Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:41:40 -0700 From: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> To: RW <fbsd06@mlists.homeunix.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Firewall and FreeBSD ports Message-ID: <20081010184140.GA40049@icarus.home.lan> In-Reply-To: <20081010185432.6eed9643@gumby.homeunix.com.> References: <110C2D5E-5772-4304-9F90-FDAC5EACAE2E@identry.com> <20081010165116.GA37287@icarus.home.lan> <20081010185432.6eed9643@gumby.homeunix.com.>
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On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 06:54:32PM +0100, RW wrote: > On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:51:16 -0700 > Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> wrote: > > > On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 12:45:04PM -0400, John Almberg wrote: > > > I just set up a new server with a very restricted PF configuration. > > > One problem: I can no longer install software with ports (i.e, > > > the / usr/ports collection.) I have to disable PF to do so. > > > Obviously not a great solution. > > > > > > Am I correct in guessing that ports uses FTP to grab source files > > > from mirrors? I'm trying to figure out the smallest number of ports > > > (the TCP/IP kind) that I need to open in my firewall. I don't want > > > to enable incoming FTP requests, but do want to allow outgoing ftp > > > requests, I believe. > > > > > > Am I on the right track, here? > > > > See the fetch(1) man page. Try this first: > > > > sh/bash: export FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=true > > csh: setenv FTP_PASSIVE_MODE true > > passive ftp has been the default for long time, fetch is called > with the -p option. Let's give the users some actual detail, not terse one-liners which will induce more questions/confusion. First off, libfetch (which is what fetch(1)) uses) itself DOES NOT default to using FTP passive mode. You have to either pass the -p option to the fetch(1) binary, or you have to set the FTP_PASSIVE_MODE environment variable (which affects anything using libfetch). Secondly, the ports framework (not pkg_* tools!), specifically ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk, defines FETCH_ARGS with the -p argument to force passive mode. This will be used for things like "make fetch". It *will not* be used for things like "pkg_add -r" or "pkg_add ftp://..." The addition of the -p argument to FETCH_ARGS in ports/Mk/bsd.port.mk was applied to HEAD on 2006/09/20. HEAD at that time is what became FreeBSD 6.2. Of course, anyone updating their ports tree after that date would also get the change; I'm just pointing it out so people know what the actual date was when -p was added to the default argument list. Now let's expand a bit on FTP_PASSIVE_MODE, because I'm absolutely sure someone will try to argue "that's also been turned on by default for a long time"; I know how people are... :-) FTP_PASSIVE_MODE being set by default on login shells was induced by an addition to login.conf(5) back in late 2001 (around the time of RELENG_6). See revision 1.45 (not 1.44!) of src/etc/login.conf in cvsweb. But I'll remind people that login.conf only applies to login shells; logging in on the console, or logging in to an account via "ssh user@host". Most people I know of *do not* SSH into their servers as root; they SSH in as themselves and use sudo. Some use su2, and some use su. Let's examine the behaviours: $ env | grep FTP FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=YES As you can see here, the machine I've SSH'd into as myself does apply login.conf's defaults. But... $ sudo -s # env | grep FTP # exit $ sudo -i # env | grep FTP # The above scenario (as root) fails, since the FTP_PASSIVE_MODE environment variable isn't being handed down from the login shell (my user account) to the root shell spawned by sudo[1]. su, on the other hand, does it a little differently: $ su Password: # env | grep FTP FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=YES And likewise, "su -l" behaves the same way. The OP did not disclose how he was installing ports. A lot of users think that packages == ports, so for all we know, he could be pkg_add'ing things while using sudo and running into this. If "make fetch" in an actual port is timing out, then he's either doing it on a machine with a ports tree prior to 2006/09/20 (see above), or his outbound pf rules are so strict that the machine is absurdly limited. I've advocated in another thread my displeasure for filtering outbound traffic *solely* because of this exact scenario. Network admins seem to think that "oh, HTTP is always going to use port 80", and likewise, "oh, FTP is always going to use ports 20-21". Bzzzt. Nothing stops a MASTER_SITE from being http://lelele.com:9382/. [1]: The problem with sudo can be addressed; FTP_PASSIVE_MODE needs to be added to the env_keep list in the default sudoers file. I know the port maintainer, so I'll take this up with him so that users (including myself) don't keep getting bit by forgetting to set FTP_PASSIVE_MODE after doing a sudo. -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
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