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Digital Ocean ssh key authentication security risk -- password authentication is re-enabled

Regarding digitalocean.com cloud computing. PasswordAuthentication is reset to yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config when using ssh key authentication given the following scenario: When creating a new droplet from a snapshot where ssh key authentication "PasswordAuthentication" in /etc/ssh/sshd_config was previosly set to no, "PasswordAuthentication" is reset to yes. I am not sure how common this scenario is but for me I often create a base snapshot that is pre-configured with firewall settings, sudo user, ssh key authentication, various apps, hardening etc. that I can then use when spinning up a new server so I don't have to start from scratch. By doing this I was unaware that PasswordAuthentication was automatically re-enabled and that these servers were no longer secure via ssh key authentication only, leaving them open to Brute Force attacks. Steps to reproduce: Tested using an Ubuntu 16.04 droplet image 1. Create a new Ubuntu 16.04 droplet and secure it using ssh key authentication 2. Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set PasswordAuthentication no 3. Reload ssh 4. Verify that you can log in using key authentication only, trying via password should be rejected. 5. Create a snapshot of this droplet 6. Create a new droplet from this snapshot 7. Open /etc/ssh/sshd_config and PasswordAuthentication will be reset to yes You will now be able to log in via ssh using passwords instead of key authentication only. _______________________________________________ Sent through the Full Disclosure mailing list https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/fulldisclosure Web Archives & RSS: http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/

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