--- name: "firehol-defaults-conf" section: "5" platform: "linux" package: "firehol-doc" version: "3.1.8+ds-1" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/firehol-defaults-conf" --- # firehol-defaults-conf(5) control variables for FireHOL ## NAME firehol-defaults.conf - control variables for FireHOL ## SYNOPSIS Defaults in `/etc/firehol/firehol-defaults.conf`: - • DEFAULT\_INTERFACE\_POLICY=“DROP” - • DEFAULT\_ROUTER\_POLICY=“RETURN” - • UNMATCHED\_INPUT\_POLICY=“DROP” - • UNMATCHED\_OUTPUT\_POLICY=“DROP” - • UNMATCHED\_FORWARD\_POLICY=“DROP” - • FIREHOL\_INPUT\_ACTIVATION\_POLICY=“ACCEPT” - • FIREHOL\_OUTPUT\_ACTIVATION\_POLICY=“ACCEPT” - • FIREHOL\_FORWARD\_ACTIVATION\_POLICY=“ACCEPT” - • FIREHOL\_LOG\_MODE=“LOG” - • FIREHOL\_LOG\_LEVEL=*see notes* - • FIREHOL\_LOG\_OPTIONS=“–log-level warning” - • FIREHOL\_LOG\_FREQUENCY=“1/second” - • FIREHOL\_LOG\_BURST=“5” - • FIREHOL\_LOG\_PREFIX=“” - • FIREHOL\_DROP\_INVALID=“0” - • DEFAULT\_CLIENT\_PORTS=“1000:65535” - • FIREHOL\_NAT=“0” - • FIREHOL\_ROUTING=“0” - • FIREHOL\_AUTOSAVE=*see notes* - • FIREHOL\_AUTOSAVE6=*see notes* - • FIREHOL\_LOAD\_KERNEL\_MODULES=“1” - • FIREHOL\_TRUST\_LOOPBACK=“1” - • FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_ACK\_FIN=“1” - • FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_ACK\_RST=“1” - • FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_ACK=“1” - • FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_RST=“1” - • FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_IPV4\_ICMP\_TYPE3=“1” - • WAIT\_FOR\_IFACE=“” ## DESCRIPTION From FireHOL 3 upwards, variables which control FireHOL behaviour are held in a separate file: `/etc/firehol/firehol-defaults.conf`. Some variables can also be set in the main firehol.conf file but that is not recommended, since they may be used before the main configuration is processed. FireHOL also sets some variables before processing the configuration file which you can use as part of your configuration. These are described in [firehol.conf(5)](/firehol.conf/5.md). ## VARIABLES - DEFAULT\_INTERFACE\_POLICY This variable controls the default action to be taken on traffic not matched by any rule within an interface. It can be overridden using [firehol-policy(5)](/firehol-policy/5.md). Packets that reach the end of an interface without an action of return or accept are logged. You can control the frequency of this logging by altering FIREHOL\_LOG\_FREQUENCY. Example: - ``` DEFAULT_INTERFACE_POLICY="REJECT" ``` - DEFAULT\_ROUTER\_POLICY This variable controls the default action to be taken on traffic not matched by any rule within a router. It can be overridden using [firehol-policy(5)](/firehol-policy/5.md). Packets that reach the end of a router without an action of return or accept are logged. You can control the frequency of this logging by altering FIREHOL\_LOG\_FREQUENCY. Example: - ``` DEFAULT_ROUTER_POLICY="REJECT" ``` - UNMATCHED\_{INPUT\|OUTPUT\|FORWARD}\_POLICY These variables control the default action to be taken on traffic not matched by any interface or router definition that was incoming, outgoing or for forwarding respectively. Any supported value from [firehol-actions(5)](/firehol-actions/5.md) may be set. All packets that reach the end of a chain are logged, regardless of these settings. You can control the frequency of this logging by altering FIREHOL\_LOG\_FREQUENCY. Example: - ``` UNMATCHED_INPUT_POLICY="REJECT" UNMATCHED_OUTPUT_POLICY="REJECT" UNMATCHED_FORWARD_POLICY="REJECT" ``` - FIREHOL\_{INPUT\|OUTPUT\|FORWARD}\_ACTIVATION\_POLICY These variables control the default action to be taken on traffic during firewall activation for incoming, outgoing and forwarding respectively. Acceptable values are `ACCEPT`, `DROP` and `REJECT`. FireHOL defaults all values to `ACCEPT` so that your communications continue to work uninterrupted. If you wish to prevent connections whilst the new firewall is activating, set these values to `DROP`. This is important to do if you are using `all` or `any` to match traffic; connections established during activation will continue even if they would not be allowed once the firewall is established. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_INPUT_ACTIVATION_POLICY="DROP" FIREHOL_OUTPUT_ACTIVATION_POLICY="DROP" FIREHOL_FORWARD_ACTIVATION_POLICY="DROP" ``` - FIREHOL\_LOG\_MODE This variable controls method that FireHOL uses for logging. Acceptable values are `LOG` (normal syslog) and `ULOG` (netfilter ulogd). When `ULOG` is selected, FIREHOL\_LOG\_LEVEL is ignored. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_LOG_MODE="ULOG" ``` To see the available options run: `/sbin/iptables -j LOG --help` or `/sbin/iptables -j ULOG --help` - FIREHOL\_LOG\_LEVEL This variable controls the level at which events will be logged to syslog. To avoid packet logs appearing on your console you should ensure klogd only logs traffic that is more important than that produced by FireHOL. Use the following option to choose an [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) log level (alpha or numeric) which is higher than the `-c` of klogd. iptables/klogd levels | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | iptables | klogd | description | | emerg (0) | 0 | system is unusable | | alert (1) | 1 | action must be taken immediately | | crit (2) | 2 | critical conditions | | error (3) | 3 | error conditions | | warning (4) | 4 | warning conditions | | notice (5) | 5 | normal but significant condition | | info (6) | 6 | informational | | debug (7) | 7 | debug-level messages | **Note** The default for klogd is generally to log everything (7 and lower) and the default level for iptables(4) is to log as warning (4). - FIREHOL\_LOG\_OPTIONS This variable controls the way in which events will be logged to syslog. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_LOG_OPTIONS="--log-level info \ --log-tcp-options --log-ip-options" ``` To see the available options run: `/sbin/iptables -j LOG --help` - FIREHOL\_LOG\_FREQUENCY; FIREHOL\_LOG\_BURST These variables control the frequency that each logging rule will write events to syslog. FIREHOL\_LOG\_FREQUENCY is set to the maximum average frequency and FIREHOL\_LOG\_BURST specifies the maximum initial number. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_LOG_FREQUENCY="30/minute" FIREHOL_LOG_BURST="2" ``` To see the available options run: `/sbin/iptables -m limit --help` - FIREHOL\_LOG\_PREFIX This value is added to the contents of each logged line for easy detection of FireHOL lines in the system logs. By default it is empty. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_LOG_PREFIX="FIREHOL:" ``` - FIREHOL\_DROP\_INVALID If set to 1, this variable causes FireHOL to drop all packets matched as `INVALID` in the [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) connection tracker. You may be better off using [firehol-protection(5)](/firehol-protection/5.md) to control matching of `INVALID` packets and others on a per-interface and per-router basis. **Note** Care must be taken on IPv6 interfaces, since ICMPv6 packets such as Neighbour Discovery are not tracked, meaning they are marked as INVALID. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_DROP_INVALID="1" ``` - DEFAULT\_CLIENT\_PORTS This variable controls the port range that is used when a remote client is specified. For clients on the local host, FireHOL finds the exact client ports by querying the kernel options. Example: - ``` DEFAULT_CLIENT_PORTS="0:65535" ``` - FIREHOL\_NAT If set to 1, this variable causes FireHOL to load the NAT kernel modules. If you make use of the NAT helper commands, the variable will be set to 1 automatically. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_NAT="1" ``` - FIREHOL\_ROUTING If set to 1, this variable causes FireHOL to enable routing in the kernel. If you make use of `router` definitions or certain helper commands the variable will be set to 1 automatically. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_ROUTING="1" ``` - FIREHOL\_AUTOSAVE; FIREHOL\_AUTOSAVE6 These variables specify the file of IPv4/IPv6 rules that will be created when [firehol(1)](/firehol/1.md) is called with the `save` argument. If the variable is not set, a system-specific value is used which was defined at configure-time. If no value was chosen then the save fails. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_AUTOSAVE="/tmp/firehol-saved-ipv4.txt" FIREHOL_AUTOSAVE6="/tmp/firehol-saved-ipv6.txt" ``` - FIREHOL\_LOAD\_KERNEL\_MODULES If set to 0, this variable forces FireHOL to not load any kernel modules. It is needed only if the kernel has modules statically included and in the rare event that FireHOL cannot access the kernel configuration. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_LOAD_KERNEL_MODULES="0" ``` - FIREHOL\_TRUST\_LOOPBACK If set to 0, the loopback device “lo” will not be trusted and you can write standard firewall rules for it. **Warning** If you do not set up appropriate rules, local processes will not be able to communicate with each other which can result in serious breakages. By default “lo” is trusted and all `INPUT` and `OUTPUT` traffic is accepted (forwarding is not included). Example: - ``` FIREHOL_TRUST_LOOPBACK="0" ``` - FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_ACK\_FIN If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them. In busy environments the [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) connection tracker removes connection tracking list entries as soon as it receives a FIN. This makes the ACK FIN appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK_FIN="1" ``` - FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_ACK\_RST If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them. In busy environments the [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) connection tracker removes connection tracking list entries as soon as it receives a RST. This makes the ACK RST appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK_RST="1" ``` - FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_ACK If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them. In busy environments the [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) connection tracker removes unneeded connection tracking list entries. This makes ACK packets appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_ACK="1" ``` - FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_TCP\_RST If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan such packets without logging them. In busy environments the [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) connection tracker removes unneeded connection tracking list entries. This makes RST packets appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_TCP_RST="1" ``` - FIREHOL\_DROP\_ORPHAN\_IPV4\_ICMP\_TYPE3 If set to 1, FireHOL will drop all orphan ICMP destination unreachable packets without logging them. In busy environments the [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) connection tracker removes unneeded connection tracking list entries. This makes ICMP destination unreachable appear as an invalid packet which will normally be logged by FireHOL. Example: - ``` FIREHOL_DROP_ORPHAN_IPV4_ICMP_TYPE3="1" ``` - WAIT\_FOR\_IFACE If set to the name of a network device (e.g. eth0), FireHOL will wait until the device is up (or until 60 seconds have elapsed) before continuing. A device does not need to be up in order to have firewall rules created for it, so this option should only be used if you have a specific need to wait (e.g. the network must be queried to determine the hosts or ports which will be firewalled). Example: - ``` WAIT_FOR_IFACE="eth0" ``` ## SEE ALSO - • [firehol(1)](/firehol/1.md) - FireHOL program - • [firehol.conf(5)](/firehol.conf/5.md) - FireHOL configuration - • [firehol-nat(5)](/firehol-nat/5.md) - nat, snat, dnat, redirect helpers - • [firehol-actions(5)](/firehol-actions/5.md) - actions for rules - • [iptables(8)](/iptables/8.md) ⟨http://ipset.netfilter.org/iptables.man.html⟩\\c - administration tool for IPv4 firewalls - • [ip6tables(8)](/ip6tables/8.md) ⟨http://ipset.netfilter.org/ip6tables.man.html⟩\\c - administration tool for IPv6 firewalls - • FireHOL Website ⟨http://firehol.org/⟩\\c - • FireHOL Online PDF Manual ⟨http://firehol.org/firehol-manual.pdf⟩\\c - • FireHOL Online Documentation ⟨http://firehol.org/documentation/⟩\\c ## AUTHORS FireHOL Team.