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Date:      Mon, 26 Feb 1996 15:22:08 +0100
From:      Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.tfs.com>
To:        michael butler <imb@scgt.oz.au>
Cc:        stable@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: -stable hangs at boot (fwd) 
Message-ID:  <11519.825344528@critter.tfs.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 27 Feb 1996 01:05:48 %2B1100." <199602261405.BAA09438@asstdc.scgt.oz.au> 

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> Poul-Henning Kamp writes:
> 
> > Well, this happens to be your view.  I know machines where IPFW are being
> > used to restrict what users on the machine can do, this is only possible
> > if you filter >ALL< traffic, to and from the machine.
> 
> OK .. but, personally, I wouldn't call or attempt to use those boxes as
> firewalls .. any "sensitive" firewall/filtering router I have control over
> has two valid accounts which have any access at all, mine and one other,
> with limited privilege, for daily monitoring. No users == much reduced risk.

I agree, I'd do that too.  However, that is all a question of what your
policy is.  The IPFW, should not affect your policy, but merely be able to
implement it.

> If security is _that_ important, investing in a dedicated box to do the job
> is cheap at triple the price :-)
depends, sometimes other things are of some importance too :-)

> > The IPFW is not a policy, it's a tool to implement policies.  As such it
> > needs to be able to implement the widest possible range of policies.
> 
> I can see where you're coming from .. but this behaviour caught me out
> because it is unusual and I'm sure it'll catch many others :-(.

I'm sure about that too, that is really too bad :-(

However, the reason why I'm in this business right now was that a (by now
documented) criminal person gained access through a FreeBSD firewall, even
though the filters claimed that it wasn't possible.  This was not something
I could have sitting on my shoulders as a security supplier.

I decided to fix it once and for all, so that the policy would be entirely 
in the hands of the sysadmin, rather than some of it being done in a very 
obscure piece of code.

Security will always require people to know what they do, unfortunately.

> > You should be on -committers if you run -stable or -current.  If you were,
> > you would have seen it.
> 
> If I could get half-way through the stuff I'm obliged to read now .. <sigh>

Talk to me about it...

Ohh, and don't forget to read >all< of Terrys emails :-)

Now, how about you check out the ipfw.8 from -current and send me your
comments, and possibly a couple of good commented rule-sets for the doc,
then I'll make sure the kernel-code does what we want it to and what we
think ?

--
Poul-Henning Kamp           | phk@FreeBSD.ORG       FreeBSD Core-team.
http://www.freebsd.org/~phk | phk@login.dknet.dk    Private mailbox.
whois: [PHK]                | phk@ref.tfs.com       TRW Financial Systems, Inc.
Future will arrive by its own means, progress not so.



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