Smart Doorkeeper
Charly's Column – DenyHosts
When it comes to warding off unwanted login tests on SSH port 22 and others, Charly likes to keep an ace or two up his sleeve by relying on DenyHosts instead of Fail2ban.
Many sys admins use Fail2ban to keep unwanted login tests on SSH port 22 and others at bay. However, there are alternatives to Fail2ban. Today, I would like to introduce you to DenyHosts, which does basically the same thing as Fail2ban but has one or two aces up its sleeve.
You can find DenyHosts as part of the standard package on all popular distributions; my lab system is an up-to-date Debian. To install DenyHosts, type:
sudo apt install denyhosts
[...]
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