# Firewall Builder Release Notes

## Version 2.0.3

Released 09/30/04
GUI and compilers v2.0.3 require API library libfwbuilder version 2.0.3

## Summary

Firewall Builder GUI v2.0.3 is a maintenance release that includes fixes for bugs discovered since 2.0.2 has been released.

For those who wish to build from source, instructions are outlined in "Install and Build instructions"

- This release improves support for the PF firewall by always using tables in policy rules; it also uses syntax " ! <tbl>" for negation, assignes "rdr" rules to interfaces and adds "flags S/SA" to policy rules that keep state.
- This release significantly improves optimizer for iptables and adds an automatically generated rule to block packets that correspond to an INVALID state
- Built-in policy installer can compress firewall policy script before it is installed in flash memory on Linksys/Sveasoft firewall; this allows for much larger policy to be used on Linksys. Script compression is optional.
- Built-in policy installer can be used to test new policy rules with automatic roll-back to the previous version of the policy after specified interval of time. This feature helps to work around errors in the policy that block access to the firewall from the management workstation.

## Caveats

New version (as of build 421) completely changes the way it loads and activates firewall script on linksys. Old version put the whole script in variable rc_firewall. New one puts script in variable fwb and puts a one-line command in rc_firewall to read the script from fwb and execute it. This was done because of the need to uncompress it when linksys executes command stored in rc_firewall, in other words, rc_firewall needs to be a little script that uncompresses and runs the main firewall script. This is why scripts were separated and rc_firewall has changed compared to the previous versions of fwbuilder.

Reverting from v2.0.3 (build 421 and later) to v2.0.2 requires you to erase nvram variable "fwb" which holds the whole script in the new builds.

## New features in the built in policy installer

- added an option for test run. When this option is activated, policy script is pushed to the firewall and is executed but is not stored there permanently. Firewall reverts to the last working configuration after reboot.
- implemented compression of the firewall script for Linksys/Sveasoft combo. Using gzip and uuencode/uudecode to compress the script and store it in flash variable 'fwb'. Installer prints flash memory stats after commiting changes. Installer uses scp to copy firewall script to the firewall and autogenerated prompt to detect when it logged in; it does not depend on Linksys shell prompt anymore.
- added an option to schedule automatic firewall reboot in specified time (in minutes) after policy activation. This option is available for all firewall platforms but PIX. This option only works if user requested policy activation in a test mode, in which case policy is copied and activated on the firewall but not stored in the permanent location. After reboot the firewall reverts to the previous version of the policy. To cancel scheduled reboot, run installer again with "test run" option turned off. Installer stores the policy in the permanent location, activates it and cancels scheduled reboot. The commands used to schedule reboot and cancel it depend on the host os of the firewall. On Linux, it will use "shutdown -r +NN" and "shutdown -c". On *BSD systems it uses "shutdown -r +NN" and a combination of ps and awk to find and kill shutdown when reboot is canceled. Installer uses "reboot" and kills it with "killall" on linksys.
- All manipulations that installer does on the firewall are programmed in little one-line scripts stored in resource file for each supported OS the firewall is running. These are in /usr/share/fwbuilder/os on Linux/*BSD or in C:\FWBuilder\resources\os on Windows. Users can hack commands in these files to make installer work with host OS that is not supported by default. Currently, the GUI only looks for the OS-specific resource files in the system-wide directory. Future versions will also look in a predefined directory in users' home. Directory path to be defined later.
- Added option "output file name" to firewall settings dialogs for all platforms. User can specify the name for the output file; this name is then used by built in installer in place of a macro %FWSCRIPT%.

## New features in policy compiler for iptables

- implemented feature request #1023430: "add checkbox for INVALID support in fw settings". Added two checkboxes to the firewall settings dialog: one adds a rule to drop INVALID packets and another adds logging to the rule.
- rules that permit packets associated with ESTABLISHED,RELATED states moved to the beginning of the script before NAT rules.
- bug #1022216: "negated time produces incorrect iptables rule". Implemented negation for the "Time" rule element for iptables
- using abbreviated versions of "--dport", "--sport", "--dports", "--sports" options to make generated iptables script smaller. Also changed the name of the variables used to hold IP address of dynamic interface from "interface_<ifname>" to "i_<ifname>". All this should help to fit larger policies into small flash on linksys. These changes shrunk my test script from 7964 bytes to 7430 bytes
- Generated iptables script flushes only secondary ip addresses on interfaces during initialization phase if option "configure interfaces" is on. This should fix a bug that caused linksys/sveasoft unit to lose default route upon reboot if external interface has static IP address.
- Generated script checks if /usr/sbin/ip exists on the firewall before it tries to use it to verify interfaces and configure IP addresses. This check is only performed if user activated options that use this tool. An error message "Interface eth0 does not exist" was generated if package iproute2 was not installed on the firewall, which was confusing.

## New features in policy compiler for PF

- A NAT rule of type DNAT (rdr rule) is assigned to an interface of the firewall if interface object or its address object is used in ODst. To get rdr rule without interface assignment, use an Address or a Host object that has the same IP address as that of firewall's interface but that is not a child of an interface. This is the same approach that is used in iptables.
- Compiler for pf always uses tables; this breaks compatibility with older OpenBSD systems (3.2 and 3.3)
- Compiler for pf puts interface name in a table for rules that use multiple objects in src or dst and one of these objects is dynamic interface of the firewall that is being processed. Using dynamic interface of another object in a rule is still considered an error. Compiler puts the name of dynamic interface in a table verbatim, without brackets '(' ')' since pf does not replace dynamic interface with its address dynamically if it is used in a table (pfctl issues an error if interface is put in brackets)
- added an option to permit tcp sessions opened prior to firewall restart. This is needed now since compiler generates "flags S/SA" for the "keep state" and "modulate state" rules which means firewall won't permit TCP sessions unless it saw opening SYN packet.
- bug #1028973: fwb_pf: missing "flags S/SA" in front of "modulate state". Compiler adds "flags S/SA" to policy rules that use either "keep state" or "modulate state" options.
- bug #1028980: "need an option to turn logging on on fallback rule". Option has been added.

## Bugs fixed in libfwbuilder API:

- bug #1022788: "GUI corrupts XML file after creating a second firewall". Global object ID counter was getting reset every time new FWObjectDatabase object was created. This lead to the ID collision if user quickly created and deleted complex objects (such as Firewall) and used database merge. This should also fix bug #1022785: "GUI corrupts XML file after creating a host entry"
- fixed bug (no number): all references to the interfaces, as well as their IP and MAC addresses, in policy and NAT rules should be replaced when Firewall object is duplicated. Until now only references to the firewall object itself and to its interfaces were replaced with references to the newly created copies of object. References to IP and MAC addresses still pointed at the old objects.

## Bugs fixed in GUI:

- bug (no number): after deleting a library firewall objects that belong to it were not removed from the pull-down list
- bug #1026945: '"Save As" does not work if current file is in RCS'
- bug #1028078: "options.png is not displayed for "Assume firewall is part..."
- bug #1035132: "compile errors with default Linksys firewall object". This bug has been introduced in build 435. When user created a new firewall object using one of the template objects, the GUI would add bunch of garbage to the firewall options. This garbage violated XML DTD, so compilers and the GUI would not accept the data file anymore.
- bug #1035130: 'Persistent "Save" dialog box'. Certain combination of actions on user's part used to lead to an indefinite loop of "do you want to save the data" dialogs. The problem was triggered if user skipped choosing a name for the new file in startup dialog.

## Bugs fixed in iptables policy compiler fwb_ipt:

- bug #1024861: "optimizer is broken in fwb_ipt". Used idea and a patch by Mark Vevers . Fixed compiler fwb_ipt generates more efficient iptables script for rules with multiple objects in all rule elements. The script is smaller and eliminates unnecessary comparisons for packet attributes. Every attribute (i.e. source address, destination address, protocol and port numbers) is checked by the script only once. This should help reduce load on firewalls with lots of complex rules.
- bug #1026509: "incorrect rules generated for dual negation with time". Compiler generated incorrect iptables commands for rules that had negation in two or more rule elements, one of which was Time.
- bug #1026794: multiple SRC ntwks --> "iptables: invalid argument". Recent changes in optimizer introduced this bug. Rules with multiple objects in src or dst, TCP service, action Reject and option "reject with TCP RST" would generate iptables command that used option "--reject-with tcp-reset" without "-p tcp"

## Bugs fixed in iptables policy compiler fwb_pf:

- bug #1006906: "Negated network causes pass on network". Compiler for pf uses native negation syntax that is now available in pf
- bug (no num): "firewall settings" dialog for OpenBSD pf did not save option "Use tables". Since compiler is always using tables, this option was removed from the dialog.

Last modified: Thu Sep 30 20:16:23 PDT 2004