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OSSEC / HIDS Rule 5556
- Rule family: OSSEC / HIDS
- Rule ID: 5556
- Definition status: Present in current source
- Alert message / subject: Multiple failed logins in a long period of time.
- Rule level: 10
- Definition checked: 2026-10-21
- Configured frequency: 10
- Timeframe (seconds): 3600
Correlation values are configuration attributes; event-count behavior depends on the manager version and parent rules.
Interpretation and response
This event is recorded as “Multiple failed logins in a long period of time.” 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
5556
Status
The wiki marked this rule Active at the source revision. Current definition status is shown above.
Description
This rule detects multiple login failures to PAM enabled services, such as SSH, from the same IP over a longer period of time. Specifically, it looks for 10 login failures within an hour. The intent of this rule is to detect a malicious party attempting to brute force guess passwords slowly, so as to beat most brute force detection systems.
The default settings are to detect 10 login failure, from the same IP, within 3600 seconds (1 hour).
False Positives
This rule can be falsely triggered if multiple users are using the same IP address, such as behind a firewall and multiple users generate 10 or more failures in a one hour period.
If you believe that this is a false positive, then disable this rule or whitelist the source IP.
Tuning Recommendations
None.
Similar Rules
Source and revision
Migrated from HIDS_5556, wiki page 512, revision 4586 (20140321). 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 .