Apocrypha

dropbear

Small SSH 2 client/server designed for small memory environments

I was looking for a small and secure SSH server to fit on a laptop with 4 megs ram and no hard disk, and couldn't find one which was satisfactory. I decided to write my own, and Dropbear is the result. It implements most required features of the SSH 2 protocol, and other features such as X11, TCP and Authentication Agent forwarding. Dropbear is Open Source software, distributed under a MIT-style license.

Available in

OverlayNewestEbuildsLast activity
gentoo gitweb ↗ 2026.94 2 14 h details ›

Versions & arches

VersionOverlay amd64arm64x86ppc64alphaarmhppam68kmipsppcs390sparcx64-macos Committed
2026.94 gentoo amd64 testing arm64 testing x86 testing ppc64 testing alpha testing arm testing hppa testing m68k testing mips testing ppc testing s390 testing sparc testing x64-macos testing view · download · history ↗
2025.89 gentoo amd64 stable arm64 stable x86 stable ppc64 testing alpha testing arm stable hppa testing m68k testing mips testing ppc testing s390 testing sparc testing x64-macos testing view · download · history ↗

Use flags of 2026.94

  • bsdpty Add support for legacy BSD pty's rather than dynamic UNIX pty's -- do not use this flag unless you are absolutely sure you actually want it
  • legacy-ciphers Enable support for deprecated, soon-to-be-dropped DSA keys. See https://marc.info/?l=openssh-unix-dev>m=170494903207436>w=2.
  • minimal Install a very minimal build (disables, for example, plugins, fonts, most drivers, non-critical features)
  • multicall Build all the programs as one little binary (to save space)
  • pam Add support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) - DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip
  • +shadow Enable shadow password support
  • static !!do not set this during bootstrap!! Causes binaries to be statically linked instead of dynamically
  • +syslog Enable support for syslog
  • test Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)
  • +test-async Enable tests using dev-python/asyncssh
  • zlib Add support for zlib compression
  • savedconfig Use this to restore your config from /etc/portage/savedconfig ${CATEGORY}/${PN}. Make sure your USE flags allow for appropriate dependencies
  • verify-sig Verify upstream signatures on distfiles

Runtime dependencies of 2026.94

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