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DETECTION OVERVIEW

SSH Brute Force

Risk Factors

Brute force attacks on SSH services, which are enabled by default on many devices, are low cost and relatively easy to perform. Even though brute force attacks are noisy, the attacker can effectively compromise a device after obtaining SSH credentials.

The system might change the risk score for this detection.

Kill Chain

Exploitation

Risk Score

60

Detection diagram
Next in Exploitation: Salt Exploit Attempt - CVE-2020-11651

Attack Background

Before an attacker can gain access to an SSH account and remotely run commands on other devices, the attacker must first acquire valid SSH credentials. A brute force attack is a method for guessing a weak user password. Brute force attacks can occur manually through trial and error or with password cracking tools.

Mitigation Options

Disable SSH on devices that do not require SSH access

Limit the number of login attempts per SSH session

Only allow incoming SSH connections from trusted devices, such as administrator workstations

Implement a strong password policy

Do not reuse passwords

Rely on public key authentication, which is more resilient to brute force attacks than password authentication, by disabling PasswordAuthentication in sshd_config

MITRE ATT&CK ID

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