How to Install CSF Firewall via WHM/cPanel

Installing a CSF (ConfigServer Security & Firewall) on a cPanel server requires SSH access as the root user. While CSF integrates with WHM for management after installation, the initial setup must be done via the command line.

Step-by-Step Installation Guide

1. Log in to your server via SSH.
   • Open your terminal or SSH client.
   • Connect to your server using the command: ssh root@your_server_ip
2. Ensure no conflicting firewalls are running.
   • If you have a different firewall like firewalld or APF, you must disable and uninstall it before installing CSF to avoid conflicts.
   • To disable firewalld, use the commands: systemctl stop firewalld and systemctl disable firewalld.
3. Download the CSF installation package.
   • Change to the /usr/src directory: cd /usr/src
   • Download the CSF package using the wget command: wget https://download.configserver.com/csf.tgz
4. Extract the files and run the installer.
   • Extract the downloaded file: tar -xzf csf.tgz
   • Navigate into the new csf directory: cd csf
   • Run the installation script: sh install.sh
5. Verify the installation.
   • Run the following command to check if the required iptables modules are available: perl /usr/local/csf/bin/csftest.pl
   • The result should indicate that CSF should function on your server.
6. Configure and disable testing mode.
   • By default, CSF installs in a “testing” mode to prevent you from being locked out of your server.
   • Open the CSF configuration file in a text editor like nano: nano /etc/csf/csf.conf
   • Find the line TESTING = "1" and change the value to 0.
   • Save and close the file.
7. Restart CSF.
   • To apply the changes and take CSF out of testing mode, run the restart command: csf -r

After these steps, you can manage the CSF firewall from the WHM interface, which will appear under the “Plugins” section.