ufw-audit 1.7.0

UFW firewall audit tool — cross-checks rules against listening services

Lire en français · Technical documentation

🔒 ufw-audit

Smart UFW security audit — fast, readable, actionable.

Analyses your UFW configuration, exposed services and logs to detect real risks, with clear recommendations.

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⚡ TL;DR

sudo apt install pipx && pipx ensurepath
# open a new terminal, then:
pipx install ufw-audit
sudo ~/.local/bin/ufw-audit --install-completion
sudo ufw-audit

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🛠 Installation

Prerequisites

• Linux: Debian, Ubuntu, Mint or derivative
• UFW: sudo apt install ufw
• pipx: sudo apt install pipx && pipx ensurepath

Open a new terminal after pipx ensurepath to activate the PATH.

Install

pipx install ufw-audit

Enable sudo + bash completion

pipx installs the binary in ~/.local/bin/, which is not in sudo's restricted PATH. --install-completion creates the symlink /usr/local/bin/ufw-audit and installs the bash completion script:

sudo ~/.local/bin/ufw-audit --install-completion
source /etc/bash_completion.d/ufw-audit

After this step, sudo ufw-audit works normally.

Update

pipx upgrade ufw-audit

Uninstall

pipx uninstall ufw-audit

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🚀 Why ufw-audit?

• 🔍 Full audit — firewall, services, ports, logs, DDNS, Docker, virtualisation
• 🎯 Smart prioritisation — score + classification (OK / Warning / Action required)
• 🧠 Context-aware — network exposure + service criticality
• 🛠 Optional auto-fix — corrections proposed or applied automatically
• 📊 Clear output — human-readable + scriptable
• 🌍 Bilingual EN/FR

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🔎 What the tool analyses

🔥 Firewall (UFW)

• Active/inactive status
• Dangerous rules (allow from any)
• IPv4 / IPv6 consistency
• Duplicates and errors

🌐 Exposed services (22+)

• SSH, Redis, PostgreSQL, Docker, etc.
• Detection via systemd / active ports
• Real exposure, risk level, UFW consistency

📡 Ports

• Open ports (ss)
• Interfaces (loopback / LAN / public)
• Unintended exposures

📜 UFW logs

• Suspicious attempts, brute-force detection
• IP analysis (optional GeoIP)

☁️ DDNS / Docker / Virtualisation

• Advanced network correlations
• Indirect exposure detection

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📊 Example output

✔ Firewall active
⚠ SSH exposed to the Internet
✖ Redis open without restriction

Score: 6/10
→ Action required

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▶️ Usage

sudo ufw-audit           # standard audit
sudo ufw-audit -f        # interactive fix mode
sudo ufw-audit -f -y     # auto-fix without confirmation
sudo ufw-audit -v        # verbose
sudo ufw-audit -q        # silent — exit code 0/1/2/3
sudo ufw-audit --french  # French interface

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🔌 Custom services (plugin system)

Drop a .json file into ~/.config/ufw-audit/services.d/ to add services that are not in the built-in registry.

mkdir -p ~/.config/ufw-audit/services.d/
# create my-services.json — same format as ufw_audit/data/services.json

Note (pipx / sudo): ufw-audit requires sudo. Under sudo, ~ resolves to /root.
Place your plugin files in /root/.config/ufw-audit/services.d/ for them to be active at runtime.

This will change in a future .deb release, where the system-wide directory /etc/ufw-audit/services.d/ will be used instead.

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🤖 Automation

• 🕒 Built-in cron (--install-cron)
• 📧 Email notifications (HTML + plain text)
• 📁 Report management (--manage-logs)
• 🔁 Multi-job scheduling (--manage-cron)

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🧪 Quality & reliability

• ✅ 766 unit tests
• 🧱 Modular architecture (snapshot / check separated)
• 🧪 Tested on Debian, Ubuntu, Kali, Mint

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🆕 v1.5.0

• 🖥️ Banner enriched — kernel version, iptables version and build, nftables version displayed at startup
• 🔥 Firewall Stack Analysis — new section detecting raw iptables ACCEPT rules bypassing UFW, nftables rulesets running in parallel, and unexpected IP forwarding
• 🌐 Network Context — new section showing active network interfaces (type, status, IP) and established TCP connections
• ✅ 766/766 unit tests

v1.4.0

• 🔌 Plugin system — drop .json files into ~/.config/ufw-audit/services.d/ to add custom service definitions
• ⚙️ Process-aware port findings — uncovered ports with an identified process produce a WARN (improvement) instead of ALERT (action), with a disclaimer note
• 📊 --json / --json-full — SIEM-ready JSON output modes
• 🛡️ GeoIP2 crash fix — AddressNotFoundError no longer crashes the audit; install instructions shown when library or database is missing
• 📬 Enriched cron email subject — [UFW-AUDIT] hostname - Score X/10
• 🛡️ Default deny awareness — uncovered ports downgraded to INFO when UFW default policy is deny/reject (no false alerts on hardened systems)
• ✅ 676/676 unit tests

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🧠 Philosophy

Not just listing ports — understanding the real risk.

ufw-audit prioritises what matters: real exposure, attack surface, potential impact.

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📁 Project structure

Automated-UFW-audit/
├── README.md / README_FR.md        # project overview (EN/FR)
├── LICENSE
├── pyproject.toml                  # build config (pip/pipx install)
├── DOCUMENTS/
│   ├── README_TECH.md / _FR.md     # complete technical reference
│   ├── README_DEV.md / _FR.md      # developer documentation
│   ├── CHANGELOG_FULL.md / _FR.md  # full version history
│   ├── TESTING.md / _FR.md         # test plan & validated scenarios
│   └── AUTOMATION.md / _FR.md      # cron & automation guide
├── ufw_audit/                      # Python package
│   ├── checks/                     # firewall, services, ports, logs, ddns, docker, virt
│   ├── data/
│   │   ├── services.json           # 22 built-in service definitions
│   │   └── ufw-audit.bash-completion
│   │   # ~/.config/ufw-audit/services.d/  ← user plugin directory (sudo: /root/...)
│   └── locales/
│       ├── en.json
│       └── fr.json
└── tests/                          # 766 unit tests

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📄 License

MIT — © 2026 Cédric Clauzel

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🤝 Contributing

Bug reports, new detections, UX improvements — contributions welcome.