Tag: iptables state

How do I build a Simple Linux Firewall for DSL/Dial-up connection?

Posted on in Categories Debian Linux, Gentoo Linux, Iptables, Linux, Networking, RedHat/Fedora Linux, Security, Suse Linux, Sys admin, Tips, Ubuntu Linux last updated October 28, 2005

If you’re new to Linux, here’s a simple firewall that can be setup in minutes. Especially those coming from a Windows background, often lost themselves while creating linux firewall.
This is the most common question asked by Linux newbies (noobs). How do I install a personal firewall on a standalone Desktop Linux computer. In other words “I wanna a simple firewall that allows or permits me to visit anything from my computer but it should block everything from outside world”.
Well that is pretty easy first remember INPUT means incoming and OUTPUT means outgoing connection/access. With following little script and discussion you should able to setup your own firewall.

Step # 1: Default Firewall policy

Set up default access policy to drop all incoming traffic but allow all outgoing traffic. This will allow you to make unlimited outgoing connections from any port but not incoming traffic/ports are allowed.
iptables -p INPUT DROP
iptables -p OUTPUT ACCEPT

Step # 2: Allow unlimited traffic from loopback (lo) device

iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT

Step # 3: Setup connection oriented access

Some protocol such as a FTP, DNS queries and UDP traffic needs an established connection access. In other words you need to allow all related connection using iptables state modules.
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

Step # 4: Drop everything else and log it

iptables -A INPUT -j LOG
iptables -A INPUT -j REJECT

But wait you cannot type all above commands at a shell command prompt. It is a good idea to create a script called fw.start as follows (copy and paste following script in fw.start file):

#!/bin/sh
# A simple
iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X
modprobe ip_conntrack
modprobe ip_conntrack_ftp

# Setting default filter policy
iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

# Unlimited access to loop back
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -o lo -j ACCEPT

# Allow UDP, DNS and Passive FTP
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

# DROP everything and Log it
iptables -A INPUT -j LOG
iptables -A INPUT -j DROP

You can enhance your tiny firewall with

  • Create a script to stop a firewall
  • This is optional, if you wish to start a firewall automatically as soon as Debian Linux boots up use the instruction outlined here
  • Finally if you wanna open incoming ssh (port 22) or http (port 80) then insert following two rules before #DROP everything and Log it line in above script:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -i eth0 --dport 22 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -i eth0 --dport 80 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT

Easy to use Linux firewall programs/tools