KMyFirewall 1.1.0

[Christian Hubinger]

Name: KMyFirewall
Version: 1.1.0
Type: KDE Security
Depend: KDE 3.3.x
License: GPL
Homepage: http://kmyfirewall.sourceforge.net
More Info:
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=10073

Description:
 KMyFirewall attempts to make it easier to setup
IPTables based firewalls on Linux systems.
It will be the right tool if you like to have a so
called "Personal Firewall" running on your Linux
box, but don't have the time and/or the interest
to spend hours in front of the IPTables manual
just to setup a Firewall that keeps the "bad"
people out.

Changelog:
 This release includes lots of cool new features
(e.g. multi target configuration, remote
installation etc.) and fixes all known bugs. Again
the document format has changed a bit but i did my
best to make it compatible with rule sets created
using v1.0.x
Main New Features
Multi Target Configuration & Remote firewall
control

Multi Target Configuration? What the hell is that?
With KMyFirewall 1.1.0 you are now able to define
so called Targets (accessible in the MyNetwork
View), those are the computers you like to manage
using KMyFirewall.
After defining (IP address and SSH port) a Target
you simply set it as active target and edit it's
rule set as you did always did for the the
localhost. The only requirement is that the target
allows SSH connections and has a bash shell
installed.
With the help of KDE's KIO technology you can
install, run, show configuration etc. on the
remote host, as you did on localhost before.
All communication between KMyFirewall and the
target is encrypted using SSH.
New Undo/Redo Engine

As consequence to the great trouble the current
undo/redo implementation has made, i re-designed
it and as result the engine is faster, more
reliable and much easier to use as a developer.
Custom Protocols (Generic Interface)

This solves on of the most annoying problems of
the Generic Interface. In KMyFirewall's settings
dialog you now can define your own protocols.
So if you find any important protocol still
missing, simply create it and if you like send it
to chubinger_AT_irrsinnig_DOT_org so that i can
add it for the next release. (For the future i
plan to implement a KHotNewStuff service to allow
online updates of the protocol library.)
Improved Auto Configuration

The auto configuration capabilities have been
moved to a small bash script and therefore can
also be used for remote targets. If your system is
not detected correctly please send your
configuration to chubinger_AT_irrsinnig_DOT_org so
that i can add them to the auto configuration
script.

So finally i just like to say have fun configuring
your firewalls using KMyFirewall 1.1.0, feedback
and burg reports are very welcome.

----

Release of KMyFirewall 1.0.1

* Adding some more protocols to the Protocol
library
* Fix spelling bug in Workstation template
* Small code cleanup
* Deleted old Parser and Wizrad files
* Fix rule index handling
* Allow insert of rules.
* Fix Rule renamed canceled bug
* cleanup interface add parameter to select the
config part to show insted of different methods
* Add posibilty to export a package containing the
scripts needed to install the ruleset on the
system
* Add commandline parameter to define the GUI
interface to startup with
* Fix chain log prefix saving bug
* Fix multiport ruleoption bug

-----

Release of KMyFirewall 1.0

Important: As the file format used to save the
rulesets has changed, rulesets created with
KMyFirewall < 1.0beta1 WILL NOT work, don't even
try it!

Since the last stable release KMF has been
completely rewritten in order to be even more
flexible and on the other hand easier to use.

New plugin framework

Most parts of the application has been rewritten
introducing a plugin framework that allows to add
new IPTables rule option editors to be written
within a few hours (well maybe days depends on the
options complexity :).
 This will allow us (and contributors) to easily
implement the fast growing number of IPTables
ruleoptions without the need of understanding the
whole application.

The backend generating the IPTables rules itself
has been extended to allow the registration of new
rule options by defining them in an XML
description file. For a detailed description about
how to write such plugins have a look at the
application handbook in the current CVS version.
So feel free to contribute plugins, there are lots
of options still not implemented.

New Easy-To-Use platform independent interface

As I often got mails complaining about the to
complex nature of KMF and the very limited
possibilities the wizard provides i simply removed
the wizard and implemented a completely new
interface.


Features of the new Interface

As the new interface works on an abstract
descrioption of the generated rules the new plugin
structure allows us top implement script compilers
that support other firewalling backends than just
netfilter/iptables.

To support a new tool kit it is required to write
a compiler and an installer plugin for the new
framework. Currently just the iptables/linux
compiler and installer is implemented. As with the
rule option plugins of the IPTables interface it
shouldn't bee too much work to develop those
plugins.

IPTables vs. Generic interface

The main difference between those two interfaces
is that the new Generic Interface is OS and
toolkit independant while the IPTables interface
is an improved version of the well known KMF GUI
and therefore tight bound to the netfiler/iptables
toolkit and can therefore only be used with Linux
as operating system.


Why two different interfaces?

Especially when concerning security related
applications you (as developer) need to decide if
you like to build an application used by expert
users (e.g. experienced system administrators) or
if you like to provide a tool that everybody can
handle.

It hasn't been an easy decision to implement one
interface for each user group but after pondering
about concepts to merge those two requirements
into one interface we decided that it is much
better to separate them.
This allows us to concentrate on the wishes and
wanted features for each of the user groups.

---


Homepage Update

Some developer documentation has been added. Have
a look ath the "Documentation" section to see
whats new.

---

Uploaded Suse 9.2 rpms.
Thanks to Marcus for contributing those.

APT users may install from the following
repository:

ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/apt SuSE/9.2-i386
suser-tux

---



Updating links to www.rockersoft.org Fedora Core
1/2 rpms.
They should also work for FC3

---

Adding debian testing/ustable package contributed
by Raphael Lechner

---

New homepage online!

I'm very happy to announce the availability of the
new fresh designed KMyFirewall homepage.
The design and implementation was done by Anton
Frennevi who also designed a new icon set for KMF.
Unfortuantely he won't have anymore time to work
with us so a big thank you very much to him.

---

0.9.6.1 -> 0.9.6.2
Fixed rule creation bug in Wizard
Made adding of other devvice types then the
defaults possible
Several small fixes

---

Rockersoft made packages for Fedora Core 1
available via their download server at:
http://www.rockerssoft.com/apt/fedora/1/en/i386/RPMS.rockerssoft/

Those packages are also available via an apt-get
repository at:
http://www.rockerssoft.com/apt/fedora/1/en/i386/

Thanks a lot to the guys at Rockerssoft:
http://www.rockerssoft.com/forum/