11 Best Open Source Firewall Distributions

Security is paramount. Security involves defense in depth. Approaching security one step at a time, with consistency and rigour, you can mitigate threats, and keep intruders at bay.

Intruders use a variety of different techniques in an attempt to compromise a system. For example, systems can be attacked by denial of service, cracking, intrusion, snooping (intercepting the data of another user), or viruses/worms/Trojan horses. To have a secure box, a system therefore needs a variety of defenses.

One important step to protect a system is using a firewall. Essentially, this is a network security system, acting like a security guard between internal and external networks. The firewall controls incoming and outgoing network traffic using security rules. The rules specify which connections you want to allow and the ports and zones through which the connection can be established.

Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks chart. All of the software featured in this article is released under an open source license. Each of the solutions offer a comparable set of features to many expensive commercial firewall solutions.

Let’s explore the 11 firewall distros at hand. For each distro we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources.

This article has been updated to reflect the changes outlined in our recent announcement.

Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category. The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form.