{"id":792,"date":"2024-05-17T09:07:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T09:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.hostitsmart.com\/manage\/knowledgebase\/?p=792"},"modified":"2024-05-17T09:07:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T09:07:47","slug":"install-configure-a-csf-firewall-in-a-centos-server","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.hostitsmart.com\/manage\/knowledgebase\/343\/Install-and-Configure-a-CSF-Firewall-in-a-CenTOS-Server.html","title":{"rendered":"Install & Configure a CSF Firewall in a CenTOS Server"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Overview<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) is a popular firewall configuration script for CentOS servers that offers a high level of security by blocking malicious traffic & allowing only authorized traffic on the server. It is commonly used with the ‘Login Failure Daemon’ (LFD), which scans the server for security issues and login failures. <\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, we will help you guide you on installing and configuring CSF Firewall on your CentOS server.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prerequisites<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2794 You need Root or sudo access to the CentOS server.<\/span><\/p>\n

Steps to Install & Configure a CSF Firewall in a CentOS Server<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

To install the CSF Firewall, you need to execute the commands as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>As CSF is based on Perl, you first need to install the Perl library on the server.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

yum install wget vim perl-libwww-perl.noarch perl-Time-HiRes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>Move into the <\/span>\u2018src\u2019 <\/strong>&<\/span> download the latest version of CSF from its official website using <\/span>\u2018wget.\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

cd \/usr\/src\/ wget https:\/\/download.configserver.com\/csf.tgz<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>Once installed, you need to extract the downloaded tar archive and run the installed script.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

tar -xzf csf.tgz cd csf sh install.sh<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>You have to move into the CSF newly extracted folder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

cd csf<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>Now, execute the CSF settings file named<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

sh install.sh<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>Once the installation is complete, you will see this line as a message. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Installation Completed<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>It\u2019s time to check whether the CSF you installed is working properly or not by executing the commands given below.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

cd\/usr\/local\/csf\/bin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

perl csftest.pl<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you are getting a message like the following, it means your CSF is working without any issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Testing ip_tables\/iptable_filter…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing ipt_LOG…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing ipt_multiport\/xt_multiport…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing ipt_REJECT…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing ipt_state\/xt_state…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing ipt_limit\/xt_limit…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing ipt_recent…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing xt_connlimit…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing ipt_owner\/xt_owner…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing iptable_nat\/ipt_REDIRECT…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Testing iptable_nat\/ipt_DNAT…OK<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

RESULT: csf should function on this server<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Configure the CSF On Your Server<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>Before you start configuring the CSF, you need to know that in CentOS 7, there is a default firewall application called <\/span>\u2018firewalld\u2019<\/strong>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You need to disable it using the following command to prevent it from starting at boot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2794 Stop the <\/span>\u2018firewalld\u2019<\/strong> service by executing<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

systemctl stop firewalls<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2794 Disable the <\/span>\u2018firewalld\u2019 <\/strong>service by executing<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

systemctl disable firewalls<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>Now, go to the csf config directory at\/etc\/csf\/csf.conf and edit the file csf using your desired text editor, such as vim, vi, or nano editor, with the command.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong><\/span>After that, You need to edit the testing configuration from 1 to 0. If you don\u2019t edit this, the lfd daemon will fail to start<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

TESTING = “0”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>Now, you need to move to line 139. In that, check the entry to tcp underscore and list allowed incoming and outgoing ports as comma-separated. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

TCP_IN = “20,21,22,25,53,80,110,143,443,465,587,993,995”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

TCP_OUT = “20,21,22,25,53,80,110,113,443”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

UDP_IN = “20,21,53”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

UDP_OUT = “20,21,53,113,123”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 Now, you have to start the <\/span>csf<\/span> and <\/span>lfd<\/span> with the following commands.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

systemctl start csf<\/strong> <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

systemctl start lfd<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u27a2 <\/strong>After that, enable the <\/span>csf<\/span><\/strong> and <\/span>lfd<\/span><\/strong> services that are started when CentOS starts<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Systemctl enable csf<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

systemctl enable lfd<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s it; your firewall has been installed & configured on the server!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overview ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) is a popular firewall configuration script for CentOS servers that offers a high level of security by blocking malicious traffic & allowing only authorized traffic on the server. It is commonly used with the ‘Login Failure Daemon’ (LFD), which scans the server for security issues and login failures.  In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vps"],"yoast_head":"\nInstall & Configure a CSF Firewall in a CenTOS Server<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn to configure the CSF firewall on your CentOS server via the command line to ensure your server's security against malicious traffic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new.hostitsmart.com\/manage\/knowledgebase\/343\/Install-and-Configure-a-CSF-Firewall-in-a-CenTOS-Server.html\" \/>\n<meta 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