[NTLUG:Discuss] ssh keys

[Kevin Brannen]

MadHat wrote:

> On Mar 3, 2005, at 7:14 PM, Kevin Brannen wrote:
>
>> ...
>>
>> The way I"ve avoided this in the past is to put the authorized_keys2 
>> file in place when the machine was built, i.e. it's part of the 
>> initial image I "ghost'd" (actually I used "dd" but same concept).  
>> If that is done for root, you can automate all other additions (as 
>> root can do anything. :-)  From there you can do stuff like:
>
>
> ssh as root?  That is bad.  Have an automation account with limited 
> sudo access, specifically to run one or two commands.  Then you have 
> that account already installed on the ghost image, or added as part of 
> the install process.  The sudo access would be to add packages, for 
> instance, then you could have the user accounts as packages, like as 
> an RPM.  only allow the automation account to rum rpm passwordless via 
> sudo. then you when you run 'ssh host "sudo rpm -i 
> http://central.server/user.rpm"' the user's credentials and ssh keys 
> are installed.
>
> I just don't like the idea of having ssh as root enabled anywhere.   I 
> don't even know the root password on a machine or 2 I admin.  no 
> reason to.
>
...

Depends on your situation.  There are places (like if the machine is 
visible to the 'Net) that I wouldn't think of that much less allow that 
either.  But in the case sited, it was on a set of developers machines 
that sat on a non-public routable subnet (10.x.x.x), and behind at least 
1 Firewall (I think there were actually 2 between us and the outside 
world).  I felt quite safe ssh'ing as root in that situation.  Also, 
there were times I was extremely busy, so any little helps like this to 
admin that set of machines I viewed as good.

YThoughtsMV... :-)

Kevin