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hbc2

Member

Registered: 2014-07-26

Posts: 13

[SOLVED] Firewall for a VPN connection

Hi,

I need to disguise my IP address on the internet and I will use a VPN service to do this.  I've been googling around to find out how to setup a firewall on my arch laptop that I will use to connect to the VPN service but I have not found anything. 

My laptop will connect to the VPN service provider from behind my dd-wrt router.  What I'm concerned about (but don't fully understand) is that by connecting to the VPN server I'm providing an attack route back into my laptop.  I'm not too concerned about people on the internet attacking me though the VPN service given that the VPN service should have a firewall.  (The guy in this post ( https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=201028 )  didn't understand that there was a firewall at the VPN provider's side.  I'm not concerned about this, much.)

What I'm paranoid about is other users of the VPN service attacking me from the same OpenVPN server that we are all connected to.  (The VPN service I use seems to be running OpenVPN.  I read about OpenVPN client-to-client configuration and I can probably safely assume that is disabled but . . . I'm paranoid. )

I have not been able to find any articles on how to setup a firewall on my laptop to protect against possible attacks like this and i don't know enough about firewalls in general to give it a shot.  I'm happy to read anything about this but I just can't find an article addressing my concern.   Anyone got any pointers or advice on where to start?

Thanks.

Last edited by hbc2 (2016-12-30 09:57:42)

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: [SOLVED] Firewall for a VPN connection

It should be easy enough for you to verify if client to client is enabled or not.

As for the firewall, what exactly are you looking to block? You should be able to find several examples of iptables block rules for *regular* network interfaces. Just replace those with your OpenVPN interface.

druidxhunter

Member

Registered: 2016-12-21

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] Firewall for a VPN connection

Hi !
Gufw should be fine

hbc2

Member

Registered: 2014-07-26

Posts: 13

Re: [SOLVED] Firewall for a VPN connection

Hi x33a,

As for the firewall, what exactly are you looking to block? You should be able to find several examples of iptables block rules for *regular* network interfaces. Just replace those with your OpenVPN interface.

Right, thanks.  So I went off and read up on iptables and found some examples that have given me some ideas.   With respect to your question, I now understand that I'd need to block on the tun+ interface (probably just allowing http since all I need to do is browse). 

--Unfortunately , I have not gotten to that point, yet, since I'm still having trouble setting up a basic firewall that will allow me to connect.  But your pointer of blocking on the "OpenVPN interface"  is enough for me to close this thread.

Thanks.