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Related software

Several pieces of third-party software incorporate parts of the PuTTY code, or augment PuTTY in other ways, to provide facilities not available from PuTTY itself. We list some of them here, with no recommendation implied. We have no control over this code, so we can't vouch for either its quality or its security.

Software based on PuTTY's code

These projects include actual code from some version of PuTTY.

• Clients for various operating systems
  • NettleSSH, an SSH client for RISC OS
  • SSHProxy and pscp for RISC OS
  • PuTTY for Symbian (Nokia)
  • PuTTY for Symbian UIQ (discontinued)
  • Another PuTTY for UIQ
  • PuTTY for Symbian UIQ3
  • PocketPuTTY, a port for Windows Mobile 2003
  • pssh, a Palm OS SSH-2 client that uses some PuTTY terminal code
  • pTerm, for iPhone and iPod Touch (not to be confused with our own Unix terminal emulator "pterm"). Commercial, but cheap.
  • x64 build of PuTTY (for Windows on AMD64)
  • SSHDOS, SSH, SCP, SFTP and Telnet client for MS-DOS
• Frontends for file transfer
  • WinSCP, a GUI SFTP and SCP client
  • FileZilla, a GUI file transfer client with SFTP support from PuTTY
  • DataFreeway, uses PuTTY to provide a Microsoft Explorer interface to SSH/SFTP (no source)
• Port forwarding and VPN
• Wintunnel, a front end for creating tunnels
• Safe Passage, an alternative to PuTTY's dynamic port forwarding which doesn't require SOCKS support in your client applications (it seems to install itself somehow at the Windows networking level). Based on the PuTTY code. Commercial, but cheap.
• Internationalised and localised versions
  • PuTTYjp, with ISO-2022 support and other things Japanese
  • PuTTY DBCS Patched, with a Chinese feel
  • Arabeyes PuTTY, a project to add Arabic support to PuTTY (this code is now included in our releases)
  • iPuTTY/HangulPuTTY, an internationalised fork with an emphasis on Korean support
  • Polish localised version of PuTTY (no source)
• Kerberos/GSSAPI support (note that 0.61 and later releases contain native Kerberos support for Windows and Unix)
  • Certified Security Solutions, Inc.
  • Quest PuTTY (formerly Vintela PuTTY)
  • sweb.cz patch for Windows and Unix
  • Centrify PuTTY provides GSSAPI support via the Windows SSPI (no source)
• Smartcard support
  • A smartcard-enabled Pageant
  • The Smart Card Bundle is a packaged version of some of the patches found at opensc-project.org
  • PuTTYcard can also be found at opensc-project.org, but doesn't use OpenSC
  • PuTTY SC
• Settings storage in files
  • portaPuTTY, a version which (only) uses files for data storage
  • Another portaPuTTY (same name, different code)
  • Another version that stores data in files
• URL recognition
  • Nutty (not actively developed)
• Minimise to the system tray
  • PuTTY Tray
• Transparency
  • transputty (updated here)
  • Patch at covidimus.net
  • Patch at x86code.com (diff here).
• MUD clients
  • PowTTY
  • DF Client
• Various combinations of the above
  • Le Putty, a fork with Z-modem support and other tweaks
  • TuTTY, a fork with several extra features, including a serial backend (this dates from before PuTTY had its own)
  • PieTTY, a fork with CJK/transparency/URL recognition etc (no source?)
  • KiTTY, a (Windows-only) fork with several features including storing your password, minimising to the system tray, and automatically sending a command (as if typed at the keyboard) after successful session startup.
• PuTTYcyg, to use PuTTY as a terminal for Cygwin. (The standard PuTTY can just about do this too, with a bit of fiddly configuration including compiling a helper program. See this wishlist entry for details.)
• TortoiseCVS and TortoiseSVN, Windows Explorer frontends to CVS and Subversion respectively, use a modified Plink for SSH transport.
• IVT, a VT220 emulator which uses some PuTTY code (no source)
• StarNetSSH, an integration with the X-Win32 X server
• W-PuTTY-CD, a DLL frontend

Other related software

• Frontends for file transfer
  • Secure iXplorer, a GUI SFTP client; there are in GPL and commercial ("Pro") versions
• Port forwarding and VPN
• CallingHome, for maintaining long-running SSH tunnels using PuTTY.
• MyEntunnel, for maintaining SSH tunnels using Plink
• Saved session management
  • QuickPutty, for quickly launching PuTTY saved sessions
  • plaunch, another program for quickly launching PuTTY saved sessions
  • PuTTY Session Manager, for organising and launching saved sessions
  • PuttyConfer, for importing, exporting, and mass modification of PuTTY sessions
  • PuTTY Menu, for organising, launching, exporting, and importing saved sessions
• Multiple connection management (including tabbing)
  • PuttyTabs, a floating tab bar for PuTTY sessions
  • TWSC (Terminal Window ShortCuts), provides a menu of open terminal windows (no source)
  • WinTabber allows PuTTY sessions (and other programs) to be captured into a single tabbed window on Windows 2000/XP (no source)
  • PuTTY Connection Manager captures PuTTY sessions in tabs, and provides auto-login via keyboard simulation, among other features. (no source)
• KPuTTY and GPuTTY, PuTTY-lookalike frontends for Unix
• PuTTY Magic provides borderlessness, transparency, and alphablending in PuTTY
• PuTTY Command Sender, for sending commands to and otherwise manipulating multiple PuTTY windows at once

Specifications implemented by PuTTY

PuTTY attempts to conform to many specifications. These include:

SSH-2 specifications

• RFC 4250: The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Assigned Numbers
• RFC 4251: The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Architecture
• RFC 4252: The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol
• RFC 4253: The Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol
• RFC 4254: The Secure Shell (SSH) Connection Protocol
• RFC 4256: Generic Message Exchange Authentication for the Secure Shell Protocol (SSH)
• RFC 4335: The Secure Shell (SSH) Session Channel Break Extension
• RFC 4344: The Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Encryption Modes (in part)
• RFC 4345: Improved Arcfour Modes for the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol
• RFC 4419: Diffie-Hellman Group Exchange for the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol
• RFC 4432: RSA Key Exchange for the Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol
• RFC 4462: Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API) Authentication and Key Exchange for the Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol
• RFC 4716: The Secure Shell (SSH) Public Key File Format
• IETF Secure Shell working group drafts:
  • filexfer
• Independent drafts:
  • draft-miller-secsh-compression-delayed

SSH-1 specification

• The SSH (Secure Shell) Remote Login Protocol
• We don't know of a reference for the SCP protocol (which is basically BSD rcp).

Telnet specifications

• RFC 854: TELNET Protocol Specification
• RFC 855: TELNET Option Specifications
• RFC 856: TELNET Binary Transmission
• RFC 857: TELNET Echo Option
• RFC 858: TELNET Suppress Go Ahead Option
• RFC 1073: Telnet Window Size Option
• RFC 1079: Telnet Terminal Speed Option
• RFC 1091: Telnet Terminal-Type Option
• RFC 1123: Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support
• RFC 1408: Telnet Environment Option
• RFC 1571: Telnet Environment Option Interoperability Issues
• RFC 1572: Telnet Environment Option

Rlogin specification

• RFC 1282: BSD Rlogin

HTTP specifications

• RFC 2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1
• RFC 2617: HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication
• RFC 2817: Upgrading to TLS Within HTTP/1.1 (HTTP CONNECT)

SOCKS specifications

• SOCKS: A protocol for TCP proxy across firewalls (SOCKS 4)
• SOCKS 4A: A Simple Extension to SOCKS 4 Protocol
• RFC 1928: SOCKS Protocol Version 5
• RFC 1929: Username/Password Authentication for SOCKS V5
• Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol for SOCKS V5 is only available as an expired Internet-Draft.

Terminal specifications

• ECMA-35: Character Code Structure and Extension Techniques (equivalent to ISO 2022)
• ECMA-48: Control Functions for Coded Character Sets (equivalent to ISO 6429)

Zlib compressed data format

• RFC 1950: ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification (this is mostly just wrapping and red tape)
• RFC 1951: DEFLATE Compressed Data Format Specification (this contains the details of the actual compressed data)

X Window System

• X Window System Protocol
• X Display Manager Control Protocol, including the definition of XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1.
• Xsecurity(7), which documents MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1.

Cryptographic algorithms

• FIPS PUB 46-3: Data Encryption Standard (DES) also defines TDEA (3DES).
• Bruce Schneier's page on the Blowfish block cipher.
• FIPS PUB 197: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
• RFC 1321: The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm
• FIPS PUB 180-2: Secure Hash Signature Standard (SHS) defines secure hash functions SHA-1 and SHA-512.
• RFC 2104: HMAC: Keyed Hashing for Message Authentication defines a generic wrapper mechanism that converts a hash function such as MD5 or SHA-1 into a secure MAC.
• FIPS PUB 186-2: Digital Signature Standard (DSS) defines the digital signature algorithm DSA.
• RFC 3447: Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) #1: RSA Cryptography Specifications version 2.1 defines the basic RSA encryption and signature algorithms as well as specific padding schemes to turn them into a set of well defined operations on byte strings.
• The precise form of Diffie-Hellman key exchange used in SSH-2 is defined in the SSH-2 transport layer specification: see the SSH-2 section above.