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FireHOL Reference

Who should read this manual

This is a reference guide with specific detailed information on commands and configuration syntax for the FireHOL tool. The reference is unlikely to be suitable for newcomers to the tools, except as a means to look up more information on a particular command.

For tutorials and guides to using FireHOL and FireQOS, please visit the website.

Where to get help

The FireHOL website.

The mailing lists and archives.

The package comes with a complete set of manpages, a README and a brief INSTALL guide.

Installation

You can download tar-file releases by visiting the FireHOL website download area.

Unpack and change directory with:

tar xfz firehol-version.tar.gz
cd firehol-version

From version 3.0.0 it is no longer recommended to install firehol by copying files, since a function library is now used, in addition to the scripts.

Options for the configure program can be seen in the INSTALL file and by running:

./configure --help

To build and install taking the default options:

./configure && make && sudo make install

To not have files appear under /usr/local, try something like:

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
make
make install

If your O/S does not usually have a /usr/libexec, you may want to add --libexecdir=/usr/lib to the configure.

All of the common SysVInit command line arguments are recognised which makes it easy to deploy the script as a startup service.

Packages are available for most distributions and you can use your distribution's standard commands (e.g. aptitude, yum, etc.) to install these.

Note

Distributions do not always offer the latest version. You can see what the latest release is on the FireHOL website.

Licence

This manual is licensed under the same terms as the FireHOL package, the GNU GPL v2 or later.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

Setting up and running FireHOL

FireHOL is started and stopped using the firehol script. The default firewall configuration is to be found in /etc/firehol/firehol.conf, with some behaviours governed by variables in /etc/firehol/firehol-defaults.conf.

Primary commands

These are the primary packet filtering building blocks. Below each of these, sub-commands can be added.

command 4/6/46 forbidden params description
interface Y inface outface physout Define packet filtering blocks, protecting the firewall host itself.
router Y - Define packet filtering blocks, protecting other hosts from routed traffic.

Sub-commands

A rule in an interface or router definition typically consists of a subcommand to apply to a service using one of the standard actions provided it matches certain optional rule parameters. e.g.

      server ssh accept src 10.0.0.0/8

The following sub-commands can be used below primary commands to form rules.

command 4/6/46 forbidden params description
client Y sport dport Allow access to a client running on the interface or the protected router hosts.
group Y - Define groups of commands that share optional rule parameters. Groups can be nested.
iptables ip6tables N all forbidden A wrapper for the system iptables command, to add custom iptables statements to a FireHOL firewall.
masquerade Y inface outface Change the source IP of packets leaving outface, with the IP of the interface they are using to leave.
policy N all forbidden Define the action to be applied on packets not matched by any server or client statements in the interface or router.
protection N all forbidden Examine incoming packets per interface or router and filter out bad packets or limit request frequency.
server Y sport dport Allow access to a server running on the interface or the protected router hosts.
tcpmss Y all forbidden Set the MSS (Maximum Segment Size) of TCP SYN packets routed through the firewall.

Helper commands

The following commands are generally used to set things up before the first primary command. Some can be used below an interface or router and also appear in the subcommands table.

command 4/6/46 forbidden params description
action Y - Define new actions that can differentiate the final action based on rules. action can be used to define traps.
blacklist Y - Drop matching packets globally.
classify Y - Put matching traffic into the specified traffic shaping class.
connmark Y - Set a stateful mark from the connmark group.
cthelper 4/6 - Control connection tracking helpers.
dscp Y - Set the DSCP field of packets.
ipset 4/6 all forbidden Define ipsets. A wrapper for the system ipset command to add ipsets to a FireHOL firewall.
iptables ip6tables N all forbidden A wrapper for the system iptables command, to add custom iptables statements to a FireHOL firewall.
iptrap 4/6 - Dynamically put IP addresses in an ipset.
mac Y all forbidden Restricts an IP to a particular MAC address.
mark Y - Set a stateful mark from the usermark group.
masquerade Y - Change the source IP of packets leaving outface, with the IP of the interface they are using to leave.
dnat Y - Change the destination IP or port of packets received, to fixed values or fixed ranges. dnat can be used to implement load balancers.
snat Y - Change the source IP or port of packets leaving, to fixed values or fixed ranges.
redirect Y - Redirect packets to the firewall host, possibly changing the destination port. Can support load balancers if multiple daemons run on localhost.
transparent_proxy Y see notes Set up a transparent TCP, HTTP or squid proxy.
synproxy Y - Configure synproxy.
tcpmss Y all forbidden Set the MSS (Maximum Segment Size) of TCP SYN packets routed through the firewall.
tos Y - Set the Type of Service (TOS) of packets.
tosfix Y all forbidden Apply suggested TOS values to packets.
version N all forbidden Specify a version number for the configuration file.

Manual Pages in Alphabetical Order

firehol(1)

NAME

firehol - an easy to use but powerful iptables stateful firewall

SYNOPSIS

firehol

sudo -E firehol panic [ IP ]

firehol command [ -- conf-arg... ]

firehol CONFIGFILE [start|debug|try] [-- conf-arg... ]

DESCRIPTION

Running firehol invokes iptables(8) to manipulate your firewall.

Run without any arguments, firehol will present some help on usage.

When given CONFIGFILE, firehol will use the named file instead of /etc/firehol/firehol.conf as its configuration. If no command is given, firehol assumes try.

It is possible to pass arguments for use by the configuration file separating any conf-arg values from the rest of the arguments with --. The arguments are accessible in the configuration using standard bash(1) syntax e.g. $1, $2, etc.

PANIC

To block all communication, invoke firehol with the panic command.

FireHOL removes all rules from the running firewall and then DROPs all traffic on all iptables(8) tables (mangle, nat, filter) and pre-defined chains (PREROUTING, INPUT, FORWARD, OUTPUT, POSTROUTING).

DROPing is not done by changing the default policy to DROP, but by adding one rule per table/chain to drop all traffic. This allows systems which do not reset all the chains to ACCEPT when starting to function correctly.

When activating panic mode, FireHOL checks for the existence of the SSH_CLIENT shell environment variable, which is set by ssh(1). If it finds this, then panic mode will allow the established SSH connection specified in this variable to operate.

Note

In order for FireHOL to see the environment variable you must ensure that it is preserved. For sudo(8) use the -E and for su(1) omit the - (minus sign).

If SSH_CLIENT is not set, the IP after the panic argument allows you to give an IP address for which all established connections between the IP address and the host in panic will be allowed to continue.

COMMANDS

start; restart

Activates the firewall using /etc/firehol/firehol.conf.

Use of the term restart is allowed for compatibility with common init implementations.

try
Activates the firewall, waiting for the user to type the word commit. If this word is not typed within 30 seconds, the previous firewall is restored.
stop
Stops a running iptables(8) firewall by clearing all of the tables and chains and setting the default policies to ACCEPT. This will allow all traffic to pass unchecked.
condrestart
Restarts the FireHOL firewall only if it is already active. This is the generally expected behaviour (but opposite to FireHOL prior to 2.0.0-pre4).
status
Shows the running firewall, using /sbin/iptables -nxvL | less.
save

Start the firewall and then save it using iptables-save(8) to the location given by FIREHOL_AUTOSAVE. See firehol-defaults.conf(5) for more information.

The required kernel modules are saved to an executable shell script /var/spool/firehol/last_save_modules.sh, which can be called during boot if a firewall is to be restored.

Note

External changes may cause a firewall restored after a reboot to not work as intended where starting the firewall with FireHOL will work.

This is because as part of starting a firewall, FireHOL checks some changeable values. For instance the current kernel configuration is checked (for client port ranges), and RPC servers are queried (to allow correct functioning of the NFS service).

debug
Parses the configuration file but instead of activating it, FireHOL shows the generated iptables(8) statements.
explain

Enters an interactive mode where FireHOL accepts normal configuration commands and presents the generated iptables(8) commands for each of them, together with some reasoning for its purpose.

Additionally, FireHOL automatically generates a configuration script based on the successful commands given.

Some extra commands are available in explain mode.

help
Present some help
show
Present the generated configuration
quit
Exit interactive mode and quit
helpme; wizard

Tries to guess the FireHOL configuration needed for the current machine.

FireHOL will not stop or alter the running firewall. The configuration file is given in the standard output of firehol, thus firehol helpme > /tmp/firehol.conf will produce the output in /tmp/firehol.conf.

The generated FireHOL configuration must be edited before use on your systems. You are required to take a number of decisions; the comments in the generated file will instruct you in the choices you must make.

FILES

/etc/firehol/firehol.conf

SEE ALSO

firehol.conf(5)

NAME

firehol.conf - FireHOL configuration

DESCRIPTION

/etc/firehol/firehol.conf is the default configuration file for firehol(1). It defines the stateful firewall that will be produced.

A configuration file starts with an optional version indicator which looks like this:

version 6

See firehol-version(1) for full details.

A configuration file contains one or more interface definitions, which look like this:

 interface eth0 lan
   client all accept # This host can access any remote service
   server ssh accept # Remote hosts can access SSH on local server
   # ...

The above definition has name "lan" and specifies a network interface (eth0). A definition may contain zero or more subcommands. See firehol-interface(5) for full details.

By default FireHOL will try to create both IPv4 and IPv6 rules for each interface. To make this explicit or restrict which rules are created write both interface, ipv4 interface or ipv6 interface.

Note that IPv6 will be disabled silently if your system is not configured to use it. You can test this by looking for the file /proc/net/if_inet6. The IPv6 HOWTO has more information.

A configuration file contains zero or more router definitions, which look like this:

DMZ_IF=eth0
WAN_IF=eth1
router wan2dmz inface ${WAN_IF} outface ${DMZ_IF}
  route http accept  # Hosts on WAN may access HTTP on hosts in DMZ
  server ssh accept  # Hosts on WAN may access SSH on hosts in DMZ
  client pop3 accept # Hosts in DMZ may access POP3 on hosts on WAN
  # ...

The above definition has name "wan2dmz" and specifies incoming and outgoing network interfaces (eth1 and eth0) using variables. A definition may contain zero or more subcommands. Note that a router is not required to specify network interfaces to operate on. See firehol-router(5) for full details.

By default FireHOL will try to create both IPv4 and IPv6 rules for each router. To make this explicit or restrict which rules are created write both router, ipv4 router or ipv6 router.

It is simple to add extra service definitions which can then be used in the same way as those provided as standard. See ADDING SERVICES.

The configuration file is parsed as a bash(1) script, allowing you to set up and use variables, flow control and external commands.

Special control variables may be set up and used outside of any definition, see firehol-defaults.conf(5) as can the functions in CONFIGURATION HELPER COMMANDS and HELPER COMMANDS.

VARIABLES AVAILABLE

The following variables are made available in the FireHOL configuration file and can be accessed as ${VARIABLE}.

UNROUTABLE_IPS

This variable includes the IPs from both PRIVATE_IPS and RESERVED_IPS. It is useful to restrict traffic on interfaces and routers accepting Internet traffic, for example:

interface eth0 internet src not "${UNROUTABLE_IPS}"
PRIVATE_IPS

This variable includes all the IP addresses defined as Private or Test by RFC 3330.

You can override the default values by creating a file called /etc/firehol/PRIVATE_IPS.

RESERVED_IPS

This variable includes all the IP addresses defined by IANA as reserved.

You can override the default values by creating a file called /etc/firehol/RESERVED_IPS.

Now that IPv4 address space has all been allocated there is very little reason that this value will need to change in future.

MULTICAST_IPS

This variable includes all the IP addresses defined as Multicast by RFC 3330.

You can override the default values by creating a file called /etc/firehol/MULTICAST_IPS.

ADDING SERVICES

To define new services you add the appropriate lines before using them later in the configuration file.

The following are required:

server_myservice_ports="proto/sports"

client_myservice_ports="cports"

proto is anything iptables(8) accepts e.g. "tcp", "udp", "icmp", including numeric protocol values.

sports is the ports the server is listening at. It is a space-separated list of port numbers, names and ranges (from:to). The keyword any will match any server port.

cports is the ports the client may use to initiate a connection. It is a space-separated list of port numbers, names and ranges (from:to). The keyword any will match any client port. The keyword default will match default client ports. For the local machine (e.g. a client within an interface) it resolves to sysctl(8) variable net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range (or /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range). For a remote machine (e.g. a client within an interface or anything in a router) it resolves to the variable DEFAULT_CLIENT_PORTS (see firehol-defaults.conf(5)).

The following are optional:

require_myservice_modules="modules"

require_myservice_nat_modules="nat-modules"

The named kernel modules will be loaded when the definition is used. The NAT modules will only be loaded if FIREHOL_NAT is non-zero (see firehol-defaults.conf(5)).

For example, for a service named daftnet that listens at two ports, port 1234 TCP and 1234 UDP where the expected client ports are the default random ports a system may choose, plus the same port numbers the server listens at, with further dynamic ports requiring kernel modules to be loaded:

    # Setup service
    server_daftnet_ports="tcp/1234 udp/1234"
    client_daftnet_ports="default 1234"
    require_daftnet_modules="ip_conntrack_daftnet"
    require_daftnet_nat_modules="ip_nat_daftnet
    
    interface eth0 lan0
      server daftnet accept
     
    interface eth1 lan1
      client daftnet reject
    
    router lan2lan inface eth0 outface eth1
      route daftnet accept

Where multiple ports are provides (as per the example), FireHOL simply determines all of the combinations of client and server ports and generates multiple iptables(8) statements to match them.

To create more complex rules, or stateless rules, you will need to create a bash function prefixed rules_ e.g. rules_myservice. The best reference is the many such functions in the main firehol(1) script.

When adding a service which uses modules, or via a custom function, you may also wish to include the following:

ALL_SHOULD_ALSO_RUN="${ALL_SHOULD_ALSO_RUN} myservice"

which will ensure your service is set-up correctly as part of the all service.

Note

To allow definitions to be shared you can instead create files and install them in the /etc/firehol/services directory with a .conf extension.

The first line must read:

#FHVER: 1:213

1 is the service definition API version. It will be changed if the API is ever modified. The 213 originally referred to a FireHOL 1.x minor version but is no longer checked.

FireHOL will refuse to run if the API version does not match the expected one.

DEFINITIONS

SUBCOMMANDS

HELPER COMMANDS

These helpers can be used in interface and router definitions as well as before them:

This helper can be used in router definitions as well as before any router or interface:

CONFIGURATION HELPER COMMANDS

These helpers should only be used outside of interface and router definitions (i.e. before the first interface is defined).

SEE ALSO

firehol-action(5)

NAME

firehol-action - set up custom filtering actions

SYNOPSIS

action name [table table_name] type type_params [ next [ type type_params [ next ... ] ] ]

DESCRIPTION

The action helper creates custom actions that can be used everywhere in FireHOL, like this:

action ACT1 chain accept

interface any world
    server smtp ACT1

router myrouter
    policy ACT1

The action helper allows linking multiple actions together and having some logic to select which action to execute, like this:

action ACT1 \
         rule src 192.168.0.0/16 action reject \
    next rule dst 192.168.0.0/16 action reject \
    next rule inface eth2 action drop \
    next rule outface eth2 action drop \
    next action accept

interface any world
    server smtp ACT1

router myrouter
    policy ACT1

There is no limit on the number of actions that can be linked together.

type can be chain or action (chain and action are aliases), rule, iptrap, ipuntrap or sockets_suspects_trap.

Chain type actions

This is the simpler action. It creates an iptables(8) chain which can be used to control the action of other firewall rules once the firewall is running.

For example, you can setup the custom action ACT1, which by default is ACCEPT, but can be dynamically changed to DROP, REJECT or RETURN (and back) without restarting the firewall.

The name can be any chain name accepted by iptables. You should try to keep it within 5 and 10 characters.

Note

The names created with this command are case-sensitive.

The action can be any of those supported by FireHOL (see firehol-actions(5)). Only ACCEPT, REJECT, DROP, RETURN have any meaning in this instance.

Once the firewall is running you can dynamically modify the behaviour of the chain from the Linux command-line, as detailed below:

action ACT1 chain accept

interface any world
    server smtp ACT1
    client smtp ACT1

To insert a DROP action at the start of the chain to override the default action (ACCEPT):

iptables -t filter -I ACT1 -j DROP

To delete the DROP action from the start of the chain to return to the default action:

iptables -t filter -D ACT1 -j DROP

Note

If you delete all of the rules in the chain, the default will be to RETURN, in which case the behaviour will be as if any rules with the action were not present in the configuration file.

Rule type actions

rule type actions define a few conditions that will lead to an action.

All optional rule parameters FireHOL supports can be used here (see firehol-params(5)).

action ACT1 \
    rule inface eth0 action accept
    next rule outface eth0 action accept
    next action reject

interface any world
    server smtp ACT1

In the above example the smtp server can only be accessed from eth0.

It is important to remember that actions will be applied for all the traffic, both requests and replies. The type of traffic can be filtered with the state optional rule parameter, like this:

action ACT1 \
    rule inface eth0 state NEW action reject
    next action accept

interface any world
    server smtp ACT1
    client smtp ACT1

In the above example, the smtp server will not accept NEW connections from eth0, but the smtp client will be able to connect to servers on eth0 (and everywhere else).

iptrap type actions

iptrap (see firehol-iptrap(5)) is a helper than copies (traps) an IP to an ipset (see firehol-ipset(5)). It does not perform any action on the traffic.

Using the iptrap action, the iptrap helper can be linked to filtering actions, like this:

 # a simple version of TRAP_AND_REJECT
 # this uses just 2 ipsets, one for counting packets (policytrap)
 # and one to store the banned IPs (trap).
 # it also needs a ipset called whitelist, for excluded source IPs.
 # it will ban IPs when they have 50+ reject packets
 action4 TRAP_AND_REJECT \
    rule iptrap src policytrap 30 inface "${wan}" \
        src not "${UNROUTABLE_IPS} ipset:whitelist" \
        state NEW log "POLICY TRAP" \
    next iptrap trap src 86400 \
        state NEW log "POLICY TRAP - BANNED" \
        ipset policytrap src no-counters packets-above 50 \
    next action reject

 # a complete TRAP_AND_REJECT
 # this uses 3 ipset, one for keeping track of the rejected sockets
 # per source IP (called 'sockets'), one for counting the sockets
 # per source IP (called 'suspects') and one to store the banned IPs
 # (called 'trap').
 # it also needs a ipset called whitelist, for excluded source IPs.
 # it will ban IPs when they have 3 or more rejected sockets
 action4 TRAP_AND_REJECT \
    iptrap sockets src,dst,dst 3600 method hash:ip,port,ip counters \
        state NEW log "TRAP AND REJECT - NEW SOCKET" \
        inface "${wan}" \
        src not "${UNROUTABLE_IPS} ipset:whitelist" \
    next iptrap suspects src 3600 counters \
        state NEW log "TRAP AND REJECT - NEW SUSPECT" \
        ipset sockets src,dst,dst no-counters packets 1 \
    next iptrap trap src 86400 \
        state NEW log "TRAP AND REJECT - BANNED" \
        ipset suspects src no-counters packets-above 2 \
    next action REJECT

 interface any world
    policy TRAP_AND_REJECT
    protection bad-packets
    ...

 router wan2lan inface "${wan}" outface "${lan}"
    policy TRAP_AND_REJECT
    protection bad-packets
    ...

Since we used the action TRAP_AND_REJECT as an interface policy, it will get all the traffic not accepted, rejected, or dropped by the server and client statements.

For all these packets, the action TRAP_AND_REJECT will first check that they are coming in from wan0, that their src IP is not in UNROUTABLE_IPS list and in the whitelist ipset, that they are NEW connections, and if all these conditions are met, it will log with the tag POLICY TRAP and add the src IP of the packets in the policytrap ipset for 30 seconds.

All traffic not matched by the above, will be just rejected.

sockets_suspects_trap type actions

The type sockets_suspects_trap will automatically a custom trap using the following template:

action4 *name* sockets_suspects_trap *SUSPECTS_TIMEOUT* *TRAP_TIMEOUT* *VALID_CONNECTIONS* [*optional params*] next ...

This will:

  1. Create the ipset ${name}_sockets where the matched sockets will be stored for SUSPECTS_TIMEOUT seconds.
  2. Create the ipset ${name}_suspects where the source IPs of the matched sockets will be stored for SUSPECTS_TIMEOUT seconds.
  3. Create the ipset ${name}_trap where the trapped IPs will be stored for TRAP_TIMEOUT seconds. IPs will be added to this ipset only if more than VALID_CONNECTIONS have been matched by this IP.

optional params are FireHOL optional rule parameters (firehol-params(5)) that can be used to limit the match for the first ipset (sockets).

So, to design the same TRAP_AND_REJECT as above, this statement is needed:

action4 TRAP_AND_REJECT \
    sockets_suspects_trap 3600 86400 2 \
        inface "${wan}" \
        src not "${UNROUTABLE_IPS} ipset:whitelist" \
    next action REJECT

The ipsets that will be created will be named: TRAP_AND_REJECT_sockets, TRAP_AND_REJECT_suspects and TRAP_AND_REJECT_trap.

Note Always terminate sockets_suspects_trap with a next action DROP or next action REJECT, or the traffic will continue to flow.

SEE ALSO

firehol-actions(5)

NAME

firehol-actions - actions for rules

SYNOPSIS

accept

accept with hashlimit name upto|above amount/period [burst amount] [mode {srcip|srcport|dstip|dstport},...] [srcmask prefix] [dstmask prefix] [htable-size buckets] [htable-max entries] [htable-expire msec] [htable-gcinterval msec]

accept with connlimit upto|above limit [mask mask] [saddr|daddr]

accept with limit requests/period burst [overflow action]

accept with recent name seconds hits

accept with knock name

reject [with message]

drop | deny

return

tarpit

DESCRIPTION

These actions are the actions to be taken on traffic that has been matched by a particular rule.

FireHOL will also pass through any actions that iptables(8) accepts, however these definitions provide lowercase versions which accept arguments where appropriate and which could otherwise not be passed through.

Note

The iptables(8) LOG action is best used through the optional rule parameter log since the latter can be combined with one of these actions (FireHOL will generate multiple firewall rules to make this happen). For more information see log and loglimit.

The following actions are defined:

accept

accept allows the traffic matching the rules to reach its destination.

For example, to allow SMTP requests and their replies to flow:

server smtp accept

accept with hashlimit name upto|above amount/period [burst amount] [mode {srcip|srcport|dstip|dstport},...] [srcmask prefix] [dstmask prefix] [htable-size buckets] [htable-max entries] [htable-expire msec] [htable-gcinterval msec]

hashlimit hashlimit uses hash buckets to express a rate limiting match (like the limit match) for a group of connections using a single iptables rule. Grouping can be done per-hostgroup (source and/or destination address) and/or per-port.

name The name for the /proc/net/ipt_hashlimit/name entry.

uptoamount[/second|/minute|/hour|/day] Match if the rate is below or equal to amount/quantum. It is specified either as a number, with an optional time quantum suffix (the default is 3/hour).

aboveamount[/second|/minute|/hour|/day] Match if the rate is above amount/quantum.

burstamount Maximum initial number of packets to match: this number gets recharged by one every time the limit specified above is not reached, up to this number; the default is 5. This option should be used with caution - if the entry expires, the burst value is reset too.

mode{srcip|srcport|dstip|dstport},... A comma-separated list of objects to take into consideration. If no mode option is given, srcip,dstport is assumed.

srcmaskprefix When --hashlimit-mode srcip is used, all source addresses encountered will be grouped according to the given prefix length and the so-created subnet will be subject to hashlimit. prefix must be between (inclusive) 0 and 32. Note that srcmask 0 is basically doing the same thing as not specifying srcip for mode, but is technically more expensive.

dstmaskprefix Like srcmask, but for destination addresses.

htable-sizebuckets The number of buckets of the hash table

htable-maxentries Maximum entries in the hash.

htable-expiremsec After how many milliseconds do hash entries expire.

htable-gcintervalmsec How many milliseconds between garbage collection intervals.

Examples:

Allow up to 5 connections per second per client to SMTP server:

server smtp accept with hashlimit smtplimit upto 5/s

You can monitor it using the file /proc/net/ipt_hashlimit/smtplimit

accept with connlimit upto|above limit [mask mask] [saddr|daddr]

accept with connlimit matches on the number of connections per IP.

saddr matches on source IP. daddr matches on destination IP. mask groups IPs with the mask given upto matches when the number of connections is up to the given limit above matches when the number of connections above to the given limit

The number of connections counted are system wide, not service specific. For example for saddr, you cannot connlimit 2 connections for SSH and 4 for SMTP. If you connlimit 2 connections for SSH, then the first 2 connections of a client can be SSH. If a client has already 2 connections to another service, the client will not be able to connect to SSH.

So, connlimit can safely be used:

accept with limit requests/period burst [overflow action]

accept with limit allows the traffic, with new connections limited to requests/period with a maximum burst. Run iptables -m limit --help for more information.

The default overflow action is to REJECT the excess connections (DROP would produce timeouts on otherwise valid service clients).

Examples:


server smtp accept with limit 10/sec 100

server smtp accept with limit 10/sec 100 overflow drop

accept with recent name seconds hits

accept with recent allows the traffic matching the rules to reach its destination, limited per remote IP to hits per seconds. Run iptables -m recent --help for more information.

The name parameter is used to allow multiple rules to share the same table of recent IPs.

For example, to allow only 2 connections every 60 seconds per remote IP, to the smtp server:

server smtp accept with recent mail 60 2

Note

When a new connection is not allowed, the traffic will continue to be matched by the rest of the firewall. In other words, if the traffic is not allowed due to the limitations set here, it is not dropped, it is just not matched by this rule.

accept with knock name

accept with knock allows easy integration with knockd, a server that allows you to control access to services by sending certain packets to "knock" on the door, before the door is opened for service.

The name is used to build a special chain knock_<name> which contains rules to allow established connections to work. If knockd has not allowed new connections any traffic entering this chain will just return back and continue to match against the other rules until the end of the firewall.

For example, to allow HTTPS requests based on a knock write:

server https accept with knock hidden

then configure knockd to enable the HTTPS service with:

iptables -A knock_hidden -s %IP% -j ACCEPT

and disable it with:

iptables -D knock_hidden -s %IP% -j ACCEPT

You can use the same knock name in more than one FireHOL rule to enable/disable all the services based on a single knockd configuration entry.

Note

There is no need to match anything other than the IP in knockd. FireHOL already matches everything else needed for its rules to work.

reject

reject discards the traffic matching the rules and sends a rejecting message back to the sender.

reject with message

When used with with the specific message to return can be specified. Run iptables -j REJECT --help for a list of the --reject-with values which can be used for message. See REJECT WITH MESSAGES for some examples.

The default (no message specified) is to send tcp-reset when dealing with TCP connections and icmp-port-unreachable for all other protocols.

For example:


UNMATCHED_INPUT_POLICY="reject with host-prohib"

policy reject with host-unreach

server ident reject with tcp-reset

drop; deny

drop discards the traffic matching the rules. It does so silently and the sender will need to timeout to conclude it cannot reach the service.

deny is a synonym for drop. For example, either of these would silently discard SMTP traffic:

server smtp drop

server smtp deny

return

return will return the flow of processing to the parent of the current command.

Currently, the only time return can be used meaningfully used is as a policy for an interface definition. Unmatched traffic will continue being processed with the possibility of being matched by a later definition. For example:

policy return

tarpit

tarpit captures and holds incoming TCP connections open.

Connections are accepted and immediately switched to the persist state (0 byte window), in which the remote side stops sending data and asks to continue every 60-240 seconds.

Attempts to close the connection are ignored, forcing the remote side to time out the connection after 12-24 minutes.

Example:

server smtp tarpit

Note

As the kernel conntrack modules are always loaded by FireHOL, some per-connection resources will be consumed. See this bug report for details.

The following actions also exist but should not be used under normal circumstances:

mirror

mirror returns the traffic it receives by switching the source and destination fields. REJECT will be used for traffic generated by the local host.

Warning

The MIRROR target was removed from the Linux kernel due to its security implications.

MIRROR is dangerous; use it with care and only if you understand what you are doing.

redirect; redirect to-port port

redirect is used internally by FireHOL helper commands.

Only FireHOL developers should need to use this action directly.

REJECT WITH MESSAGES

The following RFCs contain information relevant to these messages:

icmp-net-unreachable; net-unreach

ICMP network unreachable

Generated by a router if a forwarding path (route) to the destination network is not available.

From RFC 1812, section 5.2.7.1. See RFC 1812 and RFC 792.

Note

Use with care. The sender and the routers between you and the sender may conclude that the whole network your host resides in is unreachable, and prevent other traffic from reaching you.

icmp-host-unreachable; host-unreach

ICMP host unreachable

Generated by a router if a forwarding path (route) to the destination host on a directly connected network is not available (does not respond to ARP).

From RFC 1812, section 5.2.7.1. See RFC 1812 and RFC 792.

Note

Use with care. The sender and the routers between you and the sender may conclude that your host is entirely unreachable, and prevent other traffic from reaching you.

icmp-proto-unreachable; proto-unreach

ICMP protocol unreachable

Generated if the transport protocol designated in a datagram is not supported in the transport layer of the final destination.

From RFC 1812, section 5.2.7.1. See RFC 1812 and RFC 792.

icmp-port-unreachable; port-unreach

ICMP port unreachable

Generated if the designated transport protocol (e.g. TCP, UDP, etc.) is unable to demultiplex the datagram in the transport layer of the final destination but has no protocol mechanism to inform the sender.

From RFC 1812, section 5.2.7.1. See RFC 1812 and RFC 792.

Generated by hosts to indicate that the required port is not active.

icmp-net-prohibited; net-prohib

ICMP communication with destination network administratively prohibited

This code was intended for use by end-to-end encryption devices used by U.S. military agencies. Routers SHOULD use the newly defined Code 13 (Communication Administratively Prohibited) if they administratively filter packets.

From RFC 1812, section 5.2.7.1. See RFC 1812 and RFC 1122.

Note

This message may not be widely understood.

icmp-host-prohibited; host-prohib

ICMP communication with destination host administratively prohibited

This code was intended for use by end-to-end encryption devices used by U.S. military agencies. Routers SHOULD use the newly defined Code 13 (Communication Administratively Prohibited) if they administratively filter packets.

From RFC 1812, section 5.2.7.1. See RFC 1812 and RFC 1122.

Note

This message may not be widely understood.

tcp-reset

TCP RST

The port unreachable message of the TCP stack.

See RFC 1122.

Note

tcp-reset is useful when you want to prevent timeouts on rejected TCP services where the client incorrectly ignores ICMP port unreachable messages.

SEE ALSO

firehol-blacklist(5)

NAME

firehol-blacklist - set up a unidirectional or bidirectional blacklist

SYNOPSIS

{ blacklist | blacklist4 | blacklist6 } [ type ] [ inface device ] [ log "text" ] [ nolog ] [ connlog "text" ] [ loglimit "text" ] [ accounting accounting_name ] ip... [ except rule-params [or rule-params [or ... ]]]

DESCRIPTION

The blacklist helper command creates a blacklist for the ip list given (which can be in quotes or not).

If the type full or all is supplied (or no type at all), a bidirectional stateless blacklist will be generated. The firewall will REJECT all traffic going to the IP addresses and DROP all traffic coming from them.

If the type stateful is supplied, a bidirectional stateful blacklist will be generated. The firewall will REJECT all traffic going to the IP addresses and DROP all traffic coming from them.

The differences between full and stateful are:

  1. stateful is resource efficient, since only the packets that initiate connections are examined. Established connections will never be re-tested against the blacklist.

  2. when using full and an ipset is updated to match the IP of an established connection, this established connection will immediately be blocked too.

If the type input or him, her, it, this, these is supplied, a unidirectional stateful blacklist will be generated. Connections can be established to such IP addresses, but the IP addresses will not be able to connect to the firewall or hosts protected by it.

Using log (log every packet), connlog (log connections once), or loglimit (log packets according to global throttling settings), the text will be logged when matching packets are found.

Using nolog will disable logging for this rule.

Using inface, the blacklist will be created on the interface device only (this includes forwarded traffic).

accounting will update the NFACCT accounting with the name given.

If the keyword except is found, then all the parameters following it are rules to match packets that should excluded from the blacklist (i.e. they are a whitelist for this blacklist). See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Blacklists must be declared before the first router or interface.

IP Lists for abuse, malware, attacks, proxies, anonymizers, etc can be downloaded with the contrib/update-ipsets.sh script. Information about the supported IP Lists can be found at FireHOL IP Lists

EXAMPLES

blacklist full 192.0.2.1 192.0.2.2
blacklist input "192.0.2.3 192.0.2.4"
blacklist full inface eth0 log "BADGUY" 192.0.1.1 192.0.1.2

SEE ALSO

firehol-classify(5)

NAME

firehol-classify - classify traffic for traffic shaping tools

SYNOPSIS

{ classify | classify46 } class [rule-params]

classify4 class [rule-params]

classify6 class [rule-params]

DESCRIPTION

The classify helper command puts matching traffic into the specified traffic shaping class.

The class is a class as used by iptables(8) and tc(8) (e.g. MAJOR:MINOR).

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to match the traffic that is to be classified. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Any classify commands will affect all traffic matched. They must be declared before the first router or interface.

EXAMPLES

 # Put all smtp traffic leaving via eth1 in class 1:1
 classify 1:1 outface eth1 proto tcp dport 25

SEE ALSO

firehol-client(5)

NAME

firehol-client - client command

SYNOPSIS

{ client | client46 } service action [rule-params]

client4 service action [rule-params]

client6 service action [rule-params]

DESCRIPTION

The client subcommand defines a client of a service on an interface or router. Any rule-params given to a parent interface or router are inherited by the client, but are reversed.

For FireHOL a client is the source of a request. Even though this is more complex for some multi-socket services, to FireHOL a client always initiates the connection.

The service parameter is one of the supported service names from firehol-services(5). Multiple services may be specified, space delimited in quotes.

The action can be any of the actions listed in firehol-actions(5).

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to further restrict the traffic that is matched to this service. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Note

Writing client4 is equivalent to writing ipv4 client and ensures this subcommand is applied only in the IPv4 firewall rules.

Writing client6 is equivalent to writing ipv6 client and ensures this subcommand is applied only in the IPv6 firewall rules.

Writing client46 is equivalent to writing both client and ensures this subcommand is applied in both the IPv4 and IPv6 firewall rules; it cannot be used as part an interface or router that is IPv4 or IPv6 only.

The default client inherits its behaviour from the enclosing interface or router.

EXAMPLES

client smtp accept

client "smtp pop3" accept

client smtp accept src 192.0.2.1

client smtp accept log "mail packet" src 192.0.2.1

SEE ALSO

firehol-connmark(5)

NAME

firehol-connmark - set a stateful mark from the connmark group

SYNOPSIS

{ connmark | connmark46 } value chain rule-params

connmark4 value chain rule-params

connmark6 value chain rule-params

DESCRIPTION

Marks on packets can be matched by traffic shaping, routing, and firewall rules for controlling traffic.

Note Behaviour changed significantly in FireHOL v3 compared to earlier versions

FireHOL uses iptables masks to break the single 32-bit integer mark value into smaller groups and allows you to set and match them independently. The markdef group definitions to set this up are found in firehol-defaults.conf

The connmark helper command sets values within the connmark group. You can set value between 0 (no mark) and size-1. The default size for connmark is 64, so 63 is highest value possible. The default connmark types are stateful+permanent, meaning the initial match will only be done on NEW packets and the mark will be restored to all packets in the connection.

The chain will be used to find traffic to mark. It can be any of the iptables(8) built in chains belonging to the mangle table. The chain names are: INPUT, FORWARD, OUTPUT, PREROUTING and POSTROUTING. The names are case-sensitive.

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to match the traffic that is to be marked within the chosen chain. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Any connmark commands must be declared before the first router or interface.

Note

If you want to do policy based routing based on iptables(8) marks, you will need to disable the Root Path Filtering on the interfaces involved (rp_filter in sysctl).

FireQOS will read the FireHOL mark definitions and set up suitable offsets and marks for the various groups. If you are using a different tool, you should look at the emitted firewall to determine the final masks and values to use.

EXAMPLES

 # mark with 1, packets sent by the local machine
 connmark 1 OUTPUT

 # mark with 2, packets routed by the local machine
 connmark 2 FORWARD

 # mark with 3, packets routed by the local machine, sent from
 #              192.0.2.2 destined for port TCP/25 of 198.51.100.1
 connmark 3 FORWARD proto tcp dport 25 dst 198.51.100.1 src 192.0.2.2

SEE ALSO

firehol-defaults.conf(5)

NAME

firehol-defaults.conf - control variables for FireHOL

SYNOPSIS

Defaults in /etc/firehol/firehol-defaults.conf:

DESCRIPTION

From FireHOL 3 upwards, variables which control FireHOL behaviour are held in a separate file: /etc/firehol/firehol-defaults.conf.

Some variables can also be set in the main firehol.conf file but that is not recommended, since they may be used before the main configuration is processed.

FireHOL also sets some variables before processing the configuration file which you can use as part of your configuration. These are described in firehol.conf(5).

VARIABLES

DEFAULT_INTERFACE_POLICY

This variable controls the default action to be taken on traffic not matched by any rule within an interface. It can be overridden using firehol-policy(5).

Packets that reach the end of an interface without an action of return or accept are logged. You can control the frequency of this logging by altering FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY.

Example:


DEFAULT_INTERFACE_POLICY="REJECT"
DEFAULT_ROUTER_POLICY

This variable controls the default action to be taken on traffic not matched by any rule within a router. It can be overridden using firehol-policy(5).

Packets that reach the end of a router without an action of return or accept are logged. You can control the frequency of this logging by altering FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY.

Example:


DEFAULT_ROUTER_POLICY="REJECT"
UNMATCHED_{INPUT|OUTPUT|FORWARD}_POLICY

These variables control the default action to be taken on traffic not matched by any interface or router definition that was incoming, outgoing or for forwarding respectively. Any supported value from firehol-actions(5) may be set.

All packets that reach the end of a chain are logged, regardless of these settings. You can control the frequency of this logging by altering FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY.

Example:


UNMATCHED_INPUT_POLICY="REJECT"
UNMATCHED_OUTPUT_POLICY="REJECT"
UNMATCHED_FORWARD_POLICY="REJECT"
FIREHOL_{INPUT|OUTPUT|FORWARD}_ACTIVATION_POLICY

These variables control the default action to be taken on traffic during firewall activation for incoming, outgoing and forwarding respectively. Acceptable values are ACCEPT, DROP and REJECT.

FireHOL defaults all values to ACCEPT so that your communications continue to work uninterrupted.

If you wish to prevent connections whilst the new firewall is activating, set these values to DROP. This is important to do if you are using all or any to match traffic; connections established during activation will continue even if they would not be allowed once the firewall is established.

Example:


FIREHOL_INPUT_ACTIVATION_POLICY="DROP"
FIREHOL_OUTPUT_ACTIVATION_POLICY="DROP"
FIREHOL_FORWARD_ACTIVATION_POLICY="DROP"
FIREHOL_LOG_MODE

This variable controls method that FireHOL uses for logging.

Acceptable values are LOG (normal syslog) and ULOG (netfilter ulogd). When ULOG is selected, FIREHOL_LOG_LEVEL is ignored.

Example:


FIREHOL_LOG_MODE="ULOG"

To see the available options run: /sbin/iptables -j LOG --help or /sbin/iptables -j ULOG --help

FIREHOL_LOG_LEVEL

This variable controls the level at which events will be logged to syslog.

To avoid packet logs appearing on your console you should ensure klogd only logs traffic that is more important than that produced by FireHOL.

Use the following option to choose an iptables(8) log level (alpha or numeric) which is higher than the -c of klogd.

iptables/klogd levels
iptables klogd description
emerg (0) 0 system is unusable
alert (1) 1 action must be taken immediately
crit (2) 2 critical conditions
error (3) 3 error conditions
warning (4) 4 warning conditions
notice (5) 5 normal but significant condition
info (6) 6 informational
debug (7) 7 debug-level messages

Note

The default for klogd is generally to log everything (7 and lower) and the default level for iptables(4) is to log as warning (4).

FIREHOL_LOG_OPTIONS

This variable controls the way in which events will be logged to syslog.

Example:


FIREHOL_LOG_OPTIONS="--log-level info \
                     --log-tcp-options --log-ip-options"

To see the available options run: /sbin/iptables -j LOG --help

FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY; FIREHOL_LOG_BURST

These variables control the frequency that each logging rule will write events to syslog. FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY is set to the maximum average frequency and FIREHOL_LOG_BURST specifies the maximum initial number.

Example:


FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY="30/minute"
FIREHOL_LOG_BURST="2"

To see the available options run: /sbin/iptables -m limit --help

FIREHOL_LOG_PREFIX

This value is added to the contents of each logged line for easy detection of FireHOL lines in the system logs. By default it is empty.

Example:


FIREHOL_LOG_PREFIX="FIREHOL:"
FIREHOL_DROP_INVALID

If set to 1, this variable causes FireHOL to drop all packets matched as INVALID in the iptables(8) connection tracker.

You may be better off using firehol-protection(5) to control matching of INVALID packets and others on a per-interface and per-router basis.

Note

Care must be taken on IPv6 interfaces, since ICMPv6 packets such as Neighbour Discovery are not tracked, meaning they are marked as INVALID.

Example:


FIREHOL_DROP_INVALID="1"
DEFAULT_CLIENT_PORTS

This variable controls the port range that is used when a remote client is specified. For clients on the local host, FireHOL finds the exact client ports by querying the kernel options.

Example:


DEFAULT_CLIENT_PORTS="0:65535"
FIREHOL_NAT

If set to 1, this variable causes FireHOL to load the NAT kernel modules. If you make use of the NAT helper commands, the variable will be set to 1 automatically.

Example:


FIREHOL_NAT="1"
FIREHOL_ROUTING

If set to 1, this variable causes FireHOL to enable routing in the kernel. If you make use of router definitions or certain helper commands the variable will be set to 1 automatically.

Example:


FIREHOL_ROUTING="1"
FIREHOL_AUTOSAVE; FIREHOL_AUTOSAVE6

These variables specify the file of IPv4/IPv6 rules that will be created when firehol(1) is called with the save argument.

If the variable is not set, a system-specific value is used which was defined at configure-time. If no value was chosen then the save fails.

Example:


FIREHOL_AUTOSAVE="/tmp/firehol-saved-ipv4.txt"
FIREHOL_AUTOSAVE6="/tmp/firehol-saved-ipv6.txt"
FIREHOL_LOAD_KERNEL_MODULES

If set to 0, this variable forces FireHOL to not load any kernel modules. It is needed only if the kernel has modules statically included and in the rare event that FireHOL cannot access the kernel configuration.

Example:


FIREHOL_LOAD_KERNEL_MODULES="0"
FIREHOL_TRUST_LOOPBACK

If set to 0, the loopback device "lo" will not be trusted and you can write standard firewall rules for it.

Warning

If you do not set up appropriate rules, local processes will not be able to communicate with each other which can result in serious breakages.

By default "lo" is trusted and all INPUT and OUTPUT traffic is accepted (forwarding is not included).

Example:


FIREHOL_TRUST_LOOPBACK="0"
FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK_FIN

If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them.

In busy environments the iptables(8) connection tracker removes connection tracking list entries as soon as it receives a FIN. This makes the ACK FIN appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL.

Example:


FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK_FIN="1"
FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK_RST

If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them.

In busy environments the iptables(8) connection tracker removes connection tracking list entries as soon as it receives a RST. This makes the ACK RST appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL.

Example:


FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK_RST="1"
FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK

If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them.

In busy environments the iptables(8) connection tracker removes unneeded connection tracking list entries. This makes ACK packets appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL.

Example:


FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK="1"
FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_RST

If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them.

In busy environments the iptables(8) connection tracker removes unneeded connection tracking list entries. This makes RST packets appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL.

Example:


FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_RST="1"
FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_IPV4_ICMP_TYPE3

If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan ICMP destination unreachable packets without logging them.

In busy environments the iptables(8) connection tracker removes unneeded connection tracking list entries. This makes ICMP destination unreachable appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL.

Example:


FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_IPV4_ICMP_TYPE3="1"
WAIT_FOR_IFACE

If set to the name of a network device (e.g. eth0), FireHOL will wait until the device is up (or until 60 seconds have elapsed) before continuing.

A device does not need to be up in order to have firewall rules created for it, so this option should only be used if you have a specific need to wait (e.g. the network must be queried to determine the hosts or ports which will be firewalled).

Example:


WAIT_FOR_IFACE="eth0"

SEE ALSO

firehol-dscp(5)

NAME

firehol-dscp - set the DSCP field in the packet header

SYNOPSIS

dscp { value | class classid } chain rule-params

DESCRIPTION

The dscp helper command sets the DSCP field in the header of packets traffic, to allow QoS shaping.

Note

There is also a dscp parameter which allows matching DSCP values within individual rules (see firehol-params(5)).

Set value to a decimal or hexadecimal (0xnn) number to set an explicit DSCP value or use class classid to use an iptables(8) DiffServ class, such as EF, BE, CSxx or AFxx (see iptables -j DSCP --help for more information).

The chain will be used to find traffic to mark. It can be any of the iptables(8) built in chains belonging to the mangle table. The chain names are: INPUT, FORWARD, OUTPUT, PREROUTING and POSTROUTING. The names are case-sensitive.

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to match the traffic that is to be marked within the chosen chain. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Any dscp commands will affect all traffic matched. They must be declared before the first router or interface.

EXAMPLES


 # set DSCP field to 32, packets sent by the local machine
 dscp 32 OUTPUT

 # set DSCP field to 32 (hex 20), packets routed by the local machine
 dscp 0x20 FORWARD

 # set DSCP to DiffServ class EF, packets routed by the local machine
 #              and destined for port TCP/25 of 198.51.100.1
 dscp class EF FORWARD proto tcp dport 25 dst 198.51.100.1

SEE ALSO

firehol-group(5)

NAME

firehol-group - group commands with common options

SYNOPSIS

group with rule-params

group end

DESCRIPTION

The group command allows you to group together multiple client and server commands.

Grouping commands with common options (see firehol-params(5)) allows the option values to be checked only once in the generated firewall rather than once per service, making it more efficient.

Nested groups may be used.

EXAMPLES

This:


interface any world
  client all accept
  server http accept

  # Provide these services to trusted hosts only
  server "ssh telnet" accept src "192.0.2.1 192.0.2.2"

can be replaced to produce a more efficient firewall by this:


interface any world
  client all accept
  server http accept

  # Provide these services to trusted hosts only
  group with src "192.0.2.1 192.0.2.2"
    server telnet accept
    server ssh accept
  group end

SEE ALSO

firehol-interface(5)

NAME

firehol-interface - interface definition

SYNOPSIS

{ interface | interface46 } real-interface name rule-params

interface4 real-interface name rule-params

interface6 real-interface name rule-params

DESCRIPTION

An interface definition creates a firewall for protecting the host on which the firewall is running.

The default policy is DROP, so that if no subcommands are given, the firewall will just drop all incoming and outgoing traffic using this interface.

The behaviour of the defined interface is controlled by adding subcommands from those listed in INTERFACE SUBCOMMANDS.

Note

Forwarded traffic is never matched by the interface rules, even if it was originally destined for the firewall but was redirected using NAT. Any traffic to be passed through the firewall for whatever reason must be in a router (see firehol-router(5)).

Note

Writing interface4 is equivalent to writing ipv4 interface and ensures the defined interface is created only in the IPv4 firewall along with any rules within it.

Writing interface6 is equivalent to writing ipv6 interface and ensures the defined interface is created only in the IPv6 firewall along with any rules within it.

Writing interface46 is equivalent to writing both interface and ensures the defined interface is created in both the IPv4 and IPv6 firewalls. Any rules within it will also be applied to both, unless they specify otherwise.

PARAMETERS

real-interface

This is the interface name as shown by ip link show. Generally anything iptables(8) accepts is valid.

The + (plus sign) after some text will match all interfaces that start with this text.

Multiple interfaces may be specified by enclosing them within quotes, delimited by spaces for example:

interface "eth0 eth1 ppp0" myname
name

This is a name for this interface. You should use short names (10 characters maximum) without spaces or other symbols.

A name should be unique for all FireHOL interface and router definitions.

rule-params

The set of rule parameters to further restrict the traffic that is matched to this interface.

See firehol-params(5) for information on the parameters that can be used. Some examples:


interface eth0 intranet src 192.0.2.0/24

interface eth0 internet src not "${UNROUTABLE_IPS}"

See firehol.conf(5) for an explanation of ${UNROUTABLE_IPS}.

SEE ALSO

Interface Subcommands

firehol-ipset(5)

NAME

firehol-ipset - configure ipsets

SYNOPSIS

ipset command name options

DESCRIPTION

FireHOL has an ipset helper. It is a wrapper around the real ipset command and is handled internally within FireHOL in such a way so that the ipset collections defined in the configuration will be activated before activating the firewall.

FireHOL is also smart enough to restore the ipsets after a reboot, before it restores the firewall, so that everything will work as seamlessly as possible.

The ipset helper has the same syntax with the real ipset command. So in FireHOL you just add the ipset statements you need, and FireHOL will do the rest.

Keep in mind that each ipset collection is either IPv4 or IPv6. In FireHOL prefix ipset with either ipv4 or ipv6 and FireHOL will choose the right IP version (there is also ipset4 and ipset6).

Also, do not add -! to ipset statements given in firehol.conf. FireHOL will batch import all ipsets and this option is not needed.

FireHOL ipset extensions

The features below are extensions of ipset that can only be used from within firehol.conf. They will not work on a terminal.

The FireHOL helper allows mass import of ipset collections from files. This is done with ipset addfile command.

The ipset addfile command will get a filename, remove all comments (anything after a # on the same line), trim any empty lines and spaces, and add all the remaining lines to ipset, as if each line of the file was run with ipset add COLLECTION_NAME IP_FROM_FILE [other options].

The syntax of the ipset addfile command is:

 ipset addfile *name* [ip|net] *filename* [*other ipset add options*]

name is the collection to add the IPs.

ip is optional and will select all the lines of the file that do not contain a /.

net is optional and will select all the lines of the file that contain a /.

filename is the filename to read. You can give absolute filenames and relative filenames (to /etc/firehol).

other ipset add options is whatever else ipset add supports, that you are willing to give for each line.

The ipset add command implemented in FireHOL also allows you to give multiple IPs separated by comma or enclosed in quotes and separated by space.

EXAMPLES

 ipv4 ipset create badguys hash:ip
 ipv4 ipset add badguys 1.2.3.4
 ipv4 ipset addfile badguys file-with-the-bad-guys-ips.txt
 ...
 ipv4 blacklist full ipset:badguys

 # example with multiple IPs
 ipv4 ipset create badguys hash:ip
 ipv4 ipset add badguys 1.2.3.4,5.6.7.8,9.10.11.12 # << comma separated
 ipv4 ipset add badguys "11.22.33.44 55.66.77.88"  # << space separated in quotes

ipsets with IP Lists for abuse, malware, attacks, proxies, anonymizers, etc can be downloaded with the contrib/update-ipsets.sh script. Information about the supported ipsets can be found at FireHOL IP Lists

SEE ALSO

firehol-iptables(5)

NAME

firehol-iptables - include custom iptables commands

SYNOPSIS

iptables argument...

ip6tables argument...

DESCRIPTION

The iptables and ip6tables helper commands pass all of their arguments to the real iptables(8) or ip6tables(8) at the appropriate point during run-time.

Note

When used in an interface or router, the result will not have a direct relationship to the enclosing definition as the parameters passed are only those you supply.

You should not use /sbin/iptables or /sbin/ip6tables directly in a FireHOL configuration as they will run before FireHOL activates its firewall. This means that the commands are applied to the previously running firewall, not the new firewall, and will be lost when the new firewall is activated.

The iptables and ip6tables helpers are provided to allow you to hook in commands safely.

When using the -t option to specify a table, ensure this is the first option to iptables, otherwise "fast activation" will fail with an error message such as:

iptables-restore: The -t option cannot be used in iptables-restore

EXAMPLES

Fix LXC DHCP on same host:

iptables -t mangle -A POSTROUTING -p udp --dport 68 -j CHECKSUM --checksum-fill

SEE ALSO

firehol-iptrap(5)

NAME

firehol-iptrap - dynamically put IP addresses in an ipset

SYNOPSIS

{ iptrap | iptrap4 | iptrap6 } ipset type seconds [ timeout | counters ] [ method method ] [rule-params] [ except [rule-params] ]...

{ ipuntrap | ipuntrap4 | ipuntrap6 } ipset type [ timeout | counters ] [ method method ] [rule-params] [ except [rule-params] ]...

DESCRIPTION

iptrap adds the IP addresses of the matching packets to ipset.

ipuntrap deletes the IP addresses of the matching packets from ipset.

Both helpers do not affect the flow of traffic. They do not ACCEPT, REJECT, DROP packets or affect the firewall in any way.

ipset is the name of the ipset to use.

type selects which of the IP addresses of the matching packets will be used (added or removed from the ipset). type can be src, dst, src,dst, dst,src, etc. If type is a pair, then the ipset must be an ipset of pairs too.

seconds is required by iptrap and gives the duration in seconds of the lifetime of each IP address that is added to ipset. Every matching packet will refresh this duration for the IP address in the ipset. The Linux kernel will automatically remove the IP from the ipset when this time expires. The user may monitor the remaining time for each IP, by running ipset list NAME (where NAME is the ipset parameter given in the iptrap command).

The seconds value default will not set any seconds. The ipset default will be used.

A seconds of 0 (zero), writes to the ipset permanently (this is a feature of the ipset command, not the ipset FireHOL helper).

The keywords timeout and counters are mutually exclusive. timeout is the default and means that each IP address every time is matched its timeout will be refreshed, while counters means that its packets and bytes counters will be refreshed. Unfortunately the kernel either re-add the IP in the ipset with the new timeout - but its counters will be lost, or just the counters will be updated, but the timeout will not be refreshed.

method is defines the storage method of the underlying ipset. It accepts all the types the ipset commands accepts.

method and type should match. For example if method is hash:ip then method should be either src or dst. If method is hash:ip,ip then method should be either src,dst or dst,src. If method is hash:ip,port,ip method should be src,src,dst or src,dst,dst or dst,src,src or dst,dst,src. For more information check the manual page of the ipset command.

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to restrict the traffic that is matched to this helper. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

exceptrule-params are used to exclude traffic, i.e. traffic that normally is matched by the first set of rule-params, will be excluded if matched by the second.

iptrap and ipuntrap are hooked on PREROUTING so it is only useful for incoming traffic.

iptrap and ipuntrap cannot setup both IPv4 and IPv6 traps with one call. The reason is that the ipset can either be IPv4 or IPv6.

Both helpers will create the ipset specified, if that ipset is not already created by other statements. When the ipset is created by the iptrap helper, the ipset will not be reset (emptied) when the firewall is restarted.

The ipset options used when these helpers create ipsets can be controlled with the variable IPTRAP_DEFAULT_IPSET_OPTIONS.

EXAMPLES

 # Example: mini-IDS
 # add to the ipset `trap` for an hour (3600 seconds) all IPs from all packets
 # coming from eth0 and going to tcp/3306 (mysql).
 iptrap4 src trap 3600 inface eth0 proto tcp dport 3306 log "TRAPPED HTTP"
 # block them
 blacklist4 full inface eth0 log "BLOCKED" src ipset:trap except src ipset:whitelist

 # Example: ipuntrap
 ipuntrap4 src trap inface eth0 src ipset:trap proto tcp dport 80 log "UNTRAPPED HTTP"

 # Example: a knock
 # The user will be able to knock at tcp/12345
 iptrap4 src knock1 30 inface eth0 proto tcp dport 12345 log "KNOCK STEP 1"
 # in 30 seconds knock at tcp/23456
 iptrap4 src knock2 60 inface eth0 proto tcp dport 23456 src ipset:knock1 log "KNOCK STEP 2"
 # in 60 seconds knock at tcp/34566
 iptrap4 src knock3 90 inface eth0 proto tcp dport 34567 src ipset:knock2 log "KNOCK STEP 3"
 #
 # and in 90 seconds ssh
 interface ...
     server ssh accept src ipset:knock3

SEE ALSO

firehol-mac(5)

NAME

firehol-mac - ensure source IP and source MAC address match

SYNOPSIS

mac IP macaddr

DESCRIPTION

Any mac commands will affect all traffic destined for the firewall host, or to be forwarded by the host. They must be declared before the first router or interface.

Note

There is also a mac parameter which allows matching MAC addresses within individual rules (see firehol-params(5)).

The mac helper command DROPs traffic from the IP address that was not sent using the macaddr specified.

When packets are dropped, a log is produced with the label "MAC MISSMATCH" (sic.). mac obeys the default log limits (see LOGGING in firehol-params(5)).

Note

This command restricts an IP to a particular MAC address. The same MAC address is permitted send traffic with a different IP.

EXAMPLES

mac 192.0.2.1    00:01:01:00:00:e6
mac 198.51.100.1 00:01:01:02:aa:e8

SEE ALSO

firehol-mark(5)

NAME

firehol-mark - set a stateful mark from the usermark group

SYNOPSIS

{ mark | mark46 } value chain rule-params

mark4 value chain rule-params

mark6 value chain rule-params

DESCRIPTION

Marks on packets can be matched by traffic shaping, routing, and firewall rules for controlling traffic.

Note Behaviour changed significantly in FireHOL v3 compared to earlier versions

There is also a mark parameter which allows matching marks within individual rules (see firehol-params(5)).

FireHOL uses iptables masks to break the single 32-bit integer mark value into smaller groups and allows you to set and match them independently. The markdef group definitions to set this up are found in firehol-defaults.conf

The mark helper command sets values within the usermark group. You can set value between 0 (no mark) and size-1. The default size for usermark is 128, so 127 is highest value possible. The default usermark types are stateful+permanent, meaning the initial match will only be done on NEW packets and the mark will be restored to all packets in the connection.

The chain will be used to find traffic to mark. It can be any of the iptables(8) built in chains belonging to the mangle table. The chain names are: INPUT, FORWARD, OUTPUT, PREROUTING and POSTROUTING. The names are case-sensitive.

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to match the traffic that is to be marked within the chosen chain. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Any mark commands must be declared before the first router or interface.

Note

If you want to do policy based routing based on iptables(8) marks, you will need to disable the Root Path Filtering on the interfaces involved (rp_filter in sysctl).

FireQOS will read the FireHOL mark definitions and set up suitable offsets and marks for the various groups. If you are using a different tool, you should look at the emitted firewall to determine the final masks and values to use.

EXAMPLES

 # mark with 1, packets sent by the local machine
 mark 1 OUTPUT

 # mark with 2, packets routed by the local machine
 mark 2 FORWARD

 # mark with 3, packets routed by the local machine, sent from
 #              192.0.2.2 destined for port TCP/25 of 198.51.100.1
 mark 3 FORWARD proto tcp dport 25 dst 198.51.100.1 src 192.0.2.2

SEE ALSO

firehol-masquerade(5)

NAME

firehol-masquerade - set up masquerading (NAT) on an interface

SYNOPSIS

masquerade real-interface rule-params

masquerade [reverse] rule-params

DESCRIPTION

The masquerade helper command sets up masquerading on the output of a real network interface (as opposed to a FireHOL interface definition).

If a real-interface is specified the command should be used before any interface or router definitions. Multiple values can be given separated by whitespace, so long as they are enclosed in quotes.

If used within an interface definition the definition's real-interface will be used.

If used within a router definition the definition's outface(s) will be used, if specified. If the reverse option is given, then the definition's inface(s) will be used, if specified.

Unlike most commands, masquerade does not inherit its parent definition's rule-params, it only honours its own. The inface and outface parameters should not be used (iptables(8) does not support inface in the POSTROUTING chain and outface will be overwritten by FireHOL using the rules above).

Note

The masquerade always applies to the output of the chosen network interfaces.

FIREHOL_NAT will be turned on automatically (see firehol-defaults.conf(5) ) and FireHOL will enable packet-forwarding in the kernel.

MASQUERADING AND SNAT

Masquerading is a special form of Source NAT (SNAT) that changes the source of requests when they go out and replaces their original source when they come in. This way a Linux host can become an Internet router for a LAN of clients having unroutable IP addresses. Masquerading takes care to re-map IP addresses and ports as required.

Masquerading is expensive compare to SNAT because it checks the IP address of the outgoing interface every time for every packet. If your host has a static IP address you should generally prefer SNAT.

EXAMPLES


 # Before any interface or router
 masquerade eth0 src 192.0.2.0/24 dst not 192.0.2.0/24

 # In an interface definition to masquerade the output of its real-interface
 masquerade

 # In a router definition to masquerade the output of its outface
 masquerade

 # In a router definition to masquerade the output of its inface
 masquerade reverse

SEE ALSO

firehol-modifiers(5)

NAME

firehol-modifiers - select IPv4 or IPv6 mode

SYNOPSIS

ipv4 definition-or-command argument...

ipv6 definition-or-command argument...

[both] definition-or-command argument...

DESCRIPTION

When preceded by a modifier, any command or definition can be made to apply to IPv4 or IPv6 only.

Without a modifier, interface and router definitions and commands that come before either get applied to both IPv4 and IPV6.

Commands within an interface or router assume the same behaviour as the enclosing definition. You cannot create an IPv4 command within an IPv6 interface or router nor IPv6 within IPv4.

Examples:


 interface eth0 myboth src4 192.0.2.0/24 src6 2001:DB8::/24
   ipv4 server http accept
   ipv6 server http accept

 ipv4 interface eth0 my4only src 192.0.2.0/24
   server http accept

 ipv6 interface eth0 my6only src 2001:DB8::/24
   server http accept

Many definitions and commands have explicitly named variants (such as router4, router6, router46) which can be used as shorthand.

SEE ALSO

firehol-nat(5)

NAME

firehol-nat - set up NAT and port redirections

SYNOPSIS

{ nat to-destination | dnat [to] } ipaddr[:port] [random] [persistent] [id id] [at chain] [rule-params]

{ nat to-source | snat [to] } ipaddr[:port] [random] [persistent] [id id] [at chain] [rule-params]

{ nat redirect-to | redirect [to] } port[-range] [random] [id id] [at chain] [rule-params]

DESCRIPTION

Destination NAT is provided by nat to-destination and its synonym dnat.

Source NAT is provided by nat to-source and its synonym snat.

Redirection to a port on the local host is provided by nat redirect-to and its synonym redirect.

The port part of the new address is optional with SNAT and DNAT; if not specified it will not be changed.

When you apply NAT to a packet, the Linux kernel will track the changes it makes, so that when it sees replies the transformation will be applied in the opposite direction. For instance if you changed the destination port of a packet from 80 to 8080, when a reply comes back, its source is set as 80. This means the original sender is not aware a transformation is happening.

This means that NAT is only applied on the first packet of each connection (the nat FireHOL helper always appends state NEW to NAT statements).

The NAT helper can be used to setup load balancing. Check the section BALANCING below.

Note

The rule-params are used only to determine the traffic that will be matched for NAT in these commands, not to permit traffic to flow.

Applying NAT does not automatically create rules to allow the traffic to pass. You will still need to include client or server entries in an interface or router to allow the traffic.

When using dnat or redirect, the transformation is in the PREROUTING chain of the NAT table and happens before normal rules are matched, so your client or server rule should match the "modified" traffic.

When using snat, the transformation is in the POSTROUTING chain of the NAT table and happens after normal rules are matched, so your client or server rule should match the "unmodified" traffic.

See the netfilter flow diagram if you would like to see how network packets are processed by the kernel in detail.

The at keyword allows setting a different chain to attach the rules. For dnat and redirect the default is PREROUTING, but OUTPUT is also supported. For snat the default is POSTROUTING, but INPUT is also supported.

random will randomise the port mapping involved, to ensure the ports used are not predictable.

persistent is used when the statement is given alternatives (i.e. many destination servers for dnat, many source IPs for snat, many ports for redirect). It will attempt to keep each client on the same nat map. See below for more information about persistence.

The nat helper takes one of the following sub-commands:

to-destination ipaddr[:port]

Defines a Destination NAT (DNAT). Commonly thought of as port-forwarding (where packets destined for the firewall with a given port and protocol are sent to a different IP address and possibly port), DNAT is much more flexible in that any number of parameters can be matched before the destination information is rewritten.

ipaddr[:port] is the destination address to be set in packets matching rule-params.

If no rules are given, all forwarded traffic will be matched. outface should not be used in DNAT since the information is not available at the time the decision is made.

ipaddr[:port] accepts any --to-destination values that iptables(8) accepts. Run iptables -j DNAT --help for more information. Multiple ipaddr[:port] may be specified by separating with spaces and enclosing with quotes.

to-source ipaddr[:port]

Defines a Source NAT (SNAT). SNAT is similar to masquerading but is more efficient for static IP addresses. You can use it to give a public IP address to a host which does not have one behind the firewall. See also firehol-masquerade(5).

ipaddr[:port] is the source address to be set in packets matching rule-params.

If no rules are given, all forwarded traffic will be matched. inface should not be used in SNAT since the information is not available at the time the decision is made.

ipaddr[:port] accepts any --to-source values that iptables(8) accepts. Run iptables -j SNAT --help for more information. Multiple ipaddr[:port] may be specified by separating with spaces and enclosing with quotes.

redirect-to port[-range]

Redirect matching traffic to the local machine. This is typically useful if you want to intercept some traffic and process it on the local machine.

port[-range] is the port range (from-to) or single port that packets matching rule-params will be redirected to.

If no rules are given, all forwarded traffic will be matched. outface should not be used in REDIRECT since the information is not available at the time the decision is made.

BALANCING

NAT can balance multiple servers (or IPs in case of snat) when a range is specified. This is handled by the kernel.

Example:

dnat4 to 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.10 persistent proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 dport 80

In the above example, the Linux kernel will give a persistent server to all the sockets of any single client.

FireHOL can also setup balancing using a round-robin or weighted average distribution of requests. However persistent cannot be used (the Linux kernel applies persistence on a single NAT statement).

Round Robin distribution

To enable round robin distribution, give multiple to values, space separated and enclosed in quotes, or comma separated.

Example:

 dnat4 to 10.0.0.1,10.0.0.2,10.0.0.3 proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80
 # or
 dnat4 to "10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.3" proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80

Ports can also be given per IP:

 dnat4 to 10.0.0.1:70,10.0.0.2:80,10.0.0.3:90 proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80
 # or
 dnat4 to "10.0.0.1:70 10.0.0.2:80 10.0.0.3:90" proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80

Weighted distribution

To enable weighted distribution, append a slash with the weight requested for each entry.

FireHOL adds all the weights given and calculates the percentage of traffic each entry should receive.

Example:

 dnat4 to 10.0.0.1/30,10.0.0.2/30,10.0.0.3/40 proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80
 # or
 dnat4 to "10.0.0.1/30 10.0.0.2/30 10.0.0.3/40" proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80
 # or
 dnat4 to 10.0.0.1:70/30,10.0.0.2:80/30,10.0.0.3:90/40 proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80
 # or
 dnat4 to "10.0.0.1:70/30 10.0.0.2:80/30 10.0.0.3:90/40" proto tcp dst 1.1.1.1 port 80

PERSISTENCE

The kernel supports persistence only if the NAT alternatives are contiguous (i.e. dnat to A-B, snat to A-B, redirect to 1000:1010, etc). If they are contiguous, persistence is left at the kernel. FireHOL does nothing.

If the alternatives are not contiguous, FireHOL will use the recent iptables module to apply persistence itself.

FireHOL supports mixed mode persistence. For example, you can have something like this:

dnat to A-B/70,C-D/20,F/10 persistence id mybalancer

The above is a weighted distribution of persistence. Group A-B will get 70%, C-D 20% and server F 10%.

Using the above, FireHOL will apply its persistence to pick one of the groups A-B, or C-D, or F. Once the group has been picked by FireHOL, the kernel will apply persistence within the group, to pick the server that will handle the request.

The FireHOL persistence works like this:

  1. A packet is received that should be NATed
  2. A lookup is made using the recent module to find if it has been seen before. The source IP of packet is looked up.
  3. If it has been seen before, the connection is mapped the same way the last time was mapped. The recent module is updated too.
  4. If it has not been seen before, the connection is mapped using the distribution method specified. The recent module is updated too, to be ready for the next connection.

The recent module has a few limitations:

  1. It has lookup tables. We need one lookup table for each member of of the NAT. FireHOL uses the id parameter and the definition of each alternative in the NAT statement to form a name for the lookup table. These lookup tables are persistent to firewall restarts, this is why FireHOL requires from you to set an id.

  2. It can keep entries in its lookup tables for a given time. FireHOL sets this to 3600 seconds. You can control it by setting FIREHOL_NAT_PERSISTENCE_SECONDS.

  3. It has a limit on the number of entries in the lookup tables. FireHOL cannot set this. This is kernel module option. The default is 200 entries.

Check this:

~~ # modinfo xt_recent filename: /lib/modules/4.1.12-gentoo/kernel/net/netfilter/xt_recent.ko alias: ip6t_recent alias: ipt_recent license: GPL description: Xtables: "recently-seen" host matching author: Jan Engelhardt jengelh@medozas.de author: Patrick McHardy kaber@trash.net depends: x_tables intree: Y vermagic: 4.1.12-gentoo SMP preempt mod_unload modversions parm: ip_list_tot:number of IPs to remember per list (uint) parm: ip_list_hash_size:size of hash table used to look up IPs (uint) parm: ip_list_perms:permissions on /proc/net/xt_recent/* files (uint) parm: ip_list_uid:default owner of /proc/net/xt_recent/* files (uint) parm: ip_list_gid:default owning group of /proc/net/xt_recent/* files (uint) parm: ip_pkt_list_tot:number of packets per IP address to remember (max. 255) (uint) ~~

You have to consult your distribution documentation to set these.
You can find their current values by examining files found in
`/sys/module/xt_recent/parameters/` Unfortunately, these files
are not writable, so to change parameters you have unload and
reload the module (i.e. apply a firewall that does not use the
*recent* module, `rmmod xt_recent`, change the parameter,
re-apply a firewall that uses the *recent* module).

Normally, you will need a line in `/etc/modprobe.d/netfitler.conf`
like this:

~~~~
options xt_recent ip_list_tot=16384
~~~~

The number 16384 I used is the max number of unique client IPs
I expect to have per hour (`FIREHOL_NAT_PERSISTENCE_SECONDS`)
for this service.

`ip_list_hash_size` is calculated by kernel when the module
is loaded to be bigger and up to twice `ip_list_tot`.

Once you have the balancer running, you can find its lookup tables in /proc/net/xt_recent/. There you will find files starting with the id parameter, one file for every alternative of the NAT rule.

EXAMPLES


 # Port forwarding HTTP
 dnat4 to 192.0.2.2 proto tcp dport 80

 # Port forwarding HTTPS on to a different port internally
 dnat4 to 192.0.2.2:4443 proto tcp dport 443

 # Fix source for traffic leaving the firewall via eth0 with private address
 snat4 to 198.51.100.1 outface eth0 src 192.168.0.0/24

 # Transparent squid (running on the firewall) for some hosts
 redirect4 to 8080 inface eth0 src 198.51.100.0/24 proto tcp dport 80

 # Send to 192.0.2.1
 #  - all traffic arriving at or passing through the firewall
 nat4 to-destination 192.0.2.1

 # Send to 192.0.2.1
 #  - all traffic arriving at or passing through the firewall
 #  - which WAS going to 203.0.113.1
 nat4 to-destination 192.0.2.1 dst 203.0.113.1

 # Send to 192.0.2.1
 #  - TCP traffic arriving at or passing through the firewall
 #  - which WAS going to 203.0.113.1
 nat4 to-destination 192.0.2.1 proto tcp dst 203.0.113.1

 # Send to 192.0.2.1
 #  - TCP traffic arriving at or passing through the firewall
 #  - which WAS going to 203.0.113.1, port 25
 nat4 to-destination 192.0.2.1 proto tcp dport 25 dst 203.0.113.1

SEE ALSO

firehol-params(5)

NAME

firehol-params - optional rule parameters

SYNOPSIS

Common

{ src | src4 | src6 } [not] host

{ dst | dst4 | dst6 } [not] host

srctype [not] type

dsttype [not] type

proto [not] protocol

mac [not] macaddr

dscp [not] value class classid

mark [not] id

connmark [not] id

custommark [not] name id

rawmark [not] id

tos [not] id

custom "iptables-options..."

custom-in "iptables-options..."

custom-out "iptables-options..."

Router Only

inface [not] interface

outface [not] interface

physin [not] interface

physout [not] interface

Interface Only

uid [not] user

gid [not] group

Logging

connlog "log text"

log "log text" [level loglevel]

loglimit "log text" [level loglevel]

Helpers Only

sport port

dport port

state state

ipset [not] name flags [no-counters] [bytes-lt|bytes-eq|bytes-gt|bytes-not-eq number] [packets-lt|packets-eq|packets-gt|packets-not-eq number] [options custom-ipset-options]

limit limit burst

connlimit upto|above limit [mask mask] [saddr|daddr]

hashlimit name upto|above amount/period [burst amount] [mode {srcip|srcport|dstip|dstport},...] [srcmask prefix] [dstmask prefix] [htable-size buckets] [htable-max entries] [htable-expire msec] [htable-gcinterval msec]

DESCRIPTION

Optional rule parameters are accepted by many commands to narrow the match they make. Not all parameters are accepted by all commands so you should check the individual commands for exclusions.

All matches are made against the REQUEST. FireHOL automatically sets up the necessary stateful rules to deal with replies in the reverse direction.

All matches should be true for a statement to be executed. However, many matches support multiple values. In this case, at least one of the values must match.

Example:

server smtp accept src 1.1.1.1 dst 2.2.2.2

In the above example all smtp requests coming in from 1.1.1.1 and going out to smtp server 2.2.2.2 will be matched.

server smtp accept src 1.1.1.1 dst 2.2.2.2,3.3.3.3

In the above example all smtp requests coming in from 1.1.1.1 and going out to either smtp server 2.2.2.2 or 3.3.3.3 will be matched.

Use the keyword not to match any value other than the one(s) specified.

The logging parameters are unusual in that they do not affect the match, they just cause a log message to be emitted. Therefore, the logging parameters don't support the not option.

FireHOL is designed so that if you specify a parameter that is also used internally by the command then a warning will be issued (and the internal version will be used).

COMMON

src, dst

Use src and dst to define the source and destination IP addresses of the request respectively. host defines the IP or IPs to be matched.

host can also refer to an ipset, using this syntax: ipset:NAME, where NAME is the name of the ipset. The ipset has to be of type hash:ip for this match to work. The source IP or the destination IP will be used for the match, depending if the ipset is given as src or dst.

IPs and ipsets can be mixed together, like this: src 1.1.1.1,ipset:NAME1,2.2.2.2,ipset:NAME2

Examples:

server4 smtp accept src not 192.0.2.1
server4 smtp accept dst 198.51.100.1
server4 smtp accept src not 192.0.2.1 dst 198.51.100.1
server6 smtp accept src not 2001:DB8:1::/64
server6 smtp accept dst 2001:DB8:2::/64
server6 smtp accept src not 2001:DB8:1::/64 dst 2001:DB8:2::/64

When attempting to create rules for both IPv4 and IPv6 it is generally easier to use the src4, src6, dst4 and dst6 pairs:

server46 smtp accept src4 192.0.2.1 src6 2001:DB8:1::/64
server46 smtp accept dst4 198.51.100.1 dst6 2001:DB8:2::/64
server46 smtp accept dst4 $d4 dst6 $d6 src4 not $d4 src6 not $s6

To keep the rules sane, if one of the 4/6 pair specifies not, then so must the other. If you do not want to use both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, you must specify the rule as IPv4 or IPv6 only. It is always possible to write a second IPv4 or IPv6 only rule.

srctype, dsttype

Use srctype or dsttype to define the source or destination IP address type of the request. type is the address type category as used in the kernel's network stack. It can be one of:

UNSPEC
an unspecified address (i.e. 0.0.0.0)
UNICAST
a unicast address
LOCAL
a local address
BROADCAST
a broadcast address
ANYCAST
an anycast address
MULTICAST
a multicast address
BLACKHOLE
a blackhole address
UNREACHABLE
an unreachable address
PROHIBIT
a prohibited address
THROW; NAT; XRESOLVE
undocumented

See iptables(8) or run iptables -m addrtype --help for more information. Examples:

server smtp accept srctype not "UNREACHABLE PROHIBIT"

proto

Use proto to match by protocol. The protocol can be any accepted by iptables(8).

mac

Use mac to match by MAC address. The macaddr matches to the "remote" host. In an interface, "remote" always means the non-local host. In a router, "remote" refers to the source of requests for servers. It refers to the destination of requests for clients. Examples:

 # Only allow pop3 requests to the e6 host
 client pop3 accept mac 00:01:01:00:00:e6

 # Only allow hosts other than e7/e8 to access smtp
 server smtp accept mac not "00:01:01:00:00:e7 00:01:01:00:00:e8"

dscp

Use dscp to match the DSCP field on packets. For details on DSCP values and classids, see firehol-dscp(5).

 server smtp accept dscp not "0x20 0x30"
 server smtp accept dscp not class "BE EF"

mark

Use mark to match marks set on packets. For details on mark ids, see firehol-mark(5).

server smtp accept mark not "20 55"

tos

Use tos to match the TOS field on packets. For details on TOS ids, see firehol-tos(5).

server smtp accept tos not "Maximize-Throughput 0x10"

custom

Use custom to pass arguments directly to iptables(8). All of the parameters must be in a single quoted string. To pass an option to iptables(8) that itself contains a space you need to quote strings in the usual bash(1) manner. For example:

server smtp accept custom "--some-option some-value"
server smtp accept custom "--some-option 'some-value second-value'"

ROUTER ONLY

inface, outface

Use inface and outface to define the interface via which a request is received and forwarded respectively. Use the same format as firehol-interface(5). Examples:

server smtp accept inface not eth0
server smtp accept inface not "eth0 eth1"
server smtp accept inface eth0 outface eth1

physin, physout

Use physin and physout to define the physical interface via which a request is received or send in cases where the inface or outface is known to be a virtual interface; e.g. a bridge. Use the same format as firehol-interface(5). Examples:

server smtp accept physin not eth0

INTERFACE ONLY

These parameters match information related to information gathered from the local host. They apply only to outgoing packets and are silently ignored for incoming requests and requests that will be forwarded.

Note

The Linux kernel infrastructure to match PID/SID and executable names with pid, sid and cmd has been removed so these options can no longer be used.

uid

Use uid to match the operating system user sending the traffic. The user is a username, uid number or a quoted list of the two.

For example, to limit which users can access POP3 and IMAP by preventing replies for certain users from being sent:

client "pop3 imap" accept user not "user1 user2 user3"

Similarly, this will allow all requests to reach the server but prevent replies unless the web server is running as apache:

server http accept user apache

gid

Use gid to match the operating system group sending the traffic. The group is a group name, gid number or a quoted list of the two.

LOGGING

connlog

Use connlog to log only the first packet of a connection.

log, loglimit

Use log or loglimit to log matching packets to syslog. Unlike iptables(8) logging, this is not an action: FireHOL will produce multiple iptables(8) commands to accomplish both the action for the rule and the logging.

Logging is controlled using the FIREHOL_LOG_OPTIONS and FIREHOL_LOG_LEVEL environment variables - see firehol-defaults.conf(5). loglimit additionally honours the FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY and FIREHOL_LOG_BURST variables.

Specifying level (which takes the same values as FIREHOL_LOG_LEVEL) allows you to override the log level for a single rule.

HELPERS ONLY PARAMETERS

dport, sport

FireHOL also provides dport, sport and limit which are used internally and rarely needed within configuration files.

dport and sport require an argument port which can be a name, number, range (FROM:TO) or a quoted list of ports.

For dport port specifies the destination port of a request and can be useful when matching traffic to helper commands (such as nat) where there is no implicit port.

For sport port specifies the source port of a request and can be useful when matching traffic to helper commands (such as nat) where there is no implicit port.

limit

limit requires the arguments frequency and burst and will limit the matching of traffic in both directions.

connlimit

connlimit matches on the number of connections per IP. It has been added to FireHOL since v3.

saddr matches on source IP. daddr matches on destination IP. mask groups IPs with the mask given upto matches when the number of connections is up to the given limit above matches when the number of connections above to the given limit

The number of connections counted are system wide, not service specific. For example for saddr, you cannot connlimit 2 connections for SSH and 4 for SMTP. If you connlimit 2 connections for SSH, then the first 2 connections of a client can be SSH. If a client has already 2 connections to another service, the client will not be able to connect to SSH.

So, connlimit can safely be used:

hashlimit

hashlimit has been added to FireHOL since v3.

hashlimit hashlimit uses hash buckets to express a rate limiting match (like the limit match) for a group of connections using a single iptables rule. Grouping can be done per-hostgroup (source and/or destination address) and/or per-port. It gives you the ability to express "N packets per time quantum per group" or "N bytes per seconds" (see below for some examples).

A hash limit type (upto, above) and name are required.

name The name for the /proc/net/ipt_hashlimit/name entry.

uptoamount[/second|/minute|/hour|/day] Match if the rate is below or equal to amount/quantum. It is specified either as a number, with an optional time quantum suffix (the default is 3/hour), or as amountb/second (number of bytes per second).

aboveamount[/second|/minute|/hour|/day] Match if the rate is above amount/quantum.

burstamount Maximum initial number of packets to match: this number gets recharged by one every time the limit specified above is not reached, up to this number; the default is 5. When byte-based rate matching is requested, this option specifies the amount of bytes that can exceed the given rate. This option should be used with caution - if the entry expires, the burst value is reset too.

mode{srcip|srcport|dstip|dstport},... A comma-separated list of objects to take into consideration. If no mode option is given, srcip,dstport is assumed.

srcmaskprefix When --hashlimit-mode srcip is used, all source addresses encountered will be grouped according to the given prefix length and the so-created subnet will be subject to hashlimit. prefix must be between (inclusive) 0 and 32. Note that srcmask 0 is basically doing the same thing as not specifying srcip for mode, but is technically more expensive.

dstmaskprefix Like srcmask, but for destination addresses.

htable-sizebuckets The number of buckets of the hash table

htable-maxentries Maximum entries in the hash.

htable-expiremsec After how many milliseconds do hash entries expire.

htable-gcintervalmsec How many milliseconds between garbage collection intervals.

Examples:

matching on source host: "1000 packets per second for every host in 192.168.0.0/16"

src 192.168.0.0/16 hashlimit mylimit mode srcip upto 1000/sec

matching on source port: "100 packets per second for every service of 192.168.1.1"

src 192.168.1.1 hashlimit mylimit mode srcport upto 100/sec

matching on subnet: "10000 packets per minute for every /28 subnet (groups of 8 addresses) in 10.0.0.0/8"

src 10.0.0.8 hashlimit mylimit mask 28 upto 10000/min

matching bytes per second: "flows exceeding 512kbyte/s"

hashlimit mylimit mode srcip,dstip,srcport,dstport above 512kb/s

matching bytes per second: "hosts that exceed 512kbyte/s, but permit up to 1Megabytes without matching"

hashlimit mylimit mode dstip above 512kb/s burst 1mb

SEE ALSO

firehol-policy(5)

NAME

firehol-policy - set default action for an interface or router

SYNOPSIS

policy action

DESCRIPTION

The policy subcommand defines the default policy for an interface or router.

The action can be any of the actions listed in firehol-actions(5).

Note

Change the default policy of a router only if you understand clearly what will be matched by the router statement whose policy is being changed.

It is common to define overlapping router definitions. Changing the policy to anything other than the default return may cause strange results for your configuration.

Warning

Do not set a policy to accept unless you fully trust all hosts that can reach the interface. FireHOL CANNOT be used to create valid "accept by default" firewalls.

EXAMPLE


interface eth0 intranet src 192.0.2.0/24
  # I trust this interface absolutely
  policy accept

SEE ALSO

firehol-protection(5)

NAME

firehol-protection - add extra protections to a definition

SYNOPSIS

protection [reverse] strong [requests/period [burst]]

protection [reverse] flood-protection-type [requests/period [burst]]

protection [reverse] { bad-packets | packet-protection-type }

protection [reverse] connlimit connections [mask prefix]

protection [reverse] connrate rate [burst amount] [srcmask prefix] [htable-size buckets] [htable-max entries] [htable-expire msec] [htable-gcinterval msec]

DESCRIPTION

The protection subcommand sets protection rules on an interface or router.

Flood protections honour the values requests/period and burst. They are used to limit the rate of certain types of traffic.

The default rate FireHOL uses is 100 operations per second with a burst of 50. Run iptables -m limit --help for more information.

The protection type strong will switch on all protections (both packet and flood protections) except all-floods. It has aliases full and all.

The protection type bad-packets will switch on all packet protections but not flood protections.

You can specify multiple protection types by using multiple protection commands or by using a single command and enclosing the types in quotes.

Note

On a router, protections are normally set up on inface.

The reverse option will set up the protections on outface. You must use it as the first keyword.

PACKET PROTECTION TYPES

bad-packets:
Drops all the bad packets detected by these rules.
invalid

Drops all incoming invalid packets, as detected INVALID by the connection tracker.

See also FIREHOL_DROP_INVALID in firehol-defaults.conf(5) which allows setting this function globally.

fragments

Drops all packet fragments.

This rule will probably never match anything since iptables(8) reconstructs all packets automatically before the firewall rules are processed whenever connection tracking is running.

new-tcp-w/o-syn
Drops all TCP packets that initiate a socket but have not got the SYN flag set.
malformed-xmas
Drops all TCP packets that have all TCP flags set.
malformed-null
Drops all TCP packets that have all TCP flags unset.
malformed-bad
Drops all TCP packets that have illegal combinations of TCP flags set.

EXAMPLES

protection bad-packets

FLOOD PROTECTION TYPES

icmp-floods [requests/period [burst]]
Allows only a certain amount of ICMP echo requests.
syn-floods [requests/period [burst]]

Allows only a certain amount of new TCP connections.

Be careful to not set the rate too low as the rule is applied to all connections regardless of their final result (rejected, dropped, established, etc).

all-floods [requests/period [burst]]

Allows only a certain amount of new connections.

Be careful to not set the rate too low as the rule is applied to all connections regardless of their final result (rejected, dropped, established, etc).

EXAMPLES

protection all-floods 90/sec 40

CLIENT LIMITING TYPES

These protections were added in v3.

These protections are used to limit the connections client make, per interface or router.

They support appending optional rule parameters to limit their scope to certain clients only.

protection [reverse] connlimit connections [mask prefix]
Allow only a number of connections per client (implemented with connlimit with fixed type=saddr).
protection [reverse] connrate rate [burst amount] [srcmask prefix] [htable-size buckets] [htable-max entries] [htable-expire msec] [htable-gcinterval msec]
Allow up to a rate of new connections per client (implemented with hashlimit with fixed type=upto and mode=srcip).

EXAMPLES

Limit the number of concurrent connections to 10 per client

protection connlimit 10 mask 32

Limit the number of concurrent connections to 100 per client class-C and also limit it to 5 for 1.2.3.4

protection connlimit 100 mask 24
protection connlimit 5 src 1.2.3.4

In the last example above, if you want to give client 1.2.3.4 more connections than all others, you should exclude it from the first connlimit statement, like this:

protection connlimit 100 mask 24 src not 1.2.3.4
protection connlimit 200 src 1.2.3.4

Limit all clients to 10 concurrect connections and 60 connections/minute

protection connlimit 10
protection connrate 60/minute

KNOWN ISSUES

When using multiple types in a single command, if the quotes are forgotten, incorrect rules will be generated without warning.

When using multiple types in a single command, FireHOL will silently ignore any types that come after a group type (bad-packets, strong and its aliases). Only use group types on their own line.

SEE ALSO

firehol-proxy(5)

NAME

firehol-proxy - set up a transparent TCP, HTTP or squid proxy

SYNOPSIS

transparent_proxy service port user rule-params

transparent_squid port user rule-params

DESCRIPTION

The transparent_proxy helper command sets up transparent caching for TCP traffic.

The transparent_squid helper command sets up the special case for HTTP traffic with service implicitly set to 80.

Note

The proxy application must be running on the firewall host at port port with the credentials of the local user user (which may be a space-delimited list enclosed in quotes) serving requests appropriate to the TCP port service.

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to define the traffic that is to be proxied. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

For traffic destined for the firewall host or passing through the firewall, do not use the outface parameter because the rules are applied before the routing decision and so the outgoing interface will not be known.

An empty user string ("") disables caching of locally-generated traffic. Otherwise, traffic starting from the firewall is captured, except that traffic generated by the local user(s) user. The inface, outface and src rule-params are all ignored for locally-generated traffic.

EXAMPLES


transparent_proxy 80 3128 squid inface eth0 src 192.0.2.0/24
transparent_squid 3128 squid inface eth0 src 192.0.2.0/24

transparent_proxy "80 3128 8080" 3128 "squid privoxy root bin" \
      inface not "ppp+ ipsec+" dst not "a.not.proxied.server"
transparent_squid "80 3128 8080" "squid privoxy root bin" \
      inface not "ppp+ ipsec+" dst not "non.proxied.server"

SEE ALSO

firehol-router(5)

NAME

firehol-router - create a router definition

SYNOPSIS

{ router | router46 } name rule-params

router4 name rule-params

router6 name rule-params

DESCRIPTION

A router definition consists of a set of rules for traffic passing through the host running the firewall.

The default policy for router definitions is RETURN, meaning packets are not dropped by any particular router. Packets not matched by any router are dropped at the end of the firewall.

The behaviour of the defined router is controlled by adding subcommands from those listed in ROUTER SUBCOMMANDS.

Note

Writing router4 is equivalent to writing ipv4 router and ensures the defined router is created only in the IPv4 firewall along with any rules within it.

Writing router6 is equivalent to writing ipv6 router and ensures the defined router is created only in the IPv6 firewall along with any rules within it.

Writing router46 is equivalent to writing both router and ensures the defined router is created in both the IPv4 and IPv6 firewalls. Any rules within it will also be applied to both, unless they specify otherwise.

PARAMETERS

name

This is a name for this router. You should use short names (10 characters maximum) without spaces or other symbols.

A name should be unique for all FireHOL interface and router definitions.

rule-params

The set of rule parameters to further restrict the traffic that is matched to this router.

See firehol-params(5) for information on the parameters that can be used. Some examples:

router mylan inface ppp+ outface eth0 src not ${UNROUTABLE_IPS}

router myrouter

See firehol.conf(5) for an explanation of ${UNROUTABLE_IPS}.

WORKING WITH ROUTERS

Routers create stateful iptables(8) rules which match traffic in both directions.

To match some client or server traffic, the input/output interface or source/destination of the request must be specified. All inface/outface and src/dst firehol-params(5) can be given on the router statement (in which case they will be applied to all subcommands for the router) or just within the subcommands of the router.

For example, to define a router which matches requests from any PPP interface and destined for eth0, and on this allowing HTTP servers (on eth0) to be accessed by clients (from PPP) and SMTP clients (from eth0) to access any servers (on PPP):

router mylan inface ppp+ outface eth0
  server http accept
  client smtp accept

Note

The client subcommand reverses any optional rule parameters passed to the router, in this case the inface and outface.

Equivalently, to define a router which matches all forwarded traffic and within the the router allow HTTP servers on eth0 to be accessible to PPP and any SMTP servers on PPP to be accessible from eth0:

router mylan
  server http accept inface ppp+ outface eth0
  server smtp accept inface eth0 outface ppp

Note

In this instance two server subcommands are used since there are no parameters on the router to reverse. Avoid the use of the client subcommand in routers unless the inputs and outputs are defined as part of the router.

Any number of routers can be defined and the traffic they match can overlap. Since the default policy is RETURN, any traffic that is not matched by any rules in one will proceed to the next, in order, until none are left.

SEE ALSO

Router Subcommands

firehol-server(5)

NAME

firehol-server - server, route commands: accept requests to a service

SYNOPSIS

{ server | server46 } service action rule-params

server4 service action rule-params

server6 service action rule-params

{ route | route46 } service action rule-params

route4 service action rule-params

route6 service action rule-params

DESCRIPTION

The server subcommand defines a server of a service on an interface or router. Any rule-params given to a parent interface or router are inherited by the server.

For FireHOL a server is the destination of a request. Even though this is more complex for some multi-socket services, to FireHOL a server always accepts requests.

The route subcommand is an alias for server which may only be used in routers.

The service parameter is one of the supported service names from firehol-services(5). Multiple services may be specified, space delimited in quotes.

The action can be any of the actions listed in firehol-actions(5).

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to further restrict the traffic that is matched to this service. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Note

Writing server4 is equivalent to writing ipv4 server and ensures this subcommand is applied only in the IPv4 firewall rules.

Writing server6 is equivalent to writing ipv6 server and ensures this subcommand is applied only in the IPv6 firewall rules.

Writing server46 is equivalent to writing both server and ensures this subcommand is applied in both the IPv4 and IPv6 firewall rules; it cannot be used as part an interface or router that is IPv4 or IPv6 only.

The default server inherits its behaviour from the enclosing interface or router.

The same rules apply to the variations of route.

EXAMPLES

server smtp accept

server "smtp pop3" accept

server smtp accept src 192.0.2.1

server smtp accept log "mail packet" src 192.0.2.1

SEE ALSO

firehol-services(5)

NAME

firehol-services - FireHOL services list

SYNOPSIS

AH all amanda any anystateless apcupsd apcupsdnis aptproxy asterisk

cups custom cvspserver

darkstat daytime dcc dcpp dhcp dhcprelay dhcpv6 dict distcc dns

echo emule eserver ESP

finger ftp

gift giftui gkrellmd GRE

h323 heartbeat http httpalt https hylafax

iax iax2 ICMP icmp ICMPV6 icmpv6 icp ident imap imaps ipsecnatt ipv6error ipv6mld ipv6neigh ipv6router irc isakmp

jabber jabberd

l2tp ldap ldaps lpd

microsoft_ds mms msn msnp ms_ds multicast mysql

netbackup netbios_dgm netbios_ns netbios_ssn nfs nis nntp nntps nrpe ntp nut nxserver

openvpn oracle OSPF

ping pop3 pop3s portmap postgres pptp privoxy

radius radiusold radiusoldproxy radiusproxy rdp rndc rsync rtp

samba sane sip smtp smtps snmp snmptrap socks squid ssh stun submission sunrpc swat syslog

telnet tftp time timestamp tomcat

upnp uucp

vmware vmwareauth vmwareweb vnc

webcache webmin whois

xbox xdmcp

DESCRIPTION

service: AH

IPSec Authentication Header (AH)

Example:

  server AH accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

For more information see this Archive of the FreeS/WAN documentation and RFC 2402. [WIKI-AH]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPsec#Authentication_Header

service: all

Match all traffic

Example:

  server all accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Notes

Matches all traffic (all protocols, ports, etc.). Note that to provide "connections in one direction with replies" semantics, the kernel connection tracker is still used: this will therefore still not match packets if they are not understood as part of a connection (e.g. some ICMPv6 packets, requests and replies taking different routes, complex protocols with no helper loaded).

This service may indirectly setup a set of other services, if they require kernel modules to be loaded. The following complex services are activated:

service: amanda

Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

service: any

Match all traffic (without modules or indirect)

Example:

  server any *myname* accept proto 47

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

Matches all traffic (all protocols, ports, etc), but does not care about kernel modules and does not activate any other service indirectly. In combination with the firehol-params(5) this service can match unusual traffic (e.g. GRE - protocol 47).

Note that you have to supply your own name in addition to "any".

service: anystateless

Match all traffic statelessly

Example:

  server anystateless *myname* accept proto 47

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

Matches all traffic (all protocols, ports, etc), but does not care about kernel modules and does not activate any other service indirectly. In combination with the firehol-params(5) this service can match unusual traffic (e.g. GRE - protocol 47).

This service is identical to "any" but does not care about the state of traffic.

Note that you have to supply your own name in addition to "anystateless".

service: apcupsd

APC UPS Daemon

Example:

  server apcupsd accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This service must be defined as "server apcupsd accept" on all machines not directly connected to the UPS (i.e. slaves).

Note that the port defined here is not the default port (6666) used if you download and compile APCUPSD, since the default conflicts with IRC and many distributions (like Debian) have changed this to 6544.

You can define port 6544 in APCUPSD, by changing the value of NETPORT in its configuration file, or overwrite this FireHOL service definition using the procedures described in Adding Services in firehol.conf(5). [HOME-apcupsd]: http://www.apcupsd.com [WIKI-apcupsd]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apcupsd

service: apcupsdnis

APC UPS Daemon Network Information Server

Example:

  server apcupsdnis accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This service allows the remote WEB interfaces of APCUPSD, to connect and get information from the server directly connected to the UPS device. [HOME-apcupsdnis]: http://www.apcupsd.com [WIKI-apcupsdnis]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apcupsd

service: aptproxy

Advanced Packaging Tool Proxy

Example:

  server aptproxy accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: asterisk

Asterisk PABX

Example:

  server asterisk accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This service refers only to the manager interface of asterisk. You should normally enable sip, h323, rtp, etc. at the firewall level, if you enable the relative channel drivers of asterisk. [HOME-asterisk]: http://www.asterisk.org [WIKI-asterisk]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk_PBX

service: cups

Common UNIX Printing System

Example:

  server cups accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: custom

Custom definitions

Example:

  server custom myimap tcp/143 default accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

The full syntax is:

subcommand custom name svr-proto/ports cli-ports action params

This service is used by FireHOL to allow you create rules for services which do not have a definition.

subcommand, action and params have their usual meanings.

A name must be supplied along with server ports in the form proto/range and client ports which takes only a range.

To define services with the built-in extension mechanism to avoid the need for custom services, see Adding Services in firehol.conf(5).

service: cvspserver

Concurrent Versions System

Example:

  server cvspserver accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: darkstat

Darkstat network traffic analyser

Example:

  server darkstat accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: daytime

Daytime Protocol

Example:

  server daytime accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: dcc

Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse

Example:

  server dcc accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

See also this DCC FAQ. [WIKI-dcc]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Checksum_Clearinghouse

service: dcpp

Direct Connect++ P2P

Example:

  server dcpp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: dhcp

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Example:

  server dhcp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

The dhcp service is implemented as stateless rules.

DHCP clients broadcast to the network (src 0.0.0.0 dst 255.255.255.255) to find a DHCP server. If the DHCP service was stateful the iptables connection tracker would not match the packets and deny to send the reply.

Note that this change does not affect the security of either DHCP servers or clients, since only the specific ports are allowed (there is no random port at either the server or the client side).

Note also that the "server dhcp accept" or "client dhcp accept" commands should placed within interfaces that do not have src and / or dst defined (because of the initial broadcast).

You can overcome this problem by placing the DHCP service on a separate interface, without a src or dst but with a policy return. Place this interface before the one that defines the rest of the services.

For example:

interface eth0 dhcp

policy return

server dhcp accept

interface eth0 lan src "$mylan" dst "$myip"

client all accept

For example: interface eth0 dhcp policy return server dhcp accept interface eth0 lan src "$mylan" dst "$myip" client all accept

This service implicitly sets its client or server to ipv4 mode. [WIKI-dhcp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhcp

service: dhcprelay

DHCP Relay

Example:

  server dhcprelay accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

From RFC 1812 section 9.1.2:

In many cases, BOOTP clients and their associated BOOTP server(s) do not reside on the same IP (sub)network. In such cases, a third-party agent is required to transfer BOOTP messages between clients and servers. Such an agent was originally referred to as a BOOTP forwarding agent. However, to avoid confusion with the IP forwarding function of a router, the name BOOTP relay agent has been adopted instead.

For more information about DHCP Relay see section 9.1.2 of RFC 1812 and section 4 of RFC 1542 [WIKI-dhcprelay]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol#DHCP_relaying

service: dhcpv6

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6

Example:

  server dhcpv6 accept
  client dhcpv6 accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

The dhcp service is implemented as stateless rules. It cannot be stateful as the connection tracker will not match a unicast reply to a broadcast request. Further, if you wish to add src/dst rule parameters, you must account for both the broadcast and link-local network prefixes.

Clients broadcast from a link-local address to the multicast address ff02::1:2 on UDP port 547 to find a server. The server sends a unicast reply back to the client which listens on UDP port 546.

For a FireHOL interface, creating a client will allow sending to port 547 and receiving on port 546. Creating a server allows sending to port 546 and receiving on port 547.

Unlike DHCP for IPv4, the source ports to be used are not defined in DHCPv6 - see section 5.2 of RFC3315. Some servers are known to make use of this to send from arbitrary ports, so FireHOL does not assume a source port.

This service implicitly sets its client or server to ipv6 mode. [WIKI-dhcpv6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DHCPv6

service: dict

Dictionary Server Protocol

Example:

  server dict accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

See RFC2229. [WIKI-dict]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DICT

service: distcc

Distributed CC

Example:

  server distcc accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

For distcc security, please check the distcc security design. [HOME-distcc]: https://code.google.com/p/distcc/ [WIKI-distcc]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distcc

service: dns

Domain Name System

Example:

  server dns accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

On very busy DNS servers you may see a few dropped DNS packets in your logs. This is normal. The iptables connection tracker will timeout the session and lose unmatched DNS packets that arrive too late to be useful. [WIKI-dns]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

service: echo

Echo Protocol

Example:

  server echo accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: emule

eMule (Donkey network client)

Example:

  client emule accept src 192.0.2.1

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

According to eMule Port Definitions, FireHOL defines:

  • Accept from any client port to the server at tcp/4661
  • Accept from any client port to the server at tcp/4662
  • Accept from any client port to the server at udp/4665
  • Accept from any client port to the server at udp/4672
  • Accept from any server port to the client at tcp/4662
  • Accept from any server port to the client at udp/4672

Use the FireHOL firehol-client(5) command to match the eMule client.

Please note that the eMule client is an HTTP client also. [HOME-emule]: http://www.emule-project.com

service: eserver

eDonkey network server

Example:

  server eserver accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ESP

IPSec Encapsulated Security Payload (ESP)

Example:

  server ESP accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

For more information see this Archive of the FreeS/WAN documentation RFC 2406. [WIKI-ESP]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPsec#Encapsulating_Security_Payload

service: finger

Finger Protocol

Example:

  server finger accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ftp

File Transfer Protocol

Example:

  server ftp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

Notes

The FTP service matches both active and passive FTP connections. [WIKI-ftp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ftp

service: gift

giFT Internet File Transfer

Example:

  server gift accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

The gift FireHOL service supports:

  • Gnutella listening at tcp/4302
  • FastTrack listening at tcp/1214
  • OpenFT listening at tcp/2182 and tcp/2472

The above ports are the defaults given for the corresponding giFT modules.

To allow access to the user interface ports of giFT, use the giftui. [HOME-gift]: http://gift.sourceforge.net [WIKI-gift]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GiFT

service: giftui

giFT Internet File Transfer User Interface

Example:

  server giftui accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This service refers only to the user interface ports offered by giFT. To allow gift accept P2P requests, use the gift. [HOME-giftui]: http://gift.sourceforge.net [WIKI-giftui]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GiFT

service: gkrellmd

GKrellM Daemon

Example:

  server gkrellmd accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: GRE

Generic Routing Encapsulation

Example:

  server GRE accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

Notes

Protocol No 47.

For more information see RFC RFC 2784. [WIKI-GRE]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Routing_Encapsulation

service: h323

H.323 VoIP

Example:

  server h323 accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

service: heartbeat

HeartBeat

Example:

  server heartbeat accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This FireHOL service has been designed such a way that it will allow multiple heartbeat clusters on the same LAN. [HOME-heartbeat]: http://www.linux-ha.org/

service: http

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Example:

  server http accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: httpalt

HTTP alternate port

Example:

  server httpalt accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This port is commonly used by web servers, web proxies and caches where the standard http port is not available or can or should not be used. [WIKI-httpalt]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http

service: https

Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Example:

  server https accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: hylafax

HylaFAX

Example:

  server hylafax accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This service allows incoming requests to server port tcp/4559 and outgoing from server port tcp/4558.

The correct operation of this service has not been verified.

USE THIS WITH CARE. A HYLAFAX CLIENT MAY OPEN ALL TCP UNPRIVILEGED PORTS TO ANYONE (from port tcp/4558). [HOME-hylafax]: http://www.hylafax.org/ [WIKI-hylafax]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hylafax

service: iax

Inter-Asterisk eXchange

Example:

  server iax accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This service refers to IAX version 1. There is also iax2. [HOME-iax]: http://www.asterisk.org [WIKI-iax]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iax

service: iax2

Inter-Asterisk eXchange v2

Example:

  server iax2 accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This service refers to IAX version 2. There is also iax. [HOME-iax2]: http://www.asterisk.org [WIKI-iax2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iax

service: ICMP

Internet Control Message Protocol

Example:

  server ICMP accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: icmp

Internet Control Message Protocol
Alias for ICMP

service: ICMPV6

Internet Control Message Protocol v6

Example:

  server ICMPV6 accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: icmpv6

Internet Control Message Protocol v6
Alias for ICMPV6

service: icp

Internet Cache Protocol

Example:

  server icp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ident

Identification Protocol

Example:

  server ident reject with tcp-reset

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: imap

Internet Message Access Protocol

Example:

  server imap accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: imaps

Secure Internet Message Access Protocol

Example:

  server imaps accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ipsecnatt

NAT traversal and IPsec

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ipv6error

ICMPv6 Error Handling

Example:

  server ipv6error accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

This service is not needed from 3.0.0. It will do nothing but issue a warning from 3.1.0; it will be removed in 4.0.0.

The linux connection tracker ensures that ICMPv6 errors are marked as RELATED. Since 3.0.0, these are automatially accepted by FireHOL, making a separate command redundant.

service: ipv6mld

IPv6 Multicast Listener Discovery for IPv6

Example:

  client ipv6mld accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

IPv6 uses Multicast Listener Discovery to discover multicast listeners and what they are listening for.

In practice all IPv6 nodes are multicast listeners since multicast is used in the neighbour discovery protocol which replaces ARP in IPv4.

These rules are stateless since reports can happen automatically as well as on query.

Unless muticast snooping is disabled across the network, MLD should be enabled for any clients:

client ipv6mld accept

MLD should also be enabled as a server on any hosts acting as a router:

server ipv6mld accept

The rules should generally not be used to pass packets across a firewall (e.g. in a router definition) unless the firewall is for a bridge.

This service implicitly sets its client or server to ipv6 mode. [WIKI-ipv6mld]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast_Listener_Discovery

service: ipv6neigh

IPv6 Neighbour discovery

Example:

  client ipv6neigh accept
  server ipv6neigh accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

IPv6 uses the Neighbour Discovery Protocol to do automatic configuration of routes and to replace ARP. To allow this functionality the network neighbour and router solicitation/advertisement messages should be enabled on each interface.

These rules are stateless since advertisement can happen automatically as well as on solicitation.

Neighbour discovery (incoming) should always be enabled:

server ipv6neigh accept

Neighbour advertisement (outgoing) should always be enabled:

client ipv6neigh accept

The rules should not be used to pass packets across a firewall (e.g. in a router definition) unless the firewall is for a bridge.

This service implicitly sets its client or server to ipv6 mode. [WIKI-ipv6neigh]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbor_Discovery_Protocol

service: ipv6router

IPv6 Router discovery

Example:

  client ipv6router accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

IPv6 uses the Neighbour Discovery Protocol to do automatic configuration of routes and to replace ARP. To allow this functionality the network neighbour and router solicitation/advertisement messages should be enabled on each interface.

These rules are stateless since advertisement can happen automatically as well as on solicitation.

Router discovery (incoming) should always be enabled:

client ipv6router accept

Router advertisement (outgoing) should be enabled on a host that routes:

server ipv6router accept

The rules should not be used to pass packets across a firewall (e.g. in a router definition) unless the firewall is for a bridge.

This service implicitly sets its client or server to ipv6 mode. [WIKI-ipv6router]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbor_Discovery_Protocol

service: irc

Internet Relay Chat

Example:

  server irc accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

service: isakmp

Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (IKE)

Example:

  server isakmp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

For more information see the Archive of the FreeS/WAN documentation [WIKI-isakmp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISAKMP

service: jabber

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol

Example:

  server jabber accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

Allows clear and SSL client-to-server connections. [WIKI-jabber]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber

service: jabberd

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (Server)

Example:

  server jabberd accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

Allows clear and SSL client-to-server and server-to-server connections.

Use this service for a jabberd server. In all other cases, use the jabber. [WIKI-jabberd]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber

service: l2tp

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ldap

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

Example:

  server ldap accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ldaps

Secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

Example:

  server ldaps accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: lpd

Line Printer Daemon Protocol

Example:

  server lpd accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

LPD is documented in RFC 1179.

Since many operating systems incorrectly use the non-default client ports for LPD access, this definition allows any client port to access the service (in addition to the RFC defined 721 to 731 inclusive). [WIKI-lpd]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_Printer_Daemon_protocol

service: microsoft_ds

Direct Hosted (NETBIOS-less) SMB

Example:

  server microsoft_ds accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

Direct Hosted (i.e. NETBIOS-less SMB)

This is another NETBIOS Session Service with minor differences with netbios_ssn. It is supported only by Windows 2000 and Windows XP and it offers the advantage of being independent of WINS for name resolution.

It seems that samba supports transparently this protocol on the netbios_ssn ports, so that either direct hosted or traditional SMB can be served simultaneously.

Please refer to the netbios_ssn for more information.

service: mms

Microsoft Media Server

Example:

  server mms accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

Notes

Microsoft's proprietary network streaming protocol used to transfer unicast data in Windows Media Services (previously called NetShow Services). [WIKI-mms]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Media_Server

service: msn

Microsoft MSN Messenger Service

Example:

  server msn accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

service: msnp

msnp

Example:

  server msnp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

service: ms_ds

Direct Hosted (NETBIOS-less) SMB
Alias for microsoft_ds

service: multicast

Multicast

Example:

  server multicast reject with proto-unreach

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

The multicast service matches all packets sent to the $MULTICAST_IPS addresses using IGMP or UDP. For IPv4 that means 224.0.0.0/4 and for IPv6 FF00::/16. [WIKI-multicast]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast

service: mysql

MySQL

Example:

  server mysql accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: netbackup

Veritas NetBackup service

Example:

  server netbackup accept
  client netbackup accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

To use this service you must define it as both client and server in NetBackup clients and NetBackup servers. [WIKI-netbackup]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbackup

service: netbios_dgm

NETBIOS Datagram Distribution Service

Example:

  server netbios_dgm accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

See also the samba.

Keep in mind that this service broadcasts (to the broadcast address of your LAN) UDP packets. If you place this service within an interface that has a dst parameter, remember to include (in the dst parameter) the broadcast address of your LAN too. [WIKI-netbios_dgm]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbios#Datagram_distribution_service

service: netbios_ns

NETBIOS Name Service

Example:

  server netbios_ns accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

See also the samba. [WIKI-netbios_ns]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbios#Name_service

service: netbios_ssn

NETBIOS Session Service

Example:

  server netbios_ssn accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

See also the samba.

Please keep in mind that newer NETBIOS clients prefer to use port 445 (microsoft_ds) for the NETBIOS session service, and when this is not available they fall back to port 139 (netbios_ssn). Versions of samba above 3.x bind automatically to ports 139 and 445.

If you have an older samba version and your policy on an interface or router is DROP, clients trying to access port 445 will have to timeout before falling back to port 139. This timeout can be up to several minutes.

To overcome this problem you can explicitly REJECT the microsoft_ds with a tcp-reset message:

server microsoft_ds reject with tcp-reset [WIKI-netbios_ssn]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbios#Session_service

service: nfs

Network File System

Example:

  client nfs accept dst 192.0.2.1

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

The NFS service queries the RPC service on the NFS server host to find out the ports nfsd, mountd, lockd and rquotad are listening. Then, according to these ports it sets up rules on all the supported protocols (as reported by RPC) in order the clients to be able to reach the server.

For this reason, the NFS service requires that:

  • the firewall is restarted if the NFS server is restarted
  • the NFS server must be specified on all nfs statements (only if it is not the localhost)

Since NFS queries the remote RPC server, it is required to also be allowed to do so, by allowing the portmap too. Take care that this is allowed by the running firewall when FireHOL tries to query the RPC server. So you might have to setup NFS in two steps: First add the portmap service and activate the firewall, then add the NFS service and restart the firewall.

To avoid this you can setup your NFS server to listen on pre-defined ports, as documented in NFS Howto. If you do this then you will have to define the the ports using the procedure described in Adding Services in firehol.conf(5).

service: nis

Network Information Service

Example:

  client nis accept dst 192.0.2.1

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

The nis service queries the RPC service on the nis server host to find out the ports ypserv and yppasswdd are listening. Then, according to these ports it sets up rules on all the supported protocols (as reported by RPC) in order the clients to be able to reach the server.

For this reason, the nis service requires that:

  • the firewall is restarted if the nis server is restarted
  • the nis server must be specified on all nis statements (only if it is not the localhost)

Since nis queries the remote RPC server, it is required to also be allowed to do so, by allowing the portmap too. Take care that this is allowed by the running firewall when FireHOL tries to query the RPC server. So you might have to setup nis in two steps: First add the portmap service and activate the firewall, then add the nis service and restart the firewall.

This service was added to FireHOL by Carlos Rodrigues. His comments regarding this implementation, are:

These rules work for client access only!

Pushing changes to slave servers won't work if these rules are active somewhere between the master and its slaves, because it is impossible to predict the ports where yppush will be listening on each push.

Pulling changes directly on the slaves will work, and could be improved performance-wise if these rules are modified to open fypxfrd. This wasn't done because it doesn't make that much sense since pushing changes on the master server is the most common, and recommended, way to replicate maps. [WIKI-nis]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Information_Service

service: nntp

Network News Transfer Protocol

Example:

  server nntp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: nntps

Secure Network News Transfer Protocol

Example:

  server nntps accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: nrpe

Nagios NRPE

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ntp

Network Time Protocol

Example:

  server ntp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: nut

Network UPS Tools

Example:

  server nut accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: nxserver

NoMachine NX Server

Example:

  server nxserver accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

Default ports used by NX server for connections without encryption.

Note that nxserver also needs the ssh to be enabled.

This information has been extracted from this The TCP ports used by nxserver are 4000 + DISPLAY_BASE to 4000 + DISPLAY_BASE + DISPLAY_LIMIT. DISPLAY_BASE and DISPLAY_LIMIT are set in /usr/NX/etc/node.conf and the defaults are DISPLAY_BASE=1000 and DISPLAY_LIMIT=200.

For encrypted nxserver sessions, only ssh is needed. [WIKI-nxserver]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NX_Server

service: openvpn

OpenVPN

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: oracle

Oracle Database

Example:

  server oracle accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: OSPF

Open Shortest Path First

Example:

  server OSPF accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ping

Ping (ICMP echo)

Example:

  server ping accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This services matches requests of protocol ICMP and type echo-request (TYPE=8) and their replies of type echo-reply (TYPE=0).

The ping service is stateful. [WIKI-ping]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping

service: pop3

Post Office Protocol

Example:

  server pop3 accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: pop3s

Secure Post Office Protocol

Example:

  server pop3s accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: portmap

Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call - Port Mapper

Example:

  server portmap accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: postgres

PostgreSQL

Example:

  server postgres accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: pptp

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol

Example:

  server pptp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

service: privoxy

Privacy Proxy

Example:

  server privoxy accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: radius

Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)

Example:

  server radius accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: radiusold

Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)

Example:

  server radiusold accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: radiusoldproxy

Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)

Example:

  server radiusoldproxy accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: radiusproxy

Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS)

Example:

  server radiusproxy accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: rdp

Remote Desktop Protocol

Example:

  server rdp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

Remote Desktop Protocol is also known also as Terminal Services. [WIKI-rdp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Desktop_Protocol

service: rndc

Remote Name Daemon Control

Example:

  server rndc accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: rsync

rsync protocol

Example:

  server rsync accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: rtp

Real-time Transport Protocol

Example:

  server rtp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

RTP ports are generally all the UDP ports. This definition narrows down RTP ports to UDP 10000 to 20000. [WIKI-rtp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_Transport_Protocol

service: samba

Samba

Example:

  server samba accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

The samba service automatically sets all the rules for netbios_ns, netbios_dgm, netbios_ssn and microsoft_ds.

Please refer to the notes of the above services for more information.

NETBIOS initiates based on the broadcast address of an interface (request goes to broadcast address) but the server responds from its own IP address. This makes the "server samba accept" statement drop the server reply, because of the way the iptables connection tracker works.

This service definition includes a hack, that allows a Linux samba server to respond correctly in such situations, by allowing new outgoing connections from the well known netbios_ns port to the clients high ports.

However, for clients and routers this hack is not applied because it would open all unprivileged ports to the samba server. The only solution to overcome the problem in such cases (routers or clients) is to build a trust relationship between the samba servers and clients. [HOME-samba]: http://www.samba.org/ [WIKI-samba]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(software)

service: sane

SANE Scanner service

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

service: sip

Session Initiation Protocol

Example:

  server sip accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

Notes

SIP is an IETF standard protocol (RFC 2543) for initiating interactive user sessions involving multimedia elements such as video, voice, chat, gaming, etc. SIP works in the application layer of the OSI communications model. [WIKI-sip]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol

service: smtp

Simple Mail Transport Protocol

Example:

  server smtp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: smtps

Secure Simple Mail Transport Protocol

Example:

  server smtps accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: snmp

Simple Network Management Protocol

Example:

  server snmp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: snmptrap

SNMP Trap

Example:

  server snmptrap accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

An SNMP trap is a notification from an agent to a manager. [WIKI-snmptrap]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Network_Management_Protocol#Trap

service: socks

SOCKet Secure

Example:

  server socks accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

See also RFC 1928. [WIKI-socks]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOCKS

service: squid

Squid Web Cache

Example:

  server squid accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: ssh

Secure Shell Protocol

Example:

  server ssh accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: stun

Session Traversal Utilities for NAT

Example:

  server stun accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

STUN is a protocol for assisting devices behind a NAT firewall or router with their packet routing. [WIKI-stun]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STUN

service: submission

SMTP over SSL/TLS submission

Example:

  server submission accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

Submission is essentially normal SMTP with an SSL/TLS negotiation. [WIKI-submission]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol

service: sunrpc

Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call - Port Mapper
Alias for portmap

service: swat

Samba Web Administration Tool

Example:

  server swat accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: syslog

Syslog Remote Logging Protocol

Example:

  server syslog accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: telnet

Telnet

Example:

  server telnet accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: tftp

Trivial File Transfer Protocol

Example:

  server tftp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Netfilter Modules

Netfilter NAT Modules

Links

service: time

Time Protocol

Example:

  server time accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: timestamp

ICMP Timestamp

Example:

  server timestamp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

This services matches requests of protocol ICMP and type timestamp-request (TYPE=13) and their replies of type timestamp-reply (TYPE=14).

The timestamp service is stateful. [WIKI-timestamp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Control_Message_Protocol#Timestamp

service: tomcat

HTTP alternate port
Alias for httpalt

service: upnp

Universal Plug and Play

Example:

  server upnp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

For a Linux implementation see: Linux IGD. [HOME-upnp]: http://upnp.sourceforge.net/ [WIKI-upnp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Plug_and_Play

service: uucp

Unix-to-Unix Copy

Example:

  server uucp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: vmware

vmware

Example:

  server vmware accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

Used from VMWare 1 and up. See the VMWare KnowledgeBase.

service: vmwareauth

vmwareauth

Example:

  server vmwareauth accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

Used from VMWare 1 and up. See the VMWare KnowledgeBase.

service: vmwareweb

vmwareweb

Example:

  server vmwareweb accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

Used from VMWare 2 and up. See VMWare Server 2.0 release notes and the VMWare KnowledgeBase.

service: vnc

Virtual Network Computing

Example:

  server vnc accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

VNC is a graphical desktop sharing protocol. [WIKI-vnc]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing

service: webcache

HTTP alternate port
Alias for httpalt

service: webmin

Webmin Administration System

Example:

  server webmin accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: whois

WHOIS Protocol

Example:

  server whois accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

service: xbox

Xbox Live

Example:

  client xbox accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Notes

Definition for the Xbox live service.

See program source for contributor details.

service: xdmcp

X Display Manager Control Protocol

Example:

  server xdmcp accept

Service Type:

Server Ports:

Client Ports:

Links

Notes

See Gnome Display Manager for a discussion about XDMCP and firewalls (Gnome Display Manager is a replacement for XDM). [WIKI-xdmcp]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_display_manager_(program_type)#X_Display_Manager_Control_Protocol

firehol-synproxy(5)

NAME

firehol-synproxy - configure synproxy

SYNOPSIS

synproxy type rules-to-match-request action [action options]

DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

SYNPROXY is a TCP SYN packets proxy. It can be used to protect any TCP server (like a web server) from SYN floods and similar DDos attacks.

SYNPROXY is a netfilter module, in the Linux kernel. It is optimized to handle millions of packets per second utilizing all CPUs available without any concurrency locking between the connections.

The net effect of this, is that the real servers will not notice any change during the attack. The valid TCP connections will pass through and served, while the attack will be stopped at the firewall.

For more information on why you should use a SYNPROXY, check these articles:

SYNPROXY is included in the Linux kernels since version 3.12.

HOW IT WORKS

So, SYNPROXY can be used for any kind of TCP traffic. It can be used for both unencrypted and encrypted traffic, since it does not interfere with the content itself.

USE CASES

In FireHOL SYNPROXY support is implemented as a helper. The synproxy command can be used to set up any number of SYNPROXYs.

FireHOL can set up SYNPROXY for any of these cases:

  1. real server on the firewall itself, on the same port (e.g. SYNPROXY on port 80, real server on port 80 too).

  2. real server on the firewall itself, on a different port (e.g. SYNPROXY on port 2200, real server on port 22).

  3. real server on a different machine, without NAT (e.g. SYNPROXY on a router catching traffic towards IP A, port 80 and real server is at IP A port 80 too).

  4. real server on a different machine, with NAT (e.g. SYNPROXY on a router catching traffic towards IP A, port 80 and real server is at IP 10.1.1.1 port 90).

  5. screening incoming traffic that should never be sent to a real server so that traps and dynamic blacklists can be created using traffic that has been screened by SYNPROXY (eliminate "internet noise" and spoofed packets).

So, generally, all cases are covered.

DESIGN

The general guidelines for using synproxy in FireHOL, are:

  1. Design your firewall as you would normally do without SYNPROXY
  2. Test that it works without SYNPROXY. Test especially the servers you want to protect. They should be working too
  3. Add synproxy statements for the servers you want to protect.

To achieve these requirements:

  1. The helper will automatically do everything needed for SYNPROXY to:

There are cases where the above are very tricky to achieve. You don't need to match these in your firehol.conf. The synproxy helper will automatically take care of them. However:

You do need the allow the flow of traffic between the real server and the real client (as you normally do without a synproxy, with a client, server, or route statement in an interface or router section).

  1. The helper will prevent the 3-way TCP handshake between SYNPROXY and the real server interact with other destination NAT rules you may have. However for this to happen, make sure you place the synproxy statements above any destination NAT rules (redirect, dnat, transparent_squid, transparent_proxy, tproxy, etc). So:

SYNPROXY will interact with destination NAT you have in firehol.conf only if the synproxy statements are place below the destination NAT ones.

You normally do not need to have synproxy interact with other destination NAT rules. The synproxy helper will handle the destination NAT (dnat or redirect) it needs by itself.

So place synproxy statements above all destination NAT statements, unless you know what you are doing.

  1. The helper will allow the 3-way TCP handshake between SYNPROXY and the real server interact with source NAT rules you may have (snat, masquerade), since these may be needed to reach the real server.

LIMITATIONS

  1. Internally there are matches that are made without taking into account the original inface. So, in case different actions have to be taken depending on the interface the request is received, src should be added to differentiate the traffic between the two flows.

  2. SYNPROXY does not inherit MARKs from the original request packets. It should and it would make matching a lot easier, but it does not. This means that for all packets generated by SYNPROXY, inface is lost.

  3. FireHOL internally uses a MARK to tag packets send from SYNPROXY to the target server. This is used for 3 reasons:

OTHER OPTIONS

You can change the TCP options used by synproxy by setting the variable FIREHOL_SYNPROXY_OPTIONS. The default is this:

FIREHOL_SYNPROXY_OPTIONS="--sack-perm --timestamp --wscale 7 --mss 1460"

If you want to see it in action in the iptables log, then enable logging:

FIREHOL_SYNPROXY_LOG=1

The default is disabled (0). If you enable it, every step of the 3-way setup between the client and SYNPROXY and the SYN packet of SYNPROXY towards the real server will be logged by iptables.

Using the variable FIREHOL_CONNTRACK_LOOSE_MATCHING you can set net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_loose. FireHOL will automatically set this to 0 when a synproxy is set up.

Using the variable FIREHOL_TCP_TIMESTAMPS you can set net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps. FireHOL will automatically set this to 1 when a synproxy is set up.

Using the variable FIREHOL_TCP_SYN_COOKIES you can set net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies. FireHOL will automatically set this to 1 when a synproxy is set up.

On a busy server, you are advised to increase the maximum connection tracker entries and its hash table size.

FireHOL will not alter these variables by itself.

SYNPROXY AND DYNAMIC IP

By default the synproxy helper requires from you to define a dst IP of the server that is to be protected. This is required because the destination IP will be used to match the SYN packet the synproxy sends to the server.

There is however another way that allows the use of synproxy in environments where the IP of the server is unknown (like a dynamic IP DSL):

  1. First you need to set FIREHOL_SYNPROXY_EXCLUDE_OWNER=1. This will make synproxy not match packets that are generated by the local machine, even if the process that generates them uses your public IP (the packets in order to be matched they will need not have a UID or GID).

  2. Next you will need to exclude you lan IPs by adding src not "${UNROUTABLE_IPS}" (or any other network you know you use) to the synproxy statement.

EXAMPLES

Protect a web server running on the firewall with IP 1.2.3.4, from clients on eth0:

ipv4 synproxy input inface eth0 dst 1.2.3.4 dport 80 accept

interface eth0 wan
    server http accept

Protect a web server running on port 90 on the firewall with IP 1.2.3.4, from clients on eth0 that believe the web server is running on port 80:

server_myhttp_ports="tcp/90"
client_myhttp_ports="default"

ipv4 synproxy input inface eth0 dst 1.2.3.4 dport 80 redirect to 90

interface eth0 wan
    server myhttp accept # packet filtering works with the real ports

Protect a web server running on another machine (5.6.7.8), while the firewall is the router (without NAT):

ipv4 synproxy forward inface eth0 dst 5.6.7.8 dport 80 accept

router wan2lan inface eth0 outface eth1
    server http accept dst 5.6.7.8

Protect a web server running on another machine in a DMZ (public IP is 1.2.3.4 on eth0, web server IP is 10.1.1.1 on eth1):

ipv4 synproxy input inface eth0 \
    dst 1.2.3.4 dport 80 dnat to 10.1.1.1

router wan2lan inface eth0 outface eth1
    server http accept dst 10.1.1.1

Note that we used input not forward, because the firewall has the IP 1.2.3.4 on its eth0 interface. The client request is expected on input.

Protect an array of 10 web servers running on 10 other machines in a DMZ (public IP is 1.2.3.4 on eth0, web servers IPs are 10.1.1.1 to 10.1.1.10 on eth1):

ipv4 synproxy input inface eth0 \
    dst 1.2.3.4 dport 80 dnat to 10.1.1.1-10.1.1.10 persistent

router wan2lan inface eth0 outface eth1
    server http accept dst 10.1.1.1-10.1.1.10

The above configuration is a load balancer. Requests towards 1.2.3.4 port 80 will be distributed to the 10 web servers with persistence (each client will always see one of them).

Catch all traffic towards SSH port tcp/22 and send it to TRAP_AND_DROP as explained in Working With Traps. At the same time, allow SSH on port tcp/2200 (without altering the ssh server):

 # definition of action TRAP_AND_DROP
 ipv4 action TRAP_AND_DROP sockets_suspects_trap 3600 86400 1 src not "${UNROUTABLE_IPS}" next action DROP

 # send ssh traffic to TRAP_AND_DROP
 ipv4 synproxy input inface eth0 dst 1.2.3.4 dport 22 action TRAP_AND_DROP

 # accept ssh traffic on tcp/2200
 ipv4 synproxy input inface eth0 dst 1.2.3.4 dport 2200 redirect to 22

 interface eth0 wan
    server ssh accept

SEE ALSO

firehol-tcpmss(5)

NAME

firehol-tcpmss - set the MSS of TCP SYN packets for routers

SYNOPSIS

tcpmss { mss | auto } [if-list]

DESCRIPTION

The tcpmss helper command sets the MSS (Maximum Segment Size) of TCP SYN packets routed through the firewall. This can be used to overcome situations where Path MTU Discovery is not working and packet fragmentation is not possible.

A numeric mss will set MSS of TCP connections to the value given. Using the word auto will set the MSS to the MTU of the outgoing interface minus 40 (clamp-mss-to-pmtu).

If used within a router or interface definition the MSS will be applied to outgoing traffic on the outface(s) of the router or interface.

If used before any router or interface definitions it will be applied to all traffic passing through the firewall. If if-list is given, the MSS will be applied only to those interfaces.

EXAMPLES


tcpmss auto

tcpmss 500

tcpmss 500 "eth1 eth2 eth3"

SEE ALSO

firehol-tos(5)

NAME

firehol-tos - set the Type of Service (TOS) of packets

SYNOPSIS

tos value chain [rule-params]

DESCRIPTION

The tos helper command sets the Type of Service (TOS) field in packet headers.

Note

There is also a tos parameter which allows matching TOS values within individual rules (see firehol-params(5)).

The value can be an integer number (decimal or hexadecimal) or one of the descriptive values accepted by iptables(8) (run iptables -j TOS --help for a list).

The chain will be used to find traffic to mark. It can be any of the iptables(8) built in chains belonging to the mangle table. The chain names are: INPUT, FORWARD, OUTPUT, PREROUTING and POSTROUTING. These names are case-sensitive.

The rule-params define a set of rule parameters to match the traffic that is to be marked within the chosen chain. See firehol-params(5) for more details.

Any tos commands will affect all traffic matched. They must be declared before the first router or interface.

EXAMPLES


 # set TOS to 16, packets sent by the local machine
 tos 16 OUTPUT

 # set TOS to 0x10 (16), packets routed by the local machine
 tos 0x10 FORWARD

 # set TOS to Maximize-Throughput (8), packets routed by the local
 #              machine, destined for port TCP/25 of 198.51.100.1
 tos Maximize-Throughput FORWARD proto tcp dport 25 dst 198.51.100.1

SEE ALSO

firehol-tosfix(5)

NAME

firehol-tosfix - apply suggested TOS values to packets

SYNOPSIS

tosfix

DESCRIPTION

The tosfix helper command sets the Type of Service (TOS) field in packet headers based on the suggestions given by Erik Hensema in iptables and tc shaping tricks.

The following TOS values are set:

The tosfix command must be used before the first router or interface.

EXAMPLE

tosfix

SEE ALSO

firehol-version(5)

NAME

firehol-version - set version number of configuration file

SYNOPSIS

version 6

DESCRIPTION

The version helper command states the configuration file version.

If the value passed is newer than the running version of FireHOL supports, FireHOL will not run.

You do not have to specify a version number for a configuration file, but by doing so you will prevent FireHOL trying to process a file which it cannot handle.

The value that FireHOL expects is increased every time that the configuration file format changes.

Note

If you pass version 5 to FireHOL, it will disable IPv6 support and warn you that you must update your configuration.

SEE ALSO