Firewall Rules

Sonoran Shield allows you to easily lock down unused ports, restrict access based on IPs, and more!

Open and unused ports represent potential security vulnerabilities. Attackers can exploit open ports to gain unauthorized access to a system, take down your server through denial of service attacks (DoS/DDoS) and compromise its security. By blocking unused ports, organizations can reduce their attack surface and minimize the risk of a successful attack. It is a best practice to only allow traffic on necessary ports to limit potential vulnerabilities and maintain the security of the system.

Sensitive ports can be limited to only authorized source IP addresses (your developers for example) to limit attack surface further while allowing access to authorized users.

Getting Started with Firewall Rules

1. Block all Unused Ports

The first rule will block access on all unused ports. After this, we will add rules to open only the ports we need.

• Select New Rule

• Add your server's IP address in the Destination drop-down

• Select Network as the Source Type

• Set the Source IP to 0.0.0.0/0

• Leave the Protocol, Source Port, and Destination Port fields blank

• Set the Action to Block

• Save the new rule

2. Add a port for RDP

Next, we will want to open up a port for remote desktop connections. This will allow us to use Window's RDP to view/manage our server.

• Select New Rule

• Add your server's IP address in the Destination drop-down

• Select Network as the Source Type

• Set the Source IP to:

  • Allow any IP: 0.0.0.0/0

  • Or, allow only your specific IP address to connect

• Set Protocol to TCP

• Leave the Source Port field blank

• Set the Destination Port to 3389

  • This is the default RDP port for Windows servers

• Set the Action to Allow

• Save the new rule

Continue this process to open additional ports for your game server and any other applications.