Ensuring that SSH protocol 1 is disabled

By this stage in your Linux career, you should already know how to use Secure Shell, or SSH, to do remote logins and remote file transfers. What you may not know is that a default configuration of SSH is actually quite insecure.

SSH protocol version 1, the original SSH protocol, is severely flawed, and should never be used. It's still in most Linux distributions, but fortunately, it's always disabled by default. But, if you ever open your /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and see this:

Protocol 1

Or this:

Protocol 1, 2

Then you have a problem. 

The Ubuntu main page for the sshd_config file says that protocol version 1 is still available for use with legacy devices. But, if you're still running devices that are that old, you need to start seriously thinking about doing some upgrades.

As Linux distributions get updated, you'll see SSH protocol 1 gradually being completely removed, as has happened with Red Hat and CentOS 7.4.