Chapter 15. System Services

Table of Contents

15.1. Protecting the FB2900
15.2. Common settings
15.3. HTTP Server configuration
15.3.1. Access control
15.3.1.1. Trusted addresses
15.3.2. HTTPS access
15.4. Telnet Server configuration
15.4.1. Access control
15.5. DNS configuration
15.5.1. Auto DHCP DNS
15.5.2. Local DNS responses
15.5.3. Blocking DNS names
15.6. NTP configuration
15.7. SNMP configuration
15.8. RADIUS configuration
15.8.1. RADIUS client
15.8.1.1. RADIUS client settings
15.8.1.2. Server blacklisting

A system service provides general functionality, and runs as a separate concurrent process alongside normal traffic handling.

Table 15.1 lists the services that the FB2900 can provide :-

Table 15.1. List of system services

ServiceFunction
SNMP serverprovides clients with access to management information using the Simple Network Management Protocol
NTP clientautomatically synchronises the FB2900's clock with an NTP time server (usually using an Internet public NTP server)
Telnet serverprovides an administration command-line interface accessed over a network connection
HTTP serverserves the web user-interface files to a user's browser on a client machine
DNSrelays DNS requests from either the FB2900 itself, or client machines to one or more DNS resolvers
RADIUS Configuration of RADIUS service for platform RADIUS for L2TP. Configuration of RADIUS client accessing external RADIUS servers.
MQTTMQTT server and client.

Services are configured under the "Setup" category, under the heading "General system services", where there is a single services object (XML element : <services>). The services object doesn't have any attributes itself, all configuration is done via child objects, one per service. If a service object is not present, the service is disabled. Clicking on the Edit link next to the services object will take you to the list of child objects. Where a service object is not present, the table in that section will contain an "Add" link. A maximum of one instance of each service object type can be present.

15.1. Protecting the FB2900

Whilst the FB2900 does have a comprehensive firewall, the design of the FB2900 is that it should be able to protect itself sensibly without the need for a separate firewall. You can, of course, configure the firewall settings to control access to system services as well, if you want.

Each service has specific access control settings, and these default to not allowing external access (i.e. traffic not from locally Ethernet connected devices). You can also lock down access to a specific routing table, and restrict the source IP addresses from which connections are accepted.

In the case of the web interface, you can also define trusted IP addresses which are given priority access to the login page even if there is a denial of service attack against the web interface. When using the FB2900 as an LNS you may be allowing access to CQM graphs linked from control systems as an ISP and so have to have the web interface open to the world. You should make use of the trusted IP settings to ensure you still have access even if there is a denial of service attack against the web interface. You should also set up access restrictions for users (see Section 4.1.4 for details).

Normally connections that aren't accepted are rejected, however there is a setting tcp-stealth in the global system settings which can be used to ignore them instead. This is useful to conceal from potential attackers that there is something capable of responding to TCP at the FireBrick's address.