If I know the default login, how would fail2ban help you? Doesn't it mine only the failures?

Right, I changed the default, and now I ban anyone who tries it.

Then what's making a difference for you is that you changed a default name or password.

fail2ban is nice and all, but irrelevant to this post about a default login.

I guess I should’ve said “Scripts like this…” instead of just “This”.

My entire point being that any client that tries a default account should be insta-banned. That’s what I get from this.

stout policy

fail2ban wouldn't help as he used the default password, it would have let him in. All you have to do is change the password or force key only logins (which is what most security conscious people do)

fail2ban is such a clumsy solution when one can just disable password authentication and change the default port.

It is. If you really want to get after the password scans, iptables and connection tracking. After N number of new connection requests, drop for X minutes.

Any IPs that are trusted, put ahead of that logic.