Portable OpenSSH
This report summarizes scanner evidence for openssh/openssh-portable, a C project with 4,071 GitHub stars. SynthScan examined 219,909 lines of code across 574 source files, recording 462 pattern matches distributed across 6 syntactic categories. The legacy adjusted pattern signal is 2.4 (Low pattern signal); it is not an authorship estimate.
Use the findings to ask whether maintainers can explain intent, verify dependencies, simplify unnecessary scaffolding, and focus review effort. Risk Payload v1 adds ownership, supply-chain, over-engineering, and review-effort vectors when available. These are prompts for human verification, not probabilities, security findings, or measured maintenance costs.
Use each vector to guide manual verification of the underlying findings.
Payload schema: 1.0.0 · Engine: 2.0.0 · Scoring: heuristic-density-v1 · Scan date: 2026-10-31.
Can maintainers explain intent, assumptions, and trade-offs? 462 finding(s).
Are imports declared and package/API names verified? 0 finding(s).
Are wrappers, guards, and repeated structures necessary? 1 finding(s).
Which changes need focused human review? 462 finding(s).
This chart tracks the legacy adjusted pattern score across scan runs. Changes can reflect source changes, scan coverage, or detector/scoring versions; they do not measure AI adoption or prove that a team refactored code. Compare runs only when their scoring versions are compatible. The dashed line tracks the raw pattern-hit count.
Groups findings by configured severity weight. Severity is not a confidence estimate, security rating, or proof that a package is missing. Verify imports against the project's manifests and inspect each finding in its local design context.
This horizontal bar chart shows where configured pattern scores accumulate across directories. Treat the bars as locations to inspect, not as evidence of authorship or code quality. Use the file-level findings to decide whether a directory needs a focused ownership, dependency, complexity, or review check.
The scanner identified 462 distinct pattern matches across 6 syntactic categories. Each entry below represents a discrete location in the source code where the engine recorded a detector match to inspect in context. Expand any category row to inspect the individual file paths, line numbers, code snippets, and the lexical context (CODE, COMMENT, or STRING) in which each match was detected.
Reading the findings table: The Severity column indicates the configured finding weight (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW). The Context column identifies whether the match occurred inside executable code, an inline comment, or a string literal — legacy comment-context matches receive a ×1.5 score weight. The ⚡ bolt icon marks clustered matches: three or more patterns within a 10-line window, each receiving an additional ×1.5 density multiplier under the legacy scoring model.
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | auth2-passwd.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-rlimit.c | 21 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | ssh-keyscan.c | 21 | #ifdef WITH_OPENSSL | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-keyscan.c | 41 | #include "digest.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth2-hostbased.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth2-hostbased.c | 41 | #include "misc.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | log.c | 41 | #include <errno.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | kexmlkem768ecdh.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh.c | 41 | */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh.c | 61 | #include <stdlib.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh.c | 81 | #include "packet.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth2-none.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | sshbuf-misc.c | 21 | #include <sys/socket.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 61 | #include <asm/unistd.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 81 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 281 | #endif | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 301 | SC_DENY(__NR_newfstatat, EACCES), | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 321 | #ifdef __NR_statx | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 341 | #ifdef __NR_exit_group | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 361 | #endif | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 381 | # endif | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 421 | #endif | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 441 | SC_ALLOW(__NR_poll), | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-seccomp-filter.c | 461 | #ifdef __NR_shutdown | COMMENT |
| LOW | sshbuf.c | 21 | #include <signal.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | monitor.c | 21 | * NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, | COMMENT |
| LOW | monitor.c | 41 | #include <pwd.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | monitor.c | 61 | #include "hostfile.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | monitor.c | 81 | #include "monitor_wrap.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | session.c | 41 | #include <sys/stat.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | session.c | 61 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | session.c | 81 | #include "misc.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | kex.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | kex.c | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | channels.h | 41 | /* Definitions for channel types. */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | channels.h | 61 | #define SSH_CHANNEL_RDYNAMIC_FINISH 22 /* reverse SOCKS, finishing connect */ | COMMENT |
| LOW | channels.h | 221 | #define CHAN_EXTENDED_WRITE 2 | COMMENT |
| LOW | channels.h | 241 | #define CHAN_OUTPUT_CLOSED 3 | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-keysign.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-keysign.c | 41 | #include <openssl/rsa.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-gss.h | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-gss.h | 41 | # elif defined(HAVE_GSSAPI_GSSAPI_GENERIC_H) | COMMENT |
| LOW | msg.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | nchan.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | sandbox-darwin.c | 21 | #include <sys/types.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | kexgexs.c | 41 | #include "cipher.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | misc-agent.c | 21 | #include <sys/socket.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth2-pubkeyfile.c | 21 | * DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth2-pubkeyfile.c | 41 | COMMENT | |
| LOW | ssh-sk-helper.c | 21 | * to ssh-pkcs11-helper.c but considerably simpler as the operations for | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-agent.c | 41 | #include <sys/queue.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-agent.c | 61 | #include <stdarg.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | ssh-agent.c | 81 | #include "ssh-pkcs11.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth.c | 41 | #include <login.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | auth.c | 61 | #include "sshkey.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | readconf.c | 21 | #include <sys/un.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | readconf.c | 41 | #include <util.h> | COMMENT |
| LOW | kexgen.c | 21 | * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT | COMMENT |
| 379 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 619 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 4003 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 8546 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 9020 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 15746 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 15873 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 20517 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 20690 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 20878 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| HIGH | libcrux_internal.h | 21051 | * This code was generated with the following revisions: | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | regress/principals-command.sh | 20 | # Create a CA key and a user certificate. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | regress/cert-hostkey.sh | 55 | # Create a CA key and add it to known hosts. Ed25519 chosen for speed. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | regress/cert-hostkey.sh | 219 | # Create a CA key and add it to known hosts | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | regress/multipubkey.sh | 12 | # Create a CA key | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | regress/cert-userkey.sh | 48 | # Create a CA key | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | regress/limit-keytype.sh | 25 | # Create a CA key | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | regress/cert-file.sh | 9 | # Create a CA key | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | contrib/findssl.sh | 10 | # This file is placed in the public domain. | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | contrib/aix/buildbff.sh | 6 | # This file is placed in the public domain and comes with absolutely | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | contrib/aix/inventory.sh | 6 | # This file is placed into the public domain. | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | regress/channel-timeout.sh | 6 | # XXX not comprehensive. Still need -R -L agent X11 forwarding + interactive | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | pkcs11.h | 25 | for you (if useful, some are missing, let me know if you need | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | regress/unittests/sshsig/webauthn.html | 745 | function toggleNamespaceVisibility() { | CODE |