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[](https://crates.io/crates/drosera)
# Drosera
Drosera is a SSH tarpit server. Inspired by [endlessh](https://nullprogram.com/blog/2019/03/22/).
When initiating a SSH session, the server first sends a version string to the client before communication begins. However, tarpits like drosera can exploit the following paragraph in the SSH specification, found in [RFC 4253](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4253#page-4):
```
The server MAY send other lines of data before sending the version
string. Each line SHOULD be terminated by a Carriage Return and Line
Feed. Such lines MUST NOT begin with "SSH-", and SHOULD be encoded
in ISO-10646 UTF-8 [RFC3629] (language is not specified). Clients
MUST be able to process such lines.
```
It is thus incredibly easy to trap ill-configured clients in a tarpit by simply never sending the version string. To keep the connection alive, some data should be sent periodically.
Drosera, like its [beautiful namesake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosera), is designed to thrive in memory-constrained environments while feeding on the numerous blood-sucking drones seeking prey on the Internet.
## Table of Contents
- [Installation](#installation)
- [Usage](#usage)
- [Risks](#risks)
## Installation
Install drosera by either grabbing a [pre-built binary](https://github.com/LimeEng/drosera/releases) or by running one of these commands.
```sh
cargo install drosera
cargo install --git https://github.com/LimeEng/drosera
```
## Usage
To view the available options and usage details, execute the `drosera` binary. Below is an example of the output:
```sh
Tarpit SSH server
Usage: drosera [OPTIONS]
Options:
-s, --socket_addr <socket_addr>
The socket address to bind to [default: 127.0.0.1:22]
-m, --max_connections <max_connections>
The maximum number of connections maintained at once [default: 1024]
-d, --delay <delay>
Approximately wait this long before sending more data (in milliseconds) [default: 10000]
-h, --help
Print help
-V, --version
Print version
```
## Risks
Running tarpits servers at all might [not be a good idea](https://serverfault.com/questions/611063/does-tarpit-have-any-known-vulnerabilities-or-downsides). An adversary might even be able to exploit a vulnerability in drosera to gain access to the machine it's running on. Adversaries could also launch massive denial-of-service attacks, quickly consuming what little memory is available and crashing the server.