A transparent SSH and telnet bastion server that simplifies secure access management without requiring client-side configuration.
SSHportal is an open-source SSH and telnet bastion server that acts as a centralized gateway for secure remote access to backend servers. It simplifies access management by allowing users to connect transparently through the portal without modifying their SSH client configuration, while providing features like user invitation, session recording, and audit logging. It solves the problem of managing secure access across multiple servers for teams, educators, and organizations.
System administrators, DevOps teams, and security engineers who need to manage and audit SSH access to multiple servers. Also suitable for educators providing temporary access to students and companies requiring centralized access control with compliance logging.
Developers choose SSHportal for its transparent proxy design that requires no client-side changes, its comprehensive feature set including session recording and invite systems, and its simplicity as a single binary with no runtime dependencies. It offers enterprise-grade access management and auditing without the complexity of traditional jump host setups.
:tophat: simple, fun and transparent SSH (and telnet) bastion server
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Users connect directly to target hosts via the portal without client-side SSH configuration changes, making access seamless as noted in the README's flow diagram and demo.
Records all TTY sessions in ttyrec format and logs user actions, essential for security compliance, with examples from hosting companies using it for logging.
Packaged as a standalone binary with no runtime dependencies, easy to deploy across platforms and via Docker, as highlighted in the installation section.
Supports horizontal scaling with a MySQL backend, allowing multiple instances to share a database for high availability, as shown in the scaling diagram.
Simplifies user onboarding with invite tokens, eliminating manual public key exchanges, which is praised in use cases like educational environments.
All configuration requires SSH or command-line access, lacking a web GUI, which can be a barrier for teams accustomed to graphical interfaces.
Explicitly listed as a limitation in the README, it does not work with mosh, making it unsuitable for mobile or unstable network scenarios.
Horizontal scalability depends on MySQL setup, adding deployment and maintenance overhead compared to the default sqlite, which isn't scalable.
The backup/restore section warns about potential DB schema changes during development, risking data loss or upgrade issues in production.