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Latest is 0.53.1
2 March 2011
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Dropbear SSH server and client

Dropbear is a relatively small SSH 2 server and client. It runs on a variety of POSIX-based platforms. Dropbear is open source software, distributed under a MIT-style license. Dropbear is particularly useful for "embedded"-type Linux (or other Unix) systems, such as wireless routers.

Security update in 0.49: in releases prior to 0.49 the client did not warn strongly when a hostkey mismatch occurred. This has been fixed.

If you want to be notified of new releases, or for general discussion of Dropbear, you can subscribe to the relatively low volume mailing list. You can also subscribe to Dropbear release notices with Freshmeat.

Features

Platforms

The following platforms are known to work properly:

It shouldn't be hard to get it to work on other POSIX platforms, it is mostly a case of setting up the configure and Makefile settings.

Running it

First you should download the latest version. Extract it as usual, then read the README file for instructions. Alternatively, take a look at the packages available with distributions listed below.

Distributions

The following distributions include or package Dropbear:

Please let me know of any others which should be added to this list.

Acknowledgements

The cryptographic code utilises Tom St Denis's LibTomCrypt, and uses his LibTomMath library for the bignum parts. PTY handling code is taken from OpenSSH (from Tatu Ylönen's original ssh), login recording (utmp/wtmp) code is from OpenSSH by Andre Lucas, and some implementation details were gleaned from PuTTY. Numerous people have contributed patches and bug reports, see CHANGES. Particular thanks go to Mihnea Stoenescu for his work on the client portion.

Be Drop Bear Aware.

Contact

If you have any comments, bugs you've found, or features you'd like, feel free to email me.
My email address is matt (  @  ) ucc.asn.au
Matt Johnston

Note: Export of cryptographic software from Australia is subject to export controls - you should ensure that you are not breaching these controls. see Crypto Law Survey.

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