SSH Keys: Security Asset or Liability?
summary
SSH key usage scales into a security problem: surveys report 61% of organizations let users self-manage authorized_keys and Palo Alto finds 76% of clouds expose SSH. An operational case has 1.4 million keys at a major US airline; discovery, deleting unused keys, splitting privileges and adding automated provisioning reduces that inventory and gives continuous visibility. Practical controls map to NIST IR7 966; dashboards track unused keys, root/duplicated keys, rotation rates and failed deployments, plus alerts for anomalous spikes or known malware indicators like TrickBot.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:27Agenda
- 2:23Who uses SSH
- 6:44Operations of SSH keys
- 15:10Examples
- 17:20Audits
- 17:48Prepare
- 20:58Checklist
- 22:33Use Case
- 23:39Key Usage
- 24:32Risk surfacing
- 25:26Key lifecycle
- 25:58Automated connections
- 27:02Questions
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