Shoreline Firewall (Shorewall)

Copyright © 2001-2006 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, with no Front-Cover, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.

2006-10-28

Table of Contents

Introduction to Shorewall

Glossary
What is Shorewall?
Current Shorewall Versions
Getting Started with Shorewall
Looking for Information?
License

Leaf
OpenWRT
Proxmox Firewall
Donations

Introduction to Shorewall

Glossary

• Netfilter - the packet filter facility built into the 2.4 and later Linux kernels.

• ipchains - the packet filter facility built into the 2.2 Linux kernels. Also the name of the utility program used to configure and control that facility. Netfilter can be used in ipchains compatibility mode.

• iptables - the utility program used to configure and control Netfilter. The term 'iptables' is often used to refer to the combination of iptables+Netfilter (with Netfilter not in ipchains compatibility mode).

What is Shorewall?

The Shoreline Firewall, more commonly known as "Shorewall", is a high-level tool for configuring Netfilter. You describe your firewall/gateway requirements using entries in a set of configuration files. Shorewall reads those configuration files and with the help of the iptables utility, Shorewall configures Netfilter to match your requirements. Shorewall can be used on a dedicated firewall system, a multi-function gateway/router/server or on a standalone GNU/Linux system. Shorewall does not use Netfilter's ipchains compatibility mode; as a consequence, Shorewall can take advantage of Netfilter's connection state tracking capabilities to create a stateful firewall.

Shorewall is not a daemon. Once Shorewall has configured Netfilter, it's job is complete and there is no Shorewall code left running in the system. The /sbin/shorewall program can be used at any time to monitor the Netfilter firewall.

Shorewall is not the easiest to use of the available iptables configuration tools but I believe that it is the most flexible and powerful. So if you are looking for a simple point-and-click set-and-forget Linux firewall solution that requires a minimum of networking knowledge, I would encourage you to check out the following alternatives:

• m0n0wall (FreeBSD Based)

• Firestarter

On the other hand, if you are looking for a Linux firewall solution that can handle complex and fast changing network environments then Shorewall is a logical choice.

To see some of the many things that you can do with Shorewall, see the Shorewall Features page.

Current Shorewall Versions

The current Stable Release version is  3.2.5

• Here are the release notes
  
• Here are the known problems and updates.

• Here are the release notes
  
• Here are the known problems and updates.

Getting Started with Shorewall

New to Shorewall? Download the current Stable version (see above) then select the QuickStart Guide that most closely matches your environment and follow the step by step instructions.

Looking for Information?

The Documentation Index is a good place to start as is the Site Search in the frame above.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of Version 2 of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more detail.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

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 "GNU Free Documentation License".

Leaf

LEAF is an open source project which provides a Firewall/router on a floppy, CD or CF. Several LEAF distributions including Bering and Bering-uClibc use Shorewall as their Netfilter configuration tool.

OpenWRT

OpenWRT is a project which provides open source firmware for Linksys WRT54G wireless routers. Two different Shorewall packages are available for OpenWRT.

Proxmox Firewall

Proxmox firewall is based on Shorewall and Debian Sarge. It has an automated installer and a GUI.

Donations

Shorewall is free but if you try it and find it useful, please consider making a donation to the Alzheimer's Association or to the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Thank You