Firewall

[georgetoon]

Okay, I'm going to try Knoppix on my 2GHz system. since I have a cable modem hooked to this, I'm assuming that once it boots, installs and finds all my hardware, it'll enable my connection. Will i need firewall protection? if so, does this disk have anything that can be launched?

This disk is terrific! What a great way to test drive Linux!!

[w.nelson]

Yes. I suggest using firestarter.

apt-get install firestarter

firestarter -- will start a wizard for configuration and monitoring.

[rickenbacherus]

I'm not aware of any firewall that can be ran from the cd. Firestarter is great from a hard drive installation though. However, since you're operating entirely on a ramdisk nothing will remain after you reboot. That is to say- if someone did get in after a reboot they're gone. Also- this ain't windows.
As for configuringing your network automatically there's only one way to find out.

[pau1knopp]

I'm going to go slightly OT as this is one I am currently going around with...

I would *like* to get something like firestarter working from CD so that I could use Knoppix as a firewall machine. I don't know enough about iptables to make my own, but I'm looking into doing that.

More to the OP though, you're fine if you're sitting behind a well secured firewall. That *should* be taking care of you.

However, if you're not behind a firewall (for instance if the knoppix boxen has two nics and is the first device on your dsl router) in my opinion there would be some risk in that if you get hacked your local drives are on the machine (W2K r/o partitions, FAT r/w partions). Also, since I'm REALLY paranoid I would also say there is a risk that an individual could exploit your connection to gain access to other computers or devices on your network.

Any body know of any scripts (like the old pmfirewall script for the old ipchains) that would be able to this for iptables?

~paul

[mjbjr]

devil-linux, http://devil-linux.org/, is a live cd firewall distro that saves its
config on a floppy that you enable writing on only as necessary.

see also:

http://redwall.sourceforge.net/
http://www.coyotelinux.com/