Build a Honeypot System for Intrusion Detection

A honeypot is a decoy system designed to lure attackers away from real assets while capturing information about their techniques. It provides deep insight into malicious behavior and helps identify intrusion attempts before they impact critical systems.

The honeypot mimics vulnerable services like SSH, FTP, or HTTP to attract attackers. It logs connection attempts, command executions, and file uploads, giving security teams actionable intelligence. Some implementations also send real-time alerts and visualize threat patterns.

Once deployed, the honeypot listens on configured ports and mimics real service responses. Attackers who discover and interact with it unknowingly trigger logging mechanisms. The honeypot remains isolated and captures payloads and metadata for study and early warning.

• Start dummy services like SSH, HTTP, or FTP on isolated ports.
• Capture any connection attempt along with headers and content.
• Log attacker behavior including login attempts, file uploads, and executed commands.
• Alert security teams via email or webhook integrations.
• Analyze collected logs to improve firewall rules and IDS signatures.

• Cowrie Honeypot GitHub
• Dionaea Malware Honeypot
• OWASP Honeypot Guide
• Kibana for Visualizing Logs
• Docker Sandbox for Security Testing