Can I Use iptables rate limiting to temporarily block FTP server brute-force attempts?

Question

This is along a similar line to other posts on brute-force attacks, but a bit more specific:

We are able to enforce decent passwords, generally, and user name policy also avoids falling prey to what 99.9% of the brute-force FTP stuff is trying... but I see no reason to allow thousands of attempts endlessly, and they can sometimes make fill the log files with lots of noise that makes it harder to find potentially more targeted things.

So, for passive FTP, would some sane rate-limiting in iptables for incoming TCP 21 be reasonably effective at cutting off the massive numbers of failed attempts while not ever getting in the way of normal use? I presume that this would be done via rate-limiting connections from the same IP to TCP 21.. is that correct? Are there problems I'm not thinking of there?

Next, then; what would you suggest for a simple iptables command on a bastion firewall/router to just put in some protection against the hardest/fastest hitting brute-force attacks? My thinking would be something along the lines of a trigger of 25 connections (on the principle that a successful login would be only a single connection to TCP 21) within a minute or so, and then a block for a half hour. Do those numbers seem reasonable?

(other info: this is for a debian firewall/router which protects a DMZ of mixed OSs)

Answer 1

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 21 -m state --state NEW -m recent \
         --name ftpattack --set

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 21 -m state --state NEW -m recent \
         --name ftpattack --rcheck --seconds 60 --hitcount 4 -j LOG \
         --log-prefix 'FTP REJECT: '

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 21 -m state --state NEW -m recent \
         --name ftpattack --rcheck --seconds 60 --hitcount 4 -j REJECT \
         --reject-with tcp-reset

these rules near or at the top of your ruleset will allow only three connections to port 21, from any given IP address, in a rolling 60-second window. To allow n, use --hitcount n+1; to use a bigger window than 60 seconds, increase --seconds 60.

Answer 2

As MadHatter had mentioned, the recent module is what you want to use however you also need to be able to limit the number of login attempts a user is able to try in a single TCP connection. If the user can try 1000 attempts before they are forced to disconnect and reconnect then limiting connections via the recent module is pretty fruitless. You would need to say (through configuration of the FTP daemon - see the docs for that) that the user is only allowed to try to login say 5 times per each connection and then use a recent rule to say if they connect more then say 5 times within a minute then block them. Yes allowing 25 attempts does sound high but not nearly enough for brute force and help avoid a lot of false positives. I use rules similar to this with SSH and the OpenSSH server option MaxAuthTries. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Use Denyhosts... 3 strikes- your out!

It works like a charm..

Or.. more hardcore.. a dedicated firewall with Snort/IDS

Hope this helps