Configure Firewall

Note

This writeup seems pointless, as the AppleTV seems to ship with no firewall rules configured.

In MacOS X, at boot time,

/usr/libexec/FirewallTool

runs, which reads the file

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist

Neither the binary nor the plist are distributed with the AppleTV OS, and it is therefore not surprising that in a default OS install, the ipfw kext has a single 'allow any' default rule:

-bash-2.05b$ sudo ipfw list
65535 allow ip from any to any

There is no need to hack up a way to disable the firewall.

Obsolete information

These instructions were taken from the Install SSH article. Disabling the firewall may be necessary for installing additional servers. It is not necessary for allowing SSH access.

Step 1

Create the directory fw in /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/StartupItems/.

Step 2

Create the file StartupParameters.plist in /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/StartupItems/fw/ with the following text:

{
  Description = "Firewall";
  Provides = ("Firewall");
  Requires = ("Network");
  OrderPreference = "None";
}

Step 3

Create the shell script fw in /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/StartupItems/fw/ with the following text:

 #!/bin/sh
 
 /sbin/ipfw -f flush
 /sbin/ipfw add 65535 allow ip from any to any

Step 4

Change file permission to make it executable:

chmod 755 /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/StartupItems/fw/fw