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100 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
100 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Firewalling with MirageOS on Qubes OS"
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date: 2022-08-26
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tags: ['Operating Systems', 'MirageOS', 'Qubes OS', 'Security']
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author: Tommy
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---
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[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.
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## Advantages
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- 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.
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- Low resource consumption. You only need about 64MB of RAM for each instance of the Mirage Firewall.
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- Fast startup time.
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## Disadvantages
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- No official package for Qubes OS and while [Qubes Mirage Firewall](https://github.com/mirage/qubes-mirage-firewall) is still maintained, it rarely gets an official release. This means that you need to follow the development process on GitHub and make a new build yourself whenever there is a new commit.
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- 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.
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### Prebuilt Image
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You can obtain a prebuilt image of MirageOS [here](https://github.com/tommytran732/QubesOS-Scripts/tree/main/mirageos). I do follow the development of Qubes Mirage Firewall (since I use it on my personal computer) and will be uploading builds frequently.
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### Building Mirage-Firewall Yourself
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First, you need an AppVm/DispVM with Docker installed to build the Mirage kernel. Fedora works well enough for this purpose.
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Once you have an AppVM/DispVM to build it in, run the following commands:
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```bash
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git clone https://github.com/palainp/qubes-mirage-firewall/
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cd qubes-mirage-firewall
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git checkout mirage4
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sudo ./build-with-docker.sh
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```
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Once the build process finishes, the unikernel should be at `~/qubes-mirage-firewall/_build/mirage-firewall/vmlinuz`.
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## Deploy
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First, you need to copy the unikernel to `/var/lib/qubes/vm-kernels/mirage-firewall` in `dom0` and create a dummy `initramfs`:
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```bash
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mkdir -p /var/lib/qubes/vm-kernels/mirage-firewall/
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cd /var/lib/qubes/vm-kernels/mirage-firewall/
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qvm-run -p your_appvm_name 'cat /path/to/the/vmlinuz/file' > vmlinuz
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gzip -n9 < /dev/null > initramfs
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```
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### TemplateVM
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Create a TemplateVM:
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```bash
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qvm-create \
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--property kernel=mirage-firewall \
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--property kernelopts='' \
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--property memory=128 \
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--property maxmem=128 \
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--property vcpus=1 \
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--property virt_mode=pvh \
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--label=black \
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--class TemplateVM \
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your_template_name
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```
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Don't worry if the TemplateVM doesn't launch - we don't need it to.
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### Disposable Template
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Next, create a disposable template based on the TemplateVM you have just created.
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```bash
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qvm-create \
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--property template=your_template_name \
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--property provides_network=True \
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--property template_for_dispvms=True \
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--label=orange \
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--class AppVM \
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your_disposable_template_name
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qvm-features your_disposable_template_name qubes-firewall 1
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qvm-features your_disposable_template_name no-default-kernelopts 1
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```
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Your disposable templates should now launch and shutdown properly.
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### Disposable FirewallVMs
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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.
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```bash
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qvm-create \
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--property template=your_disposable_template_name \
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--property provides_network=True \
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--property netvm=your_net_qube_name \
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--label=orange \
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--class DispVM \
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your_firwall_name
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```
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