor.

-e

The password is taken from the environment variable "SSHPASS".

SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

First and foremost, users of sshpass should realize that ssh's insistance on only getting the password interactively is not without reason. It is close to impossible to securely store the password, and users of sshpass should consider whether ssh's public key authentication provides the same end-user experience, while involving less hassle and being more secure.

The -p option should be considered the least secure of all of sshpass's options. All system users can see the password in the command line with a simple "ps" command. Sshpass makes no attempt to hide the password, as such attempts create race conditions without actually solving the problem. Users of sshpass are encouraged to use one of the other password passing techniques, which are all more secure.

In particular, people writing programs that are meant to communicate the password programatically are encouraged to use an anonymous pipe and pass the pipe's reading end to sshpass using the -d option.

EXAMPLES

Run rsync over SSH using password authentication, passing the password on the command line:

rsync --rsh='sshpass -p 12345 ssh -l test' host.example.com:path .

BUGS

Sshpass is in its infancy at the moment. As such, bugs are highly possible. In particular, if the password is read from stdin (no password option at all), it is possible that some of the input aimed to be passed to ssh will be read by sshpass and lost.