I know it's running (two different config programs show the firewall enabled, iptables -L -v returns a ruleset and an external firewall test says I'm running in full stealth mode), but I can't recover a log via fwlogwatch,

[root@terrarium root]# fwlogwatch
fwlogwatch summary
Generated Tuesday March 01 00:03:50 PST 2005 by root.
0 of 10031 entries in the file "/var/log/messages" are packet logs, 0 have unique characteristics.
No valid time entries found.
All entries were logged by the same host: "".
All entries are from the same chain: "".
All entries have the same target: "".
All entries are from the same interface: "".

which tells me that:
1) the log is somewhere other than /var/log/messages
or
2) the thing *isn't keeping* a log.

Can anyone give me a clue?

thanks

You are correct. Even if you are logging the violations somewhere else (check your /etc/syslog.conf file for "kern.=warn" settings), the violations would likely still showup in /var/log/messages b/c that's wehre everything shows up. So now we look at #2. Do the following: and look for rules with a target of LOG. Should like something like the following: If you don't see any rules with a target of LOG, you aren't logging anything.

================================
So adding these rules to the right .conf file should get me logging? Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Where can I find a good set of rules to turn logging on? Will the sample you posted work? Should this go at the end of the config file? Is there anything else I need to know?

thanks

To much info can be counter productive so decided on what to log, for example do you really need to logs every packet going through your system, probably not.
If your paranoid and want to logs the first connection for each new access then just log the first SYN flag request for a handshake, also set a limit, if someone knows your logging you can flood the box causing the mount to full up. That leads me to the next thing, move your logs files to a partition that has a fixed amount of space with house cleaning, so every 7 days or so the logs are removed or compressed etc.

If I was you I would log the following: “yes I’m paranoid”

New connections.
Dropped connections that failed the stateful inspection.
ICMP types 8, 11, 13
Any connections that are invalid due to managed flags.

Here’s some examples of this in IPtables.

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL FIN,URG,PSH -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid flags 1**"
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL SYN,RST,ACK,FIN,URG -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid flags 2**"
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --tcp-flags ALL NONE -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid flags 3**"
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN,RST -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid flags 4**"
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,FIN SYN,FIN -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid flags 5**"
# use your internet interface
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp ! --syn -m state --state NEW -m limit --limit 1/s --limit-burst 5 -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**No SYN flag**“
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --syn -m state --state NEW -m limit --limit 1/s --limit-burst 5 -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**New Connection recorded**“
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -s 192.168.0.0/16 -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid IP on Interface**”
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid IP on Interface**”
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -s 172.16.0.0/12 -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**Invalid IP on Interface**”
iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p icmp --icmp-type echo-request -m limit --limit 1/s --limit-burst 1 -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix “**ping request**“

put your loggin in before you drop the packets or you don't log them as they are not passed down the chain in the preprocessing.

Kerberus

this looks like exactly what I need. I'll figure out how to handle the log size problem later.