Re: Migrating to Debian - which firewall ?

[didier gaumet <didier.gaumet@gmail.com>]

Le 19/01/2026 à 10:49, Nicolas Kovacs a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> I'm a long-time Linux user (two and a half decades since Slackware 7.1). 
> I've been using RHEL clones mainly for the last ten years or so, on 
> desktops as well as servers (local and Internet-facing). For firewalling 
> I simply chose the default Firewalld.
>
> I understand under Debian there are different possibilities to handle 
> firewalls. As far as I understand, ufw (Uncomplicated firewall) seems to 
> be the default, though Firewalld seems to be an option.
>
> Any recommendations ?
>
> Niki


Hello Nicolas,

I am almost ignorant about network in general and firewalling makes no 
exception

But I think the Debian policy is to have no default firewall precisely 
to let the administrator think about what they need and how to implement 
this. So by default, no firewall.

I would say that if you were satisfied by firewalld on RHEL, keep on 
using it on Debian.
I use it (very basically) on my laptop with the GUI applet and config tool.

I don't know if it has evolved, but in the past Firewalld was one of the 
few frontends able to manage NFT native syntax

Here are Firewalld related packages in Debian 13:

containernetworking-plugins/stable 1.1.1+ds1-3+b17 amd64
  standard networking plugins - binaries

firewall-applet/stable,now 2.3.1-1 all [installed]
  panel applet providing status information of firewalld

firewall-config/stable,now 2.3.1-1 all [installed,automatic]
  graphical configuration tool to change the firewall settings

firewalld/stable,now 2.3.1-1 all [installed,automatic]
  dynamically managed firewall with support for network zones

firewalld-tests/stable 2.3.1-1 all
  installed tests for firewalld

foomuuri/stable-security 0.27-2+deb13u1 all
  multizone bidirectional nftables firewall

foomuuri-firewalld/stable-security 0.27-2+deb13u1 all
  multizone bidirectional nftables firewall - firewalld emulation

golang-github-containernetworking-plugins-dev/stable 1.1.1+ds1-3 all
  standard networking plugins - sources

plasma-firewall/stable 6.3.4-2 amd64
  Plasma configuration module for firewalls

python3-firewall/stable,now 2.3.1-1 all [installed,automatic]
  Python3 bindings for firewalld