DenyHosts: Remove / Delete an IP address

How do I remove my own home IP address from DenyHosts?

Simply removing your IP from /etc/hosts.deny does not work since DenyHosts keeps track of the attempts in the /usr/share/denyhosts/data directory. In order to remove your IP address you will need to do the following.

Step # 1: Stop DenyHosts

# /etc/init.d/denyhosts stop

Step # 2: Remove Your IP From /etc/hosts.deny

# vi /etc/hosts.deny
Delete your IP address. Save and close the file.

Step # 3: Remove Your IP From /usr/share/denyhosts/data Directory

Cd to /usr/share/denyhosts/data
# cd /usr/share/denyhosts/data

You need to edit the following files using vi and remove the lines containing the IP address. Save the file.

  1. hosts
  2. hosts-restricted
  3. hosts-root
  4. hosts-valid
  5. users-hosts

If you’ve static IP address add to allowed-hosts file. Any IP address that appears in this file will not be blocked by default (consider this as a whilelist):
# echo '1.2.3.4' >> allowed-hosts

Step # 4: Start DenyHosts

# /etc/init.d/denyhosts start

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