Your network authentication should not be a fun game or series of Rube Goldberg contraptions.
Use-cases:
1. helps auto-ban hosts doing port-scans or using online vulnerability scanners
2. helps reduce further ingress for a few minutes as the hostile sees the site is "down". Generally, try to waste as much of a problem users time as possible, as it changes the economics of breaking networked systems.
3. the firewall rule-trigger delay means hostiles have a harder time guessing which action triggered a IP ban. If every login attempt costs 3 days, folks would have to be pretty committed to breaking into a simple website.
4. keeps failed login log noise to a minimum, so spotting actual problems is easier
5. Easier to forensically analyze the remote packet stream when doing a packet dump tap, as only the key user traffic is present
6. buys time to patch vulnerable code when zero day exploits hits other hosts exposed services
7. most administrative ssh password-less key traffic should be tunneled over SSL web services, and thus attackers have a greater challenge figuring out if dynamic service-switching is even active
People that say it isn't a "security policy" are somewhat correct, but are also naive when it comes to the reality of dealing with nuisance web traffic.
Fail2ban is slightly different in that it is for setting up tripwires for failed email logins, and known web-vulnerability scanners etc. Then whispering that IP ban period to the firewall (must override the default config.)
Finally, if the IP address for some application login session changes more than 5 times an hour, one should also whisper a ban to the firewalls. These IP ban rules are often automatically shared between groups to reduce forum spam, VoIP attacks, and problem users. Popular cloud-based VPN/proxies/Tor-exit-nodes run out of unique IPs faster than most assume.
Have a nice day, =3
Don’t waste resources putting lipstick on the pig.
"Don’t waste resources putting lipstick on the pig."
I would never kink-shame someone that ignored the recent CVE-2025-48416, that proved exposing unprotected services is naive =3
But I see you’ve backpedaled to this being about log noise, not security.
One may believe whatever they like, as both our intentions are clear friend.
Have a wonderful day =3
99.98% of hostile traffic simply reuse already published testing tools, or services like Shodan to target hosts.
One shouldn't waste resources guessing the motives behind problem traffic. =3
You're back on prevention instead of detection, but also no: an attacker with valid creds isn't going to run other checks first before using them.
And yes: by volume, most attacks on the internet are just spam reusing published tools and IP lists. And that traffic is zero percent risky unless your auth is already busted.
Well it's a waste of our time and resources. I'm not just going to let people make 100 requests per second for no reason?