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On 11/10/2015 11:26 AM, Michael Orlitzky wrote: |
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> On 11/10/2015 11:13 AM, J. Roeleveld wrote: |
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>> |
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>> What would take longer? |
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>> brute-forcing your root-password or a 4096 byte ssh key? |
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>> |
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> |
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> My password, by a lot. The password needs to be brute-forced over the |
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> network, first of all. |
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I realized this wasn't correct while I was in the shower =P |
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To tell if you decrypted the key properly, you need to send it over the |
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network, so verification of a brute-force attempt on the SSH key takes |
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about the same amount of time as a brute-force attempt on the root |
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password. The root password in my head is safe against crypto attacks |
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though, so if we're just arguing for fun, it's probably still safer. |
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Adding the key *in addition to* the root password still only gives you a |
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constant factor improvement, and I'm not worried whether it takes the |
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bad guys 4,359,811,353 or 8,719,622,706 years to log in. My time would |
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be better spent taking karate lessons to prevent one of those other |
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attacks I mentioned. |
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