pop3 problems

[asus]

ok my email server is getting hit really hard. and my fail2ban still spits out this error .

2009-04-26 06:45:55,346 fail2ban.comm   : WARNING Invalid command: ['add', 'courierpop3', 'polling']
2009-04-25 21:20:30,398 fail2ban.jail   : INFO   Using poller
2009-04-25 21:20:30,513 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Created Filter
2009-04-25 21:20:30,515 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Created FilterPoll
2009-04-25 21:20:30,527 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Added logfile = /var/log/mail.log
2009-04-25 21:20:30,553 fail2ban.filter : INFO   Set maxRetry = 5
2009-04-25 21:20:30,557 fail2ban.comm   : WARNING Invalid command: ['set', 'courierpop3', 'failregex', 'courierpop3login: LOGIN FAILED.*ip=\\[.*:<HOST>\\]']

I have been getting hit alot. the same address has tried to login 12308, here are a few.

pop3:
    Unknown Entries:
       authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty= ruser= rhost=  user=root:
15 Time(s)
       authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty= ruser= rhost=  user=mysql:
6 Time(s)
       authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty= ruser= rhost=  user=nobody

my question is can I fix this error so that fail2ban will block these mass attempts.

[falko]

Can you post the Courier part of your fail2ban configuration?

[asus]

[courierpop3]

enabled  = true
port     = pop3
filter   = courierlogin
failregex = courierpop3login: LOGIN FAILED.*ip=\[.*:<HOST>\]
logpath  = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 5


[courierimap]

enabled  = true
port     = imap2
filter   = courierlogin
failregex = imapd: LOGIN FAILED.*ip=\[.*:<HOST>\]
logpath  = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 5

[falko]

What's in the courierlogin filter in /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/?

[asus]

#
failregex = LOGIN FAILED, .*, ip=\[<HOST>\]$

# Option:  ignoreregex
# Notes.:  regex to ignore. If this regex matches, the line is ignored.
# Values:  TEXT
#
ignoreregex =

[falko]

Hm, not sure if it helps, but can you change

failregex = courierpop3login: LOGIN FAILED.*ip=\[.*:<HOST>\]

to

failregex = LOGIN FAILED.*ip=\[.*:<HOST>\]

and

failregex = imapd: LOGIN FAILED.*ip=\[.*:<HOST>\]

to

failregex = LOGIN FAILED.*ip=\[.*:<HOST>\]

?

[asus]

sorry to say but the same error keeps coming up.

[falko]

Then I'm at my wit's end...

[asus]

I followed the Preventing Brute Force Attacks With Fail2ban On Debian Etch, I'm not sure if you remember but I' am running the perfect ubuntu 8.04 LTS server setup with ispconfig 2. Would this have anything to do with it ? I know ubuntu is based on debian.

[falko]

Might be a problem with Ubuntu, but I can't say for sure...