Package: openssh-server
Version: 1:5.1p1-5

OS: Debian Lenny x86_64

Problem:

SSH Servers are permanently attacked by brute-force attackers. This obviously 
doesn't harm
our security, as we are using only dsa key authentication. sshd_config is only 
altered in
one line: PasswordAuthentication No . All other content in sshd_config is left 
as suggested
by the package maintainer.

I've recently noticed the ssh service on some 40 servers are giving "Invalid 
Service Response"
to our heartbeat monitor. This error is given, if a TCP Handshake is successful 
but closed without
any protocol handshake. After a few 10 minutes, the ssh service recovers back 
to normal.
After looking further, I've noticed this behavior on aggressive brute-force. 
Adding a fail2ban
on ssh did not really solve this issue.
Monitoring some switches, I've noticed the attacker was walking through some of 
our subnets, also
attacking machines running similar setup, but with RHEL5, Centos4, Solaris9 + 
10. The only ssh services
which went down during attack were running on Debian Lenny x86_64.




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Senior System Administrator

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