Installing and Configuring SSHGuard on Ubuntu 20.04 to Prevent Brute Force Attacks

SSHGuard is a powerful tool designed to prevent brute force attacks on your system by continuously monitoring the logs for suspicious activity. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and configure SSHGuard on Ubuntu 20.04.

Installing SSHGuard

To start with, make sure that your package information is up-to-date by running `sudo apt update`. Then, you can install SSHGuard using the following command: `sudo apt-get install sshguard`.

Configuring SSHGuard

After installation, we need to configure the SSHGuard configuration file, which can be found at `/etc/sshguard/nf.conf`. This file contains various directives that control the behavior of SSHGuard. Let's highlight some of these directives:

* THRESHOLD: specifies the number of attempts after which a user will be blocked.

* BACKEND: specifies the path to the system firewall backend.

The default remote host ban period is 120 seconds, and each successive failed login attempt increases the ban time by a factor of 1.5. You can configure these values in the SSHGuard configuration file.

Monitoring and Blocking

SSHGuard continuously monitors the system logs for suspicious activity. Once it detects such activity, it immediately blocks the IP using firewall backends like pf, iptables, and ipfw. It also keeps track of the login attempts or malicious activity, making it easier to identify and block future attacks.

Preventing Brute Force Attacks

SSHGuard is designed to prevent brute force attacks by monitoring the system logs for suspicious activity. By configuring SSHGuard correctly, you can prevent these types of attacks and keep your system secure.

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install and configure SSHGuard on Ubuntu 20.04 to prevent brute force attacks. With its ability to monitor system logs and block suspicious IP addresses, SSHGuard is a powerful tool for enhancing the security of your system.

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