High Risk
IP address 45.140.17.124 is a high-risk Russian address that has accumulated 2,717 abuse reports, predominantly for SSH brute-force activity, warranting an immediate block or strict access control for any exposed SSH services. The IP is registered to Proton66 OOO on ASN AS198953 and has been flagged by automated honeypot sensors since August 2025, with the most recent reports dating to January 2026.
The volume of reports is substantial, though the activity frequency metric of 0/10 suggests a declining or intermittent attack pattern rather than sustained continuous probing. All 20 most recent threat reports specifically cite SSH attack vectors, indicating this address has been systematically targeting Secure Shell services. The 59% confidence score reflects that while the malicious behavior is well-documented, some contextual attribution remains uncertain. The geographic location in Russia and the association with a commercial network operator provides little ambiguity about the source region of this hostile traffic.
SSH brute-force attacks represent a concrete threat to any server exposing port 22 to the internet, as successful credential compromise grants attackers direct command-line access and potentially lateral movement opportunities across a network. The automated nature of these attacks means servers with weak or default credentials can be compromised within hours of exposure. Even failed attempts generate significant log noise and resource consumption, degrading server performance and filling authentication logs.
Site operators should block 45.140.17.124 at the firewall level immediately and monitor for any emerging connections from adjacent address space. Implementing fail2ban or similar intrusion-prevention tools will dynamically ban repeated SSH authentication failures. hardening SSH configurations with key-based authentication, disabling root login, and moving SSH to a non-standard port will substantially reduce exposure. Regular audit of authentication logs and implementation of account lockout policies provide additional defensive layers against this class of attack.