VPS & Dedicated Hosting: cPHulk Brute Force Protection

Overview

This article will cover the use of cPHulk. cPHulk is software designed to protect your server from brute force login attempts. It does this by blacklisting IP addresses that have too many failed login attempts within a short period.
 

• Enable cPHulk
• Whitelisting Your IP Address
• Whitelisting in cPanel
• Blacklisting IP Addresses

Enable cPhulk

To enable cPHulk, you will need to be logged into WHM. If you have not done this before, please see Log in to WHM. Once logged in: 

1. Look for the Security Center section in the category list and click on cPHulk Brute Force Protection.
   
   Alternatively, you can manually locate and expand the Security Center in the Tools section below the WHM home page and click on cPHulk Brute Force Protection.
   
2. Toggle OFF to ON beside cPHulk is Disabled.
   
3. The status should say cPHulk is Enabled.
   

Whitelisting your IP address

These steps will explain how-to whitelist an IP address. Whitelisted IP addresses will never be blocked by cPHulk.

1. Click the Whitelist Management tab.
   
2. Enter your IP address in the New Whitelist Records entry field and click Add.
   

Whitelisting in cPanel

If you have been blocked from WHM or any other login on your server, you may still login to your Bluehost cPanel and whitelist your IP address.

1. Log in to your Bluehost cPanel
2. If you are not already on the hosting page, click the hosting link at the top.
3. Click the performance link underneath the hosting tab.
4. Click the system console link.
5. Log in with root as your username and your root password. 

   Note: If you aren't sure of the root password, please see: Setting your Root password.
   When typing in the password, the console will not act as if anything is being entered. This is done purposefully for security. Type your password carefully and hit enter as normal.

6. Once you are logged into the console, run enter this command:

   /scripts/cphulkdwhitelist YOUR-IP

   Note: Please replace YOUR-IP with your actual IP address.

7. Next, run this command:

   mysql cphulkd -e "delete from brutes where ip='YOUR-IP'"

   Note: Please replace YOUR-IP with your actual IP address.

8. Your IP address should now be whitelisted. Finally, enter this command to close the console.

   exit

Blacklisting IP Addresses

1. Click the Blacklist Management tab.
   
2. Enter the IP address into the Blacklist (Rejected IP list) entry field and click Quick Add.