SSHPIPER

run sshpiper rootless and distroless.

INTRODUCTION 📢

sshpiper (created by tg123) is the reverse proxy for sshd. all protocols, including ssh, scp, port forwarding, running on top of ssh are supported.

SYNOPSIS 📖

What can I do with this? This image will run sshpiper rootless and distroless, for maximum security and performance. In addition to being small and secure, it also offers two additional plugins (rest_auth and rest_challenge) which allow you to use any backend for authentication and challenges.

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION 💶

Why should I run this image and not the other image(s) that already exist? Good question! Because ...

If you value security, simplicity and optimizations to the extreme, then this image might be for you.

COMPARISON 🏁

Below you find a comparison between this image and the most used or original one.

image	size on disk	init default as	distroless	supported architectures
11notes/sshpiper	134MB	1000:1000	✅	amd64, arm64, armv7
tg123/sshpiperd	183MB	1000:1000	❌	amd64, arm64

VOLUMES 📁

• /sshpiper/var - Directory for screen recordings and other stuff (if used)

COMPOSE ✂️

name: "ssh"

x-lockdown: &lockdown
  # prevents write access to the image itself
  read_only: true
  # prevents any process within the container to gain more privileges
  security_opt:
    - "no-new-privileges=true"

services:
  sshpiper:
    depends_on:
      socket-proxy:
        condition: "service_healthy"
        restart: true
    image: "11notes/sshpiper:1.5.4"
    <<: *lockdown
    environment:
      TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
    command:
      - "docker"
      - "--"
      - "failtoban"
      - "--max-failures=3"
      - "--ban-duration=6h"
      # if using failtoban, ignore localhost or the healtcheck will be banned!
      - "--ignore-ip=127.0.0.1"
    ports:
      - "8022:22/tcp"
    volumes:
      - "socket-proxy.run:/var/run"
    networks:
      frontend:
      backend:
    secrets:
      - "ssh_host_key"
    sysctls:
      # allow rootless container to access ports < 1024
      net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start: 22
    restart: "always"

  socket-proxy:
    # for more information about this image checkout:
    # https://github.com/11notes/docker-socket-proxy
    image: "11notes/socket-proxy:2.1.6"
    <<: *lockdown
    user: "0:103"
    environment:
      TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
    volumes:
      - "/run/docker.sock:/run/docker.sock:ro" 
      - "socket-proxy.run:/run/proxy"
    restart: "always"

  sftp:
    # for more information about this image checkout:
    # https://github.com/11notes/docker-sftp
    image: "11notes/sftp:10.2"
    <<: *lockdown
    labels:
      - "sshpiper.username=foo"
    environment:
      TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
      SSH_USER: "foo"
      SSH_PASSWORD: "${SSH_PASSWORD}"
    volumes:
      - "foo.var:/home"
    tmpfs:
      - "/run/ssh:uid=1000,gid=1000,size=1m"
    secrets:
      - "ssh_host_key"
    networks:
      backend:
    sysctls:
      net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start: 22
    restart: "always"

  sftp-key:
    # for more information about this image checkout:
    # https://github.com/11notes/docker-sftp
    image: "11notes/sftp:10.2"
    <<: *lockdown
    labels:
      - "sshpiper.authorized_keys=${SFTP_AUTHORIZED_KEY}"
      - "sshpiper.private_key=${SFTP_PRIVATE_KEY}"
    environment:
      TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
      SSH_USER: "bar"
    volumes:
      - "bar.var:/home"
    tmpfs:
      - "/run/ssh:uid=1000,gid=1000,size=1m"
    secrets:
      - "ssh_host_key"
      - "authorized_keys"
    networks:
      backend:
    sysctls:
      net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start: 22
    restart: "always"

volumes:
  socket-proxy.run:
  sshpiper.var:
  foo.var:
  bar.var:

networks:
  frontend:
  backend:
    internal: true

secrets:
  ssh_host_key:
    file: "./ssh_host_ed25519_key.txt"
  authorized_keys:
    file: "./authorized_keys.txt"

To find out how you can change the default UID/GID of this container image, consult the RTFM.

DEFAULT SETTINGS 🗃️

Parameter	Value	Description
user	docker	user name
uid	1000	user identifier
gid	1000	group identifier
home	/sshpiper	home directory of user docker
--server-key	/run/secrets/ssh_host_key	SSH host key
--log-format	json	json output to console
--log-level	info	log verbosity level
--drop-hostkeys-message		filter out hostkeys-00@openssh.com
--reply-ping		reply to ping@openssh instead of passing it to upstream

ENVIRONMENT 📝

Parameter	Value	Default
TZ	Time Zone
DEBUG	Will activate debug option for container image and app (if available)

MAIN TAGS 🏷️

These are the main tags for the image. There is also a tag for each commit and its shorthand sha256 value.

• 1.5.4
• 1.5.4-unraid
• 1.5.4-nobody

There is no latest tag, what am I supposed to do about updates?

It is my opinion that the :latest tag is a bad habbit and should not be used at all. Many developers introduce breaking changes in new releases. This would messed up everything for people who use :latest. If you don’t want to change the tag to the latest semver, simply use the short versions of semver. Instead of using :1.5.4 you can use :1 or :1.5. Since on each new version these tags are updated to the latest version of the software, using them is identical to using :latest but at least fixed to a major or minor version. Which in theory should not introduce breaking changes.

If you still insist on having the bleeding edge release of this app, simply use the :rolling tag, but be warned! You will get the latest version of the app instantly, regardless of breaking changes or security issues or what so ever. You do this at your own risk!

REGISTRIES ☁️

docker pull 11notes/sshpiper:1.5.4
docker pull ghcr.io/11notes/sshpiper:1.5.4
docker pull quay.io/11notes/sshpiper:1.5.4

UNRAID VERSION 🟠

This image supports unraid by default. Simply add -unraid to any tag and the image will run as 99:100 instead of 1000:1000.

NOBODY VERSION 👻

This image supports nobody by default. Simply add -nobody to any tag and the image will run as 65534:65534 instead of 1000:1000.

SOURCE 💾

• 11notes/sshpiper

PARENT IMAGE 🏛️

BUILT WITH 🧰

• tg123/sshpiper

GENERAL TIPS 📌

ElevenNotes™️

This image is provided to you at your own risk. Always make backups before updating an image to a different version. Check the releases for breaking changes. If you have any problems with using this image simply raise an issue, thanks. If you have a question or inputs please create a new discussion instead of an issue. You can find all my other repositories on github.

created 08.06.2026, 15:27:03 (CET)