How to Redirect HTTP/HTTPS Ports with IPTables in Linux

Setting Up IPTables Rules for Port Redirection

📘 Setting Up IPTables Rules for Port Redirection

🔍 Overview

This guide walks you through setting up IPTables to redirect standard HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) traffic to custom application ports like 8080 and 8443. This is useful when your application does not run as root but needs to serve over standard web ports.

🛠️ Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Install IPTables Utilities

First, install iptables-save and iptables-persistent to manage and persist your rules across reboots:

      sudo apt install -y iptables-save iptables-persistent

2. Set Up PREROUTING Rules

Redirect all incoming traffic on ports 80 and 443 to your application’s ports (8080 and 8443):

      sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8080
      sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8443

3. Set Up OUTPUT Rules (For Localhost Redirects)

Redirect local requests from the host to your application's listening ports:

      sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -d 127.0.0.1/32 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8080
      sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -d 127.0.0.1/32 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8443

4. Save the Rules

To persist your rules across system restarts, save them using:

      sudo iptables-save

✅ Result

Your system will now redirect all traffic:

  • From port 80 → 8080

  • From port 443 → 8443

Both for external connections and localhost traffic.

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