What Are The Risks Associated With SSH Keys?

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SSH is a powerful security tool, which protects privileged access to essential systems. However, when not properly managed, it can become a security handicap rather than an advantage. Our goal is to help you understand the underlying challenges of SSH Keys security. In this blog, we will summarize some of the risks associated with SSH.

Untrusted SSH Server

If users and administrators enable access to the SSH server on systems where it is not required, you increase your attack surface, because attackers will have a better chance of accessing distance to these systems.

Uncorrected SSH Software

For systems where the use of SSH is warranted, if the SSH server and client software are not kept up to date with patches and updates, then they can expose the systems and data and render them vulnerable.

Vulnerable SSH Configuration

Most SSH Keys server and client implementations (e.g. OpenSSH) include a large number of configuration parameters that affect operation and security, including authentication options, root access, redirection of the port, file location, etc. Fortunately, over the years, most SSH implementation developers have selected default configurations, which are the most secure. However, some default settings, such as port forwarding and the location of allowed key files, are not optimal. In addition, if your users and administrators modify these configurations arbitrarily, without considering the security implications.

SSH Port Forwarding

As it dates back to a time when encryption was not available for all protocols, SSH offers the ability to forward traffic sent to a local port on an SSH client. Traffic is transferred via the encrypted SSH session to the SSH Keys server and even beyond. The problem? This allows untrusted communications to pass through firewalls. If the user of an SSH client with SSH access to a server located on the other side of a firewall, is authorized to activate local port forwarding, it is possible that an attacker can access systems and peripherals that otherwise would not be accessible. By exploiting port forwarding, an attacker can bypass configured firewalls, in order to limit access to the server network.
Careless users:
When users are allowed to use SSH public key authentication, they can handle their private keys carelessly, placing them in insecure places, or copying them to multiple computers and not protecting them with fairly strong passwords.
Change of administrator:
when public-key authentication is used for automated processes, one or more administrators will be responsible for managing the process’s private key. They can then make copies of these private keys and, if they are reassigned or deleted, they can use them to authenticate on the target servers.

Unauthorized SSH Access

Because SSH provides remote access to systems, it is essential that access is tracked and controlled. Since many organizations do not have centralized monitoring and control of SSH, the risk of unauthorized access increases.
Foxpass’ SaaS-based LDAP implementation will save you time and your IT team a huge, ongoing headache. The Foxpass Team has spent a lot of time fine-tuning its cloud-based directory service based on the SSH key. With Foxpass, users can configure SSH keys to the appropriate resources.

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