A simple script to create a thin client / dumb terminal based on SSH.
This is theoretically compatible with any Linux system that uses bash
and ssh
, though it has been tested on Arch.
Set one TTY to autologin to some unprivileged user, such as sshuser
. Set the user's .profile
to start this script, and logout once the script is done. Ideally, this will create a login loop, so once the user is finished with their ssh session, the TTY is immediately auto-logged back in.
All other TTYs should be disabled, save possibly one for maintenance / rescue situations.
SSHing to 127.0.0.1 will su to the superuser sshadmin
. This can be changed to any privileged user for maintenance purposes.
If at all possible, the BIOS / bootorder should be locked, so users cannot gain access to the machine. SSH can also be configured to record UserKnownHostsFile to /dev/null
.
- SSH keys readable from USB drive mounted read only.