Disable root login to SSH

9Nov/091

Allowing root logins to your SSH damon is a big security threat. If the SSH port is open, hackers will probably at some time attempt to brute force your root password. It's a good idea to disable root logins to SSH and instead use a normal user to login and type "su -" to enter the super user shell or sudo to perform tasks that require root privileges.

1. Open the SSH daemon config file and change this line: (pico /etc/ssh/sshd_config)

PermitRootLogin no

2. Restart the SSH daemon

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

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Tagged as: Security, ssh Leave a comment

Comments (1) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Norbert
November 10th, 2009 - 15:54

I prefer to permit only key authentication for root login:
PermitRootLogin without-password

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