# OpenSSH Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/openssh/ 74 people recommended OpenSSH in Hacker News comments, 8 had mixed feelings and 28 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 59 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended as a battle-hardened, well-audited, free standard for encrypted remote login; the common caveat is that its server has had serious bugs, including a 2024 zero-day. Summary written by Claude from 55 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 51 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Privilege separation limits damage (3 comments in the sample): "OpenSSH already uses privilege separation to limit the scope of the code which requests the kernel set the user for the process for the session" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46988178)) "OpenSSH authors have spent considerable effort separating concerns, reducing privileges, process isolation, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49229789)) "We all recognized the superiority of sshd's authentication and encrypted channels." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46974037)) - Well audited and battle-hardened (3 comments in the sample): "OpenSSH is incredibly battle-hardened and probably better than almost everything else you can run on an exposed port." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46900001)) "upstream is extremely well audited. That's a huge benefit i don't want to loose by using fork." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46287305)) "the OpenSSH client is a tiny, with a singular purpose, contained in a small and very well-vetted codebase" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49153530)) - Works out of the box (3 comments in the sample): "You get authentication, encryption and synchronization out of the box with just ssh/git." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48121773)) "OpenSSH has the same functionality built-in, without any additional service" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307785)) "OpenSSH is doubtless one of the most useful and stable computer programs of all time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45891335)) - Useful for SSH tunnels (2 comments in the sample): "Learning that "~C" exists, and what you can do with it, has supercharged my use of SSH tunnels" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48660331)) "the SSH -J option is useful if you don't want to expose your SSH to your home public address" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46456310)) ## What people warn about - Past serious bugs including RCE (2 comments in the sample): "OpenSSH has the best track record, but even it had a zero-day RCE (regreSSHion) in 2024." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49308630)) "sshd is vastly more complex, and allows literal (authorized) remote code execution" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307919)) - Slow transfers and keystroke latency (2 comments in the sample): "It is frustrating to me that we're only a ~200 line patch away from "unlimited" instead of shitty SSH transfer speeds" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46860147)) "the OpenSSH itself that sends 100 packets on each keystroke to avoid timing attacks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48918058)) - Defaults that surprise users (2 comments in the sample): "That sucks, that means they will still appear in audits, they should remove them from the default." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48817245)) "Debian patches defaults in OpenSSH code so it behaves differently than upstream." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48114246)) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "OpenSSH", https://hackerapproved.com/p/openssh/ (74 recommend, 8 mixed, 28 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.