SSH for Shared?

I would be concerned, although I myself find many things easier to do via SSH. But, I've never been asked - it surely depends on your target market and clientele base.
 
Most companies will either do it on request or for free. Some require a copy of a driver's license or other id for record, just in case the customer decides to do something dumb
 
What good would it do to keep a copy of their DL?
I see it as a huge risk....one too big to risk.

But...on the other hand... many companies offer this service with no issues.
 
If your going to provide SSH for shared clients, the best route to go would be to create a seperate server for them to work with. This server would need to be one that has been configured in such a manner that you have it on what I like to say "lock down".
 
I agree with premiush. There is no room for shared customers with SSH/root access in a secured environment; it's simply not worth it. Your customers become a liability rather than an asset.

Just my $.02!
 
Most of what people use SSH for can be accomplished easily with most of today's control panels. Setting up cron jobs, editing config files, etc.

I don't allow SSH access on our server and have even turned the traditional SSH port off completely. We have SSH running through a single IP (not the main IP) and an obscure port for only administrators to use.

Since we made these changes random attempts to gain access have been brought to nil. Not a single one since.

Knowing typical customers and their poor password creation habits there is no way I would leave a server vulnerable to that. It's like trusting your server's security to your customers. I'm not at all concerned w/ what my customers are doing, it's how easy a hacker could break in through their account. I've cought some of them using passwords like their first or last names, or kids names.

No way, no how.
 
We offer clients SSH access on request and with justification. There are a lot of very valid reasons for wanting SSH access and putting a blanket ban on it would be just silly.
You are more likely to have issues with PHP scripts than you are with someone using SSH for valid reasons.
 
blacknight - I guess our clients are just different. Most of my cllents don't have any reason to be using SSH. I have had one or two valid requests in the past few years. Of course, I run a very small web hosting division of my company, mostly for our own design clients.

However, I guess it just depends on your clients. Most of my hosting clients don't need access to SSH at all. The things they MIGHT need to do can be accomplished easily through the control panel.
 
I don't set up ssh by default, as most people wouldn't use it. That said, I'll give ssh access to anyone who wants it. For me, I would never use a webhost that didn't give me ssh access, so I wouldn't deny it to a customer. For example, when I'm debugging a php script it is much easier to vim the file on the server than it is to download, fix, and reupload.

I don't see ssh access as much of a security risk beyond the risks we all take by offering shared hosting. Anything that can be done in ssh can be done with a php or cgi script, and passwords can be brute forced just as easily through ftp or email as they can through ssh.
 
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