Security is increasingly important for companies and individuals alike.
The Internet has provided them with a powerful tool to distribute information
about themselves and obtain information from others, but it has
also exposed them to dangers that they have previously been exempt from.
Computer crime, information theft, and malicious damage are all potential
dangers.
An unauthorized and unscrupulous person who gains access to
a computer system may guess system passwords or
exploit the bugs and idiosyncratic behavior of certain programs to obtain
a working account on that machine. Once they are able to log in to the
machine, they may have access to information that may be damaging, such as
commercially sensitive information like marketing plans,
new project details, or customer information databases. Damaging or modifying
this type of data can cause severe setbacks to the company.
The safest way to avoid such widespread damage is to prevent unauthorized
people from gaining network access to the machine. This is where firewalls
come in.
| Warning |
Constructing secure firewalls is an art. It involves a good understanding
of technology, but equally important, it requires an understanding
of the philosophy behind firewall designs. We won't cover
everything you need to know in this book; we strongly recommend you
do some additional research before trusting any particular firewall design,
including any we present here. |
There is enough material on firewall configuration and design
to fill a whole book, and indeed there are some good resources that you might
like to read to expand your knowledge on the subject. Two of these are:
- Building Internet Firewalls
by D. Chapman and E. Zwicky (O'Reilly). A guide
explaining how to design and install firewalls for Unix, Linux, and
Windows NT, and how to configure Internet services to work with the
firewalls.
- Firewalls and Internet Security
by W. Cheswick and S. Bellovin (Addison Wesley). This book covers the
philosophy of firewall design and implementation.
We will focus on the Linux-specific technical issues in this chapter. Later
we will present a sample firewall configuration that should serve as a useful
starting point in your own configuration, but as with all security-related
matters, trust no one. Double check the design, make sure you understand it,
and then modify it to suit your requirements. To be safe, be sure.
