Firewalls

What are firewalls? a hardware device and/or software program which sits between the Internet and the intranet, internet, of an organization Its main objectives are to filter: what should come in the intranet (inbound traffic) and what should come out of the intranet (outbound traffic). Source: Vicomsoft tutorialtutorial

How firewalls work? Using one of two access denial methodologies: may allow all traffic through unless it meets certain criteria, or may deny all traffic unless it meets certain criteria Note: many other access systems also use this allow/deny rule.

Firewall layer traditional OSI and TCP/IP layers Modern firewalls have their own communications layer

Firewall types Packet Filtering Firewall: They are usually part of a router and each packet is compared to a set of criteria before it is forwarded, dropped, or a message is sent to the originator. Circuit level Gateway: they monitor TCP handshaking between packets to determine whether a requested session is legitimate. Information passed to remote computer through a circuit level gateway appears to have originated from the gateway. On the other hand, they do not filter individual packets.

Firewall types (continued) Application level gateways: also called proxies, are application specific. An application level gateway that is configured to be a web proxy will not allow any ftp, gopher, telnet or other traffic through. They offer a high level of security, but have a significant impact on network performance. Stateful Multilayer Firewalls: combine aspects of the other three types of firewalls. They filter packets at the network layer and evaluate contents of packets at the application layer. They allow direct connection between client and host, and they rely on algorithms to recognize and process application layer data instead of running application specific proxies.

Hardware gateways Market: they are in the upswing, see this article.this Cisco: product line and some problems.product linesome WatchGuard: product line.product line SonicWall: product line.product line D-Link: product line (a low cost SOHO player).product line How they work: D-Link example.example Filtering inbound traffic: allowing special applications, redirecting traffic to specific servers, denying all other inbound traffic.special applicationsspecific servers Filtering outbound traffic: allowing/denying specific LAN hosts to use certain ports.use certain ports NAT and DHCP: all LAN hosts use local IP numbers, only the gateway has both a local IP number and a regular Internet IP number. NAT - network address translation - converts the request of a host in the LAN to the gateway IP number when sending an outbound request, and convert back to the local IP number when receiving an inbound reply. DHCP: automatically assigns local IP numbers, DNS, etc., to hosts in the LAN, as shown in this example (disabled).example

Software firewalls Market : dominant in SOHO and a player in business. F.W.T.K. org: how it all started, still a free firewall toolkit.firewall toolkit Checkpoint: FireWall-1, a leader in business networksFireWall-1 IT security: comparison table for business networks.comparison table Zone Labs: a leader in SOHO networks, free for personal use.personal use Comodo Firewall: also a leader in SOHO, also free for personal use.personal use Network ICE: another leader in SOHO, see it here.here Symantec: a traditional Windows developer built a solid firewall.solid firewall How they work : similar to hardware, but using a generic computer as the firewall device. Comodo example: once downloaded and installed block by default all inbound traffic and ask for authorization for inbound and outbound traffic, creating rules. You can choose to allow or deny specific applications. You can create rules to make ports stealth, and see status of the connections in your host.defaultinbound allow or denyports stealthstatus ZoneAlarm example: similarly blocks all inbound traffic, require you to setup security levels for LAN and Internet. Ask for authorization for outbound traffic, adding authorized programs to the list.blocks security levels authorizationprograms

Firewall resources Internet connection sharing and gateway: Wingate: the pioneer proxy SOHO software (includes firewall,) Wingate Windows 7: the ICS is a stateful firewall (a plus for Windows).ICS General resources Security and Privacy reviews Firewall.com Internet Firewalls: Frequently Asked Questions Firewall and Proxy Server HOWTO Shields UP Personal Firewalls TCP and UDP ports Intrusion Detection Systems: FAQ Security of firewalls: proper configuration... Leak test: LeakTest, PC World and PC Magazine articles..LeakTestPC WorldPC Magazine Scanning through firewalls: HpingHping