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List:       bugtraq
Subject:    CERT Advisory CA-96.21 - TCP SYN Flooding and IP Spoofing Attacks
From:       CERT Advisory <cert-advisory () cert ! org>
Date:       1996-09-19 18:37:45
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CERT(sm) Advisory CA-96.21
Original issue date: September 19, 1996
Last revised: --

Topic: TCP SYN Flooding and IP Spoofing Attacks
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           *** This advisory supersedes CA-95:01. ***

Two "underground magazines" have recently published code to conduct
denial-of-service attacks by creating TCP "half-open" connections. This code
is actively being used to attack sites connected to the Internet. There is,
as yet, no complete solution for this problem, but there are steps that can be
taken to lessen its impact. Although discovering the origin of the attack is
difficult, it is possible to do; we have received reports of attack origins
being identified.

Any system connected to the Internet and providing TCP-based network services
(such as a Web server, FTP server, or mail server) is potentially subject to
this attack. The consequences of the attack may vary depending on the system;
however, the attack itself is fundamental to the TCP protocol used by all
systems.

If you are an Internet service provider, please pay particular attention to
Section III and Appendix A, which describes step we urge you to take to
lessen the effects of these attacks. If you are the customer of an Internet
service provider, please encourage your provider to take these steps.

This advisory provides a brief outline of the problem and a partial solution.
We will update this advisory as we receive new information. If the change in
information warrants, we may post an updated advisory on comp.security.announce
and redistribute an update to our cert-advisory mailing list. As always, the
latest information is available at the URLs listed at the end of this advisory.

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I.  Description

     When a system (called the client) attempts to establish a TCP connection
     to a system providing a service (the server), the client and server
     exchange a set sequence of messages. This connection technique applies
     to all TCP connections--telnet, Web, email, etc.

     The client system begins by sending a SYN message to the server. The
     server then acknowledges the SYN message by sending SYN-ACK message to
     the client. The client then finishes establishing the connection by
     responding with an ACK message. The connection between the client and
     the server is then open, and the service-specific data can be exchanged
     between the client and the server. Here is a view of this message flow:

                Client                  Server
                ------                  ------
                SYN-------------------->

                   <--------------------SYN-ACK

                ACK-------------------->

                     Client and server can now
                     send service-specific data

     The potential for abuse arises at the point where the server system has
     sent an acknowledgment (SYN-ACK) back to client but has not yet received
     the ACK message. This is what we mean by half-open connection. The
     server has built in its system memory a data structure describing all
     pending connections. This data structure is of finite size, and it can be
     made to overflow by intentionally creating too many partially-open
     connections.

     Creating half-open connections is easily accomplished with IP
     spoofing. The attacking system sends SYN messages to the victim server
     system; these appear to be legitimate but in fact reference a client
     system that is unable to respond to the SYN-ACK messages. This means that
     the final ACK message will never be sent to the victim server system.

     The half-open connections data structure on the victim server system
     will eventually fill; then the system will be unable to accept any new
     incoming connections until the table is emptied out. Normally there is a
     timeout associated with a pending connection, so the half-open
     connections will eventually expire and the victim server system will
     recover. However, the attacking system can simply continue sending
     IP-spoofed packets requesting new connections faster than the victim
     system can expire the pending connections.

     In most cases, the victim of such an attack will have difficulty in
     accepting any new incoming network connection. In these cases, the
     attack does not affect existing incoming connections nor the ability to
     originate outgoing network connections.

     However, in some cases, the system may exhaust memory, crash, or be
     rendered otherwise inoperative.

     The location of the attacking system is obscured because the source
     addresses in the SYN packets are often implausible. When the packet
     arrives at the victim server system, there is no way to determine its
     true source. Since the network forwards packets based on destination
     address, the only way to validate the source of a packet is to use input
     source filtering (see Appendix A).

II.  Impact

     Systems providing TCP-based services to the Internet community may
     be unable to provide those services while under attack and for some
     time after the attack ceases. The service itself is not harmed by the
     attack; usually only the ability to provide the service is impaired.
     In some cases, the system may exhaust memory, crash, or be rendered
     otherwise inoperative.

III. Solution

     There is, as yet, no generally accepted solution to this problem with
     the current IP protocol technology. However, proper router configuration
     can reduce the likelihood that your site will be the source of one of
     these attacks.

     Appendix A contains details about how to filter packets to reduce the
     number of IP-spoofed packets entering and exiting your network. It also
     contains a list of vendors that have reported support for this type of
     filtering.

     NOTE to Internet Service Providers:
        We STRONGLY urge you to install these filters in your routers to
        protect your customers against this type of an attack. Although these
        filters do not directly protect your customers from attack, the
        filters do prevent attacks from originating at the sites of any of your
        customers. We are aware of the ramifications of these filters on some
        current Mobile IP schemes and are seeking a position statement from
        the appropriate organizations.

     NOTE to customers of Internet service providers:
        We STRONGLY recommend that you contact your service provider to verify
        that the necessary filters are in place to protect your network.

     Many networking experts are working together to devise improvements to
     existing IP implementations to "harden" kernels to this type of attack.
     When these improvements become available, we suggest that you install
     them on all your systems as soon as possible. This advisory will be
     updated to reflect changes made by the vendor community.

IV.  Detecting an Attack

     Users of the attacked server system may notice nothing unusual since the
     IP-spoofed connection requests may not load the system noticeably. The
     system is still able to establish outgoing connections. The problem will
     most likely be noticed by client systems attempting to access one of the
     services on the victim system.

     To verify that this attack is occurring, check the state of the server
     system's network traffic. For example, on SunOS this may be done by the
     command:

              netstat -a -f inet

     Too many connections in the state "SYN_RECEIVED" indicates that the
     system is being attacked.


...........................................................................

Appendix A - Reducing IP Spoofed Packets


1. Filtering Information
- -------------------------

With the current IP protocol technology, it is impossible to eliminate
IP-spoofed packets. However, you can take steps to reduce the number of
IP-spoofed packets entering and exiting your network.

Currently, the best method is to install a filtering router that restricts
the input to your external interface (known as an input filter) by not
allowing a packet through if it has a source address from your internal
network. In addition, you should filter outgoing packets that have a source
address different from your internal network to prevent a source IP spoofing
attack from originating from your site.

The combination of these two filters would prevent outside attackers from
sending you packets pretending to be from your internal network. It would also
prevent packets originating within your network from pretending to be from
outside your network. These filters will *not* stop all TCP SYN attacks, since
outside attackers can spoof packets from *any* outside network, and internal
attackers can still send attacks spoofing internal addresses.

We STRONGLY urge Internet service providers to install these filters in your
routers.

In addition, we STRONGLY recommend customers of Internet service providers to
contact your service provider to verify that the necessary filters are in
place to protect your network.


2. Vendor Information
- ----------------------

The following vendor(s) have reported support for the type of filtering we
recommend and provided pointers to additional information that describes how
to configure your router. If you need more information about your router or
about firewalls, please contact your vendor directly.

   Cisco
   -----
        Refer to the section entitiled "ISP Security Advisory"
        on http://www.cisco.com for an up-to-date explanation of
        how to address TCP SYN flooding on a Cisco router.


NOTE to vendors:
If you are a router vendor who has information on router capabilities and
configuration examples and you are not represented in this list, please contact
the CERT Coordination Center at the addresses given in the Contact Information
section below. We will update the advisory after we hear from you.


3. Alternative for routers that do not support filtering on the inbound side
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your vendor's router does not support filtering on the inbound side of the
interface or if there will be a delay in incorporating the feature into your
system, you may filter the spoofed IP packets by using a second router
between your external interface and your outside connection. Configure this
router to block, on the outgoing interface connected to your original router,
all packets that have a source address in your internal network. For this
purpose, you can use a filtering router or a UNIX system with two interfaces
that supports packet filtering.

Note: Disabling source routing at the router does not protect you from this
attack, but it is still good security practice to follow.

On the input to your external interface, that is coming from the Internet to
your network, you should block packets with the following addresses:

* Broadcast Networks: The addresses to block here are network 0 (the all zeros
  broadcast address) and network 255.255.255.255 (the all ones broadcast
  network).

* Your local network(s): These are your network addresses

* Reserved private networks: The following networks are defined as reserved
  private networks and no traffic should ever be received from or transmitted
  to these networks through a router:
                10.0.0.0
               127.0.0.0
              172.16.0.0
             192.168.0.0

- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The CERT Coordination Center staff thanks the team members of NASIRC
for contributing much of the text for this advisory and thanks the many
experts who are devoting time to addressing the problem and who provided input
to this advisory.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT
Coordination Center or your representative in the Forum of Incident Response
and Security Teams (see ftp://info.cert.org/pub/FIRST/first-contacts).


CERT/CC Contact Information
- ----------------------------
Email    cert@cert.org

Phone    +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)
                CERT personnel answer 8:30-5:00 p.m. EST(GMT-5) / EDT(GMT-4)
                and are on call for emergencies during other hours.

Fax      +1 412-268-6989

Postal address
         CERT Coordination Center
         Software Engineering Institute
         Carnegie Mellon University
         Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
         USA

Using encryption
   We strongly urge you to encrypt sensitive information sent by email. We can
   support a shared DES key or PGP. Contact the CERT/CC for more information.
   Location of CERT PGP key
         ftp://info.cert.org/pub/CERT_PGP.key

Getting security information
   CERT publications and other security information are available from
        http://www.cert.org/
        ftp://info.cert.org/pub/

   CERT advisories and bulletins are also posted on the USENET newsgroup
        comp.security.announce

   To be added to our mailing list for advisories and bulletins, send your
   email address to
        cert-advisory-request@cert.org

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1996 Carnegie Mellon University
This material may be reproduced and distributed without permission provided
it is used for noncommercial purposes and the copyright statement is
included.

CERT is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

This file: ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-96.21.tcp_syn_flooding
           http://www.cert.org
               click on "CERT Advisories"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Revision history

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