Shorewall FAQs

Shorewall Community

Tom 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”.

2004-02-03


Table of Contents

Installing Shorewall
Where do I find Step by Step Installation and Configuration Instructions?
Port Forwarding
(FAQ 1) I want to forward UDP port 7777 to my my personal PC with IP address 192.168.1.5. I've looked everywhere and can't find how to do it.
(FAQ 1a) Ok -- I followed those instructions but it doesn't work
(FAQ 1b) I'm still having problems with port forwarding
(FAQ 1c) From the internet, I want to connect to port 1022 on my firewall and have the firewall forward the connection to port 22 on local system 192.168.1.3. How do I do that?
(FAQ 30) I'm confused about when to use DNAT rules and when to use ACCEPT rules.
DNS and Port Forwarding/NAT
(FAQ 2) I port forward www requests to www.mydomain.com (IP 130.151.100.69) to system 192.168.1.5 in my local network. External clients can browse http://www.mydomain.com but internal clients can't.
(FAQ 2a) I have a zone Z with an RFC1918 subnet and I use one-to-one NAT to assign non-RFC1918 addresses to hosts in Z. Hosts in Z cannot communicate with each other using their external (non-RFC1918 addresses) so they can't access each other using their DNS names.
Netmeeting/MSN
(FAQ 3) I want to use Netmeeting or MSN Instant Messenger with Shorewall. What do I do?
Open Ports
(FAQ 4) I just used an online port scanner to check my firewall and it shows some ports as closed rather than blocked. Why?
(FAQ 4a) I just ran an nmap UDP scan of my firewall and it showed 100s of ports as open!!!!
(FAQ 4b) I have a port that I can't close no matter how I change my rules.
(FAQ 4c) How to I use Shorewall with PortSentry?
Connection Problems
(FAQ 5) I've installed Shorewall and now I can't ping through the firewall
(FAQ 15) My local systems can't see out to the net
(FAQ 29) FTP Doesn't Work
(FAQ 33) From clients behind the firewall, connections to some sites fail. Connections to the same sites from the firewall itself work fine. What's wrong.
Logging
(FAQ 6) Where are the log messages written and how do I change the destination?
(FAQ 6a) Are there any log parsers that work with Shorewall?
(FAQ 2b) DROP messages on port 10619 are flooding the logs with their connect requests. Can i exclude these error messages for this port temporarily from logging in Shorewall?
(FAQ 6c) All day long I get a steady flow of these DROP messages from port 53 to some high numbered port. They get dropped, but what the heck are they?
(FAQ 6d) Why is the MAC address in Shorewall log messages so long? I thought MAC addresses were only 6 bytes in length.
(FAQ 16) Shorewall is writing log messages all over my console making it unusable!
(FAQ 17) What does this log message mean?
(FAQ 21) I see these strange log entries occasionally; what are they?
Routing
(FAQ 32) My firewall has two connections to the internet from two different ISPs. How do I set this up in Shorewall?
Starting and Stopping
(FAQ 7) When I stop Shorewall using shorewall stop, I can't connect to anything. Why doesn't that command work?
(FAQ 8) When I try to start Shorewall on RedHat, I get messages about insmod failing -- what's wrong?
(FAQ 8a) When I try to start Shorewall on RedHat I get a message referring me to FAQ #8
(FAQ 9) Why can't Shorewall detect my interfaces properly at startup?
(FAQ 22) I have some iptables commands that I want to run when Shorewall starts. Which file do I put them in?
About Shorewall
(FAQ 10) What Distributions does it work with?
(FAQ 11) What Features does it have?
(FAQ 12) Is there a GUI?
(FAQ 13) Why do you call it Shorewall?
(FAQ 23) Why do you use such ugly fonts on your web site?
(FAQ 25) How to I tell which version of Shorewall I am running?
(FAQ 31) Does Shorewall provide protection against....
Given that the Debian Stable Release includes Shorewall 1.2.12, how can you not support that version?
RFC 1918
(FAQ 14) I'm connected via a cable modem and it has an internal web server that allows me to configure/monitor it but as expected if I enable rfc1918 blocking for my eth0 interface (the internet one), it also blocks the cable modems web server.
(FAQ 14a) Even though it assigns public IP addresses, my ISP's DHCP server has an RFC 1918 address. If I enable RFC 1918 filtering on my external interface, my DHCP client cannot renew its lease.
Alias IP Addresses/Virtual Interfaces
(FAQ 18) Is there any way to use aliased ip addresses with Shorewall, and maintain separate rulesets for different IPs?
Miscellaneous
(FAQ 19) I have added entries to /etc/shorewall/tcrules but they don't seem to do anything. Why?
(FAQ 20) I have just set up a server. Do I have to change Shorewall to allow access to my server from the internet?
(FAQ 24) How can I allow conections to let's say the ssh port only from specific IP Addresses on the internet?
(FAQ 26) When I try to use any of the SYN options in nmap on or behind the firewall, I get operation not permitted. How can I use nmap with Shorewall?"
(FAQ 26a) When I try to use the -O option of nmap from the firewall system, I get operation not permitted. How do I allow this option?
(FAQ 27) I'm compiling a new kernel for my firewall. What should I look out for?
(FAQ 27a) I just built and installed a new kernel and now Shorewall won't start. I know that my kernel options are correct.
(FAQ 28) How do I use Shorewall as a Bridging Firewall?
A. Revision History

Installing Shorewall

Where do I find Step by Step Installation and Configuration Instructions?

Answer: Check out the QuickStart Guides.

Port Forwarding

(FAQ 1) I want to forward UDP port 7777 to my my personal PC with IP address 192.168.1.5. I've looked everywhere and can't find how to do it.

Answer: The first example in the rules file documentation shows how to do port forwarding under Shorewall. The format of a port-forwarding rule to a local system is as follows:

#ACTION    SOURCE      DEST                                   PROTO        DEST PORT
DNAT       net         loc:<local IP address>[:<local port>]  <protocol>   <port #>

So to forward UDP port 7777 to internal system 192.168.1.5, the rule is:

#ACTION    SOURCE   DEST             PROTO    DEST PORT
DNAT       net      loc:192.168.1.5  udp      7777

If you want to forward requests directed to a particular address ( <external IP> ) on your firewall to an internal system:

#ACTION SOURCE DEST                                   PROTO       DEST PORT  SOURCE  ORIGINAL
#                                                                            PORT    DEST.
DNAT    net    loc:<local IP address>[:<local port>]  <protocol>  <port #>   -       <external IP>

Finally, if you need to forward a range of ports, in the PORT column specify the range as <low-port>:<high-port>.

(FAQ 1a) Ok -- I followed those instructions but it doesn't work

Answer: That is usually the result of one of four things:

(FAQ 1b) I'm still having problems with port forwarding

Answer: To further diagnose this problem:

  • As root, type “iptables -t nat -Z”. This clears the NetFilter counters in the nat table.

  • Try to connect to the redirected port from an external host.

  • As root type “shorewall show nat

  • Locate the appropriate DNAT rule. It will be in a chain called <source zone>_dnat (“net_dnat” in the above examples).

  • Is the packet count in the first column non-zero? If so, the connection request is reaching the firewall and is being redirected to the server. In this case, the problem is usually a missing or incorrect default gateway setting on the local system (the system you are trying to forward to -- its default gateway should be the IP address of the firewall's interface to that system).

  • If the packet count is zero:

    • the connection request is not reaching your server (possibly it is being blocked by your ISP); or

    • you are trying to connect to a secondary IP address on your firewall and your rule is only redirecting the primary IP address (You need to specify the secondary IP address in the “ORIG. DEST.” column in your DNAT rule); or

    • your DNAT rule doesn't match the connection request in some other way. In that case, you may have to use a packet sniffer such as tcpdump or ethereal to further diagnose the problem.

(FAQ 1c) From the internet, I want to connect to port 1022 on my firewall and have the firewall forward the connection to port 22 on local system 192.168.1.3. How do I do that?

In /etc/shorewall/rules:

#ACTION    SOURCE   DEST              PROTO    DEST PORT
DNAT       net      loc:192.168.3:22  tcp      1022

(FAQ 30) I'm confused about when to use DNAT rules and when to use ACCEPT rules.

It would be a good idea to review the QuickStart Guide appropriate for your setup; the guides cover this topic in a tutorial fashion. DNAT rules should be used for connections that need to go the opposite direction from SNAT/MASQUERADE. So if you masquerade or use SNAT from your local network to the internet then you will need to use DNAT rules to allow connections from the internet to your local network. In all other cases, you use ACCEPT unless you need to hijack connections as they go through your firewall and handle them on the firewall box itself; in that case, you use a REDIRECT rule.

DNS and Port Forwarding/NAT

(FAQ 2) I port forward www requests to www.mydomain.com (IP 130.151.100.69) to system 192.168.1.5 in my local network. External clients can browse http://www.mydomain.com but internal clients can't.

Answer: I have two objections to this setup.

  • Having an internet-accessible server in your local network is like raising foxes in the corner of your hen house. If the server is compromised, there's nothing between that server and your other internal systems. For the cost of another NIC and a cross-over cable, you can put your server in a DMZ such that it is isolated from your local systems - assuming that the Server can be located near the Firewall, of course :-)

  • The accessibility problem is best solved using Bind Version 9 “views (or using a separate DNS server for local clients) such that www.mydomain.com resolves to 130.141.100.69 externally and 192.168.1.5 internally. That's what I do here at shorewall.net for my local systems that use one-to-one NAT.

If you insist on an IP solution to the accessibility problem rather than a DNS solution, then assuming that your external interface is eth0 and your internal interface is eth1 and that eth1 has IP address 192.168.1.254 with subnet 192.168.1.0/24.

If you are running Shorewall 1.4.0 or earlier see the 1.3 FAQ for instructions suitable for those releases.

If you are running Shorewall 1.4.1 or Shorewall 1.4.1a, please upgrade to Shorewall 1.4.2 or later.

Otherwise:

Warning

In this configuration, all loc->loc traffic will look to the server as if it came from the firewall rather than from the original client!

  • In /etc/shorewall/interfaces:

    #ZONE    INTERFACE    BROADCAST    OPTIONS
    loc      eth1         detect       routeback
  • In /etc/shorewall/rules:

    #ACTION    SOURCE  DEST               PROTO    DEST PORT   SOURCE    ORIGINAL
    #                                                          PORT      DEST.
    DNAT       loc     loc:192.168.1.5    tcp      www         -         130.151.100.69:192.168.1.254

    That rule only works of course if you have a static external IP address. If you have a dynamic IP address and are running Shorewall 1.3.4 or later then include this in /etc/shorewall/init:

    ETH0_IP=`find_interface_address eth0`

    and make your DNAT rule:

    #ACTION    SOURCE  DEST               PROTO    DEST PORT   SOURCE    ORIGINAL
    #                                                          PORT      DEST.
    DNAT       loc     loc:192.168.1.5    tcp      www         -         $ETH0_IP:192.168.1.254

    Using this technique, you will want to configure your DHCP/PPPoE client to automatically restart Shorewall each time that you get a new IP address.

(FAQ 2a) I have a zone “Z” with an RFC1918 subnet and I use one-to-one NAT to assign non-RFC1918 addresses to hosts in Z. Hosts in Z cannot communicate with each other using their external (non-RFC1918 addresses) so they can't access each other using their DNS names.

Note

If the ALL INTERFACES column in /etc/shorewall/nat is empty or contains “Yes”, you will also see log messages like the following when trying to access a host in Z from another host in Z using the destination hosts's public address:

Oct 4 10:26:40 netgw kernel:
          Shorewall:FORWARD:REJECT:IN=eth1 OUT=eth1 SRC=192.168.118.200
          DST=192.168.118.210 LEN=48 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=127 ID=1342 DF
          PROTO=TCP SPT=1494 DPT=1491 WINDOW=17472 RES=0x00 ACK SYN URGP=0

Answer: This is another problem that is best solved using Bind Version 9 “views”. It allows both external and internal clients to access a NATed host using the host's DNS name.

Another good way to approach this problem is to switch from one-to-one NAT to Proxy ARP. That way, the hosts in Z have non-RFC1918 addresses and can be accessed externally and internally using the same address.

If you don't like those solutions and prefer routing all Z->Z traffic through your firewall then:

  1. Set the Z->Z policy to ACCEPT.

  2. Masquerade Z to itself.

  3. Set the routeback option on the interface to Z.

  4. Set the ALL INTERFACES column in the nat file to “Yes”.

    Warning

    In this configuration, all Z->Z traffic will look to the server as if it came from the firewall rather than from the original client! I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SETUP.

Example 1. Example:

Zone: dmz Interface: eth2 Subnet: 192.168.2.0/24

In /etc/shorewall/interfaces:

#ZONE    INTERFACE    BROADCAST       OPTIONS
loc      eth2         192.168.2.255   routeback

In /etc/shorewall/policy:

#SOURCE    DESTINATION    POLICY     LIMIT:BURST
dmz        dmz            ACCEPT

In /etc/shorewall/masq:

#INTERFACE       SUBNET            ADDRESS
eth2             192.168.2.0/24

In /etc/shorewall/nat, be sure that you have “Yes” in the ALL INTERFACES column.

Netmeeting/MSN

(FAQ 3) I want to use Netmeeting or MSN Instant Messenger with Shorewall. What do I do?

Answer: There is an H.323 connection tracking/NAT module that helps with Netmeeting. Note however that one of the Netfilter developers recently posted the following:

> I know PoM -ng is going to address this issue, but till it is ready, and > all the extras are ported to it, is there any way to use the h.323 > contrack module kernel patch with a 2.6 kernel? > Running 2.6.1 - no 2.4 kernel stuff on the system, so downgrade is not > an option... The module is not ported yet to 2.6, sorry. > Do I have any options besides a gatekeeper app (does not work in my > network) or a proxy (would prefer to avoid them)? I suggest everyone to setup a proxy (gatekeeper) instead: the module is really dumb and does not deserve to exist at all. It was an excellent tool to debug/develop the newnat interface.

Look here for a solution for MSN IM but be aware that there are significant security risks involved with this solution. Also check the Netfilter mailing list archives at http://www.netfilter.org.

Open Ports

(FAQ 4) I just used an online port scanner to check my firewall and it shows some ports as “closed” rather than “blocked”. Why?

Answer: (Shorewall versions prior to 2.0.0 only). The common.def included with version 1.3.x always rejects connection requests on TCP port 113 rather than dropping them. This is necessary to prevent outgoing connection problems to services that use the “Auth” mechanism for identifying requesting users. Shorewall also rejects TCP ports 135, 137, 139 and 445 as well as UDP ports 137-139. These are ports that are used by Windows (Windows can be configured to use the DCE cell locator on port 135). Rejecting these connection requests rather than dropping them cuts down slightly on the amount of Windows chatter on LAN segments connected to the Firewall.

If you are seeing port 80 being “closed”, that's probably your ISP preventing you from running a web server in violation of your Service Agreement.

Tip

You can change the default behavior of Shorewall through use of an /etc/shorewall/common file. See the Extension Script Section.

Tip

Beginning with Shorewall 1.4.9, Shorewall no longer rejects the Windows SMB ports (135-139 and 445) by default and silently drops them instead.

Answer: (Shorewall versions 2.0.0 and later). The default Shorewall setup invokes the Drop action prior to enforcing a DROP policy and the default policy to all zone from the internet is DROP. The Drop action is defined in /etc/shorewall/action.Drop which in turn invokes the RejectAuth action (defined in /etc/shorewall/action.RejectAuth). This is necessary to prevent outgoing connection problems to services that use the “Auth” mechanism for identifying requesting users. That is the only service which the default setup rejects.

If you are seeing closed TCP ports other than 113 (auth) then either you have added rules to REJECT those ports or a router outside of your firewall is responding to connection requests on those ports.

(FAQ 4a) I just ran an nmap UDP scan of my firewall and it showed 100s of ports as open!!!!

Answer: Take a deep breath and read the nmap man page section about UDP scans. If nmap gets nothing back from your firewall then it reports the port as open. If you want to see which UDP ports are really open, temporarily change your net->all policy to REJECT, restart Shorewall and do the nmap UDP scan again.

(FAQ 4b) I have a port that I can't close no matter how I change my rules.

I had a rule that allowed telnet from my local network to my firewall; I removed that rule and restarted Shorewall but my telnet session still works!!!

Answer: Rules only govern the establishment of new connections. Once a connection is established through the firewall it will be usable until disconnected (tcp) or until it times out (other protocols). If you stop telnet and try to establish a new session your firerwall will block that attempt.

(FAQ 4c) How to I use Shorewall with PortSentry?

Here's a writeup on a nice integration of Shorewall and PortSentry.

Connection Problems

(FAQ 5) I've installed Shorewall and now I can't ping through the firewall

Answer: If you want your firewall to be totally open for “ping”,

  1. Create /etc/shorewall/common if it doesn't already exist.

  2. Be sure that the first command in the file is “. /etc/shorewall/common.def

  3. Add the following to /etc/shorewall/common

    run_iptables -A icmpdef -p ICMP --icmp-type echo-request -j ACCEPT

For a complete description of Shorewall “ping” management, see this page.

(FAQ 15) My local systems can't see out to the net

Answer: Every time I read “systems can't see out to the net”, I wonder where the poster bought computers with eyes and what those computers will “see” when things are working properly. That aside, the most common causes of this problem are:

  1. The default gateway on each local system isn't set to the IP address of the local firewall interface.

  2. The entry for the local network in the /etc/shorewall/masq file is wrong or missing.

  3. The DNS settings on the local systems are wrong or the user is running a DNS server on the firewall and hasn't enabled UDP and TCP port 53 from the firewall to the internet.

(FAQ 29) FTP Doesn't Work

See the Shorewall and FTP page.

(FAQ 33) From clients behind the firewall, connections to some sites fail. Connections to the same sites from the firewall itself work fine. What's wrong.

Answer: Most likely, you need to set CLAMPMSS=Yes in /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf.

Logging

(FAQ 6) Where are the log messages written and how do I change the destination?

Answer: NetFilter uses the kernel's equivalent of syslog (see “man syslog”) to log messages. It always uses the LOG_KERN (kern) facility (see “man openlog”) and you get to choose the log level (again, see “man syslog”) in your policies and rules. The destination for messaged logged by syslog is controlled by /etc/syslog.conf (see “man syslog.conf”). When you have changed /etc/syslog.conf, be sure to restart syslogd (on a RedHat system, “service syslog restart”).

By default, older versions of Shorewall ratelimited log messages through settings in /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf -- If you want to log all messages, set:

LOGLIMIT=""
LOGBURST=""

Beginning with Shorewall version 1.3.12, you can set up Shorewall to log all of its messages to a separate file.

(FAQ 6a) Are there any log parsers that work with Shorewall?

Answer: Here are several links that may be helpful:

I personnaly use Logwatch. It emails me a report each day from my various systems with each report summarizing the logged activity on the corresponding system.

(FAQ 2b) DROP messages on port 10619 are flooding the logs with their connect requests. Can i exclude these error messages for this port temporarily from logging in Shorewall?

Temporarily add the following rule:

DROP net fw udp 10619

(FAQ 6c) All day long I get a steady flow of these DROP messages from port 53 to some high numbered port. They get dropped, but what the heck are they?

Jan 8 15:50:48 norcomix kernel:
        Shorewall:net2all:DROP:IN=eth0 OUT=
        MAC=00:40:c7:2e:09:c0:00:01:64:4a:70:00:08:00 SRC=208.138.130.16
        DST=24.237.22.45 LEN=53 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=251 ID=8288 DF
        PROTO=UDP SPT=53 DPT=40275 LEN=33

Answer: There are two possibilities:

  1. They are late-arriving replies to DNS queries.

  2. They are corrupted reply packets.

You can distinguish the difference by setting the logunclean option (/etc/shorewall/interfaces) on your external interface (eth0 in the above example). If they get logged twice, they are corrupted. I solve this problem by using an /etc/shorewall/common file like this:

#
# Include the standard common.def file
# 
. /etc/shorewall/common.def
#
# The following rule is non-standard and compensates for tardy
# DNS replies
#
run_iptables -A common -p udp --sport 53 -mstate --state NEW -j DROP

The above file is also include in all of my sample configurations available in the Quick Start Guides and in the common.def file in Shorewall 1.4.0 and later.

(FAQ 6d) Why is the MAC address in Shorewall log messages so long? I thought MAC addresses were only 6 bytes in length.

What is labeled as the MAC address in a Shorewall log message is actually the Ethernet frame header. It contains:

  • the destination MAC address (6 bytes)

  • the source MAC address (6 bytes)

  • the ethernet frame type (2 bytes)

Example 2. Example

MAC=00:04:4c:dc:e2:28:00:b0:8e:cf:3c:4c:08:00
  • Destination MAC address = 00:04:4c:dc:e2:28

  • Source MAC address = 00:b0:8e:cf:3c:4c

  • Ethernet Frame Type = 08:00 (IP Version 4)

(FAQ 16) Shorewall is writing log messages all over my console making it unusable!

Answer: If you are running Shorewall version 1.4.4 or 1.4.4a then check the errata. Otherwise:

  • Find where klogd is being started (it will be from one of the files in /etc/init.d -- sysklogd, klogd, ...). Modify that file or the appropriate configuration file so that klogd is started with “-c <n>” where <n> is a log level of 5 or less; or

  • See the “dmesg” man page (“man dmesg”). You must add a suitable “dmesg” command to your startup scripts or place it in /etc/shorewall/start.

Tip

Under RedHat and Mandrake, the max log level that is sent to the console is specified in /etc/sysconfig/init in the LOGLEVEL variable. Set “LOGLEVEL=5” to suppress info (log level 6) messages on the console.

Tip

Under Debian, you can set KLOGD=“-c 5” in /etc/init.d/klogd to suppress info (log level 6) messages on the console.

Tip

Under SuSE, add “-c 5” to KLOGD_PARAMS in /etc/sysconfig/syslog to suppress info (log level 6) messages on the console.

(FAQ 17) What does this log message mean?

Answer: Logging occurs out of a number of chains (as indicated in the log message) in Shorewall:

man1918 or logdrop

The destination address is listed in /etc/shorewall/rfc1918 with a logdrop target -- see /etc/shorewall/rfc1918.

rfc1918 or logdrop

The source address is listed in /etc/shorewall/rfc1918 with a logdrop target -- see /etc/shorewall/rfc1918.

all2<zone>, <zone>2all or all2all

You have a policy that specifies a log level and this packet is being logged under that policy. If you intend to ACCEPT this traffic then you need a rule to that effect.

<zone1>2<zone2>

Either you have a policy for <zone1> to <zone2> that specifies a log level and this packet is being logged under that policy or this packet matches a rule that includes a log level.

<interface>_mac

The packet is being logged under the maclist interface option.

logpkt

The packet is being logged under the logunclean interface option.

badpkt

The packet is being logged under the dropunclean interface option as specified in the LOGUNCLEAN setting in /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf.

blacklst

The packet is being logged because the source IP is blacklisted in the /etc/shorewall/blacklist file.

newnotsyn

The packet is being logged because it is a TCP packet that is not part of any current connection yet it is not a syn packet. Options affecting the logging of such packets include NEWNOTSYN and LOGNEWNOTSYN in /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf.

INPUT or FORWARD

The packet has a source IP address that isn't in any of your defined zones (“shorewall check” and look at the printed zone definitions) or the chain is FORWARD and the destination IP isn't in any of your defined zones. Also see the section called “(FAQ 2a) I have a zone Z with an RFC1918 subnet and I use one-to-one NAT to assign non-RFC1918 addresses to hosts in Z. Hosts in Z cannot communicate with each other using their external (non-RFC1918 addresses) so they can't access each other using their DNS names.” for another cause of packets being logged in the FORWARD chain.

logflags

The packet is being logged because it failed the checks implemented by the tcpflags interface option.

Example 3. Here is an example:

Jun 27 15:37:56 gateway kernel:
        Shorewall:all2all:REJECT:IN=eth2 OUT=eth1 SRC=192.168.2.2
        DST=192.168.1.3 LEN=67 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=63 ID=5805 DF PROTO=UDP
        SPT=1803 DPT=53 LEN=47

Let's look at the important parts of this message:

all2all:REJECT

This packet was REJECTed out of the all2all chain -- the packet was rejected under the “all”->“all” REJECT policy (all2<zone>, <zone>2all or all2all above).

IN=eth2

the packet entered the firewall via eth2. If you see “IN=” with no interface name, the packet originated on the firewall itself.

OUT=eth1

if accepted, the packet would be sent on eth1. If you see “OUT=” with no interface name, the packet would be processed by the firewall itself.

SRC=192.168.2.2

the packet was sent by 192.168.2.2

DST=192.168.1.3

the packet is destined for 192.168.1.3

PROTO=UDP

UDP Protocol

DPT=53

The destination port is 53 (DNS)

For additional information about the log message, see http://logi.cc/linux/netfilter-log-format.php3.

In this case, 192.168.2.2 was in the “dmz” zone and 192.168.1.3 is in the “loc” zone. I was missing the rule:

ACCEPT dmz loc udp 53

(FAQ 21) I see these strange log entries occasionally; what are they?

Nov 25 18:58:52 linux kernel:
      Shorewall:net2all:DROP:IN=eth1 OUT=
      MAC=00:60:1d:f0:a6:f9:00:60:1d:f6:35:50:08:00 SRC=206.124.146.179
      DST=192.0.2.3 LEN=56 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=110 ID=18558 PROTO=ICMP
      TYPE=3 CODE=3 [SRC=192.0.2.3 DST=172.16.1.10 LEN=128 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00
      TTL=47 ID=0 DF PROTO=UDP SPT=53 DPT=2857 LEN=108 ]

192.0.2.3 is external on my firewall... 172.16.0.0/24 is my internal LAN

Answer: While most people associate the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) with “ping”, ICMP is a key piece of the internet. ICMP is used to report problems back to the sender of a packet; this is what is happening here. Unfortunately, where NAT is involved (including SNAT, DNAT and Masquerade), there are a lot of broken implementations. That is what you are seeing with these messages.

Here is my interpretation of what is happening -- to confirm this analysis, one would have to have packet sniffers placed a both ends of the connection.

Host 172.16.1.10 behind NAT gateway 206.124.146.179 sent a UDP DNS query to 192.0.2.3 and your DNS server tried to send a response (the response information is in the brackets -- note source port 53 which marks this as a DNS reply). When the response was returned to to 206.124.146.179, it rewrote the destination IP TO 172.16.1.10 and forwarded the packet to 172.16.1.10 who no longer had a connection on UDP port 2857. This causes a port unreachable (type 3, code 3) to be generated back to 192.0.2.3. As this packet is sent back through 206.124.146.179, that box correctly changes the source address in the packet to 206.124.146.179 but doesn't reset the DST IP in the original DNS response similarly. When the ICMP reaches your firewall (192.0.2.3), your firewall has no record of having sent a DNS reply to 172.16.1.10 so this ICMP doesn't appear to be related to anything that was sent. The final result is that the packet gets logged and dropped in the all2all chain. I have also seen cases where the source IP in the ICMP itself isn't set back to the external IP of the remote NAT gateway; that causes your firewall to log and drop the packet out of the rfc1918 chain because the source IP is reserved by RFC 1918.

Routing

(FAQ 32) My firewall has two connections to the internet from two different ISPs. How do I set this up in Shorewall?

Setting this up in Shorewall is easy; setting up the routing is a bit harder.

Assuming that eth0 and eth1 are the interfaces to the two ISPs then:

/etc/shorewall/interfaces:

#ZONE    INTERFACE    BROADCAST       OPTIONS
net      eth0         detect
net      eth1         detect

/etc/shorewall/policy:

#SOURCE    DESTINATION    POLICY     LIMIT:BURST
net        net            DROP

If you have masqueraded hosts, be sure to update /etc/shorewall/masq to masquerade to both ISPs. For example, if you masquerade all hosts connected to eth2 then:

#INTERFACE       SUBNET            ADDRESS
eth0             eth2
eth1             eth2

There was an article in SysAdmin covering this topic. It may be found at http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1824/sam0201h/

The following information regarding setting up routing for this configuration is reproduced from the LARTC HOWTO and has not been verified by the author. If you have questions or problems with the instructions given below, please post to the LARTC mailing list.

Starting and Stopping

(FAQ 7) When I stop Shorewall using “shorewall stop”, I can't connect to anything. Why doesn't that command work?

The “stop” command is intended to place your firewall into a safe state whereby only those hosts listed in /etc/shorewall/routestopped' are activated. If you want to totally open up your firewall, you must use the “shorewall clear” command.

(FAQ 8) When I try to start Shorewall on RedHat, I get messages about insmod failing -- what's wrong?

Answer: The output you will see looks something like this:

/lib/modules/2.4.17/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters
/lib/modules/2.4.17/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o: insmod
/lib/modules/2.4.17/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.17/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o: insmod ip_tables failed
iptables v1.2.3: can't initialize iptables table `nat': iptables who? (do you need to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded.

This problem is usually corrected through the following sequence of commands

service ipchains stop
chkconfig --delete ipchains
rmmod ipchains

Also, be sure to check the errata for problems concerning the version of iptables (v1.2.3) shipped with RH7.2.

(FAQ 8a) When I try to start Shorewall on RedHat I get a message referring me to FAQ #8

Answer: This is usually cured by the sequence of commands shown above in the section called “(FAQ 8) When I try to start Shorewall on RedHat, I get messages about insmod failing -- what's wrong?”.

(FAQ 9) Why can't Shorewall detect my interfaces properly at startup?

I just installed Shorewall and when I issue the start command, I see the following:

Processing /etc/shorewall/params ...
Processing /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf ...
Starting Shorewall...
Loading Modules...
Initializing...
Determining Zones...
   Zones: net loc
Validating interfaces file...
Validating hosts file...
Determining Hosts in Zones...
    Net Zone: eth0:0.0.0.0/0
    Local Zone: eth1:0.0.0.0/0
Deleting user chains...
Creating input Chains...
...

Why can't Shorewall detect my interfaces properly?

Answer: The above output is perfectly normal. The Net zone is defined as all hosts that are connected through eth0 and the local zone is defined as all hosts connected through eth1. If you are running Shorewall 1.4.10 or later, you can consider setting the detectnets interface option on your local interface (eth1 in the above example). That will cause Shorewall to restrict the local zone to only those networks routed through that interface.

(FAQ 22) I have some iptables commands that I want to run when Shorewall starts. Which file do I put them in?

You can place these commands in one of the Shorewall Extension Scripts. Be sure that you look at the contents of the chain(s) that you will be modifying with your commands to be sure that the commands will do what they are intended. Many iptables commands published in HOWTOs and other instructional material use the -A command which adds the rules to the end of the chain. Most chains that Shorewall constructs end with an unconditional DROP, ACCEPT or REJECT rule and any rules that you add after that will be ignored. Check “man iptables” and look at the -I (--insert) command.

About Shorewall

(FAQ 10) What Distributions does it work with?

Shorewall works with any GNU/Linux distribution that includes the proper prerequisites.

(FAQ 11) What Features does it have?

Answer: See the Shorewall Feature List.

(FAQ 12) Is there a GUI?

Answer: Yes. Shorewall support is included in Webmin 1.060 and later versions. See http://www.webmin.com

(FAQ 13) Why do you call it “Shorewall”?

Answer: Shorewall is a concatenation of “Shoreline” (the city where I live) and “Firewall”. The full name of the product is actually “Shoreline Firewall” but “Shorewall” is must more commonly used.

(FAQ 23) Why do you use such ugly fonts on your web site?

The Shorewall web site is almost font neutral (it doesn't explicitly specify fonts except on a few pages) so the fonts you see are largely the default fonts configured in your browser. If you don't like them then reconfigure your browser.

(FAQ 25) How to I tell which version of Shorewall I am running?

At the shell prompt, type:

/sbin/shorewall version

(FAQ 31) Does Shorewall provide protection against....

IP Spoofing: Sending packets over the WAN interface using an internal LAP IP address as the source address?

Answer: Yes.

Tear Drop: Sending packets that contain overlapping fragments?

Answer: This is the responsibility of the IP stack, not the Netfilter-based firewall since fragment reassembly occurs before the stateful packet filter ever touches each packet.

Smurf and Fraggle: Sending packets that use the WAN or LAN broadcast address as the source address?

Answer: Shorewall can be configured to do that using the blacklisting facility.

Land Attack: Sending packets that use the same address as the source and destination address?

Answer: Yes, if the routefilter interface option is selected.

DOS: - SYN Dos - ICMP Dos - Per-host Dos protection

Answer: Shorewall has facilities for limiting SYN and ICMP packets. Netfilter as included in standard Linux kernels doesn't support per-remote-host limiting except by explicit rule that specifies the host IP address; that form of limiting is supported by Shorewall.

Given that the Debian Stable Release includes Shorewall 1.2.12, how can you not support that version?

The first release of Shorewall was in March of 2001. Shorewall 1.2.12 was released in May of 2002. It is now the year 2004 and soon Shorewall 2.0 will be available. Shorewall 1.2.12 is poorly documented and is missing many of the features that Shorewall users find essential today.

RFC 1918

(FAQ 14) I'm connected via a cable modem and it has an internal web server that allows me to configure/monitor it but as expected if I enable rfc1918 blocking for my eth0 interface (the internet one), it also blocks the cable modems web server.

Is there any way it can add a rule before the rfc1918 blocking that will let all traffic to and from the 192.168.100.1 address of the modem in/out but still block all other rfc1918 addresses?

Answer: If you are running a version of Shorewall earlier than 1.3.1, create /etc/shorewall/start and in it, place the following:

run_iptables -I rfc1918 -s 192.168.100.1 -j ACCEPT

If you are running version 1.3.1 or later, simply add the following to /etc/shorewall/rfc1918:

Be sure that you add the entry ABOVE the entry for 192.168.0.0/16.

#SUBNET        TARGET
192.168.100.1  RETURN

Note

If you add a second IP address to your external firewall interface to correspond to the modem address, you must also make an entry in /etc/shorewall/rfc1918 for that address. For example, if you configure the address 192.168.100.2 on your firewall, then you would add two entries to /etc/shorewall/rfc1918:

#SUBNET        TARGET
192.168.100.1  RETURN
192.168.100.2  RETURN

(FAQ 14a) Even though it assigns public IP addresses, my ISP's DHCP server has an RFC 1918 address. If I enable RFC 1918 filtering on my external interface, my DHCP client cannot renew its lease.

The solution is the same as the section called “(FAQ 14) I'm connected via a cable modem and it has an internal web server that allows me to configure/monitor it but as expected if I enable rfc1918 blocking for my eth0 interface (the internet one), it also blocks the cable modems web server.” above. Simply substitute the IP address of your ISPs DHCP server.

Alias IP Addresses/Virtual Interfaces

(FAQ 18) Is there any way to use aliased ip addresses with Shorewall, and maintain separate rulesets for different IPs?

Answer: Yes. See Shorewall and Aliased Interfaces.

Miscellaneous

(FAQ 19) I have added entries to /etc/shorewall/tcrules but they don't seem to do anything. Why?

You probably haven't set TC_ENABLED=Yes in /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf so the contents of the tcrules file are simply being ignored.

(FAQ 20) I have just set up a server. Do I have to change Shorewall to allow access to my server from the internet?

Yes. Consult the QuickStart guide that you used during your initial setup for information about how to set up rules for your server.

(FAQ 24) How can I allow conections to let's say the ssh port only from specific IP Addresses on the internet?

In the SOURCE column of the rule, follow “net” by a colon and a list of the host/subnet addresses as a comma-separated list.

net:<ip1>,<ip2>,...

Example 4. Example:

ACCEPT net:192.0.2.16/28,192.0.2.44 fw tcp 22

(FAQ 26) When I try to use any of the SYN options in nmap on or behind the firewall, I get “operation not permitted”. How can I use nmap with Shorewall?"

Edit /etc/shorewall/shorewall.conf and change “NEWNOTSYN=No” to “NEWNOTSYN=Yes” then restart Shorewall.

(FAQ 26a) When I try to use the “-O” option of nmap from the firewall system, I get “operation not permitted”. How do I allow this option?

Add this command to your /etc/shorewall/start file:

run_iptables -D OUTPUT -p ! icmp -m state --state INVALID -j DROP

(FAQ 27) I'm compiling a new kernel for my firewall. What should I look out for?

First take a look at the Shorewall kernel configuration page. You probably also want to be sure that you have selected the “NAT of local connections (READ HELP)” on the Netfilter Configuration menu. Otherwise, DNAT rules with your firewall as the source zone won't work with your new kernel.

(FAQ 27a) I just built and installed a new kernel and now Shorewall won't start. I know that my kernel options are correct.

The last few lines of a startup trace are these:

+ run_iptables2 -t nat -A eth0_masq -s 192.168.2.0/24 -d 0.0.0.0/0 -j
MASQUERADE
+ '[' 'x-t nat -A eth0_masq -s 192.168.2.0/24 -d 0.0.0.0/0 -j
MASQUERADE' = 'x-t nat -A eth0_masq -s 192.168.2.0/24 -d 0.0.0.
0/0 -j MASQUERADE' ']'
+ run_iptables -t nat -A eth0_masq -s 192.168.2.0/24 -d 0.0.0.0/0 -j
MASQUERADE
+ iptables -t nat -A eth0_masq -s 192.168.2.0/24 -d 0.0.0.0/0 -j
MASQUERADE
iptables: Invalid argument
+ '[' -z '' ']'
+ stop_firewall
+ set +x

Answer: Your new kernel contains headers that are incompatible with the ones used to compile your iptables utility. You need to rebuild iptables using your new kernel source.

(FAQ 28) How do I use Shorewall as a Bridging Firewall?

Basically, you don't. While there are kernel patches that allow you to route bridge traffic through Netfilter, the environment is so different from the Layer 3 firewalling environment that very little of Shorewall works. In fact, so much of Shorewall doesn't work that my official position is that “Shorewall doesn't work with Layer 2 Bridging”.

A. Revision History

Revision History
Revision 1.172004-02-03TE
Added FAQ 33.
Revision 1.162004-02-03TE
Updated for Shorewall 2.0.
Revision 1.152004-01-25TE
Updated FAQ 32 to mention masquerading. Remove tables.
Revision 1.142004-01-24TE
Added FAQ 27a regarding kernel/iptables incompatibility.
Revision 1.132004-01-24TE
Add a note about the detectnets interface option in FAQ 9.
Revision 1.122004-01-20TE
Improve FAQ 16 answer.
Revision 1.112004-01-14TE
Corrected broken link
Revision 1.102004-01-09TE
Added a couple of more legacy FAQ numbers.
Revision 1.92004-01-08TE
Corrected typo in FAQ 26a. Added warning to FAQ 2 regarding source address of redirected requests.
Revision 1.82003-12-31TE
Additions to FAQ 4.
Revision 1.72003-12-30TE
Remove dead link from FAQ 1.
Revision 1.62003.12-18TE
Add external link reference to FAQ 17.
Revision 1.52003-12-16TE
Added a link to a Sys Admin article about multiple internet interfaces. Added Legal Notice. Moved "abstract" to the body of the document. Moved Revision History to this Appendix.
Revision 1.42003-12-13TE
Corrected formatting problems
Revision 1.32003-12-10TE
Changed the title of FAQ 17
Revision 1.22003-12-09TE
Added Copyright and legacy FAQ numbers
Revision 1.12003-12-04MN
Converted to Simplified DocBook XML
Revision 1.02002-08-13TE
Initial revision