4 include::attributes.txt[]
9 pve-firewall - The PVE Firewall Daemon
15 include::pve-firewall.8-synopsis.adoc[]
25 include::attributes.txt[]
28 // Copied from pve wiki: Revision as of 08:45, 9 November 2015
30 Proxmox VE Firewall provides an easy way to protect your IT
31 infrastructure. You can easily setup firewall rules for all hosts
32 inside a cluster, or define rules for virtual machines and
33 containers. Features like firewall macros, security groups, IP sets
34 and aliases help making that task easier.
36 While all configuration is stored on the cluster file system, the
37 iptables based firewall runs on each cluster node, and thus provides
38 full isolation between virtual machines. The distributed nature of
39 this system also provides much higher bandwidth than a central
42 NOTE: If you enable the firewall, all traffic is blocked by default,
43 except WebGUI(8006) and ssh(22) from your local network.
45 The firewall has full support for IPv4 and IPv6. IPv6 support is fully
46 transparent, and we filter traffic for both protocols by default. So
47 there is no need to maintain a different set of rules for IPv6.
53 The Proxmox VE firewall groups the network into the following logical zones:
57 Traffic from/to a cluster node
61 Traffic from/to a specific VM
63 For each zone, you can define firewall rules for incoming and/or
70 All firewall related configuration is stored on the proxmox cluster
71 file system. So those files are automatically distributed to all
72 cluster nodes, and the 'pve-firewall' service updates the underlying
73 iptables rules automatically on changes. Any configuration can be
74 done using the GUI (i.e. Datacenter -> Firewall -> Options tab (tabs
75 at the bottom of the page), or on a Node -> Firewall), so the
76 following configuration file snippets are just for completeness.
78 All firewall configuration files contains sections of key-value
79 pairs. Lines beginning with a '#' and blank lines are considered
80 comments. Sections starts with a header line containing the section
81 name enclosed in '[' and ']'.
86 The cluster wide firewall configuration is stored at:
88 /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
90 The configuration can contain the following sections:
94 This is used to set cluster wide firewall options.
96 include::pve-firewall-cluster-opts.adoc[]
98 NOTE: The firewall is completely disabled by default, so you need to
99 set the enable option here:
103 # enable firewall (cluster wide setting, default is disabled)
109 This sections contains cluster wide firewall rules for all nodes.
113 Cluster wide IP set definitions.
117 Cluster wide security group definitions.
121 Cluster wide Alias definitions.
123 Host specific Configuration
124 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
126 Host related configuration is read from:
128 /etc/pve/nodes/<nodename>/host.fw
130 This is useful if you want to overwrite rules from 'cluster.fw'
131 config. You can also increase log verbosity, and set netfilter related
135 VM/Container configuration
136 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
138 VM firewall configuration is read from:
140 /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
142 and contains the following data:
146 * Firewall rules for this VM
147 * VM specific options
150 Enabling the Firewall for VMs and Containers
151 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
153 You need to enable the firewall on the virtual network interface configuration
154 in addition to the general 'Enable Firewall' option in the 'Options' tab.
160 Firewall rules consists of a direction (`IN` or `OUT`) and an
161 action (`ACCEPT`, `DENY`, `REJECT`). You can also specify a macro
162 name. Macros contain predifined sets of rules and options. Rules can be disabled by prefixing them with '|'.
164 .Firewall rules syntax
168 DIRECTION ACTION [OPTIONS]
169 |DIRECTION ACTION [OPTIONS] # disabled rule
171 DIRECTION MACRO(ACTION) [OPTIONS] # use predefined macro
174 The following options can be used to refine rule matches.
176 include::pve-firewall-rules-opts.adoc[]
178 Here are some examples:
182 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0
183 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 # a comment
184 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source 192.168.2.192 # only allow SSH from 192.168.2.192
185 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.10 # accept SSH for ip range
186 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source 10.0.0.1,10.0.0.2,10.0.0.3 #accept ssh for ip list
187 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source +mynetgroup # accept ssh for ipset mynetgroup
188 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source myserveralias #accept ssh for alias myserveralias
190 |IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 # disabled rule
192 IN DROP # drop all incoming packages
193 OUT ACCEPT # accept all outgoing packages
199 A security group is a collection of rules, defined at cluster level, which
200 can be used in all VMs' rules. For example you can define a group named
201 `webserver` with rules to open the http and https ports.
204 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
207 IN ACCEPT -p tcp -dport 80
208 IN ACCEPT -p tcp -dport 443
211 Then, you can add this group to a VM's firewall
214 # /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
224 IP Aliases allow you to associate IP addresses of networks with a
225 name. You can then refer to those names:
227 * inside IP set definitions
228 * in `source` and `dest` properties of firewall rules
230 Standard IP alias `local_network`
231 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
233 This alias is automatically defined. Please use the following command
234 to see assigned values:
237 # pve-firewall localnet
238 local hostname: example
239 local IP address: 192.168.2.100
240 network auto detect: 192.168.0.0/20
241 using detected local_network: 192.168.0.0/20
244 The firewall automatically sets up rules to allow everything needed
245 for cluster communication (corosync, API, SSH) using this alias.
247 The user can overwrite these values in the cluster.fw alias
248 section. If you use a single host on a public network, it is better to
249 explicitly assign the local IP address
252 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
254 local_network 1.2.3.4 # use the single ip address
260 IP sets can be used to define groups of networks and hosts. You can
261 refer to them with `+name` in the firewall rules' `source` and `dest`
264 The following example allows HTTP traffic from the `management` IP
267 IN HTTP(ACCEPT) -source +management
269 Standard IP set `management`
270 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
272 This IP set applies only to host firewalls (not VM firewalls). Those
273 ips are allowed to do normal management tasks (PVE GUI, VNC, SPICE,
276 The local cluster network is automatically added to this IP set (alias
277 `cluster_network`), to enable inter-host cluster
278 communication. (multicast,ssh,...)
281 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
288 Standard IP set 'blacklist'
289 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
291 Traffic from these ips is dropped by every host's and VM's firewall.
294 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
302 Standard IP set 'ipfilter-net*'
303 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
305 These filters belong to a VM's network interface and are mainly used to prevent
306 IP spoofing. If such a set exists for an interface then any outgoing traffic
307 with a source IP not matching its interface's corresponding ipfilter set will
310 For containers with configured IP addresses these sets, if they exist (or are
311 activated via the general `IP Filter` option in the VM's firewall's 'options'
312 tab), implicitly contain the associated IP addresses.
314 For both virtual machines and containers they also implicitly contain the
315 standard MAC-derived IPv6 link-local address in order to allow the neighbor
316 discovery protocol to work.
319 /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
321 [IPSET ipfilter-net0] # only allow specified IPs on net0
326 Services and Commands
327 ---------------------
329 The firewall runs two service daemons on each node:
331 * pvefw-logger: NFLOG daemon (ulogd replacement).
332 * pve-firewall: updates iptables rules
334 There is also a CLI command named 'pve-firewall', which can be used to
335 start and stop the firewall service:
340 To get the status use:
342 # pve-firewall status
344 The above command reads and compiles all firewall rules, so you will
345 see warnings if your firewall configuration contains any errors.
347 If you want to see the generated iptables rules you can use:
358 FTP is an old style protocol which uses port 21 and several other dynamic ports. So you
359 need a rule to accept port 21. In addition, you need to load the 'ip_conntrack_ftp' module.
362 modprobe ip_conntrack_ftp
364 and add `ip_conntrack_ftp` to '/etc/modules' (so that it works after a reboot) .
367 Suricata IPS integration
368 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
370 If you want to use the http://suricata-ids.org/[Suricata IPS]
371 (Intrusion Prevention System), it's possible.
373 Packets will be forwarded to the IPS only after the firewall ACCEPTed
376 Rejected/Dropped firewall packets don't go to the IPS.
378 Install suricata on proxmox host:
381 # apt-get install suricata
382 # modprobe nfnetlink_queue
385 Don't forget to add `nfnetlink_queue` to '/etc/modules' for next reboot.
387 Then, enable IPS for a specific VM with:
390 # /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
397 `ips_queues` will bind a specific cpu queue for this VM.
399 Available queues are defined in
402 # /etc/default/suricata
406 Avoiding link-local addresses on tap and veth devices
407 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
409 With IPv6 enabled by default every interface gets a MAC-derived link local
410 address. However, most devices on a typical {pve} setup are connected to a
411 bridge and so the bridge is the only interface which really needs one.
413 To disable a link local address on an interface you can set the interface's
414 `disable_ipv6` sysconf variable. Despite the name, this does not prevent IPv6
415 traffic from passing through the interface when routing or bridging, so the
416 only noticeable effect will be the removal of the link local address.
418 The easiest method of achieving this setting for all newly started VMs is to
419 set it for the `default` interface configuration and enabling it explicitly on
420 the interfaces which need it. This is also the case for other settings such as
421 `forwarding`, `accept_ra` or `autoconf`.
423 Here's a possible setup:
425 # /etc/sysconf.d/90-ipv6.conf
427 net.ipv6.conf.default.forwarding = 0
428 net.ipv6.conf.default.proxy_ndp = 0
429 net.ipv6.conf.default.autoconf = 0
430 net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
431 net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_ra = 0
433 net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 0
437 # /etc/network/interfaces
439 iface vmbr0 inet6 static
444 pre-up echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/$IFACE/disable_ipv6
452 The firewall contains a few IPv6 specific options. One thing to note is that
453 IPv6 does not use the ARP protocol anymore, and instead uses NDP (Neighbor
454 Discovery Protocol) which works on IP level and thus needs IP addresses to
455 succeed. For this purpose link-local addresses derived from the interface's MAC
456 address are used. By default the 'NDP' option is enabled on both host and VM
457 level to allow neighbor discovery (NDP) packets to be sent and received.
459 Beside neighbor discovery NDP is also used for a couple of other things, like
460 autoconfiguration and advertising routers.
462 By default VMs are allowed to send out router solicitation messages (to query
463 for a router), and to receive router advetisement packets. This allows them to
464 use stateless auto configuration. On the other hand VMs cannot advertise
465 themselves as routers unless the 'Allow Router Advertisement' (`radv: 1`) option
468 As for the link local addresses required for NDP, there's also an 'IP Filter'
469 (`ipfilter: 1`) option which can be enabled which has the same effect as adding
470 an `ipfilter-net*` ipset for each of the VM's network interfaces containing the
471 corresponding link local addresses. (See the
472 <<ipfilter-section,Standard IP set 'ipfilter-net*'>> section for details.)
475 Ports used by Proxmox VE
476 ------------------------
478 * Web interface: 8006
479 * VNC Web console: 5900-5999
481 * sshd (used for cluster actions): 22
483 * corosync multicast (if you run a cluster): 5404, 5405 UDP
491 include::pve-firewall-macros.adoc[]
494 include::pve-copyright.adoc[]