SCP (Secure Copy) Client

An SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) client is a protocol that allows users to securely transfer their files to remote servers over a network. This client uses SSH (Secure Shell) to authenticate and transfer encrypted data to protect it while it's in transit. The SCP client allows for copying files and directories securely from remote systems. 

GoAnywhere MFT provides SCP features to satisfy enterprise requirements.

• Ability to authenticate using passwords or SSH keys
• Get, Put, MGet commands
• Transfer multiple files per connection using loops
• Indicate the number of connection retry attempts and timeout values
• Auto suffix and prefix file names with constants, timestamps or variables
• Override file names and other properties at execution time using variables
• Auto retry with user-defined connection timeouts and retry limits
• Configurable port numbers
• Support for Adaptive connections
• Utilizes only strong NIST-certified encryption algorithms when in FIPS 140-2 Compliance mode
• Generation of detailed logs (audit trails)

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GoAnywhere MFT supports SCP (Secure Copy) for securing data transmissions with your trading partners. SCP creates an encrypted tunnel using SSH between two computer systems and will protect against the following attacks:

• IP spoofing, where a remote host sends out packets which pretend to come from another, trusted host
• IP source routing, where a host can pretend that an IP packet comes from another, trusted host
• DNS spoofing, where an attacker forges name server records
• Interception of cleartext passwords and other data by intermediate hosts
• Manipulation of data by attackers in control of intermediate hosts

A comprehensive Key Manager is provided in GoAnywhere MFT to allow for the management of SSH Keys. The Key Manager can be used to create SSH public and private keys, export keys and view keys. These SSH Keys can be utilized within GoAnywhere MFT for automating SFTP transmissions.

These two file sharing protocols are quite similar and often interchangeable. Your unique need for speed, functionality, and security will determine which is best.

First, SFTP is the more robust protocol, providing file management capabilities and support such as auto-resume and integrity checks for more reliability. It can, however, be slower than SCP.

SCP, the more simplified protocol, is faster than SFTP, which makes it the better choice in high-latency networks. It does not, however, feature the file management capabilities of SFTP, such as the ability to rename files or list directories. Nor does it resume transfers there are connectivity issues.

The two protocols are similar in that both:

• Use secure authentication (SSH public key and/or password)
• Are secure alternatives to FTP
• Use SSH (Secure Shell) as the encryption protocol
• Utilize TCP as the transport layer
• Have no file size restrictions
• Default to using port 22

GoAnywhere MFT supports the following standards for SCP:

• scp -o: This option in the scp command allows you to modify how the SSH connection behaves during a file transfer. Multiple -o options can be passed to modify different SSH settings.
• scp -p: This option can be used when copying original files to the destination to preserve the modification times, access times, and permissions of the original files to ensure source file attributes are maintained.
• scp -t: While not a standard option for the scp command, it is part of the scp command's internal implementation. This option can be used when invoking scp as the destination on the remote side to tell scp that it should expect files to be transferred to the specified location, and it also establishes the destination for receiving the files.
• scp -r: In this option, the -r stands for "recursive." Scp-r is used to copy entire directories, along with their content, from one location to another, rather than just individual files. This is important, as by default, scp only works with individual files. If you want entire directories copied, you need to use the -r flag.   

Additional details

Protocol

• SSH 2.0

Ciphers (Symmetric Encryption Algorithms)

• Triple DES, key length of 192 bit
• Blowfish, key length up to 448 bit
• AES, key length up to 256 bit

SCP Client Algorithms Supported for All Platforms (including MAC and Windows)

• MAC-SHA1
• HMAC-SHA1-96
• HMAC-SHA2-256
• HMAC-MD5
• HMAC-MD5-96

Key Exchange Algorithms

• Diffie-Hellman
• MODP Groups 1, 2, 5 (1536-bit), 14 (2048-bit), 15 (3072-bit), 16 (4096-bit), 17 (6144-bit) and 18 (8192-bit).

SSH Private Keys

• OpenSSH encoded keys
• PEM (privacy enhanced message) encoded keys

SSH Public Keys

• OpenSSH encoded keys