ADMINISTERIA
Massively improve your SSH login security
Passwords are so last century proclaims Stuart Burns! Using public keys and a couple of tweaks makes for a far more secure login.
SH keys can ease admin burdens, so we’re going to explain how to configure OpenSSH to S require SSH keys for login, tightening system security considerably, as well as enforce login via key only (as opposed to allowing keys or passwords) and how to disable root login via SSH (script kiddies love to scan for these and brute force them).
Root login using username and password will still work at the physical console (and out-of-band consoles). If an attacker has access to the console, it’s trivial to reboot and reset the password anyhow.
Linux systems administrators can bolster the security of their servers quite easily, guarding from low-level attacks by forcing all SSH logins to use SSH keys for a secure login. To be clear, we are only discussing SSH logins, not app logins and so on.