SFTP Logging – Is There a Way? – SSH SFTP

sftpssh

I'm wondering if there is a way to log commands received by the server. It can be all SSH commands, as long as it includes information on commands related to file transfer.

I'm having issues with an SFTP client and the creator is asking for logs, but I am unable to find any existing logs.

I'm looking to log on both or either CentOS or OS X (although I suspect if it's possible, it'd be similar on both).

Best Answer

OpenSSH versions 4.4p1 and up (which should include the latest version with CentOS 5) have SFTP logging capability built in - you just need to configure it.

Find this in your sshd_config (in centos, file /etc/ssh/sshd_config):

Subsystem       sftp    /usr/libexec/openssh/sftp-server

and change it to:

Subsystem       sftp    /usr/libexec/openssh/sftp-server -l INFO

INFO is just one level of detail over what you're seeing by default - it provides detailed information regarding file transfers, permission changes, etc. If you need more info, you can adjust the log level accordingly. The various levels (in order of detail) are:

QUIET, FATAL, ERROR, INFO, VERBOSE, DEBUG, DEBUG1, DEBUG2, and DEBUG3

Anything over VERBOSE is probably more information than you're looking for, but it might be useful.

Finally restart the SSH service to update the changes (centos):

systemctl restart sshd
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