Install Brute Force Detection on your Dedicated Server
Admin
Dedicated Server Tutorials
31/08/2013
Brute Force Detection is a modular shell script for parsing applicable logs and checking for authentication failures.
Hackers use the brute force method to gain access to a server these days. Installation, configuration and usage of this script is pretty simple and anybody can work with this.
Brute Force Detection is available at: http://www.rfxnetworks.com/bfd.php
This guide will show you how to install and configure BFD to protect your dedicated server from brute force hack attempts.
Requirements:
- You MUST have APF Firewall Installed before installing BFD – it works with APF and requires some APF files to operate.
- Root SSH access to your server.
Login to your server through SSH and su to the root user.
1. cd /root/downloads
or another temporary folder where you store your files.
2. wget http://www.rfxnetworks.com/downloads/bfd-current.tar.gz
3. tar -xvzf bfd-current.tar.gz
4. cd bfd-0.2
5. Run the install file: ./install.sh
You will receive a message saying it has been installed
.: BFD installed
Install path: /usr/local/bfd
Config path: /usr/local/bfd/conf.bfd
Executable path: /usr/local/sbin/bfd
6. Lets edit the configuration file: pico /usr/local/bfd/conf.bfd
7. Enable brute force hack attempt alerts:
Find: ALERT_USR=”0″ CHANGE TO: ALERT_USR=”1″
Find: EMAIL_USR=”root” CHANGE TO: EMAIL_USR=”your@yourdomain.com”
Save the changes: Ctrl+X then Y
8. Prevent locking yourself out!
pico -w /usr/local/bfd/ignore.hosts and add your own trusted IPs
Eg: 192.168.1.1
Save the changes: Ctrl+X then Y
BFD uses APF’ cli insert feature and as such will override any allow_hosts.rules entries users have in-place. So be sure to add your trusted ip addresses to the ignore file to prevent locking yourself out.
9. Run the program!
/usr/local/sbin/bfd -s
We hope you find this tutorial very useful and easy to understand. Do not hesitate to ask your questions about this tutorial via comments.
