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Configure Brute Force Protection in OneView

Brute Force Protection is configured in the policy settings of your Malwarebytes OneView console. Based on these configurations, the Malwarebytes Endpoint Agent monitors the event log for failed Windows™ protocol login attempts, creates detection events and optionally creates a Windows Firewall rule to temporarily block the incoming IP address.

Watch this video for an overview of the brute force protection settings in OneView. 

Requirements

In order to enable Brute Force Protection, your endpoints must be running:

  • Workstations: minimum version Windows 7
  • Servers: minimum version Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Firewall

Supported protocols:

  • Workstations and servers:
    • RDP: Monitors Windows workstations and servers RDP protocol.
  • Servers only: 
    • FTP: Monitors FTP server application included with Windows servers.
    • IMAP: Monitors IMAP connections on Microsoft Exchange servers. 
    • Microsoft SQL: Monitors connections on Microsoft SQL servers and SQL Server Express. 
    • POP3:Monitors POP3 connections on Microsoft Exchange servers. 
    • SMTP: Monitors SMTP connections on Microsoft Exchange servers.
    • SSH: Monitors SSH connections on Windows Servers.

IMPORTANT: Enabling this feature may enable the Windows Firewall, depending on how attacks are handled in the Trigger rule:

  • Block mode: Windows Firewall is automatically enabled; attacks are blocked for the defined time period, and reported.
  • Monitor and detect mode: Windows Firewall is not enabled; attacks are only reported.
    • Network gateway devices are not blocked if they are configured as the single source of all inbound network traffic.

Brute Force protection

To configure Brute Force Protection:

  1. Log in to Malwarebytes OneView.
  2. On the left navigation menu, go to Configure > Policies.
  3. Select a policy. Then select the Brute force protection tab.
  4. Select the following protocols for your workstations or servers:
    • Workstation and server protocols: Check mark the RDP protocol.
    • Server-only protocols: Check mark the FTP, IMAP, MSSQL, POP3, SMTP, or SSH protocols.
  5. Change Port fields based on your endpoint environment and protocol requirements. 
    • Workstation and server protocols: You may specify a custom port to monitor. Leave this blank to auto detect the port used on the endpoint based on the operating system.
    • Server-only protocols: These are defaulted to the Windows recommended port settings. Manually configure your port protocols if your server protocol settings are different from the Windows default ports. 
  6. Create a Trigger rule based on the number of failed remote login attempts within a certain minute range across all enabled protocols. Choose to either block the IP address, or monitor and detect the event when the trigger threshold is reached.
  7. Optionally, check mark the Prevent private network connections from being blocked option. When enabled, endpoints within private network address ranges will not trigger Brute Force Protection due to failed login attempts. This excludes the following network ranges:
    • 10.0.0.0/8 (10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255)
    • 172.16.0.0/12 (172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255)
    • 192.168.0.0/16 (192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255)
    • 127.0.0.0/8 (127.0.0.0-127.255.255.255)
  8. Click Save at the top-right of your policy.

When your Brute Force Protection rule is triggered, the event is logged on your Detections page as an intrusion based on the protocol triggered. If your rule is set to block, a Windows Firewall rule is created on the endpoint and the event displays on the Monitor > Brute Force Protection page. For more information, see Brute Force Protection in Nebula.

 

Return to the Malwarebytes OneView User Guide.

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