Today, open source firewalls are numerous. This article will cover 10 of the most practical open source firewalls that fit your business needs.
1. Iptables
Iptables/netfilter is the most popular command line based on firewalls. It is the safe line of defense for Linux servers. Many system administrators use it to fine-tune the server. The effect is to filter packets in the network stack in the kernel, features include: listing the contents of a packet filtering rule set, execution speed, because it checks only the header of the packet, and administrators can add, modify, and delete rules in the packet's filtering rule set as needed, supporting the use of files for backup and recovery.
2. IPCop Firewall
The IPCop design interface is very friendly and easy to manage. It is very useful for small businesses and local PCs. An administrator can configure an old PC as a secure VPN to provide a secure Internet environment. The firewall can also retain commonly used information and provide a better web browsing experience for its users. Its color-coded web interface enables administrators to monitor the performance of CPU, memory, disk, and network throughput, and supports multiple languages that provide very secure and easily implemented upgrades and additional patches.
3. Shorewall
Shorewall builds on the NetFilter built into the Linux kernel and supports IPV6. Features include: the use of NetFilter Connection tracking tool for stateful packet filtering, supporting a variety of routers, firewalls and gateway applications, centralized firewall management, with the Webmin Control Panel GUI interface, multiple ISP support, support camouflage and port forwarding, VPN support.
4. ufw–uncomplicated Firewall
The UFW is the default firewall for the Ubuntu Server version and is designed to reduce the complexity of the iptables firewall and increase user-friendliness. Ubuntu and Debian users can also use the graphical user interface of the UFW firewall. The UFW firewall supports IPV6, extended logs, stateful monitoring, and extension frameworks, integrates with applications, and can add, purge, and modify firewall rules based on user needs.
5. Vuurmuur
Vuurmuur is another powerful Linux firewall manager that can build, manage, and iptables rules for a server or network. At the same time, Vuurmuur is easy to manage and can use Vuurmuur without having iptables knowledge. Features include support for IPV6, communication shaping, advanced monitoring features, real-time monitoring of connectivity and bandwidth usage, easy configuration via NAT, and anti-fraud features.
6. Pfsense
Pfsense is another open source and reliable firewall for FreeBSD servers, built on the concept of stateful packet filtering, and has many features that are only available on high commercial firewalls. It has the following characteristics: Easy to configure and upgrade through the Web interface, can be deployed as a perimeter firewall, DHCP and DNS server, can be deployed as a wireless access point and VPN terminal, communication shaping, timely access to real-time server information, inbound and outbound load balancing.
7. IPFire
IPFire is an open source firewall for small business, Home Office, etc., which is very modular and flexible. The IPFire community also focuses on security and develops ipfire as a stateful packet detection firewall. Features include: can be deployed as a firewall, proxy server or VPN gateway, content filtering, built-in intrusion detection system, support wiki, forum, etc., support the virtualized environment of the KVM, VmWare, Xen and other virtual machine management programs.
8. SmoothWall and SmoothWall Express
SmoothWall is also an open source firewall that has an easily configurable web interface called the WAM (Web Access Manager). The free release of the SmoothWall version is called the SmoothWall Express. Features include support for LAN, DMZ, wireless network, real-time content filtering, HTTPS filtering, supporting proxy servers, managing statistics for each IP, each interface, and access traffic, as well as backup and recovery capabilities.
9. endianness
Endianness is another firewall based on the concept of stateful packet detection, which administrators can deploy as routers, proxy servers, and gateway VPNs, developed by the IPCop firewall, with the following characteristics: bidirectional firewall, snort intrusion defense, HTTP and FTP proxy server, Anti-virus and URL blacklist to secure the Web server, IPSec-supported VPN, real-time network communication logs.
10. Configserver Security Firewall
This is a Cross-platform multipurpose firewall and is based on the concept of stateful packet detection. It supports virtually all virtualized environments, such as Virtuozzo, OpenVZ, Vmware, XEN, KVM, VirtualBox, and so on. Features include: The Logon expiration daemon can check for a login failure on a sensitive server, such as it can check for SSH, SMTP, Exim, Imap, Pure & ProFTP, VSFTPD, Subosin, and mod_security failures ; It can configure an e-mail alert to tell if an exception has occurred, or to detect any kind of intrusion on the server; it can easily integrate with the popular web host Control Panel (Chanel, directadmin, Webmin); Users who use e-mail alerts and suspicious processes; advanced intrusion detection systems; Use SYN flood and death ping to protect Linux servers;