Description of problem:IPTABLES seems to ignore the local system date/time and defaults to UTC when building rulesets that use "Time Interval" objects.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): This seems to be restricted to v 1.4.11.4 only.


How reproducible: I used Firewall Builder, v5, to construct the ruleset. I get the same results no matter how I tweak the ruleset.


Steps to Reproduce:
1.Construct a rule as follows:

echo "Rule 5 (global)"
 # 
 # Disallow web traffic except
 # during the specifiec Time Interval.
 $IPTABLES -N Cid4276X22838.0
 for i_eth0 in $i_eth0_list
 do
 test -n "$i_eth0" && $IPTABLES -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m multiport -s $i_eth0 --dports 80,443 -m state --state NEW -j Cid4276X228
38.0 
 done
 $IPTABLES -N RULE_5
 $IPTABLES -A Cid4276X22838.0 -m time --datestart 2011-01-01T18:00:00 --datestop 2020-01-01T21:05:00 --weekdays Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri -j 
RULE_5
 $IPTABLES -A Cid4276X22838.0 -m time --timestart 08:00 --timestop 11:30 --weekdays Sun,Sat -j RULE_5
 $IPTABLES -N Cid4276X22838.1
 $IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m multiport --dports 80,443 -m state --state NEW -j Cid4276X22838.1
 $IPTABLES -A Cid4276X22838.1 -m time --datestart 2011-01-01T18:00:00 --datestop 2020-01-01T21:05:00 --weekdays Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri -j 
RULE_5
 $IPTABLES -A Cid4276X22838.1 -m time --timestart 08:00 --timestop 11:30 --weekdays Sun,Sat -j RULE_5
 $IPTABLES -A RULE_5 -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix "RULE 5 -- ACCEPT "
 $IPTABLES -A RULE_5 -j ACCEPT

2. Compile and install the rule using Firewall Builder 5 (or code the rule by hand. It doesn't matter.)

3. Examine the state of the tables as follows: /sbin/iptables -L

4: The output is always like this:

Chain Cid4276X22838.0 (1 references)
target prot opt source destination 
RULE_5 all -- anywhere anywhere TIME on Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri starting from 2011-01-01 18:00:00 until date 2020-01-01 21:05:00 UTC
RULE_5 all -- anywhere anywhere TIME from 08:00:00 to 11:30:00 on Sat,Sun UTC

Chain Cid4276X22838.1 (1 references)
target prot opt source destination 
RULE_5 all -- anywhere anywhere TIME on Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri starting from 2011-01-01 18:00:00 until date 2020-01-01 21:05:00 UTC
RULE_5 all -- anywhere anywhere TIME from 08:00:00 to 11:30:00 on Sat,Sun UTC

As you can see, in both rule chains, date and time references are always referenced to UTC. while this is the setting of the hardware clock, IPTABLES should be using the system date/time instead. That is the classic behavior and changing the hardware clock to local time is generally out of the question and while coding rulesets against UTC would work, it's terribly error-prone unless you live along the prime meridian.

5: My workaround was to uninstall v. 1.4.11.1 and it's dependencies and install 1.4.7 and it's dependencies from Mandriva 2010.2. My firewall script functioned properly thereafter, as it did under Mandriva 2010.2. To maintain my sanity, automatic update checks had to be disabled, too.