10 Useful Open Source Security Firewalls for Linux Systems

2023-05-22 08:30:02

as admin de LinuxParty, ExtreHost and other organizations for more out of 5 years, I will always be responsible for the security management of the servers Linux. Firewalls play an important role in security of systems / nets Linux. Act like one security guard between the internal and external network by controlling and managing incoming and outgoing network traffic based on a set of rules. This set of firewall rules only allows legitimate connections and blocks those that are not defined.

There are dozens of open source firewall applications available for download on the market. In this article, we present top 10 most popular open source firewalls which can be very helpful in selecting one that suits your requirements.

1. IPtables

Iptables/Netfilter is the most popular command line based firewall. It is the first line of defense for the security of a Linux server. Many system administrators use it for fine tuning their servers. Filters packets in the network stack within the kernel itself. You can find a more detailed description of iptables here.

Characteristics of IP tables

1. Lists the content of the packet filter rule set.
2. It is lightning fast because it only inspects the packet headers.
3. You can Add/Remove/Modify rules according to your needs in the packet filtering rule sets.
4. Listing/resetting the counters per rule of the packet filtering rule sets.
5. Supports backup and restore with files.

IPtables Homepage
Using the Linux firewall: iptables (I), other articles about Iptables

2.IPCop Firewall

IPCop is an open source Linux firewall distribution, the IPCop team is continuously working to provide a stable, more secure, easy to use and highly configurable firewall management system for its users. IPCop provides a well-designed web interface to manage the firewall. It is very useful and good for small businesses and local PCs.

You can set up an old PC as a secure VPN to provide a secure environment over the Internet. It also saves frequently used information to provide a better web browsing experience to its users.

IPCop Firewall Features

1. Its color-coded web interface lets you monitor performance charts for CPU, memory, and disk, as well as network performance.
2. Automatically view and rotate records.
3. Support Support multiple languages.
4. It provides very secure, stable and easy to implement updates and adds patches.

Homepage of IPCop

3. Coastal wall

Shorewall or Shoreline Firewall is another very popular open source firewall specialized for GNU/Linux. It is based on the Netfilter system built into the Linux kernel which also supports IPV6.

Shorewall Feature

1. It uses Netfilter’s connection trace functions for stateful packet filtering.
2. Supports a wide range of router/firewall/gateway applications.
3. Centralized firewall management.
4. A GUI interface with the Webmin control panel.
5. Support for multiple ISPs.
6. Supports port masquerading and port forwarding.
7. It supports VPN

Shorewall Home Page

4. UFW: firewall without the hassle

UFW is the default firewall tool for Ubuntu servers, it is basically designed to decrease the complexity of the iptables firewall and make it easier to use. A ufw graphical user interface, GUFW, is also available for Ubuntu and Debian users.

Features of the UFW

1. Supports IPV6
2. Extended logging options with on/off function
3. status monitoring
4. Marco extensible
5. Can be integrated with apps
6. Add/Remove/Modify Rules according to your needs.

UFW homepage
Homepage of GUFW

5. Wall of Fire

Vuurmuur is another powerful Linux firewall manager to create or manage iptables rules for your server or network. At the same time, it is very easy to manage, no prior knowledge of iptables is required to use Vuurmuur.

Features of Vuurmuur

1. Supports IPV6
2. Traffic shaping
3. More advanced monitoring features
4. Real-time monitoring connection and bandwidth usage
5. It can be easily configured with NAT.
6. Have Anti-spoofing features.

Home page
Wall of Fire Flash Demos

6. pfSense

pfSense is another open source and very reliable firewall for FreeBSD servers. It is based on the concept of stateful packet filtering. It offers a wide range of features that are normally only available in expensive commercial firewalls.

pfsense features

1. Highly configurable and up-to-date from its web-based interface.
2. It can be deployed as a perimeter firewall, router, DHCP and DNS server.
3. Configured as a wireless access point and VPN endpoint.
4. Traffic shaping and real-time information about the server.
5. Inbound and outbound load balancing.

pfSense home page

7. IP Fire

IPFire is another open source Linux-based firewall for small office and home office (SOHO) environments. It is designed with modularity and high flexibility. The IPfire community also addressed security and developed it as a Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall.

Features of IPFire

1. It can be implemented as a firewall, proxy server, or VPN gateway.
2. content filtering
3. Built-in intrusion detection system
4. Support through Wiki, forums and Chats
5. Supports hypervisors such as KVM, VmWare, and Xen for virtualization environments.

Homepage of IPFire

8. SmoothWall y SmoothWall Express

SmoothWall is an open source Linux firewall with a highly configurable web interface. Its web-based interface is known as WAM (web access manager). A freely distributed version of SmoothWall is known as SmoothWall Express.

Features of SmoothWall

1. Supports LAN, DMZ, and wireless networks, as well as external ones.
2. Real-time content filtering
3. HTTPS filtering
4. Supports proxy servers
5. View logs and monitor firewall activity
6. Management of traffic statistics by IP, interface and visit
7. Backup and restore facility as.

Homepage of SmoothWall

9. Endian

The Endian Firewall is another firewall based on the concept of stateful packet inspection that can be implemented as a VPN router, proxy, and gateway with OpenVPN. It was originally developed from the IPCop firewall, which is also a fork of Smoothwall.

Endian Features

1. Two-way firewall
2. Snort Intrusion Prevention
3. You can protect the web server with HTTP and FTP proxies, antivirus and URL blacklist.
4. You can protect mail servers with SMTP and POP3 proxy servers, spam self-learning, greylisting.
5. VPN con IPSec
6. Real-time network traffic log

Endian home page

10. Configuration server security firewall

Latest, but not the latest Configserver security and firewall. It is a very versatile and cross-platform firewall, also based on the concept of stateful packet inspection (SPI) firewall. It supports almost all virtualization environments such as Virtuozzo, OpenVZ, VMware, XEN, KVM, and Virtualbox.

CSF characteristics

1. Its LFD (Login Failure Daemon) daemon process checks for login failures of sensitive servers like ssh, SMTP, Exim, Imap, Pure & ProFTP, vsftpd, Suhosin and mod_security.
2. You can set up email alerts to notify you if anything goes unusual or to detect any type of intrusion into your server.
3. Popular web hosting control panels like cPanel, DirectAdmin and Webmin can be easily integrated.
4. Notifies the user of excessive resources and suspicious process via email alerts.
5. Advanced intrusion detection system.
6. You can protect your Linux box with attacks like Syn flood and ping of death.
7. Check the exploits
8. Easy to start/restart/stop and much more

CSF home page

Apart from these firewalls, there are many other firewalls like Sphirewall, Checkpoint, ClearOS, Monowall available on the web to secure your Linux box. Let the world know which is your favorite firewall for your Nix box and leave your valuable suggestions and queries below in the comment box. Soon I will come with another interesting article, until then stay healthy and connected with LinuxParty.es.