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Date:      Wed, 9 Sep 1998 13:01:16 -0700 (PDT)
From:      "Eric J. Schwertfeger" <ejs@bfd.com>
To:        gmarco@giovannelli.it
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Firewall rules ...
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.01.9809091248540.8895-100000@harlie.bfd.com>
In-Reply-To: <98090921175004.00755@gmarco.eclipse.org>

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On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Gianmarco Giovannelli wrote:

> 
> I have to set up a firewall for an isp, I'd like to leave the possibility to
> use icq, realaudio, quake2 and others ...		
> 
> Is someone using some rules that doesn't prevent such applications to work ?
> 
> Any examples is welcome :-)

Exactly what is the isp trying to achieve with the firewall?  Without more
specifics, I'd tend to go with a minimally intrusive firewall, based on
the following ideas:

  1) all outgoing packets from our netblock are allowed (not all packets,
	just those with our address, to prevent anon packet spoofing.
  2) all incoming packets to ports 1-1023 are blocked unless it's a known
	service that you trust and wish to allow.
  3) all incoming packets to ports 1024 an up are allowed unless it's a
	known problem port (1080, 6000, etc).

  4a) blocking outgoing connections to port 25, except your own mail
	servers, is a very debated point, the idea being to prevent your
	users from using direct-injection and relay-rape spamware.

The idea is that most services default to ports less than 1024 (ie,
http=80, telnet=23, smtp=25, etc).  These you should block unless you've
decided otherwise. (the range, not the specific examples, blocking port 25
will make you unpopular if you block it to your own mail servers).

User-invoked programs (web browsers, ICQ,etc) and daemons usually grab
ports above 1023 (or is it 1024, have to check my firewall rules), but
pose less of a security risk.  The user-invoked programs are usually not
listening for connections, but making connections on those ports (FTP
being an exception), and user run daemons would only be exploitable as
that user, not as root, though that could be combined with a local-exploit
to gain root.


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