Xen and Shorewall
Tom
Eastep
2006-01-01
2006
Thomas M. Eastep
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Xen Network Environment
Xen is a
paravirtualization tool that allows you to run
multiple virtual machines on one physical machine. It is available on a
wide number of platforms and is included in recent
SuSE distributions.
Xen refers to the virtual machines as
Domains. Domains are numbered with the first domain
being domain 0, the second domain 1, and so on. Domain 0 is special
because that is the domain created when to machine is booted. Additional
domains are created using the xm create command from
within Domain 0. Additional domains can also be created automatically at
boot time by using the xendomains service.
Xen virtualizes a network interface named eth0
This assumes the default Xen configuration created by
xend and assumes that the host system has a single
ethernet interface named eth0.
in each domain. In domain 0, Xen also creates a bridge
(xenbr0) and a number of virtual
interfaces as shown in the following diagram.
I use the term Extended Domain 0 to
distinguish the bridge and virtual interfaces from domain 0 itself. That
distinction is important when we try to apply Shorewall in this
environment.
The bridge has a number of ports:
peth0 — This is the port that connects to the physical network
interface in your system.
vif0.0 — This is the bridge port that is used by traffic to/from
Domain 0.
vifX.0 — This is the bridge port that is used by traffic to/from
Domain X.
Configuring Shorewall in Domain 0
As I state in the answer to Shorewall FAQ
2, I object to running servers in a local zone because if the
server becomes compromised then there is no protection between that
compromised server and the other local systems. Xen allows me to safely
run Internet-accessible servers in my local zone by creating a firewall in
(the Extended) Domain 0 to isolate the server(s) from the other local
systems (including Domain 0).
Here is an example. In this example, we will assume that the system
is behind a second firewall that restricts incoming traffic so that we
only have to worry about protecting the local lan from the systems running
in domains other than domain 0.
This is the real configuration which I
run at shorewall.net.
/etc/shorewall/zones
One thing strange about configuring Shorewall in this environment
is that Domain 0 is defined as two different zones. It is defined as the
firewall zone and it is also defined as "all systems connected to
xenbr0:vif0.0. In this case, I
call this second zone ursa (which is
the name given to the virtual system running in Domain 0); that zone
corresponds roughly to what is shown as the Extended Domain 0
above.
# OPTIONS OPTIONS
fw firewall #Domain 0
ursa ipv4 #Domain 0 on the bridge
dmz ipv4 #Server(s) running in Domains other than 0
net ipv4 #The local LAN and beyond
#LAST LINE - ADD YOUR ENTRIES ABOVE THIS ONE - DO NOT REMOVE
/etc/shorewall/interfaces
We must deal with two network interfaces. We must deal with the
(virtualized) eth0 and we must also deal with the bridge (xenbr0)
created by Xen.
#ZONE INTERFACE BROADCAST OPTIONS
- xenbr0 - dhcp
net eth0 detect dhcp
#LAST LINE -- ADD YOUR ENTRIES BEFORE THIS ONE -- DO NOT REMOVE
/etc/shorewall/hosts
Here we define the zones ursa and
dmz and we extend the definition of the
zone net.
#ZONE HOST(S) OPTIONS
ursa xenbr0:vif0.0
dmz xenbr0:vif+
There is a bug in Shorewall versions prior to 3.0.4 that treats all bridge ports as if they had routeback specified. I recommend that you run a Shorewall verison > 3.0.3 if you run Xen.
net xenbr0:peth0
#LAST LINE -- ADD YOUR ENTRIES BEFORE THIS LINE -- DO NOT REMOVE
Note that the net zone has two
different interfaces. From the point of view of Domain 0 (which is where
Shorewall runs), the net zone comprises
everything except Domain 0. From the point of view of the Extended
Domain 0, the net zone is everything
connected (directly or indirectly) to the peth0 port on the bridge.
/etc/shorewall/policy
The policies shown here effectively isolate Domains 1...N.
#SOURCE DEST POLICY LOG LIMIT:BURST
# LEVEL
all fw ACCEPT
fw all ACCEPT
ursa all ACCEPT
net ursa ACCEPT
net net NONE
all all REJECT info
#LAST LINE -- DO NOT REMOVE
/etc/shorewall/rules
These rules determine the traffic allowed into and out of the
dmz zone.
#
# "Net' to DMZ
#
ACCEPT net dmz udp domain
ACCEPT net dmz tcp www,smtp,smtps,domain,ssh,imap,rsync,https,imaps,ftp,10023,pop3,3128
Trcrt/ACCEPT net dmz
#
# DMZ to 'Net'
#
ACCEPT dmz net:!192.168.0.0/22 udp domain,ntp
ACCEPT dmz net:!192.168.0.0/22 tcp echo,ftp,ssh,smtp,whois,domain,www,81,https,rsync,cvspserver,2702,2703,8080
ACCEPT dmz net:$POPSERVERS tcp pop3
Ping/ACCEPT dmz net
Ping/ACCEPT dmz ursa
Here, 192.168.0.0/22 comprises my local network.
From the point of view of Shorewall, the zone diagram is as shown
in the following diagram.