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Date:      Thu, 9 Mar 2017 03:11:45 +1100 (EST)
From:      Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au>
To:        Victor Sudakov <vas@mpeks.tomsk.su>
Cc:        Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>, Michael Wilcox <michael.wilcox2016@gmail.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: UFW-Like frontend for IPFW
Message-ID:  <20170309023112.M80813@sola.nimnet.asn.au>
In-Reply-To: <20170308122925.GA67654@admin.sibptus.transneft.ru>
References:  <mailman.103.1488888002.35815.freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> <20170307233222.E87835@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <20170308122925.GA67654@admin.sibptus.transneft.ru>

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On Wed, 8 Mar 2017 19:29:25 +0700, Victor Sudakov wrote:
 > Ian Smith wrote:
 > 
 > [dd]
 > 
 > >  > There is one thing that a higher level macro language on top of ipfw
 > >  > would be nice to have for.
 > > 
 > > ipfw rules are very much like an assembly language, and 'assemble' to 
 > > precisely executable opcodes in a well-defined virtual machine. pf feels 
 > > (to me) more like 'higher level' coding, which seems to suit many people 
 > > better .. but I'm an old assembler kind of guy, from S/370 onwards :)
 > > 
 > >  > Several times I have tried to emulate Cisco PIX/ASA logic with ipfw.
 > >  > I just want to have e.g. 3 interfaces: inside, outside, dmz with
 > >  > security levels of 100, 0, 50 respectively. Traffic can flow from the
 > >  > interface with a higher security level to the interface with a lower
 > >  > security level, and return traffic is permitted too.
 > >  > 
 > >  > Every time I have tried to express this with ipfw rules, I failed
 > >  > miserably, though superficially it looks simple (with keep-state).
 > > 
 > > That's quite doable, but I wouldn't use numeric levels like that, 
 > 
 > When there are more than 2 interfaces, numeric levels are very useful.

Sure, if you have some way to map these to interfaces and to define the 
allowable flows, but meanwhile I used those as method descriptors, which 
you'd already clearly enough defined for this particular application.

 > > and 
 > > I'd use static rules first to limit access between inside, outside and
 > > dmz, adding dynamic (stateful) rules after those constraints are met.
 > > 
 > > Just roughly, as a partial sketch, and assuming all at layer 3 (ip):
 > > 
 > >   check-state	// pass established dynamic flows
 > > 
 > >     # can only check both interfaces on 'out' packets, leaving ipfw
 > >   deny tcp from any to any out recv $dmz_if xmit $inside_if setup
 > >   deny udp from any to any out recv $dmz_if xmit $inside_if
 > > 
 > >     # if dmz provides service/s to outside, skip over these for them
 > >     # those can be allowed/denied on 'in' pass, using dest address/es.
 > > 
 > >   deny tcp from any to any out recv $outside_iface setup
 > >   deny udp from any to any out recv $outside_iface
 > > 
 > >     # skip this for any static (setup then established) services below
 > >   deny all from any to any established
 > > 
 > >     # best use static rules for icmp, see rc.firewall 'workstation'
 > > 
 > >     # then (or earlier, if you prefer) separate flows for inside|dmz
 > >     # then allow services on inside and dmz, perhaps using static rules
 > >     # then allow access from inside|dmz to dmz|outside statefully.
 > 
 > Yes, that's basically what I usually come to. 
 > But it would be much nicer to write a macro like that:
 > 
 > nameif fxp0 outside security0
 > nameif fxp1 inside security100
 > nameif fxp2 dmz security50
 > permit tcp from any to any eq 80 in interface dmz
 > permit tcp from any to 10.10.5.1 eq 3389 in interface inside
 > 
 > and to have all the gory details configured for you automagically.

Well yes, but I think you'll find that non-trivial to do.  If you come 
up with something, or enthuse somebody else to do so, I'll test it at 
least as far as scrutinising output rulesets.

Perhaps start by declaring actual ipfw rules you expect such a syntax to 
produce from your example above; then figure out how to generate those?

I can't recall when or where, but have seen an example using ipfw's 
preprocessor feature, using m4(1) to pre-process provided parameters to 
generate customised rulesets, to some degree at least.

     ipfw [-cfnNqS] [-p preproc [preproc-flags]] pathname

See ipfw(8) /LIST OF RULES AND PREPROCESSING

HTH, without expectations :)

cheers, Ian



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