I was ssh
ing into a certain computing system that I use. I was trying to follow some Linux instructions that involved sudo
, and tried a few times to enter the password unsuccessfully, before realizing that I was getting it incorrect because I was typing in my ssh terminal.
I then received a very accusatory email about how my trying to sudo
constituted a threat to the system. The tone was sustained even after I explained that it was an accident.
My concrete question is: what is the threat model whereby trying a couple times to sudo without permission is considered a serious violation of system security?
Note: I understand in principle why the rule is there. My guess is that you don't want people writing automated scripts trying to crack the password - or I guess try to input a password one obtained via social engineering. But a couple unsuccessful guesses for some silly command...what's the threat model?
sudo
on a machine that has any value at all. ;) You do needsudo
for some learning purposes, though. I recommend downloading and installing Vagrant and VirtualBox, and using the vanilla puppetlabs vagrant boxes as recommended here.