The configuration file is located in: /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf You can use a text editor such as vi or nano to edit the file. Comments have been added to better help you understand the options.
# Fail2Ban configuration file## Author: Cyril Jaquier## $Revision: 747 $#
# The DEFAULT allows a global definition of the options. They can be override# in each jail afterwards.
[DEFAULT]
# "ignoreip" can be an IP address, a CIDR mask or a DNS host. Fail2ban will not# ban a host which matches an address in this list. Several addresses can be# defined using space separator.ignoreip = 127.0.0.1#Add another ignoreip directive here and put your ip if it doesn't change.#This will prevent you from banning yourself by accident.
# "bantime" is the number of seconds that a host is banned.bantime  = 600bantime = 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999#This effectively sets the ban infintely. Adjust to your needs. The default is 10 minutes, or 600 seconds.
# A host is banned if it has generated "maxretry" during the last "findtime"# seconds.findtime  = 600
# "maxretry" is the number of failures before a host get banned.maxretry = 3It's ok to leave this at 3, for more security or if you use keys only, set it to 1.A setting of one will ban anyone who attempts to login without a key.
# "backend" specifies the backend used to get files modification. Available# options are "gamin", "polling" and "auto". This option can be overridden in# each jail too (use "gamin" for a jail and "polling" for another).## gamin:   requires Gamin (a file alteration monitor) to be installed. If Gamin#          is not installed, Fail2ban will use polling.# polling: uses a polling algorithm which does not require external libraries.# auto:    will choose Gamin if available and polling otherwise.backend = auto
# This jail corresponds to the standard configuration in Fail2ban 0.6.# The mail-whois action send a notification e-mail with a whois request# in the body.
[ssh-iptables]
enabled  = truefilter   = sshdaction   = iptables[name=SSH, port=ssh, protocol=tcp]           sendmail-whois[name=SSH, dest=user@example.com, sender=fail2ban@example.com]logpath  = /var/log/securemaxretry = 5#This is the most popular/necessary chain, set your email destination and sender here.#This will notify you when a user is added/banned in this chain. dest= is your email#address, sender= is the address the email comes from for filtering purposes.
[proftpd-iptables]
enabled  = falsefilter   = proftpdaction   = iptables[name=ProFTPD, port=ftp, protocol=tcp]           sendmail-whois[name=ProFTPD, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.logmaxretry = 6
# This jail forces the backend to "polling".
[sasl-iptables]
enabled  = falsefilter   = saslbackend  = pollingaction   = iptables[name=sasl, port=smtp, protocol=tcp]           sendmail-whois[name=sasl, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/mail.log
# Here we use TCP-Wrappers instead of Netfilter/Iptables. "ignoreregex" is# used to avoid banning the user "myuser".
[ssh-tcpwrapper]
enabled     = falsefilter      = sshdaction      = hostsdeny              sendmail-whois[name=SSH, dest=you@mail.com]ignoreregex = for myuser fromlogpath     = /var/log/sshd.log
# This jail demonstrates the use of wildcards in "logpath".# Moreover, it is possible to give other files on a new line.
[apache-tcpwrapper]
enabled  = falsefilter	 = apache-authaction   = hostsdenylogpath  = /var/log/apache*/*error.log           /home/www/myhomepage/error.logmaxretry = 6
# The hosts.deny path can be defined with the "file" argument if it is# not in /etc.
[postfix-tcpwrapper]
enabled  = falsefilter   = postfixaction   = hostsdeny[file=/not/a/standard/path/hosts.deny]           sendmail[name=Postfix, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/postfix.logbantime  = 300
# Do not ban anybody. Just report information about the remote host.# A notification is sent at most every 600 seconds (bantime).
[vsftpd-notification]
enabled  = falsefilter   = vsftpdaction   = sendmail-whois[name=VSFTPD, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/vsftpd.logmaxretry = 5bantime  = 1800
# Same as above but with banning the IP address.
[vsftpd-iptables]
enabled  = falsefilter   = vsftpdaction   = iptables[name=VSFTPD, port=ftp, protocol=tcp]           sendmail-whois[name=VSFTPD, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/vsftpd.logmaxretry = 5bantime  = 1800
# Ban hosts which agent identifies spammer robots crawling the web# for email addresses. The mail outputs are buffered.
[apache-badbots]
enabled  = falsefilter   = apache-badbotsaction   = iptables-multiport[name=BadBots, port="http,https"]           sendmail-buffered[name=BadBots, lines=5, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/www/*/logs/access_logbantime  = 172800maxretry = 1
# Use shorewall instead of iptables.
[apache-shorewall]
enabled  = falsefilter   = apache-noscriptaction   = shorewall           sendmail[name=Postfix, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/apache2/error_log
# Ban attackers that try to use PHP's URL-fopen() functionality# through GET/POST variables. - Experimental, with more than a year# of usage in production environments.
[php-url-fopen]
enabled = falseport    = http,httpsfilter  = php-url-fopenlogpath = /var/www/*/logs/access_logmaxretry = 1
# A simple PHP-fastcgi jail which works with lighttpd.# If you run a lighttpd server, then you probably will# find these kinds of messages in your error_log:# ALERT – tried to register forbidden variable ‘GLOBALS’# through GET variables (attacker '1.2.3.4', file '/var/www/default/htdocs/index.php')# This jail would block the IP 1.2.3.4.
[lighttpd-fastcgi]
enabled = falseport    = http,httpsfilter  = lighttpd-fastcgi# adapt the following two items as neededlogpath = /var/log/lighttpd/error.logmaxretry = 2
# This jail uses ipfw, the standard firewall on FreeBSD. The "ignoreip"# option is overridden in this jail. Moreover, the action "mail-whois" defines# the variable "name" which contains a comma using "". The characters '' are# valid too.
[ssh-ipfw]
enabled  = falsefilter   = sshdaction   = ipfw[localhost=192.168.0.1]           sendmail-whois[name="SSH,IPFW", dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/auth.logignoreip = 168.192.0.1
# These jails block attacks against named (bind9). By default, logging is off# with bind9 installation. You will need something like this:## logging {#     channel security_file {#         file "/var/log/named/security.log" versions 3 size 30m;#         severity dynamic;#         print-time yes;#     };#     category security {#         security_file;#     };# };## in your named.conf to provide proper logging.# This jail blocks UDP traffic for DNS requests.
[named-refused-udp]
enabled  = falsefilter   = named-refusedaction   = iptables-multiport[name=Named, port="domain,953", protocol=udp]           sendmail-whois[name=Named, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/named/security.logignoreip = 168.192.0.1
# This jail blocks TCP traffic for DNS requests.
[named-refused-tcp]
enabled  = falsefilter   = named-refusedaction   = iptables-multiport[name=Named, port="domain,953", protocol=tcp]           sendmail-whois[name=Named, dest=you@mail.com]logpath  = /var/log/named/security.logignoreip = 168.192.0.1