Great Circle Associates Firewalls
(January 1995)
 

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Subject: Re: spoofing TCP/SYN packets?
From: Darren Reed <avalon @ coombs . anu . edu . au>
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 11:48:08 +1100 (EDT)
To: root @ wu1 . wl . aecl . ca (system PRIVILEGED account)
Cc: drc @ ppt . com, firewalls @ greatcircle . com
In-reply-to: <Pine . 3 . 88 . 9501050808 . C5314-0100000 @ wu1 . wl . aecl . ca> from "system PRIVILEGED account" at Jan 5, 95 08:35:53 am

> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 13 Dec 1994, david r coelho wrote:
> 
> > My first line of defense for our network uses a router to filter
> > out all new TCP sessions (e.g. with SYN). We let in all established
> > sessions, and then do additional filtering with a firewall. The
> > idea is that the router lets anything go out, but only lets
> > established sessions come in.
> > 
> > My question is, is there a vulnerability whereby the established
> > incoming TCP packet could be used to open a new TCP session
> > (say login, telnet, etc) or is the unix (SunOS in my case) kernel
> > tight enought to reject these packets.
> >

New, as in to a new service/port, no...but...

> It would seem to me that if one host C were to snoop an active telnet 
> session say, between hosts A and B, grab a string of frames, spray the 
> recieving host B momentarily, then repeatedly spray host A (or knock down 
> host A by some other means) while resending the copied string of frames 
> and adding to them whatever one would like while also keeping the packet
> signatures the same -- that whomever is behind host C could become
> the new active session in place of A.

This is discussed in one of Steve Bellovin's papers on TCP/IP...

pext.ps        - "Security Problems in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite"
                  Steven M. Bellovin, AT&T Bell Laboraties
                  smb @
 ulysses .
 att .
 com, Apr 1989.
                  CACM Vol 19, No. 2

is the one you want (I think).

> If the preceding BS is true, then what can any kind of firewall SW/HW
> do to detect such an intrusion, short of encrytion strategies?
> 
> Will FWTK detect such an intrusion?

No.  Nothing will.

Darren


References:
Indexed By Date Previous: Re: PC using external service
From: Joe Provo <jprovo @ ultranet . com>
Next: Re: PC using external service
From: tkevans @ fallst . es . dupont . com
Indexed By Thread Previous: Re: spoofing TCP/SYN packets?
From: "Alastair Young" <alastair @ cadence . com>
Next: Re: spoofing TCP/SYN packets?
From: Larry Chin <Larry_Chin @ ca . cch . com>

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