shorewall_code/Shorewall/releasenotes.txt

Shorewall 3.1.8

Note to users upgrading from Shorewall 2.x or 3.0

   Most problems associated with upgrades come from two causes:

   - The user didn't read and follow the migration considerations in these
     release notes.

   - The user mis-handled the /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf file during
     upgrade. Shorewall is designed to allow the default behavior of
     the product to evolve over time. To make this possible, the design
     assumes that you will not replace your current shorewall.conf file
     during upgrades. If you feel absolutely compelled to have the latest
     comments and options in your shorewall.conf then you must proceed
     carefully.

   While you are at it, if you have a file named /etc/shorewall/rfc1918 then
   please check that file. If it has addresses listed that are NOT in one of
   these three ranges, then please rename the file to
   /etc/shorewall/rfc1918.old.

	10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
	172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
	192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

   Please see the "Migration Considerations" below for additional upgrade
   information.

Problems Corrected in 3.1.8

1)  Previously, startup errors occurred if the user had configured a network
    interface named 'inet'.

2)  SUBSYSLOCK functionality has been restored.

Other changes in 3.1.8

1)  The sillyness having to do with running certain extension scripts at
    compile time has been eliminated. When a configuration is compiled,
    the scripts are copied unmodified (except for indentation) into the
    compiled program.

    Note: The /etc/shorewall/params file is still processed at
    compile-time.

Migration Considerations:

1)  A number of macros have been split into two.  The macros affected are:
	IMAP LDAP NNTP POP3 SMTP
    Each of these macros now handles only traffic on the native (plaintext)
    port.  There is a corresponding macro with S added to the end of the
    name for the SSL version of the same protocol.  Thus each macro results
    in the insertion of only one port per invocation.

    The Web macro has not been split, but two new macros, HTTP and HTTPS have
    been created.  The Web macro is deprecated in favour of these new macros,
    and may be removed from future Shorewall releases.

    These changes have been made to ensure no unexpected ports are opened due
    to the use of macros.

2)  In previous Shorewall releases, DNAT and REDIRECT rules supported a
    special syntax for exclusion of a subnet from the effect of the rule.

    Example:

	Z2 is a subzone of Z1:

	DNAT     Z1!Z2        loc:192.168.1.4        ...

    That syntax has never worked correctly when Z2 is a dynamic zone.
    Furthermore, now that Shorewall supports exclusion lists, the capability
    is redundant since the above rule can now be written in the form:

	DNAT     Z1:!<list of exclusions>   loc:192.168.1.4   ...

    Beginning with Shorewall 3.2.0, the special exclusion syntax will no
    longer be supported.

3)  Important if you use the QUEUE target.

    In the /etc/shorewall/rules file and in actions, you may now specify
    'tcpsyn' in the PROTO column. 'tcpsyn' is equivalent to 'tcp' but also
    requires that the SYN flag is set and the RST, FIN and ACK flags be
    off ("--syn" is added to the iptables rule).

    As part of this change, Shorewall no longer adds the "--syn" option
    to TCP rules that specify QUEUE as their target.

New Features:

1)  Shorewall has always been very noisy (lots of messages). No longer.

    You set the default level of verbosity using the VERBOSITY option in
    shorewall.conf. If you don't set it (as would be the case of you use your
    old shorewall.conf file) then VERBOSITY defaults to a value of 2 which is
    the old default. A value of 1 suppresses some of the output (like the old
    -q option did) while a value of 0 makes Shorewall almost silent. A value
    of -1 suppresses all output except warning and error messages.

    The value specified in the 3.2 shorewall.conf is 1. So you can make
    Shorewall as verbose as previously using a single -v and you can make it
    silent by using a single -q.

    If the default is set at 2, you can still make a command silent by using
    two "q"s (e.g., shorewall -qq restart).

    In summary, each "q" subtracts one from VERBOSITY while each "v" adds one
    to VERBOSITY.

    The "shorewall show log", "shorewall logwatch" and "shorewall dump"
    commands require VERBOSITY to be greater than or equal to 3 to display MAC
    addresses.This is consistent with the previous implementation which
    required a single -v to enable MAC display but means that if you set
    VERBOSITY=0 in shorewall.conf, then you will need to include -vvv in
    commands that display log records in order to have MACs displayed.

2)  A new 'shorewall compile' command has been added.

     shorewall compile [ -e ] [ -d <distro> ] [ <config directory> ] <script file>

    where:

	-e                    Allows the generated script to run
	                      on a system without Shorewall installed.
			      Generates an error if the configuration uses
	                      an option that would prevent the generated
	                      script from running on a system other than
	                      where the 'compile' command is running (see
	                      additional consideration a) below).
	-d <distro>           Compile the script for execution on the
	                      distribution specified by <distro>. Currently,
	                      'suse' is the only valid <distro>.

			      Note that specifying a distribution should
			      only be required if you intend to install
			      the compiled script in /etc/init.d on the
			      target system.

	                      Example:

				shorewall compile -d suse foo

			      Additional distributions are expected to be
			      supported shortly.

	<config directory>    Is an optional directory to be searched for
	                      configuration files prior to those listed
	                      in CONFIG_DIR in
			      /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf.
	<script file>         Is the name of the output file.

    The 'compile' command processes the configuration and generates a
    script file which may then be executed (either directly or using the
    'shorewall restore' command) to configure the firewall.

    The generated script contains error checking and will terminate if an
    important command fails. Before terminating:

    a) The script will check for the existence of the restore script
       specified by the RESTOREFILE variable in shorewall.conf. If that
       restore script exists, it is executed.

    b) If the restore script doesn't exist but Shorewall appears to be
       installed on the system, the equivalent of an
       "/sbin/shorewall stop" command is executed.

    Some additional considerations:

    a) It is possible to run 'compile' on one system and then run the
       generated script on another system but there are certain
       limitations.

       1) A compatible version of Shorewall must be running on the remote
          system unless you use the "-e" option when you compile the script.
          Currently, "compatible" means Shorewall 3.1.5 or later.
       2) The 'detectnets' interface option is not allowed.
       3) You must supply the file /etc/shorewall/capabilities to provide
          the compiler with knowledge of the capabilities of the system
          where the script is to be run. The /etc/shorewall/capabilities
          file included in this release includes instructions for its
          use. Also, find information below about how to create the
          file using the 'shorecap' program.
       4) If your /etc/shorewall/params file contains code other than simple
          assignment statements with contant values, then you should move
          that code to /etc/shorewall/init. That way, the code will be
          executed on the target system when the compiled script is run rather
          than on the local system at compile time.

    b) If you run the "shorewall compile" or "shorewall check" commands under
       a user other than 'root', then you must supply
       /etc/shorewall/capabilities.

    c) To aid in building /etc/shorewall/capabilities, a 'shorecap' program
       is provided. The RPM installs the program in the documentation
       directory. The install.sh script does not install the program but
       of course you can simply copy it from the distribution directory
       (where you ran install.sh from).

       The program can be run on the target system to produce a
       capabilities file taylored for that system. The capabilities
       file can then be copied to the local system where it can be used
       when compiling firewall programs targeted for the remote system.

       For instructions about running shorecap, see the comments at the
       top of the program file (it's a simple shell script).

    Compilation generates a complete program. This program is suitable for
    installation into /etc/init.d and, when generated with the "-e" option,
    can serve as your firewall on a system that doesn't even have Shorewall
    installed.

    The generated program supports the following commands:

	<program> [ -q ] [ -v ] [ -n ] start
	<program> [ -q ] [ -v ] [ -n ] stop
	<program> [ -q ] [ -v ] [ -n ] clear
	<program> [ -q ] [ -v ] [ -n ] restart
	<program> [ -q ] [ -v ] [ -n ] status
	<program> [ -q ] [ -v ] [ -n ] version

    The options have the same meaning as they do with /sbin/shorewall
    (see above).

    The "shorewall start" and "shorewall restart" commands have been
    rewritten to use compilation. They both compile a temporary program
    then run it. This results in a slightly longer elapsed time than the
    similar commands required under earlier versions of Shorewall but new
    connections are blocked for a much smaller percentage of that time.

    If an error is found during the compilation phase, /sbin/shorewall
    terminates and the Shorewall state is unchanged.

    Under Shorewall 3.1.5, "shorewall restart" takes roughly 16.5 seconds
    on my firewall:

	real    0m16.599s
	user    0m6.292s
	sys     0m9.885s

    Of the elapsed 16.5 seconds, new connections are disabled less than
    3.5 seconds. Here are some numbers for comparison:

    A) shorewall restart (Shorewall 3.0.4)

	real    0m17.540s
	user    0m5.956s
	sys     0m10.737s

    B) ./foo restart # foo created using "shorewall compile"

	real    0m3.297s
	user    0m1.444s
	sys     0m1.728s

    C) shorewall restore (Shorewall 3.0.4) # Restores from file generated by
                                           # "shorewall save"

	real    0m1.164s
	user    0m0.556s
	sys     0m0.608s

    D) shorewall restore (shorewall 3.1.5)

	real    0m1.637s
	user    0m0.728s
	sys     0m0.584s

    The time difference between B and C reflects the difference between
    "iptables-restore" and multiple executions of "iptables". The time
    difference between C and D results from the fact that the "restore"
    command in Shorewall 3.1 runs the compiled program in a way that
    turns all iptables commands into no-ops then invokes
    iptables-restore. The system is a 1.4Ghz Celeron with 512MB RAM.

    As a final part of this change, the "check" command now compiles the
    current configuration and writes the compiled output to /dev/null. So
    "check" performs all of the same checks that compile does. Note that
    there is still no guarantee that the generated script won't encounter
    run-time errors.

2)  The /etc/shorewall/maclist file has a new column layout. The first column
    is now DISPOSITION. This column determines what to do with matching
    packets and can have the value ACCEPT or DROP (if MACLIST_TABLE=filter, it
    can also contain REJECT). This change is upward compatible so your existing
    maclist file can still be used.

    ACCEPT, DROP and REJECT may be optionally followed by a log level to
    cause the packet to be logged.

4)  In macro files, you can now use the reserved words SOURCE and DEST
    in the columns of the same names. When Shorewall expands the
    macro, it will substitute the SOURCE from the macro invocation for
    SOURCE and the DEST from the invocation for DEST. This allows you
    to write macros that act in both directions (from source to destination
    and from destination to source).

    Example:

	macro.FOO:

	    PARAM      SOURCE        DEST      udp     500
	    PARAM      DEST          SOURCE    udp     500

	/etc/shorewall/rules:

	    FOO/ACCEPT    fw         net

	Resulting rules:

	    ACCEPT        fw         net        udp     500
	    ACCEPT        net        fw         udp     500

    This new feature has been used to implement the SMBBI macro.
    SMBBI is the same as the SMB macro with the exception that
    it passes SMB traffic in both directions whereas SMB only
    passes that traffic in one direction.

5)  In the /etc/shorewall/rules file and in actions, you may now specify
    'tcp:syn' in the PROTO column. 'tcp:syn' is equivalent to 'tcp' but also
    requires that the SYN flag is set and the RST, FIN and ACK flags be
    off ("--syn" is added to the iptables rule).

    As part of this change, Shorewall no longer adds the "--syn" option
    to TCP rules that specify QUEUE as their target.

6)  /sbin/shorewall now supports a "-t" option that causes all progress
    messages to be timestamped.

    Example (VERBOSITY=0 in shorewall.conf):

    gateway:/etc/shorewall # shorewall -t restart
    07:08:51 Compiling...
    07:09:05 Shorewall configuration compiled to /var/lib/shorewall/.restart
    07:09:05 Restarting Shorewall....
    07:09:08 done.
    gateway:/etc/shorewall #