(Approx. 1,504 words)

Why You Need A Firewall
By Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D., Member of the Sarasota PCUG, Florida
www.spcug.org
bwsail at yahoo dot com

Obtained from APCUG with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.

When you connect your computer to the Internet, you have opened a door which invites any other computer in the world to come in. Actually, you have more than 65,000 doors into your computer, any one of which may be open. That is, unless you have taken steps to keep these doors closed. That is the purpose of a firewall. The firewall filters the information packets that show up at your “door” or computer port as we usually refer to it, and can either prevent them from entering or pass them through. 

When your computer connects to the Internet, it is assigned a numeric address or IP (internet protocol) address. These addresses are a 32 bit number. They usually written out in four groups with periods between each group as follows:  111.11.11.111.  Traveling over the Internet are many programs that simply look for unprotected IP addresses. The IP address of any unprotected computer is sent back to the originator who can then upload a trojan or spyware package to that address. The originator can then take control of  the computer or the application will record keystrokes and send all recorded information back to the program originator. 

Although your computer has one IP address there are many different ports on your address. There are different ports for different purposes on your computer. Your connection to the Internet is usually through port 80. This is referred to as the HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) port. It is used when you connect to a web page. The web page data is downloaded to your computer through this port. Another commonly used port is 25. This is used for the SMTP (standard mail transfer protocol) or e-mail transfer. Another port is used for incoming mail or POP3 transfer is port 110. These are all part of the port series from 0 to 1024 that are the most common ports.  Many applications use ports in this region including PC Anywhere, Internet telephones, MSN messenger, Net Meeting, and all AOL operations. Ports 1024 to 49451 are referred to as registered ports. There are many Internet games that use ports in this region. There are also other specific functions assigned to these ports and some may duplicate functions in the common port region. The final group of ports are dynamic and have no specific functions registered. However, the point is that all of these ports can be accessed by remote computers somewhere out on the Internet and use them to connect to your computer if you have not protected them.

Automated port scanning software is available free on the Internet from many “hacker sites”. Its use is very common on the Internet. There are various types of scans. Some scanners will look for any of the 65,535  possible ports. Another type looks for open UDP (user data protocol) ports or may use an FTP (file transfer protocol) bounce to hide the origin of the scan.  If an open port is located, software can be downloaded that will open a “backdoor” on your computer. This allows remote input and output. Such access can be used to record and transmit out information from your computer. It can also be used to attack other computers to produce a “zombie” network. Such networks have been used to attack large computer servers in attempts to bring them down or to produce a  “denial of service” attack. 

Many users believe that a router with a firewall is adequate protection. Most routers use either network address translation (NAT) or a packet filter. Information on the Internet is transmitted in packets which contain the IP address of the sender and the address of the receiver in addition to the data. The routers firewall uses filters that look at the sending and receiving addresses of incoming packets on port 80 (HTTP). Only those packets that are a response to an outgoing request are allowed through. If your router uses a packet filter it can be penetrated by a fragmented scan. This type of scan breaks up packets into fragments which can easily get through the simple packet filter found in most router firewalls. Routers using NAT either alone or in combination with a packet filter can also be easily thwarted. NAT is not successful when the packet is an FTP packet or is sent by Microsoft's Netmeeting or similar audio/video applications that bury the address in the body of the packet. Only when the address is in the header of the packet can the router  use address substitution. So packet filtering and NAT, although useful, do not provide complete firewall protection for all Internet connections. 

Another method for preventing intrusions is “stateful” packet inspection. This is the method used by most software firewalls and is found is some of the newer routers. When your web browser opens a connection to the Internet, the firewall software records that connection and keeps a record of its status. Whenever a packet arrives at your computer, the data in the packet can be compared to the  information in the firewall state table. The firewall software can also make decisions based on the data content of the packet, not just the sender's address. Because this examination does require some time there may be a slight slowdown of your system. However, in most cases, there will not be a long enough delay for most users to notice.

So inbound packets can be filtered and examined for dangerous content. However, when the user connects to a web server, the page requested is downloaded to the users computer. It is possible for that web page to contain a small program or a link to a dangerous site in a one pixel unit on the page. When this is downloaded the program is run or the link activated.  This results in an outgoing packet to some Internet address through a non-standard port so the user is not aware of the activity. This type of activity would not be stopped by a hardware firewall in a router. It can only be blocked by a software firewall which recognizes that this activity is coming from a new application that has not previously made an Internet connection. In this case the software will query the computer user to determine if this new application should be allowed to connect. Hopefully, the user would recognize that this was not an application that the user was running and the outbound packet would then be blocked. It is absolutely necessary for the firewall to process both incoming and outgoing packets. Only a software firewall can establish the necessary tables for comparing the incoming/outgoing packets to allowed activity and request user interaction when necessary.

This leads us to the Windows firewall. This firewall, as used with Windows XP, does not have any control of outbound packets. Any application is allowed to connect to the Internet without any filtering or other checking of source or content. Windows Vista was supposed to come with both inbound and outbound filtering. However, as it is delivered it provides only inbound protection just as did XP. The outbound protection is turned off by default. So, if it is there, how do you turn on the outbound protection. To change this you have to use the Microsoft Management Console. Then you have to write a rule to block each “malware” application you anticipate might get on your computer. You can not create a general rule for all malware. Creating rules that would cover all possible malware applications is an impossible task.  Microsoft has been quoted as saying “outbound filtering isn’t really needed, and the key is making sure that malware doesn’t infect the PC in the first place.”  Also they have stated that large enterprises had requested that it be turned off by default. Microsoft does say that “core Windows Services have specific behaviors which are monitored by the firewall”. Instead of using outbound filtering Microsoft recommends that you buy “Windows Live OneCare”, a product and subscription service. My recommendation is that you obtain a free two-way firewall like ZoneAlarm and ignore the Windows firewall completely.

Whatever you do, don't connect your computer to the Internet without using a firewall and an antivirus application. I have come across too many computers recently that are attached to constant on Internet connections and had no protection. The cost of removing the malware from these systems was more than the cost of premium protection. So don't get caught short!

Dr. Lewis is a former university & medical school professor. He has been working with personal computers for more than thirty years.  He can be reached via e-mail: bwsail at yahoo dot com.

This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).