Smokey: A User-Based Distributed Firewall System

Traditional intranets have a central location on the network which easily allows the enforcement of a central security policy. They rely on the notion that there is one central entry point for all internal machines. Additionally, all machines that are considered logically inside the intranet reside behind the entry point. Increasingly this is not the case. We propose Smokey, a system that manages and distributes a central security policy to end clients on a network. Smokey installs a distributed firewall on a client based on a user’s location and needs. The security policy that it distributes is based on the credentials the user provides and the lowest level of access needed for the user to complete their tasks is enforced.