Dropbear is a software package written by Matt Johnston that provides a Secure Shell-compatible server and client.[2] It is designed as a replacement for standard OpenSSH for environments with low memory and processor resources, such as embedded systems. It is a core component of OpenWrt and other router distributions.
| Developer(s) | Matt Johnston |
|---|---|
| Initial release | April 2003, 06 |
| Stable release | 2024.84[1] 
/ 4 April 2024 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Type | Remote access |
| License | MIT license |
| Website | matt |
Dropbear was originally released in April 2003.
Technology
editDropbear implements version 2 of the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol.[3]
The cryptographic algorithms are implemented using third-party cryptographic libraries like LibTomCrypt included internally in the Dropbear distribution. It derives some parts from OpenSSH to handle BSD-style pseudo terminals.[4]
Features
editDropbear implements the complete SSH version 2 protocol in both the client and the server.[5][6] It does not support SSH version 1 backwards-compatibility in order to save space and resources, and to avoid the inherent security vulnerabilities in SSH version 1. SCP is also implemented.[7] SFTP support relies on a binary file which can be provided by OpenSSH or similar programs. FISH works in any case and is supported by Konqueror.
Dropbear supports elliptic curve cryptography for key exchange, as of version 2013.61test and beyond.[8]
See also
edit
- Lsh – GNU Project's implementation of ssh
- Comparison of SSH clients
- Comparison of SSH servers
References
edit- ^ https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/releases/tag/DROPBEAR_2024.84.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "VA Technical Reference Model v 24.4. Dropbear Secure Shell (SSH) Server". oit.va.gov. 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
- ^ "dropbear(8)". Ubuntu. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
- ^ Matt Johnston. "Dropbear SSH". Retrieved 2020-05-23.
PTY handling code is taken from OpenSSH
- ^ Liu, Dale (2011-04-18). Next Generation SSH2 Implementation: Securing Data in Motion. Syngress. ISBN 978-0-08-057000-6.
- ^ Aufranc, Jean-Luc (October 6, 2011). "Dropbear: Lightweight SSH Server". CodingHW. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
- ^ Matt Johnston (2004-06-01). "Makefile.in contains updated files required". Retrieved 2020-05-23.
- ^ "CHANGES". 14 November 2013. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
ECC (elliptic curve) support. Supports ECDSA hostkeys (requires new keys to be generated) and ECDH for setting up encryption keys[...]