On Mon, 3 May 2010 09:41:10 -0500, John <j...@starfire.mn.org> wrote:

> The script kiddies have apparently figured out that we use some
> time-window sensitivity in our adaptive filtering.  From sshd, I've
> been seeing "reverse mapping checking getaddrinfo ... failed" and
> from ftpd (when I have the port open at all, which is rare), I am
> seeing probes at about 27 second intervals.  This stays well below
> the 3/30 (three connections in 30 seconds) sensitivity that I had
> been using.  It took them nearly two and a half hours to make 154
> attemps, but computers are very patient.
> 
> I have now changed the timing window sensivity, but it's to the
> point now where there's a significant probability that someone could
> lock themselves out (temporarily, at least, I do clear these tables
> periodically) if they are having a bit of a fat-finger moment with
> their password.
> 
> Anybody got any superior suggestions?

I'm not claiming these are superior, but they are suggestions. :-)

You might want to try security/sshguard-pf from ports.  It still uses a pf 
table to do the blocking, but hooks into syslogd and scans for various SSH 
login failure/abuse messages to add miscreants to that table.  (So, many 
successful logins won't cause a lockout.)  Sshguard will also block persistent 
offenders for progressively longer periods.  (Sshguard will also work with 
/etc/hosts.allow [security/sshguard], IPFW [security/sshguard-ipfw] and 
IPfilter [security/sshguard-ipfilter].)  Maintenance of the pf table is handled 
entirely by sshguard.

Also, you could consider instead of having a relatively short time window in 
which the connection attempts occur, you could try lengthening it, perhaps 
increasing slightly the number of permitted connection attempts.  So, instead 
of 3/30, you might use 5/300.  That still allows legitimate users some leeway 
when typing in incorrect passwords and allows for more multiple successful 
connections, but forces automated brute force attacks to lengthen their 
connection attempt delay considerably.  The downside is that if a legitimate 
user does provoke a lockout, he or she will be locked out for a little longer.

Cheers,

Paul.

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