Pfsense, Debian and Python on VirtualBox

In this lesson we will learn how to install debian and docker and run your python scripts

Requirements

• Pfsense must be configured correctly and running - link ( Just follow till you have a working pfsense and skip the docker part)

Prerequisites

• Download the official debian full dvd iso - link

Installation

Debian

Start your debian machine and follow the instructions

Everything should work perfectly if you are following my guide.

Root privileges

su
# root password
sudo usermod -aG sudo your-username
exit
newgrp sudo

Use Apt

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list 

Copy this into the file

deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
# deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
 
deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
# deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
 
deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-proposed-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
# deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-proposed-updates contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
 
deb https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
# deb-src https://ftp.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-backports contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
 
deb https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security contrib main non-free non-free-firmware
# deb-src https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security contrib main non-free non-free-firmware

Continue to docker installation

Docker

Before you install Docker Engine for the first time on a new host machine, you need to set up the Docker apt repository. Afterward, you can install and update Docker from the repository.

Video guide :

1. Set up Docker's apt repository.

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
 
# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")

2. Install the Docker packages.

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

3. Verify that the installation is successful by running the hello-world image:

sudo docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints a confirmation message and exits.

You have now successfully installed and started Docker Engine.

Now we will create a docker group to run docker commands withouts sudo

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Verify that you can run docker commands without sudo.

docker run hello-world

Configuration

We have now a working pfsense and a debian vm with docker installed. Now we will try to use pfsense to expose our python server to listen on the WAN IP so we can send requests to the server from any pc in the network.

Download the python scripts in your vm

dockerpy.zip

Unzip the files and open the folder in terminal

You will have these files

Docker containers

Now we will start by building the server with docker and exposing to our local network and use our client to connect to it

Server

docker build -f server.Dockerfile -t python-server .
docker compose -f server-compose.yml up -d

Client

docker build -f client.Dockerfile -t python-client .
docker run -it --network s4_tcp python-client python-server 1234 "https://api.ipify.org"

As we can see, our docker python-server is running and respond back to client requests by specifying the ip port and url which we want to get the response from. Now we will use our pfsense to expose this to the WAN IP and see if it still works

Pfsense

Currently running python-client by specifying WAN IP doesn't work we haven't exposed these ports to the public yet.

We will start by adding a new rule in pfsense to expose our debian vm IP and port

Firewall → NAT

Click on Add and use the following information

Save and Apply changes

Now we will try to connect to our python-server from pfsense WAN IP

docker run -it python-client WANIP 1234 "https://api.ipify.org"

And Voilà