How to enable Ping Watchdog on Ubiquiti AirOS from Command Line

Ping Watchdog is a feature that will automatically reboot a device if the specified IP address is unreachable.

Here is a quick run down on enabling Ping Watchdog on Ubiquiti Radios from the command line.

1. SSH into the radio

ssh ubnt@192.168.1.20

2. Edit the config file

vi /tmp/system.cfg

Find the lines that start with pwdog

At a minimum, you will need to change the following two options:

  • pwdog.status to enabled
  • pwdog.host to the IP you want to ping. Add this line if it does not exist.
pwdog.delay=300
pwdog.host=192.168.1.1
pwdog.period=300
pwdog.retry=3
pwdog.status=enabled

You can adjust the other options to your desired taste.

Exit vi by hitting esc then typing in wq then hit Enter

3. Save configuration

Finally, save the configuration changes with

/usr/etc/rc.d/rc.softrestart save

Hacking Hashed SSH known_hosts file

On Ubuntu, by default, the hosts in .ssh/known_hosts are hashed. This can theoretically help with security. If an attacker compromises a host, they will not be able to tell the IP addresses of other hosts in the known_hosts file.

https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/56268/ssh-benefits-of-using-hashed-known-hosts

Anatomy of the hashed known_hosts

Here is an example of a hashed entry in the known_hosts file.

|1|ma8KL2XrNYkNnknf68N4IuZ+c+I=|PmR+n2i0/epUGZZh2S+LB6OaowQ= ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEjqG8/el8c669FxcvEw5mMfDRTDxsjgLiz44dCTtchs

There are three main parts.

The first part ma8KL2XrNYkNnknf68N4IuZ+c+I= is the salt to use.

PmR+n2i0/epUGZZh2S+LB6OaowQ= This is our hashed IP address/hostname

ssh-ed25519 is the key type

AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEjqG8/el8c669FxcvEw5mMfDRTDxsjgLiz44dCTtchs Is the public SSH key of the remote host.

SSH-KEYSCAN

We can use ssh-keyscan to check the keys of hosts. The -t ssh-ed25519 option only shows ed25519 keys. Remove or change to show all key types e.g. RSA/DSA

For example:

┌──(kali㉿localhost)-[~]
└─$ ssh-keyscan -t ssh-ed25519 localhost
# localhost:22 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_9.6p1 Debian-3
localhost ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEjqG8/el8c669FxcvEw5mMfDRTDxsjgLiz44dCTtchs

We can compare the SSH public key with the one in our known_hosts file to verify we have the correct host.

As a side note, we can also use the -H option to show us a hashed version. The salt changes each time it is run, so it is not useful for comparing the hashed IP address.

Example:

┌──(kali㉿localhost)-[~]
└─$ ssh-keyscan -H -t ssh-ed25519 localhost
# localhost:22 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_9.6p1 Debian-3
|1|j2j9iv/GkPfnG9Yv4WzJsy/L1pc=|wethKgsGBH0Mi+rFW3zSNSWiGso= ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEjqG8/el8c669FxcvEw5mMfDRTDxsjgLiz44dCTtchs

Hacking known_hosts hashes

There are a few different techniques that can be used to identify known hosts IP addresses even if they are hashed.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/427979/how-do-you-extract-ip-addresses-from-files-using-a-regex-in-a-linux-shell

Search through bash history

history | egrep '([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}'

Example output

┌──(kali㉿localhost)-[~]
└─$ history | egrep '([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}' | head -n2
1 ssh kali@127.0.0.1

Check if SSH Public Key is on Shodan

Since the SSH public key is um, well, public, we can search for it on Shodan to see if it’s a known public server. https://www.shodan.io

Copy the public ssh key from the known_hosts file. It is the last portion of the line i.e.
AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEjqG8/el8c669FxcvEw5mMfDRTDxsjgLiz44dCTtchs

|1|ma8KL2XrNYkNnknf68N4IuZ+c+I=|PmR+n2i0/epUGZZh2S+LB6OaowQ= ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIEjqG8/el8c669FxcvEw5mMfDRTDxsjgLiz44dCTtchs

Brute force

Since the address space for IPv4 is fairly small, and the private IP address space even smaller, brute forcing all the addresses is perfectly feasible.

Here is a quick example on how you would hash an IP address. Commands are taken from the above Stack Exchange link.

Take the salt and put it into a variable

key=`echo j2j9iv/GkPfnG9Yv4WzJsy/L1pc= | base64 -d | xxd -p`

Next we can run the following command to hash the result. The IP (127.0.0.1) is where we would want to enumerate the IP address.

echo -n "127.0.0.1" | openssl sha1 -mac HMAC -macopt hexkey:$key|awk '{print $2}' | xxd -r -p | base64

The output is PmR+n2i0/epUGZZh2S+LB6OaowQ= which is the correct hash.

Automating should be fairly simple.

A note on SSH ports. If the host is using a non standard ssh port, you will need to update the above command with the port, but the address needs to be wrapped in square brackets []

echo -n "[127.0.0.1]:2222" | openssl sha1 -mac HMAC -macopt hexkey:$key|awk '{print $2}' | xxd -r -p | base64

Use ssh-keyscan

A final way we can discover known-hosts, is by using ssh-keyscan. The man page says the following

ssh-keyscan is a utility for gathering the public SSH host keys of a number of hosts. It was designed to aid in building and verifying ssh_known_hosts files

ssh-keyscan uses non-blocking socket I/O to contact as many hosts as possible in parallel, so it is very efficient. The keys from a domain of 1,000 hosts can be collected in tens of seconds, even when some of those hosts are down or do not run sshd(8). For scanning, one does not need login access to the machines that are being scanned, nor does the scanning process involve any encryption.

Hosts to be scanned may be specified by hostname, address or by CIDR network range (e.g. 192.168.16/28). If a network range is specified, then all addresses in that range will be scanned.

This makes it super convenient to do a network scan using ssh-keyscan and then compare the public ssh keys with those in the known_hosts file.

Example:

ssh-keyscan 192.168.0.0/16

To scan all private IP ranges (RFC1912), we just run the scan with all three IP ranges

ssh-keyscan 192.168.0.0/16
ssh-keyscan 172.12.0.0/12
ssh-keyscan 10.0.0.0/8

Harden SSH for AlmaLinux 9 (RHEL, Fedora)

These steps are taken from the following link. They have other guides for hardening Ubuntu, Debian etc.

https://www.sshaudit.com/hardening_guides.html#rocky9

You will need to become the root user, use either su – or sudo -i

First we need to regenerate the RSA and ED25519 keys

rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key -N ""
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key -N ""

Next, remove the small Diffie-Hellman moduli. The moduli file contains prime numbers and generators. Removing the smaller numbers should help increase security as it makes attempting to factor the private keys harder.

awk '$5 >= 3071' /etc/ssh/moduli > /etc/ssh/moduli.safe
mv /etc/ssh/moduli.safe /etc/ssh/moduli

We can now specify which key exchange, ciphers, and algorithms to use.

Add the following to “/etc/crypto-policies/back-ends/opensshserver.config”

# Restrict key exchange, cipher, and MAC algorithms, as per sshaudit.com
# hardening guide.
KexAlgorithms sntrup761x25519-sha512@openssh.com,curve25519-sha256,curve25519-sha256@libssh.org,gss-curve25519-sha256-,diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,gss-group16-sha512-,diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256

Ciphers chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com,aes256-gcm@openssh.com,aes128-gcm@openssh.com,aes256-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes128-ctr

MACs hmac-sha2-256-etm@openssh.com,hmac-sha2-512-etm@openssh.com,umac-128-etm@openssh.com

HostKeyAlgorithms sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256

RequiredRSASize 3072

CASignatureAlgorithms sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256

GSSAPIKexAlgorithms gss-curve25519-sha256-,gss-group16-sha512-

HostbasedAcceptedAlgorithms sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519,rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-256

PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms sk-ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-512-cert-v01@openssh.com,rsa-sha2-256-cert-v01@openssh.com,sk-ssh-ed25519@openssh.com,ssh-ed25519,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256

Finally, restart the ssh server

systemctl restart sshd

Other helpful links

https://www.ssh.com/academy

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/primes-parameters-and-moduli

https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/79043/is-it-considered-worth-it-to-replace-opensshs-moduli-file

Run sudo Command over SSH. Single line.

When running an SSH command that uses sudo, something like

ssh admin@192.168.1.20 "sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade"

You may receive the following error.

sudo: a terminal is required to read the password; either use the -S option to read from standard input or configure an askpass helper
sudo: a password is required

To work around this, you can use the -t option. -q is not needed, but makes thing quieter.

ssh -qt admin@192.168.1.20 "sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade "

The sudo password will also be hidden.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/134155/how-do-you-keep-the-password-hidden-when-invoked-during-the-su-command

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/233217/how-to-pass-the-password-to-su-sudo-ssh-without-overriding-the-tty

Copy SSH Keys to Server with SFTP

These steps assume you already have a public SSH key, if not, create one

SSH-Copy-Id is an easier way to upload ssh keys, however, it does not work on all devices.

ssh to the remote server using your password.

If it is not already created, create the authorized_keys file under the .ssh folder

touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

vi ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Add your public key to the end of the authorized_keys file

Ensure that the correct owner and permissions are on the files.

The .ssh directory should be

chmod 700 .ssh

And the authorized_keys file should be 600

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Both should be owned by the user. Change username to your username.

sudo chown -R username:username .ssh/authorized_keys

Helpful links

https://blog.tinned-software.net/setup-sftp-only-account-using-openssh-and-ssh-key/

https://blog.tinned-software.net/ssh-passwordless-login-with-ssh-key/

List of Symmetric Encryption Algorithms. Block and Key Size.

List of common symmetric encryption algorithms with their block and key size.

NameBlock SizeKey SizeNotes
AES Advanced Encryption Standard128128, 192, 256Is Rijndael
RijndaelVariable128, 192, 256Is AES
Blowfish 6432-448Often used in SSH
DES Data Encryption Standard6456
Triple DES64112-168DES 3 times
IDEA64128Used in PGP
RC4 Rivest Cipher 4Stream Cipher40-2048Insecure/Not used, used in WEP, WPA, and SSL
RC5 Rivest Cipher 532, 64, 1280-2040
RC6 Rivest Cipher 6128128, 192, 256
Skipjack6480Developed by the NSA and supported key escrow
CAST-1286440-128
CAST-256128128, 160, 192, 224, 256
Twofish1281-256
ChaCha20Stream Cipher256
List of Common Symmetric Encryption Algorithms With Block and Key Size

How to SSH from a UI GPON

Ubiquiti’s or UI’s GPONs do not have a SSH client by default. Or do they?

If you type “ssh” and hit return, you’ll receive a “not found” error.

Typically on devices like home routers, GPONs, UniFi AP’s etc, ssh is handled by Dropbear. Dropbear provides a Secure Shell compatible server and client and is typically used in embedded systems.

To SSH from a GPON to another device, use dbclient

dbclient ubnt@192.168.1.20

dbclient is the Dropbear client. AKA, SSH client.

Hardening Mikrotik RouterOS

https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Securing_Your_Router

Things to harden

  • Delete default admin user
  • Disable unused services and whitelist IP’s
  • Secure SSH
  • DNS

Delete default admin user

Before deleting the default admin user, create your own user account.

/user/add name=MyUsername group=full password=mylongsecurepassword

Note: running /user/add will prompt you for the rest of the options.

Delete the default admin user with

/user remove admin

We want to delete the default admin user for two reasons. 1. There is no default password for this user. 2. It is a default username which means it will be targeted for brute force attacks.

Consider using the /users/groups for more granular control.

Disable unused services

In the following, we disabled all services except SSH and Winbox. We also limit access to those services only from private “RFC 1918” IP addresses. Customize as needed.

/ip service
set telnet disabled=yes
set ftp disabled=yes
set www disabled=yes
set www-ssl tls-version=only-1.2
set ssh address="set winbox address="192.168.0.0/16,172.16.0.0/12,10.0.0.0/8"
set api disabled=yes
set winbox address="set winbox address="192.168.0.0/16,172.16.0.0/12,10.0.0.0/8"
set api-ssl disabled=yes tls-version=only-1.2

for www-ssl and api-ssl, tls-version is not a required argument, but you may consider using it if you need the API or Webfig.

Secure SSH

/ip/ssh/set strong-crypto=yes allow-none-crypto=no always-allow-password-login=no host-key-size=4096

And regenerate the SSH host key. It will prompt for a [y/N], hit y to regenerate.

/ip/ssh/regenerate-host-key 

DNS

Unless your device is being used as a DNS resolver, it is best to disable the “Allow Remote Request”

ip dns/set allow-remote-requests=no

If you do need it enabled, then be sure to add some firewall rules to keep your router from being used in amplification attacks.

add action=drop chain=input dst-port=53 in-interface-list=WAN protocol=udp

You can configure interface lists in /interface/list or Interface -> Interface List in the gui

Or you can change to in-interface and specify the WAN interface directly. You could also set it to !LAN if you have a LAN interface list set up.

Information on the mcuser on Ubiquiti Radios

Who is this mcuser on ubiquiti devices? Nothing shows up in the radio config file about it, but the user shows up in /etc/passwd

mcuser is used for AirControl2. If we look what is in the passwd file, we’ll notice that there is a ! at the beginning of the hash. Meaning that this password is disabled as the hash is not a proper hash. It’s only 10 characters long instead of the normal 13 for Unix DES hashes.

mcuser:!VvDE8C2EB1:0:0::/etc/persistent/mcuser:/bin/sh

https://community.ui.com/questions/Virus-atack-v2/be924ab6-5cb0-4f9b-a4f7-246025196cc0?page=10

There is a valid ssh key, so the mcuser can ssh to the device without a password and do what it needs to do. Doing an ls on a device shows the following.

Refer to the following article on removing AirControl Provisioning