How to: Allow telnet and ssh through iptables under Linux

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Q. I run both RHEL / CentOS Linux server and by default firewall blocked out everything including telnet / ssh access. How do I allow telnet – port 23 and ssh port 22 thought Linux iptables firewall ?

A.By default firewall rules stored at /etc/sysconfig/iptables location / file under CentOS / RHEL. All you have to do is modify this file to add rules to open port 22 or 23.

Login as the root user.

Open /etc/sysconfig/iptables file, enter:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
Find line that read as follows:
COMMIT
To open port 22 (ssh), enter (before COMMIT line):

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT

To open port 23 (telnet), enter (before COMMIT line):

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 23 -j ACCEPT

Save and close the file. Restart the firewall:
# /etc/init.d/iptables restart

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

5 comment

  4. Hi,

    I don’t think this is not a good idea to allow telnet access nowaday.nobody is using telnet on linux box. Disable this service first

    Also it is not a good idea to allow ssh access to everyone over the net
    # Permitt SSH access to my ip and my network
    /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -s 8.23.2.11 -p tcp –dport ssh -j ACCEPT
    /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -s 4.3.8.0/24 -p tcp –dport ssh -j ACCEPT

  5. Thanks for the info, How do I use iptables in squid to block messanger or chat tools? Could any one help me please

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