🔍 Unused Port Checker

A script for checking and removing unused ports from firewall rules (UFW or iptables).

📋 Description

This bash script checks which ports from firewall rules are currently not in use. It can:

• ✅ Check all ports from firewall rules
• ✅ Check a specific port
• ✅ Display unused ports
• ✅ Remove unused ports from firewall (with backup option)
• ✅ Restore removed rules from backup

📦 Requirements

• 🐧 Linux operating system
• 💻 Bash shell
• 🔥 UFW or iptables firewall
• 🔌 ss or lsof for port checking
• 🔐 Root privileges for removing rules (iptables requires root for reading rules too)

🚀 Installation

Option 1: Using APT Repository (Recommended)

Install from the official APT repository:

• Add the repository and GPG key:

# Download and add the GPG key
curl -fsSL https://peace.dbase.in.rs/public.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/peace-repo.gpg

# Add the repository
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/peace-repo.gpg] https://peace.dbase.in.rs stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/peace.list

• Update package list and install:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install unused-port

• Verify installation:

unused_port --help

Option 2: Using Git (Full Repository)

• Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/r0073rr0r/UnusedPort.git
cd UnusedPort

• Make it executable:

chmod +x unused_port.sh

Option 3: Using curl (Script Only)

Download only the script:

curl -o unused_port.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/r0073rr0r/UnusedPort/main/unused_port.sh
chmod +x unused_port.sh

Option 4: Using wget (Script Only)

Download only the script:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/r0073rr0r/UnusedPort/main/unused_port.sh
chmod +x unused_port.sh

💡 Usage

Basic Commands

# Check all UFW ports (uses ss by default)
./unused_port.sh

# Check a specific port
./unused_port.sh -p 8080

# Check iptables ports
./unused_port.sh --iptables

# Show what would be removed (dry-run)
./unused_port.sh --dry-run

# Remove unused ports (with backup and confirmation)
sudo ./unused_port.sh --remove

# Remove unused ports without confirmation
sudo ./unused_port.sh --remove --yes

Options

Option	Description
-p, --port PORT	Check a specific port
-r, --remove	Remove unused ports from firewall
-d, --dry-run	Show what would be removed without actually removing
-y, --yes	Skip confirmation prompt (use with --remove)
--force	Skip backup creation when removing (not recommended)
--restore [FILE]	Restore firewall rules from the last backup (or from FILE if provided)
--restore-from FILE	Restore firewall rules from a specific backup file
--list-backups	List all available backup files
--show-last-backup	Show the path to the last backup file
--ss	Use 'ss' for port checking (default)
--lsof	Use 'lsof' for port checking
--ufw	Use UFW firewall (default)
--iptables	Use iptables firewall
-h, --help	Show help message

Examples

# Check port 8080
./unused_port.sh -p 8080

# Check iptables ports using lsof
./unused_port.sh --iptables --lsof

# Preview unused ports
./unused_port.sh --dry-run

# Remove unused ports with backup
sudo ./unused_port.sh --remove

# Remove without confirmation
sudo ./unused_port.sh --remove --yes

# Restore rules from last backup
sudo ./unused_port.sh --restore

# Restore rules from specific backup file
sudo ./unused_port.sh --restore-from firewall_backup_ufw_20240101_120000.txt

# List all backup files
./unused_port.sh --list-backups

💾 Backup and Restore

The script automatically creates a backup before removing rules (unless --force is used). Backup files are stored in:

• ~/.unused_port_backups/ (if possible)
• /tmp/unused_port_backups/ (fallback)

Each backup file has the format: firewall_backup_<tool>_<date>_<time>.txt

The script also creates a symlink to the latest backup for easier restoration.

Restore Commands

# Restore from last backup
sudo ./unused_port.sh --restore

# Restore from specific file
sudo ./unused_port.sh --restore-from firewall_backup_ufw_20240101_120000.txt

# List all backups
./unused_port.sh --list-backups

# Show last backup
./unused_port.sh --show-last-backup

⚠️ Security

⚠️ WARNING: Removing firewall rules can affect system security and connectivity. Always:

• 📝 Review what will be removed before confirming
• 🔍 Use --dry-run option first
• 🚫 Don't use --force unless you're sure
• 💾 Keep backup files in a safe place

🛠️ Support

• 🔥 UFW: Requires UFW firewall
• 🔐 iptables: Requires root privileges for reading and writing rules
• ⚡ ss: Faster than lsof, recommended
• 🔌 lsof: Alternative if ss is not available

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

👤 Author

Velimir Majstorov

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the Contributing Guide and Code of Conduct.