Re: shutting out dictionary attacks on ssh passwords

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost>]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 04:48:23PM -0400, Jan Schaumann wrote:
> "Erik E. Fair" <fair%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:
> > For those of us with public IP addresses, what is the most popular
> > and effective way to shut out the various door-knob turners who
> > keep trying account/password combinations again ssh and other such
> > services?

Turning off PasswordAuthentication works well.  It used to be that in
fact you could turn off PasswordAuthentication, then let password
authentication complete via ChallengeResponseAuthentication.  I would
expect the bots have gotten smarter about this, but perhaps not.

Thor