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 NOTE: The firewall is completely disabled by default, so you need to
97 set the enable option here:
100 # enable firewall (cluster wide setting, default is disabled)
106 This sections contains cluster wide firewall rules for all nodes.
110 Cluster wide IP set definitions.
114 Cluster wide security group definitions.
118 Cluster wide Alias definitions.
120 Host specific Configuration
121 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
123 Host related configuration is read from:
125 /etc/pve/nodes/<nodename>/host.fw
127 This is useful if you want to overwrite rules from 'cluster.fw'
128 config. You can also increase log verbosity, and set netfilter related
132 VM/Container configuration
133 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
135 VM firewall configuration is read from:
137 /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
139 and contains the following data:
143 * Firewall rules for this VM
144 * VM specific options
147 Enabling the Firewall for VMs and Containers
148 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
150 You need to enable the firewall on the virtual network interface configuration
151 in addition to the general 'Enable Firewall' option in the 'Options' tab.
157 Firewall rules consists of a direction (`IN` or `OUT`) and an
158 action (`ACCEPT`, `DENY`, `REJECT`). You can also specify a macro
159 name. Macros contain predifined sets of rules and options. Rules can be disabled by prefixing them with '|'.
161 .Firewall rules syntax
165 DIRECTION ACTION [OPTIONS]
166 |DIRECTION ACTION [OPTIONS] # disabled rule
168 DIRECTION MACRO(ACTION) [OPTIONS] # use predefined macro
171 The following options can be used to refine rule matches.
173 include::pve-firewall-rules-opts.adoc[]
175 Here are some examples:
179 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0
180 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 # a comment
181 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source 192.168.2.192 # only allow SSH from 192.168.2.192
182 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.10 # accept SSH for ip range
183 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source 10.0.0.1,10.0.0.2,10.0.0.3 #accept ssh for ip list
184 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source +mynetgroup # accept ssh for ipset mynetgroup
185 IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 -source myserveralias #accept ssh for alias myserveralias
187 |IN SSH(ACCEPT) -i net0 # disabled rule
189 IN DROP # drop all incoming packages
190 OUT ACCEPT # accept all outgoing packages
196 A security group is a collection of rules, defined at cluster level, which
197 can be used in all VMs' rules. For example you can define a group named
198 `webserver` with rules to open the http and https ports.
201 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
204 IN ACCEPT -p tcp -dport 80
205 IN ACCEPT -p tcp -dport 443
208 Then, you can add this group to a VM's firewall
211 # /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
221 IP Aliases allow you to associate IP addresses of networks with a
222 name. You can then refer to those names:
224 * inside IP set definitions
225 * in `source` and `dest` properties of firewall rules
227 Standard IP alias `local_network`
228 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
230 This alias is automatically defined. Please use the following command
231 to see assigned values:
234 # pve-firewall localnet
235 local hostname: example
236 local IP address: 192.168.2.100
237 network auto detect: 192.168.0.0/20
238 using detected local_network: 192.168.0.0/20
241 The firewall automatically sets up rules to allow everything needed
242 for cluster communication (corosync, API, SSH) using this alias.
244 The user can overwrite these values in the cluster.fw alias
245 section. If you use a single host on a public network, it is better to
246 explicitly assign the local IP address
249 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
251 local_network 1.2.3.4 # use the single ip address
257 IP sets can be used to define groups of networks and hosts. You can
258 refer to them with `+name` in the firewall rules' `source` and `dest`
261 The following example allows HTTP traffic from the `management` IP
264 IN HTTP(ACCEPT) -source +management
266 Standard IP set `management`
267 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
269 This IP set applies only to host firewalls (not VM firewalls). Those
270 ips are allowed to do normal management tasks (PVE GUI, VNC, SPICE,
273 The local cluster network is automatically added to this IP set (alias
274 `cluster_network`), to enable inter-host cluster
275 communication. (multicast,ssh,...)
278 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
285 Standard IP set 'blacklist'
286 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
288 Traffic from these ips is dropped by every host's and VM's firewall.
291 # /etc/pve/firewall/cluster.fw
299 Standard IP set 'ipfilter-net*'
300 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
302 These filters belong to a VM's network interface and are mainly used to prevent
303 IP spoofing. If such a set exists for an interface then any outgoing traffic
304 with a source IP not matching its interface's corresponding ipfilter set will
307 For containers with configured IP addresses these sets, if they exist (or are
308 activated via the general `IP Filter` option in the VM's firewall's 'options'
309 tab), implicitly contain the associated IP addresses.
311 For both virtual machines and containers they also implicitly contain the
312 standard MAC-derived IPv6 link-local address in order to allow the neighbor
313 discovery protocol to work.
316 /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
318 [IPSET ipfilter-net0] # only allow specified IPs on net0
323 Services and Commands
324 ---------------------
326 The firewall runs two service daemons on each node:
328 * pvefw-logger: NFLOG daemon (ulogd replacement).
329 * pve-firewall: updates iptables rules
331 There is also a CLI command named 'pve-firewall', which can be used to
332 start and stop the firewall service:
337 To get the status use:
339 # pve-firewall status
341 The above command reads and compiles all firewall rules, so you will
342 see warnings if your firewall configuration contains any errors.
344 If you want to see the generated iptables rules you can use:
355 FTP is an old style protocol which uses port 21 and several other dynamic ports. So you
356 need a rule to accept port 21. In addition, you need to load the 'ip_conntrack_ftp' module.
359 modprobe ip_conntrack_ftp
361 and add `ip_conntrack_ftp` to '/etc/modules' (so that it works after a reboot) .
364 Suricata IPS integration
365 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
367 If you want to use the http://suricata-ids.org/[Suricata IPS]
368 (Intrusion Prevention System), it's possible.
370 Packets will be forwarded to the IPS only after the firewall ACCEPTed
373 Rejected/Dropped firewall packets don't go to the IPS.
375 Install suricata on proxmox host:
378 # apt-get install suricata
379 # modprobe nfnetlink_queue
382 Don't forget to add `nfnetlink_queue` to '/etc/modules' for next reboot.
384 Then, enable IPS for a specific VM with:
387 # /etc/pve/firewall/<VMID>.fw
394 `ips_queues` will bind a specific cpu queue for this VM.
396 Available queues are defined in
399 # /etc/default/suricata
403 Avoiding link-local addresses on tap and veth devices
404 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
406 With IPv6 enabled by default every interface gets a MAC-derived link local
407 address. However, most devices on a typical {pve} setup are connected to a
408 bridge and so the bridge is the only interface which really needs one.
410 To disable a link local address on an interface you can set the interface's
411 `disable_ipv6` sysconf variable. Despite the name, this does not prevent IPv6
412 traffic from passing through the interface when routing or bridging, so the
413 only noticeable effect will be the removal of the link local address.
415 The easiest method of achieving this setting for all newly started VMs is to
416 set it for the `default` interface configuration and enabling it explicitly on
417 the interfaces which need it. This is also the case for other settings such as
418 `forwarding`, `accept_ra` or `autoconf`.
420 Here's a possible setup:
422 # /etc/sysconf.d/90-ipv6.conf
424 net.ipv6.conf.default.forwarding = 0
425 net.ipv6.conf.default.proxy_ndp = 0
426 net.ipv6.conf.default.autoconf = 0
427 net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
428 net.ipv6.conf.default.accept_ra = 0
430 net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 0
434 # /etc/network/interfaces
436 iface vmbr0 inet6 static
441 pre-up echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/$IFACE/disable_ipv6
449 The firewall contains a few IPv6 specific options. One thing to note is that
450 IPv6 does not use the ARP protocol anymore, and instead uses NDP (Neighbor
451 Discovery Protocol) which works on IP level and thus needs IP addresses to
452 succeed. For this purpose link-local addresses derived from the interface's MAC
453 address are used. By default the 'NDP' option is enabled on both host and VM
454 level to allow neighbor discovery (NDP) packets to be sent and received.
456 Beside neighbor discovery NDP is also used for a couple of other things, like
457 autoconfiguration and advertising routers.
459 By default VMs are allowed to send out router solicitation messages (to query
460 for a router), and to receive router advetisement packets. This allows them to
461 use stateless auto configuration. On the other hand VMs cannot advertise
462 themselves as routers unless the 'Allow Router Advertisement' (`radv: 1`) option
465 As for the link local addresses required for NDP, there's also an 'IP Filter'
466 (`ipfilter: 1`) option which can be enabled which has the same effect as adding
467 an `ipfilter-net*` ipset for each of the VM's network interfaces containing the
468 corresponding link local addresses. (See the
469 <<ipfilter-section,Standard IP set 'ipfilter-net*'>> section for details.)
472 Ports used by Proxmox VE
473 ------------------------
475 * Web interface: 8006
476 * VNC Web console: 5900-5999
478 * sshd (used for cluster actions): 22
480 * corosync multicast (if you run a cluster): 5404, 5405 UDP
488 include::pve-firewall-macros.adoc[]
491 include::pve-copyright.adoc[]