Just as a question, and since 1) the recent kernel upgrade broke Firestarter's iptables recognition 2) my old iptables package was deleted in order to install a more recent one.

For security reasons iptables should be stored in /usr/sbin/iptables so only root has access to it. Next time back up what ever it is your upgrading. However, you can install it there, buy you're lowering the security standards on your box because it's in the users path now.

I thought as much. I've taken everything that looks to be related to iptables out of the /usr/local directories (almost took out the pcap files too until I realized they're being used for Snort - !!). I'll reinstall the main binaries in /usr/sbin (PREFIX=/usr/) and recheck its functionality, but the important thing is that Firestarter doesn't croak as it looks for iptables in a different location.

I've tried to remove iptables applications from the main /sbin directory (in /) to make way for the new version, but whenever I try to do so, even as root, I get the message "Permission denied."

If I can indeed install the new version in the root directory, let me know.

I'm not all that concerned about the security standards on the comp that's undergoing the upgrades since its offline at the moment and will stay that way until these are fixed.