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Building Network Appliances With Linux, Part 4: Locking Down the Firewall Box
by Carla Schroder
Last time we left off after installing Webmin. Now it's time to configure the two network interfaces, then lock down security. Obviously, a firewall, like any network border device, must be highly secure.
Configuring Networking
Since your firewall box has two network cards, you need to configure one with your WAN IP and one with a LAN IP. Additionally, it's a good idea to label each physical card so you know which one is which, and then use ifrename to ensure that the configurations stick to the correct cards. Please refer to Nail Down Network Interface Names with ifrename for this. You'll need to take two more steps than the article gives, because Debian Stable does not include a startup script. Copy the one in the article to your firewall box and name it /etc/init.d/ifrename. Then make it start at boot by adding it to runlevels 2, 3, 4, and 5 with the update-rc.d command:
Login on the firewall box as root. If you successfully initiated a remote Webmin session (last week's installment) then you already know which NIC is your LAN interface. Open the interface configuration file:
firewall1:~# nano /etc/network/interfaces
This example configuration shows how to configure a static LAN IP, and a dynamic WAN IP:
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
#lan and wan interfaces
auto lan wan
iface lan inet static
address 192.168.1.26
netmask 255.255.255.0
iface wan inet dhcp
If your Internet account gives you a static IP, use your account information. You'll need the address, netmask, and gateway. You'll also need to enter your ISP's DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf.
Note that the interface names "lan" and "wan" are arbitrary. I like to use descriptive names, rather than the default eth0, eth1, etc. so I instantly know what their roles are. These names are assigned with the ifrename program.
Reboot, then run ifconfig -a to make sure everything is correct.
Locking it Down
Debian Stable installs with a number of services you don't need, so they should be turned off. You can see these with the netstat command:
That's a whole lot of unnecessary open ports. All that's needed are sshd, for secure remote administration, and port 10000 for Webmin. To fix this, use the update-rc.d command to remove them from the startup directory, /etc/init.d/. Then reboot and run netstat again to verify that it worked:
Next, we need to disable direct root logins over SSH, which is an important basic security measure on any system running an SSH server, and especially on a firewall. We'll also limit SSH access to the LAN only. You can change this later, but for now a stricter policy is a good thing. Open /etc/ssh/sshd_config:
firewall1:~# nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Change PermitRootLogin yes to PermitRootLogin no, and change ListenAddress 0.0.0.0 to ListenAddress 192.168.1.26, or whatever the LAN IP is. Close out and save your changes, then restart the SSH daemon:
