Install ConfigServer Firewall (CSF) on CentOS 7

ConfigServer Firewall (CSF) is my preferred alternative to iptables. It’s very easy to install.

First, we need to prepare yum. You’ll want to be root for this:

yum update
yum install -y perl bind-utils

Next, download and install CSF from its source:

cd /usr/src
wget https://download.configserver.com/csf.tgz
tar -xzf csf.tgz
cd csf
sh install.sh

Once that’s done, check whether the installation has worked:

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

After that has run successfully, you need to turn off CSF’s training mode:

vi /etc/csf/csf.conf

Find the TESTING setting, and set it to 0 from 1

If you’ll be using CSF with Docker, now is the time to set the DOCKER flag to 1 from 0

Start CSF:

csf -s

Restart CSF with this command:

csf -r

Now CSF has been installed and configured successfully!