# skeeto/endlessh

SSH tarpit that slowly sends an endless banner

Repository: https://github.com/skeeto/endlessh
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/endlessh
Language: C
License: Unlicense
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-06-03T13:22:10+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2768, "days_push": 821, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8542, forks 300 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:23.437709+00:00)

## What it is
Endlessh is an SSH tarpit daemon written in C that slowly sends an endless, random SSH pre-authentication banner to keep malicious clients connected for hours or days. It is a single-threaded, dependency-free program meant to occupy attackers while the real SSH server runs on another port.

## Use cases
- trap ssh brute-force bots in a tarpit
- protect real ssh server by moving it to another port
- slow down automated ssh scanners
- waste attacker time on a honeypot port
- reduce ssh log noise from script kiddies

## When to choose
- you want a lightweight, dependency-free ssh tarpit
- you need to occupy bots while real ssh runs on a nonstandard port
- you prefer a simple single-binary daemon with syslog support

## When to avoid
- you need full honeypot interaction like logging credentials (use cowrie)
- you want to block rather than delay attackers (use fail2ban or firewall rules)
- you need a Windows-native solution

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: security, networking, http-server
- domain: security, developer-tools, self-hosted
- platform: bsd, cli, cross-platform
- tags: ssh-tarpit, honeypot, ssh, brute-force-protection, c, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- skeeto/endlessh (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:23.437709+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:26:20.153796+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/skeeto/endlessh (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:23.437709+00:00, sha 7ae3dbe693e5)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.