Add Helpers Document

Signed-off-by: Tom Eastep <teastep@shorewall.net>
This commit is contained in:
Tom Eastep 2012-08-04 07:28:13 -07:00
parent 093985dd93
commit 6fbb578ce6
2 changed files with 344 additions and 15 deletions

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<entry><ulink url="PortKnocking.html">Port Knocking and Other Uses
of the 'Recent Match'</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="PPTP.htm">PPTP</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><ulink url="support.htm">Getting help or answers to
questions</ulink></entry>
<entry><ulink url="Helpers.html">Helpers/Helper
Modules</ulink></entry>
<entry><ulink url="ProxyARP.htm">Proxy ARP</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="shorewall_quickstart_guide.htm">QuickStart
Guides</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="NewRelease.html">Release Model</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink
url="shorewall_prerequisites.htm">Requirements</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="Shorewall_and_Routing.html">Routing and
Shorewall</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="Multiple_Zones.html">Routing on One
Interface</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="samba.htm">Samba</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="Shorewall-init.html">Shorewall
Init</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
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<entry><ulink url="Shorewall-Lite.html">Shorewall
Lite</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><ulink url="KVM.html">KVM (Kernel-mode Virtual
Machine)</ulink></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
<entry/>
<entry></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>

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docs/Helpers.xml Normal file
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
<article>
<!--$Id$-->
<articleinfo>
<title>Netfilter Helpers</title>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Tom</firstname>
<surname>Eastep</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<pubdate><?dbtimestamp format="Y/m/d"?></pubdate>
<copyright>
<year>2012</year>
<holder>Thomas M. Eastep</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
<para>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version
1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with
no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
<quote><ulink url="GnuCopyright.htm">GNU Free Documentation
License</ulink></quote>.</para>
</legalnotice>
</articleinfo>
<section>
<title>Helpers - Introduction</title>
<para>There are a number of applications that create connections
dynamically between a client and server. These connections use temporary
TCP or UDP ports, so static configuration of firewall rules to allow those
connections would require a very lax firewall configuration. To deal with
these problem applications, Netfilter supports the concept of a
<firstterm>helper</firstterm>. Each helper monitors traffic to/from the
default primary port used by the application and opens the firewall to
accept temporary connections created by the primary session.</para>
<para>There are helpers for the following applications; default ports
monitored by each helper are listed in parentheses:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Amanda (UDP 10080)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>FTP (TCP 21)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>H323 (UDP 1719, TCP 1720)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>IRC (TCP 6667)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Netbios-NS (UDP 137)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>PPTP (TCP 1729)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>SANE (TCP 6566)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>SIP (UDP 5060)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>SNMP (UDP 161)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>TFTP (UDP 69)</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<section>
<title>Helper Module Loading</title>
<para>In a modular kernel, each helper is typically packaged as two
kernel modules. One module handles connection tracking where NAT isn't
involved and the other module handles NAT. For example, the FTP helper
consists of these two modules (kernels 2.6.20 and later):</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>nf_conntrack_ftp</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>nf_nat_ftp</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Note that the naming convention is
nf_conntrack_<replaceable>application</replaceable> and
nf_nat_<replaceable>application</replaceable>; more about that
below.</para>
<para>The modules are not auto-loaded and must be loaded explicitly
using the <command>modprob</command> or <command>insmod</command>
utilities.</para>
<para>Many of the modules allow parameters to be specified when the
module is loaded. Among the common parameters is the ports parameter
that lists one or more ports that the module is to monitor. This allows
running the application on a non-standard port.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Iptables and Helpers</title>
<para>Iptables supports two ways of interacting with modules:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Helper Match</term>
<listitem>
<para>This match (-m helper --helper
<replaceable>name</replaceable>) allows selection of packets from
connections monitored or created by the named helper.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>CT Target</term>
<listitem>
<para>This target (-j CT --helper <replaceable>name</replaceable>
...) , introduced in the 3.4 kernels, allows for explicit
association of a helper with a connection.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>It is important to note that the name used in iptables is not
always the same as the name in the kernel module. Names used in iptables
are shown in the following table:</para>
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols="2">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>Name of kernel module</entry>
<entry>Name recognized by iptables</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_amanda</entry>
<entry>amanda</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_ftp</entry>
<entry>ftp</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_h323</entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">RAS (udp 1719), Q.931 (tcp
1720)</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_irc</entry>
<entry>irc</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_netbios_ns</entry>
<entry><emphasis role="bold">netbios-ns</emphasis></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_pptp</entry>
<entry>pptp</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_sane</entry>
<entry>sane</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_sip</entry>
<entry>sip</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_snmp</entry>
<entry>snmp</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nf_conntrack_tftp</entry>
<entry>tftp</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>Netfilter helpers present an opportunity for attackers to attempt
to breach your firewall by IP address spoofing; See <ulink
url="https://home.regit.org/netfilter-en/secure-use-of-helpers/">https://home.regit.org/netfilter-en/secure-use-of-helpers/</ulink>
for a description of the Netfilter facilities available to meet these
attacks.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Shorewall Support for Helpers</title>
<para>Shorewall includes support for helpers is several areas. These areas
are covered in the sections below. </para>
<section>
<title>Module Loading</title>
<para>Shorewall includes support for loading the helper modules as part
of its support for loading kernel modules in general. There are several
options in shorewall.conf (5) that deal with kernel module
loading:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>MODULESDIR</term>
<listitem>
<para>This option specifies a comma-separated list of directories
where Shorewall will look for kernel modules to load.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>MODULE_SUFFIX</term>
<listitem>
<para>Lists the possible suffixes for module names.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>LOAD_HELPERS_ONLY</term>
<listitem>
<para>Controls whether Shorewall should load only the helpers and
leave the other modules to the auto-loader. This option
dramatically reduces the time to process a <command>shorewall
start</command> or <command>shorewall restart</command>
command.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>HELPERS</term>
<listitem>
<para>This option was added in Shorewall 4.5.7 and lists the
modules to be enabled for association with connections. This
option is fully functional only on systems running kernel 3.5 or
later. On systems running earlier kernels, the only way to totally
disable a module is to not load it. The module names allowed in
this list are <emphasis role="bold">amanda</emphasis>, <emphasis
role="bold">ftp</emphasis>, <emphasis role="bold">h323</emphasis>,
<emphasis role="bold">irc</emphasis>, <emphasis
role="bold">netbios-ns</emphasis>, <emphasis
role="bold">pptp</emphasis>, <emphasis
role="bold">sane</emphasis>, <emphasis role="bold">sip</emphasis>,
<emphasis role="bold">snmp</emphasis> and <emphasis
role="bold">tftp</emphasis>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>The helper modules to be loaded are listed in the file
<filename>/usr/share/shorewall/helpers</filename>. If you wish to
customize that file to load only a subset of the helpers or to specify
module parameters, then copy the file to <filename>/etc/shorewall/
</filename>and modify the copy. That way, your changes won't be
overwritten the next time that Shorewall is updated on your
system.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Iptables</title>
<para>The iptables helper match is supported by Shorewall in the form of
the HELPER column in <ulink
url="manpages/shorewall-tcrules.html">shorewall-tcrules</ulink>
(5).</para>
<para>The CT target is supported directly in <ulink
url="manpages/shorewall-conntrack.html">shorewall-conntrack</ulink>
(5).</para>
<para>In these files, Shorewall supports the same module names as
iptables; see the table above.</para>
</section>
</section>
</article>