30-04-2021



Our vulnerability reports show that our Macs are running OpenSSH 7.9 and need to be updated to 8.1. The OS is Mojave. This doesn't seem to be as straight forward as on A PC. Any ideas on how this is done?

Launch an SSH tunnel To initiate your SSH tunnel, simply open Mac OSX Terminal.app and connect to your remote server via SSH with the following flags: ssh -D 8080 -C -N username@example.com This will launch our SSH tunnel on port 8080 and route all traffic (securely) through the server at example.com. OpenSSH is a free version of the SSH connectivity tools that technical users rely on. OpenSSH encrypts all traffic (including passwords) to effectively el.

Macos Openssh Version

First thing to note is that ssh is not enabled by default on any install of OS X (excluding server, which is a now-dead version, as a separate build and customizations of OS X).

Upgrading is easy, use MacPorts (many will without question suggest homebrew, I prefer and recommend MacPorts based on historical - personal - experience).

https://ports.macports.org/port/openssh/summary

One would have to modify

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist

Macos Open Ssh Tunnel

to use said upgraded ssh (which will get installed via MacPorts - by default - to /opt/local ), which is no small task especially for Mojave, in which /System is protected by SIP.Openssh

No-one with a meaningful knowledge of security and macOS (Mac OS X) will recommend disabling SIP. One might be able to do so temporarily, but that's another hill to climb/problem to solve.

Mac Ssh Server

Technically, you could leave the default installed openssh alone, but that will still get used when using the macOS GUI (System Preferences > Sharing) to enable ssh ('Remote Login'), unless you managed to edit the above-named plist to point to your updated version.