Honeypot Threat Analysis — September 1, 2026
Critical threat level — massive coordinated attack activity across all honeypot services.
Cybersecurity Analysis: 2026-09-01
SSH Brute Force & Post-Exploitation
Over the past week, our honeypot has seen a significant increase in SSH brute force attempts and post-exploitation activities. Notably, we have been trapping connections from over 44 IPs, which suggests that these attacks are ongoing or persistent. This trend indicates that attackers are actively targeting vulnerabilities within our environment to gain unauthorized access.
Web Scanning & IDS Intel
The honeypot has logged a high number of HTTP requests and suricata alerts related to web scanning activities, which is concerning. These scans often lead to vulnerable systems being targeted for exploitation or further investigation by more advanced attackers. The presence of 71 unique HTTP paths suggests that these scans are likely part of larger reconnaissance efforts.
IDS & Scan Intel
The IDS system has identified over 18,573 alerts related to various network protocols and scanning techniques used by the attackers. This indicates a high level of activity from malicious actors using multiple tools and protocols for gaining access or attempting to identify vulnerabilities within our environment. The use of SSH, HTTP, FTP/Telnet/SMTP, MySQL, Redis/Git/VNC/RDP is common among these activities.
Malware & Backdoor
Despite no malware being captured in the past week, we continue to see tarpit connections and backdoor attempts from a few IPs. This suggests that even if no actual malicious payloads are detected, attackers are actively trying to gain unauthorized access through various means such as exploiting known vulnerabilities or using compromised devices.
GeoIP & Targeted Attacks
The honeypot has logged 675 total unique IP addresses, with the United States being the most active region at 216 IPs (32%). This suggests that our environment is attractive to attackers from a geographical standpoint, which is concerning for both security and compliance reasons.
Threat Overview
In summary, over the past week, we have seen an increase in brute force attacks targeting SSH services, web scanning activities leading to HTTP requests, numerous IDS alerts indicating ongoing network reconnaissance attempts, and persistent tarpit connections. These activities suggest that our environment is attractive to attackers who are actively searching for vulnerabilities or attempting to gain unauthorized access.
IPS Note: This honeypot continues to operate as a defensive measure against malicious actors. While no actual malware was detected this week, the continuous monitoring of threats indicates ongoing efforts by attackers to penetrate our systems and identify potential weaknesses. The high volume of tarpit connections suggests that even if we are not actively defending ourselves from intrusions, we are being targeted.
Open-Source: This honeypot is an open-source project designed for educational purposes and small-scale penetration testing environments. It serves as a valuable tool to help security professionals understand common attack vectors and improve defensive strategies against advanced persistent threats (APTs).
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.