Auditing firewall and network security with ufw and iptables

In our final section, we are going to build on some of the information we covered in Chapter 4, Next-Generation Firewall Auditing. Firewalls and network security controls are essential components of a comprehensive Linux security strategy. In this section, we will focus on auditing and configuring firewalls using ufw and iptables, two popular firewall management tools in Linux.

As we established in Chapter 4, Next-Generation Firewall Auditing, the main purpose of a firewall is to create a barrier between trusted internal and untrusted external networks, such as the internet.

Linux uses a built-in firewall called Netfilter. iptables is how administrators configure Netfilter. It allows administrators to define rules for accepting, rejecting, or modifying network traffic based on criteria such as source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols.

ufw, on the other hand, is a simplified frontend for managing...