[ubuntu-za] Firewall as Virtual guest

[Charl Wentzel]

> Why?  Serious question here...  Is it space?  If so, there are embedded 
> systems that will run m0n0wall very wall, and can be mounted in a 5.25 
> drive bay.  You now have a much more secure network in a singe package. 

Very interesting! Never heard of this type of installation, but very
clever... a computer inside a computer!  Do you have a link for this
device?

I wonder if this will work on my favourite embedded PC... eBox?
Unfortunately it has (non-standard) Vortex processor and already
requires a special kernel to get Ubuntu working.  Same might apply here.

>   However, if it is policy, you might want to look at the rebuilt 
> m0n0wall VMware images.  There has also been more than a bit of 
> discussion securing this solution.

It actually a temporary fix.  We're allowed to have remote access to a
site (via 3G router) only for the first 2 months after commissioning a
system.  So I didn't want to install an extra box and since we had the
virtual server, making it a VM was the smaller investment.

The 3G router (Sierra Wireless Raven XE) already includes a NAT
firewall, port forwarding/blocking, etc, but I wanted to add some "oemf"
just to be safe.

I'll have a look around for discussions on how to make it secure..r :-)

Regards
Charl