Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security?
From: <c0redump () ackers org uk>
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:47:43 +0100
Hi.Previous versions of OpenSSH were vulnerable to timing attacks. I'm not aware of what version you're running but I'd put my money on that. I too watch the kiddies attempting brute force attempts on our SSHD, however, up until now, these have been pretty dumb tools based on a word list as far as I can see.
http://www.security.nnov.ru/docs4475.html may be of some interest to you, also, google "OpenSSH timing attacks".
- c0redump----- Original Message ----- From: Brett Glass
To: bugtraq () securityfocus com Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 5:31 AM Subject: Strengthen OpenSSH security? I'm sure that most folks with hosts that expose an OpenSSH daemon to the Internet have been getting the usual probes and password guessing attempts and have been taking appropriate actions (e.g. setting AllowUsers and using strong passwords) to protect yourselves. But today, on one of my servers, I noticed a new trend: the attackers are getting smarter. Apparently, they can tell the difference between a user ID which is not named in an AllowUsers directive -- or which does not exist at all -- from one for which they just haven't guessed the correct password. I've now watched as some attackers (but not all... yet) tried various user IDs, noted which ones existed and were in AllowUsers, and focused password guessing attacks on just those user IDs. It seems to me that sshd should not tip its hand by returning different responses when a user ID can be used for logins than when it can't -- allowing an attacker to focus password guessing attacks on user IDs with which it would have a chance of gaining access. For those folks out there who are more familiar with OpenSSH than I am: How hard would it be to make the responses indistinguishable?--Brett Glass
Current thread:
- Strengthen OpenSSH security? Brett Glass (Apr 19)
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? Mike Hoskins (Apr 20)
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? Carson Gaspar (Apr 20)
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? Theo de Raadt (Apr 21)
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? Kd (Apr 20)
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? MaddHatter (Apr 20)
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? Damien Miller (Apr 20)
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? c0redump (Apr 20)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Strengthen OpenSSH security? Bob Goodman (Apr 23)