# gohoney

gohoney is a Honeypots & Deception product. It runs on-premises. Pricing is free.

SSH Honeypot written in Go that records commands and IP addresses of attempted logins.

Checked October 2026.

## What is gohoney?

This SSH daemon will accept any username/password/key. It only allows 'session' channels (not port forwards or SFTP). It will present a fake shell and record any commands that people attempt to run, along with the date and their IP. It will log all sessions to: /var/log/gohoney/gohoney-yyyymmdd.log

Build & Run
First download and install Go. On OSX this is as easy as:
$ brew install go
For other linux/windows/freebsd check http://golang.org
Then build it!
# Clone this repo
$ git clone https://github.com/PaulMaddox/gohoney.git
# Fetch all of the Go module dependencies
$ cd gohoney
$ go get ./...
# Build it!
$ go build main.go

Usage
Usage: ./gohoney -b <bind address> -p <port>

Tags: SSH

## Where it fits in your security program (NIST CSF 2.0)

- [Detect](https://cybersectools.com/guides/building-detect-program-small-team): helps you spot attacks and unusual activity.

## Quick facts

- Category: [Security Operations](https://cybersectools.com/categories/security-operations) · [Honeypots & Deception](https://cybersectools.com/categories/honeypots)
- Deployment: On-Premises
- Company size fit: Startup, SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise
- Pricing model: Free
- GitHub stars: 13
- Website: github.com

## Where it ranks

No shortlist covers this product's category yet. The closest is [Best MDR Solutions for Business](https://cybersectools.com/shortlists/best-mdr-solutions).

## gohoney FAQ

### What is gohoney?

gohoney is a product in the Honeypots & Deception category. It covers SSH.

### What is the pricing for gohoney?

gohoney is free. Download and setup instructions are at https://github.com/PaulMaddox/gohoney/.

### What are alternatives to gohoney?

Alternatives to gohoney listed on CybersecTools:

1. [Trapster](https://cybersectools.com/tools/trapster) - Honeypot platform deploying network decoys to detect intrusions with zero false positives (Commercial)
2. [Deception Check Fleet Status](https://cybersectools.com/tools/deception-check-fleet-status) - Public honeypot fleet dashboard showing global attack telemetry and threat intel. (Commercial)
3. [Tracebit](https://cybersectools.com/tools/tracebit-dynamic-security-canaries) - Deploys security canaries across cloud, endpoints, SaaS and CI/CD to catch attackers. (Commercial)
4. [Guardpot AI-Powered Cyber Deception](https://cybersectools.com/tools/guardpot-ai-powered-cyber-deception) - AI-powered deception platform using honeypots to detect & disrupt attacks (Commercial)
5. [Acalvio ShadowPlex Cloud Security](https://cybersectools.com/tools/acalvio-shadowplex-cloud-security) - AI-powered deception platform for cloud threat detection using honeytokens (Commercial)

Compare all gohoney alternatives at [https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/gohoney](https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/gohoney)

### What deployment and organization size does gohoney fit?

gohoney is available as on-premises software. It is listed for startups, small businesses, mid-market companies and enterprises. It is free.

## Compare gohoney with similar solutions

- [gohoney vs Trapster](https://cybersectools.com/compare/gohoney-vs-trapster)
- [gohoney vs Deception Check Fleet Status](https://cybersectools.com/compare/deception-check-fleet-status-vs-gohoney)
- [gohoney vs Tracebit](https://cybersectools.com/compare/gohoney-vs-tracebit-dynamic-security-canaries)

All alternatives to gohoney: [/alternatives/gohoney](https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/gohoney)

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Source: https://cybersectools.com/tools/gohoney

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More on gohoney: funding, momentum, hiring and news, plus the full product and company record, are available through the Mandos MCP Server (paid plans), which connects to AI assistants: https://mandos.io/mcp?utm_source=cybersectools.com&utm_medium=product-md