Introduction

In today’s ever-evolving threat landscape, running self-hosted services often feels like defending a fortress surrounded by persistent and cunning adversaries. Traditional security measures—like static firewall rules and manually blocking suspicious IPs—are no longer enough. Attackers now leverage advanced techniques, exploit zero-day vulnerabilities, and orchestrate large-scale botnets designed to bypass outdated defenses.

To effectively safeguard your digital assets, you need a dynamic, adaptable, and intelligent security approach. This is where the integration of NPMplus and CrowdSec comes into play. NPMplus, an enhanced fork of Nginx Proxy Manager, works as your secure gateway, while CrowdSec provides powerful, real-time threat intelligence. Together, they form an active, learning defense system that evolves as new threats emerge—giving you the best chance of keeping your services safe.

Why NPMplus and CrowdSec?

Before diving into the technical mechanics, let’s explore why this combination stands out. NPMplus and CrowdSec complement each other to deliver a modern, intelligent, and automated security solution:

  1. Modern Transport Protocols & Security:
    NPMplus supports HTTP/3 (QUIC), enabling lower latency and improved performance. This modern protocol is more secure and efficient, ensuring your front-end security stands on a contemporary footing.
  2. Advanced Application Security:
    With ModSecurity integration and an optional Core Rule Set, NPMplus goes beyond simple traffic forwarding. This is your first layer of defense—able to detect common attack patterns and filter out malicious requests before they even hit your services.
  3. Dynamic, Global Threat Intelligence:
    CrowdSec transforms static security into a dynamic, global ecosystem. Instead of relying solely on predefined rules, it leverages community-driven intel to identify threats. When one instance identifies malicious activity, it shares that knowledge with the entire network, allowing everyone to benefit.
  4. Seamless Integration & Automated Defense:
    NPMplus and CrowdSec communicate directly and efficiently. Every incoming request is instantly evaluated against CrowdSec’s intelligence, while CrowdSec continuously analyzes logs provided by NPMplus. This creates a closed feedback loop that refines and adapts your security posture in real-time.

NPMplus: Your Enhanced Secure Gateway

GitHub - ZoeyVid/NPMplus: Docker container for managing Nginx proxy hosts with a simple, powerful interface
Docker container for managing Nginx proxy hosts with a simple, powerful interface - ZoeyVid/NPMplus
GitHubZoeyVid

Think of NPMplus as your secure border checkpoint. It’s an intuitive platform for managing reverse proxies, SSL certificates, and application-level security:

  • HTTP/3 Support: Leveraging QUIC for faster, more secure communications.
  • Integrated WAF (ModSecurity): Optional, but highly recommended, the Web Application Firewall filters out common attack payloads right at the entry point.
  • Certificate & TLS Management: Automated certificate provisioning, renewal, and robust TLS configurations that keep your data transfers secure.
  • Deep CrowdSec Integration: By design, NPMplus hooks into CrowdSec, enabling real-time threat assessments and instant enforcement of ban decisions.

CrowdSec: Your Adaptive Security Brain

Curated Threat Intelligence Powered by the Crowd | CrowdSec
We turn crowd-powered intelligence into tactical intelligence with actionable blocklists to maximize your SOC efficiency and reduce your costs.
Products
GitHub - crowdsecurity/crowdsec: CrowdSec - the open-source and participative security solution offering crowdsourced protection against malicious IPs and access to the most advanced real-world CTI.
CrowdSec - the open-source and participative security solution offering crowdsourced protection against malicious IPs and access to the most advanced real-world CTI. - crowdsecurity/crowdsec
GitHubcrowdsecurity

While NPMplus acts as the gatekeeper, CrowdSec is the intelligence center that makes your gateway smarter. Instead of static lists or manual updates, CrowdSec uses behavior-driven analysis:

  • Behavioral Analysis: CrowdSec continuously monitors logs, looking beyond just IP addresses. It considers how requests behave over time, detecting patterns like brute-force attempts, suspicious probing, or stealthy recon.
  • Real-Time Learning: Its scenarios and parsers turn raw data into actionable intelligence. As new threats emerge, CrowdSec evolves, learning from both local events and global inputs.
  • Community-Driven Updates: CrowdSec users share anonymized threat insights. This collective knowledge means your system can preemptively block malicious actors identified elsewhere, boosting your defenses exponentially.

How the Integration Works: A Technical Breakdown

The Technical Foundation

Under the hood, this integration relies on several key components working in harmony:

  1. Local API Communication:
    • CrowdSec maintains a local API server
    • NPMplus queries this API for every incoming request
    • Decisions are served rapidly for immediate enforcement
  2. Dual Protection Modes:
    • Real-time protection through AppSec checks
    • Historical analysis through log parsing and pattern matching
  3. Automated Decision Enforcement:
    • Decisions are stored in CrowdSec's local database
    • NPMplus enforces these decisions automatically
    • Multiple response types can be configured based on threat level

Workflow Chart

The synergy between NPMplus and CrowdSec is all about continuous feedback, automation, and adaptation. The following diagram illustrates how they interact:

        flowchart TD
        A[NPMplus] -->|Generates| B[Log Files]
        B -->|Acquired via acquis.yaml| C[CrowdSec Log Acquisition]
        subgraph "CrowdSec Processing"
        C -->|Raw logs| D[Parsers]
        D -->|Structured events| E[Contextualization]
        E -->|Enriched data| F[Scenarios]
        G[Patterns] -->|Regex/Definitions| E
        H[Contexts] -->|Base logic| E
        I[AppSec Rules] -->|CVE signatures| F
        end
        F -->|Triggers| J[Decision Making]
        K[Community Intel] -.->|Optional updates| F
        J -->|Ban decisions| L[Local API]
        L -->|Query results| A
        M[Notifications] -->|Alerts| N[Email/Slack]
        J -->|Triggers| M
        style A fill:#f9f,stroke:#333
        style L fill:#bbf,stroke:#333
        style F fill:#bfb,stroke:#333

Key Steps in the Workflow:

1. Initial Request & Query:
When a visitor attempts to access your service, NPMplus immediately consults the CrowdSec local API’s AppSec module to determine if the incoming request is known to be malicious based on current threat intelligence. If the AppSec response deems the request “bad,” NPMplus blocks it right away, preventing malicious traffic from ever touching your protected services.

2. Ongoing Surveillance & Logging:
Every request—legitimate or suspicious—is meticulously recorded by NPMplus. Logs include details like IP addresses, accessed URLs, HTTP methods, and response statuses. These logs are then fed into CrowdSec’s log acquisition pipeline, where CrowdSec continuously monitors them for signs of malicious patterns that might not have been evident at the time of the original request.

3. CrowdSec’s Intelligence Pipeline:
Raw logs flow through a series of processing steps within CrowdSec:

  • Parsers convert unstructured logs into structured events.
  • Contextualization adds deeper meaning to these events, identifying what an IP is attempting to accomplish.
  • Scenarios, informed by global attack patterns, test these enriched events against known threats—like brute-force attempts, exploitation tactics, or DDoS signatures.

4. Decision Making & Enforcement via Local API:
When CrowdSec identifies malicious behavior from log-based analysis, it makes a decision—such as issuing an IP ban. This decision is stored locally and accessible via CrowdSec’s local API. NPMplus, acting as a “bouncer,” queries this local API again on subsequent requests to see if the originating IP has been flagged. If the IP is now on the banned list, NPMplus actively blocks any future requests from it.

5. Community-Shaped Threat Landscape:
The global CrowdSec network continuously refines detection scenarios and threat signatures. Through community intelligence sharing, your local CrowdSec instance learns about new malicious IPs and attack methods. This collective knowledge feeds back into the AppSec checks and log-based analysis, ensuring that NPMplus and CrowdSec remain agile and up-to-date against emerging threats.

A Living, Breathing Defense System

What makes this integration particularly effective is its ability to adapt and evolve. Unlike traditional security measures that rely on static rules, NPMplus and CrowdSec create a dynamic defense system that:

  • Learns from actual attack patterns
  • Adapts to new threats in real-time
  • Benefits from community intelligence
  • Automates response to threats
  • Provides comprehensive protection without manual intervention

This combination transforms your security from a static wall into an intelligent defense system that grows stronger with every attack it faces.

Conclusion

Defending your self-hosted services shouldn’t be a static game of whack-a-mole. With NPMplus and CrowdSec, you gain a proactive, intelligent, and community-powered defense system that evolves alongside the ever-changing threat landscape. By blending NPMplus’s robust gateway capabilities with CrowdSec’s continuous threat intelligence, you’re not just building a wall—you’re deploying a living sentinel that learns, adapts, and grows stronger with each encounter.

This synergy reduces manual intervention, blocks threats before they materialize, and ensures your fortress remains unyielding in the face of tomorrow’s adversaries. In an age of relentless attacks, the NPMplus and CrowdSec integration delivers peace of mind, empowering you to stay one step ahead without breaking a sweat.