CSF is being discontinued

SimpleSonic · July 30

ConfigServer has posted on their blog they are discontinuing their products (including CSF) on August 31, 2025

More info: https://blog.configserver.com/?p=4137

EthernetServers · July 30

Really sad news.

CSF has been a big help many times over the years, from initial security audits (its "Check Server Security" tool) to fighting basic D(DoS) attacks and just keeping a generally good eye on things with its email alerts and such.

Granted, I don't use it on any servers right now, but nevertheless, I have customers that I know use and rely on it for certain things.

And yes - it's not irreplaceable, but it did a great job - with the benefit of being free and open-source.

AlwaysSkint · July 30

Nightmare! I use it "across the board".
Open to suggestions for a free alternative, as it is easy/quick to use from the GUI and the command line ain't that shabby too.

imok · July 30

Sad. It was a good product.

SpeedBus · July 30

oh wow, CSF was/is a pretty solid product, tons of options to fine tune what you exactly needed but it worked great, I wonder if they would opensource the code for it to be continued forward somehow?

on the other hand, I don't see any other solution which is free either which can fill this space, fail2ban does comes to mind, but not as complete as CSF was since it had an eye on the entire servers network front pretty much.

AlwaysSkint · July 30

It seems that APF+BFD/fail2ban are the prime candidates, though are they up to date? A search hasn't found anything with the CSF functionality, so far.

AuroraZero · July 30

Hmmm should I send an email?

legendary · July 31

This is catastrophic. No decent free alternatives. And they cancel everything, not only csf. I applaud no bullshit news why they cancel, but that is a blow to community. At least they could open source those and donate to public domain.

SpeedBus · July 31

Reading the FAQ section below I noticed at the very end (I seem to have missed this earlier),

Will you consider releasing csf (Configserver Security & Firewall) under an open-source/GPL license?
Yes, we are seriously considering releasing csf (ConfigServer Security & Firewall) under the GPLv3 license. If we do this, it will be before we close for business and the software will be made available via our GitHub repository.

Assuming they do this, it would be pretty good as the product itself is solid, can't really see any flaws at all.

AlwaysSkint · July 31

I had read the FAQ; I think that has been added later.

This could help, A LOT.
https://github.com/Aetherinox/csf-firewall

prenhost · July 31

CSF was helpful for me

EthernetServers · August 1

Will you consider releasing csf (Configserver Security & Firewall) under an open-source/GPL license?

Yes, we are seriously considering releasing csf (ConfigServer Security & Firewall) under the GPLv3 license. If we do this, it will be before we close for business and the software will be made available via our GitHub repository.

Has now changed to:

Will you consider releasing csf (Configserver Security & Firewall) under an open-source/GPL license?

Yes, we are working on releasing csf (ConfigServer Security & Firewall) under the GPLv3 license. If we do this, it will be before we close for business and the software will be made available via our GitHub repository.

eva2000 · August 29

waves

Looks like free scripts were released under open source licensing today https://github.com/waytotheweb/scripts.

I compared the CSF Firewall GPLv3 open source code (v15.00) to the last configserver.com released code (v14.24) and wrote a summary at https://github.com/centminmod/configserver-scripts/blob/main/README-gpl-csf.md.

how this for my first post here ^_^

AuroraZero · August 29

@eva2000 said:
waves

Looks like free scripts were released under open source licensing today https://github.com/waytotheweb/scripts.

I compared the CSF Firewall GPLv3 open source code (v15.00) to the last configserver.com released code (v14.24) and wrote a summary at https://github.com/centminmod/configserver-scripts/blob/main/README-gpl-csf.md.

how this for my first post here ^_^

Terrible try again

legendary · August 29

They didn't release CXS . Other scripts, except CSF is in horrible shape (code wise), directed towards cPanel.

Sad. Hope talented group will take this and elevate into next level. At least, CSF is saved.

AuroraZero · August 31

So what is consesus here? Shotdown or saved from the brink of death?

AlwaysSkint · August 31

At least there's a possibility of continuing - hope that's not just wishful thinking.

eva2000 · September 1

@AuroraZero said: Terrible try again

LOL

@AuroraZero said:
So what is consesus here? Shotdown or saved from the brink of death?

Too early to tell

@AlwaysSkint said: At least there's a possibility of continuing - hope that's not just wishful thinking.

Yeah time will tell but at least there's a chance. Surprised the news isn't as wide spread about this given it's impact

CSF is being discontinued

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