Linux: Firewall, iptables Tutorial

This is a tutorial of Linux's iptables command. You need to have a basic understanding of TCP/IP. If not, see: TCP/IP Tutorial for Beginner .

iptables is a advanced firewall for Linux. It can {drop, redirect, modify/NAT} packets based on {IP address, port, …}. For a short intro of what it can do, see: Linux: What's Netfilter, iptables, Their Differences?

you need to be root to use iptables. So, sudo su root first, or precede all your commands by sudo.

A Simple Example

first, do this to first see that your network is working:

# check network
ping -c 3 google.com

Now, do:

# add a rule to drop ALL incoming packets
sudo iptables --table filter --append INPUT --jump DROP

now, all packets coming to your computer are dropped. Now try ping google.com again. It won't work.

you can look at the packet filtering rules you've added:

# show a list of rules
sudo iptables --list

sample output:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
DROP       all  --  anywhere             anywhere

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

now, clear the rules you've created.

# remove all filtering rules
sudo iptables --flush

now, try ping -c 3 google.com again. It works again.

Basic Concepts and Terminology

• man iptables (2.3k lines of documentation)
• iptables -h (command summary)

iptables is a complex software, and the man page is badly written and hard to understand. You need to understand the following basic concepts first, then, you'll be able to read the man page as reference.

firewall works by matching packets with rules. When a rule match, a specified action is done, such as blocking the packet or letting it pass or alter some info in the packet or redirect. The rules can be checking on IP address, port number, protocol, number of packets, a particular network interface the packet is from or to, or connection state, etc.

The iptables command is used to set the rules and actions.

tables, chain, target

The rules are grouped into “table”, then “chain”. A action to be done on a packet is called “target”.

table

A table is a name of a collection of “chain”.

chain

A “chain” is a name for a set of rules.

rule

A rule is used to match packet. For example, match port number, match protocol, ….

target

Action. A “target” is a name for a action. When a rule matches a packet, the “target” (action) is executed. Example of target: {ACCEPT, DROP, QUEUE, RETURN}.

policy

The default action when no rules match. Only builtin chains can have policy. And its value must be one of {ACCEPT, DROP}. (todo: can it be RETURN? Or QUEUE?).

Basic Syntax

Example:

# list current rules for filter table
sudo iptables --table filter --list

here's a sample output:

# iptables --list

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere            state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     icmp --  anywhere             anywhere
ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere            state NEW tcp dpt:ssh
REJECT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere            reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination
REJECT     all  --  anywhere             anywhere            reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination

On your machine, you'll probably see no rules, because, you haven't set any rules yet.

The general syntax is this:

iptables --table table --append/delete/rename/… CHAIN rule --jump TARGET

It means, work with table named table, then append/delete/rename the rule rule to the chain named CHAIN, when match, do TARGET.

here's one example:

sudo iptables --table filter --append INPUT --match conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED --jump ACCEPT

here's what it means, broken down in parts:

iptables --table filter …

Work with the “filter” table.

--append INPUT …

Append (a rule) to the INPUT chain.

--match conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED

Turn on match connection state tracking, and, with condition that the connection is established, or is related to another connection already permitted.

--jump ACCEPT

Goto the action of target “ACCEPT”.

iptables Tables

The possible table names are:

filter

generic table for filtering packets. This is the most commonly used table.

nat

for packets that creates a new connection. (this is related to NAT (Network Address Translation))

mangle

for specialized packet alteration.

raw

mainly for configuring exemptions from connection tracking in combination with the NOTRACK target. It registers at the netfilter hooks with higher priority and is thus called before ip_conntrack, or any other IP tables.

security

for Mandatory Access Control (MAC (not MAC address)) networking rules, such as those enabled by the SECMARK and CONNSECMARK targets. Mandatory Access Control is implemented by Linux Security Modules such as SELinux. The security table is called after the filter table, allowing any Discretionary Access Control (DAC) rules in the filter table to take effect before MAC rules.

For example, you can see the list of rules in a table:

sudo iptables -table filter --list
sudo iptables -table nat --list

Builtin Chains

Each table has several builtin chains (name for a list of rules) defined by default.

“filter” Table Builtin Chains

INPUT

for packets destined to local sockets (that is, packets that goes to local host.).

FORWARD

for packets being routed through the box.

OUTPUT

for locally-generated packets (that is, packets generated by host).

“nat” Table Builtin Chains

PREROUTING

for modifying packets as soon as they come in.

OUTPUT

for modifying locally-generated packets before routing.

POSTROUTING

for modifying packets as they are about to go out.

“mangle” Table Builtin Chains

PREROUTING

for altering incoming packets before routing.

INPUT

for packets coming into the box itself.

OUTPUT

for altering locally-generated packets before routing.

FORWARD

for altering packets being routed through the box.

POSTROUTING

for altering packets as they are about to go out.

“raw” Table Builtin Chains

PREROUTING

for packets arriving via any network interface.

OUTPUT

for packets generated by local processes.

“security” Table Builtin Chains

INPUT

for packets coming into the box itself.

OUTPUT

for altering locally-generated packets before routing.

FORWARD

for altering packets being routed through the box.

the “filter” table is the most useful table.

Predefined Actions (buildin targets)

Remember: “target” is a name for a defined action. By default, the following are defined:

• ACCEPT = let the packet through.
• DROP = drop the packet.
• QUEUE = pass the packet to userspace. (slightly complicated)
• RETURN = stop traversing this chain and resume at the next rule in the previous (calling) chain. This is like “break” statement in a loop in programing languages.

The above are the most basic ones. There are many others that comes with iptables but are considered “extension modules”. For example, there's also REJECT that is like DROP but also send back a error packet. There's also LOG, which doesn't do anything to the packet but writes to log.

Print Options

Commands to Edit Chain

Here are the commands to edit “chain”. The “chain” here is a name.

Rule in chain are ordered, and can be identified by their number, starting with 1.

Syntax for Rules

Some rules can be preceded by !, meaning boolean inverse. That is, changing “matching” to “not matching”. These are marked by a star ★.

Options for Action (target)

General Options

The above are general options. If you work with iptables a lot, you basically have to memorize all of the above. There are MANY MORE options, for specifying port, protocol, network adapter, TCP packet detail, …. See man iptables.

Examples

when --table table is not specified, the “filter” table is used by default.

# ban a MAC address
sudo iptables --table filter --append INPUT --match mac --mac-source 00:0f:b4:ac:a0:58 --jump DROP

# redirect all HTTP traffic to a specific server
sudo iptables --table nat --append PREROUTING --protocol tcp --dport 80 --jump REDIRECT --to-port 127.0.0.1:80

# ban a ip address
sudo /sbin/iptables --table filter --append INPUT --source $ipAddr --jump DROP

# set default action to drop
sudo iptables --policy INPUT DROP

# remove all filtering rules, remove all user created chains

iptables -t filter --flush
iptables -t filter --delete-chain

iptables -t nat --flush
iptables -t nat --delete-chain

iptables -t mangle --flush
iptables -t mangle --delete-chain

iptables -t raw --flush
iptables -t raw --delete-chain

iptables -t security --flush
iptables -t security --delete-chain

# set policy to accept
sudo iptables --policy INPUT ACCEPT

# you need to set policy for every table's chain too, if you've changed them.

# reset SOME default policies
iptables -t filter --policy INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -t filter --policy FORWARD ACCEPT
iptables -t filter --policy OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -t nat --policy PREROUTING ACCEPT
iptables -t nat --policy POSTROUTING ACCEPT
iptables -t nat --policy OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -t mangle --policy PREROUTING ACCEPT
iptables -t mangle --policy OUTPUT ACCEPT

# there's also table raw and security.
# there's might be other chains too.

More Examples

# accept incoming packet that's bound to tcp and destined for ssh port
sudo iptables --append INPUT --protocol tcp --dport ssh --jump ACCEPT

# accept incoming packet that's bound to tcp and destined for port 80
sudo iptables --append INPUT --protocol tcp --dport 80 --jump ACCEPT

# block all traffic
sudo iptables --append INPUT --jump DROP

# accept rule to INPUT ruleset in filter table, for traffic bound to loopback address

# add rule to filter table,
# as 1st rule
# in the INPUT set
# for traffic bound to loopback address, accept

sudo iptables --insert INPUT 1 --in-interface lo --jump ACCEPT

# log dropped packets

sudo iptables --insert INPUT 5 --match limit --limit 5/min --jump LOG --log-prefix "dropped: " --log-level 7

# allow max of 2 telnet connections
sudo iptables --append INPUT --proto tcp --syn --dport 23 --match connlimit --connlimit-above 2 --jump REJECT

# limit the number of parallel HTTP requests to 16 per class C sized source network (24 bit netmask)
sudo iptables --proto tcp --syn --dport 80 --match connlimit --connlimit-above 16 --connlimit-mask 24 --jump REJECT

# the following allows one way traffic

# Create chain which blocks new connections, except if coming from inside.
sudo iptables --new myblock
sudo iptables --append myblock --match state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED --jump ACCEPT
sudo iptables --append myblock --match state --state NEW --in-interface ! ppp0 --jump ACCEPT
sudo iptables --append myblock --jump DROP

# Jump to that chain from INPUT and FORWARD chains.
sudo iptables --append INPUT --jump myblock
sudo iptables --append FORWARD --jump myblock

sudo iptables --policy INPUT ACCEPT
sudo iptables --flush
sudo iptables --accept INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables --accept INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables --accept INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables --policy INPUT DROP
sudo iptables --policy FORWARD DROP
sudo iptables --policy OUTPUT ACCEPT

Chain INPUT (policy DROP 0 packets, 0 bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination
    0     0 ACCEPT     all  --  lo     any     anywhere             anywhere
    0     0 ACCEPT     all  --  any    any     anywhere             anywhere            state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
    0     0 ACCEPT     tcp  --  any    any     anywhere             anywhere            tcp dpt:ssh
Chain FORWARD (policy DROP 0 packets, 0 bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT 0 packets, 0 bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination

ipv6

# Limit the number of connections to a particular host:
ip6tables --proto tcp --syn --dport 49152:65535 -d 2001:db8::1 --match connlimit --connlimit-above 100 --jump REJECT

# limit the number of parallel HTTP requests to 16 for the link local network (ipv6)

ip6tables --proto tcp --syn --dport 80 --source fe80::/64 --match connlimit --connlimit-above 16 --connlimit-mask 64 --jump REJECT

Saving and Restoring Firewall Config

sudo iptables-save → dump iptables rules to stdout

sudo iptables-restore → Restore IP Tables

Reference

• short. 〔Ubuntu iptables Howto 2012-06-20 By Ubuntu Community. At https://help.ubuntu.com/community/IptablesHowTo , accessed on 2013-03-18〕
• huge. verbose. 〔Iptables Tutorial 1.2.2 2006 By Oskar Andreasson. At http://www.frozentux.net/iptables-tutorial/iptables-tutorial.html , accessed on 2013-03-08〕
• authoritative but dated. 〔Linux 2.4 Packet Filtering HOWTO 2002-01-24 By Rusty Russell. At http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/HOWTO//packet-filtering-HOWTO.html , accessed on 2013-03-08〕
• lots others, but mostly outdated, collected here. http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/index.html
• http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Network/IPTables

Related Reference

• Captive portal
• Hotspot (Wi-Fi)
• 〔How to create a homebrew hot-spot with Linux 2011-02-08 By Juhapekk…@Gmail.Com. At http://code.google.com/p/quickanddirty/wiki/CreatingWirelessHotspotWithLinux , accessed on 2013-03-17〕

StackOverflow ServerFault

• http://serverfault.com/questions/207620/windows-equivalent-of-iptables
• http://serverfault.com/questions/84963/why-not-block-icmp
• http://serverfault.com/questions/268542/hardware-firewall-vs-software-firewall-ip-tables-rhel
• http://serverfault.com/questions/140622/how-can-i-port-forward-with-iptables
• http://serverfault.com/questions/245711/iptables-tips-tricks
• http://serverfault.com/questions/384132/iptables-limit-rate-of-a-specific-incoming-ip

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