How can I detect if a firewall product is enabled?

Question

How can I detect (from a Windows Forms application written in C#) if a firewall product is enabled?

Here is my code and i am getting error on INetFwMgr that type or namespace could not found

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }


        private const string CLSID_FIREWALL_MANAGER = "{304CE942-6E39-40D8-943A-B913C40C9CD4}"; 

       INetFwMgr manager = GetFireWallManager();
       bool isFirewallEnabled = manager.LocalPolicy.CurrentProfile.FirewallEnabled;



       private static INetFwMgr GetFireWallManager()
       {
           Type objectType = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(new Guid(CLSID_FIREWALL_MANAGER));
           return Activator.CreateInstance(objectType) as INetFwMgr;
       }
        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {



            if (isFirewallEnabled == false)
           {
                MessageBox.Show("Firewall is not enabled.");
           }
           else
           {
                MessageBox.Show("Firewall is enabled.");
           }

        }
    }
}

Tarweed

Check for Third Party Firewalls on a Machine Check if external firewall is enabled? Controlling Windows firewall via COM Interop Automating Windows Firewall Settings with C# [Detect if windows firewall is blocking my program](http: – Desma

Are you missing a using directive? – Desma

Yes. How To Solve This ? – Tarweed

Add the namespace Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common to your code. See the addition in my answer. – Desma

There is nothing dll like Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common but instead there is Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client....i have added this namespance but still it is showing the same error...i am doing my app in Framwork 2.0 – Tarweed

Runtime version for this assembly is v2.0.50727. If you cannot find it in the 'Reference Assemblies\v2.0' folder in your installation folder of Visual Studio, you will have to download the dll and add it to your GAC (Global Assembly Cache). – Desma

Thnx..I have solved I have changed Version of Framework to 4.0 ....It Works.. – Tarweed

Answer 1

I know this is a old post but I found a great solution!
Read the registry key of firewall status found in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile

Key: EnableFirewall

public static bool isFirewallEnabled() {
        try {
            using (RegistryKey key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("System\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\SharedAccess\\Parameters\\FirewallPolicy\\StandardProfile")) {
                if (key == null) {
                    return false;
                } else { 
                    Object o = key.GetValue("EnableFirewall");
                    if (o == null) {
                        return false;
                    } else {
                        int firewall = (int)o;
                        if (firewall == 1) {
                            return true;
                        } else {
                            return false;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        } catch {
            return false;
        }
    }

Also you can get values for DomainProfile, PublicProfile and StandardProfile. You can get FirewallRules too.

I hope this helps :)

Cagle

Answer 2

NetFwMgrType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("HNetCfg.FwMgr", false); 
INetFwMgr mgr = (INetFwMgr)Activator.CreateInstance(NetFwMgrType);
bool Firewallenabled = mgr.LocalPolicy.CurrentProfile.FirewallEnabled;

For details see a link.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737845%28WS.10%29.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/securitytools/archive/2009/08/21/automating-windows-firewall-settings-with-c.aspx

Drool

See answer by Jeetendra negi below on how to get this code to compile. – Untune

Answer 3

Have a look at this question here about antivirus How to detect antivirus installed on windows 2003 server and 2008 server 2003 server R2and 2008 server R2 using WMI or other then WMI in C++ the same API call can be used to detect firewall settings using the WSC_SECURITY_PROVIDER_FIREWALL enum. The answer there is actually wrong for that question, but it will give you the answer for non-server computers. That code is in C++, but it's just the windows API call you need, you can call that from C# too.

Revalue

Note that this will only detect locally running firewall applications. It won't (and can't) detect firewall appliances and the like. – Niklaus

No it won't but given the tags on this question (windows-firewall, etc.) I assumed the OP meant local firewall – Revalue

Probably, I was just trying to be complete. – Niklaus

I just want to check in local machine when i click on button in ny window form it checks the code for firewall status so can u help how to write code fore this ? – Tarweed

@PavanAnadkat Can you clarify, do you want to check if a computer on the internet can connect to a port on the computer, or just if the local computer has firewall running or not? Those are two very different issues with different solutions. – Critique

I just want to check on local computer that firewall is on or off ? I have added my code and i am getting error on INetFwMgr – Tarweed

@PavanAnadkat You may want to roll back your changes, mark a answer as accepted and ask a new question (and include a link to the answer you used here) with what you did and a explanation of what error you are getting as most of these answers are for how to get to INetFwMgr, not how to debug its use. – Critique

Answer 4

You'll first need to add the following component to your project

• INetFwMgr

Then, get the object type from the Home Networking Configuration Manager CLSID which is {304CE942-6E39-40D8-943A-B913C40C9CD4}(Links to C:\WINDOWS\system32\hnetcfg.dll and can be found at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{304CE942-6E39-40D8-943A-B913C40C9CD4}) and use the type gathered to create an instance using the type's default constructor as a new INetFwMgr which will be used to detect whether the firewall is enabled or not using INetFwMgr.LocalPolicy.CurrentProfile.FirewallEnabled which returns a bool

private const string CLSID_FIREWALL_MANAGER = "{304CE942-6E39-40D8-943A-B913C40C9CD4}"; //This is the CLSID of Home Networking Configuration Manager. We'll use this to detect whether the Firewall is enabled or not
private static NetFwTypeLib.INetFwMgr GetHNCMType()
{
    Type objectType = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(new Guid(CLSID_FIREWALL_MANAGER)); //Creates a new GUID from CLSID_FIREWALL_MANAGER getting its type as objectType
    return Activator.CreateInstance(objectType) as NetFwTypeLib.INetFwMgr; //Creates an instance from the object type we gathered as an INetFwMgr object
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    INetFwMgr manager = GetHNCMType(); //Initializes a new INetFwMgr of name manager from GetHNCMType
    if (manager.LocalPolicy.CurrentProfile.FirewallEnabled == false) //Continue if the firewall is not enabled
    {
        //The firewall is not enabled
        Console.WriteLine("OFF"); //Writes OFF to the Console in a new line
    }
    else //Otherwise:
    {
        //The fire wall is enabled
        Console.WriteLine("ON"); //Writes ON to the Console in a new line
    }
}

Thanks,
I hope you find this helpful :)

---

To add a component to your project,

• Right-click References from the Solution Explorer under your project name and select Add Reference...
• Under the tab COM, select the component you'd like to add and click on OK

Intervocalic

i did not find INetFwMgr Under COM. Now How can i add this component ? – Tarweed

Error 1 The type or namespace name 'INetFwMgr' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) c:\users\administrator.mustuspune\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\WindowsFormsApplication1\WindowsFormsApplication1\Form1.cs I am getting this error – Tarweed

Answer 5

just import the refrences from C://windows/system32/hnetcfg.dll and C://windows/system32/FirewallAPI.dll

then use

using NATUPNPLib;
using NETCONLib;
using NetFwTypeLib;

Phaedra

Answer 6

You can make use of the FwMgr for old Windows versions (XP) and use Windows Firewall with Advanced Security API for Vista and Above.

Here is an example that retrieves the firewall setting.

Tailgate