Packet Filtering

CS-480b
Dick Steflik
Stateless Packet Filters
• A border router configured to pass or reject packets based
on information in the header of each individual packet
• can theoretically be configured to pass/reject based on any field
• but usually done based on:
– protocol type
– IP address
– TCP/UDP port
– Fragment number
– Source routing information
Protocol Filtering
• Filtering based on the IP protocol field allows rejecting of
entire protocol suites
• UDP
• TCP
• ICMP
• IGMP
• This is almost too general
• ex suppose you block UDP then any TCP based application won’t
be able to convert host/domain to IP address
• so it is seldom used.
IP Address Filtering
• Pass/reject packets based on membership in a set of
acceptable IP addresses
• Usually not used to block specific hosts
• oscar is frequently blocked so corporate users can use AIM
• same for some disk backup services
• Usually block source routed packets
• big security hole (explained later)
• If a hacker knows an address that the filter will pass they
can easily forge a packet that will pass through the filter
Port Filtering
• Most commonly used filtering method
• can also be thought of as protocol filtering as most ports
below 1024 relate to specific high level protocols
• pass all but those specified
• reject all but those specified
• Important ports/protocol to block:
• telent
• NetBIOS
• POP
• NFS
• X Windows
• Windows Terminal Services
• pcAnywhere and VNC
Source Route Filtering
• Source routed packed should never be allowed into your
network
• Source routing was added to IP to accommodate debugging
• Allows you to specify the path a packet will take through your
network
• Strict Source Routing
– Specifies the exact path to be taken
• Loose Source Routing
– Indicates one or more hosts the packet must go through
– A hacker can plug in their own address and force packets to travel
through a machine that they can sniff
Loose Source Routing
• A packet is given a list of hops to be taken
• Each packet carries same source address, destination is whatever the
next IP in the hop path is; the hop path is in the IP Option field.

IP Option field
1 byte 1 byte 1byte 4 bytes 4 bytes
Type Length offset IP 1 IP2 ………
131

• 131 is the type for Loose Source Routing

• Length – total length of the option
• Offset – byte offset to next IP to hop to
 Loose Source Routed Example
For example, if a packet was generated from [Link], with a final destination of [Link] via a hop to
[Link], the intial packet would have a source of [Link], a dest of [Link], and an IP option
with a length of 7, an offset of 4, and the IP address starting at byte 4 of [Link]. If [Link]
forwards LSR packets, it would re-emit the packet with a source of [Link], dest of [Link], offset of 8,
and the IP address at offset 4 of [Link].

[Link] [Link] [Link]

Initial source=[Link]
Initial source=[Link]
dest. = [Link]
dest. = [Link]
IP Option 131,7,4,[Link]
IP Option 131,8,4,[Link]

Problem with loose source routing is that some stacks will reverse the source route when responding
to a source routed packet, this would make it trivial for a hacker to spoof a packet coming from a
trusted source and insert their own address in the source route. The hacker can then sniff on it; the
unsuspecting victim would then send return traffic to the spoofed source but LSR it through the
attacker
Fragmentation Filtering
• Fragmentation was added to IP to facilitate passing
through a network that only supports small packet sizes
• Any router in the path can break a large packet up into
smaller pieces
• problem is that the port number is only in the first fragment
meaning that filtering on TCP or UDP is lost
Problems with Stateless Filters
• Effectiveness of stateless filters is limited due to:

• They cannot check the payload of the packets

• service related filtering can only be done by application level proxies
• They do not retain the state of the connections
Stateful Packet Filtering
• Record the state of all connections flowing through the
firewall and use the connection state as the basis for
dropping packets
• create an in memory state table for the state of all Network and
session layers
• pass only packets relating to allowed (configured) ports that are
currently in the state table.
• Drop entries when the TCP close session happens or after a few
minutes, this insures that the table stays “clean” and without holes in
in it
• Newer Firewalls all provide Stateful packet filtering
• some also provide higher level protocol proxying
Hacking Through Packet Filters
• The following exploits are common:
• TCP can only be filtered in the 0th fragment
• setting the fragment number to 1 the packet will usually passe
through the packet filter
• Older packet filters only filter ports below 1024
• used to be that only HTTP used higher numbered ports for passing
data back to web browsers, many new applications use ports above
1024 for normal communication
• Public services must be forwarded
• services like the updating of web pages via Netscape Composer must
be controlled (possibly bt IP address) to limit public access
• Trojan horses can defeat packet filters using NAT
Best Practices
• Use a proxy
• physically breaks the network path
• Use Stateful Packet Filters
• can’t be bypassed like stateless filters
• Disable all Ports by Default
• enable only what is absolutely needed
• if a Trojan Horse get in it will most likely set up a server that the hacker
can then attach to, it the port is blocked, this can’t happen
• Secure the Base Operating System (Hardening)
• apply all patches provided by vendor
• check the vendor web site frequently
• always use a hardened protocol stack
 IP Chains
• Stateless packet filter
• optionally built into the Linux kernel
• will pass or deny packets based on a rule set
applied against IP header fields
• used in v 2.2 kernels, replaced by IPTables
in 2.4 kernels
 IPChains Flow
lo interface
IP Packet checksum

sanity

Input Route Forward Output

Chain Decision Chain Chain
ACCEPT

Local
DENY DENY

DENY
Demasquerade
 IPChains Commands

Command Description
-A Add rule to chain
-D Delete rule from chain
-I Insert rule
-R Replace rule
-F Flush all rules
-L List all rules
-N Create new chain
-X Delete user defined chain
-P Set default targe
 IPChains Command Options
Command Option Description
-s Source address of packet
-d Destination address of packet
-i Interface packet is arriving from
-p Protocol
-j Target to send packet to
-y For -p tcp. Packet is SYN packet.
--icmp-type For -p icmp.
-l Log the packet to syslog.
/var/log/messages Available in Red Hat 6.0+ kernel
 IPChains Targets

System targets Description

(policy)
ACCEPT Let packet through
DENY Deny packet
REJECT Deny packet and notify sender
MASQ Forward chain masquerade
REDIRECT Send to different port
RETURN Handled by default targets
 IPChains- Chain Types

IP input chain
IP output chain
IP forwarding chain
User defined chains (just give it a new name instead of the
built-in names: input, output or forward)
 IPChains Example
# Flush Rules ipchains -F forward
ipchains -F output
ipchains -F input
# Set default to deny all
ipchains -P input DENY
ipchains -P output DENY
ipchains -P forward DENY
# Add Rules
# Accept packets from itself (localhost) (s)ource to itself (d)estination
# Keeps system logging, X-Windows or any socket based service working.
ipchains -A input -j ACCEPT -p all -s localhost -d localhost -i lo
ipchains -A output -j ACCEPT -p all -s localhost -d localhost -i lo
# Deny and log (option -l) spoofed packets from external network (eth0) which mimic internal IP addresses
ipchains -A input -j REJECT -p all -s [Link]/24 -i eth0 -l
# Accept requests/responses from/to your own firewall machine
ipchains -A input -j ACCEPT -p all -d [Link] -i eth0
ipchains -A output -j ACCEPT -p all -s [Link] -i eth0

# Allow outgoing packets source (s) to destination (d)

ipchains -A input -j ACCEPT -p all -s [Link]/24 -i eth1
ipchains -A output -j ACCEPT -p all -s [Link]/24 -i eth1

# Deny and log (option -l) outside packets from internet which claim to be from your loopback interface
ipchains -A input -j REJECT -p all -s localhost -i eth0 -l

ipchains -A forward -s [Link]/24 -j MASQ

ipchains -A forward -i eth1 -j MASQ

# Enable packet forwarding echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

 IPTables Commands
-A , --append Append rule to chain
-D , --delete Delete rule from chain
-I , --insert Insert rule at beginning or at specified
sequence number in chain.
-R , --replace Replace rule
-F , --flush Flush all rules
-Z , --zero Zero byte counters in all chains
-L , --list List all rules. Add option --line-numbers
for rule number.
-N , --new-chain Create new chain
-X , --delete-chain Delete user defined chain
-P , --policy Set default policy for a chain
-E , --rename-chain Rename a chain
 IPTables Command Options
-s , --source Source address of packet
-d , --destination Destination address of packet
-I , --in-interface Interface packet is arriving from
-o , --out-interface Interface packet is going to
-p , --protocol Protocol:
*tcp
--sport port[:port]
--dport port[:port]
--syn
*udp
*icmp
*mac
-j , --jump Target to send packet to
-f , --fragment Fragment matching
-c , --set-counters Set packet/byte counter
-m tcp , --match tcp *--source-port port[:port]
(port # or range #:#)
*--destination-port port[:port]
*--tcp-flags
-m state , --match state --state
*ESTABLISHED
*RELATED
*NEW
*INVALID
(Push content, not expected to recieve this packet.)
 IPTables Defined Policies
Defined Policies Description
ACCEPT Let packet through
DROP Deny packet with no reply
REJECT Deny packet and notify sender
RETURN Handled by default targets
MARK Used for error response.
Use with option --reject-with type
MASQUERADE Used with nat table and DHCP.
LOG Log to file and specify message:
°--log-level #
°--log-prefix "prefix"
°--log-tcp-sequence
°--log-tcp-options
°--log-ip-options
ULOG Log to file and specify userpace logging messages
SNAT Valid in PREROUTING chain. Used by nat.
REDIRECT Used with nat table. Output.
DNAT Valid in POSTROUTING chain. Output.
QUEUE Pass packet to userspace.
 IPTables Example
Simple firewall for the desktop Linux system:
iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -P FORWARD DROP
iptables -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -o lo -j ACCEPT

Allow network connections which have already been established (started by host) and
related to your connection. FTP requires this as it may use various ports in support of
the file transfer.) Allow network input/output from self (lo).
 …more
# Allow loopback access. This rule must come before the rules denying port access!!
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -p all -j ACCEPT - Rule for your computer to be able to access itself via the loopback
iptables -A OUTPUT -o lo -p all -j ACCEPT

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 2049 -j DROP - Block NFS
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 2049 -j DROP - Block NFS
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 6000:6009 -j DROP - Block X-Windows
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 7100 -j DROP - Block X-Windows font server
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 515 -j DROP - Block printer port
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 515 -j DROP - Block printer port
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 111 -j DROP - Block Sun rpc/NFS
iptables -A INPUT -p udp -s 0/0 -d 0/0 --dport 111 -j DROP - Block Sun rpc/NFS
iptables -A INPUT -p all -s localhost -i eth0 -j DROP - Deny packets which claim to be from your loopback
interface.