Shorewall Errata/Upgrade Issues

IMPORTANT

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.
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.
When the instructions say to install a corrected firewall script in /usr/share/shorewall/firewall, you may rename the existing file before copying in the new file.
DO NOT INSTALL CORRECTED COMPONENTS ON A RELEASE EARLIER THAN THE ONE THAT THEY ARE LISTED UNDER BELOW. For example, do NOT install the 1.3.9a firewall script if you are running 1.3.7c.

Upgrade Issues
Problems in Version 1.4
Problems in Version 1.3
Problems in Version 1.2
Problems in Version 1.1
Problem with iptables version 1.2.3 on RH7.2
Problems with kernels >= 2.4.18 and RedHat iptables
Problems installing/upgrading RPM on SuSE
Problems with iptables version 1.2.7 and MULTIPORT=Yes
Problems with RH Kernel 2.4.18-10 and NAT
Problems with RH Kernels after 2.4.20-9 and REJECT (also applies to 2.4.21-RC1)

Problems in Version 1.4

1.4.4b

Shorewall is ignoring records in /etc/shorewall/routestopped that have an empty second column (HOSTS). This problem may be corrected by installing this firewall script in /usr/share/shorewall/firewall as described above.
The INCLUDE directive doesn't work when placed in the /etc/shorewall/zones file. This problem may be corrected by installing this functions script in /usr/share/shorewall/functions.

1.4.4-1.4.4a

Log messages are being displayed on the system console even though the log level for the console is set properly according to FAQ 16. This problem may be corrected by installing this firewall script in /usr/share/shorewall/firewall as described above.

1.4.4

If you have zone names that are 5 characters long, you may experience problems starting Shorewall because the --log-prefix in a logging rule is too long. Upgrade to Version 1.4.4a to fix this problem..

1.4.3

The LOGMARKER variable introduced in version 1.4.3 was intended to allow integration of Shorewall with Fireparse (http://www.firewparse.com). Unfortunately, LOGMARKER only solved part of the integration problem. I have implimented a new LOGFORMAT variable which will replace LOGMARKER which has completely solved this problem and is currently in production with fireparse here at shorewall.net. The updated files may be found at ftp://ftp1.shorewall.net/pub/shorewall/errata/1.4.3/fireparse/. See the 0README.txt file for details.

1.4.2

When an 'add' or 'delete' command is executed, a temporary directory created in /tmp is not being removed. This problem may be corrected by installing this firewall script in /usr/share/shorewall/firewall as described above.

1.4.1a, 1.4.1 and 1.4.0

Some TCP requests are rejected in the 'common' chain with an ICMP port-unreachable response rather than the more appropriate TCP RST response. This problem is corrected in this updated common.def file which may be installed in /etc/shorewall/common.def.

1.4.1

When a "shorewall check" command is executed, each "rule" produces the harmless additional message:

/usr/share/shorewall/firewall: line 2174: [: =: unary operator expected

You may correct the problem by installing this corrected script in /usr/share/shorewall/firewall as described above.

1.4.0

When running under certain shells Shorewall will attempt to create ECN rules even when /etc/shorewall/ecn is empty. You may either just remove /etc/shorewall/ecn or you can install this correct script in /usr/share/shorewall/firewall as described above.

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:

cd iptables-1.2.3/extensions

patch -p0 < the-patch-file

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:

set MULTIPORT=No in /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf; or
if you are running Shorewall 1.3.6 you may install this firewall script in /var/lib/shorewall/firewall as described above.

Problems with RH Kernel 2.4.18-10 and NAT

/etc/shorewall/nat entries of the following form will result in Shorewall being unable to start:

#EXTERNAL       INTERFACE       INTERNAL        ALL INTERFACES          LOCAL
192.0.2.22      eth0            192.168.9.22    yes                     yes
#LAST LINE -- ADD YOUR ENTRIES ABOVE THIS LINE -- DO NOT REMOVE

Error message is:

Setting up NAT...
iptables: Invalid argument
Terminated

The solution is to put "no" in the LOCAL column. Kernel support for LOCAL=yes has never worked properly and 2.4.18-10 has disabled it. The 2.4.19 kernel contains corrected support under a new kernel configuraiton option; see http://www.shorewall.net/Documentation.htm#NAT

Problems with RH Kernels after 2.4.20-9 and REJECT (also applies to 2.4.21-RC1)

Beginning with errata kernel 2.4.20-13.9, "REJECT --reject-with tcp-reset" is broken. The symptom most commonly seen is that REJECT rules act just like DROP rules when dealing with TCP. A kernel patch and precompiled modules to fix this problem are available at ftp://ftp1.shorewall.net/pub/shorewall/errata/kernel.

Last updated 6/13/2003 - Tom Eastep