diff --git a/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.test.ts b/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.test.ts
index e5ba2812725ea..a306bec5ca1a9 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.test.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.test.ts
@@ -166,6 +166,15 @@ test('normalizeSshConfig rejects unsafe remote profile mappings', () => {
     mode: 'ssh',
     host: 'box'
   })
+  assert.deepEqual(normalizeSshConfig({ mode: 'ssh', host: 'box', remoteProfile: 'root' }), {
+    mode: 'ssh',
+    host: 'box'
+  })
+  assert.deepEqual(normalizeSshConfig({ mode: 'ssh', host: 'box', remoteProfile: 'default' }), {
+    mode: 'ssh',
+    host: 'box',
+    remoteProfile: 'default'
+  })
 })
 
 test('normalizeSshConfig handles IPv6 and strict port bounds', () => {
diff --git a/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.ts b/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.ts
index 7cbf9c911a636..4644008d48767 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/electron/connection-config.ts
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ const RT_COOKIE_VARIANTS = ['__Host-hermes_session_rt', '__Secure-hermes_session
 // cookies above. `privy-token` is the access token (the required signal);
 // variants cover the secured-prefix forms and the older `privy-session` name.
 const PRIVY_SESSION_COOKIE_VARIANTS = ['__Host-privy-token', '__Secure-privy-token', 'privy-token', 'privy-session']
+// Keep this aligned with hermes_cli.profiles.validate_profile_name(). `default`
+// is the built-in root alias; these names cannot be created as profiles.
+const RESERVED_REMOTE_PROFILES = new Set(['hermes', 'test', 'tmp', 'root', 'sudo'])
 
 function normalizeRemoteBaseUrl(rawUrl) {
   let value = String(rawUrl || '').trim()
@@ -287,7 +290,7 @@ function normalizeSshConfig(entry) {
   // historical same-name behavior in the caller.
   const remoteProfile = String(entry.remoteProfile || '').trim()
 
-  if (/^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]{0,63}$/.test(remoteProfile)) {
+  if (/^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]{0,63}$/.test(remoteProfile) && !RESERVED_REMOTE_PROFILES.has(remoteProfile)) {
     out.remoteProfile = remoteProfile
   }