The firewall you used in the previous task is a packet filtering type of firewall. The main part of this type of firewall is the filtering part, which inspects each incoming and outgoing packets, and enforces the firewall policies set by the administrator. Since the packet processing is done within the kernel, the filtering must also be done within the kernel. Therefore, it seems that implementing such a firewall requires us to modify the Linux kernel. In the past, this has to be done by modifying the kernel code, and rebuild the entire kernel image. The modern Linux operating system provides several new mechanisms to facilitate the manipulation of packets without requiring the kernel image to be rebuilt. These two mechanisms are Loadable Kernel Module (LKM) and Netfilter. LKM allows us to add a new module to the kernel on the runtime. This new module enables us to extend the functionalities of the kernel, without rebuilding the kernel or even rebooting the computer. The packet filtering part of firewalls can be implemented as an LKM. However, this is not enough. In order for the filtering module to block incoming/outgoing packets, the module must be inserted into the packet processing path. This cannot be easily done in the past before the Netfilter was introduced into the Linux. Netfilter is designed to facilitate the manipulation of packets by authorized users. Netfilter achieves this goal by implementing a number of hooks in the Linux kernel. These hooks are inserted into various places, including the packet incoming and outgoing paths. If we want to manipulate the incoming packets, we simply need to connect our own programs (within LKM) to the corresponding hooks. Once an incoming packet arrives, our program will be invoked. Our program can decide whether this packet should be blocked or not; moreover, we can also modify the packets in the program. In this task, you need to use LKM and Netfilter to implement the packet filtering module. This module will fetch the firewall policies from a data structure, and use the policies to decide whether packets should be blocked or not. To make your life easier, so you can focus on the filtering part, the core of firewalls, we allow you to hardcode your firewall policies in the program. You should support at least five different rules, including the ones specified in the previous task. Question 1: What types of hooks does Netfilter support, and what can you do with these hooks? Please draw a diagram to show how packets flow through these hooks.
Question 2: Where should you place a hook for ingress filtering, and where should you place a hook for egress filtering?
Question 3: Can you modify packets using Netfilter?