David Burgess wrote:
>> Seriously, this conversation is getting kind of silly. I seriously see
>> no need to launch a completely separate sshd just for administrators on
>> a different port. There are plenty of network-layer utils available to
>> secure a port from the outside world. There is no need to make
>> LTSP/Edubuntu setups more complex for this purpose. If you need access
>> to ssh from any IP on the net to your internal LTSP server, set it up -
>> but I really don't think this is a common enough scenario to warrant a
>> default secondary sshd for everyone. You're gonna get tons of admins
>> asking "why do I have an open port 2222? Why the hell is ssh running on
>> 2222??"
>>     
>
> I have such a setup, and I agree that a second ssh should not run by
> default. Indeed, most modern distros run with no server listening on
> any port by default. Nevertheless I would advocate for making things a
> little easier to get a second ssh running for those who need it.
>   

No offense, but this is what learning how openssh-server works is all 
about.

> I, for one, need it, and it took me quite some time searching and then
> some hand-holding from the list to get it going. Perhaps a new
> optional package could be made available for this purpose. For
> example, right now on ubuntu if I want to install and run an ssh
> server I just use my package manager to install the openssh-server
> package. Why not have an openssh-alternate-server or ltsp-ssh-server
> package that is not a dependency of ltsp-server, openssh-server, or
> any other package, but could be listed as "Recommends" or "Suggests"
> by those packages. It would run be default on an alternate port and
> could perhaps even ask the user, during configuration, which port and
> interface to listen on.
>   

Creating and having to maintain a completely separate package for simply 
running an alternate configuration is absurd. Again, no offense, but 
seriously. Here, I'll even show you how to get sshd to listen on 2 ports:


/etc/ssh/sshd_config:

Port 22
Port 2222

You don't need 2 packages to have sshd listen on 2 different ports. 
Think about these things:

- Any flaws/exploits in openssh-server will affect BOTH instances, which 
means it doesn't matter who you whitelist. Exploiting a flaw doesn't 
require credentials.
-  Running on an alternate, non-standard port for obscurity will foil 
only the most naive hackers/portscanners. Take a look at any 
sophisticated port scanner and it will connect to the port to see which 
service is running on it. Only the n00biest of n00bie hackers will 
assume that a non-standard open port is something non-important. What 
will attract their attention is that *there is an open port*. All you 
have to do is poke at it and it'll gladly give you enough information to 
figure out what's running on it.
- Creating a new package and maintaining it for simply offering a 
default alternate configuration wouldn't fly with any sane maintainer.


> Personally, I run my client-side ssh server on port 22 and my
> internet-accessible ssh server on an alternate port. This way I don't
> have to make yet another customisation to lts.conf and remote login
> attempts from unknown users are virtually non-existant.
>
> If one was to create a package for a second server and minimise setup
> headaches for the user, one would have to choose between a) altering
> lts.conf so the clients would connect to the second server on an
> alternate port, b) altering sshd_config so the primary ssh server
> listens on an alternate port, or c) prompting the user to make one of
> the above changes. I'm not really aware of the etiquette/implications
> of a package messing with the config files of another package.
>
> I really do think that creating a package, or through some other
> means, streamlining for the user the process of setting up a second
> ssh server would be a big step toward making ltsp simpler to
> administer, at least for the administrator that needs remote access.

What you're talking about really has nothing to do with LTSP, it has to 
do with openssh-server. And actually, it doesn't really even have much 
to do with that. You're talking about running a service on 2 ports at 
the same time, with alternate configurations on each. There's nothing 
holding you back from using the same daemon to run 2 different 
instances, and calling 2 different configuration files even, if you're 
really stuck on doing that. One "stock" for LTSP, and another to do 
whatever else you want. That's what the -f flag is for in sshd - to run 
an alternate config.


Cheers,
Jordan/Lns

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