MISSION LAB

Secure SSH Configuration

< Shield House

MISSION OBJECTIVES

0/10 Complete

    SSH SECURITY INTEL

    MISSION BRIEFING

    The SOC flagged 15,000+ failed SSH attempts in 24 hours. Your job: harden sshd_config, generate strong keys, set up fail2ban, configure session timeouts, and verify everything. This is a full SSH security overhaul.

    SSH Security Commands

    ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "comment"
    Generate modern key pair
    ssh-copy-id user@host
    Copy public key to remote
    fail2ban-client status sshd
    Check fail2ban SSH jail
    fail2ban-client set sshd banip IP
    Manually ban an IP
    ss -tlnp | grep ssh
    Check SSH listening port
    Why This Matters
    SSH is the #1 remote access vector for Linux servers. CIS Benchmark section 5.2 dedicates 20+ controls to SSH hardening. Every misconfiguration is a potential entry point. This lab covers: key management, sshd_config hardening, fail2ban, and session security.