

The standard port setting for FTP is 21. SFTP uses SSH to secure transmissions whereas FTPS uses SSL security SFTP and FTPS are two entirely different protocols. SSH-1 contains a known security vulnerability, and SSH-2 is recommended for optimum security. SSH-2 is a newer, more secure implementation. There are currently two versions of the SFTP protocol: SSH-1 and SSH-2. This can help to speed up file transfers, especially with low-bandwidth connections. Likewise, data sent to the server is compressed first and the server decompresses it at the other end. With this option enabled, data sent by the server is compressed before sending, and decompressed at the client end. Most SFTP Clients provide an option to enable file compression. For example, username and password authentication can be disabled on the server, but keyboard-interactive authentication could be used to ask the client for their username and password. This allows for the implementation of assorted authentication methods. Keyboard-interactive authentication uses the method of asking the client a series of questions, and the client must answer these questions correctly in order to be authenticated. Once the server validation has occurred, the client must enter their passphrase in order to load their private key and complete the authentication process. When using private key and passphrase authentication, the client's public key is added to the "authorized_keys" file on the server.

With username and password authentication, a user account is set up on the SFTP server. The server's public key is usually contained in a file called "known_hosts" located on the server, and the client's public key is stored in an encrypted file on the local machine.Ĭlients can be authenticated in three different ways:

The server is validated by comparing the server's public key with the public keys stored on the client machine. These two components use public and private keys for authenticating communication between the client and the server. There are two basic components to file transfer with SFTP server validation and client authentication. To transfer files using the SFTP protocol, you will need a server that is configured for SFTP and a client that supports it. With SFTP, the data that is transferred between the client and the server is encrypted, preventing unauthorized users from accessing your data. When using FTP, the data that is being transferred is not encrypted, exposing this data to eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery. SFTP is a protocol for transferring files using SSH to secure the commands and data that are being transferred between the client and the server.
