SSH OpenSSH license

Also known as SSH OpenSSH, SSH-OpenSSH.

Commercial use: allowed
Share alike: not required
Attribution: not required

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Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSH-OpenSSH

Permissions

Change license by library convention
Duties
- Use a compliant license by library convention
Charge distribution fee from the text
Commercial use from the text
Derivative works from the text
Derive from the text
Duties
- Modification notice from the text
- Standards conformance from the text
Display from the text
Distribute from the text
Modified works from the text
Modify from the text
Duties
- Modification notice from the text
- Standards conformance from the text
Present from the text
Reproduce from the text

Prohibitions

This license states no prohibitions.

License-wide duties

This license states no duties that apply to the work as a whole.

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

Promote by default rule (adopted)

This license says nothing about Promote, and the graph applies this reading in all jurisdictions it covers: it is not permitted unless the license permits it.

A licence that says nothing about endorsement is read as not allowing it: the licence gives the licensee no right to use the licensor's name or marks in a way that states or implies that the licensor endorses the licensee or its product, while stating truthfully that a work is based on or uses the licensed work is a different act that this rule does not decide. A copyright licence grants rights in the work, and the right to use a name or a trademark is a separate right under trademark law and the protection of names, which a silent copyright licence does not pass on. Combining a licence that is silent about endorsement with one that permits it shows a conflict marked as coming from this rule.

Basis Trademark and name rights are separate from copyright: Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 article 9 lets the proprietor of an EU trade mark prevent all third parties not having his consent from using the sign in the course of trade, and Directive (EU) 2015/2436 article 10, 15 U.S.C. 1114 and 1125(a), section 12 BGB and section 43 ABGB protect marks and names in the same way. The library's evidence is Creative Commons 4.0 section 2(b)(2): Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License. A copyright licence that is silent grants no right to use the licensor's name or marks to suggest endorsement (Worldwide)

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Additional clauses

As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software can be used freely for any purpose. Any derived versions of this software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be called by a name other than "ssh" or "Secure Shell".

Info

Target asset types: Software
Region / jurisdiction: Worldwide
Validity: Perpetual
Source: https://spdx.org/licenses/SSH-OpenSSH.html
Legal code: https://spdx.org/licenses/SSH-OpenSSH.html
This description is published under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
SPDX identifier: SSH-OpenSSH on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier: SSH-OpenSSH

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSH-OpenSSH",
  "license-title": "SSH OpenSSH license",
  "spdx-id": "SSH-OpenSSH",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSH-OpenSSH> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/SSH-OpenSSH"
  }
}

This license carries no attribution duty, so no credit line is offered here.

Badge

Markdown

[![License: SSH OpenSSH license](https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSH-OpenSSH/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSH-OpenSSH)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSH-OpenSSH"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/SSH-OpenSSH/badge.svg" alt="License: SSH OpenSSH license"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by: Giray Havur
Written on: 2026-09-22
Second review: not yet done
Record changed since this review: yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings: 14 recorded, 10 applied to the record, 0 proposed

Models the notice that governs the original ssh code inside OpenSSH. The whole grant is one sentence, "the code I have written for this software can be used freely for any purpose", and the only condition is that a derived version be marked as such and renamed if it departs from the protocol description in the RFC file. There is no clause asking for the copyright notice to be kept.

14 findings

info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId applied

File name, record identifier, SPDX identifier and IRI local name are all SSH-OpenSSH.
info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software. The text governs a program.
major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

The grant reads "As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software can be used freely for any purpose". The record permits reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, commercial use, derivative works, modified works and the distribution fee; "for any purpose" carries commercial use.
major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

dalicc:ChangeLicense is permitted with the dalicc:compliantLicense duty: the marking condition on a derived version has to survive a relicensing, and nothing bars one.
minor Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition none

No prohibitions. The text has no endorsement or trademark clause. The rule about the names "ssh" and "Secure Shell" is a condition on a derived work that departs from the RFC, which the duties carry, and not a bar on using a name.
major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

dalicc:modificationNotice hangs off odrl:modify and odrl:derive for "Any derived versions of this software must be clearly marked as such".
major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

dalicc:standardsConformance hangs off odrl:modify and odrl:derive for "if the derived work is incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be called by a name other than "ssh" or "Secure Shell"". The term is exactly this shape: a modification that stays with the named external standard carries no further duty, and one that departs from it does. dalicc:rename is not used on its own, because the renaming is conditional and an unconditional duty would overstate the text. SISSL is the other record in the library that uses the term.
minor Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

No cc:Notice and no cc:Attribution. The text asks nowhere that the copyright notice travel with a copy, which sets it apart from every other record in this set.
minor Rubric 6 dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer applied

The NO WARRANTY section is the two-paragraph disclaimer of the GNU General Public License. The first paragraph goes to dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and the second to dalicc:LiabilityLimitation, verbatim. The quoted clauses come from a text that wraps lines and uses two spaces after a full stop. Line breaks and repeated spaces are collapsed to a single space, which is how every other record in the library quotes a multi-line clause. No word and no punctuation mark is changed.
minor Rubric 6 dalicc:additionalClauses applied

The SPDX text carries editorial notes in square brackets, added by the OpenSSH maintainers to say which of the restrictively licensed components have since been removed. They are not licence terms and are neither modelled nor quoted.
info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction applied

The author writes that he makes no claim whether possessing or using the program is legal in the reader's country. That is a disclaimer, not a territorial limit, so cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual.
info Rubric 8 dalicc:additionalClauses none

No clause of this text needs a term the vocabulary does not have. The sentence about patents and copyrights held by third parties is quoted, because it qualifies the scope of the grant without carving named material out of it.
info Rubric 9 record none

The consistency check of app.services.composer against the dependency graph dg_default returned an empty conflict list.
info Rubric 10 record none

Read against the other records in this set, this is the only one with no notice duty at all, and the only one whose rename condition depends on conformity with an external standard. Family rule 7 asks after a record with neither a prohibition nor a duty; this record has two duties, so it is not one of those.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

The changes since version 1 recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on and named the license the record itself is published under.

View version 2 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML
2 changes
- changed permission dalicc:ChangeLicense with duties [dalicc:compliantLicense]
  
  was permission dalicc:ChangeLicense with duties [dalicc:compliantLicense]
  
  Manual edit The statement is marked as a library convention, family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing: the text does not state it in as many words. Its duty dalicc:compliantLicense is marked as a library convention, family rule 15: Permissive records permit relicensing.
- added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>
  
  Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.
Version 1

Created from the license text on 2026-09-22 (Permissive variants).

View version 1 JSON-LD Turtle RDF/XML

Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.