[tor-relays] control who can connect me

[Matt Traudt]

On 4/25/18 10:55, dave` dave wrote:
> im using VMware Ubuntu 16.04 using SSH.
> im running Exit-Relay and i want to control who can connect to my
> Exit-Relay, is there a way to do that- though the Exit-Relay settings,
> or the SSH settings?
> and there will be an even better way: if i can say who is the specific
> ip that can connect to me.
> Thank You! 
> 

You CAN NOT control who uses your exit relay in circuits.

You CAN control who is allowed to SSH into the machine running the exit
relay.

The fact the machine has Tor installed and running on it is completely
unrelated. You can control who can SSH into your machine whether or not
you're running Tor, or a web server, or a Minecraft sever, or whatever
else. Therefore you will find a lot of advice on the Internet if you
search this topic and you don't necessarily need to seek out Tor relay
operators (or nginx web masters, or Minecraft kids, or whatever).

You can use things like

- a strict firewall
- strong SSH passwords
- SSH keys
- other SSH configuration options
- a non-standard SSH port
- fail2ban

(Yes, some of these things are a essentially "rate limiting login
attempts" instead of literally "control who can even attempt to log in".
I think they are still worth mentioning.)

Hope that helps.

Matt