IPTABLES Firewall Example (you are here)
IPCHAINS Firewall Example


# Red Hat Linux firewall using iptables
#
# Created: October 2002
# Revised: August 2005
#
# Authors: Dennis G. Allard (allard@oceanpark.com) and Don Cohen (don@isis.cs3-inc.com)
#
# This script works on on servers running Red Hat 7.3, 8.0, 9.0, and
# RHEL ES 3 and 4.  Variants of this script are in active use on
# many servers.
#
# No warranty is implied.  Use at your own risk!!

# Using this script
# -----------------
#
# I save this file as /etc/sysconfig/iptables-precursor
# and then source it and run iptables-save to create
# /etc/sysconfig/iptables, which is an input file
# consumed by the script /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables,
# which in turn makes use of the script /sbin/iptables-restore.
#
# Before mucking with setting up iptables, you should
# disconnect the machine from the internet.  Examine
# and understand the current set of iptables rules
# before you reconnect to the internet.
#
# To configure the set of iptables rules:
#
#   /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables stop
#   source /etc/sysconfig/iptables-precursor
#
# To save the current set of iptables rules for use at next reboot:
#   
#   iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables
#   
# To dynamically restart iptables after modifying /etc/sysconfig/iptables:
#
#   /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables restart
#
# Note that /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables is a script.  You can read it to
# gain understanding of how iptables uses iptables-restore to restore
# iptables firewall rules at reboot.
#
# To examine the current set of rules in effect:
#
#   /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables status
#
# However, I prefer to show the current set of rules via:
#
#   iptables -nvL -t filter   
#   iptables -nvL -t nat
#
# or 
#
#   iptables -vL -t filter   
#   iptables -vL -t nat
#
#
# To configure iptables to be used at next system reboot:
#   
#   chkconfig --add iptables
#
# To see if iptables is currently configured to start at boot, do:
#   
#   chkconfig --list iptables
#
# (You might have to do chkconfig --del ipchains to remove ipchains)
#
# The rest of this file is derived from my old ipchains script.
#

# A word about routing
# --------------------
# 
# Note that this web page does not discuss routing decisions.  Routing
# (see the 'ifconfig' and 'route' commands) decides which interface an
# incoming packet will be delivered to, i.e. if a given packet will be
# 'input' to this machine or be 'forwarded' to some interface for
# delivery to another machine, say on an internal network.  You should
# have your routing configured before you attempt to configure your
# firewall.

# The network
# -----------
#
# This firewall is running on a gateway machine having multiple ethernet
# interfaces, a public one, eth0, which is a DSL connection to an ISP,
# and one or more internal ones, including eth1, which is assigned to
# 192.168.0.1, an IP number on my internal private network.  My public
# network has static IP numbers depicted below as x.y.z....  Actual
# IP numbers would, of course, be a sequence of four octets.  For this
# script, I assume that the firewall is running on the same machine
# having the interfaces configued with my public IPs.  For this reason,
# most of the rules below are INPUT rules.  Were I to route some of my public
# static IP numbers to interfaces on one or more machines inside the
# firewall on the internal network, I would modify certain rules to be
# FORWARD rules instead of INPUT rules.  I show some examples below of
# FORWARD rules.  Finally, the script is just for a single server IP,
# hence all of the "/32" network masks below.  A more realistic situation
# would involve using IP ranges and their corresponding network masks.
#
# The gateway at my ISP is x.y.z.1.  I run a few web servers on
# x.y.z.w, a DNS server on x.y.z.n, and qmail on x.y.z.m.
#
# Using this file in a more complex network would require some
# modifications. Particular attention would need to be given to using
# the right the IP numbers and interfaces, among other things. :-)

# Preliminaries
# -------------
#
# To permit machines internal to the network to be able to
# send IP packets to the outside world, enable IP Forwarding:
#
#   echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
#
# Prevent SYN floods from consuming memory resources:
#
#   echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_syncookies
#
# I place the above echo commands into /etc/rc.d/rc.local
# so that they will be executed at boot time.


# The basic idea of this firewall
# -------------------------------
#
# Provide rules that are applied in the following order:
#
# ACCEPT all UDP packets for certain UDP services
#
# Currently the only UDP connections I accept are to my secure DNS
# server, tinydns. For an explanation of why tinydns is secure, see:
# http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/8739/fid/699.
#
# DENY all other UDP packets.
#
# ACCEPT SYN packets just for certain TCP services
#
# SYN packets are specified via the -syn flag in the input
# rules defined below.  Note that certain services can be
# further filtered by xinetd.
#
# DENY all other TCP SYN packets.
#
# ACCEPT all other TCP packets that are part of existing connections
#
# DENY all other TCP packets.
#
# In other words, we allow any TCP packet through that is part of an
# established TCP connection, but we are very selective in just which
# connections we permit to be made to start off with.
#
# A brief explanation of SYN packets goes as follows.  TCP connections
# are initiated via a hand shaking protocol between the client and server
# programs at either end of the connection.  The very first TCP packet
# is sent by the client to the server and is called a SYN packet,
# because it has the SYN flag set to 1 in the TCP packet header.  We
# only allow SYN packets for the specific servers running on specific
# ports of specific hosts.  Subsequently, we only permit further TCP
# packets in that are determined to be part of a connection whose
# initial SYN packet was already accepted and responded to by one of our
# servers.  This is done via 'Stateful Packet Inspection' provided by the
# netfilter functionality added to linux as of kernel 2.4.  By stopping all
# other packets in their tracks, we limit attempts to attack our internal
# network.
# 
# There are subtle ways that Denial of Service attacks can be performed
# if an attacker is able to somehow gain access to a machine inside our
# network or otherwise hijack a connection.  However, even in such
# cases, current research is leading to ways to greatly limit the effect
# of such attacks. For further reading, see: http://www.cs3-inc.com/ddos.html.
#
# For detailed background reading about iptables, please refer to:
# http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/HOWTO/packet-filtering-HOWTO.html
#


# begin oceanpark.com firewall rules (using iptables)
# ---------------------------------------------------

# Here we go...

#
# Configure default policies (-P), meaning default rule to apply if no
# more specific rule below is applicable.  These rules apply if a more specific rule below
# is not applicable.  Defaults are to DROP anything sent to firewall or internal
# network, permit anything going out.
#
iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -P FORWARD DROP
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

#
# Flush (-F) all specific rules
#
iptables -F INPUT 
iptables -F FORWARD 
iptables -F OUTPUT 
iptables -F -t nat


# The rest of this file contains specific rules that are applied in the order
# listed.  If none applies, then the above policy rules are used.

#
# Forward all packets from eth1 (internal network) to eth0 (the internet).
#
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth1 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT

#
# Forward packets that are part of existing and related connections from eth0 to eth1.
#
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

#
# Permit packets in to firewall itself that are part of existing and related connections.
#
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

# Note, in the above two rules, a connection becomes ESTABLISHED in the
# iptables PREROUTING chain upon receipt of a SYNACK packet that is a
# response to a previously sent SYN packet. The SYNACK packet itself is
# considered to be part of the established connection, so no special
# rule is needed to allow the SYNACK packet itself.

#
# Allow all inputs to firewall from the internal network and local interfaces
#
iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -j ACCEPT


#
# Enable SNAT functionality on eth0
#
# SNAT is used to map private IP numbers of interfaces on the internal LAN to one of
# my public static IP numbers.  SNAT performs this mapping when a client running
# on one of the internal hosts (x.y.z.c) initiates a TCP connection (SYN) through eth0.
#
iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -s 192.168.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j SNAT --to-source x.y.z.c

#
# Alternative to SNAT -- MASQUERADE
#
# If your firewall has a dynamic IP number because it connects to the
# internet itself via DHCP, then you probably cannot predict what the IP
# number is of your firewall's interface connected to the internet. In 
# this case, you need a rule like the following that assigns the (an) IP
# number associated with eth0 to outgoing connections without you needing
# to know in advance (at time of writing this rule) what that IP number is:
#
# iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
#
# Note that the above SNAT and MASQUERADE rules are applicable
# independent of how a host on the internal network is assigned its own
# internal IP number.  The host could be assigned a static IP number on
# an internal nonpublic network (e.g. 10. or 192.168.)  or it could be
# itself assigned a dynamic IP number from your own DHCP server running
# on the firewall, or it could even have a public static IP number.
# However, it seems unlikely that one would want to assign a public IP
# number to a host and then proceed to hide that number from the public.

#
# Deny any packet coming in on the public internet interface eth0
# which has a spoofed source address from our local networks:
#
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s x.y.z.s/32 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s x.y.z.c/32 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s 192.168.0.0/24 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s 127.0.0.0/8 -j DROP

#
# Accept all tcp SYN packets for protocols SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, and SSH:
# (SMTP connections are further audited by our SMTP server)
#
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d x.y.z.m/32 --destination-port 25 --syn -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 80 --syn -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 443 --syn -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 22 --syn -j ACCEPT

#
# Notice that the above rules are all INPUT rules.  My current network
# does not require me to make use of FORWARD rules, since I run all
# publicly accessible servers directly on my firewall machine.  But I
# promised above in the description of my network to give examples of
# rules used when there are servers running on machines on the internal
# network.  Following are examples of FORWARD rules I would use if I ran
# mail, web, and ssh servers on machines on the internal network inside
# the firewall.
#
# iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -s 0/0 -d x.y.z.m/32 --destination-port 25 --syn -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -s 0/0 -d x.y.z.w/32 --destination-port 80 --syn -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -s 0/0 -d x.y.z.w/32 --destination-port 443 --syn -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 22 --syn -j ACCEPT
#
# The first of the above four rules would be used if my routing
# delivered packets having destination x.y.z.m to an interface
# connected to my internal network. The second through fourth of the
# above four rules would be used if my routing delivered packets having
# one of my public static IPs as destination to some internal interface
# (where there should be a server listening to HTTP, HTTPS, or SSH ports.)
# The difference between an INPUT rule and a FORWARD rule is that an INPUT
# rule applies to packets that are 'input' to this machine (the machine
# on which these iptables rules are installed), whereas a FORWARD rule
# applies to packets that are being 'fowarded', i.e. to packets that are
# passing through this machine to some other machine, such as a machine
# on my internal network.
# 
# If I ran my mail server on an internal machine, I would no longer
# need my previous INPUT rule for x.y.z.m and would use the above
# FORWARD rule instead.
 
 
#
# Sometimes I run older versions of SSH on port 2200:
#
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 2200 --syn -j ACCEPT

#
# For imapd via stunnel (instead of xinetd-based imapd):
#
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 993 --syn -j ACCEPT

#
# For xinetd-based IMAP server (see /etc/xinetd.conf for who can use it):
#
#iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 143 --syn -j ACCEPT

#
# For DHCP server:
#
iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -p tcp --sport 68 --dport 67 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -p udp --sport 68 --dport 67 -j ACCEPT

#
# For LDAP clients:
#
#iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 389 -syn -j ACCEPT
#dga- worry about LDAP later (after I decode LDAP documentation (-;)


#
# DNS queries:
#
# Permit responses from our ISP's DNS server.  When a client running on our
# host makes a DNS query, the outgoing query is allowed since we permit all
# outgoing packets.  The reply will be a UDP connection back to the high
# numbered client port from which the query was made.  So we only need to
# permit UDP packets from our ISP's DNS servers back to high numbered ports:
#
#iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s <ISP DNS server IP>/32 --source-port 53 -d 0/0 --destination-port 1024:65535 -j ACCEPT
#
# But since we trust our ISP DNS Server not not have been hacked and we may
# not be sure what our client IP range is, we loosen this to:
#
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s <ISP DNS server IP>/32 --source-port 53 -d 0/0 -j ACCEPT


#
# Running a caching DNS Server
#
# We need to permit querying a remote DNS server.  Since I am running
# a caching DNS server on x.y.z.d that makes requests for DNS lookups
# to external DNS servers, those servers send back responses via UDP to
# the high numbered client port on x.y.z.d where the caching server listens.
# I could of course increase security by running the dns cache on its own
# machine/IP and restricting to just that machine/IP.
#
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s 0/0 --source-port 53 -d x.y.z.d/32 --destination-port 1024:65535 -j ACCEPT


#
# Running a DNS server (tinydns)
#
# When we run a DNS server, we have to accept UDP from anywhere to port 53
#
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port 53 -j ACCEPT


#
# Running a Master DNS Server to update slave DNS servers
#
# You may have your server colocated at an ISP and may arrange to have your
# ISP provide your primary and secondary DNS with the ISP DNS servers slaving
# off of your master DNS server.  This has the advantage of letting you be
# in full control of the DNS zone files yet keeping the DNS servers exposed
# to the public outside of your network.  To achieve this, in addition to
# permitting vanilla DNS responses from the ISP DNS serves, you also need
# to allow TCP connections from the ISP Master DNS Server:
#
# Allow DNS zone transfers via TCP from ISP Master DNS server:
#
# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s <ISP Master DNS server IP>/32 -d 0/0 --destination-port 53 --syn -j ACCEPT


#
# For some other custom server running here listening on port <port number>:
#
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --destination-port <port number> --syn -j ACCEPT

#
# For FTP server, restricted to specific local hosts (and see /etc/xinetd.conf):
# (for public file transfers we use scp, sftp, and related SSH file transfer tools)
#
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s x.y.z.s/32 -d 0/0 --destination-port 20 --syn -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s x.y.z.s/32 -d 0/0 --destination-port 21 --syn -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 127.0.0.1/8 -d 0/0 --destination-port 20 --syn -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 127.0.0.1/8 -d 0/0 --destination-port 21 --syn -j ACCEPT

#
# For Samba (smbd and nmbd), restricted to specific local client hosts (x.y.z.c):
#
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s x.y.z.c/32 -d x.y.z.s/32 --destination-port 139 --syn -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s x.y.z.c/32 -d x.y.z.s/32 --destination-port 137 -j ACCEPT

#
#Special cable modem rules.  I used to have a third ethernet card,
#eth2, attached to a separate ISP via a cable modem and used the rules
#shown below to cause a specific Windows machine on my internal network
#(192.168.0.128) to send traffic out via DSL and get it back via cable.
#This violates ingres filtering rules but seems to work.  It was neat
#since my cable modem had higher inbound bandwidth and it permitted
#me to do downloads without impacting my DSL inbound bandwidth.
#I no longer have that third interface, so no longer use this technique.
#
#iptables -A INPUT -i eth2 -s 68.65.209.39/32 -j DROP
#iptables -A INPUT -i eth2 -s 127.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
#iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.0.128/32 -d 0/0 -j SNAT --to-source 68.65.209.39

#
# Finally, DENY all connection requests to any UDP port not yet provided
# for and all SYN connection requests to any TCP port not yet provided
# for.  Using DENY instead of REJECT means that no 'ICMP port
# unreachable' response is sent back to the client attempting to
# connect.  I.e., DENY just ignores connection attempts.  Hence, use of
# DENY causes UDP connection requests to time out and TCP connection
# requests to hang.  Hence, using DENY instead of REJECT may have
# the effect of frustrating attackers due to increasing the amount of
# time taken to probe ports.
#
# Note that there is a fundamental difference between UDP and TCP
# protocols.  With UDP, there is no 'successful connection' response.
# With TCP, there is.  So an attacking client will be left in the dark
# about whether or not the denied UDP packets arrived and will hang
# waiting for a response from denied TCP ports.  An attacker will not
# be able to immediately tell if UDP connection requests are simply
# taking a long time, if there is a problem with connectivity between
# the attacking client and the server, or if the packets are being
# ignored.  This increases the amount of time it takes for an attacker
# to scan all UDP ports.  Similarly, TCP connection requests to denied
# ports will hang for a long time.  By using REJECT instead of DENY, you
# would prevent access to a port in a more 'polite' manner, but give out
# more information to wannabe attackers, since the attacker can positively
# detect that a port is not accessible in a small amount of time from
# the 'ICMP port unreachable' response.

#-A input -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -p udp -j DENY
#-A input -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -p tcp -y -j DENY

iptables -A INPUT -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -p udp -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -s 0/0 -d 0/0 -p tcp --syn -j DROP


# end oceanpark.com firewall rules (using iptables)
# -------------------------------------------------