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Re: Root password strength



On Wed, Mar 20, 2024 at 04:22:29AM +0800, jeremy ardley wrote:

> A 'safer' implementation will not even expose an ssh port. Instead there
> will be a certificate based VPN where you first need a certificate to
> connect and then you need a separate certificate to log in as root. A
> further enhancement of security is to use 2-factor authentication - which is
> supported in sshd via pam.

How will a "VPN" with a "certificate" (whatever that means in this context)
be more secure than a SSH (assuming key pair authentication, not password)?

They are doing the same dance (key exchange, key pair validation, session
key establishment) -- the "certificate" part is just a step further (and,
BTW, SSH can do that, too), which just eases key management (at the expense
of security: you have but one more moving part).

The "port" thing stays the same: the VPN server uses a TCP connection, too.

Moving the port to a non-standard number, using fail2ban, firewall knocking
and those things don't increase security *directly* -- they just remove
noise from the logs, which eases the admin's task and thus increase security
indirectly.

There's no magic.

Cheers
-- 
t

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