Automatic Firewall is a firewall configuration script that automatically configures firewall settings.
Previously existing scripts were written to cover a wide range of requirements and required tweaking to customize them for specific users. This proved difficult for those with limited technical expertise who did not know which parameters to input into the script configuration file. AutoFW solves this problem by providing a simple firewall script that you can fire up and forget about. Simply run it on computer start-up or just before connecting to the internet and it will automatically detect network conditions and set up appropriate firewall rules for you.
AutoFW is limited in scope to standard broadband connections, dial-up users, and stand-alone servers. It only works for Linux IPTables firewall and requires the iptables utility to update the firewall, as well as the ifconfig utility. Both of these are available on any standard install of a GNU/Linux machine. The software also needs the ip program, which is part of the iproute2 package.
The two parts that perform automatic detection include interface and IP detection and listening port scanning. The interface part looks at all active interfaces in the machine and classifies them between internal and external. It does this by looking at the device's IPv4 address. If the address falls into one of the following categories: 127.0.0.0/8, 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16, it is considered to be an internal IP and therefore an internal interface. If the address does not fall into any of these categories, it is considered to be an external IP and thus an external interface.
Listening ports are scanned for a known port and the accompanying known program name that binds to that port. Known ports are opened later in the configuration stage. The configuration itself is straightforward and may lack some features found in other scripts, but it provides sufficient protection for most basic needs.
The newest release of Automatic Firewall includes protection for internal systems, in addition to servers and NAT gateways. Overall, this software offers an easy and effective solution for users seeking a simple firewall script that requires no extensive customization.
Version 0.3.2: N/A