Ubuntu For Free » Security

SSH Denied Even Though The Keys Are Authorized

admin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:23:14 +0000

I recently had to reinstall one of my servers. It was a pain. I didn’t have the partitions correct, so I lost my web install, and I hate how Ubuntu does not let us put /etc on a separate partition because of init. I struggled for a while with being forced to enter a password when using ssh connections to the re-installed. The output of ssh -vvv user@host indicated the keys were found and authorized, so I was stumped. I asked the North Texas Linux Users Group for some assistance and the first reply pointed me in the right direction. It turns out it was caused by incorrect permissions on my ssh files. To resolve, I used

cd ~ chmod go-w .ssh .ssh/authorized_key*

The OpenSSL Vulnerability

admin — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:00:21 +0000

I recently established my network to use SSH connections. My three Ubuntu systems I discovered were using weak keys that had been generated using the flawed packages. If you haven’t been paying attention, Canonical issued USN-612-1 on 5/13/2008. If you’re using keys that have been generated since September 2006, it’s likely that you need to regenerate all keys. If you have any doubts, I encourage you to regenerate all keys. It will affect any key used that was generated on a compromised system. The biggest trouble for me was getting OpenSSL and OpenSSH-server packages to update. I used the ssh-copy-id command to make it the process easy for me.

Webmin is my new favorite admin ninja tool

admin — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:57:45 +0000

I have been struggling for some time with finding a way of properly managing my network, from a easy to use, fast interface. I’m pretty much set in stone that a web solution was what I was looking for. I found it in a tool called Webmin. You can download it from http://www.webmin.com. It’s built on PHP and allows the user to completely administer a system from remote. It has user-programmable modules, so it can be used to configure anything. I especially appreciate the Custom Commands, because it allows me to establish custom buttons that edit specific files. I’m able to use it to manage packages, shares, users, mail, files, apache, mysql, samba, and a whole lot more. To me, the best part of it is I can configure everything in a comfortable interface, from an application that suits my environment, my web browser. The list of available modules is massive! Practically one for every purpose.

Security Alert – LoCo Teams Hosting Servers Compromised

admin — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:28:46 +0000

If you’re a part of a any Ubuntu Loco Teams, you may have noticed that they’ve been down for a period. That’s because of a security breach. I encourage you to review these instructions for securing your system after the Ubuntu LoCo team hosts have been attacked.