Effective Method for Securing Synergy

bladdo · 2010-12-11 22:28:31

I have been doing some research into Synergy to control several screens on my network with one keyboard and mouse. I tested out Synergy but security seems like a pretty major issue.

When using the default Synergy setup, your clipboard, mouse movements, and keystrokes are sent over the network as plain text.

The recommendation that the Synergy guide make to improve and correct this security flaw is doing something like:

ssh -f -N -L localhost:24800:server-hostname:24800 server-hostname

to set up port forwarding through SSH to the server.

My question though is - even if you do this - the server is still set up as normal and will accept connections regardless of weather their made with no encryption or via the SSH method... so how is that secure?
Yeah sure no longer things are being sent through plain text but at the same time someone could still just set their hostname as one of the screens on my Synergy server setup, it would connect and away they would go with sniffing my keystrokes, mouse movements, and clipboard.

Has anyone figured out a solution to this problem? Or is there something I am missing that makes this a non-problem?

bladdo

Sjoden · 2010-12-13 21:45:59

I've only glanced at Synergy as I haven't set up my desktop yet but I have the same concerns as you. Could you add a little security with some iptables rules restricting which internal IPs can connect to which ports on your Synergy server?

lifeafter2am · 2010-12-13 22:15:43

I use Synergy on a daily basis, with the SSH trick.

What you are describing is really a non-issue. Synergy will only accept a single connection from any one hostname, and its quite simple to stop the server once you are done using it. Even so, wouldn't you notice that you mouse was going off screen but no other machine you wanted was connected? AND, if the person were connecting to your synergy server, they can't sniff data thats not being transmitted across the network. Its not like Synergy broadcasts everything you do on the server machine across the network; only stuff you need to transfer to the other screen (mouse, clipboard, keystrokes to the connected machine). So unless you move your mouse an attackers screen (which you don't notice) and then start typing your password, they can't sniff anything.

bladdo · 2010-12-15 20:10:45

Yeah, I guess overall it's pretty much a non-problem.

It's security issues are pretty minimal and someone would really have to be out to get you to really exploit them (and even then - it's a very limited amount of data that would be exposed).

Hopefully their devs will eventually integrate security measures into Synergy itself though so then we can all rest completely assured and safe.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-12-11 22:28:31

Effective Method for Securing Synergy

#2 2010-12-13 21:45:59

Re: Effective Method for Securing Synergy

#3 2010-12-13 22:15:43

Re: Effective Method for Securing Synergy

#4 2010-12-15 20:10:45

Re: Effective Method for Securing Synergy

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