phoque: the seal-tight TUI firewall

Keyboard-only firewall that lets you add and toggle iptables rules without touching the shell. Rules are tagged and reapplied cleanly each time.

• Supports TCP/UDP/ICMP, single/wildcard/range ports, optional interface binding.
• Rules persisted in data/rules.json; each rule is tagged phoque-<id> on apply for easy cleanup.
• Delete de-applies the rule; toggle-all flips every rule then reapplies.

Note: school project focused on OOP and good programming practices. The project is still evolving; expect frequent changes and new functionalities.

Prerequisites

• Linux with iptables available.
• Python 3.10+.
• Ability to run iptables: sudo, or setcap cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw=eip on the Python binary.

Installation

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/cnf409/phoque.git
cd phoque

2. Run the installer

./install.sh

The script creates .venv, installs requirements.txt, and drops a phoque launcher in /usr/local/bin (sudo prompt if needed).

Run

phoque                # uses sudo automatically if not root

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

Removes /usr/local/bin/phoque and the .venv created by the installer.

Keyboard shortcuts

• [a] add rule (arrow keys / Tab / Enter / Esc)
• [e] edit rule
• [d] delete rule (y/n confirm; de-applies first)
• [x] toggle selected rule ON/OFF (applies immediately)
• [p] toggle all (auto-applies)
• [t] focus table
• [q] quit (Ctrl+C also quits)

How it works

• Domain: Rule subclasses (Allow/Deny/Reject) build iptables commands; FirewallManager persists and applies them.
• Storage: JsonDatabase (data/rules.json).
• UI: FirewallApp (Textual) with modal forms, confirmation dialogs, and a rules table.