[PLUG] SSH in general from: Re: Pros and cons of key-pair based vs passw

I recently allowed a port for ssh (default settings) on my machine/router so a friend could try and connect to it.

Within days someone tried to log on to my machine over 30,000 times in about one hours time.

What I found surprising was that ssh by default did not recognized this rapid fire attempt to log on my machine and create some sort of delay between each attempt.

I guess all the configurations that have been written about recently help prevent such password guessing games. I guess they eliminate the idea of an unknown machine trying to log on. If possible at all, do they limit the number of times an unauthorized person can try to log on?

Having seen the attempts to log into my machine, I learned there are ways with iptables and I think ssh itself (recent discussion at a PLUG meeting) to cause it to delay some time after a few attempted logins. So that if someone tries unsuccessfully to log in say 10 times, a delay will be created to force a one minute wait time before the next attempt.

Edmond