Alibaba Cloud: Authentication Considerations

Use the following information when configuring authentication and proper file transfer between Alibaba Cloud and the F5 BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE):

• The root account is disabled by default
• The Administrator (admin) account/role does NOT have a default password

Important

When you use the scp or sftp commands to transfer files to/from the BIG-IP system, you MUST have the Administrator role and access set to Advanced Shell (bash) for BIG-IP versions that have the following CVE fixes:

• SCP (CVE-2020-5873)
• SFTP (CVE-2019-6617)

F5 recommends:

• Configuring SSH Public Key authentication for the admin account during the instance provisioning process.
• Setting password authentication using additional on-boarding steps (for example using tmsh or Declarative Onboarding).

More help with BIG-IP VE

• K11352038 support article
• Set admin password
• SSH keypair