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Date:      Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:20:57 -0700
From:      "Chris H." <chris#@1command.com>
To:        freebsd-pf@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: preventing ssh brute force attacks, swatch and users and table
Message-ID:  <20070425012057.upvt9rld28kwk8sg@webmail.1command.com>
In-Reply-To: <00b701c7869a$795c0db0$0200a8c0@satellite>
References:  <00b701c7869a$795c0db0$0200a8c0@satellite>

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Quoting Dave <dmehler26@woh.rr.com>:

> Hello,
>    I've got a machine running ssh and i'm trying to cut down on brute 
> force attacks on it. I'm running pf on a freebsd 6.2 box and have 
> added in swatch to try to curve these attacks. The problem is nothing 
> is being added to either the memory hackers table nor the ondisk copy 
> of it. I know i'm getting hits because i'm seeing entries in my 
> auth.log like this:
>
> Apr 21 06:18:38 zeus sshd[10609]: Did not receive identification 
> string from 125.33.163.188
> Apr 21 06:22:55 zeus sshd[10658]: User root from 125.33.163.188 not 
> allowed because none of user's groups are listed in AllowGroups
> Apr 21 06:22:55 zeus sshd[10658]: Failed password for invalid user 
> root from 125.33.163.188 port 54521 ssh2
> Apr 21 06:22:57 zeus sshd[10660]: User root from 125.33.163.188 not 
> allowed because none of user's groups are listed in AllowGroups
> Apr 21 06:22:57 zeus sshd[10660]: Failed password for invalid user 
> root from 125.33.163.188 port 54727 ssh2
> Apr 24 00:52:08 zeus sshd[7746]: Failed password for invalid user 
> root from 218.205.231.39 port 61694 ssh2
> Apr 24 00:52:11 zeus sshd[7749]: User root from 218.205.231.39 not 
> allowed because none of user's groups are listed in AllowGroups
> Apr 24 00:52:11 zeus sshd[7749]: Failed password for invalid user 
> root from 218.205.231.39 port 61773 ssh2
>
> I don't want to move my ssh, i feel these bots would just find it 
> again. I'm also getting postfix atempts i'd like to block them both. 
> My swatch configuration looks like this:
>
> rc.conf
> swatch_enable="YES"
> swatch_rules="1"
> swatch_1_flags="--config-file=/usr/local/etc/swatchrc 
> --tail-file=/var/log/auth.log --daemon --pid-file=/var/run/swatch.pid"
> swatch_1_user="root"
> swatch_1_chdir="/var/tmp"
> swatch_1_pidfile="/var/run/swatch.pid"
>
> In pf i have a block by default policy and i've got these lines:
> table <hackers> persist file "/etc/hackers"
> block all
> block in quick on $ext_if from <hackers> to any
>
> and /usr/local/etc/swatchrc calls a script that looks like:
> #!/bin/sh
> /sbin/pfctl -t hackers -T add $1
> /bin/echo $1 >> /etc/hackers
> /usr/bin/logger swatch: $1 caught with bad login. Added to hackers pf table
>
> If there's a better way that i can get both ssh and smtp bots i'd 
> like to know about it, also if my config is wrong let me know it's 
> not working. One thing, i do not want to unblock atempted hackings,

Greetings,
You /may/ want to re-consider this policy. I was plagued with dictionary/
brute force attempts against a couple of my mail servers. Which spurned
me into concocting some method to ease the burden and ultimately defeat
such attempts. My final solution was a combination of scripts (grep ||
sed || awk || uniq || sort ) run out of cron. That parse the maillog
for patterns that match offenders. It works perfectly (over 7,700 IP's).
BUT, you should consider, as I did, that many of the offending IP's are
leased (DHCP) and are only owned/used by the perpetrator for a relatively
short amount time, and then they become available and used by a now
INNOCENT user. Also, there are those who /do/ own/lease the IP's on
a longer term basis that have mis-configured boxen which are effectively
open proxies that are later corrected. So they too are only guilty
by proxy (sorry, I couldn't resist ;)). Anyway, the point I'm attempting
to make here; is that you should probably consider developing an
EXPIRE policy for the offending/accumulating IP list. That way, you'll
be able to DIFF the current against the EXPIRED and gain a more reasonable
understanding /which/ IP's are /always/ going to be offenders vs. those
whom were just short term (for whatever reason).

Just thought I'd mention it.

Best wishes.

> my feeling is those that do it should have no further interactions 
> with my machines on any level.
> Thanks.
> Dave.
>
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-- 
panic: kernel trap (ignored)






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