A firewall is an essential tool to secure networks, but how to stop it on CentOS 7? They are also useful to prevent unwanted traffic from entering or leaving your network. So we’ll show you how to configure firewalls on CentOS 7.
What Is Firewall On CentOS 7?
A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic. It can be used to stop unwanted traffic from entering or leaving your local network.
The firewall is a software or hardware-based program that controls the traffic flow. Also, denies access to unauthorize users. It helps keep your system protected from malicious attacks.
The firewall can be found in most desktop OS, routers. Also network-enabled devices like printers, modems, etc. The firewall configures in both hardware and software-based systems.
The hardware firewalls are more secure than the software firewalls. We will discuss both ways of configuring firewalls in CentOS 7.
Configure Firewall On CentOS 7 – Software Based Firewall (Iptables)
In this section, we will configure the Iptables firewall on CentOS 7. Iptables are Linux kernel modules used to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IP packet filtering rules in the Linux kernel.
1: Install Required Packages:
First, update your system with the latest updates using the command:
yum -y update
After, Install the following packages using the command:
yum -y install iptables-services iptables-netfilter-persistent iptables-python libnetfilter-conntrack libnetfilter-cttimeout libnetfilter-queue python net-tools fwts ufw dnsmasq iptables-persistent
2: Configure Firewall:
Firewall configuration stores in the file /etc/sysconfig/Iptables. Before we configure, we need to stop and disable the Iptables service. So it applies the changes.
Use the command below:
Once everything ends its installation, you can start the Iptables service by executing the following command:
systemctl start iptables systemctl enable iptables.service systemctl restart iptables.service systemctl status iptables.service
Open /etc/SYSconfig/Iptables file with any text editor as the root user. We will edit the file to configure the firewall on CentOS 7 in three steps:
1: Change IPT_SERVICE to IPT_SERVICE=“Iptables”
2: Enable IP forwarding
3: Enable Network Address Translation (NAT) configuration Save and close the file after making changes to it.
Why Does It Need To Stop A Firewall On CentOS 7?
An Iptables firewall is not just to restrict traffic from entering or leaving your network. But also, it can be used for many other tasks like:
1: Scanning Ports To Detect Network or System Vulnerability
2: Logging And Monitoring Network Traffic
3: Blocking Or Dropping Packets
4: Forwarding Traffic To Other Networks
5: Redirecting Traffic From A Port To Another Port
6: Managing IP Address Using NAT (Network Address Translation)
7: Checking The Firewall Configuration
8: Flushing And Resetting All Iptables Rules To Default Settings
Who Is CentOS 7?
CentOS 7 is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution for servers, desktops, and embedded devices. It is a community-supported enterprise distribution.
That is built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and is available free of charge. CentOS 7 comes with several feature-rich server applications and desktop environments.
The latest version comes with the GNOME 3 desktop environment.
CentOS:
CentOS is a Linux-based operating system that delivers enterprise-class features and server applications. That is designed to run on any hardware or infrastructure, in diverse environments.
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CentOS is open-source software that is free to modify and customize according to your needs.