Firewall Builder 5.0.0 Release Notes

SourceForge: Tickets

Summary

In addition to bug fixes and minor enhancements, v 5.0 includes the following new features:

User Defined System Folders

Users can now create their own subfolders in the object tree. To add a subfolder right-click on a system folder, for example Firewalls, and select "New Subfolder". You can move objects into the subfolder by dragging-and-dropping them from the parent folder in the object tree to the subfolder. You can only delete empty subfolders, so if you want to delete a subfolder first move all the objects in that subfolder to the parent folder and then you can delete the subfolder.

Keywords for Tagging Objects

This feature gives users the ability to apply keywords to objects and then use the filter box to search for objects that match a keyword.

Dynamic Groups with Smart Filters

A new type of group, called a Dynamic Group, has been added to the Group object in the object tree. Right-click the Group object and select "New Dynamic Group" to create a new group. You can use both Keywords and Object Type to create filters of objects that should be included in the Dynamic Group. There is a preview window that displays all the objects that match the filter.

You can use Dynamic groups in rules just like you would use a regular Group object. When Firewall Builder compiles a rule that includes a Dynamic Group it will expand the group into all its member objects.

Multiple Operations per Filter Rule

The actions for Tag, Classify and Route have been moved to the rule Options. This allows a user to define a primary action, like Accept, and then define additional actions that should be taken on traffic that matches the rule.

This is only supported for iptables and PF platforms. For PF setting multiple actions will result in a single rule with multiple actions defined. For iptables this will result in multiple rules ordered so that all actions are performed correctly.

New Attached Networks Object

There is a new child object for interfaces that represents all the networks that are "attached" to the interface. This means that for each IP address that is configured on an interface the associated network for that IP address will be included in the Attached Networks object.

Improved GUI layout and behavior

There are a number of changes that have been made to make the mouse click behavior more consistent and the layout of the GUI has been updated to make things simplier.

Import of PF configurations

Firewall Builder can now import PF configurations in pf.conf format. To import a pf.conf configuration go to File -> Import Firewall and follow the prompts.


GUI Updates

Changes in policy importer for all supported platforms

Changes that affect import of PF configurations

Fixes and improvements in import of iptables configurations

Changes and improvements in the API library libfwbuilder

common changes that affect policy compilers for all platforms

Changes in support for iptables

Changes in support for PF (FreeBSD, OpenBSD)

Other changes