Building your firewall, Part 2; How to make sure your OS is ready to go

Be sure to check the requirements for your firewall software. My partner and I once went through the effort of installing Solaris 7 on a box and hardening the system, only to discover that the firewall software had not yet been ported to Solaris 7. We had to backtrack to Solaris 2.6. Read the firewall documentation before you start installing the platform. It would be foolish to rely on the firewall software alone to protect the system. Before installing the firewall software, the system should be hardened to limit potential exposure. If you purchase a "black box" firewall, the vendor should harden the system, though you have no way to be certain that everything is in order. If you're installing the firewall yourself, you can strip all unnecessary services from the OS. Peter Galvin and Hal Pomeranz offered guidelines for hardening your OS in two previous SunWorld columns (see Resources). Peter's tips in his Solaris Security FAQ are more up-to-date (and I hear he will be updating the FAQ page again soon).