Firewalling and Routing with Linux - Introduction

One of the interesting application-fields for Linux is the Router and Firewall segment. In this area, very specific rules and constraints must be respected to make these devices as safe and solid as possible.

LRP (the Linux Router Project) fullfills these specifications and is getting more interesting by the day. This is why it was high time we had a close look to it.

• Talk slides (zipped PDF, 283Kb)

LRP - Installation

Installing LRP to create a router and/or firewall is hard work. Because there are so many options and possibilities. You absolutely have to know what you're doing, or else you could be seriously compromising security.
What's more, in general you have to cram everything you want on the limited space of a floppy...
This talk will walk through a number of installation and configuration issues that you have to be aware about. And other issues that most of us need some serious help - or at least some pointers - with.

• Talk slides (zipped PDF, 1936Kb)

LRP - Security

Our linux router is up and running. But do we have to be a sitting duck? No, we can be proactive and secure our LRP router and still keep it flexible enough to maintain. Our ingredients to achieve this target? Firewalling, what rules are usefull, mandatory, not needed. Secure Shell, secured remote access for administration. Log analyzing, what log files can be usefull to detect security issues. Network Monitoring, visualize what is going on to get a better picture.

• Talk slides (zipped PDF, 710Kb)

There are no SAINTS!

Today anybody can connect a computer system to the World Wide Web - the net is only a few mouse clicks away! Unfortunately, most people are unaware that they expose their system - mostly wide open - to the hacker community who are looking for (easy) victims...
Imagine that very shortly e-commerce would break through with lots of e-money transactions. Is your computer a safe medium?
This talk will briefly discuss the possible threats, and discuss in more details some audit rules, intrusion detection software (such as nmap and saint).
You will learn how to find the weak spots in your system, and more important how to stay protected. And remember, there are no SAINTS!

• Talk slides (zipped PDF, 1486Kb)
  

Extra

A little extra information in the context of this workshop:

• I promised John Seifarth and some others a couple of interesting firewall-related pointers:

Linux IDS (Linux Intrusion Detection System)
Mason - the automated firewall builder for Linux
Multi-Threaded Routing Toolkit