Ubuntu
iptables package

Load iptables rules with iptables-restore

Asked by lukinho82

Hi to all,
I don't understand how my current iptables rules are loaded on ubuntu 11.04. To set the rules I've followed the wiki's link (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ip...if-post-down.d). So I have my saved file's rules in /etc. The script iptablesload in /etc/network/if-pre-up.d contains the command iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.rules, but two questions:

1. Why, in the shell, when do I execute the command iptables-restore I have to be root (command iptables-restore prec by sudo) while, at boot, this script can be executed with no-root privileges (or so I suppose...)?
2. If, inside my script iptablesload, I replace the path file /etc/iptables.rules with another path, for example $HOME/iptables.rules, the rules aren't loaded at boot. But if I execute the same script in the shell with root privileges the rules are correctly loaded. Why?

Thanks to all.
lukinho82

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

If you add the command to load the rules in /etc/rc.local above the exit 0 line, it will load them automagically.

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Joseph Paul Cohen (jcccnet) said : 		#2

1) The scripts are executed with root privileges. They launch from init and unless they setuid otherwise they are still running as root.

2)$HOME should resolve when it's running programs as root at bootup. You might not have the file where $HOME points. See these examples:

$ sudo echo $HOME
/home/username

$ sudo su
# echo $HOME
/root

At bootup the sripts should run as pure root and not like they do with sudo.

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