Hi !

the question will sound stupid but in iptables, what is the point of reference for the "source" and "destination" feature.

I mean, you have your computer and internet.
You set
Accept packet if destination port is tcp 80.
Does it mean allow the packet that goes from my computer to internet on tcp 80
or
allow the packet that goes from internet to my computer on port tcp 80 ?

Thanks in advance !

Dek

The effect of source and destination will vary depending whether it is in the INPUT or the OUTPUT chain. Just as an example, I allow FTP connections from within my LAN only and I use blocks on both chains. So on the INPUT chain I've got

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --dport 21 -j ACCEPT

In this case the rule only allows FTP if the source is 192.168.1.0/24 and it is heading to port 21 on my linux box. That could be modified to

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 192.168.1.0/24 --sport 21 -j ACCEPT

in which case the traffic would be allowed only if it was coming from port 21 on one of my lan computers.

And then on the OUTPUT chain I've got

iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d 192.162.1.0/24 --sport 21 -j ACCEPT

In this case the FTP connection is allowed only if it is going to my lan and it is coming from port 21 on my linux box. You could also do something like:

iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d 192.168.1.0/24 ---dport 21 -j ACCEPT

in which case any traffic heading for port 21 on any machine on the lan would be allowed regardless of what port on the linux box is originating the connection.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks Hangdog42 ! I will keep your clear answer to refer each time i get a doubt on the question.

Thanks to you things start to make some sense with iptables.

Dek

Basically you allow traffic from your computer to the internet, if you want to browse over the internet and you allow traffic from the internet to tcp port 80 if you a web pages in your LAN.