Honeypot Threat Analysis — June 30, 2026
Critical threat level — massive coordinated attack activity across all honeypot services.
2026-06-30
Threat Overview
In the final days of June, a significant shift was observed in our honeypot environment as we recorded a total of 150 attackers targeting various protocols and services across different IP locations. The top three most active IPs were “47.99.46.235,” “117.189.140.169,” and “163.142.78.34,” which collectively reported 1,179,101 events on the IDS system. Among these, SSH brute force attempts accounted for approximately 719 logins out of 493 total connections, highlighting a persistent threat.
Geographic Analysis
The distribution of our honeypot’s top IPs revealed an uneven spread across geographical regions. The United States was by far the most active location with over 743 IP addresses (27%), followed closely by China at 408 (14%). Belgium and Pakistan also saw significant activity, while Germany and the Netherlands were less frequent but not negligible.
SSH Brute Force
SSH brute force attacks continued to be a primary concern. With 719 logins in total across 493 connections, this method of attack remains potent due to its simplicity and effectiveness. The top passwords used included “8c6976e5b5410415,” “4813494d137e1631,” and “7ad67f493ec4761a.” These types of attacks are designed to bypass authentication mechanisms, making them a persistent threat in our environment.
Post-Exploitation
Following the initial login attempts, attackers moved on to more sophisticated methods. The top post-exploitation command executed was “uname -s -v -n -r -m,” followed by various commands that included directory traversals and file modifications. These actions indicate a continued effort to gain deeper access into the system.
Web Scanning
While web scanning was not as active, we did observe some attempts at exploiting vulnerabilities in common applications like Apache HTTP Server (via “/actuator/health”). The top URLs scanned were those related to “SDK,” suggesting targeted attacks on specific software components.
IDS & Scan Intel
The Intrusion Detection System (IDS) generated 5,570 alerts across 578 IPs. A significant portion of these alerts were classified as critical threats, indicating a high volume of security incidents in our environment. The IDS’ ability to detect and block malicious activity is crucial for maintaining the integrity of our honeypot.
Malware
The absence of malware from today’s attack logs suggests that we continued to maintain effective defenses against such sophisticated threats. However, it underscores the importance of staying vigilant and updating our security measures regularly.
Tarpit & Backfire Scans
Our tarpit system has successfully trapped 97 connections from 40 IPs over the past few days, indicating a robust network defense strategy in place. The backfire scan activity was relatively low at 14 scans/14 open ports, suggesting that our systems are effectively filtering out such attempts.
MCP Trap
No malicious content or threats were identified through the MCP trap mechanism this month, highlighting its effectiveness in monitoring and mitigating potential intrusions without false positives.
Portscans & Tools
The lack of port scanning activity (0/0) and no malware capture suggest that our honeypot is primarily focused on benign traffic analysis rather than actively probing for vulnerabilities. This balance between security measures and operational efficiency is key to maintaining a healthy environment.
AI Defense
Our AI-based defense system recorded 1 injection and 0 leak blocks, indicating an effective response against attempted attacks through artificial intelligence techniques. However, the absence of any significant changes in these defenses suggests that we continue to refine our strategies for improved protection.
Community Defense
The absence of external tools or community resources utilized during this period indicates a hands-on approach to security management and defense. This manual method ensures full control over our honeypot environment but requires constant vigilance against emerging threats.
Conclusion
In summary, the 2026-06-30 data from our Raspberry Pi 5 honeypot highlights a steady threat landscape characterized by persistent brute force attacks, sophisticated post-exploitation tactics, and evolving IDS alerts. Despite significant defensive measures in place, there is still room for improvement in terms of malware detection and comprehensive monitoring across multiple protocols.
As we look ahead to the future, continuous updates and improvements to our security infrastructure will be essential to maintaining a robust environment that can effectively detect, respond to, and mitigate threats in the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.
This analysis was generated by qwen2.5:1.5b running locally on the Raspberry Pi 5 honeypot lab. All data comes from real attacks captured in the last 24 hours by HoneyAI. View the raw data report for complete metrics.