Using Fail2ban with Dovecot

If you're using Dovecot v1.1 or older, you need to log via syslog. Otherwise log files contain "dovecot: " prefix, which fail2ban doesn't like. v1.2+ no longer have this prefix. You can use syslogging by setting log_path to empty value in dovecot.conf.

Create the filter file /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/dovecot-pop3imap.conf:

[Definition]
failregex = (?: pop3-login|imap-login): .*(?:Authentication failure|Aborted login \(auth failed|Aborted login \(tried to use disabled|Disconnected \(auth failed|Aborted login \(\d+ authentication attempts).*rip=(?P<host>\S*),.*
ignoreregex =

Add the following to /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf:

[dovecot-pop3imap]
enabled = true
filter = dovecot-pop3imap
action = iptables-multiport[name=dovecot-pop3imap, port="pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps", protocol=tcp]
# optionaly mail notification # mail[name=dovecot-pop3imap, dest=root@domain] # see /etc/fail2ban/action.d/ or Fail2Ban doc
logpath = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 20
findtime = 1200
bantime = 1200

For Debian and Ubuntu put this into /etc/fail2ban/jail.local (you should not edit /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf)

[dovecot-pop3imap]
enabled = true
filter = dovecot-pop3imap
port = pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps
action = iptables-multiport[name=dovecot-pop3imap, port="pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps", protocol=tcp]
# optionaly mail notification # mail[name=dovecot-pop3imap, dest=root@domain] # see /etc/fail2ban/action.d/ or Fail2Ban doc
logpath = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 20
findtime = 1200
bantime = 1200

(Set the logpath to wherever your syslog has been configured to log Dovecot's login messages.)

See also SSHGuard, which supports dovecot natively.

Note: The iptables-multiport action does not generally work with OpenVPS based VPS's due to a missing Kernel library.