On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 2:42 AM Giovanni Mascellani <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Il 23/12/19 22:40, Carl Karsten ha scritto:
> > 3. Box P is a publicly accessible box that has videoteam's public key in
> > authorized_keys, so it can accept an ssh connection from box A and
> > forward P's 1234 port back to A's any port (like 22.)  This should not
> > put P at more risk than S.  even if someone make A's private key
> > public.  yes?
> >
> > OK, so allowing someone shell access to a box does increase the risk, we
> > don't need a shell, lets not do that.  /etc/passwd .. shell=/bin/false
> > or /sbin/nologin takes care of that.
> >
> > shell=/bin/false (which does allow the sidedoor connection)  - when I
> > connect, I see the MOTD banner, which makes me fidget.
>
> I don't think setting the shell is enough: when you connect via SSH you
> can override the shell and execute an arbitrary command. I think you
> need to disable everything you can disable in authorized_keys (see the
> man page, particularly the "restrict", "command" and "permitlisten"
> options). In particular, I would set "command" to something like
> /bin/false, in addition to setting the user shell.
>

man authorized_keys leads me to believe this is better:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config
 ForceCommand /bin/false

I like it because it is an easier file to edit.  sound good?


> With all these things set, then I believe that the account is
> sufficiently locked down, and the only thing an attacker with the
> private key can do is to steal all your ports, which is annoying but
> does not entail permanent modifications on the system.
>
> Periodically rotating the secret key and disabling it when it is not
> needed might be a good idea anyway. And, of course, better to keep the
> box well updated.
>
> Giovanni.
> --
> Giovanni Mascellani <[email protected]>
> Postdoc researcher - Université Libre de Bruxelles
>
>

-- 
Carl K

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