Linux Firewalls - Michael Rash [6]
Intrusion detection systems are usually passive devices that are not configured to automatically take any punitive action against network traffic that appears to be malicious. In general, this is for good reason because of the risk of misidentifying benign traffic as something more sinister (known as a false positive). However, some IDSes can be deployed inline to network traffic, and when deployed in this manner such a system is typically referred to as a network intrusion prevention system (IPS).[2] Because iptables is a firewall, it is always inline to network traffic, which allows many attacks to be filtered out before they cause significant damage. Many organizations have been hesitant to deploy an inline IPS in their network infrastructure because of basic connectivity and performance concerns. However, in some circumstances having the ability to filter traffic based on application layer inspection criteria is quite useful, and on Linux systems, iptables can provide basic IPS functionality by recasting IDS signatures into iptables policies to thwart network attacks.
Defense in Depth
Defense in depth is a principle that is borrowed from military circles and is commonly applied to the field of computer security. It stipulates that attacks must be expected at various levels within an arbitrary system, be it anything from a computer network to a physical military installation. Nothing can ever ensure that attacks will never take place. Furthermore, some attacks may be successful and compromise or destroy certain components of a system. Therefore, it is important to employ multiple levels of defensive mechanisms at various levels within a system; where an attack compromises one security device, another device may succeed in limiting additional damage.
In the network security space, Snort is the champion of the open source intrusion detection world, and many commercial vendors have produced excellent firewalls and other filtering devices. However, if you are running Linux within your infrastructure, the real question is whether it is prudent to rely solely on these security mechanisms to protect your critical assets. The defense-in-depth principle indicates that iptables can serve as an important supplement to existing security infrastructures.
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[2] 1 Despite the lofty-sounding name and the endless vendor marketing hype, a network intrusion prevention system would be nothing without a way to detect attacks—and the detection mechanisms come from the IDS world. A network IPS usually just has some extra machinery to handle inline traffic and respond to attacks in this context.
Prerequisites
This book assumes some familiarity with TCP/IP networking concepts and Linux system administration. Knowledge of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model and the main network and transport layer protocols (IPv4, ICMP, TCP, and UDP), as well as some knowledge of the DNS and HTTP application protocols would be most helpful. Although frequent references are made to the various layers of the OSI Reference Model, the network, transport, and application layers (3, 4, and 7, respectively) receive the vast majority of the discussion. The session and presentation layers are not covered, and the physical and data link layers are only briefly touched upon (comprehensive information on layer 2 filtering can be found at http://ebtables.sourceforge.net). The coverage of the network, transport, and application layers emphasizes attacks that are possible at each of these layers—knowledge of the structure and functionality at each of these layers is largely assumed. Even though wireless protocols and IPv6 are not specifically discussed, many of the examples in the book apply to these protocols as well.
A working knowledge of basic programming concepts (especially within the Perl and C programming languages) would also be useful, but code examples are generally broken down and explained. A few places in the book show raw packet data displayed