On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, Edenyard wrote: > On Tue, 12 Nov 2002 19:37:26 +0200 (EET), Cristian Burneci wrote:
> > For Linux users I highly recommend enabling the firewall, using ipchains > > or iptables. There are some good scripts that do it in a more > > user-friendly way. > > This is something that has made me ponder for a while now. A sort of > "I-ought-to-have-that" feeling.... Does anyone know of an "idiot's > guide" (real low-lever - NOT standard Linux "documentation") that would > help a clueless clot like me through this iptables thing? (I use > Slackware 8.1) As everyone must know by now, I know practically > nothing about networking and I fear my level of knowledge is actually > decreasing.... I'm still using ipchains, so can't help with the specifics of iptables, but there are some basics that need to be addressed even before you get to the firewall. Disable any listening daemons you don't actually need. 'netstat -tupan' should give you a pretty good idea of which ports your machine is listening to. Upgrade the ones you actually need to their latest versions, and monitor one of the security lists for any new vulnerabilities. Security is an ongoing process. Iptables questions are frequently asked and answered on comp.os.linux.security, and the FAQ for that group, http://www.linuxsecurity.com/docs/colsfaq.html contains many good links to firewall related articles, though I'm not sure how "low level" they are. I would suggest perusing some of the past articles on the subject... which you can do at http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&group=comp.os.linux.security Enter something like {iptables simple rules} in the text area, tick the "search only in..." button, and you'll get more hits than you have time to read. Perhaps you could think of another search term to narrow it further. Anyway, HTH. -- Steve Ackman http://twoloonscoffee.com (Need green beans?) http://twovoyagers.com (glass, linux & other stuff)
