Re: Password scan

"Nico" <nkadel@xxxxxxxxx> (06-12-23 23:08:08):

Bad idea. If you need to login to a normal user first, and then
issue su/sudo to become root, an attacker can easily guess the
length of the root password, by nothing more than counting packets.
When using key-based authentication, better login to root directly.

That has its own dangers. There are numerous reasons to force non-root
login first, but the main reason is tracking: which of the authorized
root users on a system logged in and blew up the system at 4:00 AM
last night? It also makes it easier to cut off one inappropriate or
expired user than to expire the root passwords on all machines that
user has root access to.

On the other hand, if root wipes all data, you can't track anything
anyway, other than on an external logging server, which is shut tight.
If so, you can simply log, which public key has been used for that
particular session. No need for an intermediate login here.


Regards,
E.S.
.

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