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Old 13th June 2015
Peter_APIIT Peter_APIIT is offline
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Default Prevent Brute Force Attack on Root Account

Dear All,

How to set up login attempt for root account? Thanks.
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Old 13th June 2015
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jggimi jggimi is offline
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Your question is unclear. I shall guess that you are asking us, "How do I prevent SSH password attacks against the root account?"

If that is your question, then just disable root login via SSH. You do this via the sshd_config(5) setting: PermitRootLogin no. The default has historically been PermitRootLogin yes, to simplify remote provisioning of new installations, with the best practice of the admin setting the option to no after installation has completed. For 5.8, the default will be no.

Though this is outside the scope of your question as I understand it, you can also disable passwords as an authentication mechanism, so that passwords cannot be used to log on at all. This is done via the sshd_config(5) setting PasswordAuthentication no. Alternative, and better authentication mechanisms, such as public keys, would be required when passwords cannot be used.
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Old 13th June 2015
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There's also a pf method to lock out ssh from an IP after a certain amount of attacks.

http://home.nuug.no/~peter/pf/en/bruteforce.html
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Old 13th June 2015
Peter_APIIT Peter_APIIT is offline
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Sorry to tell you all that my question is not clear.

How to set up login attempt for root account via local and not SSH since I don't have sshd running?

For instance, a user had su more than 3 times, then it is disable to login again for several hours until the lock had released.

Thanks.
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Old 13th June 2015
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jggimi jggimi is offline
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To prevent local root login, you must disable local login by root. This is done via removing the secure option on all local tty records in ttys(5).

However, please note that physical access introduced many additional risks that you must consider, which have nothing to do with passwords. Keep in mind, any data on the system which is unencrypted is accessible to any attacker with physical access.
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Old 13th June 2015
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Peter, physical access to a computer provides many ways an attacker can gain access to your data. As an example, OpenBSD FAQ 8.1 discusses how to reset the root password when it is unknown. Anyone with physical access to the system can use this method to "become" root or change the root password.

While there are mitigation techniques discussed in that FAQ entry, such as forcing a root password to be used to boot into single-user mode, nothing prevents access to data stored in unencrypted form. But even encryption doesn't eliminate the problem, it only mitigates it. There is an entire class of physical access attacks, Evil Maid Attacks, which attack users of encrypted storage media.

I encrypt the /home partition on an OpenBSD netbook I travel with. And my $DAYJOB laptop has full disk encryption by corporate policy. But neither of these encryption schemes protect me from Evil Maid attacks -- they only protect data stored on a powered-down netbook or laptop if lost or stolen. And, if the devices happen to be powered up and running when lost or stolen, disk encryption is less protective.
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Old 18th June 2015
Peter_APIIT Peter_APIIT is offline
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Thanks for the information. I had removed the secure keywords from /etc/ttys. Thanks.

Questions:
1. How to permit the root login on certain time only?
For instance, allow root login between 9AM to 9.30AM only.

2. How to prevent user from local net login to OpenBSD box?

Last edited by Peter_APIIT; 18th June 2015 at 07:31 AM.
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Old 18th June 2015
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_APIIT View Post
1. How to permit the root login on certain time only?
For instance, allow root login between 9AM to 9.30AM only.
You would have to write shell scripts that make the appropriate provisioning changes to ttys(5) and send a SIGHUP to init(8) to initiate getty(8) changes, with timing managed via cron(8)/crontab(5). You would be responsible for designing, testing, and implementing this yourself. And, you would be responsible for support, such as managing a situation where you have locked yourself out of your own system.

The OS has plenty of weapons that you can use to shoot yourself in the foot.
Quote:
2. How to prevent user from local net login to OpenBSD box?
You stated you do not have sshd(8) running. If that is still true, there is no network originated shell access on OpenBSD.
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Old 20th June 2015
Peter_APIIT Peter_APIIT is offline
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Thanks.
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