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OSSEC / HIDS Rule 60205

OSSEC / HIDS rule catalog

  • Rule family: OSSEC / HIDS
  • Rule ID: 60205
  • Definition status: Present in current source
  • Alert message / subject: Possible DoS attack - Configured thresholds exceeded
  • Rule level: 7
  • Definition checked: 2026-10-21

Interpretation and response

This event is recorded as “Possible DoS attack - Configured thresholds exceeded”. 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.

Description

Log Example'

Illustrative event summary (not a captured log): OSSEC/HIDS 60205 — Possible DoS attack - Configured thresholds exceeded.

This rule detects when the thresholds you have configured for the mod_evasive module are exceeded. This may be a DOS attack, or this may mean that you need to increase the thresholds for your system. For example, faster systems can handle more connections than slower systems.

mod_evasive is a Denial Of Service detection module for apache, it detects when an IP address exceeds a connection threshold (Example: X connections in Y seconds, or X accesses for the same page from a single IP in Y seconds). These thresholds are configurable through ASL.

Troubleshooting

False Positives

This rule can be falsely triggered if the configured thresholds for the system have been exceeded.

If you believe that the thresholds are too low for your system, please see the Solutions section below.

Solutions

Please see the Mod_evasive (historical reference) wiki page for detailed guidance.

Solution 1: Increase the thresholds for mod_evasive to be less sensitive (historical reference)

Solution 2: Whitelist the IP (historical reference)

Solution 3: Disable mod_evasive (historical reference)

Additional Information

Notes

This event does not produce an audit log entry, as it does not use mod_security.

Source and revision

Migrated from HIDS_60205, wiki page 217, revision 4190 (20131111). 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 .