G'Day all,

I have IP-Tables working in my office of MS users which need access to the firewall config and modify as needed.

Was interested to know as a newbie, if I could create a shell script that contained all the rules I wish to have in our firewall, then run the script. USers could then amend the firewall as needed via the script which has numerous comments, then run the script. Of course the first lines in the script would flush the existing values

Is this method possible and practicle, and if so does any one have suggestions that I have not thought of

Thanks all

John

It's a std procedure to run those rules from a script, so there is nothing wrong there.

What *is* wrong IMO is having regular untrained users change firewall rules and access the fw box.
Maybe you could explain *why* they need to access the box and change the rules?

The other point is them accessing the fw box itself. No matter what, some day one of them users will have time on his/her hands, look some stuff up on the net, think they know enough and (insert scenario here)...


*If you can't bypass the fact they should be able to change rules, I would suggest having an interfacing script (preferably some ssl'ed web interface, but an commandline script that runs on login could do as well) where they could (only) choose options relevant to them. Build your script modular, make the base rules script, and add a separate script for each option they should be able choose (and test each combination beforehand). And even then I'm not convinced this couldn't be run with the usual script...

John,

unSpawn's right, your firewall should be designed in such a way that users shouldn't have access to modify it.

Now on the other hand if you have an admin that needs access then the best solution for you is to use this:
http://www.astaro.com/products/index.html

It's a GUI with SSL login for admins.
Basically it's a very comprehensive GUI that uses IPTABLES as it's firewall. "They don't tell you this but the output from the logs in the demo looks like iptables output"

I suggest your check out the online demo and decide for yourself.

/Raz