VPN, Netfilter and Shorewall — The Basics
Tom
Eastep
2004
2005
2006
Thomas M. Eastep
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, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
GNU Free Documentation
License
.
Gateway-to-gateway traffic vs. Host-to-host traffic.
The purpose of a Virtual Private Network
(VPN) is to provide for secure communication between a set of hosts.
Communication between a pair of hosts connected by a VPN occurs in
stages:
Local-host-to-local-gateway.
This communication is not encrypted; in the case where the traffic
originates on the gateway itself, the communication is local to that
system.
Local-gateway-to-remote-gateway. This
communication is encrypted and can use a tunneling protocol such as
GRE, AH or ESP or a standard protocol such as UDP or TCP. Some VPNs
use multiple protocols; for example PPTP uses TCP port 1723 and GRE
while IPSEC uses UDP port 500 together with ESP or AH.
Remote-gateway-to-remote-host.
This is just the unencrypted traffic described in the first item as it
is delivered to its destination.
Of course, one-way communication generally isn't useful so we need
traffic in the other direction as well.
Remote-host-to-remote-gateway.
Remote-gateway-to-local-gateway.
Local-gateway-to-local-host.
Relationship to Netfilter
When Netfilter is configured on a VPN gateway, each VPN packet goes
through Netfilter twice! Let's first consider outbound traffic:
Local-host-to-local-gateway.
This traffic has a source address in the local network or on the
gateway itself. The destination IP address is that of a remote host;
either the remote gateway itself or a host behind that gateway.
Local-gateway-to-remote-gateway. This
(encrypted) traffic has a source IP address on the gateway and is
addressed to the remote gateway.
Incoming traffic is similar.
![]()
What does this mean with Shorewall?
When Shorewall is installed on a VPN gateway system, it categorizes
the VPN-related traffic slightly differently:
Local-host-to-remote-host —
same as Local-host-to-local-gateway
above.
Local-gateway-to-remote-gateway.
Remote-gateway-to-local-gateway.
Remote-host-to-local-host —
same as Local-gateway-to-local-host
above.
Shorewall implements a set of features for dealing with VPN.
The /etc/shorewall/tunnels file. This file
is used to define remote gateways and the type of encrypted traffic
that will be passed between the Shorewall system and those remote
gateways. In other words, the tunnels file deals with Local-gateway-to-remote-gateway and Remote-gateway-to-local-gateway traffic.
The /etc/shorewall/zones file. An entry in
this file allows you to associated a name with the set of hosts behind
the remote gateway (or to the remote gateway itself if it is a
standalone system).
The /etc/shorewall/interfaces and
/etc/shorewall/hosts files. These files are used
to associate a set of remote hosts with the zone name defined in
/etc/shorewall/zones.
The /etc/shorewall/policy and
/etc/shorewall/rules files. These files are used
to define the connections that are permitted between the remote and
local hosts -- in other words, the Local-host-to-remote-host and Remote-host-to-local-host traffic.
Defining Remote Zones
Most VPN types are implemented using a virtual network device such
as pppN (e.g., ppp0), tunN (e.g., tun0), etc. This means that in most
cases, remote zone definition is similar to zones that you have already
defined.
/etc/shorewall/zones:
#ZONE TYPE
fw firewall
net ipv4
loc ipv4
rem ipv4
/etc/shorewall/interfaces:
#ZONE INTERFACE OPTION
net eth0 tcpflags,routefilter
loc eth1 -
rem ppp0 -
Allowing Traffic
Normally, you will just allow all traffic between your remote
client(s) and the local zone. You can do that with a couple of
policies:
#SOURCE DESTINATION POLICY LOGLEVEL BURST
rem loc ACCEPT
loc rem ACCEPT
Similar policies using $FW rather than 'loc' can permit traffic from
the remote clients to/from the firewall.
Different Firewall Policies for Different Remote Systems
The /etc/shorewall/hosts file comes into play when:
You have a number of remote networks.
The remote networks have different firewall requirements and you
want to divide them into multiple zones.
There is no fixed relationship between the remote networks and
virtual network devices (for example, the VPN uses PPTP and remote
gateways connect on demand).
In this case, your configuration takes the following
approach:
etc/shorewall/zones:
#ZONE TYPE OPTIONS
net ipv4
loc ipv4
rem1 ipv4 #Remote LAN 1
rem2 ipv4 #Remote LAN 2
/etc/shorewall/interfaces:
#ZONE INTERFACE OPTION
net eth0 tcpflags,routefilter
loc eth1 -
- tun+ -
/etc/shorewall/hosts:
#ZONE HOST(S) OPTIONS
rem1 tun+:10.0.0.0/24
rem2 tun+:10.0.1.0/24
The /etc/shorewall/hosts file is also used with
kernel 2.6 native IPSEC.
Eliminating the /etc/shorewall/tunnels file
The /etc/shorewall/tunnels file provides no
functionality that could not be implemented using entries in
/etc/shorewall/rules and I have elimination of the
/etc/shorewall/tunnels file as a long-term goal. The
following sections show how entries in
/etc/shorewall/tunnels can be replaced by rules for
some common tunnel types.
IPSEC
/etc/shorewall/tunnels:
#TYPE ZONE GATEWAY GATEWAY_ZONE
ipsec Z1 1.2.3.4 Z2
/etc/shorewall/rules:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT
ACCEPT $FW Z1:1.2.3.4 udp 500
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW udp 500
ACCEPT $FW Z1:1.2.3.4 50
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW 50
ACCEPT $FW Z1:1.2.3.4 51
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW 51
ACCEPT $FW Z2:1.2.3.4 udp 500
ACCEPT Z2:1.2.3.4 $FW udp 500
The "noah" option causes the rules for protocol 51 to be
eliminated. The "ipsecnat" causes UDP port 4500 to be accepted in both
directions. If no GATEWAY ZONE is given then the last two rules above
are omitted.
PPTP
/etc/shorewall/tunnels:
#TYPE ZONE GATEWAY GATEWAY_ZONE
pptpserver Z1 1.2.3.4
/etc/shorewall/rules:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW tcp 1723
ACCEPT $FW Z1:1.2.3.4 47
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW 47
Tunnel type "pptpclient" simply reverses the direction of the tcp
port 1723 rule.
OpenVPN
/etc/shorewall/tunnels:
#TYPE ZONE GATEWAY GATEWAY_ZONE
openvpn:port Z1 1.2.3.4
/etc/shorewall/rules:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW udp port
ACCEPT $FW Z1:1.2.3.4 udp port
/etc/shorewall/tunnels:
#TYPE ZONE GATEWAY GATEWAY_ZONE
openvpnclient:port Z1 1.2.3.4
/etc/shorewall/rules:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW udp - port
ACCEPT $FW Z1:1.2.3.4 udp port
/etc/shorewall/tunnels:
#TYPE ZONE GATEWAY GATEWAY_ZONE
openvpnserver:port Z1 1.2.3.4
/etc/shorewall/rules:
#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DPORT SPORT
ACCEPT Z1:1.2.3.4 $FW udp port
ACCEPT $FW Z1:1.2.3.4 udp - port
Links to Other VPN Articles at shorewall.net
OpenVPN
IPSEC
PPTP