[Gllug] Router under attack: help/advice needed

[Iain M Conochie]

- Tethys wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 11:20 PM, Nix <nix at esperi.org.uk> wrote:
>
>   
>>>> - Limit logins to public key if possible
>>>>         
>>> Please stop spreading that nonsense. It doesn't increase security.
>>>       
>> Er, yes it does.
>>     
>
> http://lists.gllug.org.uk/pipermail/gllug/2009-July/079554.html
>   


This is however your opinion. Here you state

Key pair:
- Protocol vulnerability allows sniffing of data.
- Private key is discovered by attacker through local exploit on client
  at any time.

Password:
- Protocol vulnerability allows sniffing of both data and password.
- Password is discovered by attacker through keylogging or similar on client 
at authentication time.


But you forget to mention that password authentication is also 
susceptible to brute force attacks due to bad passwords. This is the 
_main_ thing (IMHO) that keys help prevent, as if users are bad at 
having passphrases they are worse with passwords.


Of course this is a trade off. All security is a trade off (and usually 
with usability) as seen by the* facetious remark:

Q. What is the first rule of network security?

A. Kill all your users.

Ta

Iain
***
> Tet
>
>   

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