# Netflix/bless

Repository for BLESS, an SSH Certificate Authority that runs as a AWS Lambda function

Repository: https://github.com/Netflix/bless
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/bless
Language: Python
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: security, python, aws, lambda, serverless, ssh, ssh-certificates, bastion
Last push: 2024-08-16T23:28:53+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3759, "days_push": 747, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2758, forks 229 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:18.355567+00:00)

## What it is
BLESS is an SSH Certificate Authority that runs as an AWS Lambda function and signs short-lived SSH certificates for user authentication. It lets hosts trust a single SSH CA instead of managing authorized_keys files, with access controlled via IAM policies.

## Use cases
- sign short-lived ssh certificates via aws lambda
- replace authorized_keys management with an ssh certificate authority
- secure ssh bastion access with ephemeral credentials
- restrict which iam roles can request ssh certificates
- run an ssh ca in an isolated aws account

## When to choose
- you already run BLESS or are committed to an AWS Lambda-based SSH CA
- you need short-lived SSH certificates tied to IAM roles on AWS

## When to avoid
- starting a new project - the repo is archived and unmaintained
- you want actively maintained alternatives like step-ca or AWS-native SSH access management
- you are not deploying on AWS Lambda

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: abandoned
- function: security, cryptography, auth, serverless
- domain: security, cloud-computing, developer-tools, self-hosted
- platform: cloud, python, serverless, windows
- tags: ssh-certificates, ssh-ca, aws-lambda, bastion, short-lived-credentials, archived, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- Netflix/bless (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:18.355567+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T08:18:47.680676+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Netflix/bless (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:18.355567+00:00, sha 32f50a1b3827)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.