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Ubuntu-Server 6.10 As A Firewall/Gateway For Your Small Business

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This is a COPY&PASTE howto creating a firewall/(mail)gateway for a small network (say 10 to 15 users or so on a PIII 450MHz, 512 MB ram and two identical network interface cards, broadband connection, fully featured, for a bussines environment.

Needs very little maintenance and is extendable beyond your wildest imagination. All depending on the hardware used, of course.

Includes: Shorewall, NAT, Caching NameServer, DHCP Server, VPN Server, Webmin, Munin, Apache (SSL enabled), Squirrelmail, Postfix setup with virtual domains, courier imap imaps pop3 pop3s, sasl authentication for road warriors, MailScanner as a wrapper for SpamAssassin, Razor, ClamAv, etc. Samba installed, not configured.

Full Story.

re: Firewall/Gateway

What a stupendously bad idea, making a standard Linux box into a swiss army knife of Firewalls.

The basic idea is just plain dumb, but adding all those additional applications (especially samba) to a edge device is just begging to be exploited.

There are plenty of really good firewall projects (PFSense, IPCOP, Monowall to name a few) that provide excellent security and they're written and maintained by developers who actually know how to test and verify that they are indeed secure. Home rolled Linux boxes are NOT hardened, and most folks are clueless how to run their own exploit or penetration tests.

re: Firewall/Gateway

I tend to agree.

If you're gonna be building your own, get a good idea of what you're doing. Get well versed with REAL penetration tools, to ensure you've configured your box right. (The majority of compromises are because of mis-configuration or didn't keep up with updates).

One thing I've seen alot of people do, is slap on service upon service, upon service! Its a firewall FFS! The more services you offer, the higher probability of encountering a problem (exploit). Often, its just wiser to keep your firewall and servers separate.

This is a business we're talking about...Who's gonna take the blame when the shit hits the fan? :cry:

Wouldn't it be wiser if there was a support contract? So your boss can yell at someone else? :cuss:

For simplicity, go for something like M0n0Wall or IPCop. (M0n0Wall has much lower system requirements).

For something of features, consider ClarkConnect or SME Server. (ClarkConnect has paid support versions)

Personally, I wouldn't put pfSense in a production situation. I don't think its sufficiently ready. (Its getting there quite well, but they're trying to do too much...The result is quite a number of bugs and problems. Haven't you noticed not many of their plugins work?)

If I were to build my own, I would pick OpenBSD as the basis. They have (at least) a reputation for security...Well, they live for it.

Compared this to Ubuntu...What's their security stance like? Is there an active team monitoring issues? What's their response when informed of security issues? Do they release a patch within hours of being informed? Do they drag their feet?

Firewalls aren't just for shits and giggles, put some serious effort and thought into it. Especially when your butt is on the line!

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