Skip to main content
Glama
d3v1an
by d3v1an

SSH MCP Server

Node.js TypeScript MCP SDK SSH2 License npm Version

Leer en Espa\u00f1ol

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for remote server administration via SSH. Supports multiple profiles, remote command execution, interactive commands (PTY), persistent shell sessions, file transfer (SFTP), destructive command detection with audit logging, and operation history with undo capabilities.


Architecture

General Overview

graph TB
    Client["Claude Desktop<br/>(or any MCP client)"]
    Server["SSH MCP Server"]
    MCP["MCP SDK<br/>(stdio)"]
    Router["Tool Router<br/>(index.ts)"]
    Security["Security Module<br/>- Dangerous cmd detection<br/>- Audit logging"]
    SSH["SSH Client (ssh2)"]
    Exec["exec()<br/>- Commands<br/>- cat (read)"]
    Interactive["exec() + PTY<br/>- Interactive commands<br/>- Auto prompt response"]
    Shell["shell() + PTY<br/>- Persistent sessions<br/>- REPLs / multi-step"]
    SFTP["SFTP (lazy init)<br/>- upload / download<br/>- ls / write / readdir"]
    Remote["Remote Server<br/>(Linux/Unix)"]

    Client -->|"stdio (JSON-RPC)"| Server
    Server --- MCP
    MCP --> Router
    Router --> Security
    Router --> SSH
    SSH --- Exec
    SSH --- Interactive
    SSH --- Shell
    SSH --- SFTP
    SSH -->|"SSH (TCP :22)"| Remote

Connection and Execution Flow

flowchart TD
    Start([Start]) --> ListProfiles["ssh_list_profiles<br/>View available profiles"]
    ListProfiles --> Connect["ssh_connect<br/>(profile name)"]
    Connect -->|Password not found| Error["Error: env var<br/>SSH_PASSWORD_NAME missing"]
    Connect -->|OK| Active["Active Connection<br/>(1 profile at a time)"]

    Active --> ExecBranch["ssh_exec<br/>(command)"]
    Active --> InteractiveBranch["ssh_exec_interactive<br/>(command + auto-responses)"]
    Active --> ShellBranch["Shell Sessions<br/>start / send / read / close"]
    Active --> SFTPBranch["SFTP operations<br/>upload / download<br/>ls / read / write"]
    Active --> StatusBranch["ssh_status<br/>ssh_disconnect"]

    ExecBranch --> DangerCheck{"Dangerous<br/>command?<br/>(regex)"}
    InteractiveBranch --> DangerCheck
    DangerCheck -->|No| Execute["Execute command"]
    DangerCheck -->|Yes| ConfirmCheck{"confirm:<br/>true?"}
    ConfirmCheck -->|Yes| Execute
    ConfirmCheck -->|No| Warning["WARNING<br/>(not executed)"]

    ShellBranch -->|"send (raw:false)"| DangerCheck
    ShellBranch -->|"send (raw:true)"| Execute

    Execute --> Audit["audit.log"]
    SFTPBranch --> Audit
    Warning --> Audit

Security Flow (Dangerous Commands)

flowchart LR
    Input["Command received"] --> Check["isDangerousCommand()<br/>(16 regex patterns)"]
    Check -->|Safe| Exec["Execute command"]
    Check -->|Dangerous| Confirm{"confirm: true?"}
    Confirm -->|Yes| Exec
    Confirm -->|No| Warn["WARNING returned<br/>(command NOT executed)"]
    Exec --> Log["audit.log"]
    Warn --> Log

    subgraph Detected Patterns
        P1["rm -rf /"]
        P2["mkfs.*"]
        P3["dd if="]
        P4["reboot / shutdown / halt"]
        P5["chmod 777 / chown -R"]
        P6["fork bomb"]
        P7["systemctl stop/disable"]
        P8["killall / iptables -F"]
    end

Project Structure

s01_ssh_mcp/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts       # SSHMCPServer class — tool router, SSH logic, interactive/shell handlers
│   ├── tools.ts       # MCP tool definitions (17 tools, JSON schemas)
│   ├── profiles.ts    # Profile loading + password injection from env
│   ├── security.ts    # Dangerous command detection + AuditLogger
│   └── types.ts       # Interfaces: SSHProfile, AuditEntry, PromptResponse, ShellSession, CommandRecord, ReverseInfo
├── dist/              # Compiled output (generated by tsc)
├── profiles.json      # SSH server configuration
├── .env               # Passwords (not versioned)
├── audit.log          # Audit log (generated at runtime)
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json

Setup

1. Server Profiles

Edit profiles.json:

{
  "production": {
    "host": "192.168.1.100",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "deploy"
  },
  "staging": {
    "host": "192.168.1.101",
    "port": 22,
    "username": "deploy"
  }
}

2. Passwords

Create .env (copy from .env.example):

SSH_PASSWORD_PRODUCTION=your_password
SSH_PASSWORD_STAGING=your_password

Format: SSH_PASSWORD_<PROFILE_NAME_UPPERCASE>.

3. Build and Run

npm install
npm run build
npm start

4. MCP Configuration (Claude Desktop)

Option A: Using npx (recommended)

No local installation required — just add to your Claude Desktop config (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "s01-ssh-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "SSH_PASSWORD_PRODUCTION": "your_password",
        "SSH_PASSWORD_STAGING": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option B: Local installation

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ssh": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/s01_ssh_mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "SSH_PASSWORD_PRODUCTION": "your_password",
        "SSH_PASSWORD_STAGING": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: You can optionally set SSH_PROFILES_PATH in env to point to a profiles.json in a different location.


Available Tools

Tool

Description

Requires Connection

ssh_list_profiles

List configured profiles (without passwords)

No

ssh_connect

Connect to an SSH profile

No

ssh_disconnect

Close the active SSH connection (closes all shell sessions)

Yes

ssh_status

Connection status (profile, host, uptime)

Yes

ssh_exec

Execute a remote command

Yes

ssh_exec_interactive

Execute interactive command with PTY and auto-response to prompts

Yes

ssh_shell_start

Start a persistent interactive shell session with PTY

Yes

ssh_shell_send

Send input to an active shell session

Yes

ssh_shell_read

Read accumulated output from a shell session buffer

Yes

ssh_shell_close

Close a shell session and release resources

Yes

ssh_upload

Upload a local file to the server (SFTP)

Yes

ssh_download

Download a file from the server (SFTP)

Yes

ssh_ls

List a remote directory (SFTP)

Yes

ssh_read_file

Read remote file contents

Yes

ssh_write_file

Write content to a remote file (SFTP)

Yes

ssh_history

View operation history for the active connection

Yes

ssh_undo

Revert a specific operation by record ID

Yes

Tool Parameters

Tool

Parameters

Required

ssh_connect

profile (string)

Yes

ssh_exec

command (string), confirm (boolean)

command

ssh_exec_interactive

command (string), responses[] ({prompt, answer, sensitive}), timeout (number), confirm (boolean)

command

ssh_shell_start

cols (number, default: 80), rows (number, default: 24)

No

ssh_shell_send

sessionId (string), input (string), raw (boolean), timeout (number), confirm (boolean)

sessionId, input

ssh_shell_read

sessionId (string), timeout (number)

sessionId

ssh_shell_close

sessionId (string)

sessionId

ssh_upload

localPath (string), remotePath (string)

Both

ssh_download

remotePath (string), localPath (string)

Both

ssh_ls

path (string, default: home)

No

ssh_read_file

path (string)

Yes

ssh_write_file

path (string), content (string)

Both

ssh_history

filter ("all" | "reversible" | "reversed"), limit (number)

No

ssh_undo

recordId (number), confirm (boolean)

recordId


Operation History & Undo

Every operation executed during an active connection is recorded in memory. This allows reviewing what was done and reverting specific operations.

Reversibility by Operation

Operation

Reversible

Undo Strategy

ssh_write_file

Yes

Restores previous content. If file didn't exist, deletes it

ssh_upload

Yes

Restores previous remote content. If file didn't exist, deletes it

ssh_download

Yes

Deletes the downloaded local file

ssh_exec

No

Recorded but not auto-reversible

ssh_exec_interactive

No

Recorded but not auto-reversible

ssh_read_file

N/A

Read-only, nothing to revert

ssh_ls

N/A

Read-only, nothing to revert

ssh_shell_send

N/A

Cannot revert input sent to an interactive shell

The history is cleared on ssh_connect and ssh_disconnect.


Security

Destructive Command Detection

The following patterns are intercepted and require confirm: true to execute. This applies to ssh_exec, ssh_exec_interactive, and ssh_shell_send (when raw: false):

Pattern

Reason

rm -rf /

Recursive rm on system root

rm -r, rm -rf

Mass file deletion

mkfs.*

Filesystem formatting

dd if=

Direct disk write

reboot, shutdown, halt, poweroff

Server state control

init 0, init 6

Runlevel change

chmod 777 /

Insecure permissions on root

chown -R

Mass ownership change

> /dev/*

Direct device write

:(){ :|:& };:

Fork bomb

systemctl stop|disable|mask

System service shutdown

killall

Mass process termination

iptables -F

Firewall rules flush

Audit Log

All operations are logged to audit.log with the format:

[timestamp] [profile] [tool] [parameters] [RESULT: ok|error]

Example:

[2026-03-04T10:30:00.000Z] [production] [ssh_exec] [ls -la /var/log] [RESULT: ok]
[2026-03-04T10:31:00.000Z] [production] [ssh_upload] [./app.tar.gz -> /tmp/app.tar.gz] [RESULT: ok]

Technical Details

  • MCP Transport: stdio (JSON-RPC over stdin/stdout)

  • SSH Connection: One active connection at a time. Attempting to connect to another profile without disconnecting raises an error.

  • SFTP: Lazy initialization — created on first file operation use and reused thereafter.

  • Interactive Exec: Uses exec() with pty: true for commands requiring interactive input. Supports auto-response to prompts via regex matching. Settle timeout (2s) detects command completion; global timeout (default 30s) prevents hangs.

  • Shell Sessions: Uses shell() with PTY for persistent interactive terminals. Up to 5 concurrent sessions stored in a Map<string, ShellSession>. Auto-close after 5 minutes of inactivity. Buffer capped at 1MB. All sessions are closed on ssh_disconnect. ANSI escape codes are stripped from output.

  • File Reading: Uses ssh exec cat (not SFTP) for text files.

  • File Writing: Uses SFTP createWriteStream for large file support.

  • Argument Escaping: Shell escaping with single quotes to prevent command injection.

  • Audit Logging: Non-blocking — log write failures are silently ignored to avoid disrupting operations. Responses marked sensitive: true are logged as [REDACTED].

  • Profile Cache: profiles.json is read once and cached in memory.

  • Operation History: All operations are recorded in memory during the active connection. File operations (ssh_write_file, ssh_upload) capture previous content before modifying, enabling undo. History is cleared on connect/disconnect.


License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Install Server
A
security – no known vulnerabilities
A
license - permissive license
A
quality - A tier

Resources

Unclaimed servers have limited discoverability.

Looking for Admin?

If you are the server author, to access and configure the admin panel.

Latest Blog Posts

MCP directory API

We provide all the information about MCP servers via our MCP API.

curl -X GET 'https://glama.ai/api/mcp/v1/servers/d3v1an/ssh-mcp'

If you have feedback or need assistance with the MCP directory API, please join our Discord server