10 Create a pfSense Firewall VM
Mathew J. Heath Van Horn, PhD
The software product pfSense is a popular open-source firewall used by small and mid-sized companies. The software can run on hardware or a virtual machine. It is based on Unix FreeBSD which differs from Linux. This lab leads the learner to create a pfSense VM in VirtualBox.
Learning Objectives
- Successfully download, install, and run pfSense in VirtualBox
Prerequisites
Deliverables
- None – this is a preparatory lab that supports other labs in this book
Resources
- Download pfSense
- Kingatua, Amos, “How to install pfSense Firewall on Ubuntu and CentOS?”, https://geekflare.com/pfsense-installation-guide/
Contributors and Testers
- Jacob M. Christensen, Cybersecurity Student, ERAU-Prescott
- Julian H. Romano, Cybersecurity Student, ERAU-Prescott
- Evan Paddock, Cybersecurity Student, ERAU-Prescott
- Dante Rocca, Cybersecurity Student, ERAU-Prescott
Phase I – Download pfSense
pfSense is an operating system (OS), like Windows, Linux, or MacOS.
- Download the installer for pfSense Community Edition
NOTE: At the time this was written, Netgate made a surprising update that requires users to register for a new account and give up personal information just to download the Community Edition image of pfSense. For many, this compromise of privacy for the sake of corporate data harvesting is not worth this extra road block for learning. Therefore, we will provide two different methods for downloading pfSense.
- The “Official” Method: https://www.pfsense.org/download/
NOTE: It is strongly advised to avoid using to real personally identifiable information (PII) for online accounts you’ll only use once. Companies get hacked all the time; the last thing you want is your name, physical address, and phone number leaked just because you wanted to mess around with firewalls! However, you are not restricted from using temporary emails, temporary phone numbers or false addresses when needed.
- The “Unofficial” Method (Recommended): https://www.pfsense.app/download/
- Select the following options from the associated drop-down menus (Figure 1)
NOTE: This example uses CE version 2.7.2.
- Architecture: AMD64 (64-bit)
- Installer: DVD Image (ISO) Installer
- Click Download
NOTE: At this point, a file named pfSense-CE-x.x.x-RELEASE-amd64.iso.gz should be downloaded by your browser. The .gz file extension stands for GNU Zip, which is an application commonly used for file compression.
- Select the following options from the associated drop-down menus (Figure 1)
- The “Official” Method: https://www.pfsense.org/download/
- Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the ISO and decompress (unzip) it
- If you’re on Windows, use 7zip
- If you’re on Linux, use GNU unzip
$ gunzip ~/Downloads/file-name.gz
- You should now see a file name pfSense-CE-x.x.x-RELEASE-amd64.iso in your Downloads directory
Phase II – Create a pfSense VM
Creating a pfSense VM is a pretty standard exercise.
- Start the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manag