# GitHub rewrites SSH authentication to reduce database connections

DevFeed: [GitHub rewrites SSH authentication to reduce database connections](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/surviving-the-sshpocolypse-70393.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://github.blog/news-insights/the-library/surviving-the-sshpocolypse/>)

Author: Scott J. Goldman

Published: 2012-07-27T06:05:57Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [GitHub Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/github-engineering.md>)

Topics: [ssh](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ssh.md>), [database-consistency](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/database-consistency.md>), [internal developer platform automation](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internal-developer-platform-automation.md>), [Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/infrastructure-as-a-service-iaas.md>)

Tags: [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [mysql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mysql.md>), [news-insights](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/news-insights.md>), [patched](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/patched.md>), [rails](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rails.md>), [scalability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scalability.md>), [server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server.md>), [ssh](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ssh.md>), [the-library](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/the-library.md>)

## AI overview

GitHub addressed intermittent SSH connection failures by replacing older SSH patches with a shared C library that checks public keys through a Rails HTTP endpoint. The change reuses persistent database connections, reducing database connections and SSH server processes. GitHub said the service was in better shape after deployment and was exploring further scalability improvements.

## Source excerpt

Over the past few days, we have had some issues with our SSH infrastructure affecting a small number of Git SSH operations. We apologize for the inconvenience, and are happy...