diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0f79533..58a7757 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -23,3 +23,28 @@ curl -fsSL https://git.vanusys.com/VanuSystems/shell-scripts/raw/branch/main/ins
 ```bash
 curl -fsSL https://git.vanusys.com/VanuSystems/shell-scripts/raw/branch/main/set-vim-2space.sh | bash
 ```
+
+> **Tip:** Set up fail2ban with a strict profile (3 failures -> 24h ban, repeat offenders -> 1 week).
+
+```bash
+curl -fsSL https://git.vanusys.com/VanuSystems/shell-scripts/raw/branch/main/setup-fail2ban.sh | sudo bash
+```
+
+Override the detected SSH port, the sshd filter mode (`normal` by default: `aggressive`
+also counts pre-auth client disconnects as failures, which bans legitimate users) or
+whitelist an extra address:
+
+```bash
+curl -fsSL https://git.vanusys.com/VanuSystems/shell-scripts/raw/branch/main/setup-fail2ban.sh | sudo SSH_PORT=22,2222 IGNORE_IP=198.51.100.0/24 bash
+```
+
+> **Note:** the script whitelists the address of the current session when it can detect it
+> (`SSH_CONNECTION`, `SSH_CLIENT`, or the utmp entry of its terminal). Piped through
+> `curl ... | sudo bash` there is no terminal, so it prints a warning and you should pass
+> `IGNORE_IP=<your address>` yourself — otherwise 3 failed attempts ban you for 24h
+> (and 3 bans for a week).
+
+> **Note:** the script refuses to continue when fail2ban's `logtarget` is not a file
+> (`SYSLOG`, `STDERR`, ...), because the `recidive` jail reads that file to count bans
+> and could otherwise never fire. Set `logtarget = /var/log/fail2ban.log` in
+> `/etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.local` and re-run.
diff --git a/setup-fail2ban.sh b/setup-fail2ban.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..98f5104
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup-fail2ban.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,389 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Quick fail2ban setup with a strict risk profile (Debian/Ubuntu).
+# Strict defaults: 3 failed attempts -> 24h ban; repeat offenders -> 1 week.
+# Override via env, e.g. SSH_PORT=2222 SSHD_MODE=extra ./setup-fail2ban.sh
+#
+# Notes on the defaults (verified against fail2ban 0.11/1.0/1.1 and the Debian
+# and Ubuntu packages):
+#   * The systemd backend is used for sshd so the jail works on hosts without
+#     /var/log/auth.log (i.e. without rsyslog). It requires python3-systemd,
+#     which Debian/Ubuntu install with fail2ban.
+#   * A systemd backend makes fail2ban ignore "logpath" and use the filter's
+#     journalmatch instead - so the [recidive] jail, whose log only exists as a
+#     file, must keep a file backend, otherwise it silently never bans.
+#   * SSHD_MODE defaults to "normal": "aggressive" also counts pre-auth client
+#     disconnects ("Connection closed by authenticating user ... [preauth]") as
+#     failures, which bans legitimate users with a 24h/1w profile.
+#   * "dbpurgeage" is a fail2ban.conf [Definition] option; setting it here would
+#     be silently ignored, so it is not written.
+#   * The effective logtarget (fail2ban.conf, then fail2ban.d/*.conf, then
+#     fail2ban.local) must resolve to a file: [recidive] reads it to count bans,
+#     and a SYSLOG/STDERR target would leave that jail silently inert. The value
+#     is therefore resolved, validated and verified to actually receive log
+#     output before the script reports success.
+
+SSH_PORT="${SSH_PORT:-}"
+IGNORE_IP="${IGNORE_IP:-}"
+SSHD_MODE="${SSHD_MODE:-normal}"
+MAXRETRY="${MAXRETRY:-3}"
+FINDTIME="${FINDTIME:-10m}"
+BANTIME="${BANTIME:-24h}"
+RECIDIVE_MAXRETRY="${RECIDIVE_MAXRETRY:-3}"
+RECIDIVE_FINDTIME="${RECIDIVE_FINDTIME:-1d}"
+RECIDIVE_BANTIME="${RECIDIVE_BANTIME:-1w}"
+
+JAIL_LOCAL="/etc/fail2ban/jail.local"
+JAIL_D="/etc/fail2ban/jail.d"
+
+if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]; then
+  echo "Please run as root (sudo)." >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ ! -r /etc/os-release ]; then
+  echo "/etc/os-release is missing; cannot detect the distribution." >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+. /etc/os-release
+
+case "${ID:-}" in
+  debian|ubuntu|raspbian) ;;
+  *)
+    echo "Unsupported distribution: ${ID:-unknown} (only Debian, Ubuntu and Raspbian are supported)." >&2
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+# fail2ban silently ignores an unknown filter mode, which would leave sshd
+# protected by less (or more) than the operator expects.
+case "$SSHD_MODE" in
+  normal|ddos|extra|aggressive) ;;
+  *)
+    echo "Invalid SSHD_MODE: '$SSHD_MODE' (expected normal, ddos, extra or aggressive)." >&2
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+
+sshd_effective() {
+  local key="$1" out=""
+  out="$(timeout 10 sshd -T 2>/dev/null || true)"
+  if [ -n "$out" ]; then
+    printf '%s\n' "$out" | awk -v k="$key" '$1 == k { print $2 }'
+    return 0
+  fi
+  awk -v k="$key" 'tolower($1) == k { print $2 }' /etc/ssh/sshd_config 2>/dev/null || true
+}
+
+detect_ssh_port() {
+  local ports
+  ports="$(sshd_effective port | sort -u | paste -sd, -)"
+  if [ -z "$ports" ]; then
+    ports="$(ss -H -tlnp 2>/dev/null | awk '/sshd/ { n = split($4, a, ":"); print a[n] }' | sort -u | paste -sd, -)"
+  fi
+  printf '%s' "${ports:-22}"
+}
+
+detect_client_ip() {
+  local ip="" tty_name=""
+  if [ -n "${SSH_CONNECTION:-}" ]; then
+    ip="${SSH_CONNECTION%% *}"
+  fi
+  if [ -z "$ip" ] && [ -n "${SSH_CLIENT:-}" ]; then
+    ip="${SSH_CLIENT%% *}"
+  fi
+  if [ -z "$ip" ]; then
+    # sudo's env_reset usually drops SSH_CONNECTION/SSH_CLIENT; fall back to the
+    # utmp entry of our own terminal. Note that "who am i" cannot be used here:
+    # it resolves the entry through stdin, which is a pipe for the documented
+    # "curl ... | sudo bash" invocation.
+    tty_name="$(tty 2>/dev/null || true)"
+    case "$tty_name" in
+      /dev/*)
+        ip="$(who 2>/dev/null | awk -v t="${tty_name#/dev/}" '$2 == t { print $NF }' | tail -n1 | tr -d '()' || true)"
+        ;;
+    esac
+  fi
+  case "$ip" in
+    *[!0-9a-fA-F:.]*|"") ip="" ;;
+  esac
+  printf '%s' "$ip"
+}
+
+detect_banaction() {
+  if command -v nft >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    printf 'nftables-multiport'
+  elif command -v iptables >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    printf 'iptables-multiport'
+  else
+    echo "Neither nft nor iptables is available; fail2ban cannot enforce bans." >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
+# [recidive] (and other "allports" jails) ignore banaction and use
+# banaction_allports, whose default on older Debian/Ubuntu is iptables-allports.
+# Keep both in sync with the firewall actually present.
+detect_banaction_allports() {
+  case "$1" in
+    nftables-*) printf 'nftables-allports' ;;
+    iptables-*) printf 'iptables-allports' ;;
+    *)
+      echo "Cannot derive an all-ports banaction from '$1'." >&2
+      exit 1
+      ;;
+  esac
+}
+
+# fail2ban reads fail2ban.conf, then fail2ban.d/*.conf, then fail2ban.local, so
+# the value from the last file that sets logtarget is the effective one.
+logtarget_effective() {
+  local f value="" current
+  for f in /etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.conf /etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.d/*.conf \
+           /etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.local; do
+    [ -r "$f" ] || continue
+    current="$(awk '
+      /^[[:space:]]*logtarget[[:space:]]*=/ {
+        line = $0
+        sub(/^[^=]*=[[:space:]]*/, "", line)
+        sub(/[[:space:]]*#.*/, "", line)
+        gsub(/^[[:space:]]+|[[:space:]]+$/, "", line)
+        value = line
+      }
+      END { if (value != "") print value }
+    ' "$f")"
+    if [ -n "$current" ]; then
+      value="$current"
+    fi
+  done
+  printf '%s' "$value"
+}
+
+echo "==> Installing fail2ban"
+apt-get update
+apt-get install -y fail2ban
+
+echo "==> Resolving fail2ban log target"
+FAIL2BAN_LOG="$(logtarget_effective)"
+case "$FAIL2BAN_LOG" in
+  \"*\") FAIL2BAN_LOG="${FAIL2BAN_LOG#\"}"; FAIL2BAN_LOG="${FAIL2BAN_LOG%\"}" ;;
+  \'*\') FAIL2BAN_LOG="${FAIL2BAN_LOG#\'}"; FAIL2BAN_LOG="${FAIL2BAN_LOG%\'}" ;;
+esac
+
+# [recidive] can only count bans in a file. Refuse to configure a jail that
+# could never fire instead of leaving the host with a false sense of coverage.
+case "$FAIL2BAN_LOG" in
+  '')
+    echo "Cannot determine fail2ban's logtarget: no logtarget in fail2ban.conf," >&2
+    echo "fail2ban.d/*.conf or fail2ban.local. The [recidive] jail reads that log." >&2
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+  /*) ;;
+  *)
+    echo "fail2ban logs to '$FAIL2BAN_LOG', which is not a file path." >&2
+    echo "The [recidive] jail reads the log file and would never see a ban." >&2
+    echo "Set 'logtarget = /var/log/fail2ban.log' in /etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.local" >&2
+    echo "and run this script again." >&2
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+case "$FAIL2BAN_LOG" in
+  *[!A-Za-z0-9._/-]*)
+    echo "Refusing suspicious logtarget path: '$FAIL2BAN_LOG'." >&2
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+echo "==> Detecting SSH and firewall"
+SSH_PORT="${SSH_PORT:-$(detect_ssh_port)}"
+SSH_PORT="$(printf '%s' "$SSH_PORT" | tr -d '[:space:]')"
+case "$SSH_PORT" in
+  ''|*[!0-9,]*)
+    echo "Invalid SSH port: '$SSH_PORT' (expected digits, e.g. 22 or 22,2222)." >&2
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+BANACTION="$(detect_banaction)"
+BANACTION_ALLPORTS="$(detect_banaction_allports "$BANACTION")"
+CLIENT_IP="$(detect_client_ip | tr -d '[:space:]')"
+IGNORE_IP="$(printf '%s' "$IGNORE_IP" | tr -d '[:space:]')"
+
+# Values are interpolated into the jail config, so reject anything that is not
+# a plain address/CIDR list before it can add or override a directive.
+for entry in ${CLIENT_IP:-} ${IGNORE_IP:-}; do
+  case "$entry" in
+    *[!0-9a-fA-F:.,/]*|*/*/*)
+      echo "Invalid IP entry: '$entry' (expected address or CIDR)." >&2
+      exit 1
+      ;;
+  esac
+done
+
+IGNORE_LIST="127.0.0.1/8 ::1"
+if [ -n "$CLIENT_IP" ]; then
+  IGNORE_LIST="$IGNORE_LIST $CLIENT_IP"
+fi
+if [ -n "$IGNORE_IP" ]; then
+  IGNORE_LIST="$IGNORE_LIST $IGNORE_IP"
+fi
+
+echo "    ssh port  : $SSH_PORT"
+echo "    sshd mode : $SSHD_MODE"
+echo "    banaction : $BANACTION (all-ports: $BANACTION_ALLPORTS)"
+echo "    logtarget : $FAIL2BAN_LOG"
+echo "    ignoreip  : $IGNORE_LIST"
+
+if [ -z "$CLIENT_IP" ]; then
+  echo "    WARNING: this session's client address could not be detected, so it is" >&2
+  echo "             NOT whitelisted. With $MAXRETRY attempts in $FINDTIME -> $BANTIME" >&2
+  echo "             ($RECIDIVE_MAXRETRY bans -> $RECIDIVE_BANTIME) you can lock yourself out." >&2
+  echo "             Re-run with IGNORE_IP=<your address> if you administer over SSH." >&2
+fi
+
+echo "==> Ensuring sshd logs failed attempts"
+if [ "$(sshd_effective loglevel | head -n1)" = "QUIET" ]; then
+  install -d -m 0755 /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
+  printf 'LogLevel VERBOSE\n' > /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/99-fail2ban-loglevel.conf
+  if sshd -t 2>/dev/null; then
+    systemctl reload ssh 2>/dev/null || systemctl reload sshd 2>/dev/null || \
+      echo "    warning: could not reload sshd; the LogLevel change applies after its next restart" >&2
+    echo "    set LogLevel VERBOSE"
+  else
+    rm -f /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/99-fail2ban-loglevel.conf
+    echo "    skipped: config test failed" >&2
+  fi
+else
+  echo "    already sufficient"
+fi
+
+echo "==> Writing $JAIL_LOCAL"
+if [ -f "$JAIL_LOCAL" ]; then
+  cp "$JAIL_LOCAL" "${JAIL_LOCAL}.bak.$(date +%s)"
+fi
+
+# jail.d/*.conf is read BEFORE jail.local, so our settings win and entries that
+# other packages or the admin put there (nginx, postfix, ...) keep working.
+# They are therefore left untouched - only reported.
+if [ -d "$JAIL_D" ]; then
+  existing_jails="$(find "$JAIL_D" -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.conf' -printf '%f ' 2>/dev/null || true)"
+  if [ -n "${existing_jails:-}" ]; then
+    echo "    keeping existing entries in $JAIL_D: $existing_jails"
+  fi
+fi
+
+cat > "$JAIL_LOCAL" <<EOF
+[DEFAULT]
+ignoreip = $IGNORE_LIST
+bantime  = $BANTIME
+findtime = $FINDTIME
+maxretry = $MAXRETRY
+backend  = systemd
+banaction = $BANACTION
+banaction_allports = $BANACTION_ALLPORTS
+# Repeat offenders are handled by the [recidive] jail below. These options only
+# take effect if bantime.increment is switched to true (maxtime caps the growth).
+bantime.increment = false
+bantime.maxtime = 5w
+
+[sshd]
+enabled  = true
+port     = $SSH_PORT
+mode     = $SSHD_MODE
+# Inert with the systemd backend (fail2ban uses the filter's journalmatch and
+# ignores logpath); kept for hosts that switch this jail to a file backend.
+logpath  = %(sshd_log)s
+
+# fail2ban writes its ban notices to $FAIL2BAN_LOG (logtarget), not to the
+# journal, so this jail must read that file: with the systemd backend inherited
+# from [DEFAULT] it would monitor a journal that never contains a "Ban" line and
+# would silently never ban anyone.
+[recidive]
+enabled  = true
+backend  = polling
+journalmatch =
+logpath  = $FAIL2BAN_LOG
+findtime = $RECIDIVE_FINDTIME
+maxretry = $RECIDIVE_MAXRETRY
+bantime  = $RECIDIVE_BANTIME
+EOF
+
+# A file backend refuses to start fail2ban when its logpath does not exist yet.
+install -d -m 0755 "$(dirname "$FAIL2BAN_LOG")"
+touch "$FAIL2BAN_LOG"
+
+LOG_SIZE_BEFORE="$(wc -c < "$FAIL2BAN_LOG" 2>/dev/null | tr -d '[:space:]')"
+LOG_SIZE_BEFORE="${LOG_SIZE_BEFORE:-0}"
+
+echo "==> Enabling and restarting fail2ban"
+systemctl enable fail2ban >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
+if ! systemctl restart fail2ban; then
+  echo "fail2ban failed to start. Recent log:" >&2
+  journalctl -u fail2ban -n 30 --no-pager >&2 || true
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "==> Verifying"
+# fail2ban can be "active" while a jail silently failed to load, so wait for the
+# jails themselves and fail loudly instead of printing a success summary.
+jails_ok=false
+tries=0
+while [ "$tries" -lt 10 ]; do
+  if systemctl is-active --quiet fail2ban \
+     && fail2ban-client status sshd >/dev/null 2>&1 \
+     && fail2ban-client status recidive >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    jails_ok=true
+    break
+  fi
+  tries=$((tries + 1))
+  sleep 1
+done
+
+if [ "$jails_ok" != true ]; then
+  echo "fail2ban is not enforcing: the sshd/recidive jails did not come up." >&2
+  journalctl -u fail2ban -n 30 --no-pager >&2 || true
+  fail2ban-client status >&2 || true
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# An active jail proves nothing about [recidive]: it only bans when the log it
+# polls receives lines. Wait for the restart to actually write there.
+log_written=false
+tries=0
+while [ "$tries" -lt 5 ]; do
+  LOG_SIZE_NOW="$(wc -c < "$FAIL2BAN_LOG" 2>/dev/null | tr -d '[:space:]')"
+  if [ "${LOG_SIZE_NOW:-0}" -gt "$LOG_SIZE_BEFORE" ]; then
+    log_written=true
+    break
+  fi
+  tries=$((tries + 1))
+  sleep 1
+done
+
+if [ "$log_written" != true ]; then
+  echo "fail2ban is not writing to $FAIL2BAN_LOG, so the [recidive] jail would" >&2
+  echo "never observe a ban. Check 'logtarget' in fail2ban.conf/fail2ban.local." >&2
+  journalctl -u fail2ban -n 30 --no-pager >&2 || true
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+fail2ban-client status
+fail2ban-client status sshd
+fail2ban-client status recidive
+
+echo
+echo "fail2ban configured with a strict profile."
+echo "Jails:            sshd (port $SSH_PORT, mode $SSHD_MODE), recidive"
+echo "Ban policy:       $MAXRETRY failures in $FINDTIME -> $BANTIME"
+echo "Repeat offenders: $RECIDIVE_MAXRETRY bans in $RECIDIVE_FINDTIME -> $RECIDIVE_BANTIME"
+echo "Recidive source:  $FAIL2BAN_LOG"
+echo "Never banned:     $IGNORE_LIST"
+echo
+echo "Check:   fail2ban-client status sshd"
+echo "Unban:   fail2ban-client set sshd unbanip <IP>"
+echo "Config:  $JAIL_LOCAL"