Is it safe to open
Management interfaces give full control of the system. Make them reachable only from an admin network or VPN, change default credentials and keep the software patched.
How to open port 6443
Open to everyone
# Linux iptables iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 6443 -j ACCEPT # Ubuntu ufw ufw allow 6443/tcp # firewalld firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=6443/tcp && firewall-cmd --reload # MikroTik /ip firewall filter add chain=input protocol=tcp dst-port=6443 action=accept place-before=0 comment="port 6443" # Windows (PowerShell) New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Port 6443 TCP" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 6443 -Action Allow
Only for your addresses
# allow only one address or network (replace 203.0.113.0/24) iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 6443 -s 203.0.113.0/24 -j ACCEPT iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 6443 -j DROP ufw allow from 203.0.113.0/24 to any port 6443 proto tcp /ip firewall filter add chain=input protocol=tcp dst-port=6443 src-address=203.0.113.0/24 action=accept /ip firewall filter add chain=input protocol=tcp dst-port=6443 action=drop
If the server is behind a router, you also need a port forward (dst-nat). Behind ISP CGNAT (100.64.0.0/10 on the WAN) forwarding will not help: you need a public IP or a VPN.
What is listening
Check on the server
# what listens on the port ss -lntup | grep ':6443 ' netstat -ano | findstr :6443 # Windows lsof -i :6443 # macOS # test from another machine nc -vz example.com 6443