Security of Interactive and Automated Access Management Using Secure Shell (SSH)

Published

October 15, 2015

Author(s)

Tatu Ylonen, Paul Turner, Karen Scarfone, Murugiah Souppaya

Abstract

Users and hosts must be able to access other hosts in an interactive or automated fashion, often with very high privileges, for a variety of reasons, including file transfers, disaster recovery, privileged access management, software and patch management, and dynamic cloud provisioning. This is often accomplished using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. The SSH protocol supports several mechanisms for interactive and automated authentication. Management of this access requires proper provisioning, termination, and monitoring processes. However, the security of SSH key-based access has been largely ignored to date. This publication assists organizations in understanding the basics of SSH interactive and automated access management in an enterprise, focusing on the management of SSH user keys.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 7966

Report Number

7966

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

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DOI Link

Keywords

access control, authentication, automated access management, device authentication, interactive access management, Secure Shell (SSH), user authentication

Citation

Ylonen, T. , Turner, P. , Scarfone, K. and Souppaya, M. (2015), Security of Interactive and Automated Access Management Using Secure Shell (SSH), NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.7966 (Accessed April 24, 2024)