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    Need to understand why traffic is allowed

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Firewalling
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    • G Offline
      Gryman @Rico
      last edited by

      @rico said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

      Sure you can, but your LAN Firewall Rules say LAN net -> any
      so why shoud the LAN net not reach VL498 ?

      -Rico

      It should reach VL498, but then be dropped as VL498 has no rule allowing the traffic in. This is how firewalls work, usually. Now, the exception would be if there's no implicit deny, which I understand there is.

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      • GrimsonG Offline
        Grimson Banned @Gryman
        last edited by

        @gryman said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

        It should reach VL498, but then be dropped as VL498 has no rule allowing the traffic in. This is how firewalls work, usually. Now, the exception would be if there's no implicit deny, which I understand there is.

        Don't be a thickhead and do some RTFM: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/book/firewall/rule-methodology.html

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        • G Offline
          Gryman @Grimson
          last edited by

          @grimson said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

          @gryman said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

          It should reach VL498, but then be dropped as VL498 has no rule allowing the traffic in. This is how firewalls work, usually. Now, the exception would be if there's no implicit deny, which I understand there is.

          Don't be a thickhead and do some RTFM: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/book/firewall/rule-methodology.html

          So basically if traffic comes into LAN, LAN filters the traffic, but then VL498 does not, because it didn't originate from the inbound side of the interface, correct?

          So if there's one misplaced rule on one interface allowing traffic out, it can compromise every other interface within the firewall, correct?

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          • RicoR Offline
            Rico LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance
            last edited by Rico

            If you work with firewalls, you can't just misplace anything without shit happens. Understand how it works, setup your stuff properly and test it.

            -Rico

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            • G Offline
              Gryman @Rico
              last edited by

              @rico said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

              If you work with firewalls, you can't just misplace anything without shit happens. Understand how it works, setup your stuff properly and test it.

              -Rico

              If you're the sole administrator of a firewall for your home, then yes, you can ensure that everything is always perfect. When you get into enterprise environments, that becomes harder. If a first level support person adds a rule for customer X to allow outbound traffic to *, that shouldn't compromise every other customer on that firewall who are behind different interfaces.

              Customer X is in VLAN 500 which is a virtual interface VL500. They want all traffic allowed outbound. What would the correct way look like for this? What rule do you enter to allow traffic out to the internet but not other interfaces within your environment?

              I'm trying to understanding these firewalls, but they work much differently than Cisco or Palo Alto which I use on a daily basis.

              Usually, you have ingress and egress filtering per interface/zone, depending on the setup. PFS doesn't use zones, but interfaces. The docs say there's an implicit deny on the interface, which I can validate as working, but only on "inbound" traffic from the interface perspective.

              Where I'm at now is I need to be able to isolate interfaces from each other. Even adding an explicit deny on VL498 it doesn't stop the traffic from entering that environment.

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              • I Offline
                isolatedvirus @Gryman
                last edited by

                youre forgetting about state tables and related/established connections. Checkpoint/Cisco/Palo Alto all do this as well.

                Egress matching can be performed in a floating rule. interface/zone firewalls do things slightly differently, but 99% of it is the same.

                You can isolate interfaces with inverse matching.

                EX: Lan/Lan Subnet, OPT1/OPT1 Subnet, OPT2/OPT2 Subnet
                Allow lan subnet, any service, any port, destination !OPT1 Subnet.

                This would allow Lan to anything that isnt in the OPT1 Subnet. You can create aliases for combinations of these, similar to node/object groups in enterprise firewalls.

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                • G Offline
                  Gryman @isolatedvirus
                  last edited by

                  @isolatedvirus said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

                  youre forgetting about state tables and related/established connections. Checkpoint/Cisco/Palo Alto all do this as well.

                  Egress matching can be performed in a floating rule. interface/zone firewalls do things slightly differently, but 99% of it is the same.

                  You can isolate interfaces with inverse matching.

                  EX: Lan/Lan Subnet, OPT1/OPT1 Subnet, OPT2/OPT2 Subnet
                  Allow lan subnet, any service, any port, destination !OPT1 Subnet.

                  This would allow Lan to anything that isnt in the OPT1 Subnet. You can create aliases for combinations of these, similar to node/object groups in enterprise firewalls.

                  States, yes. But that would be per interface/zone. So if I allow outbound traffic from LAN, inbound return traffic would be allowed because the state is tracked. But if I don't allow the traffic into VL498, the state for LAN should not apply.

                  What I'm reading is each interface would need a rule prohibiting traffic to other interfaces, correct?

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                  • I Offline
                    isolatedvirus @Gryman
                    last edited by

                    correct.

                    An easier way to think about zone vs interface based:
                    Zone allows multiple interfaces to subscribe to it. Rules are applied according to zone membership.
                    Interface treats each individual interface as its own separate zone. Rules that would be identical on different interfaces must be replicated.

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                    • johnpozJ Offline
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Gryman
                      last edited by

                      @gryman said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

                      If a first level support person adds a rule for customer X to allow outbound traffic to *,

                      On what planet would any company allow 1st level support to touch a firewall? Really? For rules to get changed on the enterprise you have to go through process, change control.. Not sure where you get the idea that people can just willy nilly change rules on a firewall in a enterprise.

                      As to an ISP and firewalling customer connection - why would they be filtering anything in the first place.. Seems to me your just not thinking this stuff through with zero real world hands on experience to base any of your assumptions on.

                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                      SG-4860 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

                      I G 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • I Offline
                        isolatedvirus @johnpoz
                        last edited by

                        @johnpoz said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

                        @gryman said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

                        If a first level support person adds a rule for customer X to allow outbound traffic to *,

                        On what planet would any company allow 1st level support to touch a firewall? Really? For rules to get changed on the enterprise you have to go through process, change control.. Not sure where you get the idea that people can just willy nilly change rules on a firewall in a enterprise.

                        As to an ISP and firewalling customer connection - why would they be filtering anything in the first place.. Seems to me your just not thinking this stuff through with zero real world hands on experience to base any of your assumptions on.

                        this contributed how exactly?

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                        • johnpozJ Offline
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                          last edited by

                          Pointing out NONSENSE is how it contributes!

                          An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                          If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                          Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                          SG-4860 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

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                          • G Offline
                            Gryman @johnpoz
                            last edited by

                            @johnpoz said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

                            @gryman said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

                            If a first level support person adds a rule for customer X to allow outbound traffic to *,

                            On what planet would any company allow 1st level support to touch a firewall? Really? For rules to get changed on the enterprise you have to go through process, change control.. Not sure where you get the idea that people can just willy nilly change rules on a firewall in a enterprise.

                            As to an ISP and firewalling customer connection - why would they be filtering anything in the first place.. Seems to me your just not thinking this stuff through with zero real world hands on experience to base any of your assumptions on.

                            I've worked in the datacenter space for almost 10 years now. Private smaller companies, and globally traded public companies. First level support absolutely does touch firewalls, and ISPs absolutely do filter traffic. Now, a public ISP that provides broadband does not, usually, filter traffic. But that's not what I'm talking about.

                            Anyways, I don't need to speak to my experience and qualifications here. I'm just trying to convey what I believe to be an issue in how the firewall processes rules based on my experience with other platforms. Now, this could just be because I come from a multi-tenant world and that's how I think. It might just be that PFS isn't designed around this model, and that's why I'm having a hard time understanding why it works the way it does.

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                            • johnpozJ Offline
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                              last edited by johnpoz

                              Dude I have worked on juniper netscreen and srx, cisco pix and asa, checkpoint.. Pretty much its a firewall and I have used it... Not ONE of them sets rules based upon exit of a interface..

                              And you have not had to set return traffic rules on a firewall since the old packet filter days back in the early 90s there was some of those.. By the end of the 90s all packet filter firewalls without states were gone, etc.

                              You set rules on the interface/zone of where the traffic will first enter the firewall..

                              Some ma and pop shop with a box hosted in your DC is a bit different than an actual enterprise - sorry... In an Enterprise there are layers and layers of process that has to be followed for rules to get modified on firewall, security signoff on it, more than likely 4 eyes during the change process itself, etc. Then validation right after the change that is is actually doing what its suppose to, etc.

                              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                              SG-4860 25.07 | Lab VMs 2.8, 25.07

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                              • I Offline
                                isolatedvirus @johnpoz
                                last edited by

                                @johnpoz said in Need to understand why traffic is allowed:

                                Dude I have worked on juniper netscreen and srx, cisco pix and asa, checkpoint.. Pretty much its a firewall and I have used it... Not ONE of them sets rules based upon exit of a interface..

                                First one that comes to mind is a Cisco ASA. Traffic can not flow from a DMZ into a LAN by default due to security levels set.

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