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Back up iptables rules to a file

harmless rootFirewalldebian, ubuntu
root@server
iptables-save > /root/iptables-$(date +%F-%H%M).rules

Writes all IPv4 tables, chains and rules in iptables-restore format to a file under /root. This lets you restore the previous state after a failed change. For IPv6, ip6tables-save works the same way.

Note: Worthwhile before experimenting on Plesk servers with the firewall extension, because the extension sets its rules directly via iptables.

Also searched as

  • how to save iptables rules
  • backup firewall rules linux
  • iptables-save to file

Related one-liners

All in Firewall

Restore iptables rules from a backup

#iptables-restore --test < /root/iptables-2026-10-09-1200.rules && iptables-restore < /root/iptables-2026-10-09-1200.rules
destructiveFirewall

Block a single IP address immediately with iptables

#iptables -I INPUT -s 203.0.113.25 -j DROP
cautionSecurity

Allow a port only from a specific IP with ufw

#ufw allow from 198.51.100.0/24 to any port 22 proto tcp
cautionFirewall

Block an IP address or subnet with ufw

#ufw insert 1 deny from 203.0.113.0/24
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Close a port in ufw by deleting its rule

#ufw delete allow 8080/tcp
cautionFirewall

Count IP addresses blocked by ufw

#journalctl -k --since "today" --no-pager | grep 'UFW BLOCK' | grep -o 'SRC=[^ ]*' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20
harmlessFirewall

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