Dangerous Settings

Despite the SSH protocol being one of the most secure protocols available today, some misconfigurations can still make the SSH server vulnerable to easy-to-execute attacks. Let us take a look at the following settings:

Setting

Description

PasswordAuthentication yes

Allows password-based authentication.

PermitEmptyPasswords yes

Allows the use of empty passwords.

PermitRootLogin yes

Allows to log in as the root user.

Protocol 1

Uses an outdated version of encryption.

X11Forwarding yes

Allows X11 forwarding for GUI applications.

AllowTcpForwarding yes

Allows forwarding of TCP ports.

PermitTunnel

Allows tunneling.

DebianBanner yes

Displays a specific banner when logging in.

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