Exploring the new nftables firewall tool – a successor to iptables
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© Lead Image © Russell Shively, 123RF
The nftables firewall utility offers a simpler and more consistent approach for managing firewalls in Linux.
If you are training to become a network administrator, or even if you just want to get better at Linux, you cannot avoid dealing with the topic of firewalls, including the rules for filtering packets on the network.
The iptables firewall tool [1] is slightly long in the tooth, and the program code in particular has become more and more complex. Small changes in the project core affected all the tools associated with the project. Iptables, ip6tables, ebtables, and arptables all originate from the same codebase – not in the form of modules, but by code duplication. Accordingly, the four tools drifted apart over time. Iptables was best maintained, and ebtables was neglected. Bugs patched in iptables still existed in Ebtables years later.
The problems with maintaining the iptables code base prompted the development of a successor called nftables [2] back in 2009 by the netfilter project [3]. The first two letters of nftables are derived from the project; nftables simply means "netfilter tables." The stated development goals include higher data throughput, greater scalability with a view to changing requirements, and, in particular, a modular structure that is easier to maintain. Since Linux 3.13 (January 2014), nftables has existed directly in the kernel [4]. The nftables firewall tool uses internal, proven components of the netfilter project.
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