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Except it is. Moving your SSH port does nothing to change your SSH based vulnerability if an attacker knows the new port, but it makes it a lot less likely for

Except it is. Moving your SSH port does nothing to change your SSH based vulnerability if an attacker knows the new port, but it makes it a lot less likely for you to be swept up in passive crawls. This is like arguing, "If your hide-a-key is under the backdoor doormat, you are no less secure than if you put it under the front doormat". It's easy for someone to say "I was dropping off a package" for a reason to be at your front door. Much more difficult to explain why you are in someone's backyard. Most attackers are opportunistic, take minimal risk, and want to keep costs low. Doing a full port scan on one IP is expensive in time and computation, and also has some risk. Unless they know for sure that it is worth the pay off, doing a quick "Tried turning the door knob" test is about all they will do.

ori_b 6y ago
It's not a security measure, it's a noise reduction measure. It reduces the number of people jiggling the handle on your door, but if all it takes to get in is jiggling the handle, you have bigger problems.
- kempbellt 6y ago
  Which is exactly what security by obscurity means... You are not wrong about having bigger problems if that's all it takes, but making access to a thing less obvious, even if it is super simple, is a form of security. This is like saying, keeping your cash in your front pocket instead of your wallet doesn't make your cash safer from pickpockets. Except, that's exactly what it does. If someone knows that your cash is in your front pocket, then sure, they could target that. But if you are trying to protect yourself from casual pickpockets that aim for wallets, then you have created a small buffer for yourself. Which is a form of security. It's not great security, but it is a layer of protection.