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Notes from the lab, IT apprentice tales, and the occasional “don’t try this at work” story. Expect small reads about Linux, networking, automation — and the kind of mistakes that teach faster than manuals.

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The SSH Incident — How I Locked Myself Out

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Ah yes, the day I thought I should be more cybersecurity focused...

I had just finished setting up my shiny new server — Apache, MariaDB, users, groups, read/write permissions — everything was running perfectly. It was beautiful. The final step? Security. I wanted to do things “properly.” So I decided to configure UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall).

And that’s when the brain fog hit.

Instead of allowing SSH (port 22), I proudly typed: 

sudo ufw allow 80
sudo ufw allow 443
sudo ufw enable
I hit Enter. The firewall activated. Connection dropped. Silence.

It took me a few seconds to realize what I’d done. I had just locked myself out of the only way into the server. No SSH. No console. Just… regret.

Did I take a snapshot of the server before doing this? Of course not! Did I have a failsafe plan? Why would I? I had everything under control… until I didn’t.

Everything I’d set up — gone. All the configurations — gone. My dignity? Also gone.

I sat there, staring at my terminal like a digital caveman who’d just invented fire and immediately burned down his hut.

So yes, that’s how I learned one of the golden rules of IT: > Never secure yourself out of your own system.

Now, whenever I touch a firewall, I whisper a little prayer to port 22. Because I’ve been there. I’ve felt the pain. And I will never underestimate the power of one missing rule again.