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OSSEC / HIDS Rule 38001

Rule family: OSSEC / HIDS
Rule ID: 38001
Definition status: Present in current source
Alert message / subject: Failed mail authenticatication attempt
Rule level: 5
Definition checked: 2026-10-21

Interpretation and response

This event is recorded as “Failed mail authenticatication attempt”. Review the originating log and the affected host or service to determine whether the activity was expected.

An OSSEC/HIDS event records or correlates activity. Blocking depends on the originating application and any separately configured Active Response policy; an alert alone does not prove that an attack was blocked.

Documentation

The following guidance was migrated from the historical wiki and reviewed against the rule definition. Legacy ASL product names and interface instructions refer to the versions documented then. Use the current metadata above and your installed configuration when interpreting thresholds, notification settings and response behavior.

Rule ID

38001

Message

Failed mail authenticatication attempt

Description

This rule detects when Plesk’s sassauthd daemon records a single authentication failure.

Note: ASL does not cause this event to occur, it simply reports when this event occurs.

False Positives

A legitimate event may still trigger this rule. Review the surrounding activity before deciding whether it is malicious.

Disabling this rule will not prevent Plesk from rejecting the users mail connections. It will simply prevent ASL from reporting or tracking these failed authentication attempts. Disabling this rule will also prevent ASL from responding to brute force attacks against the mail server.

Tuning Recommendations

None.

Source and revision

Migrated from HIDS_38001, wiki page 688, revision 5840 (20170306). Documentation review: 2026-10-21. An archived wiki status of Active is not a current deployment status.

For assistance, provide the rule ID, installed product and rule version, and a sanitized event to Atomicorp support .