Custom fail2ban Filter for phpMyadmin bruteforce attempts

Question

In my quest to block excessive failed phpMyAdmin login attempts with fail2ban, I've created a script that logs said failed attempts to a file: /var/log/phpmyadmin_auth.log

Custom log

The format of the /var/log/phpmyadmin_auth.log file is:

phpMyadmin login failed with username: root; ip: 192.168.1.50; url: http://somedomain.com/phpmyadmin/index.php
phpMyadmin login failed with username: ; ip: 192.168.1.50; url: http://192.168.1.48/phpmyadmin/index.php

Custom filter

[Definition]

# Count all bans in the logfile
failregex = phpMyadmin login failed with username: .*; ip: <HOST>;

phpMyAdmin jail

[phpmyadmin]

enabled  = true
port    = http,https
filter   = phpmyadmin
action   = sendmail-whois[name=HTTP]
logpath  = /var/log/phpmyadmin_auth.log
maxretry = 6

The fail2ban log contains:

2012-10-04 10:52:22,756 fail2ban.server : INFO   Stopping all jails
2012-10-04 10:52:23,091 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh-iptables' stopped
2012-10-04 10:52:23,866 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'fail2ban' stopped
2012-10-04 10:52:23,994 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh' stopped
2012-10-04 10:52:23,994 fail2ban.server : INFO   Exiting Fail2ban
2012-10-04 10:52:24,253 fail2ban.server : INFO   Changed logging target to /var/log/fail2ban.log for Fail2ban v0.8.6
2012-10-04 10:52:24,253 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Creating new jail 'ssh'
2012-10-04 10:52:24,253 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh' uses poller
2012-10-04 10:52:24,260 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Added logfile = /var/log/auth.log
2012-10-04 10:52:24,260 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set maxRetry = 6
2012-10-04 10:52:24,261 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set findtime = 600
2012-10-04 10:52:24,261 fail2ban.actions: INFO   Set banTime = 600
2012-10-04 10:52:24,279 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Creating new jail 'ssh-iptables'
2012-10-04 10:52:24,279 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh-iptables' uses poller
2012-10-04 10:52:24,279 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Added logfile = /var/log/auth.log
2012-10-04 10:52:24,280 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set maxRetry = 5
2012-10-04 10:52:24,280 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set findtime = 600
2012-10-04 10:52:24,280 fail2ban.actions: INFO   Set banTime = 600
2012-10-04 10:52:24,287 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Creating new jail 'fail2ban'
2012-10-04 10:52:24,287 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'fail2ban' uses poller
2012-10-04 10:52:24,287 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Added logfile = /var/log/fail2ban.log
2012-10-04 10:52:24,287 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set maxRetry = 3
2012-10-04 10:52:24,288 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set findtime = 604800
2012-10-04 10:52:24,288 fail2ban.actions: INFO   Set banTime = 604800
2012-10-04 10:52:24,292 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh' started
2012-10-04 10:52:24,293 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh-iptables' started
2012-10-04 10:52:24,297 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'fail2ban' started

When I issue:

sudo service fail2ban restart

fail2ban emails me to say ssh has restarted, but I receive no such email about my phpmyadmin jail. Repeated failed logins to phpMyAdmin does not cause an email to be sent.

Have I missed some critical setup? Is my filter's regular expression wrong?

Update: added changes from default installation

Starting with a clean fail2ban installation:

cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

Change email address to my own, action to:

action = %(action_mwl)s

Append the following to jail.local

[phpmyadmin]

enabled  = true
port     = http,https
filter   = phpmyadmin
action   = sendmail-whois[name=HTTP]
logpath  = /var/log/phpmyadmin_auth.log
maxretry = 4

Add the following to /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/phpmyadmin.conf

# phpmyadmin configuration file
#
# Author: Michael Robinson
#

[Definition]

# Option:  failregex
# Notes.:  regex to match the password failures messages in the logfile. The
#          host must be matched by a group named "host". The tag "<HOST>" can
#          be used for standard IP/hostname matching and is only an alias for
#          (?:::f{4,6}:)?(?P<host>\S+)
# Values:  TEXT
#

# Count all bans in the logfile
failregex = phpMyadmin login failed with username: .*; ip: <HOST>;

# Option:  ignoreregex
# Notes.:  regex to ignore. If this regex matches, the line is ignored.
# Values:  TEXT
#

# Ignore our own bans, to keep our counts exact.
# In your config, name your jail 'fail2ban', or change this line!
ignoreregex =

Restart fail2ban

sudo service fail2ban restart

PS: I like eggs

It seems that it isn't picking up your new jail in the configuration. Please specify exactly which files you changed. — mgorven, Oct 05 '12 at 00:58
@mgorven I've update my question with a comprehensive overview of what I changed — Michael Robinson, Oct 05 '12 at 01:11
Are these actual login attempts to your phpmyadmin instance or are they simply scanners *looking* for phpmyadmin? — Scott Pack, Feb 03 '13 at 16:52

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 29 '16 at 08:15

9

That's fine but why not using the apache functionality to log failed logins ?

Add these lines to your Apache Config (i.e:/etc/apache2/conf.d/phpmyadmin.conf) in the according VirtualHost Section:

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %{userID}n %{userStatus}n" pma_combined
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/phpmyadmin_access.log pma_combined

Then create the fail2ban filter:

/etc/fail2ban/filter.d/phpmyadmin.conf

[Definition]
denied = mysql-denied|allow-denied|root-denied|empty-denied
failregex = ^<HOST> -.*(?:%(denied)s)$
ignoreregex =

Now add the jail to /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

[phpmyadmin]
enabled = true
port = http,https
filter = phpmyadmin
logpath = /var/log/apache2/phpmyadmin_access.log

Restart apache and fail2ban:

service  apache2 reload
service fail2ban reload

and you are done, no need of php scripts so on..

edited Feb 29 '16 at 08:15

Community

1

answered Feb 18 '15 at 07:22

spacebiker

358
4
14

3

Please don't edit directly `jail.conf`, create instead a copy `jail.local` – NineCattoRules Feb 27 '16 at 10:59
You are right @Simone, I modified my answer, thanks – spacebiker Feb 29 '16 at 08:14
I'm having a problem with the solution. Please see: http://serverfault.com/questions/815396/why-would-fail2ban-wont-work-with-phpmyadmin – Nov 17 '16 at 00:23

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 03 '13 at 16:51

You should change your script to include timestamp in log files. Without this, fail2ban will not work
use fail2ban-regex /var/log/phpmyadmin_auth.log /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/phpmyadmin.conf to verify your regex first.

I could start fail2ban successfully using your original configuration (prior to jail.local)

Oct  7 00:42:07 hostname yum: Installed: python-inotify-0.9.1-1.el5.noarch 
Oct  7 00:42:08 hostname yum: Installed: fail2ban-0.8.4-29.el5.noarch
Oct  7 00:42:10 hostname yum: Installed: phpMyAdmin-2.11.11.3-2.el5.noarch
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.server : INFO   Changed logging target to SYSLOG for Fail2ban v0.8.4
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Creating new jail 'phpmyadmin'
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'phpmyadmin' uses Gamin
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set maxRetry = 2
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set findtime = 600
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.actions: INFO   Set banTime = 600
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Creating new jail 'ssh-iptables'
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh-iptables' uses Gamin
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.filter : INFO   Added logfile = /var/log/secure
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set maxRetry = 5
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set findtime = 600
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.actions: INFO   Set banTime = 600
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'phpmyadmin' started
Oct  7 01:01:03 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh-iptables' started
Oct  7 01:10:54 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'phpmyadmin' stopped
Oct  7 01:10:55 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'ssh-iptables' stopped
Oct  7 01:10:55 hostname fail2ban.server : INFO   Exiting Fail2ban
Oct  7 01:10:56 hostname fail2ban.server : INFO   Changed logging target to SYSLOG for Fail2ban v0.8.4
Oct  7 01:10:56 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Creating new jail 'phpmyadmin'
Oct  7 01:10:56 hostname fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Jail 'phpmyadmin' uses Gamin
Oct  7 01:10:56 hostname fail2ban.filter : INFO   Added logfile = /var/log/phpmyadmin_auth.log

Once correct regex are in place, you can use audit to see whether your file is accessed or not by fail2ban.

I used auditctl -w /var/log/phpmyadmin_auth.log -p warx -k phpmyadmin_fail2ban

I'm having a problem with the solution, please see: http://serverfault.com/questions/815396/why-would-fail2ban-wont-work-with-phpmyadmin — , Nov 17 '16 at 00:24

Custom fail2ban Filter for phpMyadmin bruteforce attempts

Update: added changes from default installation

2 Answers2

Linked