fail2ban does not start jails on cenots 7

Question

SOLVED - sshd conf file was in wrong directory and with wrong extension

i have fallowed this tutorial htf and everything went smoothly, fail2ban starts nicely, i disabled selinux just in case, but sshd jail just does not start. I tried messing with config and when there is some mistake fail2ban does not start but when i remove stuff i changed then it starts but there are no jails.

so fallowing the tutorial i made file /etc/fail2ban/sshd.local

[sshd]
enabled = true
port = ssh
action = firewallcmd-ipset
logpath = %(sshd_log)s
maxretry = 5
bantime = 86400

i also tried to put path to logfile( logpath = /var/log/secure) instead of logpath = %(sshd_log)s but there is still no sshd jail:

Status
|- Number of jail:  0
`- Jail list:

i changed logging level to DEBUG in /etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.conf

[DEFAULT]

# Option: loglevel
# Notes.: Set the log level output.
#         CRITICAL
#         ERROR
#         WARNING
#         NOTICE
#         INFO
#         DEBUG
# Values: [ LEVEL ]  Default: ERROR
#
loglevel = DEBUG

with a bit more loggin inside of /var/log/fail2ban.log but i only get a tiny bit more logging which is irrelevant to jails.

2021-07-14 19:14:49,952 fail2ban.server         [19586]: INFO    Starting Fail2ban v0.11.1
2021-07-14 19:14:49,953 fail2ban.server         [19586]: DEBUG   Creating PID file /var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.pid
2021-07-14 19:14:49,953 fail2ban.observer       [19586]: INFO    Observer start...
2021-07-14 19:14:49,954 fail2ban.server         [19586]: DEBUG   Starting communication
2021-07-14 19:14:49,961 fail2ban.database       [19586]: INFO    Connected to fail2ban persistent database '/var/lib/fail2ban/fail2ban.sqlite3'
2021-07-14 19:14:49,964 fail2ban.transmitter    [19586]: DEBUG   Status: ready

I also made changes in /etc/fail2ban/jail.local where i replaced:

backend = auto

to

backend = polling

i was wondering if anyone know what tools are on my disposal to debug not working jails?

how should `sshd.local` be fetched by any config file? i only know about `jail.local` — djdomi, Jul 19 '21 at 09:15

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 14 '21 at 18:15

0

You placed your jail configuration file in the wrong directory.

To wit:

/etc/fail2ban/sshd.local

Fail2ban will never read this file because it is misplaced.

Jail definitions should be placed in the /etc/fail2ban/jail.d directory with a name ending in .conf. A quick and dirty one off can also be placed in /etc/fail2ban/jail.local but this is less maintainable.

answered Jul 14 '21 at 18:15

Michael Hampton

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wow you are right, i read the tutorial million times to check if i did everything correctly and somehow i keep making the same mistake. Thank you – Belutak Jul 15 '21 at 10:24
@Belutak Remember to mark it as solved by clicking the tick mark so that it turns solid green. – Michael Hampton Jul 15 '21 at 12:58
i thought its in my post and took me a wile to find it :D – Belutak Jul 20 '21 at 12:42

fail2ban does not start jails on cenots 7

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