Version 68 Documentation
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For cPanel & WHM version 68

(WHM >> Home >> Security Center >> Host Access Control)

Overview

Warning:

If you accidentally lock yourself out of WHM when you use this interface, edit the /etc/hosts.allow file through the command line to regain access.


Note:

The Create Support Ticket interface (WHM >> Home >> Support >> Create Support Ticket) automatically adds cPanel Support's IP addresses to the server's /etc/hosts.allow file. For more information, read our Create Support Ticket documentation.


Use the Host Access Control interface to allow or deny clients' access, based on their IP addresses, to the following services:
  • cPanel (cpaneld)
  • WHM (whostmgrd)
  • Webmail (webmaild)
  • Web Disk (cpdavd)
  • FTP (ftpd)
  • SSH (sshd)
  • SMTP (smtp)
  • POP3 (pop3)
  • IMAP (imap)

Notes:

  • To control access to the ftpd daemon, you must use the ProFTPD FTP server. Pure-FTP does not support TCP wrappers.
  • To control access to the POP3 or IMAP services, you may use the Dovecot mail servers.

Allow or deny access for an IP address


To allow an IP address to access a service, perform the following steps:

  1. Enter the service name in the daemon text box.
  2. Enter the IP address or hostname in Access List text box. 
    • You may enter wildcards in this text box.
    • You cannot enter a range of IP addresses with CIDR notation.
    • To specify a network range, add a network mask to the IP address.
      • For example, 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0, where 255.255.255.0 is the desired network mask you want to use.
  3. Enter the desired action in the Action text box.
    • Enter allow to allow access.
    • Enter deny to deny access.
  4. Describe the rule in the Comment text box.
  5. Click Save Host Access List, or click  Reload  to delete any changes.

Note:

You can also enter ALL EXCEPT IP address in the Access List text box. When you enter allow as your action, the system will allow all of the addresses except for the one that you entered in the Access List text box. For more information, read the Notes and Additional documentation sections below.


Allow or deny IP addresses on the command line

For greater host access control flexibility, you can create rules in the command line. To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Log in to your server as the root user.
  2. Open the /etc/hosts.allow file with your preferred text editor.

  3. Enter the desired rules in the following format:

     service : IP address : action

    See the following example to allow 192.168.0.0 IP address to access the cPanel service:

    cpaneld : 192.168.0.0 : allow

Notes:

  • When you configure your firewall directly, you can use CIDR notation.
  • WHM does not use a hosts.deny file. Add deny statements to the /etc/hosts.allow file.

CentOS, CloudLinux™, or Red Hat® Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6, or Amazon Linux

On a CentOS, CloudLinux, or RHEL 6, or Amazon® Linux system, use the iptables utility to manage your firewall.

  • You can block a specific IP address with the iptables command. For example, to block 192.168.0.0, run the following command:

    iptables -A INPUT -s 192.168.0.0 -j DROP 

  • You can block a specific port for an IP address. For example, to block port 23 on 192.168.0.0, run the following command: 

    iptables -A INPUT -s 192.168.0.0 -p tcp --destination-port 23 -j DROP

CentOS 7, CloudLinux 7, or RHEL 7

On a CentOS 7 or CloudLinux 7 system, use the firewalld utility to manage your firewall.

For example, to block traffic for a single IP address, run the following command, where 192.168.0.0 is the IP address that you wish to block:

firewall-cmd --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="192.168.0.0" drop' --permanent

For more information, read Red Hat's firewalld documentation.

Additional notes

You must enter your allow rules before your deny rules. For example, to allow access for two IP addresses, but deny access from all other addresses, use either of the following methods:

Create two separate rules:

  • Create one rule that allows 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0
  • Create a second rule that denies access to ALL IP addresses.

Create one rule:

  • Enter all except 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0 in the Access List text box.
  • Enter denyin the Action text box.

Additional documentation