A device used on local area networks (LANs) and the internet is exposed to viruses, other malware, and a variety of attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems and software. The operating system firewall protects data stored on the user device by blocking most threats when the device is connected to the internet or a LAN.
The operating system's firewall can detect all network connections on the user's device and provide a list of their IP addresses. The Firewall Management component allows you to set the status of the network connections by configuring the network packet rules.
This feature is not supported in the KESL container.
You can use network packet rules to specify the desired level of device protection, from fully blocking Internet access for all applications to allowing unlimited access. All outbound connections are allowed by default, unless corresponding blocking rules for the Firewall Management component are specified.
The Firewall Management component is disabled by default.
It is recommended to disable other operating system firewall management tools before enabling the Firewall Management component.
When the Firewall Management component is enabled, Kaspersky Endpoint Security automatically deletes all custom rules configured for the firewall with tools provided by the operating system. These rules are not restored after the component is disabled. If required, save the custom firewall rules before enabling the Firewall Management component.
If firewall management is enabled, Kaspersky Endpoint Security scans the operating system firewall and blocks any attempt to change the firewall settings, for example, when an application or utility attempts to add or delete a firewall rule. Kaspersky Endpoint Security checks the operating system firewall every 60 seconds and, if necessary. restores the set of firewall rules created using the application. The checking period cannot be changed.
In the Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS 8 operating systems, firewall rules created in Kaspersky Endpoint Security can only be viewed using administration commands (kesl-control -F --query command).
Kaspersky Endpoint Security still scans the operating system firewall when firewall management is disabled. This allows the application to restore dynamic rules.
You can enable or disable firewall management, and also configure the following settings:
To avoid possible problems on systems with nftables, Kaspersky Endpoint Security uses the iptables and iptables-restore system utilities when adding rules for the firewall of the operating system. The application creates a special chain of allowing rules called kesl_bypass, and adds it at the top of the list in the mangle table of the iptables and ip6tables utilities. The rules of the kesl_bypass chain make it possible to exclude traffic from scans by Kaspersky Endpoint Security. The rules in this chain can be changed by means of the operating system. When the application is removed, the kesl_bypass rule chain is removed from iptables and ip6tables only if it was empty.