diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.section.md
index b65cab992253..2b0f44a04e44 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.section.md
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/development/running-nixos-tests-interactively.section.md
@@ -63,6 +63,35 @@ using:
 Once the connection is established, you can enter commands in the socat terminal
 where socat is running.
 
+## SSH Access for test machines {#sec-nixos-test-ssh-access}
+
+An SSH-based backdoor to log into machines can be enabled with
+
+```nix
+{
+  name = "…";
+  nodes.machines = { /* … */ };
+  sshBackdoor.enable = true;
+}
+```
+
+This creates a [vsock socket](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/vsock.7.html)
+for each VM to log in with SSH. This configures root login with an empty password.
+
+When the VMs get started interactively with the test-driver, it's possible to
+connect to `machine` with
+
+```
+$ ssh vsock/3 -o User=root
+```
+
+The socket numbers correspond to the node number of the test VM, but start
+at three instead of one because that's the lowest possible
+vsock number.
+
+On non-NixOS systems you'll probably need to enable
+the SSH config from {manpage}`systemd-ssh-proxy(1)` yourself.
+
 ## Port forwarding to NixOS test VMs {#sec-nixos-test-port-forwarding}
 
 If your test has only a single VM, you may use e.g.
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/redirects.json b/nixos/doc/manual/redirects.json
index db5b429416c6..2c9b0242e9e8 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/redirects.json
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/redirects.json
@@ -1823,6 +1823,9 @@
   "sec-test-options-reference": [
     "index.html#sec-test-options-reference"
   ],
+  "test-opt-sshBackdoor.enable": [
+    "index.html#test-opt-sshBackdoor.enable"
+  ],
   "test-opt-defaults": [
     "index.html#test-opt-defaults"
   ],
@@ -1910,6 +1913,9 @@
   "sec-nixos-test-shell-access": [
     "index.html#sec-nixos-test-shell-access"
   ],
+  "sec-nixos-test-ssh-access": [
+    "index.html#sec-nixos-test-ssh-access"
+  ],
   "sec-nixos-test-port-forwarding": [
     "index.html#sec-nixos-test-port-forwarding"
   ],
diff --git a/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/__init__.py b/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/__init__.py
index 26d8391017e8..ff6922e5b90e 100755
--- a/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/__init__.py
+++ b/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/__init__.py
@@ -109,6 +109,11 @@ def main() -> None:
         help="the test script to run",
         type=Path,
     )
+    arg_parser.add_argument(
+        "--dump-vsocks",
+        help="indicates that the interactive SSH backdoor is active and dumps information about it on start",
+        action="store_true",
+    )
 
     args = arg_parser.parse_args()
 
@@ -136,6 +141,8 @@ def main() -> None:
         if args.interactive:
             history_dir = os.getcwd()
             history_path = os.path.join(history_dir, ".nixos-test-history")
+            if args.dump_vsocks:
+                driver.dump_machine_ssh()
             ptpython.ipython.embed(
                 user_ns=driver.test_symbols(),
                 history_filename=history_path,
diff --git a/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/driver.py b/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/driver.py
index 49b6692bf422..e65c6c5ba511 100644
--- a/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/driver.py
+++ b/nixos/lib/test-driver/src/test_driver/driver.py
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any
 from unittest import TestCase
 
+from colorama import Style
+
 from test_driver.errors import MachineError, RequestedAssertionFailed
 from test_driver.logger import AbstractLogger
 from test_driver.machine import Machine, NixStartScript, retry
@@ -176,6 +178,19 @@ class Driver:
         )
         return {**general_symbols, **machine_symbols, **vlan_symbols}
 
+    def dump_machine_ssh(self) -> None:
+        print("SSH backdoor enabled, the machines can be accessed like this:")
+        print(
+            f"{Style.BRIGHT}Note:{Style.RESET_ALL} this requires {Style.BRIGHT}systemd-ssh-proxy(1){Style.RESET_ALL} to be enabled (default on NixOS 25.05 and newer)."
+        )
+        names = [machine.name for machine in self.machines]
+        longest_name = len(max(names, key=len))
+        for num, name in enumerate(names, start=3):
+            spaces = " " * (longest_name - len(name) + 2)
+            print(
+                f"    {name}:{spaces}{Style.BRIGHT}ssh -o User=root vsock/{num}{Style.RESET_ALL}"
+            )
+
     def test_script(self) -> None:
         """Run the test script"""
         with self.logger.nested("run the VM test script"):
diff --git a/nixos/lib/testing-python.nix b/nixos/lib/testing-python.nix
index d01c1d9b5e09..878f9669321a 100644
--- a/nixos/lib/testing-python.nix
+++ b/nixos/lib/testing-python.nix
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ pkgs.lib.throwIf (args ? specialArgs)
           ),
         extraPythonPackages ? (_: [ ]),
         interactive ? { },
+        sshBackdoor ? { },
       }@t:
       let
         testConfig =
diff --git a/nixos/lib/testing/nodes.nix b/nixos/lib/testing/nodes.nix
index caefac6c748c..38b32dbb6701 100644
--- a/nixos/lib/testing/nodes.nix
+++ b/nixos/lib/testing/nodes.nix
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ let
     mapAttrs
     mkDefault
     mkIf
+    mkMerge
     mkOption
     mkForce
     optional
@@ -77,6 +78,14 @@ in
 {
 
   options = {
+    sshBackdoor = {
+      enable = mkOption {
+        default = false;
+        type = types.bool;
+        description = "Whether to turn on the VSOCK-based access to all VMs. This provides an unauthenticated access intended for debugging.";
+      };
+    };
+
     node.type = mkOption {
       type = types.raw;
       default = baseOS.type;
@@ -172,10 +181,19 @@ in
 
     passthru.nodes = config.nodesCompat;
 
-    defaults = mkIf config.node.pkgsReadOnly {
-      nixpkgs.pkgs = config.node.pkgs;
-      imports = [ ../../modules/misc/nixpkgs/read-only.nix ];
-    };
+    extraDriverArgs = mkIf config.sshBackdoor.enable [
+      "--dump-vsocks"
+    ];
+
+    defaults = mkMerge [
+      (mkIf config.node.pkgsReadOnly {
+        nixpkgs.pkgs = config.node.pkgs;
+        imports = [ ../../modules/misc/nixpkgs/read-only.nix ];
+      })
+      (mkIf config.sshBackdoor.enable {
+        testing.sshBackdoor.enable = true;
+      })
+    ];
 
   };
 }
diff --git a/nixos/modules/testing/test-instrumentation.nix b/nixos/modules/testing/test-instrumentation.nix
index 49594964ed5f..8ace4ab30abf 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/testing/test-instrumentation.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/testing/test-instrumentation.nix
@@ -87,6 +87,10 @@ in
       machine.switch_root() to leave stage 1 and proceed to stage 2
     '';
 
+    sshBackdoor = {
+      enable = mkEnableOption "vsock-based ssh backdoor for the VM";
+    };
+
   };
 
   config = {
@@ -100,6 +104,18 @@ in
       }
     ];
 
+    services.openssh = mkIf config.testing.sshBackdoor.enable {
+      enable = true;
+      settings = {
+        PermitRootLogin = "yes";
+        PermitEmptyPasswords = "yes";
+      };
+    };
+
+    security.pam.services.sshd = mkIf config.testing.sshBackdoor.enable {
+      allowNullPassword = true;
+    };
+
     systemd.services.backdoor = lib.mkMerge [
       backdoorService
       {
@@ -175,6 +191,10 @@ in
         #       we avoid defining attributes if not possible.
         # TODO: refactor such that test-instrumentation can import qemu-vm
         package = lib.mkDefault pkgs.qemu_test;
+
+        options = mkIf config.testing.sshBackdoor.enable [
+          "-device vhost-vsock-pci,guest-cid=${toString (config.virtualisation.test.nodeNumber + 2)}"
+        ];
       };
     };