File Transfer for SSH Sessions

October 15, 2026 · GrantFlow Team

You open an SSH session through GrantFlow to fix a configuration, and then you need the log file, or you need to put a patched script on the server. Until now, that meant a second tool and a second path into the network, outside the session you were granted and outside the audit trail.

SSH sessions now transfer files over SFTP, inside the same session and under the same file transfer setting you already use for RDP targets.

Zone defaults now apply to SSH targets

If a zone's Session Feature Defaults already allow file transfer, that default now also switches on file transfer for the zone's SSH targets. Review your zones and set file transfer to Off wherever SSH users should not move files.

Browse, Download and Upload

When a target allows downloads, the session's Files panel shows a file browser. It starts at /, and you can open any directory the account you signed in with can read, exactly as in the shell. Click a folder to open it, click a file to download it. Long directories show 500 entries at a time with a name filter.

When the target also allows uploads, drop files on the panel or on the terminal, and they land in the directory the browser shows. If a file of the same name is already there, the panel asks before replacing it.

When a target allows uploads only, there is no browser. Your files go to your home directory on the host, and the panel tells you so before you upload.

Each file can be up to 200 MB in either direction, the same limit as RDP.

What Changes for Admins

You control SSH file transfer with the setting you already know from RDP: Off, Upload only, Download only, or Upload and download, as a zone default or per target.

SFTP needs a pinned host key, so GrantFlow knows the file transfer connection reaches the same server as the terminal. A new SSH target pins its key on its first session and has file transfer from then on.

Every file that moves is recorded in the audit log with its name, directory, size, checksum and outcome. Directory browsing is counted per session, and live SSH sessions with an open file transfer connection carry an SFTP badge in the live sessions list.

An SSH session with file transfer uses two connections on a tunnel agent instead of one. If your zones run many SSH sessions at once, check that their agents have room, or raise each agent's Max concurrent sessions. The guide below shows how to size a zone.

Get Started

Pick the zones or SSH targets where file transfer makes sense, choose the direction, and open a session. The Session File Transfer guide covers the setting, the limits, the audit events, agent sizing, and what to do when a session ends with a file transfer error.