__      _ _ ___ _               
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                   v0.9.0                  2014/03/14

Fail2Ban: ban hosts that cause multiple authentication errors

Fail2Ban scans log files like /var/log/pwdfail and bans IP that makes too many password failures. It updates firewall rules to reject the IP address. These rules can be defined by the user. Fail2Ban can read multiple log files such as sshd or Apache web server ones.

Fail2Ban is able to reduce the rate of incorrect authentications attempts however it cannot eliminate the risk that weak authentication presents. Configure services to use only two factor or public/private authentication mechanisms if you really want to protect services.

This README is a quick introduction to Fail2ban. More documentation, FAQ, HOWTOs are available in fail2ban(1) manpage and on the website http://www.fail2ban.org

Installation:

It is possible that Fail2ban is already packaged for your distribution. In this case, you should use it instead.

Required:

• Python2 >= 2.6 or Python >= 3.2 or PyPy

Optional:

• pyinotify >= 0.8.3
  • Linux >= 2.6.13
• gamin >= 0.0.21
• systemd >= 204

To install, just do:

tar xvfj fail2ban-0.9.0.tar.bz2
cd fail2ban-0.9.0
python setup.py install

This will install Fail2Ban into the python library directory. The executable scripts are placed into /usr/bin, and configuration under /etc/fail2ban.

Fail2Ban should be correctly installed now. Just type:

fail2ban-client -h

to see if everything is alright. You should always use fail2ban-client and never call fail2ban-server directly.

Configuration:

You can configure Fail2Ban using the files in /etc/fail2ban. It is possible to configure the server using commands sent to it by fail2ban-client. The available commands are described in the fail2ban-client(1) manpage. Also see fail2ban(1) and jail.conf(5) manpages for further references.

Code status:

• travis-ci.org (master branch)

• 

Contact:

You found a severe security vulnerability in Fail2Ban?

email details to fail2ban-vulnerabilities at lists dot sourceforge dot net .

You need some new features, you found bugs?

visit Issues and if your issue is not yet known -- file a bug report. See Fail2Ban wiki on further instructions.

You would like to troubleshoot or discuss?

join the mailing list

You would like to contribute (new filters/actions/code/documentation)?

send a pull request

You just appreciate this program:

send kudos to the original author ([Cyril Jaquier](mailto: Cyril Jaquier cyril.jaquier@fail2ban.org) or better to the mailing list since Fail2Ban is "community-driven" for years now.

Thanks:

See THANKS file.

License:

Fail2Ban is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Fail2Ban is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Fail2Ban; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA