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Date:      Sun, 3 Sep 2000 12:20:10 -0700
From:      "Crist J . Clark" <cjclark@reflexnet.net>
To:        Dragos Ruiu <dr@kyx.net>
Cc:        Bill Fumerola <billf@chimesnet.com>, Nicolas <list@rachinsky.de>, freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: ipfw and fragments
Message-ID:  <20000903122010.K62475@149.211.6.64.reflexcom.com>
In-Reply-To: <0009030256211M.20066@smp.kyx.net>; from dr@kyx.net on Sun, Sep 03, 2000 at 02:22:52AM -0700
References:  <007a01c01457$3b9eff80$e4aa603e@gottt> <0009022351571F.20066@smp.kyx.net> <20000903014453.H62475@149.211.6.64.reflexcom.com> <0009030256211M.20066@smp.kyx.net>

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On Sun, Sep 03, 2000 at 02:22:52AM -0700, Dragos Ruiu wrote:
> On Sun, 03 Sep 2000, Crist J . Clark wrote:

[snip]

> Actually IP level fragmentation is definitely not an application
> layer thing. (I'm not talking about TCP fragmentation.) But I'm 
> quibbling with semantics...

No it occurs at the IP layer of course, but it typically is only of
interest when the firewall is actually examining the contents of the
packets, and that usually only happens in application layer
firewalls.

> My point is just that if you want to really do this appropriately
> you should tag fragmented head packets that are allowed through
> and allow subsequent fragments on that dest, port, and id #,
> and then you should close that hole when you see the end
> fragment go by, or a timeout occurs.  The firewall should
> not let through any other fragments except those belonging
> to same datagram(dest,port,id) as allowed head fragment
> packets. Otherwise, it is either very easy to set up covert 
> channels through your firewalls, or you have to break some 
> spec compliant applications.  

Sounds easier than it is. There is no guarantee that fragments with
the tranport layer information will be the first ones there for
example. And there is my personal favorite, you can fragment
fragments. It's really easy to DOS a firewall if you're not _really_
careful. Just ask Checkpoint.
-- 
Crist J. Clark                           cjclark@alum.mit.edu


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