Passive OS fingerprinting netfilter module allows to passively detect remote OS and perform various netfilter actions based on that knowledge. This module compares some data (WS, MSS, options and it's order, ttl, df and others) from packets with SYN bit set with dynamically loaded OS fingerprints. Starting from 2008_07_01 version OSF works only with Xtables, so you have to upgrade to recent kernels (and ename xtables support) and iptables (tested with 1.4.1.1). Also note, that Debian (starting from Lenny) has serious problems with iptables-dev package, which does not contain needed headers, so better install iptables from sources. Have you ever hear about a netfilter module that does passive OS fingerprinting? If you are interested in learning more about this check out this article.

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