DenyHosts: Keep on Knocking but You Can’t Come

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
May 25, 2011

[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for
this link. ]

“What’s DenyHosts? It’s a small utility that blocks attempts to
connect to your server via SSH when there are too many failed
attempts or (if you enable the feature) when a host matches a
centralized list of addresses that have been making too many failed
attempts to connect via SSH.

“If you’ve maintained a server for any amount of time, you’ve
probably noticed a number of failed SSH login attempts in
/var/log/secure, /var/log/messages, or /var/log/auth.log —
depending on which distro or *nix flavor you’re using. I ran into
this recently with a slew of attempts from an address that resolves
to a “.kr” domain. Since I’m relatively sure I haven’t been to
South Korea lately and I have no colleagues or friends with access
in South Korea, it’s a no-brainer that the failed attempts are
illegitimate.”


Complete Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.