Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 11 Jun 2002 11:30:20 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Mike Silbersack <silby@silby.com>
To:        Mikael Olsson <mikael.olsson@clavister.com>
Cc:        Phil Dibowitz <webmaster@ipom.com>, Jean-Yves Lefort <jylefort@brutele.be>, <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Broken PMTUD in FreeBSD?
Message-ID:  <20020611112119.N23986-100000@patrocles.silby.com>
In-Reply-To: <3D060A6C.5204B402@clavister.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

(I'm redirecting this back to freebsd-net, as it doesn't seem appropriate
for bugtraq.)

I did some quick investigation last night, and agree with Phil that this
is a bug.  When the syncache was implemented, only a subset of the normal
tcp output code was copied over for the purpose of sending syn-acks.  One
part of the code that was not moved over was the part that determines when
the DF and tos bits are set.

I also agree with Mikael that this isn't an important issue, given that
syn-ack packets are quite tiny.  Nonetheless, I will commit a fix in the
next few days.  However, it's too late to MFC it in time for 4.6-release.

Phil: In the future, please try a bit harder to notify someone if you
believe that a bug is serious enough for posting to bugtraq.  freebsd-net
is a relatively busy list, and things do get missed.

Mike "Silby" Silbersack

On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, Mikael Olsson wrote:

>
> Phil Dibowitz wrote:
> >
> > [FreeBSD doesn't set DF in SYN/ACK]
> >
> > I don't consider this a big security hole, but it is a bug. It could
> > be used to do TCP fingerprinting, and it also breaks a standard
>
> Is this really a bug? I wouldn't be so sure. What is the purpose of
> setting DF in a SYN/ACK segment ? It's not like it can react to
> returned ICMP errors and decrease the size of segment (only 40 bytes
> of IP and TCP header and a few options).
>
> I'd even argue that it's a feature. If something has an MTU that
> is so small that it can't pass TCP segments without data, there's
> nothing to be done about it, and you should let fragmentation occur.
>
>
> The fingerprinting point is sort of valid, I guess. However, since
> there are already BSD boxes out there doing this, the fingerprint
> value would be even greater (the fingerprint match more narrow) if
> one were to change it now.
>
> --
> Mikael Olsson, Clavister AB
> Storgatan 12, Box 393, SE-891 28 =D6RNSK=D6LDSVIK, Sweden
> Phone: +46 (0)660 29 92 00   Mobile: +46 (0)70 26 222 05
> Fax: +46 (0)660 122 50       WWW: http://www.clavister.com
>
> "Senex semper diu dormit"
>




To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-net" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20020611112119.N23986-100000>