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Re: [Xense-devel] Re: [Xen-devel] RFC: virtual network access control

To: Gerd Hoffmann <kraxel@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xense-devel] Re: [Xen-devel] RFC: virtual network access control
From: Reiner Sailer <sailer@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 15:49:59 -0400
Cc: xense-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, xense-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Bryan D Payne <bdpayne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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xense-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 07/28/2006 11:13:07 AM:

> > We see other problems as well: IPtables seems to not see any of the
> > ethernet-bridged packets. If you wanted to use IPtables then you
> > would need to replace the ethernet bridge with routing each packet.
>
> You want CONFIG_BRIDGE_NETFILTER=y, this makes iptabes see bridged packets.
>
> Additionally you need CONFIG_NETFILTER_XT_MATCH_PHYSDEV=y, that allows
> matching on the physical device name for bridged packets.  That way you
> can filter by domain (because each domain has its own virtual bridge
> port) instead of ip/mac address.
>
> cheers,
>
>   Gerd

Using IPtables this way sounds like a feasible compromise for the short term.

There are drawbacks to this short-term solution:
* dependencies on user space tools (also coordination requirements wrt other users of IPtables)
* performance: rules add up in IPTables when the number of interfaces increases
* scalability: for every interface coming up we make a number of hypercalls to setup the filters to the existing interfaces [O(n) for sHype/ACM; other non-symmetric policies might involve more overhead]

For these reasons, I suggest that we include networking in our discussions about the long-term security architecture and related interfaces in Xen.

If there are no other suggestions then we will proceed following the suggestion to use IPtables and filtering based on devices.

Reiner
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