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Stop Brute Force Attacks: How I Automated My Homelab Security with Fail2ban

Okay, so I’ve been spending a lot of time building out my homelab over the last few months. It’s been super rewarding, but it’s also meant I’ve been thinking a *lot* about security. Seriously, running services open to the internet is awesome, but it also opens you up to potential problems – like, you know, brute force attacks. I wasn’t thrilled about constantly having to manually block IPs after a particularly aggressive surge in failed login attempts. That’s where I stumbled upon Fail2ban, and honestly, it’s been a total lifesaver.

I’m not a cybersecurity expert, by any means. But I realized that I didn’t want to spend all my time reacting to these attacks. I wanted something that would quietly monitor my services, detect the bad guys, and block them automatically. And that’s exactly what Fail2ban does.

What Exactly *Is* Fail2ban?

Basically, Fail2ban acts like a vigilant guard for your servers. It keeps an eye on your system logs – things like SSH login attempts, web server access logs – and looks for patterns that indicate a brute force attack. Think of it like this: if someone tries to log in to your SSH server dozens of times with the wrong password, Fail2ban notices and automatically blocks that IP address.

It’s incredibly simple to set up, which was a huge plus for me. It doesn’t require a ton of technical knowledge. And the best part? It sends you notifications so you know when something’s going on.

How I Set It Up (It’s Easier Than You Think)

I’ll be honest, the initial setup took me about 30 minutes, including configuring the Discord notifications. I followed a pretty straightforward guide, and honestly, it was a really good learning experience. I documented the entire process, and you can find the guide here: https://akashrajpurohit.com/blog/fail2ban-protecting-your-homelab-from-brute-force-attacks/. Seriously, check it out – it’s a great starting point.

Here’s a breakdown of the steps I took:

• Installation: It’s pretty easy to install Fail2ban using your distribution’s package manager (e.g., apt, yum).
• Configuration: The core of Fail2ban is its “jails.” A jail is a configuration file that tells Fail2ban which log files to monitor, what to look for, and what action to take (usually blocking an IP).
• Discord Notifications: I set up a webhook to send notifications to my Discord server whenever an IP is blocked. It’s incredibly useful for getting alerted to suspicious activity.

What I’m Protecting

Currently, I’ve got Fail2ban running on a few of my services: my SSH server, my Nginx reverse proxy, Vaultwarden (for my key management), and Jellyfin (my media server). It’s a surprisingly effective combination.

The Results So Far

And the really cool thing is, it’s been *completely* hands-off. I’ve had a couple of IPs that attempted brute force attacks, and Fail2ban automatically blocked them. I didn’t have to lift a finger. I still add some of the common ones directly on the Cloudflare as well, just as a double layer of protection.

The Discord notifications are fantastic. Instead of constantly checking my logs – which is a huge time sink – I get a notification when something happens. It gives me a really good overview of what’s going on without needing to dive into the details every time.

Next Steps & What I’m Exploring

This has really opened my eyes to how important automation is for security. I’m planning on expanding Fail2ban to protect even more of my services. I’m also looking into other “set it and forget it” security tools—any recommendations?

Seriously, if you’re running any services exposed to the internet, I highly recommend giving Fail2ban a try. It’s a simple, effective, and surprisingly powerful tool for protecting your homelab.