Creating exception in Windows firewall using VB.Net

Question

How can I add my application to the exception list of windows firewall, using vb.net code?

Thanks

Answer 1

Windows Vista and 7 provide a rather robust firewall API that can be used to add exceptions to the firewall. The code below will add an exception to the windows firewall for the specified application, provided that the code is run with administrator privileges. Add a reference to %systemroot%\system32\FirewallAPI.dll to your application.

Imports NetFwTypeLib

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

    ' Create the Application we want to add to the exception list
    Dim appType As Type = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("HnetCfg.FwAuthorizedApplication")
    Dim app As INetFwAuthorizedApplication
    app = DirectCast(Activator.CreateInstance(appType), INetFwAuthorizedApplication)

    ' Set the application properties
    app.Name = "Negative0's Sandbox"
    app.ProcessImageFileName = "C:\Users\Negative0\vbsandbox2.exe"
    app.Enabled = True


    ' Get the firewall manager, so we can get the list of authorized apps
    Dim fwMgrType As Type = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("HnetCfg.FwMgr")
    Dim fwMgr As INetFwMgr
    fwMgr = DirectCast(Activator.CreateInstance(fwMgrType), INetFwMgr)

    ' Get the list of authorized applications from the Firewall Manager, so we can add our app to that list
    Dim apps As INetFwAuthorizedApplications
    apps = fwMgr.LocalPolicy.CurrentProfile.AuthorizedApplications
    apps.Add(app)

End Sub

Source