Saving Your iptables Scripts
The service iptables save command permanently saves the iptables configuration in the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file. When the system reboots, the iptablesrestore program reads the configuration and makes it the active configuration.
The format of the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file is slightly different from that of the scripts shown in this chapter. The initialization of built-in chains is automatic and the string "iptables" is omitted from the rule statements.
Here is a sample /etc/sysconfig/iptables configuration that allows ICMP, IPSec (ESP and AH packets), already established connections, and inbound SSH:
[root@bigboy tmp]# cat /etc/sysconfig/iptables
# Generated by iptables-save v1.2.9 on Mon Nov 8 11:00:07 2004
*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [144:12748]
:RH-Firewall-1-INPUT - [0:0]
-A INPUT -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT
-A FORWARD -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type 255 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p esp -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p ah -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 22 -
j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT
# Completed on Mon Nov 8 11:00:07 2004
[root@bigboy tmp]#
It is never a good idea to edit this script directly because it is always overwritten by the save command and it doesn't save any comments at all, which can also make it extremely difficult to follow. For these reasons, you're better off writing and applying a customized script and then using the service iptables save command to make the changes permanent.
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