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Old 09-14-2018, 07:22 AM   #1
Glennbo
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Default UFW / GUFW /IPTables / netfilter

I guess a software firewall isn't needed in Linux, otherwise they would have one enabled upon installation, like Windows does.
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Old 09-14-2018, 10:19 PM   #2
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That doesn't depend on the OS you're are using. The question is do I want to use a firewall (whatever your OS is)?

Some Linux distros have a firewall configured and ready to go, usually those having a desktop environment. Some others, usually small or barebones distros, leave to the user de decission of installing and setting one up.

ufw and gufw are just frontends for iptables. Really popular and easy to use. Nevertheless, besides many users still use iptables it's recommended to use nftables instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nftables

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nftables
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Old 09-15-2018, 11:20 AM   #3
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I appreciate the info and links. I decided that I DO want a firewall (even though none was enabled by default), and just spent the last five hours trying to get my MythTV server accessible from my DAW and other machines on the network. I used ufw since it was natively installed, but not enabled, and after chasing down far too many ports for things like MySQL, and MAC addresses for hardware ethernet tuners, I finally have it all working like it was before enabling the firewall on all my recently converted Linux machines.

I may sometime in the future have a look at Nftables, but for now I at least have a functioning software firewall on all Linux machines. I'm guessing that just enabling it, is as good or better than Windows firewall, coz it sure broke a lot of connections just on my local network. Thanks again for your help.
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Old 09-16-2018, 11:56 PM   #4
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You won't go wrong with iptables. It's only that nftables is a simpler, cleaner and better implementation. iptables works just fine. That's why a lot of users still use it. iptables vs nftables is more or less the same sort of scenario as vim vs neovim, mutt vs neomutt, etc... Just chose your poison.
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Old 09-17-2018, 12:13 PM   #5
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So, if I did not install GUFW myself and activated it then Linux kernel by itself have firewall stuff built-in and blocks all by default?
Using iptables or what ever just is a way to speak/control the kernels fw?
I think I would prefer to use what ever my distro of choice's default is.
Thank you for the information! I am ready to understand this now and remove GUFW.
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Old 09-17-2018, 12:30 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SmajjL View Post
So, if I did not install GUFW myself and activated it then Linux kernel by itself have firewall stuff built-in and blocks all by default?
Using iptables or what ever just is a way to speak/control the kernels fw?
I think I would prefer to use what ever my distro of choice's default is.
Thank you for the information! I am ready to understand this now and remove GUFW.
I found that no firewall was active or enabled until I enabled it with this command.

sudo ufw enable

Before doing that, I could access my MythTV server from my DAW, both of which are running Xubuntu. After enabling it, I could NOT access the Myth machine until I set rules for about six ports, and two hardware MAC addresses.

I don't know if your particular distro has any firewall enabled by default, but mine didn't.
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Old 09-17-2018, 12:54 PM   #7
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It sure sounds to me that this is what Eeeveryone is trying to explain to us though that Linux have that built-in and there is no on/off, what you use to control it is a choice, via terminal or graphically.
Your story is suggesting stuff though and I am not qualified to explain this.
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Old 09-17-2018, 01:06 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SmajjL View Post
It sure sounds to me that this is what Eeeveryone is trying to explain to us though that Linux have that built-in and there is no on/off, what you use to control it is a choice, via terminal or graphically.
Your story is suggesting stuff though and I am not qualified to explain this.
Pre "sudo ufw enable" and post "sudo ufw enable" absolutely produced different results, so I am 100% confident that the firewall was not enabled on my particular distro before, but now is.
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Old 09-17-2018, 01:12 PM   #9
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I am interested also to understand so, keep it up! and thanks for information
Have you mentioned what kind of Linux/OS you are on?
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Old 09-17-2018, 01:18 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SmajjL View Post
I am interested also to understand so, keep it up! and thanks for information
Have you mentioned what kind of Linux/OS you are on?
Yes, I'm running Xubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver.
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Old 09-17-2018, 01:25 PM   #11
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Ahh-ha's for oops, Linux Mint


Firewall

1.2. A firewall is already installed by default. It's called IPtables. IPtables can be managed through the application Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw), which is also installed by default.

By default the firewall isn't activated, because behind the ports that are exposed to the internet, there aren't any listening services. At least not in a standard installation. An attacker can't do anything without a listening service that keeps a port open.


https://sites.google.com/site/easyli...y#TOC-Firewall
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Old 09-18-2018, 01:07 AM   #12
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That link was for Linux Mint, my bad SmajjL... it was informational though.
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Old 09-18-2018, 01:18 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SmajjL View Post
So, if I did not install GUFW myself and activated it then Linux kernel by itself have firewall stuff built-in and blocks all by default?
It depends on the distros. It's commonly disabled as default even if tools are already installed, usually left as an user choice to enable it.

Though I never done it myself, different sets of rules/configs can be switched depending on what you want to do at a given time. This involves dealing with services, but as usual, convenience/commodity/easy-going and best practices don't hold together.

Quote:
Using iptables or what ever just is a way to speak/control the kernels fw?
Correct.

FWIW: Differences between iptables and nftables explained

https://linux-audit.com/differences-...les-explained/

Firewall for the lazy:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1765

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Old 09-18-2018, 02:10 AM   #14
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Along with a well configured firewall it's a very good practice to complement it with the /etc/host file. This
particular file (also present in windows, by the way) is intended to allow and block specific host names and
IP addreses system-wide. It allows to block anything you don't want your system to connect to. It of course
can complete or fully replace those dedicated browser or email program blocking addons/tools altogether as it
will work for every program and user within your system.

If you want to block sites (malicious, trackers, ads, my-kids-won't-see-this, that-specific-site-you-happen-to-hate...)
the hosts file is the one to use.

There are some nice guys and sites dedicated to collect and keping updated blocking hosts lists, like these ones:

https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists
https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

And you can even go strong...

https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklist...s/facebook/all

This could be a nice place to start:

https://github.com/hakerdefo/pmiab

I use a modified and fully stripped down version of hackerdefo's script myself.

Be sure to update the hosts lists regularly. Like once a week or so. It can be automated with cron or any other
scheduling tool you like.
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Old 09-18-2018, 04:31 AM   #15
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Thanks for info!
So what would GUFW's ON/OFF button command in iptables be?
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Old 09-18-2018, 06:54 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snap View Post
This could be a nice place to start:

https://github.com/hakerdefo/pmiab

I use a modified and fully stripped down version of hackerdefo's script myself.

Be sure to update the hosts lists regularly. Like once a week or so. It can be automated with cron or any other
scheduling tool you like.
I've been using the hosts file from these guys for almost 20 years.

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

They keep a very comprehensive list of known parasite and trackers. Putting their hosts file in was the first thing I did when setting up Linux for the first time on my DAW.

I'll have to check out the hosts file you linked, as it has three additional sources.
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Old 09-27-2018, 01:19 PM   #17
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That looks pretty neat. However, I read all the comments in this thread and was decidedly in over my head: https://www.putorius.net/2012/01/blo...ements-on.html

Do you do this manually or use a script as that page suggests?
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Old 09-27-2018, 06:09 PM   #18
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Quote:
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That looks pretty neat. However, I read all the comments in this thread and was decidedly in over my head: https://www.putorius.net/2012/01/blo...ements-on.html

Do you do this manually or use a script as that page suggests?
In Windows I use a utility called HostsXpert, but so far in Linux, I've just grabbed the text file from MVP Hosts and copied it to /etc/hosts

I did try the script you linked to and it does work. I deleted my hosts file to see if it would recreate it and it did. For now I don't mind doing the more hands on manual copying of the file, but might automate it sometime down the line, so I did save the script.
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Old 09-27-2018, 10:24 PM   #19
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My modified/simplified version is still not final. I have some more tweaks to check and test, but since it works and does the job I left it somewhat abandoned... I'll try to check these things this weekend and post the script in case anyone wants to peek.
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Old 09-28-2018, 08:39 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glennbo View Post
In Windows I use a utility called HostsXpert, but so far in Linux, I've just grabbed the text file from MVP Hosts and copied it to /etc/hosts

I did try the script you linked to and it does work. I deleted my hosts file to see if it would recreate it and it did. For now I don't mind doing the more hands on manual copying of the file, but might automate it sometime down the line, so I did save the script.
Yes, that is slick, isn't it? One thing gives me pause about that list, though - I was looking at it, and there are a ton of items filtered from Amazon, and I buy stuff there, as little as I like the company and try to purchase elsewhere. I'm not sure enough of how this works to try it without removing them (or commenting them out), and so far I haven't tried that, mainly because there are just so many of them and they aren't next to each other.
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Old 09-28-2018, 09:21 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrannocaster View Post
Yes, that is slick, isn't it? One thing gives me pause about that list, though - I was looking at it, and there are a ton of items filtered from Amazon, and I buy stuff there, as little as I like the company and try to purchase elsewhere. I'm not sure enough of how this works to try it without removing them (or commenting them out), and so far I haven't tried that, mainly because there are just so many of them and they aren't next to each other.
I've used the hosts file from MVP Hosts for almost 20 years in Windows, and have bought stuff from Amazon with the hosts file active every time. It's never interfered with any transactions for me.

The only sites I've ever had to drop the hosts file for were broadcast network television sites. Broadcast TV sites won't stream a video with a hosts file borking all the little adbot trackers.

Netflix and Youtube work fine with the hosts file active, and I don't ever really need to stream video from broadcast TV sites, so I keep the hosts file active all the time.
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Old 09-28-2018, 10:20 AM   #22
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That's great to hear; I appreciate that. I'll give it a try. Thanks!
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Old 09-29-2018, 02:26 AM   #23
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That's it. What's blocked is trackers, analytics, etc... I doesn't deny regular access to Amazon, yt or whatever, unless you specifically go for it and configure /etc/hosts for the purpose.
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