Copyright © 2002-2009, 2016-2017 Thomas M. Eastep
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.
2020/02/16
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- PPTP/ADSL
- Shorewall Concepts
- Network Interfaces
- IP Addresses
- IP Masquerading (SNAT)
- Logging
- Kernel Module Loading
- Port Forwarding (DNAT)
- Domain Name Server (DNS)
- Other Connections
- Some Things to Keep in Mind
- Starting and Stopping Your Firewall
- If it Doesn't Work
- Disabling your existing Firewall
- Additional Recommended Reading
Caution
This article applies to Shorewall 4.4 and later. If you are running a version of Shorewall earlier than Shorewall 4.4.0 then please see the documentation for that release.
Setting up a Linux system as a firewall for a small network with DMZ is a fairly straight-forward task if you understand the basics and follow the documentation.
This guide doesn't attempt to acquaint you with all of the features of Shorewall. It rather focuses on what is required to configure Shorewall in one of its more popular configurations:
Linux system used as a firewall/router for a small local network.
Single public IP address.
Note
If you have more than one public IP address, this is not the guide you want -- see the Shorewall Setup Guide instead.
DMZ connected to a separate Ethernet interface. The purpose of a DMZ is to isolate those servers that are exposed to the Internet from your local systems so that if one of those servers is compromised there is still a firewall between the hacked server and your local systems.
Connection through DSL, Cable Modem, ISDN, Frame Relay, dial-up, ...
Here is a schematic of a typical installation.
Shorewall requires that you have the
iproute/iproute2 package installed
(on RedHat™, the package is called
iproute). You can tell if this package is installed
by the presence of an ip program on your firewall
system. As root
, you can use
the which command to check for this program:
[root@gateway root]# which ip
/sbin/ip
[root@gateway root]#
I recommend that you first read through the guide to familiarize yourself with what's involved then go back through it again making your configuration changes.
Caution
If you edit your configuration files on a Windows™ system, you must save them as Unix™ files if your editor supports that option or you must run them through dos2unix before trying to use them. Similarly, if you copy a configuration file from your Windows™ hard drive to a floppy disk, you must run dos2unix against the copy before using it with Shorewall.
If you have an ADSL Modem and you use PPTP to communicate with a server in that modem, you must make the changes recommended here in addition to those detailed below. ADSL with PPTP is most commonly found in Europe, notably in Austria.
The configuration files for Shorewall are contained in the directory
/etc/shorewall
-- for simple setups, you will only
need to deal with a few of these as described in this guide.
After you have installed Shorewall, locate the three-interface Sample configuration:
If you installed using an RPM, the samples will be in the Samples/three-interfaces/ subdirectory of the Shorewall documentation directory. If you don't know where the Shorewall documentation directory is, you can find the samples using this command:
~# rpm -ql shorewall | fgrep three-interfaces /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/interfaces /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/masq /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/policy /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/rules /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/zones ~#
When running Shorewall 5.0.14 or later:
~# rpm -ql shorewall | fgrep three-interfaces /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/interfaces /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/policy /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/rules /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/snat /usr/share/doc/packages/shorewall/Samples/three-interfaces/zones ~#
If you installed using the tarball, the samples are in the Samples/three-interfaces directory in the tarball.
If you installed using a Shorewall 3.x .deb, the samples are in /usr/share/doc/shorewall/examples/three-interfaces. You must install the shorewall-doc package.
If you installed using a Shorewall 4.x .deb, the samples are in
/usr/share/doc/shorewall/examples/three-interfaces
. You do not need the shorewall-doc package to have access to the samples.Warning
Note to Debian Users
If you install using the .deb, you will find that your
/etc/shorewall
directory is empty. This is intentional. The released configuration file skeletons may be found on your system in the directory/usr/share/doc/shorewall/default-config
. Simply copy the files you need from that directory to/etc/shorewall
and modify the copies.
As each file is introduced, I suggest that you look at the actual
file on your system and that you look at the man page for that
file. For example, to look at the man page for the
/etc/shorewall/zones
file, type man
shorewall-zones at a shell prompt.
Note: Beginning with Shorewall 4.4.20.1, there are versions of the sample files that are annotated with the corresponding manpage contents. These files have names ending in '.annotated'. You might choose to look at those files instead.
Shorewall views the network where it is running as being composed of a set of zones. In the three-interface sample configuration, the following zone names are used:
#ZONE TYPE OPTIONS IN_OPTIONS OUT_OPTIONS fw firewall net ipv4 loc ipv4 dmz ipv4
Zone names are defined in
/etc/shorewall/zones
.
Note that Shorewall recognizes the firewall system as its own zone. When the /etc/shorewall/zones file is processed, he name of the firewall zone is stored in the shell variable $FW which may be used throughout the Shorewall configuration to refer to the firewall zone.
Rules about what traffic to allow and what traffic to deny are expressed in terms of zones.
You express your default policy for connections from one zone to another zone in the
/etc/shorewall/policy
file.You define exceptions to those default policies in the
/etc/shorewall/rules
file.
For each connection request entering the firewall, the request is
first checked against the /etc/shorewall/rules
file.
If no rule in that file matches the connection request then the first
policy in /etc/shorewall/policy
that matches the
request is applied. If there is a common action defined for
the policy in /etc/shorewall/actions
or
/usr/share/shorewall/actions.std
then that action is
performed before the action is applied. The purpose of the common action
is two-fold:
It silently drops or rejects harmless common traffic that would otherwise clutter up your log — Broadcasts for example.
If ensures that traffic critical to correct operation is allowed through the firewall — ICMP fragmentation-needed for example.
The /etc/shorewall/policy
file included with
the three-interface sample has the following policies:
#SOURCE DEST POLICY LOGLEVEL LIMIT loc net ACCEPT net all DROP info all all REJECT info
Important
In the three-interface sample, the line below is included but commented out. If you want your firewall system to have full access to servers on the Internet, uncomment that line.
#SOURCE DEST POLICY LOGLEVEL LIMIT $FW net ACCEPT
The above policy will:
allow all connection requests from your local network to the Internet
drop (ignore) all connection requests from the Internet to your firewall or local network
optionally accept all connection requests from the firewall to the Internet (if you uncomment the additional policy)
reject all other connection requests.
The word info in the LOG LEVEL column for the DROP and REJECT policies indicates that packets dropped or rejected under those policies should be logged at that level.
Some people want to consider their firewall to be part of their local network from a security perspective. If you want to do this, add these two policies:
#SOURCE DEST POLICY LOGLEVEL LIMIT loc $FW ACCEPT $FW loc ACCEPT
It is important to note that Shorewall policies (and rules) refer to
connections and not packet flow. With the
policies defined in the /etc/shorewall/policy
file shown above,
connections are allowed from the loc zone to the
net zone even though connections are not allowed from
the loc zone to the firewall itself.
At this point, edit your /etc/shorewall/policy
file and make any changes that you wish.
The firewall has three network interfaces. Where Internet
connectivity is through a cable or DSL “Modem”, the External
Interface will be the Ethernet adapter that is connected to that
“Modem” (e.g., eth0
)
unless you connect via Point-to-Point Protocol over
Ethernet (PPPoE) or Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
(PPTP) in which case the External Interface will be a
ppp
interface (e.g., ppp0
). If you connect via a regular modem,
your External Interface will also be ppp0
. If you connect using ISDN, you
external interface will be ippp0
.
Caution
Be sure you know which interface is your external interface. Many hours have been spent floundering by users who have configured the wrong interface. If you are unsure, then as root type ip route ls at the command line. The device listed in the last (default) route should be your external interface.
Example:
root@lists:~# ip route ls
192.168.1.1 dev eth0 scope link
192.168.2.2 dev tun0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.2.1
192.168.3.0/24 dev br0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.3.254
10.13.10.0/24 dev tun1 scope link
192.168.2.0/24 via 192.168.2.2 dev tun0
192.168.1.0/24 dev br0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.254
206.124.146.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 206.124.146.176
10.10.10.0/24 dev tun1 scope link
default via 206.124.146.254 dev eth0
root@lists:~#
In that example, eth0
is
the external interface.
If your external interface is ppp0
or ippp0
then you will want to set
CLAMPMSS=yes
in
/etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf
.
Your Local Interface will be an Ethernet adapter (eth0
, eth1
or eth2
) and will be connected to a hub or
switch. Your local computers will be connected to the same switch (note:
If you have only a single local system, you can connect the firewall
directly to the computer using a cross-over cable).
Your DMZ Interface will also be an Ethernet adapter (eth0
, eth1
or eth2
) and will be connected to a hub or
switch. Your DMZ computers will be connected to the same switch (note: If
you have only a single DMZ system, you can connect the firewall directly
to the computer using a cross-over cable).
Caution
Do NOT connect multiple interfaces to the
same hub or switch except for testing. You can test using
this kind of configuration if you specify the arp_filter option or the arp_ignore option in
/etc/shorewall/interfaces
for all interfaces
connected to the common hub/switch. Using such a
setup with a production firewall is strongly recommended
against.
Caution
Do not configure a default route on your internal and DMZ interfaces. Your firewall should have exactly one default route via your ISP's Router.
The Shorewall three-interface sample configuration assumes that the
external interface is eth0
, the
local interface is eth1
and the
DMZ interface is eth2
. If your
configuration is different, you will have to modify the sample
/etc/shorewall/interfaces
file accordingly. While you
are there, you may wish to review the list of options that are specified
for the interfaces. Some hints:
Tip
If your external interface is ppp0
or ippp0
or if you have a static IP address,
you can remove “dhcp” from the option list.
Prior to Shorewall 5.1.9, it is also required to change the snat and
stoppedrules file, to replace eth0
with the name of
your external interface and eth1
with the name of
your local interface.
Before going further, we should say a few words about Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Normally, your ISP will assign you a single Public IP address. This address may be assigned via the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) or as part of establishing your connection when you dial in (standard modem) or establish your PPP connection. In rare cases, your ISP may assign you a static IP address; that means that you configure your firewall's external interface to use that address permanently. Regardless of how the address is assigned, it will be shared by all of your systems when you access the Internet. You will have to assign your own addresses for your internal network (the local and DMZ Interfaces on your firewall plus your other computers). RFC 1918 reserves several Private IP address ranges for this purpose:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
You will want to assign your local addresses from one sub-network or
subnet and your DMZ addresses from another subnet. For our purposes, we
can consider a subnet to consists of a range of addresses x.y.z.0
- x.y.z.255
. Such a subnet will have a Subnet
Mask of 255.255.255.0
. The
address x.y.z.0
is reserved as
the Subnet Address and x.y.z.255
is reserved as the Subnet Broadcast Address. In Shorewall, a subnet is
described using Classless InterDomain Routing (CIDR) notation with
consists of the subnet address followed by /24
. The
24
refers to the number of consecutive “1”
bits from the left of the subnet mask.
Table 1. Example sub-network
Range: | 10.10.10.0 -
10.10.10.255 |
Subnet Address: | 10.10.10.0 |
Broadcast Address: | 10.10.10.255 |
CIDR Notation: | 10.10.10.0/24 |
It is conventional to assign the internal interface either the first
usable address in the subnet (10.10.10.1
in the above example) or the
last usable address (10.10.10.254
).
One of the purposes of subnetting is to allow all computers in the subnet to understand which other computers can be communicated with directly. To communicate with systems outside of the subnetwork, systems send packets through a gateway (router).
Your local computers (Local Computers 1 & 2) should be configured with their default gateway set to the IP address of the firewall's internal interface and your DMZ computers (DMZ Computers 1 & 2) should be configured with their default gateway set to the IP address of the firewall's DMZ interface.
The foregoing short discussion barely scratches the surface regarding subnetting and routing. If you are interested in learning more about IP addressing and routing, I highly recommend “IP Fundamentals: What Everyone Needs to Know about Addressing & Routing”, Thomas A. Maufer, Prentice-Hall, 1999, ISBN 0-13-975483-0.
The remainder of this guide will assume that you have configured your network as shown here:
The addresses reserved by RFC 1918 are sometimes referred to as non-routable because the Internet backbone routers don't forward packets which have an RFC-1918 destination address. When one of your local systems (let's assume local computer 1) sends a connection request to an Internet host, the firewall must perform Network Address Translation (NAT). The firewall rewrites the source address in the packet to be the address of the firewall's external interface; in other words, the firewall makes it look as if the firewall itself is initiating the connection. This is necessary so that the destination host will be able to route return packets back to the firewall (remember that packets whose destination address is reserved by RFC 1918 can't be routed across the Internet). When the firewall receives a return packet, it rewrites the destination address back to 10.10.10.1 and forwards the packet on to local computer 1.
On Linux systems, the above process is often referred to as IP Masquerading and you will also see the term Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) used. Shorewall follows the convention used with Netfilter:
Masquerade describes the case where you let your firewall system automatically detect the external interface address.
SNAT refers to the case when you explicitly specify the source address that you want outbound packets from your local network to use.
In Shorewall, both Masquerading and SNAT are configured
with entries in the /etc/shorewall/
masq
file
(/etc/shorewall/snat
when running Shorewall 5.0.14 or
later).
If your external firewall interface is eth0
then you do not need to modify the file
provided with the sample. Otherwise, edit /etc/shorewall/
masq
or
/etc/shorewall/snat
and change it to match your
configuration.
If, in spite of all advice to the contrary, you are using this guide and want to use one-to-one NAT or Proxy ARP for your DMZ, you will need to modify the SOURCE column to list just your local interface (10.10.10.0/24 in the above example).
If your external IP is static then, if you are
running Shorewall 5.0.13 or earlier, you can enter our static IP in the
third column in the /etc/shorewall/
masq
entry if you like although your firewall will work fine if you leave that
column empty (Masquerade). Entering your static IP in
column 3 (SNAT) makes the processing of outgoing packets a little more
efficient.
When running Shorewall 5.0.14 or later, the rule in /etc/shorewall/snat must be change from a MASQUERADE rule to an SNAT rule.
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO PORT
SNAT(static-ip
) ...
If you are using the Debian package, please
check your shorewall.conf
file to ensure that the
following is set correctly; if it is not, change it appropriately:
IP_FORWARDING=On
Shorewall does not maintain a log itself but rather relies on your system's logging configuration. The following commands rely on knowing where Netfilter messages are logged:
shorewall show log (Displays the last 20 Netfilter log messages)
shorewall logwatch (Polls the log at a settable interval
shorewall dump (Produces an extensive report for inclusion in Shorewall problem reports)
It is important that these commands work properly because when you encounter connection problems when Shorewall is running, the first thing that you should do is to look at the Netfilter log; with the help of Shorewall FAQ 17, you can usually resolve the problem quickly.
The Netfilter log location is distribution-dependent:
Debian and its derivatives log Netfilter messages to
/var/log/kern.log
.Recent SuSE/OpenSuSE™ releases come preconfigured with syslog-ng and log netfilter messages to
/var/log/firewall
.For other distributions, Netfilter messages are most commonly logged to
/var/log/messages
.
If you are running a distribution that logs netfilter messages to a
log other than /var/log/messages
, then modify the
LOGFILE setting in /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf
to
specify the name of your log.
Important
The LOGFILE setting does not control where the Netfilter log is
maintained -- it simply tells the /sbin/shorewall
utility where to find the log.
Beginning in Shorewall 4.4.7,
/etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf
contains a
LOAD_HELPERS_ONLY option which is set to Yes
in the
samples. This causes Shorewall to attempt to load the modules listed in
/usr/share/shorewall/helpers
. In addition, it sets
sip_direct_media=0 when loading the
nf_conntrack_sip module. That setting is somewhat less secure than
sip_direct_media=1, but it generally
makes VOIP through the firewall work much better.
The modules in /usr/share/shorewall/helpers
are
those that are not autoloaded. If your kernel does not support module
autoloading and you want Shorewall to attempt to load all netfilter
modules that it might require, then set LOAD_HELPERS_ONLY=No. That will
cause Shorewall to try to load the modules listed in
/usr/share/shorewall/modules
. That file does not set
sip_direct_media=0.
If you need to modify either
/usr/share/shorewall/helpers
or
/usr/share/shorewall/modules
then copy the file to
/etc/shorewall
and modify the copy.
Modify the setting of LOAD_HELPER_ONLY as necessary.
Important
In Shorewall 5.2.3, the LOAD_HELPERS_ONLY option was removed, and the behavior is the same as if LOAD_HELPERS_ONLY=Yes was specified.
One of your goals will be to run one or more servers on your DMZ computers. Because these computers have RFC-1918 addresses, it is not possible for clients on the Internet to connect directly to them. It is rather necessary for those clients to address their connection requests to your firewall who rewrites the destination address to the address of your server and forwards the packet to that server. When your server responds, the firewall automatically performs SNAT to rewrite the source address in the response.
The above process is called Port Forwarding or
Destination Network Address Translation (DNAT). You
configure port forwarding using DNAT rules in the /etc/shorewall/
rules
file.
The general form of a simple port forwarding rule in /etc/shorewall/
rules
is:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT DNAT net dmz:<server local IP address>[:<server port>] <protocol> <port>
If you don't specify the <server
port>
, it is assumed to be the same as
<port>
.
Important
Be sure to add your rules after the line that reads SECTION NEW.
Example 1. You run a Web Server on DMZ Computer 2 and you want to forward incoming TCP port 80 to that system
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT Web(DNAT) net dmz:10.10.11.2 Web(ACCEPT) loc dmz:10.10.11.2
Entry 1 forwards port 80 from the Internet.
Entry 2 allows connections from the local network.
Several important points to keep in mind:
When you are connecting to your server from your local systems, you must use the server's internal IP address (
10.10.11.2
) or you must use DNAT from the loc zone as well (see below).#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT ORIGDEST Web(DNAT) loc dmz:10.10.11.2 - - -
external-ip-address
where
external-ip-address
is the IP address of the firewall's external interface.Many ISPs block incoming connection requests to port 80. If you have problems connecting to your web server, try the following rule and try connecting to port 5000 (e.g., connect to
http://w.x.y.z:5000 where w.x.y.z
is your external IP).#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT ORIGDEST DNAT net dmz:10.10.11.2:80 tcp 5000
If you want to be able to access your server from the local network using your external address, then if you have a static external IP you can replace the loc->dmz rule above with:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT ORIGDEST DNAT loc dmz:10.10.11.2 tcp 80 - <external IP>
If you have a dynamic IP then you must ensure that your external interface is up before starting Shorewall and you must code the rule as follows (assume that your external interface is
eth0
):#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT ORIGDEST DNAT loc dmz:10.10.11.2 tcp 80 - ð0
'ð0' expands to the IP address of eth0 (see this article).
If you want to access your server from the DMZ using your external IP address, see FAQ 2a.
At this point, add the DNAT and ACCEPT rules for your servers.
Important
When testing DNAT rules like those shown above, you must test from a client OUTSIDE YOUR FIREWALL (in the 'net' zone). You cannot test these rules from inside the firewall!
For DNAT troubleshooting tips, see FAQs 1a and 1b.
Normally, when you connect to your ISP, as part of getting an IP
address your firewall's Domain Name Service (DNS)
resolver will be automatically configured (e.g., the
/etc/resolv.conf
file will be written).
Alternatively, your ISP may have given you the IP address of a pair of DNS
name servers for you to manually configure as your primary and secondary
name servers. It is your responsibility to configure the resolver in your
internal systems. You can take one of two approaches:
You can configure your internal systems to use your ISP's name servers. If your ISP gave you the addresses of their servers or if those addresses are available on their web site, you can configure your internal systems to use those addresses. If that information isn't available, look in
/etc/resolv.conf
on your firewall system -- the name servers are given in “nameserver” records in that file.You can configure a Caching Name Server on your firewall or in your DMZ. Red Hat™ has an RPM for a caching name server (which also requires the 'bind' RPM) and for Bering users, there is
dnscache.lrp
. If you take this approach, you configure your internal systems to use the caching name server as their primary (and only) name server. You use the internal IP address of the firewall (10.10.10.254
in the example above) for the name server address if you choose to run the name server on your firewall. To allow your local systems to talk to your caching name server, you must open port 53 (both UDP and TCP) from the local network to the server; you do that by adding the rules in/etc/shorewall/rules
.
If you run the name server on the firewall:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT DNS(ACCEPT) loc $FW DNS(ACCEPT) dmz $FW
Run name server on DMZ computer 1:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT DNS(ACCEPT) loc dmz:10.10.11.1 DNS(ACCEPT) $FW dmz:10.10.11.1
In the rules shown above, “DNS”(ACCEPT)is an example of
a defined macro. Shorewall includes a number of
defined macros and you can add your own.
To see the list of macros included with your version of Shorewall, run the
command shorewall show
macros
.
You don't have to use defined macros when coding a rule in
/etc/shorewall/rules
. The first example above (name
server on the firewall) could also have been coded as follows:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT ACCEPT loc $FW tcp 53 ACCEPT loc $FW udp 53 ACCEPT dmz $FW tcp 53 ACCEPT dmz $FW udp 53
In cases where Shorewall doesn't include a defined macro to meet your needs, you can either define the macro yourself or you can simply code the appropriate rules directly. This page can be of help if you don't know the protocol and port involved.
Caution
The Shorewall-provided macros assume that the service is using its standard port and will not work with a service listening on a non-standard port.
The three-interface sample includes the following rule:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT DNS(ACCEPT) $FW net
That rule allow DNS access
from your firewall and may be removed if you commented out the line in
/etc/shorewall/policy
allowing all connections from
the firewall to the Internet.
The sample also includes:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SSH(ACCEPT) loc $FW SSH(ACCEPT) loc dmz
Those rules allow you to run an SSH server on your firewall and in each of your DMZ systems and to connect to those servers from your local systems.
If you wish to enable other connections between your systems, the general format for using a defined macro is:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT <macro>(ACCEPT) <source zone> <destination zone>
The general format when not using a defined macro is:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT
ACCEPT <source zone> <destination zone> <protocol> <port>
Example 2. You want to run a publicly-available DNS server on your firewall system
Using defined macros:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT DNS(ACCEPT) net $FW
Not using defined macros:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT ACCEPT net $FW tcp 53 ACCEPT net $FW udp 53
Those rules would of course be in addition to the rules listed above under "If you run the name server on your firewall".
If you don't know what port and protocol a particular application uses, look here.
Important
I don't recommend enabling telnet to/from the Internet because it uses clear text (even for login!). If you want shell access to your firewall from the Internet, use SSH:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SSH(ACCEPT) net $FW
Bering users will want to add the following two rules to be compatible with Jacques's Shorewall configuration:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT ACCEPT loc $FW udp 53 ACCEPT net $FW tcp 80
Entry 1 allows the DNS Cache to be used.
Entry 2 allows the “weblet” to work.
Now modify /etc/shorewall/rules
to add or
remove other connections as required.
You cannot test your firewall from the inside. Just because you send requests to your firewall external IP address does not mean that the request will be associated with the external interface or the “net” zone. Any traffic that you generate from the local network will be associated with your local interface and will be treated as loc->fw traffic.
IP addresses are properties of systems, not of interfaces. It is a mistake to believe that your firewall is able to forward packets just because you can ping the IP address of all of the firewall's interfaces from the local network. The only conclusion you can draw from such pinging success is that the link between the local system and the firewall works and that you probably have the local system's default gateway set correctly.
All IP addresses configured on firewall interfaces are in the $FW (fw) zone. If 192.168.1.254 is the IP address of your internal interface then you can write “$FW:192.168.1.254” in a rule but you may not write “loc:192.168.1.254”. Similarly, it is nonsensical to add 192.168.1.254 to the loc zone using an entry in
/etc/shorewall/hosts
.Reply packets do NOT automatically follow the reverse path of the one taken by the original request. All packets are routed according to the routing table of the host at each step of the way. This issue commonly comes up when people install a Shorewall firewall parallel to an existing gateway and try to use DNAT through Shorewall without changing the default gateway of the system receiving the forwarded requests. Requests come in through the Shorewall firewall where the destination IP address gets rewritten but replies go out unmodified through the old gateway.
Shorewall itself has no notion of inside or outside. These concepts are embodied in how Shorewall is configured.
The installation procedure
configures your system to start Shorewall at system boot but startup is
disabled so that your system won't try to start Shorewall before
configuration is complete. Once you have completed configuration of your
firewall, you can enable Shorewall startup by editing
/etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf
and setting
STARTUP_ENABLED=Yes.
Important
Users of the .deb
package must edit
/etc/default/shorewall
and set
startup=1
.
While you are editing shorewall.conf
, it is a
good idea to check the value of the SUBSYSLOCK option. You can find a
description of this option by typing 'man shorewall.conf' at a shell
prompt and searching for SUBSYSLOCK
The firewall is started using the shorewall start
command and stopped using shorewall stop. When the
firewall is stopped, routing is enabled on those hosts that have an entry
in /etc/shorewall/stoppedrules
(/etc/shorewall/routestopped
on Shorewall 4.5.7 and earlier). A running firewall may be restarted using
the shorewall reload command. If you want to totally
remove any trace of Shorewall from your Netfilter configuration, use
shorewall clear.
The three-interface sample assumes that you want to enable routing
to/from eth1
(your local network)
and eth2
(DMZ) when Shorewall is
stopped. If these two interfaces don't connect to your local network and
DMZ or if you want to enable a different set of hosts, modify
/etc/shorewall/routestopped
accordingly.
Warning
If you are connected to your firewall from the Internet, do not issue a “shorewall stop” command unless you have either:
Used ADMINISABSENTMINDED=Yes in
/etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf
; oradded an entry for the IP address that you are connected from to
/etc/shorewall/
routestopped
.
Also, I don't recommend using “shorewall reload”; it is better to create an alternate configuration and test it using the “shorewall try” command.
The firewall will start after your network interfaces have been brought up. This leaves a small window between the time that the network interface are working and when the firewall is controlling connections through those interfaces. If this is a concern, you can close that window by installing the Shorewall Init Package.
Re-check each of the items flagged with a red arrow above.
Check your log.
Check the Troubleshooting Guide.
Check the FAQ.
Before starting Shorewall for the first time, it's a good idea to stop your existing firewall. On older Redhat/CentOS/Fedora:
service iptables stop
On recent Fedora systems that run systemd, the command is:
systemctl stop iptables.service
If you are running SuSE, use Yast or Yast2 to stop SuSEFirewall.
On other systems that use a classic SysV init system:
/etc/init.d/iptables stop
Once you have Shorewall running to your satisfaction, you should totally disable your existing firewall. On older Redhat/CentOS/Fedora:
chkconfig --del iptables
On Debian systems:
update-rc.d iptables disable
On recent Fedora system running systemd:
systemctl disable iptables.service
At this point, disable your existing firewall service.
I highly recommend that you review the Common Configuration File Features page -- it contains helpful tips about Shorewall features than make administering your firewall easier. Also, Operating Shorewall and Shorewall Lite contains a lot of useful operational hints.