Re: [CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-13 Thread Lamar Owen
On Tuesday, October 12, 2010 06:56:27 pm Phil Schaffner wrote:
 Ryan Manikowski wrote on 10/11/2010 07:49 PM:
  http://dotancohen.com/howto/portknocking.html

 Somehow I suspect the OP may have seen that one. :-D

Yeah, nothing quite like being directed to a howto you wrote yourself (getting 
flattered and insulted at the same time!) I can remember a few cases of 
that, back when I was maintaining the PostgreSQL RPM set (and its README for 
the rpm packaging) and would post advice to folks about the way the RPM's work, 
and then get private e-mail back pointing me to my own README. and, 
honestly, there was once that the advice I gave in the post and the advice I 
gave in the README was different, and I corrected the README for the next 
release.

As to the ssh business, if a full nmap scan doesn't see things differently, and 
the ssh connections are still working properly from clients, I would have no 
idea how that could be accomplished on the host itself (barring an IDS), other 
than perhaps a hosts.allow or hosts.deny difference, assuming that's set up for 
sshd.  The first thing I would think of otherwise is to check to make sure the 
selinux policy is set for the sshd to actually bind the port, but if that's the 
problem, ssh connections aren't going to work at all.

That is, if the ssh client can connect so can nmap, unless you're doing 
something proactive and IDS-like (perhaps a PacketFence in the line, or similar 
automatic intrusion detection mechanism activating for one server but not the 
other).  Even a small Cisco router with the IDS feature set can do this sort of 
thing on a port-by-port basis, so the nmap scan might be getting blocked that 
way.  That fact should be logged somewhere if that's the case.

With Dotan's background and experience, and the statement about iptables being 
turned off, I would make an educated assumption that there is another firewall 
somewhere to let iptables be turned off temporarily for testing; perhaps that 
firewall is not set up to pass both of the ports?  

These days one can't assume that the network is transparent, even between 
switch ports (packet-level ACLs on the data plane have been available in 
switches for 12 years or more; I have some Cisco Catalyst 8540 hardware that 
does data plane ACL's in hardware, and they're that old).  And with VLAN ACL's 
and deep inspection firewalling being available even in a transparent bridging 
mode (Linux Journal ran a series not long ago about a transparent bridging 
Linux firewall using, IIRC, OpenWRT on a Linksys) even layer 2 adjacency is no 
guarantee of transparency.

Then I'd look to make sure the ssh client's outgoing access is allowed on both 
ports (while that sounds obvious, it's time to check the obvious, it sounds 
like).  Run the client in debug mode and see what it spits out; also use a 
port-configurable tcp-using traceroute equivalent on both port numbers to see 
where blockages might be happening.

When things get this paranoid, my experience has been that fat-fingered port 
numbers and/or IP addresses and/or access-list numbers or names are the typical 
culprits in broken connectivity.  At least those have been my areas of 
mysterious network non-transparency, typically.

Dotan, can you share the nmap command-line you're using with the IP range 
sanitized?
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Re: [CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-12 Thread Sean Hart

 Just disable password authentication on ssh and use only keyfiles ..

 --
My initial thought exactly.  Keys, and require passwords on the keys 
too.  Although if you want to be wicked paranoid, knocking + keys would 
work too.

~Sean
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Re: [CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-12 Thread Phil Schaffner
Ryan Manikowski wrote on 10/11/2010 07:49 PM:
...
 One method to obscure the presence of the ssh daemon would be to use
 port knocking:
 
 http://dotancohen.com/howto/portknocking.html

Somehow I suspect the OP may have seen that one. :-D

Phil
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[CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-11 Thread Dotan Cohen
I have two CentOS servers running SSH on two different non-standard
ports. So far as I can tell, they have identical /etc/ssh/sshd_config
files with the exception of the different port (both are 22xx).
However, when running nmap on them, one betrays the port that SSH is
running on, and the other does not. I have shut down iptables on both
machines and the behaviour remains this way. What could be the cause?
Specifically, how can I hide the port that SSH is running on?

I'm sorry that I cannot provide the IP addresses, the owner of the
servers doesn't want that! I also know how silly it is to do stealth
ports but I'm not the one making the decision!

Thanks!

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: [CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-11 Thread Gordon Messmer
On 10/11/2010 04:21 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
 However, when running nmap on them, one betrays the port that SSH is
 running on, and the other does not. I have shut down iptables on both
 machines and the behaviour remains this way. What could be the cause?

You're probably not running a full port scan with nmap.  One of the 
systems is using a port that nmap includes in its quick scan set, and 
the other does not.

 Specifically, how can I hide the port that SSH is running on?

You can't.  If that port is open, a full nmap scan will reveal it.
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Re: [CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-11 Thread Joseph L. Casale
However, when running nmap on them, one betrays the port that SSH is running 
on, and the other does not.

What does betray mean?

I have shut down iptables on both machines and the behaviour remains this way. 
What could be the cause?

Public facing machines w/ iptables off?

Specifically, how can I hide the port that SSH is running on?

So if you want it hidden, you want it not to accept connections from other 
machines?
#iptables -L

See what's allowed, then if you're not iptable savvy, install/run 
system-config-security.
Then do not permit connections to that port, unless you provide more info, like 
do you
Have internal trusted interfaces etc, you will be locked out.

I'm sorry that I cannot provide the IP addresses, the owner of the servers 
doesn't want that! I also know how silly it is to do stealth
ports but I'm not the one making the decision!

Probably good thing you haven't exposed a possibly bad config.
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Re: [CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-11 Thread Ryan Manikowski
 On 10/11/2010 7:44 PM, Joseph L. Casale wrote:

 Specifically, how can I hide the port that SSH is running on?
 I'm sorry that I cannot provide the IP addresses, the owner of the servers 
 doesn't want that! I also know how silly it is to do stealth
 ports but I'm not the one making the decision!

One method to obscure the presence of the ssh daemon would be to use
port knocking:

http://dotancohen.com/howto/portknocking.html


Honestly (and this is mere opinion), the other person (who wants to hide
ssh-the owner) is being paranoid. Use strong passwords, run ssh on an
alternate port, don't expose unneeded services to the outside world, and
install something like fail2ban to block ssh attackers.

If they need higher security then set up openvpn.

-- 
 Ryan Manikowski

 r...@devision.us | 716.771.2282

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Re: [CentOS] One server not showing SSH port, the other is.

2010-10-11 Thread Eero Volotinen
2010/10/12 Ryan Manikowski jee...@gmail.com:
  On 10/11/2010 7:44 PM, Joseph L. Casale wrote:

 Specifically, how can I hide the port that SSH is running on?
 I'm sorry that I cannot provide the IP addresses, the owner of the servers 
 doesn't want that! I also know how silly it is to do stealth
 ports but I'm not the one making the decision!

 One method to obscure the presence of the ssh daemon would be to use
 port knocking:

 http://dotancohen.com/howto/portknocking.html


 Honestly (and this is mere opinion), the other person (who wants to hide
 ssh-the owner) is being paranoid. Use strong passwords, run ssh on an
 alternate port, don't expose unneeded services to the outside world, and
 install something like fail2ban to block ssh attackers.

Just disable password authentication on ssh and use only keyfiles ..

--
Eero
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