Best Honeypots for Detecting Network Threats

Typically, this blog focuses on red-team tools designed for penetration testing. Today, however, we’re shifting gears to explore the defensive side of cybersecurity: the fascinating world of honeypots.

Tracking malicious actors can be an exhilarating and rewarding pursuit, and honeypots are one of the most effective tools for this purpose. These deceptive systems are designed to lure attackers and gather critical intelligence on their tactics and behavior.

In this article, we’ll break down what a honeypot is, how it operates, and provide you with a detailed list of the 20 best honeypots for capturing valuable threat intelligence when attackers engage with your decoy systems.

Before diving into the specifics, let’s take a step back to explore the foundational concepts that make honeypots such a powerful defensive strategy.

What is a Honeypot and Honeypotter? Understanding Honeypot Cyber Security

In straightforward terms, a honeypot is a deliberately vulnerable computer system or application that acts as bait, designed to attract cybercriminals who employ tactics such as spam, phishing, DDoS attacks, and other malicious methods.

When a cyber attacker engages with the honeypot, it captures essential data about the intruder’s methods, objectives, and sometimes even their identity. This intelligence is incredibly valuable for understanding the threat landscape.

The primary purpose of using honeypots is to detect new types of attacks targeting various software, gather detailed incident data, and leverage this information to devise strategies that enhance network defenses.

Honeypots come in two main varieties:

• Research Honeypot: Utilized primarily by researchers, system administrators, and cybersecurity teams within educational institutions and other research-focused organizations. These honeypots help in studying attack methodologies and enhancing security measures.
• Production Honeypot: Deployed within corporate and government networks, this type of honeypot is used to monitor and analyze hacker activities and defense tactics, contributing directly to the security of organizational networks.

Ultimately, a honeypot serves as a critical tool in collecting actionable intelligence, which is instrumental in developing comprehensive attack surface reduction strategies.

How Honeypots Work: Exploring Honey Pot Security Definition

A honeypot operates as a decoy system, strategically vulnerable and typically hosted on virtual machines or cloud servers that are part of a network yet remain isolated and under close surveillance by system and network teams. To attract malicious actors, honeypots exhibit deliberate vulnerabilities—flaws that attackers are meant to find and exploit.

These vulnerabilities might include security gaps within an application or system weaknesses such as open ports that aren’t needed, obsolete software versions, simple passwords, or outdated, unpatched operating systems.

Once an attacker targets these vulnerabilities, they will attempt to compromise the system and escalate their access privileges, aiming to take control of the device or application. Unbeknownst to them, every move they make is meticulously monitored by honeypot administrators, who gather critical data from these interactions to strengthen existing security measures and possibly report the activity to law enforcement, particularly in the case of high-stakes corporate environments.

Honeypots primarily function to divert attackers from genuine network data, offering up fake vulnerabilities instead. It is typical for nearly all traffic directed at a honeypot to be considered hostile, given the minimal legitimate reasons anyone would have for accessing such a system.

When setting up a honeypot, administrators must carefully balance the difficulty of the hacking challenge presented to the attacker. If the honeypot appears too easy to breach, it might either deter the attacker’s interest or tip them off that it’s not a genuine production environment. Conversely, an overly secure system might prevent any successful attacks, thereby failing to gather any useful data. Ideally, a honeypot should mimic the security level of a real system to effectively entice and engage attackers.

Can attackers realize they are inside a honeypot? Absolutely. Technically adept users might notice certain indicators suggesting they’ve entered a decoy environment. Even those with less technical acumen can identify honeypots using tools like Shodan’s Honeyscore, which assesses whether an IP address might belong to a honeypot.

Examples of Honeypots and Their Applications in Cybersecurity

Honeypots are classified by some systems engineers based on the particular software they aim to shield or vulnerabilities they intend to reveal. Although there are numerous types of honeypots, here are a few of the most widely recognized:

• Spam Honeypot: Often referred to as a spam trap, this type of honeypot is designed to capture spammers before they reach legitimate email inboxes. Typically, they feature open relays to attract attacks and are integrated with Real-time Blackhole Lists (RBLs) to prevent malicious traffic.
• Malware Honeypot: Set up to emulate vulnerable applications, APIs, and systems, malware honeypots attract malware attacks. The intelligence gathered from these interactions is crucial for recognizing malware patterns and developing effective malware detection tools.
• Database Honeypot: With databases frequently targeted by cybercriminals, deploying a database honeypot allows observers to study various attack methodologies, including SQL injection, privilege escalation, and exploitation of SQL services.
• Spider Honeypot: This variety of honeypot constructs deceptive web pages and links that are navigable only by web crawlers and not humans. When a crawler engages with the honeypot, its activities, including its headers, are logged for further analysis. This data is invaluable for identifying and blocking malicious bots and advertising network crawlers.

The Best Honeypot Software and Most Popular Online Honey Pot is

Given the vast array of software types in existence, compiling an exhaustive list of honeypots is challenging. However, we have curated a selection of the most renowned honeypot tools which, based on our experience, are essential for any blue and purple team operations.

SSH Honeypots: Protecting Honeypot Servers

• Kippo: Developed in Python, Kippo is an SSH honeypot tailored to detect and log brute force attacks while capturing detailed shell histories from attackers. It is compatible with various modern Linux distributions and supports both CLI-based and web-based interfaces for seamless management and configuration. Kippo is engineered to simulate a filesystem, offering decoy content such as fabricated user password files to deceive attackers. Additionally, it features an advanced analytics component, Kippo Graph, which provides comprehensive statistical analysis of interactions with the honeypot.
• Cowrie: Cowrie is a medium-interaction SSH honeypot that simulates a shell environment based on Debian 5.0, allowing for dynamic manipulation of its fake filesystem. It securely archives all downloaded and uploaded files for future analysis in a quarantined environment, enhancing the ability to trace and understand cybercriminal behavior. Cowrie also doubles as an SSH and Telnet proxy, offering versatile connectivity options, and can reroute SMTP connections to an alternate SMTP honeypot, making it a multifunctional tool for cybersecurity defenses.

These SSH honeypots are essential for organizations looking to enhance their cybersecurity measures by setting traps that both detect and analyze malicious attempts to breach network security. The ability to monitor and interact with these attacks in real-time provides invaluable insights that help in fortifying security protocols and response strategies.

HTTP Honeypots: Key Tools in Honey Pot Cyber Security

• Glastopf: Glastopf is an HTTP honeypot specifically designed to identify and analyze web-application attacks. Programmed in Python, it is capable of simulating a variety of vulnerabilities such as local and remote file inclusion, and SQL Injection (SQLi), all while utilizing a centralized logging system via HPFeeds. This makes Glastopf a versatile tool for web security, offering insights into attack patterns and potential weaknesses in web applications.
• Nodepot: Tailored for environments running Node.js, Nodepot is an innovative web-app honeypot that can even operate on minimal hardware setups like Raspberry Pi or Cubietruck. It’s ideal for developers seeking to understand the security landscape of their Node.js applications by capturing real-time data on attack methods. This honeypot is compatible with most contemporary Linux distributions and requires minimal resources to run, making it a practical choice for continuous security monitoring.
• Google Hack Honeypot (GHH): Known for its ability to simulate a vulnerable web app, GHH is engineered to attract attacks that utilize Google dorks—queries used to find security loopholes in the configuration and code that websites use. GHH functions by appearing indexable to web crawlers while remaining invisible to direct browser requests, using a transparent link to reduce false positives and enhance its stealth. This setup allows it to capture critical information from attackers, including IP addresses, user agents, and other header details, without alerting them to its true nature. Its straightforward configuration and effective logging system make GHH an essential tool for testing and enhancing web application security.

These HTTP honeypots provide critical defenses in the realm of cybersecurity, helping organizations detect, analyze, and respond to sophisticated web-based attacks. By integrating these tools, cybersecurity teams can significantly enhance their ability to safeguard against the evolving threats targeting web applications.

WordPress Honeypots: Targeting CMS Vulnerabilities

• Formidable Honeypot: Renowned for its efficacy with WordPress, this honeypot remains completely hidden to human users and targets only automated bots. Once a bot attempts an attack on any form within WordPress, it is immediately detected and neutralized. This solution offers a non-intrusive method to protect WordPress sites from spam without needing any manual setup. Simply activate the plugin, and it automatically integrates with all existing and future forms in both the free and pro versions of WordPress.
• Blackhole for Bad Bots: Designed to conserve bandwidth and server resources, this WordPress plugin shields your site from automated bots. It operates by embedding a covert link in the footer of your site’s pages, invisible to humans but a trap for bots that ignore the directives of robots.txt. When a non-compliant bot encounters this link, it triggers the plugin to block the bot, preventing any further abuse of your site’s resources. This effective management keeps your site safe from various automated threats, including malware and adware.
• Wordpot: A powerful tool for bolstering WordPress security, Wordpot specializes in identifying malicious activities targeting plugins, themes, and other common WordPress components. Developed in Python, Wordpot is straightforward to install and manage via the command line. It comes with a configuration file, wordpot.conf, which simplifies setting up the honeypot. Moreover, Wordpot supports custom plugins, allowing users to simulate and study attacks exploiting well-known WordPress vulnerabilities, thus enhancing the overall security posture of WordPress installations.

These WordPress honeypots serve as crucial defenses against CMS-specific vulnerabilities, providing administrators with sophisticated tools to detect and thwart potential security breaches effectively. By deploying these honeypots, WordPress site owners can significantly enhance the security of their sites against an array of cyber threats.

Database Honeypots: Safeguarding Critical Data

• ElasticHoney: Given the frequent exploitation of Elasticsearch databases, ElasticHoney serves as an essential honeypot designed to protect such environments. It effectively captures malicious requests aimed at exploiting Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities. ElasticHoney operates by monitoring popular Elasticsearch endpoints like “/”, “/_search”, and “/_nodes”. It mimics the responses of a vulnerable Elasticsearch instance by serving identical JSON responses. All interactions are logged into a file named elastichoney.log, providing valuable data for analysis. Notably, this tool supports both Windows and Linux operating systems, making it versatile for various IT infrastructures.
• HoneyMysql: This straightforward MySQL honeypot is tailored to shield SQL-based databases from intrusions. Programmed in Python, HoneyMysql is platform-agnostic and can be easily set up by cloning its repository from GitHub. This honeypot is particularly effective in trapping and analyzing SQL injection attempts and other common database threats, making it a vital tool for database security.
• MongoDB-HoneyProxy: As one of the most renowned honeypots for MongoDB databases, MongoDB-HoneyProxy acts primarily as a honeypot proxy. It captures and logs malicious traffic targeting MongoDB databases to an external third-party server for further investigation. The setup requires Node.js, npm, GCC, g++, and an operational MongoDB server. MongoDB-HoneyProxy is highly adaptable and can be deployed within a Docker container or any virtual machine environment, offering flexibility in how and where it can be used to enhance database security.

These database honeypots are crucial for detecting and analyzing attacks targeting various types of databases, thereby playing a key role in the proactive defense of critical data assets. By simulating vulnerable systems, they attract cybercriminals, allowing security teams to study attack methods and enhance defensive strategies accordingly.

Email Honeypots: Detecting Malicious Messages

• Honeymail: For those looking to guard against SMTP-based attacks, Honeymail offers a robust solution. Crafted in Golang, this email honeypot allows for the implementation of various defensive features tailored to protect SMTP servers. Key functionalities of Honeymail include setting up custom response messages, enabling StartSSL/TLS encryption for enhanced security, storing emails in a BoltDB file, and capturing detailed attacker data such as source domain, originating country, attachments, and the content of the emails whether in HTML or TXT format. Additionally, it provides effective DDoS protection to manage and mitigate high-volume connection attacks.
• Mailoney: Mailoney is a versatile email honeypot developed in Python, capable of operating in several modes to cater to different security needs. Its modes include open_relay, which logs all emails that are attempted to be sent through the system; postfix_creds, designed to capture credentials from login attempts; and schizo_open_relay, which logs all email interactions. This adaptability makes Mailoney an excellent tool for organizations seeking flexible email security solutions.
• SpamHAT: Designed specifically to combat spam, SpamHAT is an effective trap that prevents unwanted email content from reaching your inboxes. To deploy SpamHAT, ensure your system runs Perl 5.10 or higher, and install necessary CPAN modules such as IO::Socket, Mail::MboxParser, LWP::Simple, LWP::UserAgent, DBD::mysql, and Digest::MD5::File. Additionally, a functioning MySQL server with a database named ‘spampot’ is required to fully utilize SpamHAT’s capabilities. This setup allows SpamHAT to intercept spam effectively, providing a cleaner, more secure email environment.

These email honeypots serve as crucial defenses in the cyber security landscape, offering advanced capabilities to detect, analyze, and prevent various types of email-based threats. By employing such tools, organizations can significantly enhance their protective measures against complex email attacks and ensure the integrity of their communication channels.

IoT Honeypots: Securing Connected Devices

• HoneyThing: Specifically designed for Internet of Things (IoT) devices using TR-069 enabled services, HoneyThing simulates a complete modem/router environment using the RomPager web server. This IoT honeypot excels in emulating widespread vulnerabilities like Rom-0, Misfortune Cookie, and RomPager. It robustly supports the TR-069 (CWMP) protocol, handling a wide range of CPE commands such as GetRPCMethods, Get/Set parameter values, Download, and others. HoneyThing distinguishes itself with a user-friendly and intuitive web-based interface, and all vital interaction data is meticulously logged in a file named honeything.log, making it a comprehensive tool for IoT security analysis.
• Kako: This IoT honeypot is designed to simulate various services to trap and analyze incoming cyber attacks. Running simulations for Telnet, HTTP, and HTTPS servers, Kako captures detailed information from all requests, including the entire payload. It operates on several Python libraries, including Click, Boto3, Requests, and Cerberus, to ensure full functionality. Configuration is straightforward with a simple YAML file, kako.yaml, which guides the setup process. Kako records all captured data, which is then exportable to AWS SNS and saved in a flat-file JSON format for easy analysis and reporting.

These IoT honeypots provide crucial defensive capabilities in the realm of connected devices, where the diversity and ubiquity of IoT technology make them prime targets for cyber threats. By deploying devices like HoneyThing and Kako, organizations can enhance their understanding of potential vulnerabilities and refine their strategies to secure a vast network of IoT devices effectively.

Other Types of Honeypots: Expanding the List of Honeypots

• Dionaea: As a low-interaction honeypot developed in C and Python, Dionaea leverages the Libemu library to emulate the execution of Intel x86 instructions, making it effective in detecting shellcodes. It supports multiple protocols including FTP, HTTP, Memcache, MSSQL, MySQL, SMB, and TFTP. Its robust logging features are compatible with systems like Fail2Ban, hpfeeds, log_json, and log_sqlite, enhancing its utility for security professionals.
• Miniprint: Targeting one of the most commonly ignored aspects of network security, Miniprint acts as a specialized honeypot for detecting threats to network printers. It simulates a printer on the network, complete with a virtual file system that attackers can interact with, thereby allowing the system to log and analyze printer-focused attacks. Captured data, including postscript and plain text print jobs, are stored in an upload directory for detailed post-event analysis.
• Honeypot-ftp: This Python-based FTP honeypot is fully equipped to handle both plain FTP and FTPS. It meticulously tracks and logs user and password credentials from unauthorized access attempts, and records file uploads during each session, providing valuable insights into FTP-based cyber threats.
• HoneyNTP: Given that NTP is often neglected yet critical to network time synchronization, running a HoneyNTP honeypot can capture and log malicious NTP traffic. This Python-based NTP server records detailed information about NTP requests and associated port numbers into a Redis database, offering a rich source of data for subsequent analysis.
• Thug: While not a traditional honeypot, Thug serves as a honeyclient designed to emulate web browser behavior. It analyzes potentially harmful links to determine if they contain malicious elements, complementing server-side honeypot technologies by focusing on client-side threats.
• Canarytokens: This innovative tool uses honeytokens to mimic the functionality of web bugs, tracking and logging interactions such as file accesses, database queries, process executions, and more. Instead of establishing separate honeypots, Canarytokens integrates directly into existing systems, alerting administrators to breaches through subtle, embedded traps.

Additional Advice:

• Testing with MHN: It’s crucial not to overlook the Modern Honey Network (MHN), a centralized management server that supports a variety of honeypots including Dionaea, Glastopf, and Cowrie. MHN simplifies the deployment and data collection process across multiple honeypots, enhancing the efficiency of cybersecurity measures.
• Risk Considerations: Setting up a honeypot within a live operational environment naturally increases exposure to potential cyberattacks. This inherent risk means that while honeypots are valuable for attracting and studying threats, they can also inadvertently become gateways for real attacks if not properly secured and monitored. It is essential to ensure that honeypots do not compromise the overall security of the production environment.

Detecting Honeypots and Understanding Honeypot Attacks

Identifying honeypots and comprehending the mechanisms of honeypot attacks are critical for both attackers and defenders in cybersecurity. For defenders, recognizing unauthorized honeypot detection attempts helps in refining security measures and misleading attackers effectively. Understanding honeypot attacks involves analyzing the tactics used by attackers when they engage with these decoy systems, which often reveal the methods, tools, and sometimes even the intentions behind the attacks. This knowledge is pivotal in enhancing the sophistication and effectiveness of honeypots as proactive security measures.

Detecting Honeypots with Netlas

One of the tools available for detecting honeypots is the Netlas search engine. This functionality is accessible to all users, regardless of their subscription level. Honeypots can be identified in two primary ways: by analyzing their responses or by examining the tags provided by Netlas. Let’s explore both methods in more detail.

Honeypots often attempt to imitate multiple services simultaneously to attract a broader range of malicious programs. While these setups may successfully deceive automated systems, they are typically easy for a human to spot. For example, consider the following response:

You can observe how much software is listed in the “server” header. The likelihood that all of this software is genuinely running on a single port is practically zero. From this, we can confidently conclude that the object in question is a honeypot designed to attract as many hackers as possible.

The second method is to utilize the “honeypot” tag in Netlas. This makes identifying honeypots much easier. Simply use the following query:

tag.name:"honeypot"

To get a list of all honeypots detected by the search engine. Something like the following image.

However, it is important to note that this method requires at least a Business-tier subscription, as tag functionality becomes accessible only at this level.

Is Honeypot Bad for You? Assessing Risks and Benefits of Honeypotting

While honeypots are powerful tools in the cybersecurity arsenal, they come with their own set of risks and benefits that need careful consideration. The primary advantage of employing a honeypot is the ability to observe and study attack methodologies in a controlled environment, which can greatly inform and improve an organization’s security posture. However, if not properly isolated and monitored, honeypots can inadvertently expose real network systems to attackers, leading to potential breaches. Thus, understanding and managing the deployment of honeypots is crucial to ensure they serve as an asset rather than a liability.

Honeypot Targeting and Security Trails Blue Team Tools

Honeypot targeting involves strategic placement and configuration of honeypots to attract specific types of cyber threats. This targeted approach allows security teams, particularly blue teams, to prepare and respond more effectively to the tactics employed by cyber adversaries. Utilizing tools from Security Trails and other blue team toolkits enhances the capability of honeypots to not only deceive and capture malicious entities but also to integrate and analyze the data collected for actionable intelligence. This synergy between honeypots and blue team tools is essential for developing a robust defense mechanism against sophisticated cyber threats.

Summary: Choosing the Best Honeypot for Cybersecurity Defense

In this discussion, we have explored the concept of honeypots, detailed their operational mechanics, and reviewed a list of the top 20 honeypots that can enhance your defenses against cyber threats.

For those new to this field, setting up and deploying honeypots may seem daunting, but these tools are designed to be user-friendly. It’s crucial, however, to initially deploy them within a test environment separate from your live production systems. This practice ensures you can familiarize yourself with their functionalities and fine-tune their operations without risking the integrity of your primary network.

Are you prepared to fortify your network against further threats? Begin by assessing your attack surface to understand the scope of potentially exploitable information that might be visible to attackers.

To advance your security measures, consider exploring SurfaceBrowser™, our comprehensive enterprise-grade reconnaissance and OSINT tool. Enhance your organization’s security posture by scheduling a demonstration with our sales team today, and take a proactive step towards a more secure infrastructure.