195 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
195 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
# Firewalls
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- A hardware and/or software system
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- Prevents unauthorised access of packets from one network to another
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- All data leaving any subnet must pass through it
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### Firewall Functions
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- Implements *single point* security measures
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- Security event monitoring through packet analysis and *logging*
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- Network-based access control through implementation of a rules set
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**Network Firewalls** - placed between a subnet and the internet
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**Host-based Firewalls** - placed on individual machines
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- A standard home router is a good example of a network firewall
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#### DMZ
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- A demilitarised zone is a small subnet that separates externally facing services from the internal network
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- Imagine we have a web and email server running, these servers need different firewall rules to personal machines on the network
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##### Basic Function
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- Defends a network against parties accessing *internal services*
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- Can also restrict access from *inside to outside* services
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- Network Address Translation
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- Hides the internal machines with private addresses
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**Firewalls are not enough**
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- Cannot protect against attacks that bypass the firewall
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- e.g. tunnelling
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- Cannot protect against internal threats or insiders
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- Might help a bit by egress filtering
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- Network firewalls cannot always protect against the transfer of virus-infected programs or files
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#### Packet Filters
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- Specify which packets are *allowed or dropped*
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- Rules based on:
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- Source / destination IP
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- TCP / UDP port numbers
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- Possible for both *inbound* and *outbound* traffic
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- Can be implemented in a router by only examining packet headers (**IP / TCP**)
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##### Packet Filter Rules
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- Rule execution depends on implementation
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- `IPTABLES`: **First** rule to match is applied
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- `PF`: All rules are examined, **last** match is applied
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- Rules are organised in *chains*, which are logical subgroups of rules
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- Depending on the packet, different chains are activated
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###### IPTABLES
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- An application that provides access to the Linux firewall rule tables
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- Not actually a firewall, but configures the firewall
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- The firewall is mostly implemented as `netfilter` modules
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###### Tables and Chains
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- `IPTABLES` uses tables to store chains
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- Default is the filtering table
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- Chains are ordered in lists of rules
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- Rules match, or they don’t
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- Matches result in a **jump**, else we check the next rule.
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Default policy on this chain is `DROP`
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- There can be multiple chains per table
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- e.g. a `TCP` handling chain
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- Jumps can go to `ACCEPT`, `DROP`, `LOG` or another chain
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- Complex behaviour can be built up
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##### Defaults
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- There are four built-in tables in `IPTABLES`
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- Filter
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- `NAT`
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- Mangle - packet alteration
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- Raw - skips connection tracking
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- The default table is the filtering table, including input, output and forward chains
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###### Rules Examples
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- Using the command line, we add rules onto the end of chains
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```bash
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$ iptables -A INPUT -i eht0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
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$ iptables -A OUTPUT -i eht0 -p tcp --sport 80 -j ACCEPT
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```
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- Remember `http` requests are not sent from the client’s port 80; they are sent from a random high-numbered port
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- This is how clients can have multiple web requests open at the same time
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##### Policies
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- **Permissive** - allow everything by default except dangerous services
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- Make a black list
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- Easy to make a mistake or forget something
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```bash
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iptables -p INPUT ACCEPT
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iptables -p FORWARD ACCEPT
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iptables -p OUTPUT ACCEPT
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iptables -A INPUT -s X.X.X.X -j DROP
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iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j DROP
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```
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- **Restrictive** - block everything except designated useful services
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- Make a white list
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- More secure by default
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```bash
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iptables -p INPUT DROP
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iptables -p FORWARD DROP
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iptables -p OUTPUT DROP
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iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport ssh -j ACCEPT
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iptables -A OUTPUT -s 192.168.0.2 -j ACCEPT
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```
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#### Packet Filter Issues
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- Packet filters are simple, low-level and have high assurance
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- However:
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- They cannot prevent attacks that employ application-specific vulnerabilities
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- Do not support higher-level authentication schemes
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- Easy to accidentally allow or deny packets incorrectly
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### Stateful Packet Filters
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- Understand requests and replies (`ACK/SYN`)
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- Dynamically generate rules
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- Based on what it sees from TCP handshakes (can be FTP or SSH etc)
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- Can support policies for a wider range of protocols
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- `IPTABLES` has a module for stateful packet filtering
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- Allow incoming / outgoing SSH connections
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#### Connection Tables
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- `ACK` packets are used to keep track of the session - the connection is ongoing
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- Packets without the `ACK` are the connection establishment messages
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#### Application-level Gateways
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- Packet filters have limited criteria that allow data in and out
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- An application gateway considers the *application-layer* protocol that is in use
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- For example if someone sends an `HTTP` request to port 22, it is blocked
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##### Proxy Server
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- Proxy servers initiate a connection on our behalf
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- They can block certain access, and scan for malicious files or web pages
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**Issues**:
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- Large overhead per connection
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- More expensive than packet filtering
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- Configuration is complex
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- A separate server is required for each service
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### Network Address Translation
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The shortage of IP addresses means that most routers now perform NAT automatically
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- The implicit advantage in NAT is that your machine is almost totally hidden from the internet
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- Only **established connections** are forwarded to your internal machine
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- Or, specific **port forwarding** rules
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- This prevents any unsolicited attacks on random ports, but no other types of attack
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