The SSH protocol operates on port 22 by default. In order to accept incoming connections on your SSH server, you will need to ensure that port 22 is allowed through the firewall.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to open SSH port 22 on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish. The only prerequisite is that you must already have SSH installed. If you have not already installed it, see our guide on how to install SSH server on Ubuntu 22.04.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to open ssh port 22
- How to remove ssh port firewall rule
- How to check current UFW rules for allowed/denied ports

Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
---|---|
System | Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish |
Software | ufw |
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 |
Open ssh port 22 on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux step by step instructions
- Start by opening a open a command line terminal and typing the following command to check the status of your firewall. Ubuntu uses ufw (uncomplicated firewall) by default, and it should already be installed.
$ sudo ufw status verbose Status: active Logging: on (low) Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed) New profiles: skip
Based on the output above (bolded section), all incoming ports are blocked by default.
- Use the following command to Allow the SSH port 22:
$ sudo ufw allow ssh
Alternatively, it is possible to allow only a specific IP address or network subnet to connect via SSH port 22. The below example will allow IP address
192.168.1.2
to connect via port 22:$ sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.2 to any port ssh
In this example to allow an entire network subnet
192.168.0.0/16
execute:$ sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/16 to any port ssh
- Check all currently defined UFW firewall rules:
$ sudo ufw status verbose Status: active Logging: on (low) Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed) New profiles: skip To Action From -- ------ ---- 22/tcp ALLOW IN Anywhere 22/tcp (v6) ALLOW IN Anywhere (v6)
- To delete your SSH defined rules simply execute the same commands you used to allow SSH port 22 and specify the
delete
option right after theufw
command. Examples:$ sudo ufw delete allow ssh $ sudo ufw delete allow from 192.168.1.2 to any port ssh $ sudo ufw delete allow from 192.168.0.0/16 to any port ssh
Closing Thoughts
In this tutorial, you learned how to open SSH port 22 on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Linux. You also saw how to allow specific IP addresses or networks, without allowing incoming SSH traffic from any host. Finally, you learned how to delete the firewall rules that were added previously, in case you need to change your settings again in the future.