UBC Physics & Astronomy
DenyHosts on Linux

Denyhosts on Linux

How can I remove an IP address that DenyHosts blocked?


If you have been accidentally locked out of one of your hosts (because DenyHosts has added it to /etc/hosts.deny you may have noticed that simply removing it from /etc/hosts.deny does not in itself correct the issue) since DenyHosts keeps track of the attempts in the WORK_DIR files. In order to cleanse the address you will need to do the following:

  1. Stop DenyHosts
  2. Remove the IP address from /etc/hosts.deny
  3. Edit WORK_DIR/hosts and remove the lines containing the IP address. Save the file.
  4. Edit WORK_DIR/hosts-restricted and remove the lines containing the IP address. Save the file.
  5. Edit WORK_DIR/hosts-root and remove the lines containing the IP address. Save the file.
  6. Edit WORK_DIR/hosts-valid and remove the lines containing the IP address. Save the file.
  7. Edit WORK_DIR/user-hosts and remove the lines containing the IP address. Save the file.
  8. (optional) Consider adding the IP address to WORK_DIR/allowed-hosts
  9. Start DenyHosts

Note: Not all of the WORK_DIR files will contain the IP address so you may want to use grep to determine which files contain the IP address.