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name: fail2ban description: >- Protect servers from brute force attacks with Fail2Ban. Use when a user asks to block repeated failed login attempts, protect SSH, secure web servers from brute force, or ban malicious IPs automatically. license: Apache-2.0 compatibility: 'Linux' metadata: author: terminal-skills version: 1.0.0 category: devops tags: - fail2ban - brute-force - ssh - security - firewall

Fail2Ban

Overview

Fail2Ban monitors log files for failed authentication attempts and bans offending IPs using iptables/nftables. Protects SSH, Nginx, Apache, Postfix, and any service with log-based authentication.

Instructions

Step 1: Install

sudo apt install fail2ban
sudo systemctl enable fail2ban

Step 2: Configure

# /etc/fail2ban/jail.local — Custom configuration (never edit jail.conf)
[DEFAULT]
bantime = 1h
findtime = 10m
maxretry = 5
banaction = iptables-multiport

[sshd]
enabled = true
port = ssh
maxretry = 3
bantime = 24h

[nginx-http-auth]
enabled = true
port = http,https
maxretry = 5

[nginx-botsearch]
enabled = true
port = http,https
maxretry = 2
bantime = 7d

Step 3: Monitor

sudo fail2ban-client status               # list active jails
sudo fail2ban-client status sshd           # show banned IPs
sudo fail2ban-client set sshd unbanip 1.2.3.4   # unban
sudo fail2ban-client set sshd banip 5.6.7.8     # manual ban

Guidelines

• Always create jail.local — jail.conf gets overwritten on updates.
• Start conservative: 5 retries, 1h ban. Adjust based on logs.
• For modern alternative with community threat sharing, consider CrowdSec.
• Use fail2ban-regex to test custom filters before deploying.