Debugging rules in Iptables [duplicate]
If you have a recent enough kernel and version of iptables you can use the TRACE target (Seems to be builtin on at least Debian 5.0). You should set the conditions of your trace to be as specific as possible and disable any TRACE rules when you are not debugging because it does spew a lot of information to the logs.
TRACE
This target marks packes so that the kernel will log every rule which match the packets as those traverse the tables, chains, rules. (The ipt_LOG or ip6t_LOG module is required for the logging.) The packets are logged with the string prefix: "TRACE: tablename:chainname:type:rulenum " where type can be "rule" for plain rule, "return" for implicit rule at the end of a user defined chain and "policy" for the policy of the built in chains. It can only be used in the raw table.
If you added rules like this
iptables -t raw -A PREROUTING -p tcp --destination 192.168.0.0/24 --dport 80 -j TRACE
iptables -t raw -A OUTPUT -p tcp --destination 192.168.0.0/24 --dport 80 -j TRACE
You will be supplied with output that looks like this.
# grep 'TRACE:' /var/log/kern.log
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325658] TRACE: raw:PREROUTING:policy:2 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.12.152 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=80 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325689] TRACE: mangle:PREROUTING:policy:1 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.12.152 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=80 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325713] TRACE: nat:PREROUTING:rule:1 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.12.152 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=80 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325731] TRACE: nat:nat.1:rule:1 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.12.152 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=80 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325731] TRACE: mangle:INPUT:policy:1 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.32.10 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=3128 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325731] TRACE: filter:INPUT:rule:2 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.32.10 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=3128 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325731] TRACE: filter:in_world:rule:1 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.32.10 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=3128 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325731] TRACE: filter:in_world_all_c1:return:2 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.32.10 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=3128 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325731] TRACE: filter:in_world:rule:2 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.32.10 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=3128 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Mar 24 22:41:52 enterprise kernel: [885386.325731] TRACE: filter:in_world_irc_c2:return:2 IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=00:1d:7d:aa:e3:4e:00:04:4b:05:b4:dc:08:00 SRC=192.168.32.18 DST=192.168.32.10 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=128 ID=30561 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=53054 DPT=3128 SEQ=3653700382 ACK=0 WINDOW=8192 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0 OPT (020405B40103030201010402)
Another method of debugging your rules is to add an identical rule to the one you're interested in, but set the action to being:
-j LOG --log-prefix "rule description"
Every time your rule matches, you'll get a line in syslog with lots of useful information about the packet.