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48.8. Firewalls
Information security is commonly thought of as a process and not a product. However, standard security implementations usually employ some form of dedicated mechanism to control access privileges and restrict network resources to users who are authorized, identifiable, and traceable. Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes several tools to assist administrators and security engineers with network-level access control issues.
Firewalls are one of the core components of a network security implementation. Several vendors market firewall solutions catering to all levels of the marketplace: from home users protecting one PC to data center solutions safeguarding vital enterprise information. Firewalls can be stand-alone hardware solutions, such as firewall appliances by Cisco, Nokia, and Sonicwall. Vendors such as Checkpoint, McAfee, and Symantec have also developed proprietary software firewall solutions for home and business markets.
Apart from the differences between hardware and software firewalls, there are also differences in the way firewalls function that separate one solution from another. Table 48.5, “Firewall Types” details three common types of firewalls and how they function:
| Method | Description | Advantages | Disadvantages | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAT | Network Address Translation (NAT) places private IP subnetworks behind one or a small pool of public IP addresses, masquerading all requests to one source rather than several. The Linux kernel has built-in NAT functionality through the Netfilter kernel subsystem. |
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| Packet Filter | A packet filtering firewall reads each data packet that passes through a LAN. It can read and process packets by header information and filters the packet based on sets of programmable rules implemented by the firewall administrator. The Linux kernel has built-in packet filtering functionality through the Netfilter kernel subsystem. |
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| Proxy | Proxy firewalls filter all requests of a certain protocol or type from LAN clients to a proxy machine, which then makes those requests to the Internet on behalf of the local client. A proxy machine acts as a buffer between malicious remote users and the internal network client machines. |
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48.8.1. Netfilter and IPTables
The Linux kernel features a powerful networking subsystem called Netfilter. The Netfilter subsystem provides stateful or stateless packet filtering as well as NAT and IP masquerading services. Netfilter also has the ability to mangle IP header information for advanced routing and connection state management. Netfilter is controlled using the
iptables tool.
48.8.1.1. IPTables Overview
The power and flexibility of Netfilter is implemented using the
iptables administration tool, a command line tool similar in syntax to its predecessor, ipchains.
A similar syntax does not mean similar implementation, however.
ipchains requires intricate rule sets for: filtering source paths; filtering destination paths; and filtering both source and destination connection ports.
By contrast,
iptables uses the Netfilter subsystem to enhance network connection, inspection, and processing. iptables features advanced logging, pre- and post-routing actions, network address translation, and port forwarding, all in one command line interface.
This section provides an overview of
iptables. For more detailed information, refer to Section 48.9, “IPTables”.
