Shorewall Errata/Upgrade Issues

IMPORTANT

  1. If you use a Windows system to download a corrected script, be sure to run the script through dos2unix after you have moved it to your Linux system.

  2. If you are installing Shorewall for the first time and plan to use the .tgz and install.sh script, you can untar the archive, replace the 'firewall' script in the untarred directory with the one you downloaded below, and then run install.sh.

  3. When the instructions say to install a corrected firewall script in /etc/shorewall/firewall or /var/lib/shorewall/firewall, use the 'cp' (or 'scp') utility to overwrite the existing file. DO NOT REMOVE OR RENAME THE OLD /etc/shorewall/firewall or /var/lib/shorewall/firewall before you do that. /etc/shorewall/firewall and /var/lib/shorewall/firewall are symbolic links that point to the 'shorewall' file used by your system initialization scripts to start Shorewall during boot. It is that file that must be overwritten with the corrected script.


Problems in Version 1.3

Version 1.3.7b

DNAT rules where the source zone is 'fw' ($FW) result in an error message. Installing this corrected firewall script in /var/lib/shorewall/firewall as described above corrects this problem.

Version 1.3.7a

"shorewall refresh" is not creating the proper rule for FORWARDPING=Yes. Consequently, after "shorewall refresh", the firewall will not forward icmp echo-request (ping) packets. Installing this corrected firewall script in /var/lib/shorewall/firewall as described above corrects this problem.

Version <= 1.3.7a

If "norfc1918" and "dhcp" are both specified as options on a given interface then RFC 1918 checking is occurring before DHCP checking. This means that if a DHCP client broadcasts using an RFC 1918 source address, then the firewall will reject the broadcast (usually logging it). This has two problems:

  1. If the firewall is running a DHCP server, the client won't be able to obtain an IP address lease from that server.
  2. With this order of checking, the "dhcp" option cannot be used as a noise-reduction measure where there are both dynamic and static clients on a LAN segment.

This version of the 1.3.7a firewall script corrects the problem. It must be installed in /var/lib/shorewall as described above.

Version 1.3.7

Version 1.3.7 dead on arrival -- please use version 1.3.7a and check your version against these md5sums -- if there's a difference, please download again.

	d2fffb7fb99bcc6cb047ea34db1df10 shorewall-1.3.7a.tgz
	6a7fd284c8685b2b471a2f47b469fb94 shorewall-1.3.7a-1.noarch.rpm
	3decd14296effcff16853106771f7035 shorwall-1.3.7a.lrp

In other words, type "md5sum <whatever package you downloaded> and compare the result with what you see above.

I'm embarrassed to report that 1.2.7 was also DOA -- maybe I'll skip the .7 version in each sequence from now on.

Version 1.3.6

These problems are fixed in this correct firewall script which must be installed in /var/lib/shorewall/ as described above. These problems are also corrected in version 1.3.7.

Two-interface Samples 1.3.6 (file two-interfaces.tgz)

A line was inadvertently deleted from the "interfaces file" -- this line should be added back in if the version that you downloaded is missing it:

net    eth0    detect    routefilter,dhcp,norfc1918

If you downloaded two-interfaces-a.tgz then the above line should already be in the file.

Version 1.3.5-1.3.5b

The new 'proxyarp' interface option doesn't work :-( This is fixed in this corrected firewall script which must be installed in /var/lib/shorewall/ as described above.

Versions 1.3.4-1.3.5a

Prior to version 1.3.4, host file entries such as the following were allowed:

	adm	eth0:1.2.4.5,eth0:5.6.7.8

That capability was lost in version 1.3.4 so that it is only possible to  include a single host specification on each line. This problem is corrected by this modified 1.3.5a firewall script. Install the script in /var/lib/pub/shorewall/firewall as instructed above.

This problem is corrected in version 1.3.5b.

Version 1.3.5

REDIRECT rules are broken in this version. Install this corrected firewall script in /var/lib/pub/shorewall/firewall as instructed above. This problem is corrected in version 1.3.5a.

Version 1.3.n, n < 4

The "shorewall start" and "shorewall restart" commands to not verify that the zones named in the /etc/shorewall/policy file have been previously defined in the /etc/shorewall/zones file. The "shorewall check" command does perform this verification so it's a good idea to run that command after you have made configuration changes.

Version 1.3.n, n < 3

If you have upgraded from Shorewall 1.2 and after "Activating rules..." you see the message: "iptables: No chains/target/match by that name" then you probably have an entry in /etc/shorewall/hosts that specifies an interface that you didn't include in /etc/shorewall/interfaces. To correct this problem, you must add an entry to /etc/shorewall/interfaces. Shorewall 1.3.3 and later versions produce a clearer error message in this case.

Version 1.3.2

Until approximately 2130 GMT on 17 June 2002, the download sites contained an incorrect version of the .lrp file. That file can be identified by its size (56284 bytes). The correct version has a size of 38126 bytes.

Both problems are corrected in this script which should be installed in /var/lib/shorewall as described above.

Version 1.3.1

These problems are corrected in this firewall script which should be installed in /etc/shorewall/firewall as described above.

Version 1.3.0


Upgrade Issues

The upgrade issues have moved to a separate page.


Problem with iptables version 1.2.3

There are a couple of serious bugs in iptables 1.2.3 that prevent it from working with Shorewall. Regrettably, RedHat released this buggy iptables in RedHat 7.2. 

I have built a corrected 1.2.3 rpm which you can download here  and I have also built an iptables-1.2.4 rpm which you can download here. If you are currently running RedHat 7.1, you can install either of these RPMs before you upgrade to RedHat 7.2.

Update 11/9/2001: RedHat has released an iptables-1.2.4 RPM of their own which you can download from http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2001-144.html. I have installed this RPM on my firewall and it works fine.

If you would like to patch iptables 1.2.3 yourself, the patches are available for download. This patch which corrects a problem with parsing of the --log-level specification while this patch corrects a problem in handling the  TOS target.

To install one of the above patches:

Problems with kernels >= 2.4.18 and RedHat iptables

Users who use RedHat iptables RPMs and who upgrade to kernel 2.4.18/19 may experience the following:

# shorewall start
Processing /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf ...
Processing /etc/shorewall/params ...
Starting Shorewall...
Loading Modules...
Initializing...
Determining Zones...
Zones: net
Validating interfaces file...
Validating hosts file...
Determining Hosts in Zones...
Net Zone: eth0:0.0.0.0/0
iptables: libiptc/libip4tc.c:380: do_check: Assertion
`h->info.valid_hooks == (1 << 0 | 1 << 3)' failed.
Aborted (core dumped)
iptables: libiptc/libip4tc.c:380: do_check: Assertion
`h->info.valid_hooks == (1 << 0 | 1 << 3)' failed.
Aborted (core dumped)

The RedHat iptables RPM is compiled with debugging enabled but the user-space debugging code was not updated to reflect recent changes in the Netfilter 'mangle' table. You can correct the problem by installing this iptables RPM. If you are already running a 1.2.5 version of iptables, you will need to specify the --oldpackage option to rpm (e.g., "iptables -Uvh --oldpackage iptables-1.2.5-1.i386.rpm").

Problems installing/upgrading RPM on SuSE

If you find that rpm complains about a conflict with kernel <= 2.2 yet you have a 2.4 kernel installed, simply use the "--nodeps" option to rpm.

Installing: rpm -ivh --nodeps <shorewall rpm>

Upgrading: rpm -Uvh --nodeps <shorewall rpm>

Problems with iptables version 1.2.7 and MULTIPORT=Yes

The iptables 1.2.7 release of iptables has made an incompatible change to the syntax used to specify multiport match rules; as a consequence, if you install iptables 1.2.7 you must be running Shorewall 1.3.7a or later or:

Last updated 9/1/2002 - Tom Eastep

Copyright © 2001, 2002 Thomas M. Eastep.