Is this IPTables rule the same as a universal whitelist?

Question

I am a little shaky on how the state module works. I was just curious if the below line is a universal white list i.e. equivelent to iptables -A INPUT -j ACCEPT.

iptables -A INPUT -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

Answer 1

The only other possibility for state is INVALID, so while your rule is not semantically a universal whitelist, it is practically equivalent for all ordinary purposes.