Website Security
I've got a website running from home that's private and not there for the world to see but actually for myself and some friends.
I checked the logs this weekend and noticed 9 or so attempts on the site with several vulnerability scanners.
So I'm trying to improve security. Using the robots.txt method, I've blocked access from user agents such as googlebots etc. I can see that this is working.
What I want to do now is block entire countries from accessing the site. I know about .htaccess and guess the easiest & most efficient way would be to put a single rule of;
"allow UK"
rather than
"block ip address range of the world"
What can I do to simply allow UK (& if poss Ireland) IP access only, while keeping the bandwidth to a minimum.
I found a site that creates rules for you, but it seems a bit tacky, so I don't know wether to trust it.
I've added the htaccess file I'll be using with the full IP range list for the UK & Ireland from another source. Would .htaccess with the following code work? Or can you suggest a better method.
Note: Bear in mind I've excluded the majority of the code/ips on this page.
I checked the logs this weekend and noticed 9 or so attempts on the site with several vulnerability scanners.
So I'm trying to improve security. Using the robots.txt method, I've blocked access from user agents such as googlebots etc. I can see that this is working.
What I want to do now is block entire countries from accessing the site. I know about .htaccess and guess the easiest & most efficient way would be to put a single rule of;
"allow UK"
rather than
"block ip address range of the world"
What can I do to simply allow UK (& if poss Ireland) IP access only, while keeping the bandwidth to a minimum.
I found a site that creates rules for you, but it seems a bit tacky, so I don't know wether to trust it.
I've added the htaccess file I'll be using with the full IP range list for the UK & Ireland from another source. Would .htaccess with the following code work? Or can you suggest a better method.
Note: Bear in mind I've excluded the majority of the code/ips on this page.
<Limit GET HEAD POST>
order deny,allow
# Country: UNITED KINGDOM
# ISO Code: GB
# Total Networks: 3,691
# Total Subnets: 70,634,584
allow from 91.209.254.0/24
allow from 91.210.68.0/22
allow from 91.210.100.0/22
allow fr.................... - Several Hundred lines of ip's
............om 217.204.0.0/14
#
# Country: IRELAND
# ISO Code: IE
# Total Networks: 221
# Total Subnets: 4,200,096
#
......................... - More ip's
............om 7.115.112.0/20
allow from 217.173.208.0/20
#
deny from all
</Limit>
Dave Howe
there is no master requirement that all uk sites use a specific IP range - really, you are better off just using something like .htaccess to require a user/pass to access the site - or use site software like a bboard that has built-in user/pass support. If you want to, you can even make a site SSL only *and* require that a specific client certificate be used to access it, but that is usually overkill for a hobby site.
What benefit do you think there will be if you only allow an entire country's ip range in forms of security? Not only that, but it's rather easy to spoof yourself to have come from a United Kingdom ip address. If you let me know a bit more about your intentions, I might be able to help a bit more with what you want.
ASKER
Well the problem I'm having is mainly with attempts on security of my website. As I'm running this from a computer at home I don't want people to get onto my webserver or network who I'm not allowing. If people are going to continue testing my site for vulnerabilities then I want to restrict access for them completely.
There is no point in adding a bulletin board as I don't currently have one and don't intend on it. Plus that's not the attacks I'm getting. Vulnerability scanners are attempting on the site. Also adding php or whatever gives more room for attacks through SQL injection etc plus I have no need to add all that. SSL is all fine too, but that means people will then need to have been issued a certificate or I get one signed, and this still allows people access, that just encypts information. Spoofing is ok as it's more work for them, and most of them being script kiddies would prob not know what they are doing with their automated bits of software. It's mainly FTP/SFTP, with an already htaccess'd members area on a basic HTML site. The problem with htaccess is it's open to DOS attacks.
I don't want to htaccess the complete site as I do have a public section, but it's only worth showing this to the Uk.
The IP Ranges I have are ok for me as all friendly ips (although dynamic) are within these ranges. All one's that have attacked my webserver are not.
Back to the original question.... Don't worry about the ranges. I know the ranges I've got listed are fine for me. Is the code correct?
There is no point in adding a bulletin board as I don't currently have one and don't intend on it. Plus that's not the attacks I'm getting. Vulnerability scanners are attempting on the site. Also adding php or whatever gives more room for attacks through SQL injection etc plus I have no need to add all that. SSL is all fine too, but that means people will then need to have been issued a certificate or I get one signed, and this still allows people access, that just encypts information. Spoofing is ok as it's more work for them, and most of them being script kiddies would prob not know what they are doing with their automated bits of software. It's mainly FTP/SFTP, with an already htaccess'd members area on a basic HTML site. The problem with htaccess is it's open to DOS attacks.
I don't want to htaccess the complete site as I do have a public section, but it's only worth showing this to the Uk.
The IP Ranges I have are ok for me as all friendly ips (although dynamic) are within these ranges. All one's that have attacked my webserver are not.
Back to the original question.... Don't worry about the ranges. I know the ranges I've got listed are fine for me. Is the code correct?
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ASKER
Thanks