
from /var/log/messages I see msgs like sshd[31200]: Illegal user agata sshd[31202]: Illegal user alejandro sshd[31204]: Illegal user alice sshd[31206]: Illegal user alka All from the same IP address in South Korea. What should I do? -- NSK http://portal.wikinerds.org

Hello, Am Samstag, 30. April 2005 12:17 schrieb NSK:
from /var/log/messages I see msgs like
sshd[31200]: Illegal user agata sshd[31202]: Illegal user alejandro sshd[31204]: Illegal user alice sshd[31206]: Illegal user alka
All from the same IP address in South Korea.
There are some scriptkiddies out there who try to get access via ssh. There was a thread in this list some time ago about this ("SSH attacks.", at the beginning of february) where somebody mentioned a script to block an IP after some "Illegal user" messages.
What should I do?
In general, you can ignore the messages if you have good passwords ;-) To be really sure, change SSH login to pubkey only. Regards, Christian Boltz -- ...von den vier Mitgliedern der "Nimbus Monospaced(!)"-Familie ist angeblich nur die Regular Monospaced - die anderen sind... nun ja... proportional, nur eben alle gleich proportional. =%-) [Ratti in fontlinge-devel nach Auslesen der "monospaced"-Infos]

NSK wrote:
from /var/log/messages I see msgs like
sshd[31200]: Illegal user agata sshd[31202]: Illegal user alejandro sshd[31204]: Illegal user alice sshd[31206]: Illegal user alka
All from the same IP address in South Korea.
What should I do?
Peoñle trying to enter in your system with this user. This week, in a customer, I have a lot of bad password for user root, and after three or four days, the got the password and enter, trying and trying.!!! But in my case, was only a amateur, only change the password for root, and the logins was only for 1 minute!

The Saturday 2005-04-30 at 09:41 -0400, Hipolito A. Gonzalez M. wrote:
This week, in a customer, I have a lot of bad password for user root, and after three or four days, the got the password and enter, trying and trying.!!! But in my case, was only a amateur, only change the password for root, and the logins was only for 1 minute!
That could be enough, he could have installed a back door in that time. Root should not be allowed to login remotely. If they know a user name, it's just a question of launching a dictionary attack till they find the password. In time, they get it. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson

Hi,
All from the same IP address in South Korea. What should I do?
Change the port of sshd. Putty and ssh accept arbitrary ports, so if you change to port 55522 (for example) you can still use it. This helps against exploits also a little bit, as most portscans concentrate on well-known services. These kids only check port 22, but for weeks :-(, trying my systems month ago. Ciao, Dieter

Generally you can ignore these. If you're using iptables, you can use swatch to add DROP entries to your INPUT chain -- this was discussed a while back on this list. Or, you could look into using tcpwrappers with sshd. A way to improve security is to not allow root logins through ssh. To obtain root access, you'd login with your normal account and "sudo su -". To change this default behavior to be more secure, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change: #PermitRootLogin yes to PermitRootLogin no Cheers, rayc NSK <nsk3@wikinerds.org> 04/30/2005 06:17 AM To suse-security@suse.com cc Subject [suse-security] Illegal user? from /var/log/messages I see msgs like sshd[31200]: Illegal user agata sshd[31202]: Illegal user alejandro sshd[31204]: Illegal user alice sshd[31206]: Illegal user alka All from the same IP address in South Korea. What should I do? -- NSK http://portal.wikinerds.org -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands, e-mail: suse-security-help@suse.com Security-related bug reports go to security@suse.de, not here
participants (6)
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Carlos E. R.
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Christian Boltz
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Dieter Kirchner
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Hipolito A. Gonzalez M.
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NSK
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R.Cielencki@neu.edu