The components netfilter and iptables are responsible for the filtering and manipulation of network packets and for network address translation (NAT). The filtering criteria and any actions associated with them are stored in chains, which must be matched one after another by individual network packets as they arrive. The chains to match are stored in tables. The iptables command allows you to alter these tables and rule sets.

The Linux kernel maintains three tables, each for a particular category of functions of the packet filter:

These tables contain several predefined chains to match packets:

Figure 15.1, “iptables: A Packet's Possible Paths” illustrates the paths along which a network packet may travel on a given system. For the sake of simplicity, the figure lists tables as parts of chains, but in reality these chains are held within the tables themselves.

In the simplest case, an incoming packet destined for the system itself arrives at the eth0 interface. The packet is first referred to the PREROUTING chain of the mangle table then to the PREROUTING chain of the nat table. The following step, concerning the routing of the packet, determines that the actual target of the packet is a process of the system itself. After passing the INPUT chains of the mangle and the filter table, the packet finally reaches its target, provided that the rules of the filter table are actually matched.

Figure 15.1: iptables: A Packet's Possible Paths #

Masquerading is the Linux-specific form of NAT (network address translation). It can be used to connect a small LAN (where hosts use IP addresses from the private range—see Book “Reference”, Chapter 13 “Basic Networking”, Section 13.1.2 “Netmasks and Routing”) with the Internet (where official IP addresses are used). For the LAN hosts to be able to connect to the Internet, their private addresses are translated to an official one. This is done on the router, which acts as the gateway between the LAN and the Internet. The underlying principle is a simple one: The router has more than one network interface, typically a network card and a separate interface connecting with the Internet. While the latter links the router with the outside world, one or several others link it with the LAN hosts. With these hosts in the local network connected to the network card (such as eth0) of the router, they can send any packets not destined for the local network to their default gateway or router.

Important: Using the Correct Network Mask

When configuring your network, make sure both the broadcast address and the netmask are the same for all local hosts. Failing to do so prevents packets from being routed properly.

As mentioned, whenever one of the LAN hosts sends a packet destined for an Internet address, it goes to the default router. However, the router must be configured before it can forward such packets. For security reasons, this is not enabled in a default installation. To enable it, set the variable IP_FORWARD in the file /etc/sysconfig/sysctl to IP_FORWARD=yes.

The target host of the connection can see your router, but knows nothing about the host in your internal network where the packets originated. This is why the technique is called masquerading. Because of the address translation, the router is the first destination of any reply packets. The router must identify these incoming packets and translate their target addresses, so packets can be forwarded to the correct host in the local network.

With the routing of inbound traffic depending on the masquerading table, there is no way to open a connection to an internal host from the outside. For such a connection, there would be no entry in the table. In addition, any connection already established has a status entry assigned to it in the table, so the entry cannot be used by another connection.

As a consequence of all this, you might experience some problems with a number of application protocols, such as ICQ, cucme, IRC (DCC, CTCP), and FTP (in PORT mode). Web browsers, the standard FTP program, and many other programs use the PASV mode. This passive mode is much less problematic as far as packet filtering and masquerading are concerned.

Firewall is probably the term most widely used to describe a mechanism that provides and manages a link between networks while also controlling the data flow between them. Strictly speaking, the mechanism described in this section is called a packet filter. A packet filter regulates the data flow according to certain criteria, such as protocols, ports, and IP addresses. This allows you to block packets that, according to their addresses, are not supposed to reach your network. To allow public access to your Web server, for example, explicitly open the corresponding port. However, a packet filter does not scan the contents of packets with legitimate addresses, such as those directed to your Web server. For example, if incoming packets were intended to compromise a CGI program on your Web server, the packet filter would still let them through.

A more effective but more complex mechanism is the combination of several types of systems, such as a packet filter interacting with an application gateway or proxy. In this case, the packet filter rejects any packets destined for disabled ports. Only packets directed to the application gateway are accepted. This gateway or proxy pretends to be the actual client of the server. In a sense, such a proxy could be considered a masquerading host on the protocol level used by the application. One example for such a proxy is Squid, an HTTP and FTP proxy server. To use Squid, the browser must be configured to communicate via the proxy. Any HTTP pages or FTP files requested are served from the proxy cache and objects not found in the cache are fetched from the Internet by the proxy.

The following section focuses on the packet filter that comes with openSUSE Leap. For further information about packet filtering and firewalling, read the Firewall HOWTO included in the howto package. If this package is installed, read the HOWTO with

less /usr/share/doc/howto/en/txt/Firewall-HOWTO.gz

SuSEFirewall2 is a script that reads the variables set in /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 to generate a set of iptables rules. It defines three security zones, although only the first and the second one are considered in the following sample configuration:

Any kind of network traffic not explicitly allowed by the filtering rule set is suppressed by iptables. Therefore, each of the interfaces with incoming traffic must be placed into one of the three zones. For each of the zones, define the services or protocols allowed. The rule set is only applied to packets originating from remote hosts. Locally generated packets are not captured by the firewall.

The configuration can be performed with YaST (see Section 15.4.1, “Configuring the Firewall with YaST”). It can also be made manually in the file /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2, which is well commented. Additionally, several example scenarios are available in /usr/share/doc/packages/SuSEfirewall2/EXAMPLES.

15.4.1 Configuring the Firewall with YaST #

The YaST dialogs for the graphical configuration can be accessed from the YaST control center. Select Security and Users › Firewall. The configuration is divided into seven sections that can be accessed directly from the tree structure on the left side.

Start-Up

Set the start-up behavior in this dialog. In a default installation, SuSEFirewall2 is started automatically. You can also start and stop the firewall here. To implement your new settings in a running firewall, use Save Settings and Restart Firewall Now.

Interfaces

All known network interfaces are listed here. To remove an interface from a zone, select the interface, press Change, and choose No Zone Assigned. To add an interface to a zone, select the interface, press Change and choose any of the available zones. You may also create a special interface with your own settings by using Custom.

Allowed Services

You need this option to offer services from your system to a zone from which it is protected. By default, the system is only protected from external zones. Explicitly allow the services that should be available to external hosts. After selecting the desired zone in Allowed Services for Selected Zone, activate the services from the list.

Masquerading

Masquerading hides your internal network from external networks (such as the Internet) while enabling hosts in the internal network to access the external network transparently. Requests from the external network to the internal one are blocked and requests from the internal network seem to be issued by the masquerading server when seen externally. If special services of an internal machine need to be available to the external network, add special redirect rules for the service.

Broadcast

In this dialog, configure the UDP ports that allow broadcasts. Add the required port numbers or services to the appropriate zone, separated by spaces. See also the file /etc/services.

The logging of broadcasts that are not accepted can be enabled here. This may be problematic, because Windows hosts use broadcasts to know about each other and so generate many packets that are not accepted.

IPsec Support

Configure whether the IPsec service should be available to the external network in this dialog. Configure which packets are trusted under Details.

There is another functionality under Details: IPsec packets are packed in an encrypted format, so they need to be decrypted and you can configure the way the firewall will handle the decrypted packets. If you select Internal Zone, the decrypted IPsec packets will be trusted as if they came from the Internal Zone - although they could possibly come from the external one. Choose Same Zone as Original Source Network to avoid this situation.

Logging Level

There are two rules for logging: accepted and not accepted packets. Packets that are not accepted are DROPPED or REJECTED. Select from Log All, Log Only Critical, or Do Not Log Any.

Custom Rules

Here, set special firewall rules that allow connections, matching specified criteria such as source network, protocol, destination port, and source port. Configure such rules for external, internal, and demilitarized zones.

When finished with the firewall configuration, exit this dialog with Next. A zone-oriented summary of your firewall configuration then opens. In it, check all settings. All services, ports, and protocols that have been allowed and all custom rules are listed in this summary. To modify the configuration, use Back. Press Finish to save your configuration.

15.4.1.1 Opening Ports #

In case your network interfaces are located in a firewall zone where network traffic is blocked on most ports, services that manage their network traffic via a blocked por, will not work. A commonly used service is for example SSH, which uses port 22, which is blocked by default on interfaces located in the external or demilitarized zone. To make SSH work, you need to open port 22 in the firewall configuration. This can be done with the YaST module Firewall.

Figure 15.2: Firewall Configuration: Allowed Services #

Important: Automatic Firewall Configuration

After the installation, YaST automatically starts a firewall on all configured interfaces. If a server is configured and activated on the system, YaST can modify the automatically generated firewall configuration with the options Open Ports on Selected Interface in Firewall or Open Ports on Firewall in the server configuration modules. Some server module dialogs include a Firewall Details button for activating additional services and ports. The YaST firewall configuration module can be used to activate, deactivate, or reconfigure the firewall.

Procedure 15.1: Manually Open Firewall Ports with YaST #

1. Open YaST › Security and Users › Firewall and switch to the Allowed Services tab.

2. Select a zone at Allow Services for Selected Zone in which to open the port. It is not possible to open a port for several zones at once.

3. Select a service from Service to Allow and choose Add to add it to the list of Allowed Services. The port this service uses will be unblocked.

   In case your service is not listed, you need to manually specify the port(s) to unblock. Choose Advanced to open a dialog where you can specify TCP, UPD, RPC ports and IP protocols. Refer to the help section in this dialog for details.

4. Choose Next to display a summary of your changes. Modify them by choosing Back or apply them by choosing Finish.

Mar 15 13:21:38 linux kernel: SFW2-INext-DROP-DEFLT IN=eth0
OUT= MAC=00:80:c8:94:c3:e7:00:a0:c9:4d:27:56:08:00 SRC=192.168.10.0
DST=192.168.10.1 LEN=60 TOS=0x10 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=15330 DF PROTO=TCP
SPT=48091 DPT=23 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
OPT (020405B40402080A061AFEBC0000000001030300)

The most up-to-date information and other documentation about the SuSEFirewall2 package is found in /usr/share/doc/packages/SuSEfirewall2. The home page of the netfilter and iptables project, http://www.netfilter.org, provides a large collection of documents in many languages.