Ubuntu UFW Firewall - Uncomplicated Firewall for Ubuntu

Introduction to UFW - Uncomplicated Firewall

The default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu is ufw. Developed to ease iptables firewall configuration, ufw provides a user friendly way to create an IPv4 or IPv6 host-based firewall. By default UFW is disabled.

Gufw is a GUI that is available as a frontend.

Basic Syntax and Examples - Default rules are fine for the average home user

When you turn UFW on, it uses a default set of rules (profile) that should be fine for the average home user. That's at least the goal of the Ubuntu developers. In short, all 'incoming' is being denied, with some exceptions to make things easier for home users.

Enable and Disable

Enable UFW

To turn UFW on with the default set of rules:

sudo ufw enable

To check the status of UFW:

sudo ufw status verbose

The output should be like this:

youruser@yourcomputer:~$ sudo ufw status verbose
[sudo] password for youruser:
Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing)
New profiles: skip
youruser@yourcomputer:~$

Note that by default, deny is being applied to incoming. There are exceptions, which can be found in the output of this command:

sudo ufw show raw

You can also read the rules files in /etc/ufw (the files whose names end with .rules).

Disable UFW

To disable ufw use:

sudo ufw disable

Allow and Deny (specific rules)

Allow

sudo ufw allow /

example: To allow incoming tcp and udp packet on port 53

• sudo ufw allow 53

example: To allow incoming tcp packets on port 53

• sudo ufw allow 53/tcp

example: To allow incoming udp packets on port 53

• sudo ufw allow 53/udp

Deny

sudo ufw deny /

example: To deny tcp and udp packets on port 53

• sudo ufw deny 53

example: To deny incoming tcp packets on port 53

• sudo ufw deny 53/tcp

example: To deny incoming udp packets on port 53

• sudo ufw deny 53/udp

Delete Existing Rule

To delete a rule, simply prefix the original rule with delete. For example, if the original rule was:

ufw deny 80/tcp

Use this to delete it:

sudo ufw delete deny 80/tcp

Services

You can also allow or deny by service name since ufw reads from /etc/services To see get a list of services:

less /etc/services

Allow by Service Name

sudo ufw allow 

example: to allow ssh by name

• sudo ufw allow ssh

Deny by Service Name

sudo ufw deny 

example: to deny ssh by name

• sudo ufw deny ssh

Status

Checking the status of ufw will tell you if ufw is enabled or disabled and also list the current ufw rules that are applied to your iptables.

To check the status of ufw:

sudo ufw status

Firewall loaded

To                         Action  From
--                         ------  ----
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.7
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.7
22:tcp                     ALLOW   192.168.0.0/24
22:udp                     ALLOW   192.168.0.0/24

if ufw was not enabled the output would be:

sudo ufw status
Status: inactive

Logging

To enable logging use:

sudo ufw logging on

To disable logging use:

sudo ufw logging off

Advanced Syntax

You can also use a fuller syntax, specifying the source and destination addresses, ports and protocols.

Allow Access

This section shows how to allow specific access.

Allow by Specific IP

sudo ufw allow from 

example:To allow packets from 207.46.232.182:

• sudo ufw allow from 207.46.232.182

Allow by Subnet

You may use a net mask :

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24

Allow by specific port and IP address

sudo ufw allow from  to  port 

example: allow ip address 192.168.0.4 access to port 22 for all protocols

• sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.4 to any port 22

Allow by specific port, IP address and protocol

sudo ufw allow from  to  port  proto 

example: allow ip address 192.168.0.4 access to port 22 using TCP

• sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.4 to any port 22 proto tcp

Enable PING

Note: Security by obscurity may be of very little actual benefit with modern cracker scripts. By default, UFW allows ping requests. You may find you wish to leave (icmp) ping requests enabled to diagnose networking problems.

You need to edit /etc/ufw/before.rules and remove the following lines:

# ok icmp codes
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type destination-unreachable -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type source-quench -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type time-exceeded -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type parameter-problem -j ACCEPT
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type echo-request -j ACCEPT

or change the "ACCEPT" to "DROP"

# ok icmp codes
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type destination-unreachable -j DROP
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type source-quench -j DROP
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type time-exceeded -j DROP
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type parameter-problem -j DROP
-A ufw-before-input -p icmp --icmp-type echo-request -j DROP

Deny Access

Deny by specific IP

sudo ufw deny from 

example:To block packets from 207.46.232.182:

• sudo ufw deny from 207.46.232.182

Deny by specific port and IP address

sudo ufw deny from  to  port 

example: deny ip address 192.168.0.1 access to port 22 for all protocols

• sudo ufw deny from 192.168.0.1 to any port 22

Working with numbered rules

Listing rules with a reference number

You may use status numbered to show the order and id number of rules:

sudo ufw status numbered

Editing numbered rules

Delete numbered rule

You may then delete rules using the number. This will delete the first rule and rules will shift up to fill in the list.

sudo ufw delete 1

Insert numbered rule

sudo ufw insert 1 allow from 

Advanced Example

Scenario: You want to block access to port 22 from 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.7 but allow all other 192.168.0.x IPs to have access to port 22 using tcp

sudo ufw deny from 192.168.0.1 to any port 22
sudo ufw deny from 192.168.0.7 to any port 22
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24 to any port 22 proto tcp

This puts the specific rules first and the generic second. Once a rule is matched the others will not be evaluated (see manual below) so you must put the specific rules first. As rules change you may need to delete old rules to ensure that new rules are put in the proper order.

To check your rules orders you can check the status; for the scenario the output below is the desired output for the rules to work properly

sudo ufw status
Firewall loaded

To                         Action  From
--                         ------  ----
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.7
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.7
22:tcp                     ALLOW   192.168.0.0/24

Scenario change: You want to block access to port 22 to 192.168.0.3 as well as 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.7.

sudo ufw delete allow from 192.168.0.0/24 to any port 22
sudo ufw status
Firewall loaded

To                         Action  From
--                         ------  ----
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.7
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.7

sudo ufw deny 192.168.0.3 to any port 22
sudo ufw allow 192.168.0.0/24 to any port 22 proto tcp
sudo ufw status

Firewall loaded

To                         Action  From
--                         ------  ----
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.1
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.7
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.7
22:tcp                     DENY    192.168.0.3
22:udp                     DENY    192.168.0.3
22:tcp                     ALLOW   192.168.0.0/24

If you simply add the deny rule the allow would have been above it and been applied instead of the deny

Other Resources

• For instructions on using ufw first see the official server guide.

• The most recent syntax and manual can be retrieved by getting the man page. Otherwise open a terminal window and type:

  man ufw

• UncomplicatedFirewall - UFW Project wiki page.

Janeth Kent

Licenciada en Bellas Artes y programadora por pasión. Cuando tengo un rato retoco fotos, edito vídeos y diseño cosas. El resto del tiempo escribo en MA-NO WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT.