Host Access Control

security whmui

Valid for versions 82 through 90

Version:

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 this interface to allow or deny (block) access to the following services for specific IP addresses:

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 choose an FTP server, use WHM’s FTP Server Selection interface (WHM >> Home >> Service Configuration >> FTP Server Selection).
- For more information, read our ProFTPD Configuration for Host Access Control documentation.
To control access to the POP3 or IMAP services, you may use the Dovecot mail servers.

Allow or deny access

Important:

You must enter your allow rules before your deny rules.

To add a allow or deny a single IP address, hostname, comma-separated list of IP addresses, or CIDR subnet mask access to a service, perform the following steps:

Enter the service name in the daemon text box.
Enter the IP address or hostname in the Access List text box.
- You may enter wildcards in this text box.
- You must enclose IPv6 addresses in square brackets ( [ ] ).
- To add a CIDR subnet mask, add /NUMBER to your IP address, where NUMBER is the number of network bits that an IP address must match to be affected by your rule.
  - IPv4 example: 192.168.0.0/24 means the first 24 bits of the requesting IP address (the first, second, and third numbers in the IP address) must match the rule IP address. This will result in all IP addresses in the range of 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254 meeting the rule.
  - IPv6 example: 2001:0db8:0:0:1:0:0:1/64 means that the first 64 bits of the requesting IP address must match the rule IP address. Because IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, this will result in all IP addresses in the range of 2001:db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:0000 - 2001:db8:abcd:0012:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff meeting the rule.
Enter the desired action in the Action text box.
- Enter allow to allow access.
- Enter deny to deny access.
Describe the rule in the Comment text box.
Click Save Host Access List, or click Reload to delete any changes. Saved changes will apply.

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 addresses that you entered in the Access List text box.

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 or [2001:0db8:0:0:1:0:0:1]/64.
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 or all except [2001:0db8:0:0:1:0:0:1]/64 in the Access List text box.
Enter deny in the Action text box.