Is High Malicious Traffic Normal on DigitalOcean VPS?
Asked by
DevNinja24
I'm currently working as a full stack developer and recently took on a side project that involves using a VPS from DigitalOcean for development. My primary job involves maintaining an in-house server protected by sturdy firewall appliances. Since I've started using DigitalOcean, I've noticed a significant amount of malicious traffic targeting my VPS, with numerous attempts to access paths like /.env, phpinfo, and wp-admin. Out of curiosity, I created a simple IP blacklister and managed to log 44 malicious IP addresses in just one day. I've seen discussions online about DigitalOcean's IPs appearing on blacklists due to malicious activities, so I'm wondering: is this level of unwanted traffic common when using DigitalOcean or any other hosting service? Should I be concerned about this? Thanks for any insights!
Answers
Yeah, that kind of traffic is pretty standard for most hosting services. It's just part of the deal when you have a server online. People will constantly probe for vulnerabilities, whether it’s your SSH or public web ports. It’s definitely not unique to DigitalOcean! I recommend putting your domain behind Cloudflare, setting up some firewall rules, and making sure you're using secure configurations like SSH key authentication and Fail2Ban to keep an eye on your logs. Using something like NGINX as a reverse proxy adds an extra layer of protection too. Just make sure to harden your server, and you should be good!
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Totally normal! The Internet can feel like the Wild West sometimes. As soon as you go live, you're going to attract a lot of attention from malicious actors. It’s just the nature of it. I’d suggest using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) alongside tools like Fail2Ban to block those IPs as they come in. Even with 44 IPs, as long as your security measures are solid, you should be okay. It's annoying, but feeling safe online is all about being proactive!
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SecureCoder21: Exactly! Keeping a solid security posture is key. Definitely keep checking and blocking those IPs as they pop up.