Can anybody recommend a book for learning how to work with OpenBSD firewalls?

[jepettrey]

I have no experience with OpenBSD firewalls and am now in a position where I'll need to be supporting them. If anybody can point me to a good book (or website) that will teach me from a very basic level I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

[ocicat]

Originally Posted by jepettrey

If anybody can point me to a good book (or website) that will teach me from a very basic level I would appreciate it.

Your best bet is to start with Hansteen's manuscript:

http://home.nuug.no/~peter/pf/

This is also the basis of his book, The Book of PF which contains some information not found in the online manuscript. The second edition of The Book of PF is to be released in September, but given the number of changes which have been made to pf(4) since the first edition was released, the first edition is now only marginally recommended.

If you are not familiar with the PF User's Guide, this is a must-read document as it covers all current features to pf(4).

Being new to OpenBSD, we highly recommend you familiarize yourself with the information found in the offical FAQ:

http://www.openbsd.org/faq/index.html

...as this is the definitive source of information on OpenBSD outside of the manpages.

[jepettrey]

Originally Posted by ocicat

Your best bet is to start with Hansteen's manuscript:

This is also the basis of his book, The Book of PF which contains some information not found in the online manuscript. The second edition of The Book of PF is to be released in September, but given the number of changes which have been made to pf(4) since the first edition was released, the first edition is now only marginally recommended.

If you are not familiar with the , this is a must-read document as it covers all current features to pf(4).

Being new to OpenBSD, we highly recommend you familiarize yourself with the information found in the offical FAQ:

...as this is the definitive source of information on OpenBSD outside of the manpages.

This is awesome, thanks for this!

[ocicat]

The sources I have quoted to you are vetted by the overall OpenBSD community.

Be forewarned that if you Google for OpenBSD information, you may find a lot of stuff, but much of it is old, out-of-date, incomplete, or simply wrong. OpenBSD is a moving target, & staying informed has its challenges. Part of that challenge is knowing who/what to trust, & where to remain skeptical of its validity.

• In general, the *BSD family places great importance on the correctness of its manpages. Being a small project, OpenBSD considers its manpages to be the definitive source of truth outside of the source code itself.
• Information found on the offficial mailing lists -- when uttered by the project developers -- should be considered definitive as well.
• Project documentation (such as the FAQ & User's Guide) would come next in terms of trustworthiness.
• Third-party sites (like this one...) attempt to provide correct information, but few if any project developers visit these sites, so you will have to gauge the amount of truthfulness with anything not officially associated with the project yourself.

[jggimi]

There is a terrific book, now quite a bit out of date, but that will still help you understand this OS. Absolute OpenBSD, by Michael W. Lucas, No Starch Press. Out of print, but the publisher sells a .pdf version. There should be a sample chapter and other information at www.absoluteopenbsd.com if you'd like to take a look.

[girarde]

Originally Posted by jggimi

There is a terrific book, now quite a bit out of date, but that will still help you understand this OS. Absolute OpenBSD, by Michael W. Lucas, No Starch Press. Out of print, but the publisher sells a .pdf version.

The book is a little out of date, too, but very very nice.

[gpatrick]

"Building Firewalls with OpenBSD and PF" 2nd edition by Jacek Artymiak
"The Book of PF" 1st edition, 2nd edition by Peter Hansteen
"The OpenBSD Packet Filter Book" by Jeremy C. Reed

The second edition of "The Book of PF" has been updated for changes to PF in 4.8.