Our take
Inactiveno commits in over a year- Activity
- 20
- Community
- 24
- Issues
- 21
- Pull requests
- 21
+0 stars in the last 17 days
- Fewer contributors than 86% of the projects we track
sshpot has a clear, narrow purpose, but its prolonged inactivity and concentrated development make it difficult to recommend for a maintained security deployment.
Good fit if
- You need a basic SSH endpoint that rejects logins and logs attempted credentials and connection details.
- You can build and configure a C program that depends on libssh.
- You are evaluating it in a controlled environment and can review the code yourself.
Look elsewhere if
- You need ongoing fixes or active development: there have been no commits in years and no recent releases.
- You need a project with broader contributor support, since most of the code comes from one person.
- You need a clearly specified license for adoption; the supplied repository metadata does not identify one.
All health signals
| Last commit | 2014-04-24 (12.5 years ago) |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 90 days | 0 |
| Releases, last 12 months | 0 |
| Contributors | 2 (top contributor: 83% of commits) |
| Issues closed, last 90 days | 0 |
| Pull requests merged, last 90 days | 0 |
| Project age | 12 years |
Checked on 2026-10-11 with the GitHub API.
Overview
sshpot runs an SSH server that never authenticates users. Instead, it records details of login attempts, giving administrators and security researchers a way to observe activity directed at an SSH endpoint.
It is a narrow, lightweight tool rather than a general SSH security suite. Its value is in collecting attempted credentials and connection details; it does not provide legitimate remote access.
Key Features
- Runs an SSH honeypot that rejects every authentication attempt.
- Logs the attempted username and password.
- Records the source IP address and time of each attempt.
- Lets operators configure the RSA public key and log file through
config.h. - Supports choosing a listening port, with port 22 as the default.
- Uses libssh and is built with
make.
Use Cases
- Security researchers can collect attempted credentials on an isolated, controlled SSH endpoint.
- Administrators can observe login activity targeting a server or network they are authorized to monitor.
- Learners can examine how SSH honeypot logging works using a small C program.
- Operators who need a simple credential-attempt logger may use it for a limited experiment, provided they account for its age and maintenance status.
What you need
Detected in the repository
- C (main language on GitHub)
Getting Started
Generate an RSA key, configure RSA_KEYFILE and a writable LOGFILE in config.h, then build and run:
make
./sshpot [-p <port>]
See the repository README for installation details, including optional installation for listening on ports below 1024.
License in Plain Words
No standard license was detected. Without a license, the default copyright rules apply: you may read the code, but not reuse it. Check the repository or ask the authors.
Considerations
The project is inactive, with no recent commits or releases, and development is concentrated in one contributor. The supplied health data reports no recent issue or pull-request activity, so there is little evidence of ongoing maintenance or support. The README requires libssh, an RSA public key, and a log file writable by the account running sshpot. Because it records attempted passwords, deployment should be limited to systems and networks you are authorized to monitor, with access to the log file considered carefully. The supplied metadata does not specify a license, so verify licensing before incorporating or redistributing the code.
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