SSH Honeypot Project

SSH Honeypot Project

Hey Guys! I’ve always been fascinated by the cat-and-mouse game between defenders and attackers in the digital world. To better understand malicious activities targeting servers, I created an SSH Honeypot project, now open-sourced on GitHub. In this post, I’ll share the motivation behind the project, its key features, and how you can use or contribute to it.

What is an SSH Honeypot?

A honeypot is a decoy system designed to attract and monitor unauthorized access attempts. My SSH Honeypot mimics a real SSH server, luring attackers into interacting with it while logging their actions for analysis. Unlike a production server, it’s built to be probed, attacked, and studied—providing valuable insights into attacker techniques without risking actual infrastructure.

Why I Built This

SSH (Secure Shell) is a common target for brute-force attacks, credential stuffing, and other malicious activities due to its widespread use for remote server access. By deploying a honeypot, I aimed to:

• Learn about attack patterns: Capture real-world data on how attackers target SSH servers.
• Improve security practices: Use the collected data to strengthen defenses on real systems.
• Contribute to the community: Share a lightweight, easy-to-use tool for others to study or enhance.

Key Features

The SSH Honeypot is written in Python for simplicity and portability. Here’s what it offers:

• Realistic SSH Server Emulation: Mimics an SSH server to deceive attackers, responding to connection attempts in a way that feels authentic.
• Detailed Logging: Captures attacker IPs, credentials, commands, and timestamps for in-depth analysis.
• Configurable Settings: Easily adjust the port, banner, or logging format to suit your needs.
• Lightweight Design: Runs efficiently on minimal hardware, making it ideal for deployment on a VPS or local machine.
• Open Source: Licensed under MIT, inviting contributions and customization from the community.

How It Works

The honeypot listens for incoming SSH connections on a specified port. When an attacker attempts to log in, it:

1. Records the connection details (e.g., source IP, port).
2. Presents a fake authentication prompt, capturing any entered credentials.
3. Logs all interactions, including attempted commands, to a file or database.
4. Optionally bans IPs after repeated failed attempts (configurable).

The logged data can be analyzed to identify trends, such as common passwords, frequent attacker IPs, or specific attack tools.