How to Secure your Server :: Install Brute Force Detection

Having Brute Force attack prevention (BFD) is a must have in my opinion. It allows you to see who is trying to break into your server, and can automatically ban those user's IPs from further access to your computer. Here is how to do it

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• SSH Access
• SSH Client
• Server must have internet access

1. To install APF SSH into server and login as root.
2. type: cd /root/
3. type: wget http://www.rfxnetworks.com/downloads/bfd-current.tar.gz
4. type: tar -xvzf bfd-current.tar.gz
5. type: cd bfd-0.4
6. type: ./install.sh
7. After BFD has been installed, you need to edit the configuration file.
   
   At command prompt type: pico /usr/local/bfd/conf.bfd
8. Under Enable brute force hack attempt alerts:
   
   Find
   
   ALERT_USR="0"
   
   and change it to
   
   ALERT_USR="1"
   
   
   Find
   
   EMAIL_USR="root"
   
   and change it to
   
   EMAIL_USR="[e-mail]"
9. Save the changes then exit.
   
   
   To start BFD
   
   At command prompt type: /usr/local/sbin/bfd -s

Tips & Warnings

• replace [e-mail] with your actual email to get reports of attacks sent directly to you