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<articleinfo>
<title>User-defined Actions</title>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Tom</firstname>
<surname>Eastep</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<pubdate>2005-09-12</pubdate>
<copyright>
<year>2003</year>
<year>2004</year>
<year>2005</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>Creating a New Action</title>
<para>Prior to Shorewall version 1.4.9, rules in
<filename>/etc/shorewall/rules</filename> were limited to those defined by
Netfilter (ACCEPT, DROP, REJECT, etc.). Beginning with Shorewall version
1.4.9, users may use sequences of these elementary operations to define
more complex actions.</para>
<para>To define a new action:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Add a line to
<filename><filename>/etc/shorewall/actions</filename></filename> that
names your new action. Action names must be valid shell variable names
((must begin with a letter and be composed of letters, digits and
underscore characters) as well as valid Netfilter chain names. If you
intend to log from the action, the name must have a maximum of 11
characters. It is recommended that the name you select for a new
action begins with a capital letter; that way, the name won't conflict
with a Shorewall-defined chain name.</para>
<para>Beginning with Shorewall-2.0.0-Beta1, the name of the action may
be optionally followed by a colon (<quote>:</quote>) and ACCEPT, DROP
or REJECT. When this is done, the named action will become the
<emphasis>common action </emphasis>for policies of type ACCEPT, DROP
or REJECT respectively. The common action is applied immediately
before the policy is enforced (before any logging is done under that
policy) and is used mainly to suppress logging of uninteresting
traffic which would otherwise clog your logs. The same policy name can
appear in multiple actions; the last such action for each policy name
is the one which Shorewall will use.</para>
<para>Shorewall includes pre-defined actions for DROP and REJECT --
see below.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Once you have defined your new action name (ActionName), then
copy /usr/share/shorewall/action.template to
<filename>/etc/shorewall/action.ActionName</filename> (for example, if
your new action name is <quote>Foo</quote> then copy
<filename>/usr/share/shorewall/action.template</filename> to
<filename>/etc/shorewall/action.Foo</filename>).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Now modify the new file to define the new action.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>Columns in the action.template file are as follows:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>TARGET - Must be ACCEPT, DROP, REJECT, LOG, CONTINUE, QUEUE or
<<emphasis>action</emphasis>> where
<<emphasis>action</emphasis>> is a previously-defined action
(that is, it must precede the action being defined in this file in
your <filename>/etc/shorewall/actions</filename> file). These actions
have the same meaning as they do in the
<filename>/etc/shorewall/rules</filename> file (CONTINUE terminates
processing of the current action and returns to the point where that
action was invoked). The TARGET may optionally be followed by a colon
(<quote>:</quote>) and a syslog log level (e.g, REJECT:info or
ACCEPT:debugging). This causes the packet to be logged at the
specified level. You may also specify ULOG (must be in upper case) as
a log level.This will log to the ULOG target for routing to a separate
log through use of ulogd (<ulink
url="http://www.gnumonks.org/projects/ulogd">http://www.gnumonks.org/projects/ulogd</ulink>).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>SOURCE - Source hosts to which the rule applies. A
comma-separated list of subnets and/or hosts. Hosts may be specified
by IP or MAC address; mac addresses must begin with <quote>~</quote>
and must use <quote>-</quote> as a separator.</para>
<para>Alternatively, clients may be specified by interface name. For
example, eth1 specifies a client that communicates with the firewall
system through eth1. This may be optionally followed by another colon
(<quote>:</quote>) and an IP/MAC/subnet address as described above
(e.g., eth1:192.168.1.5).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>DEST - Location of Server. Same as above with the exception that
MAC addresses are not allowed.</para>
<para>Unlike in the SOURCE column, you may specify a range of up to
256 IP addresses using the syntax <<emphasis>first
ip</emphasis>>-<<emphasis>last ip</emphasis>>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>PROTO - Protocol - Must be <quote>tcp</quote>,
<quote>udp</quote>, <quote>icmp</quote>, a number, or
<quote>all</quote>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>DEST PORT(S) - Destination Ports. A comma-separated list of Port
names (from <filename>/etc/services</filename>), port numbers or port
ranges; if the protocol is <quote>icmp</quote>, this column is
interpreted as the destination icmp-type(s).</para>
<para>A port range is expressed as <<emphasis>low
port</emphasis>>:<<emphasis>high port</emphasis>>.</para>
<para>This column is ignored if PROTOCOL = all but must be entered if
any of the following fields are supplied. In that case, it is
suggested that this field contain <quote>-</quote>.</para>
<para>If your kernel contains multi-port match support, then only a
single Netfilter rule will be generated if in this list and in the
CLIENT PORT(S) list below:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>There are 15 or less ports listed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>No port ranges are included.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>Otherwise, a separate rule will be generated for each
port.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>SOURCE PORT(S) - Port(s) used by the client. If omitted, any
source port is acceptable. Specified as a comma-separated list of port
names, port numbers or port ranges.</para>
<para>If you don't want to restrict client ports but need to specify
an ADDRESS in the next column, then place "-" in this column.</para>
<para>If your kernel contains multi-port match support, then only a
single Netfilter rule will be generated if in this list and in the
DEST PORT(S) list above:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>There are 15 or less ports listed.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>No port ranges are included.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>Otherwise, a separate rule will be generated for each
port.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>RATE LIMIT - You may rate-limit the rule by placing a value in
this column:</para>
<para><programlisting> <<emphasis>rate</emphasis>>/<<emphasis>interval</emphasis>>[:<<emphasis>burst</emphasis>>]</programlisting>where
<<emphasis>rate</emphasis>> is the number of connections per
<<emphasis>interval</emphasis>> (<quote>sec</quote> or
<quote>min</quote>) and <<emphasis>burst</emphasis>> is the
largest burst permitted. If no <<emphasis>burst</emphasis>> is
given, a value of 5 is assumed. There may be no whitespace embedded in
the specification.</para>
<para><programlisting> Example: 10/sec:20</programlisting></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>USER/GROUP - For output rules (those with the firewall as their
source), you may control connections based on the effective UID and/or
GID of the process requesting the connection. This column can contain
any of the following:</para>
<simplelist>
<member>[!]<<emphasis>user number</emphasis>>[:]</member>
<member>[!]<<emphasis>user name</emphasis>>[:]</member>
<member>[!]:<<emphasis>group number</emphasis>></member>
<member>[!]:<<emphasis>group name</emphasis>></member>
<member>[!]<<emphasis>user
number</emphasis>>:<<emphasis>group
number</emphasis>></member>
<member>[!]<<emphasis>user
name</emphasis>>:<<emphasis>group
number</emphasis>></member>
<member>[!]<<emphasis>user
inumber</emphasis>>:<<emphasis>group
name</emphasis>></member>
<member>[!]<<emphasis>user
name</emphasis>>:<<emphasis>group name</emphasis>></member>
</simplelist>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Omitted column entries should be entered using a dash ("-:).</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<para><filename>/etc/shorewall/actions</filename>:</para>
<para><programlisting> LogAndAccept</programlisting><phrase><filename>/etc/shorewall/action.LogAndAccept</filename></phrase><programlisting> LOG:info
ACCEPT</programlisting></para>
<para>To use your action, in <filename>/etc/shorewall/rules</filename> you
might do something like:</para>
<programlisting>#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DEST PORT(S)
LogAndAccept loc $FW tcp 22</programlisting>
<para>Prior to Shorewall 2.1.2, specifying a log level (and optionally a
log tag) on a rule that specified a user-defined (or Shorewall-defined)
action would log all traffic passed to the action. Beginning with
Shorewall 2.1.2, specifying a log level in a rule that specifies a user-
or Shorewall-defined action will cause each rule in the action to be
logged with the specified level (and tag).</para>
<para>The extent to which logging of action rules occur is governed by the
following:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>When you invoke an action and specify a log level, only those
rules in the action that have no log level will be changed to log at
the level specified at the action invocation.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<para>/etc/shorewall/action.foo</para>
<programlisting>#TARGET SOURCE DEST PROTO DEST PORT(S)
ACCEPT - - tcp 22
bar:info</programlisting>
<para>/etc/shorewall/rules:</para>
<programlisting>#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DEST PORT(S)
foo:debug $FW net</programlisting>
<para>Logging in the invoke 'foo' action will be as if foo had been
defined as:</para>
<programlisting>#TARGET SOURCE DEST PROTO DEST PORT(S)
ACCEPT:debug - - tcp 22
bar:info</programlisting>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If you follow the log level with "!" then logging will be at
that level for all rules recursively invoked by the action.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<para>/etc/shorewall/action.foo</para>
<programlisting>#TARGET SOURCE DEST PROTO DEST PORT(S)
ACCEPT - - tcp 22
bar:info</programlisting>
<para>/etc/shorewall/rules:</para>
<programlisting>#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO DEST PORT(S)
foo:debug! $FW net</programlisting>
<para>Logging in the invoke 'foo' action will be as if foo had been
defined as:</para>
<programlisting>#TARGET SOURCE DEST PROTO DEST PORT(S)
ACCEPT:debug - - tcp 22
bar:debug</programlisting>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>The change in Shorewall 2.1.2 has an effect on extension scripts
used with user-defined actions. If you define an action 'acton' and you
have an <filename>/etc/shorewall/acton</filename> script then when that
script is invoked, the following three variables will be set for use by
the script:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>$CHAIN = the name of the chain where your rules are to be
placed. When logging is used on an action invocation, Shorewall
creates a chain with a slightly different name from the action
itself.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>$LEVEL = Log level. If empty, no logging was specified.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>$TAG = Log Tag.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Example:</para>
<para><filename>/etc/shorewall/rules</filename>:</para>
<programlisting>#ACTION SOURCE DEST
acton:info:test $FW net</programlisting>
<para>Your /etc/shorewall/acton file will be run with:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>$CHAIN="%acton1"</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>$LEVEL="info"</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>$TAG="test"</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section>
<title>Standard Actions In Shorewall 2.0</title>
<para>Beginning with Shorewall 2.0.0-Beta1, Shorewall includes a number of
pre-defined actions. These defined actions are listed in
<filename>/usr/share/shorewall/actions.std</filename>.</para>
<example>
<title>Example of Using a Standard Action</title>
<para>Suppose that you wish to enable ftp from your local network to
your firewall. In <filename>/etc/shorewall/rules</filename>:</para>
<programlisting>#ACTION SOURCE DEST PROTO ...
AllowFTP loc $FW</programlisting>
</example>
<para><filename>/usr/share/shorewall/actions.std</filename> is processed
before <filename>/etc/shorewall/actions</filename> and if you have any
actions defined with the same name as one in
<filename>/usr/share/shorewall/actions.std</filename>, your version in
<filename class="directory">/etc/shorewall</filename> will be the one
used. So if you wish to modify a standard action, simply copy the
associated action file from <filename
class="directory">/usr/share/shorewall </filename>to <filename
class="directory">/etc/shorewall and modify</filename> it to suit your
needs. The next <command>shorewall restart</command> will cause your
action to be installed in place of the standard one. In particular, if you
want to modify the common actions <quote>Drop</quote> or
<quote>Reject</quote>, simply copy <filename>action.Drop</filename> or
<filename>Action.Reject</filename> to <filename
class="directory">/etc/shorewall</filename> and modify that copy as
desired.</para>
<note>
<para>Some of the standard actions are <firstterm>built-in</firstterm>s.
This means that there is no corresponding action.* file and that
Shorewall constructs the rules for the actions using direct
<command>iptables</command> commands. If you need to modify one of these
built-in actions, you will need to use the <link
linkend="Extension">Extension Script mechanism</link> described below
and you will need to give the action a different name.</para>
</note>
</section>
<section id="Common">
<title>Common Actions</title>
<para>Also beginning with Shorewall version 2.2.0-Beta1, when an ACCEPT,
DROP or REJECT policy is about to be enforced, a <firstterm>common
action</firstterm> can first be invoked. In /etc/shorewall/actions.std are
found these two entries:</para>
<programlisting>Drop:DROP #Common Action for DROP policy
Reject:REJECT #Common Action for REJECT policy</programlisting>
<para>These entries designate the action named <firstterm>Drop</firstterm>
as the common action for DROP policies and the common action
<firstterm>Reject</firstterm> as the common action for REJECT
policies.</para>
<para>The purpose of common actions is:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>To avoid filling your log with useless clutter. For example, one
of the things that the Drop action does is to silently drop SMB
traffic by invoking the <firstterm>DropSMB</firstterm> action.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>To ensure proper behavior. For example, both the Drop and Reject
actions invoke the <firstterm>RejectAuth</firstterm> action to REJECT
connection requests on TCP port 113. If these requests are simply
dropped, connection timeouts can occur when you connect to a server
that uses AUTH identification.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>It should be stressed that <emphasis role="bold">the common actions
do not cause any traffic to be dropped or rejected that isn't about to be
dropped or rejected anyway</emphasis> (remember that these actions are
invoked just before the connection request is going to be dropped or
rejected by policy anyway). Their main function is to avoid log
clutter.</para>
</section>
<section id="Extension">
<title>Creating an Action using an Extension Script</title>
<para>There may be cases where you wish to create a chain with rules that
can't be constructed using the tools defined in the action.template. In
that case, you can use an extension script.<note>
<para>If you actually need an action to drop broadcast packets, use
the <command>dropBcast</command> standard action rather than create
one like this.</para>
</note></para>
<example>
<title>An action to drop all broadcast packets</title>
<para>/etc/shorewall/actions<programlisting>DropBcasts</programlisting></para>
<para>/etc/shorewall/action.DropBcasts<programlisting># This file is empty</programlisting></para>
<para>/etc/shorewall/DropBcasts<programlisting>run_iptables -A DropBcasts -m pkttype --pkttype broadcast -j DROP</programlisting></para>
</example>
</section>
</article>