SSH – Fix ‘Did Not Receive Identification String’ in SSHD Log

ssh

Mar  2 02:34:02 freetalker3 sshd[28436]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:08 freetalker3 sshd[28439]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:13 freetalker3 sshd[28442]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:19 freetalker3 sshd[28445]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:24 freetalker3 sshd[28448]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:30 freetalker3 sshd[28451]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:35 freetalker3 sshd[28454]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:41 freetalker3 sshd[28457]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:46 freetalker3 sshd[28460]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:52 freetalker3 sshd[28463]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:34:57 freetalker3 sshd[28466]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:35:03 freetalker3 sshd[28469]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:35:08 freetalker3 sshd[28472]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:35:14 freetalker3 sshd[28475]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:35:20 freetalker3 sshd[28478]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:35:25 freetalker3 sshd[28481]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:35:31 freetalker3 sshd[28484]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50
Mar  2 02:35:36 freetalker3 sshd[28488]: Did not receive identification string from 211.110.33.50

My /var/log/auth.log is full of these messages, spammed every 6 seconds.
my server is on vps and the ip seems like it is an internal ip. what could be the cause of this issue?

Best Answer

Some miscreant (surprise!) is hammering at ssh to try to find a username/password combination that gets them into the system. Probably from some botnet doing the same to who knows how many other unsuspecting victims.

Install something like fail2ban or DenyHosts (some of both should be available for any Linux distribution), or set up your local firewall to limit SSH connection attempts. Changing the SSH port makes the dumb brute force tries fail, but it also makes legitimate uses fail.

Related Topic