Why do I need to change the default SSH port on linux servers?

miken

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Is there any advantage in changing the SSH port, I've seen people do that or reading guides on this forum for that, but I can't seem to find the reason why.

If you have a strong password and/or a certificate, is it useful for anything?
 

LJSHost

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Hi Miken,

Changing the default SSH is port recommended. If you are not using key based authentication and the default SSH port your server will be attacked by the many bots that do nothing but port scan and try to brute force entry. Changing the SSH port will reduce these attacks as the brute force bot scanning on default ports will most likely move on from your server once they can't connect. If you have a server using the default SSH port tail your security logs, I guarantee you will be being brute forced as I write this. Even with a strong password it's still risky.
 

R Langley

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You don't necessarily have to change it but its good practice to change it to keep away the 200,000,000,000,000,000 attacks that will most likely hit the port aka brute force bots. People really just change it so they don't have to worry about the hassle of changing it later or constantly being attacked down the road.
 

24x7CSM

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One of the common reasons and best security practice ... security and the SSH port is 22 .. all technical people knows that :) is so its good to just change it.

Simple !!!!
 

energizedit

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In addition to changing the port for security reasons, I would also suggest installing ConfigServer Security & Firewall (csf) a great tool to blacklist ips that scan your server and try to attack it.
 

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