Sshifu – Give SSH access in 1 command. Teleport/Smallstep alternative

Name: Sshifu – Give SSH access in 1 command. Teleport/Smallstep alternative
Availability: InStock
Author: azophy_2

by azophy_2·Apr 5, 2026·4 points·3 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidSolve My ProblemShip It

Lightweight SSH CA that skips Teleport's complexity for small teams.

Strengths

•Uses standard OpenSSH certificates instead of custom agents
•Bash script trust setup avoids Node.js dependency on servers
•OAuth offboarding instantly revokes access without key cleanup

Weaknesses

•Vibe-coded early stage raises security concerns for production
•Depends on external OAuth provider availability for all logins

Post Description

Hey HN! Over the past few years, I’ve spent way too much time copy-pasting SSH public keys just to give people access to servers. It always felt like a chore, and the security risks (offboarding, revocation, etc.) aren’t great either.

I looked into solutions like Teleport and Smallstep, but they felt a bit too heavy and complex for what I needed.

So over the past few weeks I vibe-coded a small solution to scratch my own itch: sshifu.

The idea is simple — you set up a “sshifu server” as an auth server, configure your SSH servers to trust it, and then giving access is just telling someone to run:

"npx sshifu sshifu-server.com ssh-server.com"

That’s it. No more copying keys or touching "authorized_keys".

It’s still early and a bit rough around the edges, but it’s been working well for me so far.

Would love feedback — what’s missing for real-world usage, and what would stop you from using this?