IPBan Control Center

A full-featured, modern Windows graphical user interface (GUI) and management suite for DigitalRuby IPBan security service.

Designed for system administrators, DevOps, and power users running Windows 10, Windows 11, or Windows Server (2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2025).

🇺🇦 Українська версія документації: доступна у файлі README_IPBan_GUI.md.

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Downloads & Releases

👉 Pre-compiled, standalone single-file executables are available on the GitHub Releases page:

• Setup_IPBanGUI.exe — Graphical installer wizard (auto-configures shortcuts, autostart, and security audit).
• IPBanControlCenter.exe — Portable single-file launcher (no installation required).
• IPBanGUI-v2.2.5.zip — Complete release archive with executables and documentation.

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Key Features

📊 Real-Time Attack Analytics & KPI Dashboard

• 4 Live KPI Summary Cards:
  • Total Locally Blocked IPs.
  • Number of Unique Attacking Countries.
  • Top Attacking Country (% share of total attack volume).
  • Peak Attack Window (hourly range).
• Top Attacking Countries Leaderboard: Ranked table with country flag emojis, ban counts, percentage shares, and visual unicode activity bars (████░░░░).
• 24-Hour Local Attack Distribution Histogram: Hourly distribution (00:00 to 23:00) calculated from real local audit events and ban timestamps, highlighting peak attack windows with an alert banner.
• Isolated Telemetry: Analytics strictly measure attacks against your local server, unpolluted by external bulk threat lists.

🛡️ AbuseIPDB Threat Intelligence Integration

• Cloud Blacklist Synchronization: Download up to 10,000 verified malicious IP addresses directly from AbuseIPDB API with configurable confidence threshold (e.g. 90-100%).
• Isolated Blacklist Architecture: Downloaded cloud IPs are stored in a dedicated blacklist, keeping the "Locally Blocked IPs" grid clean and focused on direct threats to your server.
• Optional Auto-Reporting: Ability to automatically submit local attacker IPs to AbuseIPDB to contribute to global threat intelligence (disabled by default).

🔍 Multi-Protocol Service & Port Monitoring

• Visual monitoring and protection for 12 Windows protocols and services:
  • Remote Access: RDP (3389), OpenSSH (22), MS VPN RRAS (1723/4500), RD Web Access (443), VNC (5900).
  • Databases: MS-SQL Server (1433), MySQL / MariaDB (3306).
  • Web & File Transfer: HTTP / Web (80/443), FTP (21).
  • Mail Services: SMTP (25/587), IMAP (143/993), POP3 (110/995).
• Live visual status badges (🟢 Enabled / ⚪ Disabled) with automatic XML expression generation in ipban.config.

💾 Persistent Cross-Version Configuration Engine

• Machine-wide persistent settings store located in C:\ProgramData\IPBanControlCenter\settings.json.
• Survives upgrades, reinstalls, and uninstalls: Your AbuseIPDB API key, service monitoring preferences, language, and tray behavior remain intact across version upgrades.
• Real-time auto-saving: Any toggle or input is persisted immediately without requiring manual save clicks.

🔔 System Tray Integration & Background Protection

• Color-Coded Shield Tray Icons:
  • 🟢 Green Shield: Protected & IPBan service running normally.
  • 🔴 Red Shield: Service stopped or not installed.
  • 🟠 Orange Shield + Exclamation: Real-time alert badge when a new attacker IP is banned.
• Windows Balloon Notifications: Native toast popups with attacker IP details upon ban events.
• Background Minimization: Closing [X] minimizes to the tray to ensure 24/7 background security supervision.

🌍 GeoIP Country Detection & Flag Emojis

• Asynchronous GeoIP lookup: Resolves attacker country without freezing or slowing down the UI.
• Local disk caching (geoip_cache.json) to minimize network queries.
• Displays flag emojis and country names (e.g., 🇺🇸 US, 🇩🇪 DE, 🇺🇦 UA) in the blocked IPs grid and analytics.
• Automatic recognition of LAN and private IP ranges (🏠 LAN - Local Network).

🚫 Windows Firewall & Banned IP Management

• Inspect active Windows Firewall rules (IPBan_*) with ban time and exact unban countdown.
• Quick filter selector:
  • ⛔ Locally Banned IPs (direct brute-force attackers)
  • ⚪ Whitelist (authorized safe IPs)
  • 🏴 Cloud Blacklist (AbuseIPDB threat intelligence)
  • 📋 All Firewall Rules
• One-click Whois lookup for any IP via ipinfo.io.
• Instant unbanning of selected IPs or safe reset of local bans.
• Export IP lists to .txt or .csv.

⚙️ Visual Configuration Editor (ipban.config)

• Adjust threshold attempts (FailedLoginAttemptsBeforeBan), ban duration presets (1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 30 days, permanent), expire time, and cycle intervals.
• Automatic safety backup (ipban.config.bak) created prior to saving with one-click restore.

📋 Whitelist & Self-Lockout Protection

• Manage trusted subnets and admin workstations.
• Self-lockout protection buttons: Automatically detects and whitelists local network adapter IP (+ Add Local IP) and public WAN IP (+ Add Public WAN IP).

📑 Security Event Log & Audit (Event ID 4625)

• Real-time monitoring of failed Windows logons (RDP, Network, SMB, Interactive).
• Details: Timestamp, Username, Source IP, Logon Type, Workstation.
• Instant ban button directly from the event log table.
• Built-in logfile.txt viewer with auto-refresh.

🔄 Automatic GitHub Update Checker

• Background version checking against GitHub Releases API with notification dialog when updates are available.

🌐 Dual Language Support (EN / UA)

• Full Ukrainian and English language support with automatic Windows OS locale detection.
• One-click language switch via the header button.

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Installation & Usage

Option 1: Standalone Installer (Recommended)

1. Download and run Setup_IPBanGUI.exe from Releases.
2. The installation wizard will guide you through:
   • Selecting the installation folder (default: C:\Program Files\IPBan Manager).
   • Desktop and Start Menu shortcut creation.
   • Windows Startup configuration (auto-starts minimized to system tray upon logon).
   • Automated Windows Security Audit policy activation (AuditPol).
   • Checking and configuring the IPBan Windows service.
3. Registered in Windows Add/Remove Programs with a clean uninstaller that preserves user configuration.

Option 2: Portable Standalone Launcher

• Download and run IPBanControlCenter.exe from Releases.
• Requires zero installation; automatically elevates (UAC) and runs anywhere.

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Building from Source

To compile the standalone single-file .exe binaries with embedded assets:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Build_Binaries.ps1

This compiles:

1. app.ico – Generated multi-layer shield icon.
2. IPBanControlCenter.exe – Standalone C# launcher embedding IPBanGUI.ps1 and settings.json.
3. Setup_IPBanGUI.exe – Standalone installer embedding the wizard and all dependencies.
4. release/IPBanGUI-v2.2.5.zip – Packaged distribution archive.

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System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2012 R2 / 2016 / 2019 / 2022 / 2025 (x64)
• PowerShell: Version 5.1 or newer (built into Windows 10 / Server 2016+)
• Privileges: Local Administrator (required for managing Windows services and firewall rules)

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.
DigitalRuby IPBan is created and maintained by Jeff Johnson / Digital Ruby.