Installing SSHblock

My adventure with my new server continues. This morning, i tried to set up SSHblock which can be used to block users who are abusing the SSH protocol and tried to brute force and gained access to the server.

It's really simple to configure SSHblock since the installation script has done it for you and all you have to do is read the instructions and or warning that came out and fix that and re-run the script again. Even though the script couldn't find the path used in Slackware, but it seems that it will finally place the rc scripts to /etc/rc.d/, which is the correct place in Slackware. That's awesome.

Since it's a PERL scripts, it requires other CPAN module. SSHblock only requires SWATCH to be installed, but SWATCH itself requires 4 modules to be installed:

• Date::Calc
• Date::Parse
• Date::Manip
• File::Tail

Don't forget to install iptables as well since it will be used to block the IP addresses who tried to enter our server.

OpenSSH 5.4 Released

OpenSSH 5.4 has been released today and this is a major upgrade. It will be listed on several mirrors shortly, so it's better to wait for local mirror to catch up with the update.

This version will disable SSH Protocol 1 by default, so if you are still using it (it's a bad decision), you will have to enable it explicitly on your sshd_config configuration file. Another protection is all SSH Protocol 2 private keys will be protected by AES-128 instead of 3DES algorithm. You can get this when updating your passphrase or creating new keys.

Read the full announcement and visit the official website to get it.

Automate Remote Login

Most Linux users are familiar with ssh. They used it frequently to do remote login to other machines in which they have access. The problem with the default ssh configuration is that you must type your password everytime you wanted to login. It can be counted as a good security measures, but in the other hand, sometimes it's annoying to write the same password everytime. Would it be a good idea if we can automate remote login?

The answer lies in the hand of ssh-agent. How do you do that? Read the detailed HOWTO on this article by WebMonkey