Just wondering... is it safe to stay logged in via SSH (root) with Putty or is it best to keep opening and closing it everytime I need to do something.

Greetings:

My opinion is to log out when you are done.

I also believe in disabling direct root login as well.

Thank you.

tty hijacking ?

if they have the access to hijack your tty, then you already have bigger issues to worry about than being logged in as root.

Originally posted by peethernet
Just wondering... is it safe to stay logged in via SSH (root) with Putty or is it best to keep opening and closing it everytime I need to do something.
I think the biggest problem with staying logged in is who might have access to your machine (the one running putty).

Originally posted by xisp
I think the biggest problem with staying logged in is who might have access to your machine (the one running putty).

the 11th commandment is "lock thy terminal when away from the keyboard" :P

Would you leave your front door open?

Rus

my dad used to..

My SysAdm experience (approx 10 years of it) brought me to these rules:

- lock the terminal the moment you glance the other side
- never stay as root, if you can
- change passwords often

Regardless of SSH and the rest, your Putty shell window may be accessible by someone else... just because you forgot to lock the console.

Originally posted by dynamicnet
I also believe in disabling direct root login as well.


Note that this is pretty useless if you use a control panel like Cpanel. That said, it's still not a bad measure to have.

Typically it's shouldn't be an issue to keep login as long as no one has access to your terminal.

As many had suggested, do lock the terminal when you are away from the terminal.