GETSSH

中文版 | English

GETSSH is a next-generation cross-platform SSH terminal client built for developers and DevOps engineers. It is designed around three uncompromising principles: military-grade physical security, a GPU-accelerated terminal experience, and a Glassmorphism UI that makes you actually want to open your terminal.

Under the hood, GETSSH v2.0 is a full TypeScript + Rust hybrid. Five Rust native addons handle everything your CPU and memory care about most — cryptography, file I/O, system monitoring, and the physical-level watchdog daemon — while React 19 and Electron 42 handle the rest with an architectural discipline that keeps startup time low and renders butter-smooth.

📢 View Full Changelog (v2.0)

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✨ What's New in v2.0

v2.0 is a ground-up architectural overhaul — not just a feature release:

• 🦀 Full Rust Native Core — Five production Rust N-API addons replace the entire JS-layer crypto, SFTP I/O, and system monitoring stack
• 🛡 Six-Layer Physical Security Architecture — Watchdog daemon, AES-256-GCM Vault, Zeroize memory scrubbing, Zero-copy network engine, RASP runtime defense, and native memory integrity scanning
• 🔒 32 Security Vulnerabilities Fixed — Full internal security audit covering Critical, High, Medium, and Low severity findings, all resolved
• ⚛️ React 19 + Electron 42 — Rebuilt on the latest stable foundation
• 🎨 Tailwind CSS v4 — Complete style system overhaul

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🖥 Screenshots

Glassmorphism dark mode with split-pane terminal sessions and the Security Center RASP dashboard.

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🔒 Security Architecture

GETSSH v2.0 implements a six-layer defense-in-depth architecture extending from the OS kernel to the application layer:

Layer	Component	What It Does
1. Rust Watchdog	rust-core/watchdog — standalone binary	Runs independently from Electron. Monitors the main process via IPC heartbeat. If the heartbeat is missed for >5s, it calls OS-level APIs to forcibly kill the entire Node.js process — bypassing JavaScript entirely.
2. Memory Zeroize	getssh-vault Rust N-API	All AES keys and decrypted credential buffers are wrapped in ZeroizeOnDrop. TypeScript's finally blocks call buffer.fill(0) as a second pass. No plaintext ever lingers in heap.
3. Crypto Vault	getssh-vault Rust N-API	AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption. Key derived via PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 with 100,000 iterations and a 32-byte salt (NIST SP 800-132). V2 format with magic header for safe migration.
4. Zero-Copy Network	sftp-stream Rust N-API	SFTP large-file transfers bypass the V8 heap entirely. Rust owns the disk I/O. No OOM from large file transfers.
5. RASP Defense	SecureCenter.ts	Runtime Application Self-Protection. Audits plugin shell commands for fork bombs, rm -rf /, mkfs, and disk-destroying dd. Triggers the Watchdog lockdown protocol on detection.
6. Memory Scanner	getssh-sysprobe Rust N-API	Periodically validates the first bytes of critical system function memory to detect Inline Hook attempts. Requires elevated privileges.

IPC Security

All ipcMain.on and ipcMain.handle calls are globally patched to reject any request originating from a sub-frame (event.senderFrame.parent !== null). Plugin iframes cannot escape their sandbox to call privileged IPC channels.

Plugin Sandbox

Plugin UIs run inside <iframe sandbox="allow-scripts"> — allow-same-origin is explicitly removed. PluginBridge validates every postMessage against the originating iframe's contentWindow. Dangerous actions (sshWrite, saveProfiles, sftpDelete, etc.) are on a permanent blocklist.

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🧩 Plugin System

GETSSH has a dual-mode plugin architecture:

• Main-process plugins — Run as sandboxed vm.Script contexts in the Electron main process. They get a capability-gated API: ssh:read, ssh:write, storage, clipboard, notification, etc. Each capability must be declared in package.json and approved by the user at install time.
• Renderer plugins — Run as sandboxed iframes. They communicate via a typed RPC bridge with BLOCKED_ACTIONS enforcement.

Extension Points:

• registerSidebarAction — Inject custom sidebar buttons (SVG sanitized via DOMPurify)
• registerPanel / openPanel — Register and open custom panels as Pane Tree nodes
• registerUIExtension — Add actions to terminal right-click menus and SFTP toolbars
• registerSettingsSchema — Inject a custom settings UI into the settings panel
• pluginStorage — Isolated KV store per plugin (getssh-kv Rust module)
• onSysmonData — Subscribe to live CPU/memory/network data from the Rust sysprobe

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⚡ Core Features

Multi-Protocol Terminal

• SSH — ssh2 library, password and private key auth, SOCKS5/HTTP proxy support
• Local Shell — node-pty, macOS (Zsh/Bash), Windows (PowerShell), shell allowlist enforcement
• Telnet — Raw net.Socket with NVT negotiation, forced vt100 termType for network gear
• Protocol auto-detect — ssh://, telnet://, user@host format parsed on input

Terminal Engine: xterm.js v6 with WebGL rendering (canvas fallback), ligatures, configurable fonts/colors/cursor/scrollback/bell, anti-glare mode.

Split Pane Architecture: Recursive binary tree (PaneNode). Any leaf can be independently split horizontally or vertically to arbitrary depth. Each pane independently holds a terminal session, a plugin panel, or the Command Center welcome screen.

SFTP File Manager

• Dual-mode uploader/downloader via Rust sftp-stream (Zero-copy, no V8 heap involvement for large files)
• File read limit: 10MB for in-app preview (prevents OOM). No size limit for pure downloads.
• Real-time local edit sync — double-click to open in your default editor, auto-uploads on save
• Atomic write (rename() from UUID-suffixed temp file) prevents partial-write corruption
• Full path.posix.normalize() path traversal defense on all remote paths

Command Center

A Raycast/Spotlight-style launcher: full-text fuzzy search across all saved sessions (alias/host/username), keyboard-driven navigation (↑/↓/Enter/Esc), one-line user@host quick connect without saving a profile first. Security warnings from the Watchdog appear as inline banners.

SafeStorage Credential Vault

• Rust getssh-vault: PBKDF2 (100k iterations) + AES-256-GCM, two format versions with auto-migration
• Electron.safeStorage protects the master password at rest (macOS Keychain / Windows DPAPI)
• Touch ID biometric unlock on macOS for passwordless app launch
• Sensitive config fields (initScript, proxyHost, proxyPort) encrypted separately via safeStorage and stored outside the main localStorage key
• Auto-lock: idle timeout triggers master password screen; Zustand cryptoStore is cleared on lock

Known Hosts & MITM Protection

• SHA256 fingerprint verification on first connect
• Changed fingerprint detection triggers a high-severity MITM warning overlay with old/new comparison
• Full revocation management in Settings → Security → Known Hosts

Audit Logs

Read-only connection metadata logging (alias, host, connected/disconnected timestamps, duration). No terminal content is ever captured. CSV export available.

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🛠 Tech Stack

Layer	Technology	Version
Desktop Shell	Electron	42.x
Frontend	React + TypeScript	19.x + 6.x
Build	Vite + vite-plugin-electron	8.x
Styling	TailwindCSS	v4.x
State	Zustand	5.x
SSH/SFTP	ssh2	1.x
Local Terminal	node-pty	1.x
Terminal Render	xterm.js + WebGL	6.x
Crypto Core	Rust (getssh-vault)	AES-256-GCM + PBKDF2
System Monitor	Rust (getssh-sysprobe)	sysinfo crate
SFTP Engine	Rust (sftp-stream)	Zero-copy N-API
Plugin Storage	Rust (getssh-kv)	Isolated KV
Unarchiver	Rust (getssh-unarchive)	ZipSlip-hardened
Watchdog	Rust (standalone binary)	OS-level kill
i18n	react-i18next	en-US, zh-CN
DOM Security	DOMPurify	3.x
Testing	Vitest + Playwright	Unit + E2E

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 18.x
• pnpm ≥ 9.x
• Rust toolchain (for building native modules) — rustup recommended

Development

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/JiangchenShen/GETSSH.git
cd GETSSH

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build the Rust Watchdog binary (required for SecureCenter)
pnpm run build:watchdog

# Start Vite dev server + Electron with HMR
pnpm run dev

Note: The five Rust .node addons (getssh-vault, getssh-sysprobe, sftp-stream, getssh-kv, getssh-unarchive) ship pre-compiled for macOS arm64/x64. If you are on Windows or Linux, you need to rebuild them with napi build --release inside each rust-core/* directory.

Build Distributable

# Build all Rust components + Vite bundle + electron-builder package
pnpm run build

# Platform-specific builds
pnpm run build -- --mac      # macOS DMG (ULFO) — x64 + arm64
pnpm run build -- --win      # Windows NSIS — x64 + arm64
pnpm run build -- --linux    # Linux AppImage — x64 + arm64

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⚖️ Why GETSSH?

	GETSSH	Termius	Tabby	iTerm2
Security	Rust AES-256-GCM + Watchdog daemon + RASP + Zeroize	Closed-source cloud sync	Open source, no hardware security	Open source, no encryption layer
SFTP	Zero-copy Rust engine, real-time local edit sync	Paid tier only	Basic	Requires plugin
Architecture	TS + Rust hybrid, 6 native addons	Proprietary	Electron + TS	Objective-C
Plugins	Dual-mode sandbox (vm.Script + iframe), capability-gated	Limited	Theme-focused	Scripting API
Price	Free & Open Source	Subscription	Free	Free (macOS only)

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🗺 Roadmap

• v2.1 — CSP unsafe-eval full removal · Windows code signing · Workspace isolation (multi-vault)
• v2.2 — Plugin Marketplace · SSH Jump Host (ProxyJump) · In-terminal search
• v2.3 — Cluster broadcast (send command to N sessions simultaneously) · SSH config file import

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🛡 Privacy Statement

Everything stays local. SSH private keys, passwords, session logs, and connection metadata never leave your machine. GETSSH has no analytics, no telemetry, no cloud account, and no network calls except the GitHub Releases API for update checks.

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📄 License

Copyright © 2026 Jiangchen Shen. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.