Announcing Cronguard: Backup, restore your server crontabs and monitor them for signs of intrusion.

We're pleased to announce Cronguard which adds an additional layer of backup and protection to your crontabs.

One of the biggest unmet needs we see in the managed cron niche is a desire to be able to restore crontabs that have been accidentally deleted, or be able to compare or roll-back to earlier versions.

Until now, there were no easy ways to do this, short of full system restores.

Cronguard addresses this issue by using a lightweight, open source bash script client on your servers that monitors each installed crontab for updates and changes. When it detects one, it sends a copy of the crontab to the Cronly system and notifies your team of the change.

Ditto for newly created crontabs on your server:

Intrusion Detection for Crontabs

Going beyond crontab backups and restores, Cronguard also monitors the scripts called from within your crontabs for signs of alteration.

Crontabs are a popular intrusion vector, either by altering the crontabs - say by adding an entry to run an unauthorized command, or by altering an existing command that is already in the crontab.

Cronguard will detect both conditions, and alert your team according to your notifications profile.

This Video walks you through the process.

All premium Cronly users have Cronguard for one server included with their account. Additional servers can be purchased for the same price as a job monitor or managed job: $1/month or $10/year.

If you're already a premium user, start setting up your Cronguard protection here

If you're a free user or haven't got an account yet, sign up here.