Working on locking down a *nix server box with some fancy iptable(v1.4.4) rules. I'm approaching the matter with a "paranoid, everyone's out to get me" style, not necessarily because I expect the box to be a hacker magnet but rather just for the sake of learning iptables and *nix security more throughly. Everything is well commented - so if anyone sees something I missed please let me know! The *nat table's "--to-ports" point to the only ports with actively listening services. (aside from pings) Layer 2 apps listen exclusively on chmod'ed sockets bridged by one of the layer 1 daemons. Layers 3+ inherit from layer 2 in a similar fashion.

The two lines giving me grief are commented out at the very bottom of the *filter rules. The first line runs fine but it's all or nothing. :)

Many thanks,

Peter H.

*nat
#Flush previous rules, chains and counters for the 'nat' table
-F
-X
-Z

#Redirect traffic to alternate internal ports
-I PREROUTING --src 0/0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8080
-I PREROUTING --src 0/0 -p tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8443
-I PREROUTING --src 0/0 -p udp --dport 53 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8053
-I PREROUTING --src 0/0 -p tcp --dport 9022 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8022
COMMIT

*filter
#Flush previous settings, chains and counters for the 'filter' table
-F
-X
-Z

#Set default behavior for all connections and protocols
-P INPUT DROP
-P OUTPUT DROP
-A FORWARD -j DROP

#Only accept loopback traffic originating from the local NIC
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT ! -i lo -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j DROP

#Accept all outgoing non-fragmented traffic having a valid state
-A OUTPUT ! -f -m state --state NEW,RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

#Drop fragmented incoming packets (Not always malicious - acceptable for use now)
-A INPUT -f -j DROP

#Allow ping requests rate limited to one per second (burst ensures reliable results for high latency connections)
-A INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type 8 -m limit --limit 1/sec --limit-burst 2 -j ACCEPT

#Declaration of custom chains
-N INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS
-N INSPECT_STATE
-N INSPECT

#Drop incoming tcp connections with invalid tcp-flags
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL ALL -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL NONE -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ACK,FIN FIN -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ACK,PSH PSH -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ACK,URG URG -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,FIN SYN,FIN -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL FIN,PSH,URG -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags FIN,RST FIN,RST -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN,RST -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL SYN,FIN,PSH,URG -j DROP
-A INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL SYN,RST,ACK,FIN,URG -j DROP

#Accept incoming traffic having either an established or related state
-A INSPECT_STATE -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
#Drop new incoming tcp connections if they aren't SYN packets
-A INSPECT_STATE -m state --state NEW -p tcp ! --syn -j DROP
#Drop incoming traffic with invalid states
-A INSPECT_STATE -m state --state INVALID -j DROP

#INSPECT chain definition
-A INSPECT -p tcp -j INSPECT_TCP_FLAGS
-A INSPECT -j INSPECT_STATE

#Route incoming traffic through the INSPECT chain
-A INPUT -j INSPECT

#Accept redirected HTTP traffic via HA reverse proxy
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8080 -j ACCEPT

#Accept redirected HTTPS traffic via STUNNEL SSH gateway (As well as tunneled HTTPS traffic destine for other services)
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8443 -j ACCEPT

#Accept redirected DNS traffic for NSD authoritative nameserver
-A INPUT -p udp --dport 8053 -j ACCEPT

#Accept redirected SSH traffic for OpenSSH server
#Temp solution:
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8022 -j ACCEPT
#Ideal solution:
#Limit new ssh connections to max 10 per 10 minutes while allowing an "unlimited" (or better reasonably limited?) number of established connections.
#-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8022 --state NEW,ESTABLISHED -m recent --set -j ACCEPT
#-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8022 --state NEW -m recent --update --seconds 600 --hitcount 11 -j DROP
COMMIT

*mangle
#Flush previous rules, chains and counters in the 'mangle' table
-F
-X
-Z
COMMIT