How to Block Public Access to Plesk

  1. Open your Plesk Administration interface at the usual https://:8443/ location.
  2. Login as the Administrator.
  3. Click the Modules link on the left.
    •  If you do see an icon on the resulting screen labeled Firewall, click it to setup the firewall rules (skip to STEP 9).
    • If you do not see Firewall you must follow the instructions below (starting at step 4) to install the firewall module into Plesk.
  4.  Click Server > Updater.
  5. This will list the updates available for Plesk. After you are done this tutorial you may want to go back to this section and apply any outstanding updates. For now though – click the link that matches your current Plesk version denoted by a green check mark.
  6. You will then see a list of all services that are either installed or can be installed. Check the box next to the Plesk Firewall module and then click the Install link.
  7. On the following confirmation page you must check the box next to Yes, I wish to install these components and then click OK.
  8. After a few minutes an email will be sent to the email address configured as the system administrator stating the success or failure of the module installation. If the installation was successful you should now see the Firewall icon after clicking the Modules link on the left.
  9. Click the Firewall icon in the Modules section.
  10. Click on the icon labeled Edit Firewall Configuration and then the Add Custom Rule icon.
  11. Enter a name in the name of the rule like “Allow Plesk”. The direction should be set to “Incoming” and the must be set to Allow.
  12. The “Add port or port range” type 8443 and click “Add” while TCP is selected.
  13. In the sources section you must add your IP address. It is important to note that your workstation’s IP address may not be the IP address you are known as on the Internet if you have a router performing network address translation as in many cable internet and dsl configurations. To find out what your IP address looks like from your server’s point of view please visit http://whatismyip.com. Type your IP address in the Add IP Address or Network field and click Add. Click OK.
  14. Repeat step 13 for as many IP addresses you want that should have access to Plesk administration interface.
  15. You must now add a rule that denies all other IP addresses access to port 8443. This rule must come after the ones created in step 13. The process is the same but you will choose Deny instead of allow and you will not provide an IP address. In summary:
    • Name of rule: Deny Plesk
    • Direction: Incoming and Deny
    • Add port or port range: 8443 and TCP
    • Add IP Address of Network: empty
  16. After adding each rule you may have noticed a warning stating that the action has not been applied. Click the icon labeled Activate to apply these new rules.

If you have difficulties with any of this process or cannot complete any portion of it please log into myCP and open a trouble ticket.