Firewall Management task (Firewall_Management, ID:12)

During use on local area networks (LANs) and the Internet, a device is exposed to viruses, other malware, and a variety of attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems and software.

The operating system firewall protects personal data stored on the user device by blocking most threats when the device is connected to the internet or a LAN.

The operating system firewall allows you to detect all network connections on the user device and provide a list of their IP addresses. The Firewall Management task allows you to set the status of the network connections by configuring the network packet rules. Configuring network packet rules lets you specify the desired level of the device protection, from 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 task are specified.

While the Firewall Management task is running, Kaspersky Endpoint Security blocks configuration of the operating system firewall settings when, for example, an application or utility attempts to add or delete a firewall rule. Kaspersky Endpoint Security checks the operating system firewall every 60 seconds and restores the set of firewall rules if necessary. The checking period cannot be changed.

In the Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS 8 operating systems, firewall rules created using Kaspersky Endpoint Security can only be viewed through the application (kesl-control -F --query command).

The operating system firewall continues to be checked even when the Firewall Management task is stopped. This allows the application to restore dynamic rules.

To avoid problems on systems with nftables, Kaspersky Endpoint Security uses the iptables and iptables-restore system utilities when adding rules for the system firewall.

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.

It is recommended to disable other operating system firewall management tools before enabling the Firewall Management task.