Trying to set a number for failed attempts to block the IP? We can help you with it by changing the Fail2ban maxretry value.

Fail2ban works by getting information from SSH, ProFTP, Apache logs, etc..

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers regarding fail2ban as part of Server Management Services.

Today, let’s discuss maxretry in fail2ban and see how our Support Engineers change the maxretry value.

Explore more about maxretry

Fail2ban scans log files and ban IPs that sign malicious. It is mainly used to protect servers from brute-force attacks.

The maxretry in fail2ban lets us set the number of failed attempts for the IP address to be blocked in the server.

By default, the value is set to 3. However, we can modify it based on our requirements.

How we change Fail2ban maxretry?

Recently one of our customers requested us to change the fail2ban maxentry for SSH connection. Let’s see how our Support Engineers change the maxentry.

Changing Fail2ban maxretry in server

The fail2ban configuration files are present in /etc/fail2ban/ and the ssh filter is present in /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/sshd.conf.

To change the maxretry we open the file jail.local located at

vi /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

The default configuration file is fail2ban.conf. So, we advise our customers to create a separate configuration file jail.conf and manage from it.

Now we locate the ssh host in the file and change the maxretry to 5.

[ssh]
enabled = true
port = 4354
filter = sshd
logpath = /var/log/auth.log
maxretry = 5

After making the changes we save the file.

Finally, we restart the service by running the following command.

service fail2ban restart

Changing Fail2ban maxretry in Plesk

From the Plesk panel, we can block the IP address based on the number of failed attempts. Let’s now go through the steps to do the same.

1. First, we log in to Plesk using an administrator account.

2. Next, we go to Tools & Settings and click on IP Address Banning(Fail2Ban). Then we click on the settings tab.

3. We can specify the number in “Number of failures before the IP address is banned”

4. Finally, we apply the changes.

It will automatically block the IP address after the number of login attempts failed.

Possible error for Fail2ban maxretry

Let’s discuss the possible errors for the IP address not banned in fail2ban.

IP not blocked in maxretry

This usually occurs when the findtime is incorrect. The findtime will count the number of failed attempts. And the default time is 10 minutes.

So if there are 5 login attempts failure within 10 minutes fail2ban will block the IP. Else the IP will not be blocked. We can make the changes to findtime based on our requirements.

Incorrect entry in jail.local

If the configuration is incorrect in the jail.local file. As a result, it will not blacklist the IP. Our Support Engineers always make sure the details in the configuration are right.

[Need any assistance in fixing Fail2ban errors? We’ll help you]

Conclusion

In short, we have discussed the fail2ban maxretry. We have also discussed how our Support Engineers set maxretry for SSH and the possible error.