Firewall Builder Changelog

What's new in Firewall Builder 5.0.1

Dec 24, 2011
  • GUI Updates:
  • moved "batch install" button from the main installer wizard to the dialog where user enters their password. Now user can start in a non-batch install mode but continue in batch install mode at any time if all their firewalls authenticate with the same user name and password.
  • see #2628 fixed crash that happened if user create new firewall object from a template and changed one of the ip addresses, while another firewall object created from the same template already existed in the tree.
  • see #2635 Object type AttachedNetworks is not allowed in the "interface" rule element.
  • The drop-down list of interfaces for the "route-through" rule option for PF and iptables should include not only cluster interfaces, but also interfaces of all members. This way, we can make compiler generate configuration "pass in quick on em0 route-to { ( em0 10.1.1.2 ) } ... " for a rule of a PF cluster. Here "em0" is an interface of a member, not the cluster.
  • fixes #2642 "GUI crashes if user cancels newFirewall dialog".
  • fixes #2641 "newFirewall dialog does not accept ipv6 addresses with long prefixes". The dialog did not allow ipv6 addresses of inetrfaces with netmask > 64 bit.
  • fixes #2643 "GUI crashes when user cuts a rule, then right-mouse click in any rule element of another"
  • added check to make sure user does not enter netmask with zeroes in the middle for the IPv4 network object. Netmasks like that are not supported by fwbuilder.
  • fixes #2648 "right mouse click on firewall object in "Deleted objects" library causes GUI crash"
  • fixes SF bug 3388055 Adding a "DNS Name" with a trailing space causes failure.
  • fixes SF bug 3302121 "cosmetic mis-format in fwb Linux paths dialog"
  • fixes SF bug 3247094 "Nomenclature of IP address edit dialog". Network ipv6 dialog says "Prefix length".
  • see #2654 fixes GUI crash that occured if user copied a rule from file A to file B, then closed file B, opened file C and tried to copy the same rule from A to C'
  • see #2655 Interface names are not allowed to have dash "-" even with interface verification off. We should allow "-" in the interface name for Cisco IOS
  • see #2657 snmp network discovery crashed if option "Confine scan to network" was used.
  • fixes #2658 "snmp network discovery creates duplicate address and network objects"
  • enable fwbuilder to take advantage of GSSAPIAuthentication with openssh using suggestion by Matthias Witte [email protected]
  • fixed a bug (no number): if the file name user entered in "Output file name" field in the "advanced settings" dialog of a firewall object ended with a white space, policy installer failed with an error "No such file or directory"
  • fixed SF bug #3433587 "Manual edit of new service Destination Port END value fails". This bug made it impossible to edit the value of the end of the port range because as soon as the value became less than the value of the beginning the range, the GUI would reset it to be equal to the value of the beginning of the range. This affected both TCP and UDP service object dialogs.
  • fixes #2665 "Adding text to comment causes rule to go from 2 rows to 1 row". Under certain circumstances, editing rule comment caused the GUI to collapse corresponding row in the rule set view so that only the first object of each rule element that contained several objects was visible.
  • fixes #2669 "Cant inspect custom Service object in Standard objects library".
  • Changes in policy importer for all supported platforms
  • Changes that affect import of PIX configurations:
  • changed token name from "ESP" to "ESP_WORD" to avoid conflict with macro "ESP" that happened during build on OpenSolaris
  • see #2662 "Crash when compiling ASA rule with IP range". Need to split address range if it is used in "source" of a rule that controls telnet, ssh or http to the firewall itself and firewall's version is >= 8.3. Commands "ssh", "telnet" and "http" (those that control access on the corresponding protocols to the firewall itself) accept only ip address of a host or a network as their argument. They do not accept address range, named object or object group. This is so at least as of ASA 8.3. Since we expand address ranges only for versions < 8.3 and use named object for 8.3 and later, we need to make this additional check and still expand address ranges in rules that will later convert to "ssh", "telnet" or "http" command. Compiler still generates redundant object-group statement with CIDR blocks generated from the address range but does not use this group in the rule. This does not break generated configuration but the object-group is redundant since it is never used. This will be rectified in future versions.
  • fixes #2668 Remove "static routes" from the explanation text in ASA/PIX import dialog. We can not import PIX/ASA routing configuration at this time.
  • fixes #2677 Policy importer for PIX/ASA could not parse command "nat (inside) 1 0 0"
  • fixes #2679 Policy importer for PIX/ASA could not import "nat exemption" rule (for example: "nat (inside) 0 access-list EXEMPT")
  • fixes #2678 Policy importer for PIX/ASA could not parse nat command with parameter "outside"
  • Changes and improvements in the API library libfwbuilder:
  • function InetAddr::isValidV4Netmask() checks that netmask represented by the object consists of a sequence of "1" bits, followed by the sequence of "0" bits and therefore does not have zeroes in the middle.
  • fixed bug #2670. Per RFC3021 network with netmask /31 has no network and direct broadcast addresses. When interface of the firewall is configured with netmask /31, policy compilers should not treat the second address of this "subnet" as a broadcast.
  • Changes in support for iptables:
  • see #2639 "support for vlan subinterfaces of bridge interfaces (e.g. br0.5)". Currently fwbuilder can not generate script to configure vlan subinterfaces of bridge interfaces, however if user did not request this configuration script to be generated, compiler should not abort when it encounters this combination.
  • fixes #2650 "rules with address range that includes firewall address in Src are placed in OUTPUT chain even though addresses that do not match the firewall should go in FORWARD"
  • fixes SF bug #3414382 "Segfault in fwb_ipt dealing with empty groups". Compiler for iptables used to crash when an empty group was used in the "Interface" column of a policy rule.
  • see SF bug #3416900 "Replace `command` with `which`". Generated script (Linux/iptables) used to use "command -v" to check if command line tools it needs are present on the system. This was used to find iptables, lsmod, modprobe, ifconfig, vconfig, logger and others. Some embedded Linux distributions, notably TomatoUSB, come without support for "command". Switching to "which" that is more ubuquitous and should be available pretty much everywhere.
  • fixed #2663 "Rule with "old-broadcast" object results in invalid iptables INPUT chain". Compiler was choosing chain INPUT with direction "outbound" for rules that had old broadcast address in "Source", this lead to invalid iptables configuration with chain INPUT and "-o eth0" interface match clause.
  • fixed bug in the rule processor that replaces AddressRange object that represents single address with an IPv4 object. Also eliminated code redundancy.
  • fixes #2664 Update error message when "which" command fails. Generated iptables script uses "which" to check if all utilities it uses exist on the machine. We should also check if "which" itself exists and issue meaningful error message if not.
  • SF bug #3439613. physdev module does not allow --physdev-out for non-bridged traffic anymore. We should add --physdev-is-bridged to make sure this matches only bridged packets. Also adding "-i" / "-o" clause to match parent bridge interface. This allows us to correctly match which bridge the packet comes through in configurations using wildcard bridge port interfaces. For example, when br0 and br1 have "vnet+" bridge port interface, iptables can still correctly match which bridge the packet went through using "-o br0" or "-o br1" clause. This can be useful in installations with many bridged interfaces that get created and destroyed dynamically, e.g. with virtual machines. Note that the "-i br0" / "-o br0" clause is only added when there is more than one bridge interface and bridge port name ends with a wild card symbol "+"
  • fixed SF bug #3443609 Return of ID: 3059893": iptables "--set" option deprecated". Need to use --match-set instead of --set if iptables version is >= 1.4.4. The fix done for #3059893 was only in the policy compiler but needs to be done in both policy and nat compilers.
  • Changes in support for PF (FreeBSD, OpenBSD):
  • see #2636 "carp : Incorrect output in rc.conf.local format". Should use create_args_carp0 instead of ifconfig_carp0 to set up CARP interface vhid, pass and adskew parameters.
  • see #2638 "When CARP password is empty the advskew value is not read". Should skip "pass " parameter of the ifconfig command that creates carp interface if user did not set up any password.
  • fixed SF bug #3429377 "PF: IPv6 rules are not added in IPv4/IPv6 ruleset (anchor)". Compiler for PF did not inlcude rules generated for IPv6 in generated PF anchor configuration files.
  • fixed SF bug 3428992: "PF: rules order problem with IPv4 and IPv6". Compiler for PF should group ipv4 and ipv6 NAT rules together, before it generates ipv4 and ipv6 policy rules.
  • Several fixes in the algorithms used to process rules when option "preserve group and addresses table object names" is in effect
  • fixes #2674 NAT compiler for PF crashed when AttachedNetworks object was used in Translated Source of a NAT rule.
  • Changes in support for Cisco IOS ACL:
  • fixes #2660 "compiler for IOSACL crashed when address range appears in a rule AND object-group option is turned ON"
  • fixed SF bug 3435004: "Empty lines in comment result in "Incomplete Command" in IOS".
  • Changes in support for ipfw:
  • fixed SF bug #3426843 "ipfw doesn't work for self-reference, in 5.0.0.3568 version".
  • Changes in support for Cisco ASA (PIX, FWSM):
  • see #2656 "Generated Cisco ASA access-list has duplicate entry". Under certain circumstances policy compiler fwb_pix generated duplicate access-list lines.
  • Other changes:
  • see #2646 and SF bug 3395658: Added few ipv4 and ipv6 network objects to the Standard objects library: TEST-NET-2, TEST-NET-3 (RFC 5735, RFC 5737), translated-ipv4, mapped-ipv4, Teredo, unique-local and few others.

New in Firewall Builder 5.0.0 (Jul 28, 2011)

  • This version includes multiple GUI enhancements and improved support for large configurations with new features like user defined subfolders, keywords for tagging objects, dynamic groups with smart filters, and more.
  • Other new features include support for importing PF configuration files and a new object type called Attached Networks, which represents the list of networks connected to a network interface.

New in Firewall Builder 4.2.1 (May 11, 2011)

  • v4.2.1 is a minor bug-fix release, it corrects issues in the built-in policy installer batch mode, SNMP network discovery wizard and few other bugs in the GUI.

New in Firewall Builder 4.2.0 (Apr 21, 2011)

  • This release significantly improves import of existing firewall configurations, introduces suport for import of Cisco ASA/PIX/FWSM configuration and de-duplication of imported objects for all platforms. This release also adds support for configuration of bridge and vlan interfaces and static routes on FreeBSD and makes it possible to generate configuration in the format of rc.conf files. Fwbuilder now supports latest versions of Cisco ASA software including new command syntax for nat commands in ASA 8.3.

New in Firewall Builder 4.1.3 (Dec 7, 2010)

  • This release includes a number of usability improvements and bug fixes. Usability improvements include the addition of an Advanced User mode which reduces the number of tooltips for power users and the addition of a new policy rule checkbox to define whether new rules have logging enabled or disabled by default. Critical bug fixes include improved support for Windows systems that use Putty sessions, support for configuring IP broadcast addresses on interfaces and several fixes relating to cluster configurations. Cluster configuration fixes include adding support for importing branching rules when a cluster is created and support for generating NAT rules that require iptables REDIRECT target.

New in Firewall Builder 4.1.2 (Oct 11, 2010)

  • Enable tool tips by default and add additional tool tips
  • Simplify interface configuration in new object wizards for New Firewall and New Host
  • Automatically open firewall Policy object when new firewall objects are created
  • Additional navigational aids and help strings
  • Fixed installer issue for Windows users that use Putty sessions
  • Fix issue (SF 307732) where wildcard interfaces were not matched in PREROUTING rule
  • Fixed issued (SF 3049665) where Firewall Builder did not generate proper data file name extensions

New in Firewall Builder 4.1.1 (Aug 21, 2010)

  • v4.1.1 includes fixes for a number of minor bugs and is the first release to officially support HP ProCurve ACL configuration. Thanks to a generous donation of several switches from HP we were able to test and finalize the ProCurve support. This release also fixes a critical bug in V4.1.0 related to Cisco IOS ACL configurations. Some configurations would cause Firewall Builder to incorrectly generate and error with the message "Can not find interface with network zone that includes address A.B.C.D.".

New in Firewall Builder 4.0.0 (May 5, 2010)

  • After several month of beta testing, this is stable production ready release.

New in Firewall Builder 3.0.6 (Aug 20, 2009)

  • This is a bug-fix release, it comes with improvements in the GUI to fix problems with printing of large rule sets and additional optimization in the generated iptables and PF configurations.

New in Firewall Builder 3.0.1 (Oct 8, 2008)

  • This release includes numerous usability improvements and stability fixes.
  • Among others, a fix is provided for the old annoying problem that caused the program to think that something in the data file had changed right after opening while there were no changes.

New in Firewall Builder 2.1.19 (Aug 27, 2008)

  • Few bugs that affected support for "limit" and "timeout" options in compiler for PF were fixed; option "Clamp MSS to MTU" in compiler for iptables now generates rule that will match packets in states ESTABLISHED and RELATED; bug that affected printing long rulesets on Windows was also fixed.