I finally got fed up with the attempts to crack my ssh server. I’ve taken the usual precautions with its configuration- I just don’t like the idea of unimpeded attempts at cracking it.
I looked at a bunch of different ways to deal with it but most seemed too complicated for my purposes. All I really wanted was something that would shut down an attacker after some number of consecutive failed attempts. I found Denyhosts today and liked what I saw, particularly its simplicity. So I decided to give it a go.
It didn’t disappoint, shuting off a new attacker this evening. When it started for the first time, it also scans the logs for previous attempts and shuts them down as well. If I had more complicated access needs it might not be quite the thing. But given my fairly straight forward needs, it looks like it’ll be just fine.