How to further lock down ssh public key authentication

[moonpup]

Hi eveyone,

Here's a link that admins may find very beneficial when using ssh public key authentication. I was not aware of these options as I only recently came across them when my job required me to figure out a way to restrict access.

Basically you can create ssh keys, to only perform a specific task (beneficial to scripting) and immediately log out, to limiting key authentication from specific hosts, to not opening a shell etc... Give it a read and I'm pretty sure you will find it enlightening and useful!

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/sec_shell_2.html

[kevdog]

Might want to check out the tool fwknop and read about port knockers (fwknop is a single packet port knocker authentication program) if you really want to harden your ssh application. Use of a firewall will also harden the application.