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Message-ID: <49bf44f10702270834x54dbfee2y19ee1193e5a01a19@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 08:34:04 -0800
From: Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com>
To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] What if the firewall doesn't start?
In-Reply-To: <200702271726.47096.alan@linuxholdings.co.za>
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> > > > > Anyway, a closed port remains closed whether a firewall is
> > > > > running, or not.
> > > >
> > > > I thought the firewall specified which ports to open/close.
> > >
> > > Not quite, but we might be running into terminology here.
> > >
> > > The app that is listening a port opens the port. This has nothing
> > > to do with the firewall. The firewall is simply an extra level of
> > > checks applied before the packet is allowed thorugh the firewall to
> > > be received by the kernel, in the same way that a bouncer allows or
> > > disallows the public to enter a club. If the bouncer is off sick,
> > > the public gets to walk through the door up to reception, assuming
> > > the club is open for business.
> > >
> > > What Mick was referring to is that if a service is running, it's
> > > still going to listen on it's port whether iptables is running or
> > > not. So, in the absense of iptables (i.e. your bouncer is off
> > > sick), you hopefully have a decent password strategy in use by
> > > whatever is actually listening on the box.
> >
> > So as far as incoming connections are concerned, if there are no
> > listening applications, there is no need for a firewall?
>
> Technically yes. In the real world, it depends. The theory will work if
> and only if you can absolutely guarantee that no listening service will
> ever be running behind that firewall, and that this will always be true
> from here on out till the end of time regardless of who has access to
> the machine.
>
> That's a tall order, and leaves human nature out of it. You might
> install a listening app and leave it running in error without realising
> the impact of not having a firewall. Someone else might do the same.
>
> Ubuntu takes the approach you just asked about and it mostly works well,
> especially for notebooks on a LAN behind a NATing gateway. If you are
> running a network with valuable private information on it, you might
> well prefer a belts and braces approach of having a mostly-closed
> firewall as well.
>
> As always, the best solution will vary according to what *you* need
Very informative. Thanks guys.
- Grant
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