How to delete UFW firewall rules on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux

Objective

The objective is to show how to remove UFW firewall rules selectively on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux

Operating System and Software Versions

  • Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

Requirements

Privileged access to to your Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver installation will be required.

Conventions

  • # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
  • $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Other Versions of this Tutorial

Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa)

Instructions

List Existing firewall rules

The following linux command will list all currently used firewall rules. Example:

$ sudo ufw status numbered
Status: active

     To                         Action      From
     --                         ------      ----
[ 1] Apache Full                ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
[ 2] OpenSSH                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
[ 3] Apache Full (v6)           ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)             
[ 4] OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)


Remove Firewall Rule

Each firewall rule is numbered from 1 to N. Using a relevant firewall rule number we can selectively remove any given rule. For example:

$ sudo ufw delete 3
Deleting:
 allow 'Apache Full'
Proceed with operation (y|n)? y
Rule deleted (v6)

The above command will remove firewall rule number 3. Please note, you can only remove one rule at the time. The rule numbering will change every time you make a change:

$ sudo ufw status numbered
Status: active

     To                         Action      From
     --                         ------      ----
[ 1] Apache Full                ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
[ 2] OpenSSH                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
[ 3] OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)