Ubuntu Disable Firewall 18.04 Bionic Beaver

In this tutorial, you will see how to disable the firewall in Ubuntu Linux 18.04 as well as how to check the Ubuntu firewall status.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to disable or enable the firewall in Ubuntu 18.04
  • How to check Ubuntu firewall status

Disable Ubuntu firewall

Disable Ubuntu firewall

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux
Software ufw firewall
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
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)

How to Toggle Ubuntu Firewall Instructions

How to enable/disable firewall on Ubuntu Linux

Managing UFW from command line

UFW ( Uncomplicated Firewall ) firewall is a default firewall on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux.

Check a current firewall status

By default the UFW is disabled. You can check the status of your firewall by executing the following linux command:

$ sudo ufw status
[sudo] password for linuxconfig: 
Status: inactive

For more verbose output append word verbose to the above command:

$ sudo ufw status verbose

Enable Firewall

To enable firewall execute:

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

Firewall, is now enabled:

$ sudo ufw status
Status: active


Ubuntu Firewall Disable

UFW is quite intuitive to use. To disable it execute:

$ sudo ufw disable
Firewall stopped and disabled on system startup

Confirm the firewall status:

$ sudo ufw status
Status: inactive

Disable Ubuntu Firewall via graphical user interface

Install gufw package if you wish to manage our UFW firewall via graphical user interface application. Open up terminal and enter:

$ sudo apt install gufw

Once installed, start Gufw by searching your start menu. Search your start menu for gufw keyword. To start Gufw firewall application click on its icon.

Start the gufw application
Start the gufw application

Gufw firewall requires administrative privileges. Enter your password.

Gufw firewall requires administrative privileges
Gufw firewall requires administrative privileges

Gufw comes with pre-configured profiles. Select your profile and click on the status switch to disable the firewall or enable it.

status switch to enable firewall
status switch to enable firewall

Enabled firewall on Ubuntu 18.04:

Enabled firewall on Ubuntu 18.04
Enabled firewall on Ubuntu 18.04

Closing Thoughts

In this tutorial, we saw how to disable the firewall in Ubuntu 18.04. These same instructions can also be used to enable it. Lastly, we also saw how you can check your Ubuntu firewall status at any time.