Secure SSH with Fail2Ban ​

Securing the SSH server under Linux is crucial to close potential security gaps. A proven method to improve security is to use Fail2Ban, a software that automatically blocks malicious or suspicious connections.

Here are the steps to set up Fail2Ban to secure the SSH server:

1. install Fail2Ban:
   1. open the terminal on your Linux system.
   2. run the command sudo apt-get install fail2ban to install Fail2Ban.
   3. wait until the installation is complete.
2. customize the configuration file:
   1. navigate to the directory /etc/fail2ban/.
   2. open the file jail.conf or jail.local (if available) with a text editor.
   3. search for the section [sshd] and adjust the settings to your needs and add enabled=true in this section to enable Fail2Ban. For example, you can set the maximum number of attempts maxretry and the ban time bantime.
   4. save the changes and close the file.
3. restart the Fail2Ban service:
   1. run the command sudo service fail2ban restart to restart the Fail2Ban service.
   2. check if the service has started successfully by checking the status with the command sudo service fail2ban status.

Using Fail2Ban in conjunction with proper configuration provides an additional layer of protection against brute force attacks and other malicious activity on your SSH server.