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Chapter 11. Basic Firewall Configuration
Just as a firewall in a building attempts to prevent a fire from spreading, a
computer firewall attempts to prevent computer viruses from spreading to
your computer and to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your
computer. A firewall exists between your computer and the network. It
determines which services on your computer remote users on the network
can access. A properly configured firewall can greatly increase the security
of your system. It is recommended that you configure a firewall for any Red
Hat Enterprise Linux system with an Internet connection.
11.1. Security Level Configuration Tool
During the Firewall Configuration screen of the Red Hat Enterprise
Linux installation, you were given the option to enable a basic firewall
as well as to allow specific devices, incoming services, and ports.
After installation, you can change this preference by using the
Security Level Configuration Tool.
To start the application, select Main Menu Button (on the Panel) =>
System Settings => Security Level or type the command system-
config-securitylevel from a shell prompt (for example, in an
XTerm or a GNOME terminal).
Figure 111. Security Level Configuration Tool
Note
The Security Level Configuration Tool only configures a basic
firewall. If the system needs more complex rules, refer to the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Reference Guide for details on configuring specific
iptables rules.
11.1.1. Enabling and Disabling the Firewall
Select one of the following options:
• Disable firewall — Disabling the firewall provides complete
access to your system and does no security checking. Security
checking is the disabling of access to certain services. This
should only be selected if you are running on a trusted network
(not the Internet) or plan to do more firewall configuration later.
Warning
If you have a firewall configured or any customized firewall rules in
the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file, the file is deleted by selecting
Disable firewall and clicking OK to save the changes.
• Enable firewall — This option configures the system to reject
incoming connections that are not in response to outbound
requests, such as DNS replies or DHCP requests. If access to
services running on this machine is needed, you can choose to
allow specific services through the firewall.
If you are connecting your system to the Internet, but do not
plan to run a server, this is the safest choice.
11.1.2. Trusted Services
Enabling options in the Trusted services list allows the specified
service to pass through the firewall.
WWW (HTTP)
The HTTP protocol is used by Apache (and by other Web servers) to
serve webpages. If you plan on making your Web server publicly
available, enable this option. This option is not required for viewing
pages locally or for developing webpages. You must have the httpd
package installed to serve webpages.
Enabling WWW (HTTP) will not open a port for HTTPS, the SSL
version of HTTP.
FTP
The FTP protocol is used to transfer files between machines on a
network. If you plan on making your FTP server publicly available,
enable this option. The vsftpd package must be installed for this
option to be useful.
SSH
Secure Shell (SSH) is a suite of tools for logging into and executing
commands on a remote machine. To allow remote access to the
machine via ssh, enable this option. The openssh-server package
must be installed to access your machine remotely using SSH tools.
Telnet
Telnet is a protocol for logging into remote machines. Telnet
communications are unencrypted and provide no security from
network snooping. Allowing incoming Telnet access is not
recommended. To allow inbound Telnet access, you must have the
telnet-server package installed.
Mail (SMTP)
To allow incoming mail delivery through your firewall so that remote
hosts can connect directly to your machine to deliver mail, enable
this option. You do not need to enable this if you collect your mail
from your ISP's server using POP3 or IMAP, or if you use a tool such
as fetchmail. Note that an improperly configured SMTP server
can allow remote machines to use your server to send spam.
11.1.3. Trusted Devices
Selecting any of the Trusted devices allows access to your system
for all traffic from that device; it becomes excluded from the firewall
rules. For example, if you are running a local network, but are
connected to the Internet via a PPP dialup, you can check eth0 and
any traffic coming from your local network is allowed. Selecting eth0
as trusted means all traffic over the Ethernet is allowed, but the ppp0
interface is still firewalled. To restrict traffic on an interface, leave it
unchecked.
You may have noticed a sit0 device in the Trusted devices section.
This device stands for simple internet transition, which encapsulates
IPv6 traffic into IPv4 traffic, and then is tunneled. For basic firewall
rules, this device can be ignored and left as an untrusted device.
Important
It is not recommended that you make any device that is connected to
public networks, such as the Internet, a Trusted device.
11.1.4. Other Ports
The Security Level Configuration Tool includes the Other ports
section for adding custom IP ports to become trusted by iptables.
For example, to allow NFS, IRC, and Internet printing protocol (IPP) to
be allowed to pass through the firewall, the following would be
inserted in the Other ports section:
2049:tcp,194:tcp,631:tcp
11.1.5. Saving the Settings
Click OK to save the changes and enable or disable the firewall. If
Enable firewall was selected, the options selected are translated to
iptables commands and written to the /etc/sysconfig/iptables
file. The iptables service is also started so that the firewall is
activated immediately after saving the selected options. If Disable
firewall was selected, the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file is removed
and the iptables service is stopped immediately.
The options selected are also written to the /etc/sysconfig/system-
config-securitylevel file so that the settings can be restored the
next time the application is started. Do not edit this file by hand.
Even though the firewall is activated immediately, the iptables
service is not configured to start automatically at boot time refer to
Section 11.2 Activating the
iptables
Service
for details.
Saving and Restoring Up Activating the
the Network iptables Service
Configuration
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4: System
Administration Guide
Chapter 11. Basic Firewall
Prev Configuration Next
11.2. Activating the iptables Service
The firewall rules are only active if the iptables service is running. To
manually start the service, use the command:
/sbin/service iptables restart
To ensure that it is started when the system is booted, issue the command:
/sbin/chkconfig level 345 iptables on
The ipchains service is not included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
However, if ipchains is installed (for example, an upgrade was performed
and the system had ipchains previously installed), the ipchains service
should not be activated along with the iptables service. To make sure the
ipchains service is disabled and configured not to start at boot time,
execute the following two commands:
/sbin/service ipchains stop /sbin/chkconfig
level 345 ipchains off
The Services Configuration Tool can be used to enable or disable the
iptables and ipchains services.
Basic Firewall Up Controlling Access to
Configuration Services