All-in-one Linux security distribution touts ease of use, advanced features

If you haven’t checked out Endian Firewall yet, download the code and give it a try.

Endian Firewall is a packaged Linux security distribution that combines several open source firewall, VPN and anti-virus packages with a hardened Linux operating system.

There are many Linux security appliance packages out there, so Endian is hoping to differentiate its distribution with ease-of-use management and set-up features. According to the developers’ Web site, the “turn-key” package was created with “usability in mind … without losing its flexibility.” A set of browser-based wizards is used for setup, configuration and maintenance, and the software can be installed via the RPM package manager standard.

Features of Endian Firewall 1.1 include a stateful inspection firewall, an IPSec VPN stack (using the OpenVPN project code), as well as a built-in DHCP and Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers. For anti-spam and anti-virus capabilities, the distribution draws on the open source Spamassassin project, put out by the Apache Foundation. Also, the ClamAV open source anti-virus package is integrated into the system. Other security features include Web content and URL filtering capabilities, time limits on Web surfing and whitelist/blacklist access management.

Higher-level application services for the box include an SMTP and POP mail server proxies, as well as a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) VoIP gateway proxy.

Base hardware requirements for Endian Firewall are a 400 to 500Mhz Pentium II or AMD processor, and 256 MB of memory. Two Ethernet cards are also needed for ingress/egress ports. The distribution and software take up around 7 GB of hard disk space.

Released in 2005, and currently in Version 1.2, the Linux security package is expected to come out with Version 2.0 in a few months with bug fixes and new features.