Conch is an implementation of the secure shell (SSH) protocol written in the Python programming language. SSH is a protocol designed to allow remote access to shells and commands. Conch can be used to implement both the client and server sides of this protocol.
By using a high-level language like Python, Conch avoids a whole class of potential security problems that implementations such as OpenSSH have to deal with. Additionally, Conch uses the Twisted networking framework to offset the need for forking or threading, resulting in a performance boost and reducing memory usage.
Conch was developed by Paul Swartz. It is interoperable with OpenSSH. Conch can be used with Unix/Linux systems and with Microsoft Windows. It is available as part of the Twisted framework.