Secure Your VPS with UFW Firewall Management

ByShubham Nimje

How to Setup and Config UFW on VPS

What is Firewall ?

A firewall is computer hardware or software that controls inbound and outbound traffic of a machine.

What is UFW ?

UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is presented as a front-end of Iptables. By default, UFW denies all incoming connections and allows all outgoing connections.

UFW provides a user-friendly interface for managing firewall rules on Ubuntu-based systems. This guide walks you through installing UFW, enabling it, checking its status, and configuring rules to allow specific ports, services, and IP addresses.

Prerequisites:

  • Access to your VPS via SSH with root or sudo privileges.

Understanding Firewalls:

  • A firewall acts as a security barrier, controlling incoming and outgoing network traffic on your VPS.
  • UFW simplifies managing firewall rules on top of the powerful but more complex iptables tool.
  • To Get Access via SSH
Syntax:- ssh -p PORT USERNAME@HOSTIP
Example:- ssh -p 22 root@216.32.44.12
  • Install UFW
apt install ufw
  • Enable UFW
ufw enable
  • Check UFW Status
To Check Normal Mode: ufw status 
To Check in more Comprehensive: ufw status verbose
To Check with Number: ufw status numbered
  • Configure to support IPv6:
Open Config File: nano /etc/default/ufw
then Change: IPV6=yes
  • To Restart Firewall Disable it then Enable it:
ufw disable
ufw enable
  • To Check Open Port, It will show only those which are currently running:
netstat -tulpn
  • To Open Port:
Syntax:- ufw allow port/protocol
Example:- ufw allow 21/tcp
  • To Close Port:
Syntax:- ufw deny port/protocol
Example:- ufw deny 21/tcp
  • To Open a Range of Ports:
Syntax:- ufw allow [Starting_port:Ending_port]/protocol
Example:- ufw allow 300:310/tcp
  • To Close a Range of Ports:
Syntax:- ufw deny [Starting_port:Ending_port]/protocol
Example:- ufw deny 300:310/tcp
  • To Allow Service:
Syntax:- ufw allow service_name
Example:- ufw allow http
  • To Deny Service:
Syntax:- ufw deny service_name
Example:- ufw deny http
  • To Allow Access to IP Address:
Syntax:- ufw allow from IPAddress
Example:- ufw allow from 192.168.1.4
  • To Deny Access for IP Address:
Syntax:- ufw deny from IPAddress
Example:- ufw deny from 192.168.1.5
  • To Allow IP to connect only specific Port:
Syntax:- ufw allow from IPAdress to any port Port
Example:- ufw allow from 192.168.1.4 to any port 45
  • To Delete a Specific Rule:
1. Check Status with Number: ufw status numbered
2. Delete with Number 
   Syntax:- ufw delete number
   Example:- ufw delete 3
  • To Reset to Default Setting:
ufw reset
  • Some usefull connection which You may want to allow
To Allow SSH Connection: ufw allow ssh or ufw allow 22/tcp
To Secure Web Server: ufw allow 80/tcp
To Allow FTP Connection: ufw allow ftp or ufw allow 21/tcp and 20/ftp
To Allow Web Server Profile: ufw allow www