How to install SSH daemon on Windows


Step 1: download Cygwin at http://www.cygwin.com/

For Windows 32bits: http://www.cygwin.com/setup-x86.exe
For Windows 64bits: http://www.cygwin.com/setup-x86_64.exe

Step 2: Install Cygwin

install cygwin 1

install cygwin 2

install cygwin 3

install cygwin 4

install cygwin 5

install cygwin 6

(Recommended: http://cygwin.mirrors.hoobly.com/)

Find AutoSSH, OpenSSH OpenSSL Zip Unzip

install cygwin 7 zip unzip

install cygwin 7 autossh openssh

install cygwin 7 dependencies

install cygwin 8 end

Step 3: Open Cygwin terminal

cygwin terminal

To verify if Cygwin (cygrunsrv) is installed properly, run the following command:

cygrunsrv -h

If you see the screen like
cygwin test cygrunsrv

It means you install Cygwin successfully!! Otherwise, you must re-install it.

Step 4: configure the SSHD service

Run the command:

ssh-host-config

Result:

$ ssh-host-config

*** Info: Generating missing SSH host keys
ssh-keygen: generating new host keys: RSA DSA ECDSA ED25519
*** Info: Creating default /etc/ssh_config file
*** Info: Creating default /etc/sshd_config file

*** Info: StrictModes is set to 'yes' by default.
*** Info: This is the recommended setting, but it requires that the POSIX
*** Info: permissions of the user's home directory, the user's .ssh
*** Info: directory, and the user's ssh key files are tight so that
*** Info: only the user has write permissions.
*** Info: On the other hand, StrictModes don't work well with default
*** Info: Windows permissions of a home directory mounted with the
*** Info: 'noacl' option, and they don't work at all if the home
*** Info: directory is on a FAT or FAT32 partition.
*** Query: Should StrictModes be used? (yes/no) yes

*** Info: Privilege separation is set to 'sandbox' by default since
*** Info: OpenSSH 6.1.  This is unsupported by Cygwin and has to be set
*** Info: to 'yes' or 'no'.
*** Info: However, using privilege separation requires a non-privileged account
*** Info: called 'sshd'.
*** Info: For more info on privilege separation read /usr/share/doc/openssh/READ
ME.privsep.
*** Query: Should privilege separation be used? (yes/no) yes
*** Info: Note that creating a new user requires that the current account have
*** Info: Administrator privileges.  Should this script attempt to create a
*** Query: new local account 'sshd'? (yes/no) yes
*** Info: Updating /etc/sshd_config file

*** Query: Do you want to install sshd as a service?
*** Query: (Say "no" if it is already installed as a service) (yes/no) yes
*** Query: Enter the value of CYGWIN for the daemon: [] binmode ntsec
*** Info: On Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and above, the
*** Info: SYSTEM account cannot setuid to other users -- a capability
*** Info: sshd requires.  You need to have or to create a privileged
*** Info: account.  This script will help you do so.

*** Info: It's not possible to use the LocalSystem account for services
*** Info: that can change the user id without an explicit password
*** Info: (such as passwordless logins [e.g. public key authentication]
*** Info: via sshd) when having to create the user token from scratch.
*** Info: For more information on this requirement, see
*** Info: https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html#ntsec-nopasswd1

*** Info: If you want to enable that functionality, it's required to create
*** Info: a new account with special privileges (unless such an account
*** Info: already exists). This account is then used to run these special
*** Info: servers.

*** Info: Note that creating a new user requires that the current account
*** Info: have Administrator privileges itself.

*** Info: No privileged account could be found.

*** Info: This script plans to use 'cyg_server'.
*** Info: 'cyg_server' will only be used by registered services.
*** Query: Do you want to use a different name? (yes/no) no
*** Query: Create new privileged user account 'MRNC-N9NJM89QFO\cyg_server' (Cygw
in name: 'cyg_server')? (yes/no) yes
*** Info: Please enter a password for new user cyg_server.  Please be sure
*** Info: that this password matches the password rules given on your system.
*** Info: Entering no password will exit the configuration.
*** Query: Please enter the password:
*** Query: Reenter:

*** Info: User 'cyg_server' has been created with password '*************'.
*** Info: If you change the password, please remember also to change the
*** Info: password for the installed services which use (or will soon use)
*** Info: the 'cyg_server' account.


*** Info: The sshd service has been installed under the 'cyg_server'
*** Info: account.  To start the service now, call `net start sshd' or
*** Info: `cygrunsrv -S sshd'.  Otherwise, it will start automatically
*** Info: after the next reboot.

*** Info: Host configuration finished. Have fun!

cygwin ssh-host-config

Step 5: start the SSH daemon

net start cygsshd

or

cygrunsrv -S sshd

Result:

$ net start cygsshd
The CYGWIN cygsshd service is starting.
The CYGWIN cygsshd service was started successfully.

Get status from windows server

cygrunsrv --query sshd

Result:

$ cygrunsrv --query sshd
Service             : sshd
Display name        : CYGWIN sshd
Current State       : Running
Controls Accepted   : Stop
Command             : /usr/sbin/sshd -D

Remove windows service

cygrunsrv --remove sshd

Note: Some error, so you should use net start cygsshd

$ cygrunsrv -S sshd
cygrunsrv: Error starting a service: OpenService:  Win32 error 1060:
The specified service does not exist as an installed service.

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