In Iptables you can keep port 22 closed until needed, opening it first by telneting to a higher port say 5500 and Iptables just giving access to this ip. If you want to close it again you can telnet back in on another assigned port say 5501, thus closing ssh port to that ip.

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -m recent --rcheck --name SSH -j ACCEPT -A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 5500 -m recent --name SSH --set -j DROP -A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 5501 -m recent --name SSH --remove -j DROP

Thanks, Patrick.

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Moving sshd from port 22 to port 137, 138 or 139. Nasty eh?

don't do that! Lots of (access) isps around the world (esp here in Europe) block those ports

If you're going to move sshd somewhere else, port 443 is a fine choice. Rarely blocked, rarely probed by ssh kiddies. It's probed all the time by malicious web spiders, but since you're not a web server, you don't care.

R's, John

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