BYU-ITC-515R-ACT

Lab 5: Routers & Firewalls

Introduction

In this lab, you’ll learn to set up, configure, and secure routers and firewalls, essential components for managing and protecting network traffic. You’ll explore firewall configuration, including creating and applying rules to control access, assigning network interfaces to zones, and optimizing traffic policies for three different firewalls, UFW, iptables, and Firewalld. Additionally, you’ll configure routers to enable communication between multiple networks, set up NAT for internet access, and implement security measures to block malicious traffic and prevent network attacks.

Configuration Instructions

Virtual Machines and Operating Systems

You will be working with:

Network Configuration

Since your machines do not currently have internet access, you will need to configure the network as follows:

  1. Lab-5-router Machine:
    • WAN (ether3 interface):
      • IP: 172.18.x.6/16
      • Gateway: 172.18.0.1
      • DNS: 172.18.0.1
    • LAN (ether4 interface):
      • IP: 192.168.x.1/16
  2. Lab-5-website Machine:
    • IP: 192.168.x.2/16
    • Gateway: 192.168.x.1
    • DNS1: 192.168.x.3
    • DNS2: 172.18.0.1
  3. Lab-5-dns Machine:
    • IP: 192.168.x.3/16
    • Gateway: 192.168.x.1
    • DNS1: 172.18.0.1
    • DNS2: 8.8.8.8

Accessing the Virtual Machines

Scoreboard Key

You can hover over each specific arrow, and a tooltip will appear with a hint on what is wrong or not working.

Credentials

File Creation and Content

Pass Criteria

Make sure the VM Scoring Arrow is green before continuing past this point.

P1: Router Installation and Basic Configuration

  1. Using the Lab-5-router machine set it up as a router. When it is properly configured the internal machines should be able to access the internet.
  2. Use the MikroTik Router and Mini Hack Completion video to help you with the setup.

P2: Firewall Installation and Basic Configuration

Lab-5-website Machine

  1. Enable the ufw service
  2. Check the status of the ufw service. Enter the line ufw:<command> into the file /home/blueteam/P2/P2.txt on the router.

Note: The dashboard will mark your VMs as not scoring until the ssh rules have been added in P3.

P3: Securing Incoming and Outgoing Traffic

  1. Set all default policies to deny incoming and allow outgoing for all machines and applicable zones
  2. Remove any other inbound rules for the WAN interface
  3. Allow SSH traffic over TCP IN on Lab-5-website
  4. Allow HTTP traffic over TCP IN on Lab-5-website
  5. Allow HTTPS traffic over TCP IN on Lab-5-website

P4: Configuring Ports and Services

Lab-5-website Machine

  1. List all the current firewall rules for ufw. Enter the line ufw:<command> into the file /home/blueteam/P4/P4.txt on the router.

Lab-5-dns Machine

  1. List all the current firewall rules for iptables. Enter the line iptables:<command> into the file /home/blueteam/P4/P4.txt on the router.

P5: Logging and Monitoring Firewall Activity

By default, some firewalls may not log traffic.

UFW has 5 options for log levels

Firewalld also has 5 options:

  1. On the Lab-5-website machine enable logging for all blocked packets and some allowed connections.
  2. Locate the UFW traffic logs on the machine. Enter the line ufw-filepath:<Full Absolute Filepath> into the file /home/blueteam/P5/P5.txt on the router.

P6: Troubleshooting

To complete P5 P1-P4 must have a green arrow before starting.

  1. There seems to be some problems with the firewalls and router. Troubleshoot the errors and restore proper network connections to the network.

Merit Criteria

M1: Firewall Installation and Basic Configuration

Implement your rules on the Lab-5-website machine. Consider the order the rules will need to be in to be effective. You may have to alter or remove existing rules.

  1. Allow all incoming traffic on the 192.168.0.0/16 network that has the destination ports for SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS traffic.
  2. Ensure that the correct transport layer protocol is applied to the rules as well. If the service is only used over TCP then UDP should not be allowed and vice versa.
  3. Block traffic from 192.168.0.15 for HTTP and HTTPS traffic
  4. Block traffic from 172.18.0.16 for HTTP and HTTPS traffic
  5. Block traffic from 192.168.99.0/24 for SSH traffic
  6. Allow all incoming traffic on the 172.18.0.0/16 network that has the destination ports for, HTTP, and HTTPS traffic.
  7. Deny all other incoming traffic

M2: Securing Incoming and Outgoing Traffic

  1. Using the logs on Lab-5-router and Lab-5-website. Identify the IP of the scoring engine. Enter the line scoring:<IP> into the file /home/blueteam/M2/M2.txt on the router.

M3: Routing and NAT Configuration

Implement your rules on theLab-5-router machine.

  1. Port forward TCP traffic on ports 80 and 443 from the Lab-5-router to Lab-5-website
  2. Port forward UDP traffic on ports 53 from the Lab-5-router to Lab-5-dns

You will need to pass this off manually with a TA.

Distinction Criteria

D1: Firewall Installation and Basic Configuration

  1. Someone has removed the firewall from the Lab-5-dns machine. Install iptables and configure it.
  2. Set all default policies to deny incoming and allow outgoing for the Lab-5-dns machine.
  3. Allow SSH traffic over TCP IN from anywhere on Lab-5-dns
  4. Allow DNS traffic over UDP IN from anywhere on Lab-5-dns
  5. Ensure that you can still access the internet

Submission

You don’t need to submit anything for this lab. All of the above criteria will be auto-graded unless stated otherwise. Once you have finished the lab you will have to do a verbal pass off with a TA.

Pass Off Questions

You will be asked two of these questions at random during your verbal pass-off.

  1. Describe the purpose of firewall zones in firewalld, and how you assigned a network interface to a specific zone.
  2. Explain the difference between a permanent and temporary rule in firewalld.
  3. How does a firewall determine which rules to apply to incoming traffic?
  4. What are the differences between firewalld, ufw and iptables?
  5. What role does a firewall play in protecting a network, and how does it help control traffic?
  6. How does a firewall decide which incoming and outgoing connections should be allowed or blocked?
  7. What are the main differences between stateless and stateful firewalls?
  8. How does Network Address Translation (NAT) help in conserving IP addresses and improving security?
  9. Why is it important to assign network interfaces to firewall zones, and how do zones affect traffic handling?
  10. Why is logging dropped or accepted packets an important part of firewall operations?
  11. How do firewalls handle traffic from unknown or unexpected sources, such as new or unrecognized IP addresses?
  12. How does the concept of “least privilege” apply when configuring firewall rules for specific services?
  13. What is the significance of setting up a default deny policy in a firewall, and how does it enhance security?
  14. How does stateful inspection in firewalls differ from simple packet filtering, and why is it considered more secure?
  15. What is the difference between a network firewall and a host firewall, and when would each type be used?
  16. How does a host firewall protect an individual device, and what are some advantages of using host-based firewalls in addition to network firewalls?
  17. Why might you configure a host firewall to block all incoming traffic by default and allow only specific applications or services?
  18. What are the potential limitations of using host firewalls alone to secure a network, and how can these limitations be addressed with network firewalls?
  19. How can you configure both network and host firewalls to complement each other, creating a layered defense strategy for a more secure network environment?

Grading: