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Cybersecurity Triage

Read UFW Policy Verbosely

You need the UFW default policy, logging state, and allowed inbound rules in one readable snapshot.

Command

ufw status verbose

What changed

Nothing changes. UFW prints the current policy and rule summary.

Danger

safe

When to use it

Use during exposure checks, handoffs, or after a deploy changes which services should be reachable.

When not to use it

Do not assume UFW is the only firewall layer on every host; nftables, iptables, cloud firewalls, and provider rules may also apply.

Undo or recovery

No undo needed because this command is read-only.

Expected output

UFW status, default policy, logging state, and inbound rules.

demo script

Disposable terminal steps

  1. ufw status verbose
  2. ufw status numbered
Terminal transcript Demo JSON

simulated output

What it looks like

disposable vessel 
::fixture-ready::
$ ufw status verbose
Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
22/tcp                     ALLOW IN    203.0.113.0/24
80/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
443/tcp                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere
25/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
5432/tcp                   DENY IN     Anywhere
::exit-code::0
$ ufw status numbered
Status: active

     To                         Action      From
     --                         ------      ----
[ 1] 22/tcp                     ALLOW IN    203.0.113.0/24
[ 2] 80/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 3] 443/tcp                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 4] 25/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 5] 5432/tcp                   DENY IN     Anywhere
::exit-code::0

YouTube Short

Read the firewall defaults.

A firewall rule list is not enough. UFW verbose output shows whether incoming traffic is denied by default.

LinkedIn hook

The firewall was active, but the defaults mattered more than the rule list.

Question: Do you check firewall defaults before reading individual rules?

experiments

A/B tests to run

Metric: save_rate

A: The defaults mattered.

B: Read firewall policy before rules.