Firewall Builder for PIX 2.1.8 review

Firewall Builder is multi-platform firewall configuration and management tool

License: Other/Proprietary License with Free Trial File size: 302K Developer: NetCitadel, LLC

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Firewall Builder is multi-platform firewall configuration and management tool. It consists of a GUI and set of policy compilers for various firewall platforms. Firewall Builder uses object-oriented approach, it helps administrator maintain a database of network objects and allows policy editing using simple drag-and-drop operations.

Firewall Builder currently supports iptables, ipfilter, OpenBSD PF and Cisco PIX. Technical summary of features supported by the policy compilers for all platforms can be found in the section "Modules" (see menu on the left).

Being truly vendor-neutral, Firewall Builder can generate configuration file for any supported target firewall platform from the same policy created in its GUI. This provides for both consistent policy management solution for heterogeneous environments and possible migration path.

With the additional purchase of Firewall Builder for PIX, Firewall Builder functions as a sophisticated policy management software for Cisco PIX firewall with access to all functions of PIX including newest features added in v6.3.

Firewall Builder allows for management of multiple firewalls using the same network object database. Change made to an object is immediately reflected in the policy of all firewalls using this object. Administrator only needs to recompile and install policies on actual firewall machines.

In Firewall Builder, administrator works with an abstraction of firewall policy and NAT rules; software effectively "hides" specifics of particular target firewall platform and helps administrator focus on implementation of security policy.

Backend software components, or policy compilers, can deduct many parameters of policy rules using information available through network and service objects and therefore generate fairly complex code for the target firewall, thus relieving administrator from having to remember all its details and limitations. Policy compilers can also run sanity checks on firewall rules and make sure typical errors are caught before generated policy is deployed.

Requirements:
firewallbuilder >= 2.0.2

What's New in This Release:
Besides a few minor bugfixes, this release comes with an experimental utility fwb_pix_diff that can generate command sequences to make small changes in large ACL and NAT commands for PIX 7.0.
This utility will be integrated into the Firewall Builder built-in policy installer in the future.