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privsec.dev/content/posts/qubes/Firewalling with MirageOS on Qubes OS.md
Tommy 7ca2f0c9a0
Update Firewalling with MirageOS on Qubes OS.md
Just removing the mention of mirage not getting regular releases cuz that no longer seems to be the case

Signed-off-by: Tommy <contact@tommytran.io>
2022-12-08 11:03:33 -05:00

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---
title: "Firewalling with MirageOS on Qubes OS"
date: 2022-08-26
tags: ['Operating Systems', 'MirageOS', 'Qubes OS', 'Security']
author: Tommy
---
![MirageOS](/images/mirageos.png)
[MirageOS](https://mirage.io/) is a library operating system with which you can create a unikernel for the sole purpose of acting as Qubes OS's firewall. In this post, I will walk you through how to set this up.
## Advantages
- Small attack surface. The unikernel only contains a minimal set of libraries to function, so it has a much smaller attack surface than a general purpose operating system like a Linux distribution or openBSD.
- Low resource consumption. You only need about 64MB of RAM for each instance of the Mirage Firewall.
- Fast startup time.
## Disadvantages
- No official package for Qubes OS. This means that you need to follow the development process on GitHub and download the new build whenever there is a release.
- Does not work well with the Windows PV network driver. With that being said, the Windows PV networking driver is pretty buggy on its own, and I don't recommend that you use it anyways.
## Installing the unikernel
To deploy MirageOS, you need to copy the `vmlinuz` and `initramfs` files from their [releases page](https://github.com/mirage/qubes-mirage-firewall/releases) to `/var/lib/qubes/vm-kernels/mirage-firewall` in `dom0`.
### TemplateVM
Create a TemplateVM:
```bash
qvm-create \
--property kernel=mirage-firewall \
--property kernelopts='' \
--property memory=64 \
--property maxmem=64 \
--property vcpus=1 \
--property virt_mode=pvh \
--label=black \
--class TemplateVM \
your_template_name
```
Don't worry if the TemplateVM doesn't launch - we don't need it to.
### Disposable Template
Next, create a disposable template based on the TemplateVM you have just created.
```bash
qvm-create \
--property template=your_template_name \
--property provides_network=True \
--property template_for_dispvms=True \
--label=orange \
--class AppVM \
your_disposable_template_name
qvm-features your_disposable_template_name qubes-firewall 1
qvm-features your_disposable_template_name no-default-kernelopts 1
```
Your disposable templates should now launch and shutdown properly.
### Disposable FirewallVMs
You can now create disposable FirewallVMs based on your disposable template. I recommend replacing `sys-firewall` with a disposable Mirage firewall. If you use ProxyVMs like `sys-whonix`, I recommend that you add a disposable Mirage Firewall after the ProxyVM as well, and use it as the net qube for your AppVMs.
```bash
qvm-create \
--property template=your_disposable_template_name \
--property provides_network=True \
--property netvm=your_net_qube_name \
--label=orange \
--class DispVM \
your_firwall_name
```