You are viewing a free preview of this lesson.
Subscribe to unlock all 10 lessons in this course and every other course on LearningBro.
SSH (Secure Shell) is the primary protocol for accessing network device CLIs securely. Paramiko is a pure-Python implementation of SSHv2 that gives you programmatic control over SSH connections — the building block on which higher-level libraries like Netmiko are built.
SSH provides encrypted communication between a client and a server over an untrusted network:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Encryption | All traffic is encrypted (AES, ChaCha20) |
| Authentication | Password or public-key based |
| Integrity | HMAC ensures data is not tampered with |
| Port | Default TCP port 22 |
| Replaces | Telnet (port 23), which sends everything in cleartext |
| Method | Description | Security |
|---|---|---|
| Password | User provides a username and password | Moderate — vulnerable to brute force |
| Public key | Client proves identity with a private key; server has the public key | Strong — no password transmitted |
| Keyboard-interactive | Server prompts for responses (e.g., MFA) | Strong — supports multi-factor |
Subscribe to continue reading
Get full access to this lesson and all 10 lessons in this course.