ssh-default-banners

Default SSH banner responses

List of default banner responses for Debian, Ubuntu, and FreeBSD

ssh-os.nse:

Identifies Ubuntu, FreeBSD, or Debian version based on response of SSH banner.

Identifies the following versions:

Ubuntu 4.10 to 25.04

FreeBSD 4.3 to 14.2-RELEASE

Debian 3.x to 12.x

Raspbian 7.x to 11.x (tentative 11.x version recognition)

Note: The accuracy of the response is based on the default banner response. A number of scenarios may provide an inaccurate result from the target host:

• different OpenSSH version or alternative SSH server installed
• edited/omitted banner via sshd_config
• hexedit of OpenSSH binary; modified banner
• recompiled OpenSSH

Usage:

nmap -p22 -sV --script ssh-os.nse <target>
  OR
nmap -p <port number> -sV --script ssh-os.nse <target>

Medium Post:

https://medium.com/@richlam.dev/nmap-ubuntu-debian-freebsd-version-discovery-ssh-oh-ece7e46af26e

Nmap Pull Request:

nmap/nmap#1728

Some banners from:

https://github.com/rapid7/recog/blob/master/xml/ssh_banners.xml

TODO:

1. Update FreeBSD SSH banner recognition to regex entire banner response; this will better distinguish between FreeBSD versions.

2. Migrate banner lookup references from within the script to external files. Eventually, the number of lookup tables within the script will be too unwieldly.