How To Install natlog on Ubuntu 22.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install natlog on Ubuntu 22.04. natlog is Source-natting firewall logging utility

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install natlog on Ubuntu 22.04.

What is natlog

natlog is:

Firewalls like iptables usually offer POSTROUTING source network address translation facilities changing the source address of a host behind the firewall to the address of the host before the firewall.

The standard log facilities provided by iptables do not easily allow associating addresses behind the firewall with their source-natted equivalents before the firewall. Natlog was designed to fill in that particular niche.

When running natlog, messages are sent to the syslog daemon and/or to the standard output stream showing the essential characteristics of the connection using source natting. Here is an example:

from Fri 8 22:30:10:55588 until Fri 8 22:40:43:807100: 192.168.19.72:4467 (via: 129.125.90.132:4467) to 200.49.219.180:443

Natlog depends on facilities provided by iptables; work is in progress to generate logs using facilities offered by the pcap library.

There are three methods to install natlog on Ubuntu 22.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install natlog Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install natlog using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install natlog

Install natlog Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install natlog using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install natlog

Install natlog Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install natlog using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install natlog

How To Uninstall natlog on Ubuntu 22.04

To uninstall only the natlog package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove natlog

Uninstall natlog And Its Dependencies

To uninstall natlog and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 22.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove natlog

Remove natlog Configurations and Data

To remove natlog configuration and data from Ubuntu 22.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge natlog

Remove natlog configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove natlog configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge natlog

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install natlog package on Ubuntu 22.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.