How to Disable the Firewall on CentOS (iptables & firewalld)

How to Disable the Firewall in CentOS

This guide explains how to temporarily and permanently disable the firewall on CentOS systems. The commands differ between major versions.

For CentOS 6 and Earlier (Using iptables)

These systems typically use the iptables service managed by SysV init.

Stop the Firewall Immediately

Use this command to stop the firewall service for the current session:

service iptables stop

Disable the Firewall Permanently

To prevent the firewall from starting automatically on system reboot, run:

chkconfig iptables off

For a complete shutdown, execute both commands.

Verify the Status

Check if the firewall is stopped with:

service iptables status

A successful message is typically: iptables: Firewall is not running.

For CentOS 7 and Later (Using firewalld)

Newer CentOS versions use systemd and the firewalld service by default.

Stop and Disable firewalld

To stop the service immediately and disable it from starting at boot:

systemctl stop firewalld
systemctl disable firewalld

Verify the Status

Check the status of firewalld:

systemctl status firewalld

You should see an 'inactive (dead)' status.

Important Notes

• Version Check: If unsure of your CentOS version, run cat /etc/redhat-release.
• Security Warning: Disabling the firewall exposes your system to network threats. Only do this in trusted, isolated environments (e.g., testing labs). For production, configure the firewall rules instead of disabling it entirely.
• Alternative (CentOS 7+): If you prefer iptables, you can stop and disable firewalld, then install and enable iptables-services.