How to Set Up a Firewall with UFW on Debian 9

Debian includes several packages which provide tools for managing a firewall with iptables installed as part of the base system. It can be complicated for beginners to learn how to use the iptables tool to properly configure and manage a firewall, but UFW simplifies it.

UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is a user-friendly front-end for managing iptables firewall rules and its main goal is to make managing iptables easier or as the name says uncomplicated.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to set up a firewall with UFW on Debian 9.

Prerequisites #

Before proceeding with this tutorial, make sure the user you are logged in as has sudo privileges .

Install UFW #

UFW is not installed by default in Debian 9. You can install the ufw package by typing:

sudo apt install ufw

Check UFW Status #

Once the installation process is complete, you can check the status of UFW with the following command:

sudo ufw status verbose

The output will look like this:

Status: inactive

UFW is disabled by default. The installation will not activate the firewall automatically to avoid a lockout from the server.

If UFW is activated, the output will look similar to the following:

UFW Default Policies #

By default, UFW will block all of the incoming connections and allow all outbound connections. This means that anyone trying to access your server will not be able to connect unless you specifically open the port, while all applications and services running on your server will be able to access the outside world.

The default polices are defined in the /etc/default/ufw file and can be changed using the sudo ufw default <policy> <chain> command.

Firewall policies are the foundation for building more detailed and user-defined rules. In most cases, the initial UFW Default Policies are a good starting point.

Application Profiles #

When installing a package with apt it will add an application profile to /etc/ufw/applications.d directory that describes the service and contains UFW settings.

To list all application profiles available on your system type:

sudo ufw app list

Depending on the packages installed on your system the output will look similar to the following:

Available applications:
  DNS
  IMAP
  IMAPS
  OpenSSH
  POP3
  POP3S
  Postfix
  Postfix SMTPS
  Postfix Submission
  ...

To find more information about a specific profile and included rules, use the following command:

sudo ufw app info OpenSSH

Profile: OpenSSH
Title: Secure shell server, an rshd replacement
Description: OpenSSH is a free implementation of the Secure Shell protocol.

Port:
  22/tcp

AThe output above tells us that the OpenSSH profile opens port 22.

Allow SSH Connections #

Before enabling the UFW firewall first we need to allow incoming SSH connections.

If you’re connecting to your server from a remote location, which is almost always the case and you enable the UFW firewall before explicitly allow incoming SSH connections you will no longer be able to connect to your Debian server.

To configure your UFW firewall to allow incoming SSH connections, run the following command:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH

Rules updated
Rules updated (v6)

If the SSH server is listening on a port other than the default port 22, you will need to open that port.

For example, your ssh server listens on port 8822, then you can use the following command to allow connections on that port:

sudo ufw allow 8822/tcp

Enable UFW #

Now that your UFW firewall is configured to allow incoming SSH connections, you can enable it by running:

sudo ufw enable

Command may disrupt existing ssh connections. Proceed with operation (y|n)? y
Firewall is active and enabled on system startup

You will be warned that enabling the firewall may disrupt existing ssh connections, just type y and hit Enter.

Allow connections on other ports #

Depending on the applications that run on your server and your specific needs you’ll also need to allow incoming access to some other ports.

Below are several examples of how to allow incoming connections to some of the most common services:

Open port 80 - HTTP #

HTTP connections can be allowed with the following command:

sudo ufw allow http

Instead of the http profile, you can use the port number, 80:

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp

Open port 443 - HTTPS #

HTTPS connections can be allowed with the following command:

sudo ufw allow https

To achieve the same instead of https you can use the port number, 443:

sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

Open port 8080 #

If you run Tomcat or any other application that listens on port 8080 you can allow incoming connections with:

sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp

Allow Port Ranges #

With UFW you can also allow access to port ranges. When allowing port ranges with UFW, you must specify the protocol, either tcp or udp.

For example, to allow ports from 7100 to 7200 on both tcp and udp, run the following command:

sudo ufw allow 7100:7200/tcpsudo ufw allow 7100:7200/udp

Allow Specific IP Addresses #

If you want to allow access on all ports from a specific IP address, use the ufw allow from command followed by the IP address:

sudo ufw allow from 64.63.62.61

Allow Specific IP Addresses on Specific port #

To allow access on a specific port, let’s say port 22 from your work machine with IP address of 64.63.62.61 use the following command:

sudo ufw allow from 64.63.62.61 to any port 22

Allow Subnets #

The command for allowing connection from a subnet of IP addresses is the same as when using a single IP address, the only difference is that you need to specify the netmask. For example, if you want to allow access for IP addresses ranging from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 to port 3360 (MySQL ) you would run the following command:

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 3306

Allowing Connections to a Specific Network Interface #

To allow access on a specific port let’s say port 3360 on a specific network interface eth2, use the allow in on command followed by the name of the interface:

sudo ufw allow in on eth2 to any port 3306

Denying connections #

The default policy for all incoming connections is set to deny which means that UFW will block all incoming connections unless you specifically open the connection.

Let’s say you opened the ports 80 and 443 and your server is under attack from the 23.24.25.0/24 network. To deny all connections from 23.24.25.0/24 , run the following command:

sudo ufw deny from 23.24.25.0/24

If you only want to deny access to ports 80 and 443 from 23.24.25.0/24 you would use:

sudo ufw deny from 23.24.25.0/24 to any port 80sudo ufw deny from 23.24.25.0/24 to any port 443

Writing deny rules is the same as writing allow rules, you only need to replace allow with deny.

Delete UFW Rules #

There are two different ways to delete UFW rules, by rule number and by specifying the actual rule.

Deleting UFW rules by rule number is easier, especially if you are new to UFW.

To delete a rule by a rule number first you need to find the number of the rule you want to delete. To do that run following command:

sudo ufw status numbered

Status: active

     To                         Action      From
     --                         ------      ----
[ 1] 22/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 2] 80/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 3] 8080/tcp                   ALLOW IN    Anywhere

For example to delete rule number 3, the rule that allows connections to port 8080, you would enter:

sudo ufw delete 3

The second method is to delete a rule by specifying the actual rule. For example, if you added a rule to open port 8069 you can delete it with:

sudo ufw delete allow 8069

Disable UFW #

If for any reason you want to stop UFW and deactivate all rules run:

sudo ufw disable

Later if you want to re-enable UTF and activate all rules just type:

sudo ufw enable

Reset UFW #

Resetting UFW will disable UFW, and delete all active rules. This is helpful if you want to revert all of your changes and start fresh.

To reset UFW simply type in the following command:

sudo ufw reset

Conclusion #

You have learned how to install and configure UFW firewall on your Debian 9 machine. Be sure to allow all incoming connections that are necessary for the proper functioning of your system, while limiting all unnecessary connections.

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below.