Where does UFW (uncomplicated firewall) save command-line rules to?

Question

You add a rule like this:

ufw allow 22/tcp

The rule is saved, and is applied even after reboot. But it's not written anywhere in /etc/ufw. Where is it saved to? (Ubuntu, using ufw as pre-installed.)

score 57 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 12 '13 at 21:11

57

In my Ubuntu 11 server, the firewall rules are saved in /lib/ufw/user.rules

answered Feb 12 '13 at 21:11

Daniel t.

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Bingo, thanks. There's also a user6.rules (which doesn't have all the rules I created, but otherwise looks similar). – Steve Bennett Feb 13 '13 at 08:20
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user6.rules is for IP version 6 (ipv6) firewall rules. – Daniel t. Feb 13 '13 at 14:41
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Still correct in Ubuntu 14, thank you. – Nick Triantafillou Aug 27 '15 at 01:24
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What a crazy location! I just spent 20 minutes looking for this :-( – reinierpost Dec 02 '15 at 16:48
I didn't, because I searched first on ServerFault :-) But I agree, it's anything but obvious... – Gwyneth Llewelyn Sep 29 '22 at 11:58
... also, these days, it's more common to find the active rules for _your_ system (as opposed to the original distro files) under `/etc/ufw` as [already answered here](https://serverfault.com/a/788489/133346) by @tivnet. – Gwyneth Llewelyn Sep 29 '22 at 12:10

score 33 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 03 '19 at 12:32

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Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

/etc/ufw/user.rules

Debian 9

/etc/ufw/user.rules

In general, try:

locate user.rules

Should output something like:

/etc/ufw/user.rules
/usr/share/ufw/user.rules
/usr/share/ufw/user.rules.md5sum
/usr/share/ufw/iptables/user.rules

edited Dec 03 '19 at 12:32

interestedparty333

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answered Jul 07 '16 at 13:25

tivnet

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It's recommended to run `updatedb` at least once before using `locate`. – ccpizza Jan 15 '17 at 19:44
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@ccpizza On Ubuntu, at least, `updatedb` is run daily by `cron`. See `/etc/cron.daily/mlocate`. – Jivan Pal Jun 07 '20 at 17:07
Still valid for Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 11 as of 2022. Insane! – Gwyneth Llewelyn Sep 29 '22 at 12:01

score 12 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 05 '13 at 04:09

12

I believe it's under lib/ufw/rules[6].rules

answered Feb 05 '13 at 04:09

golja

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score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 11 '13 at 02:17

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In my version, 8.04 LTS Server the files are stored in /var/lib/ufw as /var/lib/ufw/user.rules and /var/lib/ufw/user6.rules.

edited Dec 11 '13 at 02:17

Michael Hampton

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answered Dec 10 '13 at 22:29

depravedone

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score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 26 '18 at 17:42

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This should work on all Linux systems assuming a ".rules" suffix and residing beneath a directory named "ufw":

sudo find / -name "*.rules" -exec ls -l {} \; | grep ufw

Using the "ls -l" shows that some of them are links to others, and which ones have been updated most recently (implying they are active?)

edited Feb 26 '18 at 17:42

Andrew Schulman

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answered Feb 26 '18 at 14:15

Craig Hicks

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Assuming that Debian/Ubuntu have been consistently implementing their usual configuration for `ufw` as well, there is some logic implied: _original_ (raw from the distro) files should be under `/usr/share/ufw/`; locally changed/overridden files under `/etc/ufw`; dynamically changed rules (for some reason) ought to be under `/run` (I just have a lock file there). The exception to the usual configuration is `/lib/ufw` which should also have some rules in it, but just has a startup script for `ufw`. – Gwyneth Llewelyn Sep 29 '22 at 12:07
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The way `/etc` overrides what is on `/run` which overrides what is on `/lib` (which is usually a symlink to `/usr/share`) is pretty consistent among _most_ configurations in Debian & Ubuntu. – Gwyneth Llewelyn Sep 29 '22 at 12:08

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 29 '22 at 12:20

As of September 2021, you can find all files and configuration of what is called the UFS Framework using man ufw-framework. It describes in detail where each file goes, what it does, and how the system works together to launch the ufw framework at boot time.

This is valid for at least Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian 11 (Debian has an older version of the man page installed by default, but saying essentially the same).

Where does UFW (uncomplicated firewall) save command-line rules to?

6 Answers6