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The Sound of Your Firewall

upside writes "It had to be done. Once The Spinning Cube of Potential Doom gave us a 3D visualization of a firewall, someone was bound to ask themselves 'What does your firewall sound like?'."

31 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Anthem / Midi? by CommanderData · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I really like these concepts for alternate ways to visualize large amounts of data. Reminds me of Douglas Adam's Dirk Gently books. There was a character who wrote a program called Anthem that would interpret a company's stock data and vital statistics and play a tune based on that data.

    Rather than using a Wav. file, maybe this could be written to play a variety MIDI tones to account for all kinds of activity on your network!

    --
    Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
    1. Re:Anthem / Midi? by Trigun · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just pipe everything into /dev/sound. Easier, elegant in its simplicity, and will keep people out of your cubicle.

    2. Re:Anthem / Midi? by pcmanjon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Once a waterbottle fell over somehow and my router was douched in it.

      I got to find out what a router SMELLS like.

      You know that never-mistakable smell of electronics on fire?

      Yeah, thats what they smell like ;]

    3. Re:Anthem / Midi? by The_K4 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your NEVER supposed to let the blue smoke out of the electronic components, that's what makes them run! You know how hard it is to get that smoke in there in the fist place?!?!

  2. That's great, but... by th1ckasabr1ck · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's all well and good, but what I really, really am dying to know is what my firewall FEELS like...

    1. Re:That's great, but... by caston · · Score: 5, Funny
      That's all well and good, but what I really, really am dying to know is what my firewall FEELS like...

      That's easy... youre firewall feels like swiss cheese.

      --
      Beings aspergers AND pulling chicks... I enjoy the challenge!
    2. Re:That's great, but... by QuijiboIsAWord · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'd say probably just like my wife. Cold and completely inaccessible.

      --
      -Hmm...I got a G+ invite, better remember to remove the request from my sig...-
    3. Re:That's great, but... by Vilim · · Score: 4, Funny

      Do you really want to know what it is like to be probed every time a script kiddie with Nmap is bored?

      --
      History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill
  3. how about... by wwest4 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    moudulating the pitch on the dropped/blocked port numbers? I bet it could sound like a windchime with the proper modulus.

    1. Re:how about... by digitalsushi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hrm. One of the things I let my server do for me is emulate a giant grandfather clock. Cron plays the wave files. People always ask me where the clock is, but it's just coming out the stereo.

      If I set it up to do quarter hour chimes, that would be a rather interesting way to announce network meta-data: The louder the volume, the more stuff going on that I probably don't want. I could make it two dimensional by using sound and pitch, and I wouldn't even have to do any fancy math stuff I don't know. I could just make 8 different pitches and gradiate using that.

      --
      slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
  4. Obligatory Quote by Aerk · · Score: 5, Funny

    This wall sounds like burning!

  5. I did that. by digitalsushi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been doing exactly this same thing for a while. I found that it got extrememly obnoxious, so I dumbed mine down to just play a wave file whenever I get pinged by someone pinging me from a command line ping. I don't know why the length is different than the crap pings that come in every 8 or 9 seconds, but with this swatch definition below, it seems to trigger only when I am pinged by hand.

    So, put this in your swatch file that watches your firewall log:

    watchfor /firewall-ping.*LEN=84/
    exec "/usr/local/site/bin/ping-wave.sh ping.wav"

    That script just locks the darned thing so it doesnt pop and crack if i get pinged twice:

    ping-wave.sh:
    if `grep OPEN /etc/pingwatch.lock 1>/dev/null`
    then (echo -n > /etc/pingwatch.lock) && (/usr/bin/play /usr/local/site/etc/soun
    ds/$1) && (echo OPEN > /etc/pingwatch.lock)
    fi

    And here's a link to my ping wave for you to use:

    ping .wav

    I also used the naturalvoices website to make a nerdy computer lady announcing new entries in my arp table. You can grab wave file too if you want. Here's the script I have for that:

    put this in your /etc/crontab or whatever:

    0-59 * * * * root /usr/local/site/bin/arp-watch

    and then make the above command contain this:

    #!/bin/bash

    for each in `arp -n |grep -v "Address"|grep -v "eth0"|awk '{print $3}'`
    do
    if grep $each /etc/arptable 1>/dev/null
    then :
    else /usr/bin/play /usr/local/site/etc/sounds/new.arp.entry.wav && echo $each >> /etc/arptable
    fi
    done

    if anyone can improve upon my bash, please, i have no ego. :D

    --
    slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
    1. Re:I did that. by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was curious about all the Sasser mutants and such trying to hit my port 445, so I whipped up a program to open the port and see if they were trying to say anything. (Boring, they want my end to say something first.) I used the text-to-speech to have it say "Poink!" when it opened the port and "Splat!" when it closed. When a few hit at the same time, it's "Poink! Poink! Poink! Splat! Splat! Splat!". Almost as entertaining as having a few beers out back listening to the bug-zapper. (It would be better if my end sent a buffer-overflow to crash attempted attacks, but too much work.)

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  6. IDS by Aliencow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd rather have a silent firewall... I'm not the kind of people who likes having a big warning everytime some script kiddy scans my port 31337 or pings me... hell ZoneAlarm will warn you if there's a DHCP server on your network... and people who don't know better think that OMG IT'S A HAX!!!!!!11111111...

    Maybe it could be nice on an IDS system though..

  7. Sounds like this by bludstone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Grrr.. ch ch ch.. grrrr. ch ch ch... grrrr.. ch ch ch..

    I need to replace the harddrive soon or im going to be without a firewall.

    --

    no .sig
  8. What does mine sound like? by FerretFrottage · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Ding Dong"..."No one's home"
    "Ding Dong"..."Not interested"
    "Ding Dong"..."Go away"
    "Ding Dong"..."Leave me alone"
    "Ding Dong"..."porn you say? well come right on in"

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  9. I know what my network sounds like... by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 5, Funny

    It sounds like the screams of thousands of users, as I hit that red button marked: Power.

  10. My firewall? by CCIEwannabe · · Score: 5, Funny

    I use windows, so my firewall sounds something like this

    Holy Crap! Help me lord! Bleeep!

  11. Do you by BCW2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ever get the feeling that some people have entirely too much time on their hands?

    --
    Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
  12. What does it sound like? by evil-osm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Like a 486 on its last legs, fans barely moving, and the smell of cooking dust.... ahhhh.

    --


    E.

    Never rub another man's rhubarb - The Joker
  13. Or like by Stevyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, come on in.

    Hi, step right up.

    Wait, let me see your ID...okay...Sasser eh? Alright sounds good.

    Alright, I'm going on break now. Time for wifi to shut down

  14. Don't know about mine, but theirs sounds like... by Shoten · · Score: 5, Funny

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIEEEE! Too many hits!!!! F*#%ING Slashdot!"

    --

    For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
  15. It sounds like popcorn popping. by Saint+Aardvark · · Score: 4, Interesting
    You know when you've got popcorn going and it gets to that crazy insane stage when things just go nuts? That's my firewall these days.

    I send firewall logs to DShield.org, and you should to. The firewall is set to only log 100 denied packets at a time, so lazy bastard that I am I set a cronjob to reset the counters every hour. That was a few months ago.

    Last week I happened to be looking at the logfiles, and I noticed something: an hour was no longer enough. The counter hits 100 within 10 or 15 minutes. I can watch the hits come in, and it's all Windows crap: Port 445. Port 137. Port 139. Port 1026. That's it. Nothing interesting -- you know, no stealthy scans by l33t cr5X0rZ, no probing for open relays, nothing.

    Two thoughts before I go:

    First, this makes for excellent demonstration material. A coworker mentioned that he was considering moving from Windows to Linux because he was tired of all the viruses and worms. I showed him what tail -f on my firewall logs looked like, pointed out that it was all Windows junk, and he was convinced. Gave him a Knoppix CD and made another notch on my belt. :-)

    Second, I'm lucky: my ISP has not yet started firewalling ports yet. A friend's ISP just started, and now his web and mail server, which I'm doing DNS for, are no longer available from outside -- they've started blocking those along with 445, 137, 139, and so on. Sadly, it looks like the ISP has no provision for lifting this if you can prove you're l33t enough, so it looks like he's screwed.

    Honestly, though, I'm not surprised. Yeah, it sucks that the Internet is no longer open -- but it sucks that the Internet is no longer friendly, too, and the one is a consequence of the other. As much as I bitch about Windows and Microsoft, I don't think they're entirely to blame...you get that many people joining something, and you're going to have enough asshats to ruin it pretty quickly.

  16. I'm not sure what my firewall sounds like... by Faust7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...but I imagine the Linux Gazette web server sounds like Rice Krispies about now.

  17. Already done... by Cheerio+Boy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Can't read the article due to 'slashing but it's already been done by peep - the network analyzer:

    http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proce edings/lisa2000/gilfix/gilfix_html/

    --

    "Bah!" - Dogbert
  18. my firewall sounds like this by enrico_suave · · Score: 4, Funny

    'Ecky- ecky- ecky- ecky- pikang- zoop- boing- goodem- zoo- owli- zhiv'

    =)

    e.

    --
    Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
  19. My firewall sounds like... by JessLeah · · Score: 4, Funny

    o/~ Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM! o/~

    o/~ Ohhh, a worrrm, oh noooo it's a worrrrrm o/~

  20. Re:Mac Version by hackstraw · · Score: 4, Informative

    Unless you installed GNU tail, the OSX tail does not have the --follow option.

    Don't forget to run it as root.

    You don't need root access, you only need to be in the admin group, which I would guess you already are if you have root access.

    Plus, I would guess that the default option for playing an aiff file is via Quicktime, which may get intrusive.

    Lesson learned, don't mod something as informative unless you know what it says.

  21. My firewall? by Darth_brooks · · Score: 4, Funny

    My firewall sounds like a really bad techno song. It starts with a nice driving rythem with hits on 137 that come out like:

    bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump

    Then maybe a few attempts at an SQL worm on 1433-1434 so i get the second layer of the track; that's sound like 'dittlit-bump' so the track now becomes

    bump-bump-bump-dittlit-bump-dittlit-bump

    Now we've got some rythem going, but we there's always that annoying yet musical sound that comes interrupts the song the first time you hear it, but then you get used to it. We'll call that a portscan. ports 135-137-445-3127-5000

    dah-dah-dahdah-dah-dah-dahdahdah

    But at just that moment I get a fresh IP from my DSL provider, and the last guy who had it was running eDonkey, AIM file transfers, and bittorrent (as happened to my a couple days ago) and all the crap clients for said programs don't realize the old client died, so they keep trying said addresses.....we'll call that a big-ass bass hit that starts the loop over again.

    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO M

    Holy crap, my firewall sounds exactly like the Strong Bad techno song, minus the 'the system is down' quote. (ahhh the benfits of coyote linux. or IPcop.)

    http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html

    --
    There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
  22. Dobly Surround Sound Quality Firewall!!! by quadra23 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You need this kind of quality to accurately measure the warfare that your Firewall is waging against anything evil on the cyber-waves. That latest Windows virus? Nope got smacked down by your firewall and you heard it about a minute ago.

    Forget games(!?), just listen to your firewall wage glorious battle for the freedom and security of your PC and/or home network(!) in the comfort of your own home! All it would need then is a quality commentary...

    "Firewall detected malicious port scan and DOS (Denial of Service) attacks aimed towards IP 19.5.4.10 on port 70. Access denied, commence lockdown and vapourize all opposition!" Forget those war movies folks, you can experience it for yourself now!

    Or how about "Reinforcements (firewall updates) have just arrived deploying them as according to operating procedures".

    Man, that would be the life, at least now spending hours on your own PC won't be dull again! Only thing left would be to be figure out a way to salute to your firewall and give it medals of honour...Hmmmm, this will take some time to figure out, but at least we got this far ^_^

  23. Totally useless by Rayder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What you need to ear is not the DROPed packets, but the ACCEPTed ones.

    If you make a diferent sound for every port/address/whatever packet you receive it becomes easy to recognice when the traffic is anormal.