FireballISO
Fireball is a VMWare virtual appliance that builds a Live CD containing a stripped-down custom version of Gentoo Linux, focused on providing firewall and other services to a network. When burned to a CD-ROM, it will allow an otherwise unused, old computer to boot it and act as a network security device. Notable features in the generated ISO include:
- (Version 1.2) All programs updated and recompiled with Hardened Gentoo kernel and compiler toolchain, resulting in increased protection from several kinds of overflows and other security vulnerabilities.
- IPv4 and IPv6 support
- tunneled IPv6 access and public IPv6 addresses for entire internal network to the Internet - uses a free account with gogoNET or another tunnel broker
- iptables and ip6tables firewalls
- SSH server for full command-line access
- DNS cache and DHCP server
- tcpdump & other networking utilities
- Perl and Python scripting languages
- NTP client
- DSL support
- Extremely customizable, just like a regular Gentoo Linux system
- Unnecessary programs removed from generated ISO, resulting in small size (about 90 MB in default configuration).
- Low hardware requirements: Pentium computer with a CD-ROM drive capable of booting, and two network interface cards. No hard disk, monitor, or keyboard is needed (though a monitor and keyboard might be useful for troubleshooting configurations as needed).
The virtual appliance can be updated just like a normal Gentoo system, allowing new Live CD images to be generated with the latest security fixes, bug corrections, additional features, and updated configurations. The Live CD should be re-generated as often as important changes are released by the authors of the various software packages it contains.
Release history
- Fireball Release 1 - March 3, 2009
- Fireball Release 1.1 - June 22, 2009
- Fireball Release 1.2 - December 30, 2010
External links