How to set up ssh-only user with minimal privileges?

[Dan Purgert]

On Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:22:59 +0200, Petter Adsen wrote:

> I have a short script running from cron on a server running 14.10, that
> creates a small backup of essential system files. What I want to do is
> set up this script to scp the tarball to another, remote system.
> 
> So, I need to create an account on the remote system and set up keys,
> but I want this account to only be able to deposit the archive
> somewhere, and not be able to get to a shell or do anything else.
> 
> Is it enough to set the shell for the user to something like /bin/false?
> Will that user still be able to deposit the file via scp? Is there
> anything else I can do to lock down that account?
> 
> Petter

yep, /bin/false should do it.  Just make sure you give them a home 
directory for dumping files to (cron move job or something can handle it 
from there).