OpenSSH on Linux: which version fixes what

What it is, and why it is on your server

OpenSSH is the SSH server and client almost every Linux distribution ships, and on a typical VPS it is the only service deliberately exposed to the whole internet. The daemon runs as root, it speaks to unauthenticated strangers before any login succeeds, and it is the single door between an attacker and a shell.

Why its advisories behave the way they do

• Pre-authentication bugs in sshd are the ones that matter. A flaw reachable before login is reachable by anyone who can open a TCP connection, which on a public server means everyone.
• The version string is advertised. sshd announces its banner to every connection, so an attacker does not have to guess what you are running.
• Distributions backport rather than upgrade. Ubuntu 24.04 will report OpenSSH 9.6 for years while quietly carrying fixes from far newer releases, so an upstream version number tells you almost nothing about whether you are patched. The package version is the only thing that does.

Check what you are actually running

The version that matters is the package version, not the upstream one. Distributions backport security fixes without changing the number before the dash, so a release that looks years old is frequently fully patched, and the revision after the dash is the only part that tells you.

dpkg-query -W -f='${Package} ${Version}\n' openssh-server openssh-client 2>/dev/null

rpm -q openssh-server openssh-clients

Fixed versions, per distribution

Each distribution patches on its own schedule and under its own version scheme, so the same CVE has a different answer on each of them. These come from the distributions’ own advisory data, asked per release. Where a release has no fixed version, that is what the advisory says, not a gap in the data.

Advisory data last refreshed 26 September 2026. It is re-read daily.

What this page does not tell you

It does not tell you whether your server is affected. A CVE applying to a package is not the same as a CVE applying to your installation: the fix may already be backported into what you are running, the vulnerable module may not be loaded, or the service may not be reachable from anywhere that matters. Answering that needs the versions on your machine, not a list.

It also carries no count of how many servers are affected. SecAI monitors a small fleet, and a percentage drawn from it would be arithmetic on a sample too small to mean anything. When that changes, the number will appear here and the page will say when it started.

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