Profiles

CrowdSec can read many log sources, parse and also enrich them, in order to detect specific scenarios, that usually represent malevolent behavior. Parsers, Enrichers, and Scenarios are YAML files that can be shared and downloaded through a specific Hub, as well as be created or adapted locally.

Detection results are available for CrowdSec, its CLI tools and bouncers via an HTTP API. Triggered scenarios lead to an alert, which often results in a decision (e.g. IP banned for 4 hours) that can be consumed by bouncers (software components enforcing a decision, such as an iptables ban, an nginx lua script, or any custom user script). The CLI allows users to deploy a Metabase Docker image to provide simple-to-deploy dashboards of ongoing activity. The CrowdSec daemon is also instrumented with Prometheus to provide observability.

CrowdSec can be used against live logs (“à la fail2ban”), but can also work on cold logs to help, in a forensic context, to build an analysis for past events.

On top of that, CrowdSec aims at sharing detection signals amongst all participants, to pre-emptively allow users to block likely attackers. To achieve this, minimal meta-information about the attack is shared with the CrowdSec organization for further retribution.

Users can also decide not to take part into the collective effort via the central API, but to register on a local API instead.