Heads up: Brute force attacks on the rise recently

[Konstantin Svist]

On 10/28/2009 04:03 PM, Michael Cronenworth wrote:
> -Make sure your root password is not a dictionary word.
> -Add iptables rules to limit multiple connections on SSH to 4 within a
> minute.[1] Perhaps this needs to become a Fedora default.
> -Update your system.
> -Use SELinux.

Depending on situation, other measures to contain this problem:

* moving ssh to a different port (something > 1024)
   brute force scripts will usually check port 22 only - a different 
port will likely be checked only if attack is targeted

* switching to public/private key authentication
   even with a bad password, the private key is much more secure against 
a script kiddie. It helps against targeted attacks too, but can't rule 
them out.


Also, IIRC, in F10/11 SSHd is disabled by default. That could be because 
I usually use LiveCD install, though.