SSH Security Assessment Framework
Overview
Framework for evaluating SSH security posture — key inventory, rotation compliance, access controls, authentication methods, and audit logging across your server fleet.
Table of Contents
- Assessment Scope and Methodology
- Key Inventory and Discovery
- Rotation Compliance Evaluation
- Access Control Review
- Authentication Method Analysis
- Configuration Hardening Audit
- Audit Logging Verification
- Scoring and Risk Rating
- Remediation Priorities
Overview
SSH keys are the most common form of privileged access in modern infrastructure, yet most organizations have no inventory of how many keys exist, who they belong to, or what they grant access to. Audit findings consistently reveal SSH keys that are years old, never rotated, shared across teams, and granting root access to production systems with no logging or alerting.
This assessment framework provides a systematic approach to evaluating SSH security posture across your server fleet. It covers the full lifecycle: discovery of existing keys and trust relationships, evaluation of authentication configurations, access control review, and audit logging verification. Each area includes specific checks with pass/fail criteria and risk ratings.
The framework is designed to produce actionable findings, not just a list of problems. Each finding maps to a specific remediation action with effort estimates and priority guidance.
What You’ll Learn
- SSH key discovery techniques to build a complete inventory of authorized_keys and identity files
- Rotation compliance evaluation against your organization’s key lifecycle policy
- Access control review methodology covering authorized_keys options, forced commands, and jump hosts
- Authentication method analysis to identify servers still allowing password auth or weak key types
- sshd_config hardening audit covering algorithms, logging, and session restrictions
- Risk scoring model that prioritizes findings by exploitability and blast radius