in category:SysAdmin program:OpenSSH process:Config ~ read.

Secure SSH Settings

So sshd wasn’t set up on my new Jessie netinstall, so I decided to start it up:

$> sudo service ssh start

I also learned that if openssh isn’t installed on the system, that won’t do anything. So I installed the Debian metapackage openssh, and knew that it would start now. But then again, let’s take this opportunity to learn systemd. There’s a great cheatsheet put out by the Fedora project that compares sysvinit commands and transposes them to systemd commands. So, to get sshd started I executed:

$> sudo systemctl start sshd

Cool. But now, we have to secure our ssh/ implementation and augment the paltry defaults that it ships with.

The crypto

Key exchange

Read the link above if you’re interested in the reasoning behind what comes next. Otherwise, implement the next few things to follow.

In /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256

In /etc/ssh/ssh_config:

# Github needs diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1 some of the time but not
# always. 
#Host github.com
#   KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1
 
Host *
    KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256

For /etc/ssh/moduli if it exists:

$> awk '$5 > 2000' /etc/ssh/moduli > "${HOME}"/moduli"
$> wc -l "${HOME}/moduli"
$> mv "${HOME}/moduli" /etc/ssh/moduli

If it doesn’t:

$> ssh-keygen -G "${HOME}/moduli" -b 4096
$> ssh-keygen -T /etc/ssh/moduli -f "${HOME}/moduli"
$> rm "${HOME}/moduli"

Authentication

In /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

Protocol 2

HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

PasswordAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

PubkeyAuthentication yes

AllowGroups ssh-user

In /etc/ssh/ssh_config:

Host *
    PasswordAuthentication no
    ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

    PubkeyAuthentication yes
    HostKeyAlgorithms ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-rsa-cert-v1@openssh.com,ssh-rsa-cert-v00@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519,ssh-rsa

To clean out any old short insecure keys:

$> cd /etc/ssh
$> rm ssh_host_*key*
$> ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ssh_host_ed25519_key < /dev/null
$> ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f ssh_host_rsa_key < /dev/null

To generate new keys:

$> ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -o -a 100
$> ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -o -a 100

By the way, the -o switch:

Causes ssh-keygen to save SSH ‘Protocol 2’ private keys using the new OpenSSH format rather than the more compatible PEM format. The new format has incereased resistance to brute-force password cracking but is not supported by versions of OpenSSH prior to 6.5. Ed25519 keys always use the new private key format.

To add group ssh-user:

$> sudo groupadd ssh-user
$> usermod -a -G ssh-user *username*

Symmetric ciphers for data transmission encryption

In /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
MACs hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-ripemd160,umac-128@openssh.com

In /etc/ssh/ssh_config:

Host *
    Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr
    MACs hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-ripemd160-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha2-256,hmac-ripemd160,umac-128@openssh.com

Conclusion

There are many unorthodox/ ways and many sidechannels/ by which someone can compromise your data transmisson security/integrity. These defaults however provide a solid foundation of security when it comes to ssh. There is much much more to come however.