Raspberry Pi based Firewall & NIDS

Abstract

In the present day and age, there are various factors that can make or break a promising startups, even the most ambitious ones. One of them is financial constraints. For example, a group of individuals come together and plan a startup and that too an IT. They are not sure if their plans will pass the test of times. It will be insensible on their part to invest in the world class tool for their organization which is yet to be settled. So they have to find the cheaper and efficient ways to make their ends meet. So the start begins with filtering and monitoring the traffic.

When we think of filtering, we think of the ways in which it can be done. The wall in terms of firewall is the best possible solution. BUT we can end up purchasing a firewall which is surplus to the requirement. By this we mean that the financial limits will be stressed for no reason. Also, the network traffic is required to be monitoring passively or real-time with the tools that are available in the market. Open source softwares like Suricata and Snort are available in the market. But the question remains. What can be the best possible interface for applying all the above mentioned facilities all at once?

The current constraints like heat generation, power requirement, and space as well as cost requirements compelled us to look beyond a regular PC setup and design a solution which can be used for small scale purpose, adaptable to the requirements which caters to the need of any startup which is usually low on funds. So as Raspberry Pi ticks all the above requirements, this project explores various possibilities.

The Raspberry Pi is a single board computer developed by Raspberry Pi foundation. The device primarily uses Linux kernel based operating system. The core part of the project is to design the monitoring system which will also provide functionalities of both Intrusion Detection as well as Intrusion Prevention.