Moving ports does help. It is not a sure thing but when used in conjunction with other security mechanism can help get rid the of the low hanging fruit of scriptkiddies and automated scans.
It defends against the lowest level of automation. And if that is a legit threat in your model, you are going to have a bad time.
It’s just going to trip you up at some point
But scriptkiddies and automated scans are not a security threat. If they were a legitimate threat to your server, you have bigger problems.
All it does is reduce log chatter.
Anyone actually wanting in would port scan, then try and connect to each port, and quickly identify an SSH port
Imagine that the xz exploit actually made it into your server, so your sshd was vulnerable. Having it on another port does seem helpful then. In fact i sometimes think of putting mine on a random secret address in the middle of a /64 ipv6 range, but I haven’t done that yet.
it occurs to me, the xz exploit and similar is a good reason not to run the latest software. It affected Debian Sid but not the stable releases. I’m glad I only run the stable ones.
Changing ports does nothing except reduced log chatter.
Security through obscurity is not security
Moving ports does help. It is not a sure thing but when used in conjunction with other security mechanism can help get rid the of the low hanging fruit of scriptkiddies and automated scans.
Security by obscurity is no security.
It is if you are defending against automation.
It defends against the lowest level of automation. And if that is a legit threat in your model, you are going to have a bad time.
It’s just going to trip you up at some point
I’m not saying it should be your only defense. I’m saying that changing defaults is a good idea for secure systems.
For instance, you should change the default WiFi password on your router.
Yes, because a password is security
So is changing the port. It won’t do a lot in terms of security but it will help a tiny bit
But scriptkiddies and automated scans are not a security threat. If they were a legitimate threat to your server, you have bigger problems.
All it does is reduce log chatter.
Anyone actually wanting in would port scan, then try and connect to each port, and quickly identify an SSH port
Imagine that the xz exploit actually made it into your server, so your sshd was vulnerable. Having it on another port does seem helpful then. In fact i sometimes think of putting mine on a random secret address in the middle of a /64 ipv6 range, but I haven’t done that yet.
it occurs to me, the xz exploit and similar is a good reason not to run the latest software. It affected Debian Sid but not the stable releases. I’m glad I only run the stable ones.
Nope. Your entire server can be scanned in less than a second for an open ssh port.
IPv6 does not change the fact since when your server is attacked the hist IP is already known.