Re: [vox-tech] ssh/telnet security question

[jdMAPSnewmil@dcn.davis.ca.us]

On Tue, 6 Feb 2001, Micah Cowan wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 06, 2001 at 03:51:14PM -0800, Henry House wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 06, 2001 at 03:43:08PM -0800, Dale Bewley wrote:
> > > If you find yourself logging in from a windows box you can get a free
> > > client called putty. Search on google.com, it works pretty well and it is
> > > just a single executable, so it's convenient.
> > 
> > There exists a similar app for Macintosh called NiftyTelnetSSH.
> > 
> > Also, some people may not know that if you run ssh-keygen, copy the resulting
> > file ~/.ssh/identity.pub to <remote host>:~/.ssh/authorized_keys, then you
> > can log in without typing in your password. May compromise security slightly,
> > but if it means that you migrate away from rcp, rsh, etc., that's still a big
> > win.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Henry House
> > OpenPGP key available from http://hajhouse.org/hajhouse.asc
> 
> Doesn't compromise security at all, unless
> 
> (a) you leave authorized_keys as world- or group- readable, or
> (b) you can't trust root (in which case, heaven help you, because root
>     can always peek into memory to find ssh's unencrypted data.
> 
> Exactly as trustworthy as the X authority keys, I believe.

... yes... if you use the same password everywhere, then once it is
cracked once, all of your accounts are cracked.  Alternatively, if you
have authorized_keys without passphrases, any one of the login passwords
gives the cracker access to all your accounts.

Of course, as long as you stay inside ssh tunnels, your passwords will be
that much harder to obtain anyway.  Just watch for excessive failed login
attempts.

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