Fail2ban doesn't start [closed]

I've done some changes to the file /etc/fail2ban/jail.local (a copy of /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf) and saved, but now fail2ban doesn't start. If I erase jail.local, then it start again. So the problem is in this file (jail.local) but after 2 hours loking for the problem, I really don't know where is the mistake.

Please, can someone help me to find the problem(s)? Thank you.

This is the file

#
# WARNING: heavily refactored in 0.9.0 release.  Please review and
#          customize settings for your setup.
#
# Changes:  in most of the cases you should not modify this
#           file, but provide customizations in jail.local file,
#           or separate .conf files under jail.d/ directory, e.g.:
#
# HOW TO ACTIVATE JAILS:
#
# YOU SHOULD NOT MODIFY THIS FILE.
#
# It will probably be overwritten or improved in a distribution update.
#
# Provide customizations in a jail.local file or a jail.d/customisation.local.
# For example to change the default bantime for all jails and to enable the
# ssh-iptables jail the following (uncommented) would appear in the .local file.
# See man 5 jail.conf for details.
#
# [DEFAULT]
# bantime = 3600
#
# [sshd]
# enabled = true
#
# See jail.conf(5) man page for more information



# Comments: use '#' for comment lines and ';' (following a space) for inline comments


[INCLUDES]

#before = paths-distro.conf
before = paths-fedora.conf

# The DEFAULT allows a global definition of the options. They can be overridden
# in each jail afterwards.

[DEFAULT]

#
# MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS
#

# "ignoreip" can be an IP address, a CIDR mask or a DNS host. Fail2ban will not
# ban a host which matches an address in this list. Several addresses can be
# defined using space separator.
ignoreip = 127.0.0.1/8 199.27.128.0/21 173.245.48.0/20 103.21.244.0/22 103.22.200.0/22 103.31.4.0/22 141.101.64.0/18 108.162.192.0/18 190.93.240.0/20 188.114.96.0/20 197.234.240.0/22 198.41.128.0/17 162.158.0.0/15 104.16.0.0/12


# External command that will take an tagged arguments to ignore, e.g. <ip>,
# and return true if the IP is to be ignored. False otherwise.
#
# ignorecommand = /path/to/command <ip>
ignorecommand =

# "bantime" is the number of seconds that a host is banned.
bantime  = 2700000

# A host is banned if it has generated "maxretry" during the last "findtime"
# seconds.
findtime  = 600

# "maxretry" is the number of failures before a host get banned.
maxretry = 5

# "backend" specifies the backend used to get files modification.
# Available options are "pyinotify", "gamin", "polling", "systemd" and "auto".
# This option can be overridden in each jail as well.
#
# pyinotify: requires pyinotify (a file alteration monitor) to be installed.
#              If pyinotify is not installed, Fail2ban will use auto.
# gamin:     requires Gamin (a file alteration monitor) to be installed.
#              If Gamin is not installed, Fail2ban will use auto.
# polling:   uses a polling algorithm which does not require external libraries.
# systemd:   uses systemd python library to access the systemd journal.
#              Specifying "logpath" is not valid for this backend.
#              See "journalmatch" in the jails associated filter config
# auto:      will try to use the following backends, in order:
#              pyinotify, gamin, polling.
backend = auto

# "usedns" specifies if jails should trust hostnames in logs,
#   warn when DNS lookups are performed, or ignore all hostnames in logs
#
# yes:   if a hostname is encountered, a DNS lookup will be performed.
# warn:  if a hostname is encountered, a DNS lookup will be performed,
#        but it will be logged as a warning.
# no:    if a hostname is encountered, will not be used for banning,
#        but it will be logged as info.
usedns = warn

# "logencoding" specifies the encoding of the log files handled by the jail
#   This is used to decode the lines from the log file.
#   Typical examples:  "ascii", "utf-8"
#
#   auto:   will use the system locale setting
logencoding = auto

# "enabled" enables the jails.
#  By default all jails are disabled, and it should stay this way.
#  Enable only relevant to your setup jails in your .local or jail.d/*.conf
#
# true:  jail will be enabled and log files will get monitored for changes
# false: jail is not enabled
enabled = false


# "filter" defines the filter to use by the jail.
#  By default jails have names matching their filter name
#
filter = %(__name__)s


#
# ACTIONS
#

# Some options used for actions

# Destination email address used solely for the interpolations in
# jail.{conf,local,d/*} configuration files.
destemail = root@localhost

# Sender email address used solely for some actions
sender = root@localhost

# E-mail action. Since 0.8.1 Fail2Ban uses sendmail MTA for the
# mailing. Change mta configuration parameter to mail if you want to
# revert to conventional 'mail'.
mta = sendmail

# Default protocol
protocol = tcp

# Specify chain where jumps would need to be added in iptables-* actions
chain = INPUT

# Ports to be banned
# Usually should be overridden in a particular jail
port = 0:65535

#
# Action shortcuts. To be used to define action parameter

# Default banning action (e.g. iptables, iptables-new,
# iptables-multiport, shorewall, etc) It is used to define
# action_* variables. Can be overridden globally or per
# section within jail.local file
banaction = iptables-multiport

# The simplest action to take: ban only
action_ = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s, bantime="%(bantime)s", port="%(port)s", protocol="%(protocol)s", chain="%(chain)s"]

# ban & send an e-mail with whois report to the destemail.
action_mw = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s, bantime="%(bantime)s", port="%(port)s", protocol="%(protocol)s", chain="%(chain)s"]
            %(mta)s-whois[name=%(__name__)s, dest="%(destemail)s", protocol="%(protocol)s", chain="%(chain)s"]

# ban & send an e-mail with whois report and relevant log lines
# to the destemail.
action_mwl = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s, bantime="%(bantime)s", port="%(port)s", protocol="%(protocol)s", chain="%(chain)s"]
             %(mta)s-whois-lines[name=%(__name__)s, dest="%(destemail)s", logpath=%(logpath)s, chain="%(chain)s"]

# See the IMPORTANT note in action.d/xarf-login-attack for when to use this action
#
# ban & send a xarf e-mail to abuse contact of IP address and include relevant log lines
# to the destemail.
action_xarf = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s, bantime="%(bantime)s", port="%(port)s", protocol="%(protocol)s", chain="%(chain)s"]
             xarf-login-attack[service=%(__name__)s, sender="%(sender)s", logpath=%(logpath)s, port="%(port)s"]


# Report block via blocklist.de fail2ban reporting service API
# 
# See the IMPORTANT note in action.d/blocklist_de.conf for when to
# use this action. Create a file jail.d/blocklist_de.local containing
# [Init]
# blocklist_de_apikey = {api key from registration]
#
action_blocklist_de  = blocklist_de[email="%(sender)s", service=%(filter)s, apikey="%(blocklist_de_apikey)s"]

# Report ban via badips.com, and use as blacklist
#
# See BadIPsAction docstring in config/action.d/badips.py for
# documentation for this action.
#
# NOTE: This action relies on banaction being present on start and therefore
# should be last action defined for a jail.
#
action_badips = badips.py[category="%(name)s", banaction="%(banaction)s"]

# Choose default action.  To change, just override value of 'action' with the
# interpolation to the chosen action shortcut (e.g.  action_mw, action_mwl, etc) in jail.local
# globally (section [DEFAULT]) or per specific section
action = %(action_)s


#
# JAILS
#

#
# SSH servers
#

[sshd]
enabled = true
port    = ssh
filter = sshd
logpath = %(sshd_log)s
maxretry = 5


[sshd-ddos]
# This jail corresponds to the standard configuration in Fail2ban.
# The mail-whois action send a notification e-mail with a whois request
# in the body.
enabled = true
port    = ssh
filter = sshd-ddos
logpath = %(sshd_log)s
maxretry = 5


[dropbear]

port     = ssh
logpath  = %(dropbear_log)s


[selinux-ssh]

port     = ssh
logpath  = %(auditd_log)s
maxretry = 5


#
# HTTP servers
#

[apache-auth]
enabled = true
port     = http,https
filter = apache-auth
logpath  = %(apache_error_log)s
maxretry = 5


[apache-badbots]
# Ban hosts which agent identifies spammer robots crawling the web
# for email addresses. The mail outputs are buffered.
port     = http,https
logpath  = %(apache_access_log)s
bantime  = 172800
maxretry = 1


[apache-noscript]
enabled = true
port     = http,https
filter = apache-noscript
logpath  = %(apache_error_log)s
maxretry = 6


[apache-overflows]
enabled = true
port     = http,https
filter = apache-overflows
logpath  = %(apache_error_log)s
maxretry = 3


[apache-nohome]

port     = http,https
logpath  = %(apache_error_log)s
maxretry = 2


[apache-botsearch]

port     = http,https
logpath  = %(apache_error_log)s
maxretry = 2


[apache-modsecurity]

port     = http,https
logpath  = %(apache_error_log)s
maxretry = 2

[apache-shellshock]
enabled = true
port    = http,https
filter = apache-shellshock
logpath = $(apache_error_log)s
maxretry = 1

[nginx-http-auth]

ports   = http,https
logpath = %(nginx_error_log)s


# Ban attackers that try to use PHP's URL-fopen() functionality
# through GET/POST variables. - Experimental, with more than a year
# of usage in production environments.

[php-url-fopen]

port    = http,https
logpath = %(nginx_access_log)s
          %(apache_access_log)s


[suhosin]

port    = http,https
logpath = %(suhosin_log)s


[lighttpd-auth]
# Same as above for Apache's mod_auth
# It catches wrong authentifications
port    = http,https
logpath = %(lighttpd_error_log)s


#
# Webmail and groupware servers
#

[roundcube-auth]

port     = http,https
logpath  = /var/log/roundcube/userlogins


[openwebmail]

port     = http,https
logpath  = /var/log/openwebmail.log


[horde]

port     = http,https
logpath  = /var/log/horde/horde.log


[groupoffice]

port     = http,https
logpath  = /home/groupoffice/log/info.log


[sogo-auth]
# Monitor SOGo groupware server
# without proxy this would be:
# port    = 20000
port     = http,https
logpath  = /var/log/sogo/sogo.log


[tine20]

logpath  = /var/log/tine20/tine20.log
port     = http,https
maxretry = 5


#
# Web Applications
#
#

[guacamole]

port     = http,https
logpath  = /var/log/tomcat*/catalina.out

[monit]
#Ban clients brute-forcing the monit gui login
filter   = monit
port = 2812
logpath  = /var/log/monit


[webmin-auth]
enabled = true
port    = 10000
filter = webmin-auth
logpath = %(syslog_authpriv)s
maxretry = 5


#
# HTTP Proxy servers
#
#

[squid]

port     =  80,443,3128,8080
logpath = /var/log/squid/access.log


[3proxy]

port    = 3128
logpath = /var/log/3proxy.log

#
# FTP servers
#


[proftpd]
enabled = true
port     = ftp,ftp-data,ftps,ftps-data
filter = proftpd
logpath  = %(proftpd_log)s
maxretry = 5


[pure-ftpd]

port     = ftp,ftp-data,ftps,ftps-data
logpath  = %(pureftpd_log)s
maxretry = 6


[gssftpd]

port     = ftp,ftp-data,ftps,ftps-data
logpath  = %(syslog_daemon)s
maxretry = 6


[wuftpd]

port     = ftp,ftp-data,ftps,ftps-data
logpath  = %(wuftpd_log)s
maxretry = 6


[vsftpd]
# or overwrite it in jails.local to be
# logpath = %(syslog_authpriv)s
# if you want to rely on PAM failed login attempts
# vsftpd's failregex should match both of those formats
port     = ftp,ftp-data,ftps,ftps-data
logpath  = %(vsftpd_log)s


#
# Mail servers
#

# ASSP SMTP Proxy Jail
[assp]

port     = smtp,465,submission
logpath  = /root/path/to/assp/logs/maillog.txt


[courier-smtp]

port     = smtp,465,submission
logpath  = %(syslog_mail)s


[postfix]
enabled = true
port     = smtp,465,submission
logpath  = %(postfix_log)s


[sendmail-auth]
enabled = true
port    = submission,465,smtp
logpath = %(syslog_mail)s


[sendmail-reject]
enabled = true
port     = smtp,465,submission
logpath  = %(syslog_mail)s


[qmail-rbl]

filter  = qmail
port    = smtp,465,submission
logpath = /service/qmail/log/main/current


# dovecot defaults to logging to the mail syslog facility
# but can be set by syslog_facility in the dovecot configuration.
[dovecot]
enabled = true
port    = pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps,submission,465,sieve
logpath = %(dovecot_log)s


[sieve]

port   = smtp,465,submission
logpath = %(dovecot_log)s


[solid-pop3d]

port    = pop3,pop3s
logpath = %(solidpop3d_log)s


[exim]

port   = smtp,465,submission
logpath = %(exim_main_log)s


[exim-spam]

port   = smtp,465,submission
logpath = %(exim_main_log)s


[kerio]

port    = imap,smtp,imaps,465
logpath = /opt/kerio/mailserver/store/logs/security.log


#
# Mail servers authenticators: might be used for smtp,ftp,imap servers, so
# all relevant ports get banned
#

[courier-auth]

port     = smtp,465,submission,imap3,imaps,pop3,pop3s
logpath  = %(syslog_mail)s


[postfix-sasl]

port     = smtp,465,submission,imap3,imaps,pop3,pop3s
# You might consider monitoring /var/log/mail.warn instead if you are
# running postfix since it would provide the same log lines at the
# "warn" level but overall at the smaller filesize.
logpath  = %(postfix_log)s


[perdition]

port   = imap3,imaps,pop3,pop3s
logpath = %(syslog_mail)s


[squirrelmail]

port = smtp,465,submission,imap2,imap3,imaps,pop3,pop3s,http,https,socks
logpath = /var/lib/squirrelmail/prefs/squirrelmail_access_log


[cyrus-imap]

port   = imap3,imaps
logpath = %(syslog_mail)s


[uwimap-auth]

port   = imap3,imaps
logpath = %(syslog_mail)s


#
#
# DNS servers
#


# !!! WARNING !!!
#   Since UDP is connection-less protocol, spoofing of IP and imitation
#   of illegal actions is way too simple.  Thus enabling of this filter
#   might provide an easy way for implementing a DoS against a chosen
#   victim. See
#    http://nion.modprobe.de/blog/archives/690-fail2ban-+-dns-fail.html
#   Please DO NOT USE this jail unless you know what you are doing.
#
# IMPORTANT: see filter.d/named-refused for instructions to enable logging
# This jail blocks UDP traffic for DNS requests.
# [named-refused-udp]
#
# filter   = named-refused
# port     = domain,953
# protocol = udp
# logpath  = /var/log/named/security.log

# IMPORTANT: see filter.d/named-refused for instructions to enable logging
# This jail blocks TCP traffic for DNS requests.

[named-refused]

port     = domain,953
logpath  = /var/log/named/security.log


[nsd]

port     = 53
action   = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-tcp, port="%(port)s", protocol="tcp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-tcp]
           %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-udp, port="%(port)s", protocol="udp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-udp]
logpath = /var/log/nsd.log


#
# Miscellaneous
#

[asterisk]

port     = 5060,5061
action   = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-tcp, port="%(port)s", protocol="tcp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-tcp]
           %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-udp, port="%(port)s", protocol="udp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-udp]
           %(mta)s-whois[name=%(__name__)s, dest="%(destemail)s"]
logpath  = /var/log/asterisk/messages
maxretry = 10


[freeswitch]

port     = 5060,5061
action   = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-tcp, port="%(port)s", protocol="tcp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-tcp]
           %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-udp, port="%(port)s", protocol="udp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-udp]
           %(mta)s-whois[name=%(__name__)s, dest="%(destemail)s"]
logpath  = /var/log/freeswitch.log
maxretry = 10


# To log wrong MySQL access attempts add to /etc/my.cnf in [mysqld] or
# equivalent section:
# log-warning = 2
#
# for syslog (daemon facility)
# [mysqld_safe]
# syslog
#
# for own logfile
# [mysqld]
# log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log
[mysqld-auth]

port     = 3306
logpath  = %(mysql_log)s
maxretry = 5


# Jail for more extended banning of persistent abusers
# !!! WARNING !!!
#   Make sure that your loglevel specified in fail2ban.conf/.local
#   is not at DEBUG level -- which might then cause fail2ban to fall into
#   an infinite loop constantly feeding itself with non-informative lines
[recidive]

logpath  = /var/log/fail2ban.log
port     = all
protocol = all
bantime  = 604800  ; 1 week
findtime = 86400   ; 1 day
maxretry = 5


# Generic filter for PAM. Has to be used with action which bans all
# ports such as iptables-allports, shorewall

[pam-generic]
# pam-generic filter can be customized to monitor specific subset of 'tty's
banaction = iptables-allports
logpath  = %(syslog_authpriv)s


[xinetd-fail]

banaction = iptables-multiport-log
logpath   = %(syslog_daemon)s
maxretry  = 2


# stunnel - need to set port for this
[stunnel]

logpath = /var/log/stunnel4/stunnel.log


[ejabberd-auth]

port    = 5222
logpath = /var/log/ejabberd/ejabberd.log


[counter-strike]

logpath = /opt/cstrike/logs/L[0-9]*.log
# Firewall: http://www.cstrike-planet.com/faq/6
tcpport = 27030,27031,27032,27033,27034,27035,27036,27037,27038,27039
udpport = 1200,27000,27001,27002,27003,27004,27005,27006,27007,27008,27009,27010,27011,27012,27013,27014,27015
action  = %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-tcp, port="%(tcpport)s", protocol="tcp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-tcp]
           %(banaction)s[name=%(__name__)s-udp, port="%(udpport)s", protocol="udp", chain="%(chain)s", actname=%(banaction)s-udp]

# consider low maxretry and a long bantime
# nobody except your own Nagios server should ever probe nrpe
[nagios]

enabled  = false
logpath  = %(syslog_daemon)s     ; nrpe.cfg may define a different log_facility
maxretry = 1


[oracleims]
# see "oracleims" filter file for configuration requirement for Oracle IMS v6 and above
enabled = false
logpath = /opt/sun/comms/messaging64/log/mail.log_current
maxretry = 6
banaction = iptables-allports

[directadmin]
enabled = false
logpath = /var/log/directadmin/login.log
port = 2222

[portsentry]
enabled  = false
logpath  = /var/lib/portsentry/portsentry.history
maxretry = 1

gThis is the error that I get when I try to start fail2ban

Job for fail2ban.service failed. See 'systemctl status fail2ban.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details. 

and this is the error that I have when I type systemctl status fail2ban.service

 Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/fail2ban.service; enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Sun 2015-02-01 17:20:19 CET; 50s ago
     Docs: man:fail2ban(1)
  Process: 18318 ExecStop=/usr/bin/fail2ban-client stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 19570 ExecStart=/usr/bin/fail2ban-client -x start (code=exited, status=255)
 Main PID: 18304 (code=killed, signal=TERM)

in /var/log/fail2ban.log doesn't appear any error

Any tips for fix this problem? Thank you

You must verify that each of the services you enabled has a log file that matches what fail2ban is expecting.

For example:

sshd has a logfile defined in fail2ban as:

logpath = %(sshd_log)s

which further maps to:

sshd_log = %(syslog_authpriv)s

and then depends on a specific distro file like

paths-fedora.conf:syslog_authpriv = /var/log/secure

If the file is not found, fail2ban won't start. If you know where the file is then just edit manually the logpath line and that will fix your problem.