I’ve been working on renewing some of my systems, and as I now moved fully to Mageia version 2, I’ve worked on tooling my installation of my firewall.
It’s still not fully as I wanted it to be, but is already worth sharing s well as some comments around the distribution usage.
First, I used a PXE install of Mageia with auto_inst. On my PXE server, I used the following config for PXElinux:
label pxe
kernel k/m2
append initrd=i/m2.img ramdisk_size=512000 root=/dev/ram3 kickstart=http://x.y.z.k/pub/ks/www/guerrero.pl automatic=met:http,int:eth1,ser:w.y.z.k,dir:/pub/mageia/distrib/2/i586,netw:dhcp
Nothing special here, just following the doc. Well, which doc could you say ? The one I just added to the Mageia wiki from the Mandriva wiki, itself from the Mandrka version. Remember, auto_inst was Mandriva’s best kept secret ! Hopefully, it will change with Mageia !
Now the secret sauce is in the guerrero.pl file, which is the auto_inst config.
Here is mine:
#!/usr/bin/perl -cw
#
# $Id$
#
#
# You should check the syntax of this file before using it in an auto-install.
# You can do this with 'perl -cw auto_inst.cfg.pl' or by executing this file
# (note the '#!/usr/bin/perl -cw' on the first line).
$o = {
'timezone' => {
'ntp' => '0.pool.ntp.org',
'timezone' => 'Europe/Paris',
'UTC' => 1
},
'services' => [
'acpid',
'crond',
'fusioninventory-agent',
'gpm',
'msec',
'network',
'network-up',
'ntpd',
'numlock',
'partmon',
'postfix',
'resolvconf',
'rsyslog',
'shorewall',
'squid',
'sshd'
],
'security_user' => 'bruno_at_musique-ancienne.org',
'default_packages' => [
'acpi',
'acpid',
'apache',
'basesystem',
'drakxtools-curses',
'ethtool',
'fusioninventory-agent',
'gpm',
'grub',
'iptraf',
'kernel-server-latest',
'locales-fr',
'lshw',
'lsof',
'mondo',
'msec',
'nss',
'ntpd',
'numlock',
'openssh-server',
'openssh-client',
'pam_abl',
'pam_cgroup',
'postfix',
'rsyslog',
'squid',
'squidguard',
'shorewall',
'shorewall-doc',
'strace',
'sudo',
'tcpdump',
'tmpwatch',
'traceroute',
'tshark',
'vim-enhanced',
'vlock',
'wget',
],
'users' => [
{
'icon' => 'default',
'realname' => 'administrator',
'uid' => undef,
'groups' => [],
'name' => 'administrator',
'shell' => '/bin/bash',
'gid' => undef,
'pw' => '$2xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
}
],
'locale' => {
'country' => 'FR',
'IM' => undef,
'lang' => 'fr',
'langs' => {
'fr' => 1
},
'utf8' => 1
},
'net' => {
'zeroconf' => {},
'network' => {
'NETWORKING' => 'yes',
'GATEWAY' => 'x.y.z.k',
'CRDA_DOMAIN' => 'FR',
'FORWARD_IPV4' => 'false'
},
'autodetect' => {},
'network::connection::ethernet' => {},
'resolv' => {
'DOMAINNAME' => 'nameserver',
'dnsServer' => 'x.y.z.k',
'DOMAINNAME2' => 'search',
'dnsServer2' => 'musique-ancienne.org',
},
'wireless' => {},
'ifcfg' => {
'eth0' => {
'BROADCAST' => '',
'isUp' => 1,
'BOOTPROTO' => 'dhcp',
'isPtp' => '',
'NETWORK' => '',
'HWADDR' => undef,
'DEVICE' => 'eth0',
'METRIC' => 10
}
},
'type' => 'network::connection::ethernet',
'net_interface' => 'eth0',
'PROFILE' => 'default'
},
'authentication' => {
'shadow' => 1,
'blowfish' => 1
},
'partitions' => [
{
'fs_type' => 'ext4',
'mntpoint' => '/',
'size' => 1138567
},
{
'fs_type' => 'swap',
'mntpoint' => 'swap',
'size' => 4038086
},
{
'fs_type' => 'ext4',
'mntpoint' => '/usr',
'size' => 6165190
},
{
'fs_type' => 'ext4',
'mntpoint' => '/var',
'size' => 8283384
},
{
'fs_type' => 'ext4',
'mntpoint' => '/tmp',
'size' => 542289
},
# Put the one extending lst
{
'fs_type' => 'ext4',
'mntpoint' => '/var/spool/squid',
'size' => 20283384,
'ratio' => 100,
},
],
'partitioning' => {
'auto_allocate' => 1,
'clearall' => 1,
'eraseBadPartitions' => 1
},
'superuser' => {
'pw' => '$2xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
'realname' => 'root',
'uid' => '0',
'shell' => '/bin/bash',
'home' => '/root',
'gid' => '0'
},
'security' => 'secure',
'mouse' => {
'EmulateWheel' => undef,
'synaptics' => undef,
'name' => 'Any PS/2 & USB mice',
'device' => 'input/mice',
'evdev_mice' => [
{
'device' => '/dev/input/by-id/usb--event-mouse',
'HWheelRelativeAxisButtons' => '7 6'
}
],
'evdev_mice_all' => [
{
'device' => '/dev/input/by-id/usb--event-mouse',
'HWheelRelativeAxisButtons' => '7 6'
}
],
'type' => 'Universal',
'nbuttons' => 7,
'Protocol' => 'ExplorerPS/2',
'wacom' => [],
'MOUSETYPE' => 'ps/2'
},
'interactiveSteps' => [
],
'autoExitInstall' => '0',
'no_suggests' => 1,
'mkbootdisk' => 0,
'isUpgrade' => 0,
'excludedocs' => 0,
'miscellaneous' => {
'numlock' => 1,
},
'keyboard' => {
'GRP_TOGGLE' => '',
'KEYBOARD' => 'us'
},
'postInstall' => '
cd /root
wget http://x.y.z.t/pub/ks/www/post-install.sh
chmod 755 ./post-install.sh
./post-install.sh 2>&1 | tee /dev/tty7 | tee /var/log/post-install.log
',
};
First, that doesn’t completely install a minimal Mageia. For now, due to plymouth (from ML feedback) it adds a lot of X11 packages which shouldn’t be required. Even adding the no_suggests (not documented on the Mandriva wiki, but now on the Mageia version 
didn’t fully solved the problem, even if it improved stuff. I now have a compliant install with 387 packages – after my postinstall phase removed most of what was not needed.
So what does my postinstall ?
Here it is:
#!/bin/bash
#
# $Id$
#
# Common conf for all zones
# Idempotent PostInstall script
echo "Common final setup"
echo "---------------"
echo "Allow remote access for sshd"
grep -Eq '^sshd:' /etc/hosts.allow 2> /dev/null
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "sshd: LOCAL, musique-ancienne.org, x.y.z.t" >> /etc/hosts.allow
fi
# Temporary hack before overwrite by cb
grep -Eq '^ssh' /etc/shorewall/rules.drakx
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "ACCEPT net fw tcp 22 -" >> /etc/shorewall/rules.drakx
fi
echo "Allow sudo access for administrator"
grep -Eq '^administrator' /etc/sudoers
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "Defaults:administrator !requiretty" >> /etc/sudoers
echo "administrator ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" >> /etc/sudoers
else
perl -pi -e 's/^administrator.*/administrator ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL/' /etc/sudoers
perl -pi -e 's/^Defaults:administrator.*/^Defaults:administrator !requiretty/' /etc/sudoers
fi
echo "Allow cron access to administrator"
grep -Eq '^administrator' /etc/cron.allow 2> /dev/null
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "administrator" >> /etc/cron.allow
fi
echo "Allow shutdown access to administrator"
grep -Eq '^administrator' /etc/shutdown.allow 2> /dev/null
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "administrator" >> /etc/shutdown.allow
fi
FWDIR=`echo ~administrator`
echo "administrator setup"
mkdir -p $FWDIR/.ssh
chmod 700 $FWDIR/.ssh
cat > $FWDIR/.ssh/authorized_keys < /var/spool/cron/root
echo "0 3 * * * /usr/local/bin/rc.upd" >> /var/spool/cron/root
chmod 600 /var/spool/cron/root
echo "Postfix alias"
perl -pi -e "s/root:\s*postfix/root: bruno_at_musique-ancienne.org/" /etc/postfix/aliases
postalias /etc/postfix/aliases
echo "Manages long reboot of dhcp server just in case"
# Not necessarily used BTW
cat > /etc/dhclient-eth0.conf < /etc/dhclient-eth1.conf <> /var/spool/cron/root
fi
grep -Eq "mkcommon" /var/spool/cron/root
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "30 4 * * * /usr/local/bin/mkcommon" >> /var/spool/cron/root
fi
grep -Eq "mk$h" /etc/rc.local
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "/usr/local/bin/mk$h" >> /etc/rc.local
fi
grep -Eq "mkcommon" /etc/rc.local
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "/usr/local/bin/mkcommon" >> /etc/rc.local
fi
echo "Setup administrator passwd"
echo "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" | passwd --stdin fwadmin
echo "Setup root passwd"
echo "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" | passwd --stdin root
echo "Start specific postinstall for machine $h"
wget http://x.y.z.t/pub/ks/www/post-install-$h.sh
chmod 755 post-install-$h.sh
z=`grep -E "^#[ ]*ZONE:" post-install-$h.sh`
zone=`echo $z | cut -d: -f2`
# Doing the zone first
wget http://x.y.z.t/pub/ks/www/post-install-$zone.sh
chmod 755 post-install-$zone.sh
echo "Start specific postinstall for zone $zone"
./post-install-$zone.sh
echo "End specific postinstall for zone $zone"
# Then the machine
./post-install-$h.sh
echo "End specific postinstall for machine $h"
echo "End common postinstall"
echo "Now you can run cb -m $h to distribute content"
Seems complex, but isn’t that much. What it does roughly is opening enough security on a machine configured with security level of “secure” or 5 for msec to have an administrator account allowed to connect on it remotely with ssh and use sudo automatically (scripting purposes), cron and shutdown, configure mail redirection, distribution and machine update via cron, password setup and the launch of other scripts, depending on the zone in which the machine is (that postinstall script is common to many installed machines) and the machine itself.
So what does the zone post install script in addition ?. Here it is again:
#!/bin/bash
#
# $Id$
#
# Common conf for DMZ Zone
#
# Idempotent PostInstall script
echo "DMZ final setup"
echo "---------------"
echo "DNS setup"
cat > /etc/resolv.conf <> /etc/postfix/main.cf
if [ _"$kickstart" = _"" ]; then
/etc/init.d/postfix restart
fi
echo "NTP conf"
perl -pi -e 's/^server.*/server 0.pool.ntp.org/' /etc/ntp.conf
echo "0.pool.ntp.org" > /etc/ntp/step-tickers
if [ _"$kickstart" = _"" ]; then
/etc/init.d/ntpd restart
fi
cat > /etc/sysconfig/network < /etc/hostname << EOF
$h.musique-ancienne.org
EOF
if [ _"$kickstart" = _"" ]; then
/etc/init.d/network restart
fi
So basically, network and some services (ntp, smtp) setup. Stuff that every machine in that zone should get.
Now the final script run is the one for that specific machine, :
#!/bin/bash
#
# $Id$
#
# KEEP THAT COMMENT INTACT - USED FOR COMMON DMZ/LAN CONF
#
# ZONE:dmz
#
# Idempotent PostInstall script for guerrero
machine=`basename $0 .sh | cut -d- -f3`
echo "$machine final setup"
echo "--------------------"
echo "Rotate on a year"
perl -pi -e "s/rotate \d+/rotate 52/" /etc/logrotate.conf /etc/logrotate.d/*
DSK=`df | grep -E ' /$' | grep /dev | awk '{print $1}' | sed 's/[0-9]*$//'`
echo "Tuning File Systems"
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 -m 1 ${DSK}1 # /
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 -m 1 ${DSK}6 # usr
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 -m 1 ${DSK}7 # var
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 -m 0 ${DSK}8 # squid
tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 -m 1 ${DSK}9 # tmp
echo "$machine static network configuration"
# Affect the static address to $machine
cat > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 < /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 <> /etc/sysctl.conf
else
perl -pi -e 's/net.ipv4.ip_forward[\s]*=.*/net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1/' /etc/sysctl.conf
fi
sysctl -p
if [ _"$kickstart" = _"" ]; then
/etc/init.d/network restart
fi
echo "Secure the system with msec"
perl -pi -e 's/BASE_LEVEL=.*/BASE_LEVEL=secure/' /etc/security/msec/security.conf
echo "cleanup extra packages installed on Mageia 2"
urpme --auto iw libmcpp0 libx11-common libxaw7 libxcomposite1 libxfixes3 libxcursor1 libxi6 libxinerama1 libxkbfile1 libxpm4 libxtst6 libxxf86dga1 libxxf86misc1 libxxf86vm1 mandi wireless-regdb x11-font-alias x11-font-cursor-misc xli xmodmap x11-font-encodings x11-data-xkbdata x11-data-bitmaps libdmx1 libmnl0 libnl3 rgb sessreg x11-font-misc-misc
So outside fixing the network conf after install (addresses, routing and topology), and tuning the file systems, adjuting the logrotate, it really secure the system with msec by changing the level in /etc/security/msec/security.conf which doesn’t seem to be done correctly by the auto_inst setup I used.
And finally it removes these ackages that I do not want on such a system hardened, a,d which resist to the no_suggests option ! Hopefully, Mageia 3 won’t have that issue anymore (will test later on this month the beta of Mageia 3)
But that’s not all ! As you’ve probably seen, some other scripts are invoked on the system, through cron or /etc/rc.local. This is where I really transform that gneric system into a firewall and a my proxy.
A first script invoked on all my system (mkcommon) does that for the moment:
#!/bin/bash
#
# $Id$
#
# Common setup for systems
#
# Script is idempotent
echo "Re-activate sysrq"
grep -Eq '^kernel.sysrq' /etc/sysctl.conf
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "kernel.sysrq = 1" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
else
perl -pi -e 's/kernel.sysrq[\s]*=.*/kernel.sysrq = 1/' /etc/sysctl.conf
fi
/sbin/sysctl -p
grep 'll=' /etc/bashrc
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
echo "alias ll='ls -lia'" >> /etc/bashrc
fi
I like keeping control through the keyboard of the system so reactivate what msec desactivate for sysrq. And that’s also an easy way to add aliases, or all other common stuf you may want.
The other one, does the conf for the system:
#!/bin/bash
#
# $Id$
#
# Setup squid in a chrooted environment
# requires usage of the chroot directive in squid.conf
# Cf: http://wiki.squid-cache.org/ConfigExamples/ChrootJail
#
export CHROOTDIR=/var/spool/squid
SQUID=squid
SQGID=squid
# Script is idempotent
#
# Setup a global chrooted environment (normally a separated script expanded here)
#
# Script is idempotent
if [ _"$CHROOTDIR" = _"" ]; then
echo "Variable CHROOTDIR is not defined so unable to run mkchrootbase"
exit -1
fi
if [ "`echo $CHROOTDIR | cut -c1`" != "/" ]; then
echo "Variable CHROOTDIR doesn't start with / so unable to run mkchrootbase"
exit -1
fi
if [ "$CHROOTDIR" = "/" ]; then
echo "Variable CHROOTDIR is / so unable to run mkchrootbase"
exit -1
fi
rm -rf $CHROOTDIR/var/log $CHROOTDIR/var/run $CHROOTDIR/etc $CHROOTDIR/lib $CHROOTDIR/usr $CHROOTDIR/dev $CHROOTDIR/tmp
#
echo "Creating base chroot content"
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR
install -v -m 1777 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/tmp
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/var/log/
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/var/run/
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/dev
cp -a /dev/null /dev/zero /dev/random /dev/urandom $CHROOTDIR/dev
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/etc
cp -a /etc/resolv.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf /etc/hosts /etc/localtime $CHROOTDIR/etc/
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/lib
cp -a /lib/libnss_dns* $CHROOTDIR/lib/
echo "Creating squid chroot content"
install -v -m 755 -o $SQUID -g $SQGID -d $CHROOTDIR/var/spool/squid
install -v -m 755 -o $SQUID -g $SQGID -d $CHROOTDIR/var/log/squid
install -v -m 755 -o $SQUID -g $SQGID -d $CHROOTDIR/etc/squid
cp -a /etc/squid/* $CHROOTDIR/etc/squid
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/usr/share/squid
cp -a /usr/share/squid/{icons,errors} $CHROOTDIR/usr/share/squid
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/usr/lib/squid
cp -a /usr/lib/squid/* $CHROOTDIR/usr/lib/squid/
chown ${SQUID}:$SQGID $CHROOTDIR/var/run
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/usr/bin
cp -a /usr/bin/squidGuard $CHROOTDIR/usr/bin
cp -a `/usr/sbin/mindi --locatedeps /usr/bin/squidGuard | sort -u` $CHROOTDIR/lib
# This is to make systemd happy
ln -sf $CHROOTDIR/var/run/squid.pid /var/run/
# Secure squid properly
grep -Eq squid /etc/security/msec/perm.local 2> /dev/null
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
cat >> /etc/security/msec/perm.local << EOF
/var/log/squid/ squid.squid 750
/var/spool/squid/var/log/squid/ squid.squid 750
/var/log/squid/* squid.squid 640
/var/spool/squid/var/log/squid/* squid.squid 640
EOF
msec
fi
echo "Setup of the squidGuard conf..."
sqg=`ls -d /usr/share/squidGuard*`
install -v -m 755 -o root -g root -d $CHROOTDIR/$sqg
ln -sf $sqg /usr/share/squidGuard
rm -rf $CHROOTDIR/usr/share/squidGuard
cd $sqg
rm -f blacklists.tar.gz
wget http://dsi.ut-capitole.fr/blacklists/download/blacklists.tar.gz
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
rm -rf blacklists
echo "Extracting the blacklists..."
tar xfz blacklists.tar.gz
echo "Generating the DBs for squidGuard..."
squidGuard -b -d -C all -c /etc/squid/squidGuard.conf
chown -R ${SQUID}:$SQGID blacklists
fi
echo "Copying squidGuard content..."
rm -rf $CHROOTDIR/usr/share/squidGuard
cp -a /usr/share/squidGuard $CHROOTDIR/usr/share/squidGuard
So this one is the trickiest one. It does the chroot environment in order to run squid in it. I may move to an LXC container later on, but that was what I previoulsy had, and thought it was still a valid approach.
The problem I found with tthis is with systemd. Colleagues could say I’m not found of it, but this was the first time I really had to interact erioulsy with that new init apporahc, and I’m less tan happy of the move 
systemd is hard to understand, hard to debug (ok jouis it so darmn complicated !) and doesn’t understand the chroot approach as I wanted to do it here. I had to add the trick around the copy of /var/run pid file to make it happy. ANd even with that, when I restart the squid process with systemd very often it fails, leave some processes. In any case I do not use restart anymore, but just stop, then start, in order to minimize issues. SysVinit wasn’t having all these problems. Which may lead me to consider LXC or that type of setup after all.
Squidguard is automatically updated in this conf with the latest content from the University of Toulouse which does a great job to propose their conf files.
Finally I use a tool I developed to maintain all this. casparbuster is my small distribution tool, to propagate the various conf files that are still needed on the system. Now that ssh is up and running, with an account able to use it and become root, then I use an SVN controlled environment in order to store and manage all the relevant conf files (such as my shorewall files e.g.) and I can very easily distribute them to my target systems. I just do cb -m firewall, and voila, all my files are there, process relaunched, and system ready to work ! But enough for this article, very long already, these details are left for a new one I hope to write soon.
Most of that was part of my Christmas activities, and I now have a new shiny low power machine (but still powerfull) managing our security and Internet access. Took time, but happy with the results !
Come for the same reasons, and see you there !
