If a feature that it implements is not supported in some target firewall, it tries to emulate it (if possible) to make it look like the target really supports it. It has useful features found in all of the target platforms. Firewall Builder works with a firewall that is neither one of these, and yet at the same time it is all of them combined. In other words, Firewall Builder is not another iptables GUI, or PF GUI, or ipfilter GUI. To do this, Firewall Builder works with an abstract high level model of a firewall which incorporates features found in all target firewalls. The goal is to be able to generate configuration for many different firewalls from the same representation in the GUI. It enforces best practices in policy design and helps you deploy and activate generated policy on the firewall.įirewall Builder does not aim at just supporting one particular firewall platform. It is aware of the differences between various versions of iptables, PF and other platforms and chooses optimal syntax for each to utilize new features that constantly appear in these platforms as they evolve. Firewall Builder generates correct PIX translation rules, choosing between “nat”, “global” and “static” commands as appropriate, using the same definition of the NAT rules as it uses for iptables and PF. It can pick right iptables target for both policy and NAT (Network Address Translation) rules as well as properly use most popular iptables modules, all automatically. For example, it can decide which iptables chain is right for each generated iptables rule automatically, without your input. Unfortunately typos and more significant errors in firewall or router access list configurations lead to either service downtime or security problems, both expensive in terms of damage and time required to fix.įirewall Builder (also known as fwbuilder, ) is a universal firewall configuration and management tool that lets you define security policy on a higher level of abstraction and hides internal structure of the target firewall platform. This is where making changes get complicated and probability of human error increases. Things get significantly more difficult in the installations using different OS and platforms where the administrator needs to switch from netfilter/iptables to PF to Cisco routers and ASA to implement coordinated changes across multiple devices. To do the job right, they need to understand internal path of the packet inside Linux or BSD kernel and its interaction with different parts of packet filtering engine. Administrator who manages netfilter/iptables, PF or Cisco firewall all the time quickly becomes an expert in their platform of choice. Even though the configuration language can be complex and overwhelming with its multitude of features and options, this is not the most difficult problem in my opinion. Unfortunately, managing security policy manually with all of these remains non-trivial task for several reasons. All these are powerful implementations with rich feature set and good performance. They could use netfilter/iptables on Linux, PF, ipfilter, ipfw on OpenBSD and FreeBSD, Cisco ASA (PIX) and other commercial solutions. Systems administrators have a choice of modern Open Source and commercial firewall platforms at their disposal. After the policy has been defined, it can be saved and is stored in flat text files and shell scripts in /etc/firestarter.This is the first article in the mini-series of two articles about Firewall Builder. Like its Firewall Builder counterpart, the policy can be detailed or it can be as sparse as needed. You can use Firestarter to build both an inbound as well as an outbound policy on the firewall, as shown in Figure 7-7. When started from the command line, Firestarter brings up a status window, as shown in Figure 7-6. Firestarter is to Firewall Builder as the PIX Device Manager (PDM) or Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) is to the CiscoWorks Management Center for Firewalls. Firewall Builder, on the other hand, can manage the policies of multiple firewalls from a central server. Firestarter is focused on the policy of a single firewall. However, unlike Firewall Builder, Firestarter cannot group items into objects or provide control over multiple firewalls. Like Firewall Builder, Firestarter provides the administrator with a graphic interface to build a filtering policy. Firestarter is an open source visual firewall policy compiler similar to Firewall Builder.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |