Apache attacks

[Kenny <kenny () codez co uk>]

Hi List,

Long time reader, first time poster...

My server crashed yesturday and I had to restart it, to get it going 
again. Now everything seems ok, however looking at my 
/var/log/httpd/access_log.1 shows a visitor to the website posting some 
big chunks of exploit code (containing a massive nop sled).
How do I know if this attacker actually got in or not?

This is a redhat fedora core 2 box, and I would describe myself as an 
"intermediate" linux user.

Also, has anyone got any scripts that can detect attacks against apache 
and ban the ip for a period of time?

I will post the exploit on request.

Thanks, Kenny