How To Install CSF Firewall on openSUSE

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install CSF Firewall on openSUSE. In today’s digital landscape, securing your Linux server is of utmost importance. One powerful tool that can help you achieve this goal is ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF). CSF is a versatile and user-friendly firewall application that offers a comprehensive set of features to protect your server from various threats. It is compatible with a wide range of Linux distributions, including openSUSE.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the CSF Firewall on openSUSE.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: openSUSE (Leap or Tumbleweed)
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• You will need access to the terminal to execute commands. openSUSE provides the Terminal application for this purpose. It can be found in your Applications menu.
• You’ll need an active internet connection to download the CSF Firewall and its dependencies.
• You’ll need administrative (root) access or a user account with sudo privileges.
• If you have any existing firewalls running on your openSUSE server, such as SuSEfirewall2, it is recommended to disable them before proceeding with the CSF installation.

Install CSF Firewall on openSUSE

Step 1. Refresh the repositories to ensure you have access to the latest package versions by running the following command:

sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper update

Step 2. Installing CSF Firewall on openSUSE.

To begin the installation process, you need to download the latest stable version of CSF from the official website. Open your terminal and execute the following command:

wget https://download.configserver.com/csf.tgz

Once the download is complete, extract the archive using the tar command:

tar -xzf csf.tgz

This will create a new directory called “csf” in your current location. Navigate to this directory using the cd command:

cd csf

Inside the “csf” directory, you will find the CSF installation script named “install.sh“. To execute this script and start the installation process, run the following command:

sh install.sh

The installation script will now begin the process of installing CSF on your openSUSE server. It will check for any missing dependencies and install them automatically if required. The script will also perform various checks to ensure that your system is compatible with CSF.

During the installation, you may be prompted to answer a few questions or provide confirmation. Read the prompts carefully and provide the necessary responses to proceed with the installation.

Once the installation script completes successfully, CSF will be installed on your openSUSE server. You can verify the installation by running the following command:

csf -v

This command will display the current version of CSF installed on your system.

Step 3. Configure CSF.

Now that CSF is installed, it’s time to configure it according to your server’s requirements. The main configuration file for CSF is located at “/etc/csf/csf.conf“. Open this file using your preferred text editor, such as nano or vim:

nano /etc/csf/csf.conf

The csf.conf file contains a wide range of configuration options that allow you to customize CSF’s behavior. Let’s go through some of the key options you may want to modify:

• Firewall Testing Mode: By default, CSF runs in testing mode, which means that it will not actually block any traffic. To enable the firewall and start blocking traffic, set the “TESTING” option to “0”:

TESTING = "0"

• Allowed Incoming/Outgoing Ports: CSF allows you to specify which incoming and outgoing TCP and UDP ports should be allowed through the firewall. You can configure these settings using the “TCP_IN”, “TCP_OUT”, “UDP_IN”, and “UDP_OUT” options. For example, to allow incoming SSH traffic on port 22, you would add the following line:

TCP_IN = "22"

Similarly, you can specify multiple ports separated by commas or use a range of ports using a colon. For example:

TCP_IN = "22,80,443"
UDP_OUT = "1000:2000"

• Integrated User Interface Options: If you are using a control panel like cPanel or DirectAdmin, CSF provides integration options to work seamlessly with these interfaces. You can enable or disable these integrations using the corresponding options in the csf.conf file.
• Login Failure Detection and Blocking: CSF can monitor login attempts and block IP addresses that exceed a certain number of failed attempts within a specified time frame. You can configure these settings using the “LF_” options in the csf.conf file. For example, to block an IP after 5 failed login attempts within 300 seconds, you would set:

LF_FAILCOUNT = "5"
LF_INTERVAL = "300"

After making the necessary changes to the csf.conf file, save, and close the file. To apply the new configuration, restart the CSF service using the following command:

csf -r

Step 4. Testing and Troubleshooting.

With CSF installed and configured, it’s crucial to test the firewall to ensure that it is working as expected and not causing any unintended issues. CSF provides a built-in testing script that you can run to check for any potential problems. Execute the following command:

/usr/local/csf/bin/csftest.pl

The testing script will perform various checks and provide a report highlighting any issues or misconfigurations. Review the report carefully and address any problems that are identified.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed CSF Firewall. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the CSF Firewall on your openSUSE system. For additional or useful information, we recommend you check the official CSF Firewall website.