Network Security Firewall

User Manual
NetDefendOS

Ver. 2.60.02

Security
Security
Network Security Solution

http://www.dlink.com

User Manual
DFL-260E/860E/1660/2560/2560G
NetDefendOS Version 2.60.02
D-Link Corporation
No. 289, Sinhu 3rd Rd, Neihu District, Taipei City 114, Taiwan R.O.C.
http://www.DLink.com
Published 2014-06-03
Copyright 2014

User Manual
DFL-260E/860E/1660/2560/2560G
NetDefendOS Version 2.60.02
Published 2014-06-03
Copyright 2014

Copyright Notice
This publication, including all photographs, illustrations and software, is protected under
international copyright laws, with all rights reserved. Neither this manual, nor any of the material
contained herein, may be reproduced without the written consent of D-Link.

Disclaimer
The information in this document is subject to change without notice. D-Link makes no
representations or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any
implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. D-Link reserves the right
to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in the content hereof without
any obligation to notify any person or parties of such revision or changes.

Limitations of Liability
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL D-LINK OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES OF ANY
CHARACTER (E.G. DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFIT, SOFTWARE RESTORATION, WORK STOPPAGE,
LOSS OF SAVED DATA OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES) RESULTING FROM
THE APPLICATION OR IMPROPER USE OF THE D-LINK PRODUCT OR FAILURE OF THE PRODUCT,
EVEN IF D-LINK IS INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. FURTHERMORE, D-LINK
WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THIRD-PARTY CLAIMS AGAINST CUSTOMER FOR LOSSES OR DAMAGES.
D-LINK WILL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES IN EXCESS OF THE AMOUNT D-LINK
RECEIVED FROM THE END-USER FOR THE PRODUCT.

Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................... 15
1. NetDefendOS Overview ..................................................................................... 18
1.1. Features ............................................................................................... 18
1.2. NetDefendOS Architecture ...................................................................... 22
1.2.1. State-based Architecture .............................................................. 22
1.2.2. NetDefendOS Building Blocks ........................................................ 22
1.2.3. Basic Packet Flow ......................................................................... 23
1.3. NetDefendOS State Engine Packet Flow ..................................................... 26
2. Management and Maintenance .......................................................................... 31
2.1. Managing NetDefendOS ......................................................................... 31
2.1.1. Overview .................................................................................... 31
2.1.2. The Default Administrator Account ................................................ 32
2.1.3. The Web Interface ........................................................................ 33
2.1.4. The CLI ....................................................................................... 38
2.1.5. CLI Scripts ................................................................................... 48
2.1.6. Secure Copy ................................................................................ 53
2.1.7. The Console Boot Menu ................................................................ 55
2.1.8. Changing Management Access ...................................................... 56
2.1.9. Management Advanced Settings ................................................... 61
2.1.10. Working with Configurations ....................................................... 62
2.2. Events and Logging ................................................................................ 69
2.2.1. Overview .................................................................................... 69
2.2.2. Log Messages ............................................................................. 69
2.2.3. Log Receiver Types ...................................................................... 70
2.2.4. Logging to the MemoryLogReceiver (Memlog) ................................. 70
2.2.5. Logging to Syslog Hosts ............................................................... 71
2.2.6. Severity Filter and Message Exceptions ........................................... 73
2.2.7. SNMP Traps ................................................................................ 74
2.2.8. Advanced Log Settings ................................................................. 75
2.3. RADIUS Accounting ................................................................................ 77
2.3.1. Overview .................................................................................... 77
2.3.2. RADIUS Accounting Messages ....................................................... 77
2.3.3. Interim Accounting Messages ........................................................ 79
2.3.4. Configuring RADIUS Accounting .................................................... 79
2.3.5. RADIUS Accounting Security ......................................................... 81
2.3.6. RADIUS Accounting and High Availability ........................................ 81
2.3.7. Handling Unresponsive RADIUS Servers .......................................... 81
2.3.8. Accounting and System Shutdowns ............................................... 82
2.3.9. Limitations with NAT .................................................................... 82
2.3.10. Advanced RADIUS Settings .......................................................... 82
2.4. Monitoring ............................................................................................ 84
2.4.1. The Link Monitor ......................................................................... 84
2.4.2. SNMP Monitoring ........................................................................ 87
2.4.3. Hardware Monitoring ................................................................... 90
2.4.4. Memory Monitoring Settings ......................................................... 92
2.5. The pcapdump Command ....................................................................... 94
2.6. Maintenance ......................................................................................... 97
2.6.1. Auto-Update Mechanism .............................................................. 97
2.6.2. Backing Up Configurations ............................................................ 97
2.6.3. Restore to Factory Defaults ............................................................ 99
3. Fundamentals ................................................................................................ 103
3.1. The Address Book ................................................................................ 103
3.1.1. Overview .................................................................................. 103
3.1.2. IP Addresses ............................................................................. 104
3.1.3. Ethernet Addresses .................................................................... 106
3.1.4. Address Groups ......................................................................... 106
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3.1.5. Auto-Generated Address Objects ................................................. 107

3.1.6. Address Book Folders ................................................................. 108
3.2. IPv6 Support ....................................................................................... 109
3.3. Services .............................................................................................. 118
3.3.1. Overview .................................................................................. 118
3.3.2. Creating Custom Services ............................................................ 119
3.3.3. ICMP Services ............................................................................ 123
3.3.4. Custom IP Protocol Services ........................................................ 124
3.3.5. Service Groups .......................................................................... 125
3.3.6. Custom Service Timeouts ............................................................ 125
3.4. Interfaces ............................................................................................ 127
3.4.1. Overview .................................................................................. 127
3.4.2. Ethernet Interfaces ..................................................................... 129
3.4.3. VLAN ....................................................................................... 136
3.4.4. PPPoE ...................................................................................... 140
3.4.5. GRE Tunnels .............................................................................. 143
3.4.6. Interface Groups ........................................................................ 146
3.5. ARP .................................................................................................... 148
3.5.1. Overview .................................................................................. 148
3.5.2. The ARP Cache .......................................................................... 148
3.5.3. ARP Publish .............................................................................. 150
3.5.4. Using ARP Advanced Settings ...................................................... 153
3.5.5. ARP Advanced Settings Summary ................................................ 154
3.6. IP Rules and IP Policies .......................................................................... 158
3.6.1. Security Policies ......................................................................... 158
3.6.2. IP Rule Set Evaluation ................................................................. 161
3.6.3. IP Rule Actions .......................................................................... 162
3.6.4. Editing IP rule set Entries ............................................................. 164
3.6.5. IP Rule Set Folders ..................................................................... 164
3.6.6. Configuration Object Groups ....................................................... 165
3.6.7. IP Policies ................................................................................. 169
3.6.8. Application Control .................................................................... 172
3.7. Schedules ........................................................................................... 180
3.8. Certificates .......................................................................................... 183
3.8.1. Overview .................................................................................. 183
3.8.2. Certificates in NetDefendOS ........................................................ 186
3.8.3. CA Certificate Requests ............................................................... 187
3.9. Date and Time ..................................................................................... 189
3.9.1. Overview .................................................................................. 189
3.9.2. Setting Date and Time ................................................................ 189
3.9.3. Time Servers ............................................................................. 191
3.9.4. Settings Summary for Date and Time ............................................ 194
3.10. DNS .................................................................................................. 196
3.11. ICMP Ping ......................................................................................... 199
4. Routing ......................................................................................................... 204
4.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 204
4.2. Static Routing ...................................................................................... 205
4.2.1. The Principles of Routing ............................................................ 205
4.2.2. Static Routing ........................................................................... 209
4.2.3. Route Failover ........................................................................... 214
4.2.4. Host Monitoring for Route Failover ............................................... 218
4.2.5. Advanced Settings for Route Failover ............................................ 220
4.2.6. Proxy ARP ................................................................................. 221
4.3. Policy-based Routing ............................................................................ 224
4.4. Route Load Balancing ........................................................................... 231
4.5. OSPF .................................................................................................. 238
4.5.1. Dynamic Routing ....................................................................... 238
4.5.2. OSPF Concepts .......................................................................... 241
4.5.3. OSPF Components ..................................................................... 246
4.5.4. Dynamic Routing Rules ............................................................... 252
4.5.5. Setting Up OSPF ........................................................................ 255
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4.5.6. An OSPF Example ...................................................................... 259

4.5.7. OSPF Troubleshooting ................................................................ 264
4.6. Multicast Routing ................................................................................. 268
4.6.1. Overview .................................................................................. 268
4.6.2. Multicast Forwarding with SAT Multiplex Rules ............................... 269
4.6.3. IGMP Configuration ................................................................... 273
4.6.4. Advanced IGMP Settings ............................................................. 279
4.6.5. Tunneling Multicast using GRE ..................................................... 281
4.7. Transparent Mode ................................................................................ 285
4.7.1. Overview .................................................................................. 285
4.7.2. Enabling Internet Access ............................................................. 290
4.7.3. Transparent Mode Scenarios ....................................................... 292
4.7.4. Spanning Tree BPDU Support ...................................................... 298
4.7.5. Advanced Settings for Transparent Mode ...................................... 299
5. DHCP Services ................................................................................................ 302
5.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 302
5.2. DHCP Servers ...................................................................................... 303
5.2.1. Static DHCP Hosts ...................................................................... 306
5.2.2. Custom Options ........................................................................ 308
5.3. DHCP Relay ......................................................................................... 309
5.3.1. DHCP Relay Advanced Settings .................................................... 310
5.4. IP Pools .............................................................................................. 312
6. Security Mechanisms ...................................................................................... 316
6.1. Access Rules ........................................................................................ 316
6.1.1. Overview .................................................................................. 316
6.1.2. IP Spoofing ............................................................................... 317
6.1.3. Access Rule Settings ................................................................... 317
6.2. ALGs .................................................................................................. 320
6.2.1. Overview .................................................................................. 320
6.2.2. The HTTP ALG ........................................................................... 321
6.2.3. The FTP ALG ............................................................................. 325
6.2.4. The TFTP ALG ............................................................................ 335
6.2.5. The SMTP ALG ........................................................................... 336
6.2.6. The POP3 ALG ........................................................................... 345
6.2.7. The PPTP ALG ............................................................................ 346
6.2.8. The SIP ALG .............................................................................. 348
6.2.9. The H.323 ALG ........................................................................... 359
6.2.10. The TLS ALG ............................................................................ 375
6.3. Web Content Filtering ........................................................................... 379
6.3.1. Overview .................................................................................. 379
6.3.2. Active Content Handling ............................................................. 379
6.3.3. Static Content Filtering ............................................................... 380
6.3.4. Dynamic Web Content Filtering ................................................... 383
6.4. Anti-Virus Scanning .............................................................................. 398
6.4.1. Overview .................................................................................. 398
6.4.2. Implementation ........................................................................ 398
6.4.3. Activating Anti-Virus Scanning ..................................................... 400
6.4.4. Anti-Virus Options ..................................................................... 402
6.5. Intrusion Detection and Prevention ........................................................ 405
6.5.1. Overview .................................................................................. 405
6.5.2. IDP Availability for D-Link Models ................................................. 405
6.5.3. IDP Rules .................................................................................. 408
6.5.4. Insertion/Evasion Attack Prevention ............................................. 409
6.5.5. IDP Pattern Matching ................................................................. 411
6.5.6. IDP Signature Groups ................................................................. 412
6.5.7. IDP Actions ............................................................................... 413
6.5.8. SMTP Log Receiver for IDP Events ................................................. 413
6.5.9. Best Practice Deployment ........................................................... 417
6.6. Denial-of-Service Attacks ....................................................................... 419
6.6.1. Overview .................................................................................. 419
6.6.2. DoS Attack Mechanisms .............................................................. 419
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6.6.3. Ping of Death Attacks .................................................................. 419

6.6.4. Fragmentation Overlap Attacks .................................................... 420
6.6.5. The Land and LaTierra Attacks ...................................................... 420
6.6.6. The WinNuke attack .................................................................... 420
6.6.7. Amplification Attacks ................................................................. 421
6.6.8. TCP SYN Flood Attacks ................................................................ 422
6.6.9. The Jolt2 Attack ......................................................................... 422
6.6.10. Distributed DoS Attacks ............................................................ 423
6.7. Blacklisting Hosts and Networks ............................................................. 424
7. Address Translation ........................................................................................ 427
7.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 427
7.2. NAT ................................................................................................... 429
7.3. NAT Pools ........................................................................................... 436
7.4. SAT .................................................................................................... 440
7.4.1. Introduction ............................................................................. 440
7.4.2. One-to-One IP Translation ........................................................... 442
7.4.3. Many-to-Many IP Translation ....................................................... 446
7.4.4. All-to-One IP Translation ............................................................. 450
7.4.5. Port Translation ......................................................................... 452
7.4.6. SAT with FwdFast Rules ............................................................... 453
7.4.7. Using an IP Policy for SAT ............................................................ 454
7.4.8. Protocols Handled by SAT ........................................................... 456
8. User Authentication ........................................................................................ 458
8.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 458
8.2. Authentication Setup ............................................................................ 460
8.2.1. Setup Summary ......................................................................... 460
8.2.2. Local User Databases .................................................................. 460
8.2.3. External RADIUS Servers ............................................................. 463
8.2.4. External LDAP Servers ................................................................ 465
8.2.5. Authentication Rules .................................................................. 472
8.2.6. Authentication Processing .......................................................... 474
8.2.7. HTTP Authentication .................................................................. 475
8.3. Customizing Authentication HTML Pages ................................................ 479
8.4. User Identity Awareness ........................................................................ 483
8.5. Two Factor Authentication .................................................................... 489
9. VPN .............................................................................................................. 492
9.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 492
9.1.1. VPN Usage ................................................................................ 492
9.1.2. VPN Encryption ......................................................................... 493
9.1.3. VPN Planning ............................................................................ 494
9.1.4. Key Distribution ......................................................................... 494
9.1.5. The TLS Alternative for VPN ......................................................... 495
9.2. VPN Quick Start .................................................................................... 496
9.2.1. IPsec LAN to LAN with Pre-shared Keys .......................................... 497
9.2.2. IPsec LAN to LAN with Certificates ................................................ 498
9.2.3. IPsec Roaming Clients with Pre-shared Keys ................................... 499
9.2.4. IPsec Roaming Clients with Certificates ......................................... 502
9.2.5. L2TP Roaming Clients with Pre-Shared Keys ................................... 502
9.2.6. L2TP Roaming Clients with Certificates .......................................... 504
9.2.7. PPTP Roaming Clients ................................................................. 504
9.2.8. iOS Setup ................................................................................. 506
9.3. IPsec Components ............................................................................... 508
9.3.1. Overview .................................................................................. 508
9.3.2. Internet Key Exchange (IKE) ......................................................... 508
9.3.3. IKE Authentication ..................................................................... 514
9.3.4. IPsec Protocols (ESP/AH) ............................................................. 516
9.3.5. NAT Traversal ............................................................................ 517
9.3.6. Algorithm Proposal Lists ............................................................. 518
9.3.7. Pre-shared Keys ......................................................................... 519
9.3.8. Identification Lists ...................................................................... 521
9.4. IPsec Tunnels ....................................................................................... 524
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9.4.1. Overview .................................................................................. 524

9.4.2. LAN to LAN Tunnels with Pre-shared Keys ...................................... 526
9.4.3. Roaming Clients ........................................................................ 527
9.4.4. Fetching CRLs from an alternate LDAP server ................................. 533
9.4.5. Troubleshooting with ikesnoop .................................................... 534
9.4.6. IPsec Advanced Settings ............................................................. 541
9.5. PPTP/L2TP .......................................................................................... 545
9.5.1. PPTP Servers ............................................................................. 545
9.5.2. L2TP Servers ............................................................................. 546
9.5.3. L2TP/PPTP Server Advanced Settings ............................................ 552
9.5.4. PPTP/L2TP Clients ...................................................................... 552
9.5.5. L2TP Version 3 ........................................................................... 554
9.6. SSL VPN .............................................................................................. 564
9.6.1. Overview .................................................................................. 564
9.6.2. Configuring SSL VPN in NetDefendOS ........................................... 565
9.6.3. Installing the SSL VPN Client ........................................................ 567
9.6.4. SSL VPN Setup Example .............................................................. 571
9.7. CA Server Access .................................................................................. 574
9.8. VPN Troubleshooting ............................................................................ 577
9.8.1. General Troubleshooting ............................................................ 577
9.8.2. Troubleshooting Certificates ....................................................... 578
9.8.3. IPsec Troubleshooting Commands ............................................... 578
9.8.4. Management Interface Failure with VPN ........................................ 579
9.8.5. Specific Error Messages ............................................................... 579
9.8.6. Specific Symptoms ..................................................................... 582
10. Traffic Management ...................................................................................... 585
10.1. Traffic Shaping ................................................................................... 585
10.1.1. Overview ................................................................................ 585
10.1.2. Traffic Shaping in NetDefendOS ................................................. 586
10.1.3. Simple Bandwidth Limiting ....................................................... 589
10.1.4. Limiting Bandwidth in Both Directions ........................................ 590
10.1.5. Creating Differentiated Limits Using Chains ................................. 592
10.1.6. Precedences ............................................................................ 593
10.1.7. Pipe Groups ............................................................................ 597
10.1.8. Traffic Shaping Recommendations ............................................. 600
10.1.9. A Summary of Traffic Shaping .................................................... 602
10.1.10. More Pipe Examples ............................................................... 602
10.2. IDP Traffic Shaping ............................................................................. 607
10.2.1. Overview ................................................................................ 607
10.2.2. Setting Up IDP Traffic Shaping ................................................... 607
10.2.3. Processing Flow ....................................................................... 608
10.2.4. The Importance of Specifying a Network ...................................... 608
10.2.5. A P2P Scenario ......................................................................... 609
10.2.6. Viewing Traffic Shaping Objects ................................................. 610
10.2.7. Guaranteeing Instead of Limiting Bandwidth ................................ 611
10.2.8. Logging .................................................................................. 611
10.3. Threshold Rules .................................................................................. 612
10.4. Server Load Balancing ......................................................................... 615
10.4.1. Overview ................................................................................ 615
10.4.2. SLB Distribution Algorithms ....................................................... 617
10.4.3. Selecting Stickiness .................................................................. 617
10.4.4. SLB Algorithms and Stickiness .................................................... 619
10.4.5. Server Health Monitoring .......................................................... 620
10.4.6. Setting Up SLB_SAT Rules .......................................................... 620
11. High Availability ........................................................................................... 626
11.1. Overview .......................................................................................... 626
11.2. HA Mechanisms ................................................................................. 629
11.3. Setting Up HA .................................................................................... 633
11.3.1. Hardware Setup ....................................................................... 633
11.3.2. Wizard HA Setup ...................................................................... 635
11.3.3. Manual HA Setup ..................................................................... 636
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11.3.4. Verifying that the Cluster Functions Correctly ............................... 637

11.3.5. Unique Shared Mac Addresses ................................................... 638
11.4. HA Issues .......................................................................................... 640
11.5. Upgrading an HA Cluster ..................................................................... 642
11.6. Link Monitoring and HA ...................................................................... 644
11.7. HA Advanced Settings ......................................................................... 645
12. ZoneDefense ............................................................................................... 647
12.1. Overview .......................................................................................... 647
12.2. ZoneDefense Switches ........................................................................ 649
12.3. ZoneDefense Operation ...................................................................... 650
12.3.1. SNMP ..................................................................................... 650
12.3.2. Threshold Rules ....................................................................... 650
12.3.3. Manual Blocking and Exclude Lists .............................................. 651
12.3.4. ZoneDefense with Anti-Virus Scanning ........................................ 653
12.3.5. Limitations .............................................................................. 653
13. Advanced Settings ........................................................................................ 655
13.1. IP Level Settings ................................................................................. 655
13.2. TCP Level Settings .............................................................................. 659
13.3. ICMP Level Settings ............................................................................ 664
13.4. State Settings .................................................................................... 665
13.5. Connection Timeout Settings ............................................................... 667
13.6. Length Limit Settings .......................................................................... 669
13.7. Fragmentation Settings ....................................................................... 672
13.8. Local Fragment Reassembly Settings ..................................................... 676
13.9. Miscellaneous Settings ........................................................................ 677
A. Subscribing to Updates ................................................................................... 680
B. IDP Signature Groups ...................................................................................... 683
C. Verified MIME filetypes .................................................................................... 687
D. The OSI Framework ........................................................................................ 691
E. Third Party Software Licenses ........................................................................... 692
Alphabetical Index ............................................................................................. 698

List of Figures
1.1. Packet Flow Schematic Part I ............................................................................ 26
1.2. Packet Flow Schematic Part II ........................................................................... 27
1.3. Packet Flow Schematic Part III .......................................................................... 28
1.4. Expanded Apply Rules Logic ............................................................................. 29
3.1. VLAN Connections ....................................................................................... 138
3.2. An ARP Publish Ethernet Frame ...................................................................... 152
3.3. Simplified NetDefendOS Traffic Flow ............................................................... 161
4.1. A Typical Routing Scenario ............................................................................ 206
4.2. Using Local IP Address with an Unbound Network .............................................. 208
4.3. A Route Failover Scenario for ISP Access .......................................................... 215
4.4. A Proxy ARP Example .................................................................................... 222
4.5. The RLB Round Robin Algorithm ..................................................................... 232
4.6. The RLB Spillover Algorithm ........................................................................... 233
4.7. A Route Load Balancing Scenario .................................................................... 235
4.8. A Simple OSPF Scenario ................................................................................ 239
4.9. OSPF Providing Route Redundancy ................................................................. 240
4.10. Virtual Links Connecting Areas ..................................................................... 244
4.11. Virtual Links with Partitioned Backbone ......................................................... 245
4.12. NetDefendOS OSPF Objects ......................................................................... 246
4.13. Dynamic Routing Rule Objects ..................................................................... 254
4.14. An OSPF Example ....................................................................................... 260
4.15. Multicast Forwarding - No Address Translation ................................................ 270
4.16. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation .................................................... 272
4.17. Multicast Snoop Mode ................................................................................ 274
4.18. Multicast Proxy Mode .................................................................................. 275
4.19. Tunneling Multicast using GRE ..................................................................... 282
4.20. Non-transparent Mode Internet Access .......................................................... 290
4.21. Transparent Mode Internet Access ................................................................ 291
4.22. Transparent Mode Scenario 1 ....................................................................... 292
4.23. Transparent Mode Scenario 2 ....................................................................... 294
4.24. An Example BPDU Relaying Scenario ............................................................. 298
5.1. DHCP Server Objects .................................................................................... 306
6.1. Deploying an ALG ........................................................................................ 320
6.2. HTTP ALG Processing Order ........................................................................... 324
6.3. FTP ALG Hybrid Mode ................................................................................... 326
6.4. SMTP ALG Processing Order ........................................................................... 338
6.5. Anti-Spam Filtering ...................................................................................... 340
6.6. PPTP ALG Usage ........................................................................................... 347
6.7. TLS Termination ........................................................................................... 376
6.8. Dynamic Web Content Filtering Flow .............................................................. 385
6.9. Anti-Virus Malicious File Message ................................................................... 399
6.10. Anti-Virus Malicious URL Message ................................................................. 399
6.11. IDP Database Updating ............................................................................... 407
6.12. IDP Signature Selection ............................................................................... 408
7.1. NAT IP Address Translation ............................................................................ 429
7.2. A NAT Example ............................................................................................ 431
7.3. Anonymizing with NAT ................................................................................. 434
7.4. SAT Address Translation ................................................................................ 445
8.1. Normal LDAP Authentication ......................................................................... 471
8.2. LDAP for PPP with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2 ......................................... 472
8.3. User Identity Awareness ................................................................................ 483
8.4. The Identity Awareness Agent Interface ........................................................... 487
9.1. The AH protocol ........................................................................................... 516
9.2. The ESP protocol .......................................................................................... 517
9.3. PPTP Client Usage ........................................................................................ 554
9.4. An L2TPv3 Example ...................................................................................... 556

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9.5. SSL VPN Browser Connection Choices ............................................................. 568

9.6. The SSL VPN Client Login ............................................................................... 569
9.7. The SSL VPN Client Statistics .......................................................................... 570
9.8. Certificate Validation Components .................................................................. 575
10.1. Pipe Rules Determine Pipe Usage .................................................................. 588
10.2. FwdFast Rules Bypass Traffic Shaping ............................................................. 589
10.3. Differentiated Limits Using Chains ................................................................ 592
10.4. The Eight Pipe Precedences ......................................................................... 593
10.5. Minimum and Maximum Pipe Precedence ...................................................... 595
10.6. Traffic Grouped By IP Address ....................................................................... 599
10.7. A Basic Traffic Shaping Scenario .................................................................... 603
10.8. IDP Traffic Shaping P2P Scenario ................................................................... 610
10.9. A Server Load Balancing Configuration .......................................................... 616
10.10. Connections from Three Clients .................................................................. 619
10.11. Stickiness and Round-Robin ....................................................................... 619
10.12. Stickiness and Connection-rate ................................................................... 620
D.1. The 7 Layers of the OSI Model ........................................................................ 691

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List of Examples
1. Example Notation ............................................................................................. 15
2.1. Remote Management via HTTPS with CA Signed Certificates ................................. 37
2.2. Enabling SSH Remote Access ........................................................................... 44
2.3. Changing the Management Validation Timeout .................................................. 58
2.4. Changing the Management Interface IP Address ................................................. 59
2.5. Changing a Remote Access Rule ....................................................................... 59
2.6. Changing the HA Management IP Address ......................................................... 60
2.7. Enabling Remote Management via HTTPS .......................................................... 61
2.8. Listing Configuration Objects ........................................................................... 63
2.9. Displaying a Configuration Object .................................................................... 63
2.10. Editing a Configuration Object ....................................................................... 64
2.11. Adding a Configuration Object ....................................................................... 65
2.12. Deleting a Configuration Object ..................................................................... 66
2.13. Undeleting a Configuration Object .................................................................. 66
2.14. Listing Modified Configuration Objects ............................................................ 66
2.15. Activating and Committing a Configuration ..................................................... 67
2.16. Enable Logging to a Syslog Host ..................................................................... 72
2.17. Enabling Syslog RFC 5424 Compliance with Hostname ....................................... 73
2.18. Sending SNMP Traps to an SNMP Trap Receiver ................................................. 75
2.19. RADIUS Accounting Server Setup .................................................................... 80
2.20. Link Monitor Setup ....................................................................................... 86
2.21. Enabling SNMP Monitoring ............................................................................ 88
2.22. Performing a Complete System Backup ........................................................... 99
2.23. Complete Hardware Reset to Factory Defaults ................................................ 100
3.1. Adding an IP Host Address ............................................................................. 104
3.2. Adding an IP Network ................................................................................... 105
3.3. Adding an IP Range ...................................................................................... 105
3.4. Deleting an Address Object ........................................................................... 105
3.5. Adding an Ethernet Address .......................................................................... 106
3.6. Adding IPv6 Host Addresses .......................................................................... 109
3.7. Enabling IPv6 Globally .................................................................................. 110
3.8. Enabling IPv6 on an Interface ......................................................................... 111
3.9. Enabling IPv6 Advertisements ........................................................................ 111
3.10. Adding an IPv6 Route and Enabling Proxy ND ................................................. 113
3.11. Listing the Available Services ........................................................................ 118
3.12. Viewing a Specific Service ............................................................................ 119
3.13. Creating a Custom TCP/UDP Service .............................................................. 122
3.14. Adding an IP Protocol Service ....................................................................... 124
3.15. Defining a VLAN ......................................................................................... 139
3.16. Configuring a PPPoE Client .......................................................................... 142
3.17. Creating an Interface Group ......................................................................... 147
3.18. Displaying the ARP Cache ............................................................................ 149
3.19. Flushing the ARP Cache ............................................................................... 149
3.20. Defining an ARP/Neighbor Discovery Object ................................................... 152
3.21. Adding an Allow IP Rule ............................................................................... 164
3.22. Setting up a Policy to Allow Connections to a DMZ .......................................... 170
3.23. Setting up a SAT Policy to an Internal Web Server ............................................ 171
3.24. Specifying an Application Control Policy ........................................................ 173
3.25. Using an Application Control Rule Set ............................................................ 174
3.26. Setting up a Time-Scheduled Security Policy ................................................... 181
3.27. Uploading a Certificate with Web Interface ..................................................... 186
3.28. Associating Certificates with IPsec Tunnels ..................................................... 187
3.29. Setting the Current Date and Time ................................................................ 189
3.30. Setting the Time Zone ................................................................................. 190
3.31. Enabling DST ............................................................................................. 190
3.32. Enabling Time Synchronization using SNTP .................................................... 192

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User Manual

3.33. Manually Triggering a Time Synchronization .................................................. 192

3.34. Modifying the Maximum Adjustment Value .................................................... 193
3.35. Forcing Time Synchronization ...................................................................... 193
3.36. Enabling the D-Link NTP Server .................................................................... 194
3.37. Configuring DNS Servers ............................................................................. 196
4.1. Displaying the main Routing Table .................................................................. 211
4.2. Adding a Route to the main Table ................................................................... 213
4.3. Displaying the Core Routes ............................................................................ 214
4.4. Creating a Routing Table ............................................................................... 225
4.5. Adding Routes ............................................................................................. 225
4.6. Creating a Routing Rule ................................................................................. 226
4.7. Policy-based Routing with Multiple ISPs ........................................................... 229
4.8. Setting Up RLB ............................................................................................. 236
4.9. Creating an OSPF Router Process ...................................................................... 260
4.10. Add an OSPF Area ....................................................................................... 261
4.11. Add OSPF Interface Objects .......................................................................... 261
4.12. Import Routes from an OSPF AS into the Main Routing Table ............................. 262
4.13. Exporting the Routes into an OSPF AS ............................................................ 263
4.14. Enabling OSPF Debug Log Events ................................................................. 265
4.15. Forwarding of Multicast Traffic using the SAT Multiplex Rule ............................. 270
4.16. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation .................................................... 272
4.17. IGMP - No Address Translation ...................................................................... 275
4.18. if1 Configuration ........................................................................................ 277
4.19. if2 Configuration - Group Translation ............................................................. 278
4.20. Setting up Transparent Mode for Scenario 1 ................................................... 292
4.21. Setting up Transparent Mode for Scenario 2 ................................................... 294
5.1. Setting up a DHCP server ............................................................................... 305
5.2. Static DHCP Host Assignment ........................................................................ 307
5.3. Setting up a DHCP Relayer ............................................................................. 309
5.4. Creating an IP Pool ....................................................................................... 314
6.1. Setting up an Access Rule .............................................................................. 318
6.2. Protecting an FTP Server with an ALG .............................................................. 329
6.3. Protecting FTP Clients ................................................................................... 332
6.4. Protecting Phones Behind NetDefend Firewalls ................................................ 361
6.5. H.323 with Private IPv4 Addresses ................................................................... 363
6.6. Two Phones Behind Different NetDefend Firewalls ............................................ 364
6.7. Using Private IPv4 Addresses ......................................................................... 366
6.8. H.323 with Gatekeeper .................................................................................. 367
6.9. H.323 with Gatekeeper and two NetDefend Firewalls ......................................... 369
6.10. Using the H.323 ALG in a Corporate Environment ............................................ 370
6.11. Configuring remote offices for H.323 ............................................................. 373
6.12. Allowing the H.323 Gateway to register with the Gatekeeper ............................ 374
6.13. Stripping ActiveX and Java applets ................................................................ 380
6.14. Setting up a white and blacklist .................................................................... 381
6.15. Enabling Dynamic Web Content Filtering ....................................................... 386
6.16. Enabling Audit Mode .................................................................................. 388
6.17. Reclassifying a blocked site .......................................................................... 390
6.18. Editing Content Filtering HTTP Banner Files .................................................... 396
6.19. Activating Anti-Virus Scanning ..................................................................... 401
6.20. Configuring an SMTP Log Receiver ................................................................ 414
6.21. Setting up IDP for a Mail Server ..................................................................... 415
6.22. Adding a Host to the Whitelist ...................................................................... 425
7.1. Specifying a NAT IP Rule ................................................................................ 431
7.2. Specifying a NAT IP Policy .............................................................................. 432
7.3. Using NAT Pools .......................................................................................... 438
7.4. One-to-One IP Translation ............................................................................. 443
7.5. Many-to-Many IP Translation ......................................................................... 447
7.6. All-to-One IP Translation ............................................................................... 450
7.7. Setting up a SAT IP Policy .............................................................................. 455
8.1. Creating an Authentication Database .............................................................. 462
8.2. Configuring a RADIUS Server ......................................................................... 464
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User Manual

8.3. User Authentication Setup for Web Access ....................................................... 477

8.4. Editing Content Filtering HTTP Banner Files ...................................................... 480
8.5. Enabling User Identity Awareness ................................................................... 484
9.1. Using an Algorithm Proposal List .................................................................... 519
9.2. Using a Pre-Shared key ................................................................................. 520
9.3. Using an Identity List .................................................................................... 521
9.4. Setting up a PSK based VPN tunnel for roaming clients ...................................... 527
9.5. Setting up a Self-signed Certificate based VPN tunnel for roaming clients ............. 528
9.6. Setting up CA Server Certificate based VPN tunnels for roaming clients ................ 530
9.7. Setting Up Config Mode ................................................................................ 532
9.8. Using Config Mode with IPsec Tunnels ............................................................ 533
9.9. Setting up an LDAP server ............................................................................. 534
9.10. Setting up a PPTP server .............................................................................. 546
9.11. Setting up an L2TP server ............................................................................ 547
9.12. Setting up an L2TP Tunnel Over IPsec ............................................................ 548
9.13. L2TPv3 Server Setup ................................................................................... 556
9.14. L2TPv3 Server Setup With IPsec .................................................................... 557
9.15. L2TPv3 Server Setup For VLANs .................................................................... 559
9.16. L2TPv3 Client Setup .................................................................................... 561
9.17. L2TPv3 Client Setup With IPsec ..................................................................... 562
9.18. Setting Up an SSL VPN Interface .................................................................... 571
9.19. Setting SSL VPN Interface Client Routes ......................................................... 573
10.1. Applying a Simple Bandwidth Limit ............................................................... 589
10.2. Limiting Bandwidth in Both Directions ........................................................... 591
10.3. Setting up SLB ........................................................................................... 621
12.1. A simple ZoneDefense scenario .................................................................... 651

14

Preface
Intended Audience
The target audience for this reference guide is Administrators who are responsible for
configuring and managing NetDefend Firewalls which are running the NetDefendOS operating
system. This guide assumes that the reader has some basic knowledge of networks and network
security.

Text Structure and Conventions

The text is broken down into chapters and sub-sections. Numbered sub-sections are shown in
the table of contents at the beginning. An index is included at the end of the document to aid
with alphabetical lookup of subjects.
Where a "See chapter/section" link (such as: see Chapter 9, VPN) is provided in the main text, this
can be clicked to take the reader directly to that reference.
Text that may appear in the user interface of the product is designated by being in bold case.
Where a term is being introduced for the first time or being stressed it may appear in italics.
Where console interaction is shown in the main text outside of an example, it will appear in a box
with a gray background.
Where a web address reference is shown in the text, clicking it will open the specified URL in a
browser in a new window (some systems may not allow this).
For example, http://www.dlink.com.

Screenshots
This guide contains a minimum of screenshots. This is deliberate and is done because the manual
deals specifically with NetDefendOS and administrators have a choice of management user
interfaces. It was decided that the manual would be less cluttered and easier to read if it
concentrated on describing how NetDefendOS functions rather than including large numbers of
screenshots showing how the various interfaces are used. Examples are given but these are
largely textual descriptions of management interface usage.

Examples
Examples in the text are denoted by the header Example and appear with a gray background as
shown below. They contain a CLI example and/or a Web Interface example as appropriate. (The
NetDefendOS CLI Reference Guide documents all CLI commands.)
Example 1. Example Notation
Information about what the example is trying to achieve is found here, sometimes with an
explanatory image.
Command-Line Interface
The Command Line Interface example would appear here. It would start with the command
prompt followed by the command:
gw-world:/> somecommand someparameter=somevalue

15

Preface

Web Interface
The Web Interface actions for the example are shown here. They are also typically a numbered
list showing what items need to be opened followed by information about the data items that
need to be entered:
1.

Go to: Item X > Item Y > Item Z

2.

Now enter:

DataItem1: datavalue1

DataItem2: datavalue2

Highlighted Content
Sections of text which the reader should pay special attention to are indicated by icons on the
left hand side of the page followed by a short paragraph in italicized text. Such sections are of
the following types with the following purposes:

Note
This indicates some piece of information that is an addition to the preceding text. It may
concern something that is being emphasized, or something that is not obvious or
explicitly stated in the preceding text.

Tip
This indicates a piece of non-critical information that is useful to know in certain
situations but is not essential reading.

Caution
This indicates where the reader should be careful with their actions as an undesirable
situation may result if care is not exercised.

Important
This is an essential point that the reader should read and understand.

Warning
This is essential reading for the user as they should be aware that a serious situation
may result if certain actions are taken or not taken.

Trademarks
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Preface

Certain names in this publication are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Windows, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

17

Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

This chapter outlines the key features of NetDefendOS.
Features, page 18
NetDefendOS Architecture, page 22
NetDefendOS State Engine Packet Flow, page 26

1.1. Features
D-Link NetDefendOS is the base software engine that drives and controls the range of NetDefend
Firewall hardware products.

NetDefendOS as a Network Security Operating System

Designed as a network security operating system, NetDefendOS features high throughput
performance with high reliability plus super-granular control. In contrast to products built on top
of standard operating systems such as Unix or Microsoft Windows, NetDefendOS offers seamless
integration of all its subsystems, in-depth administrative control of all functionality, as well as a
minimal attack surface which helps to negate the risk from security attacks.

NetDefendOS Objects
From the administrator's perspective the conceptual approach of NetDefendOS is to visualize
operations through a set of logical building blocks or objects. These objects allow the
configuration of NetDefendOS in an almost limitless number of different ways. This granular
control allows the administrator to meet the requirements of the most demanding network
security scenarios.

Key Features
NetDefendOS has an extensive feature set. The list below presents the key features of the
product:
IP Routing

NetDefendOS provides a variety of options for IP routing

including static routing, dynamic routing (with OSPF) as
well as multicast routing capabilities. In addition,

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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

NetDefendOS supports features such as Virtual LANs, Route

Monitoring, Proxy ARP and Transparency.
For more information, please see Chapter 4, Routing.
Firewalling Policies

NetDefendOS provides stateful inspection-based firewalling

for a wide range of protocols such as TCP, UDP and ICMP.
The administrator can define detailed firewalling policies
based on source/destination network/interface, protocol,
ports, user credentials, time-of-day and more.
Section 3.6, IP Rules and IP Policies describes how to set up
these policies to determine what traffic is allowed or
rejected by NetDefendOS.

Address Translation

For functionality as well as security reasons, NetDefendOS

supports policy-based address translation. Dynamic
Address Translation (NAT) as well as Static Address
Translation (SAT) is supported, and resolves most types of
address translation needs.
This feature is covered in Chapter 7, Address Translation.

VPN

NetDefendOS supports a range of Virtual Private Network

(VPN) solutions. Support exists for IPsec, L2TP, L2TPv3, PPTP
as well as SSL VPN with security policies definable for
individual VPN connections.
This topic is covered in Chapter 9, VPN.

TLS Termination

NetDefendOS supports TLS termination so that the

NetDefend Firewall can act as the end point for connections
by HTTP web-browser clients (this feature is sometimes
called SSL termination).
For detailed information, see Section 6.2.10, The TLS ALG.

Application Control

NetDefendOS is able to identify data connections relating

to particular applications and perform defined actions for
those data streams such as blocking or traffic shaping. An
example of an application is BitTorrent peer to peer
streaming but could also relate to accessing certain
websites such as Facebook.
For detailed information, see Section 3.6.8, Application
Control.

Anti-Virus Scanning

NetDefendOS features integrated anti-virus functionality.

Traffic passing through the NetDefend Firewall can be
subjected to in-depth scanning for viruses, and virus
sending hosts can be black-listed and blocked.
For details of this feature, seeSection 6.4, Anti-Virus
Scanning.

Intrusion Detection and

Prevention

To mitigate application-layer attacks towards vulnerabilities

in services and applications, NetDefendOS provides a
powerful Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) engine.
The IDP engine is policy-based and is able to perform
high-performance scanning and detection of attacks and
can perform blocking and optional black-listing of attacking
hosts.
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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

More information about IDP can be found in Section 6.5,

Intrusion Detection and Prevention.

Note
Full IDP is available on all D-Link NetDefend
product models as a subscription service. On
some models, a simplified IDP subsystem is
provided as standard.

Web Content Filtering

NetDefendOS provides various mechanisms for filtering

web content that is deemed inappropriate according to a
web usage policy. With Web Content Filtering (WCF) web
content can be blocked based on category (Dynamic WCF),
malicious objects can be removed from web pages and
web sites can be whitelisted or blacklisted.
More information about this topic can be found in
Section 6.3, Web Content Filtering.

Traffic Management

NetDefendOS provides broad traffic management

capabilities through Traffic Shaping, Threshold Rules (certain
models only) and Server Load Balancing.
Traffic Shaping enables limiting and balancing of
bandwidth; Threshold Rules allow specification of
thresholds for sending alarms and/or limiting network
traffic; Server Load Balancing enables a device running
NetDefendOS to distribute network load to multiple hosts.
These features are discussed in detail in Chapter 10, Traffic
Management.

Note
Threshold Rules are only available on certain
D-Link NetDefend product models.

Operations and Maintenance

Administrator management of NetDefendOS is possible

through either a Web-based User Interface (the WebUI) or
via a Command Line Interface (the CLI). NetDefendOS also
provides detailed event and logging capabilities plus
support for monitoring through SNMP.
More detailed information about this topic can be found in
Chapter 2, Management and Maintenance.

ZoneDefense

NetDefendOS can be used to control D-Link switches using

the ZoneDefense feature. This allows NetDefendOS to
isolate portions of a network that contain hosts that are the
source of undesirable network traffic.

Note
NetDefendOS ZoneDefense is only available on
certain D-Link NetDefend product models and is
discussed further in Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

IPv6

IPv6 addresses are supported on interfaces and within rule

sets. This feature is not enabled by default and must be
explicitly enables on an Ethernet interface.
More information about this topic can be found in
Section 3.2, IPv6 Support.

NetDefendOS Documentation
Reading through the available documentation carefully will ensure getting the most out of the
NetDefendOS product. In addition to this document, the reader should also be aware of the
companion reference guides:

The CLI Reference Guide which details all NetDefendOS CLI commands.

The NetDefendOS Log Reference Guide which details all NetDefendOS log event messages.

Together, these documents form the essential reference material for NetDefendOS operation.

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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

1.2. NetDefendOS Architecture

1.2.1. State-based Architecture
The NetDefendOS architecture is centered around the concept of state-based connections.
Traditional IP routers or switches commonly inspect all packets and then perform forwarding
decisions based on information found in the packet headers. With this approach, packets are
forwarded without any sense of context which eliminates any possibility to detect and analyze
complex protocols and enforce corresponding security policies.

Stateful Inspection
NetDefendOS employs a technique called stateful inspection which means that it inspects and
forwards traffic on a per-connection basis. NetDefendOS detects when a new connection is
being established, and keeps a small piece of information or state in its state table for the lifetime
of that connection. By doing this, NetDefendOS is able to understand the context of the network
traffic which enables it to perform in-depth traffic scanning, apply bandwidth management and
a variety of other functions.
The stateful inspection approach additionally provides high throughput performance with the
added advantage of a design that is highly scalable. The NetDefendOS subsystem that
implements stateful inspection will sometimes be referred to in documentation as the
NetDefendOS state-engine.

1.2.2. NetDefendOS Building Blocks

The basic building blocks in NetDefendOS are interfaces, logical objects and various types of
rules (or rule sets).

Interfaces
Interfaces are the doorways through which network traffic enters or leaves the NetDefend
Firewall. Without interfaces, a NetDefendOS system has no means for receiving or sending traffic.
The following types of interface are supported in NetDefendOS:

Physical interfaces - These correspond to the actual physical Ethernet interfaces.

Sub-interfaces - These include VLAN and PPPoE interfaces.

Tunnel interfaces - Used for receiving and sending traffic through VPN tunnels.

Interface Symmetry
The NetDefendOS interface design is symmetric, meaning that the interfaces of the device are
not fixed as being on the "insecure outside" or "secure inside" of a network topology. The notion
of what is inside and outside is totally for the administrator to define.

Logical Objects
Logical objects can be seen as predefined building blocks for use by the rule sets. The address
book, for instance, contains named objects representing host and network addresses.

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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

Another example of logical objects are services which represent specific protocol and port
combinations. Also important are the Application Layer Gateway (ALG) objects which are used to
define additional parameters on specific protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP and H.323.

NetDefendOS Rule Sets

Finally, rules which are defined by the administrator in the various rule sets are used for actually
implementing NetDefendOS security policies. The most fundamental set of rules are the IP Rules,
which are used to define the layer 3 IP filtering policy as well as carrying out address translation
and server load balancing. The Traffic Shaping Rules define the policy for bandwidth
management, the IDP Rules control the behavior of the intrusion prevention engine and so on.

1.2.3. Basic Packet Flow

This section outlines the basic flow in the state-engine for packets received and forwarded by
NetDefendOS. The following description is simplified and might not be fully applicable in all
scenarios, however, the basic principles will be valid for all NetDefendOS deployments.
1.

An Ethernet frame is received on one of the Ethernet interfaces in the system. Basic Ethernet
frame validation is performed and the packet is dropped if the frame is invalid.

2.

The packet is associated with a Source Interface. The source interface is determined as
follows:

If the Ethernet frame contains a VLAN ID (Virtual LAN identifier), the system checks for a
configured VLAN interface with a corresponding VLAN ID. If one is found, that VLAN
interface becomes the source interface for the packet. If no matching interface is found,
the packet is dropped and the event is logged.

If the Ethernet frame contains a PPP payload, the system checks for a matching PPPoE
interface. If one is found, that interface becomes the source interface for the packet. If no
matching interface is found, the packet is dropped and the event is logged.

If none the above is true, the receiving Ethernet interface becomes the source interface
for the packet.

3.

The IP datagram within the packet is passed on to the NetDefendOS Consistency Checker.
The consistency checker performs a number of sanity checks on the packet, including
validation of checksums, protocol flags, packet length and so on. If the consistency checks
fail, the packet gets dropped and the event is logged.

4.

NetDefendOS now tries to lookup an existing connection by matching parameters from the
incoming packet. A number of parameters are used in the match attempt, including the
source interface, source and destination IP addresses and IP protocol.
If a match cannot be found, a connection establishment process starts which includes steps
from here to 9 below. If a match is found, the forwarding process continues at step 10
below.

5.

The Access Rules are evaluated to find out if the source IP address of the new connection is
allowed on the received interface. If no Access Rule matches then a reverse route lookup will
be done in the routing tables.
In other words, by default, an interface will only accept source IP addresses that belong to
networks routed over that interface. A reverse lookup means that we look in the routing
tables to confirm that there is a route with this network as the destination on the same
interface.

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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

If the Access Rule lookup or the reverse route lookup determine that the source IP is invalid,
then the packet is dropped and the event is logged.
6.

A route lookup is being made using the appropriate routing table. The destination interface
for the connection has now been determined.

7.

The IP rules are now searched for a rule that matches the packet. The following parameters
are part of the matching process:

Source and destination interfaces

Source and destination network

IP protocol (for example TCP, UDP, ICMP)

TCP/UDP ports

ICMP types

Point in time in reference to a predefined schedule

If a match cannot be found, the packet is dropped.

If a rule is found that matches the new connection, the Action parameter of the rule decides
what NetDefendOS should do with the connection. If the action is Drop, the packet is
dropped and the event is logged according to the log settings for the rule.
If the action is Allow, the packet is allowed through the system. A corresponding state will
be added to the connection table for matching subsequent packets belonging to the same
connection. In addition, the service object which matched the IP protocol and ports might
have contained a reference to an Application Layer Gateway (ALG) object. This information
is recorded in the state so that NetDefendOS will know that application layer processing will
have to be performed on the connection.
Finally, the opening of the new connection will be logged according to the log settings of
the rule.

Note: Additional actions

There are actually a number of additional actions available such as address
translation and server load balancing. The basic concept of dropping and allowing
traffic is still the same.

8.

The Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) Rules are now evaluated in a similar way to the
IP rules. If a match is found, the IDP data is recorded with the state. By doing this,
NetDefendOS will know that IDP scanning is supposed to be conducted on all packets
belonging to this connection.

9.

The Traffic Shaping and the Threshold Limit rule sets are now searched. If a match is found,
the corresponding information is recorded with the state. This will enable proper traffic
management on the connection.

10. From the information in the state, NetDefendOS now knows what to do with the incoming
packet:

If ALG information is present or if IDP scanning is to be performed, the payload of the

packet is taken care of by the TCP Pseudo-Reassembly subsystem, which in turn makes
use of the different Application Layer Gateways, layer 7 scanning engines and so on, to
further analyze or transform the traffic.
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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

If the contents of the packet is encapsulated (such as with IPsec, PPTP/L2TP or some
other type of tunneled protocol), then the interface lists are checked for a matching
interface. If one is found, the packet is decapsulated and the payload (the plaintext) is
sent into NetDefendOS again, now with source interface being the matched tunnel
interface. In other words, the process continues at step 3 above.

If traffic management information is present, the packet might get queued or otherwise
be subjected to actions related to traffic management.

11. Eventually, the packet will be forwarded out on the destination interface according to the
state. If the destination interface is a tunnel interface or a physical sub-interface, additional
processing such as encryption or encapsulation might occur.
The next section provides a set of diagrams illustrating the flow of packets through
NetDefendOS.

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Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

1.3. NetDefendOS State Engine Packet Flow

The diagrams in this section provide a summary of the flow of packets through the NetDefendOS
state-engine. There are three diagrams, each flowing into the next. It is not necessary to
understand these diagrams, however, they can be useful as a reference when configuring
NetDefendOS in certain situations.

Figure 1.1. Packet Flow Schematic Part I

The packet flow is continued on the following page.

26

Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

Figure 1.2. Packet Flow Schematic Part II

The packet flow is continued on the following page.

27

Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

Figure 1.3. Packet Flow Schematic Part III

28

Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

Apply Rules
The figure below presents the detailed logic of the Apply Rules function in Figure 1.2, Packet Flow
Schematic Part II above.

Figure 1.4. Expanded Apply Rules Logic

29

Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

30

Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

This chapter describes the management, operations and maintenance related aspects of
NetDefendOS.
Managing NetDefendOS, page 31
Events and Logging, page 69
RADIUS Accounting, page 77
Monitoring, page 84
The pcapdump Command, page 94
Maintenance, page 97

2.1. Managing NetDefendOS

2.1.1. Overview
NetDefendOS is designed to give both high performance and high reliability. Not only does it
provide an extensive feature set, it also enables the administrator to be in full control of almost
every detail of the system. This means the product can be deployed in the most challenging
environments.
A good understanding on how NetDefendOS configuration is performed is crucial for proper
usage of the system. For this reason, this section provides an in-depth presentation of the
configuration subsystem as well as a description of how to work with the various management
interfaces.

Management Interfaces
NetDefendOS provides the following management interfaces:
The Web Interface

The Web Interface (also known as the Web User Interface or WebUI) is
built into NetDefendOS and provides a user-friendly and intuitive
graphical management interface, accessible from a standard web
browser.
The browser connects to one of the hardware's Ethernet interfaces
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Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

using HTTP or HTTPS and the NetDefendOS responds like a web

server, allowing web pages to be used as the management interface.
This feature is fully described in Section 2.1.3, The Web Interface.
The CLI

The Command Line Interface (CLI), accessible locally via serial console
port or remotely using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, provides the
most fine-grained control over all parameters in NetDefendOS.
This feature is fully described in Section 2.1.4, The CLI.

Secure Copy

Secure Copy (SCP) is a widely used communication protocol for file

transfer. No specific SCP client is provided with NetDefendOS
distributions but there exists a wide selection of SCP clients available
for nearly all workstation platforms.
SCP is a complement to CLI usage and provides a secure means of file
transfer between the administrator's workstation and the NetDefend
Firewall. Various files used by NetDefendOS can be both uploaded
and downloaded with SCP.
This feature is fully described in Section 2.1.6, Secure Copy.

Console Boot Menu

Before NetDefendOS starts running, a console connected directly to

the NetDefend Firewall's RS232 port can be used to do basic
configuration through the boot menu. This menu can be entered by
pressing any console key between power-up and NetDefendOS
starting. It is the D-Link firmware loader that is being accessed with the
boot menu.
This feature is fully described in Section 2.1.7, The Console Boot Menu.

Remote Management Policies

Access to remote management interfaces can be regulated by a remote management policy so
the administrator can restrict management access based on source network, source interface
and username/password credentials.
Access to the Web Interface can be permitted for administrative users on a certain network, while
at the same time allowing CLI access for a remote administrator connecting through a specific
IPsec tunnel.
By default, Web Interface access is enabled for users on the network connected via the LAN
interface of the D-Link firewall (on products where more than one LAN interface is available,
LAN1 is the default interface).

2.1.2. The Default Administrator Account

By default, NetDefendOS has a local user database, AdminUsers, that contains one predefined
administrator account. This account has the username admin with password admin. This account
has full administrative read/write privileges for NetDefendOS.

Important
For security reasons, it is recommended to change the default password of the default
account as soon as possible after connecting with the NetDefend Firewall.

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Creating Additional Accounts

Extra user accounts can be created as required. Accounts can either belong to the Administrator
user group, in which case they have complete read/write administrative access. Alternatively,
they can belong to the Auditor user group, in which case they have read-only access.

Multiple Administration Logins

NetDefendOS does not allow more than one administrator account to be logged in at the same
time. If one administrator logs in, then a second or more will be allowed to login but they will
only have audit privileges. In other words the second or more administrators who login will only
be able to read configurations and will not be able to change them.

2.1.3. The Web Interface

NetDefendOS provides an intuitive Web Interface (WebUI) for management of the system via an
Ethernet interface using a standard web browser. This allows the administrator to perform
remote management from anywhere on a private network or the public Internet using a
standard computer without having to install client software.

Note: Recommended web browsers

The recommended browsers to use with the Web Interface are:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Firefox
Safari
Chrome
Opera

Assignment of a Default IP Address

For a new D-Link NetDefend firewall with factory defaults, a default internal IP address is
assigned automatically by NetDefendOS to the hardware's LAN1 interface (or the LAN interface
on models wihout multiple LAN interfaces). The IP address assigned to the management
interface differs according to the NetDefend model as follows:

On the NetDefend DFL-210, 260, 800, 860, 1600 and 2500, the default management interface
IP address is 192.168.1.1.

On the NetDefend DFL-260E, 860E, 1660, 2560 and 2560G, the default management interface
IP address is 192.168.10.1.

Changing the management interface and/or IP address from the default is described in
Section 2.1.8, Changing Management Access.

Setting the Management Workstation IP

The default management Ethernet interface of the firewall and the external workstation
computer's Ethernet interface must be members of the same logical IP network for
communication between them to succeed. Therefore, the connecting Ethernet interface of the
workstation must be manually assigned the following static IP values:
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DFL-210/260/800/860/1600/2500

DFL-260E/860E/1660/2560/2560G

IP Address: 192.168.1.30

IP Address: 192.168.10.30

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

Default Gateway: 192.168.10.1

Logging on to the Web Interface

To access the Web Interface using the factory default settings, launch a web browser on the
external workstation computer and point the browser at the IPv4 address:
DFL-210/260/800/860/1600/2500

DFL-260E/860E/1660/2560/2560G

IP Address: 192.168.1.1

IP Address: 192.168.10.1

When performing initial connection to NetDefendOS, the administrator must use https:// as the
URL protocol in the browser (in other words, https://192.168.1.1 or https://192.168.10.1
according to model ). Using HTTPS ensures that communication with NetDefendOS is secure.
If communication with the NetDefendOS is successfully established, a user authentication dialog
similar to the one shown below will then be shown in the browser window.

Enter the username and password and click the Login button. The factory default username and
password is admin and admin . If the user credentials are correct, you will be transferred to the
main Web Interface page.

Note: Password caching is prevented

The Web Interface prevents the caching of the password from the login credentials. This
is also done in other NetDefendOS features where a password is requested through a
browser screen. For example, VPN authentication.

First Time Web Interface Logon and the Setup Wizard

When logging on for the first time, the default username is always admin and the password is
admin .
After successful login, the Web Interface user interface will be presented in the browser window.
If no configuration changes have yet been uploaded to the NetDefend Firewall, the NetDefendOS
Setup Wizard will start automatically to take a new user through the essential steps for
NetDefendOS setup and establishing public Internet access.

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Important: Switch off popup blocking

Popup blocking must be disabled in the web browser to allow the NetDefendOS Setup
Wizard to run since this appears in a popup window.

Multi-language Support
The Web Interface login dialog offers the option to select a language other than English for the
interface. Language support is provided by a set of separate resource files. These files can be
downloaded from the D-Link website.
It may occasionally be the case that a NetDefendOS upgrade can contain features that
temporarily lack a complete non-English translation because of time constraints. In this case the
original English will be used as a temporary solution in place of a translation to the selected
language.

The Web Browser Interface

On the left hand side of the Web Interface is a tree which allows navigation to the various sets of
NetDefendOS objects. The central area of the Web Interface displays information about those
modules. Current performance information is shown by default.

For information about the default user name and password, see Section 2.1.2, The Default
Administrator Account .

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Note: Remote management access

Access to the Web Interface is regulated by the configured remote management policy.
By default, the system will only allow web access from the internal network. For more
information about this topic, see Section 2.1.8, Changing Management Access.

Interface Layout
The main Web Interface page is divided into three major sections:
A. Menu bar

The menu bar located at the top of the Web Interface contains a series of
buttons for accessing different aspects of the configuration.

B. Object Navigator

C. Main Window

The navigator located on the left-hand side of the Web Interface

is divided into a number of sections related to the chosen menu
bar item.
The main window contains configuration or status details corresponding
to the section selected in the menu bar or object navigator.
When displaying tables of information in the main window, right clicking
a line (for example, an IP rule) will bring up a context menu.
This context menu can be used to add a new object, delete the current,
change the ordering and other operations. The Clone function is used to
make a complete copy of the current object and then add it as the last
object in the table. Below, is a typical example of the context menu.

Tip: Hover over textual items for additional information

Many of the textual items in the Web Interface have the ability to present additional
information about the item if the screen cursor is held over them. For example, the
screen shot below shows the information displayed when the cursor hovers over the
Primary Retry Interval field text in the RADIUS settings.

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Activating Configuration Changes

As configuration changes are made through the Web Interface, they are not applied to the
current running configuration until the administrator asks for them to be activated. Activation is
done by choosing the Web Interface menu option Configuration > Save and Activate.
NetDefendOS will then perform a reconfigure operation which might cause only a slight, brief
delay to current data traffic. To prevent a change locking out the administrator, NetDefendOS
will revert to the old configuration if communication is lost with the web browser after a fixed
time delay (30 seconds by default). This delay is discussed further in Section 2.1.8, Changing
Management Access.

Using CA Signed Certificates

By default, when the Web Interface is accessed with HTTPS, a self-signed certificate is sent to the
browser which must be explicitly accepted by the user. However, it is possible to use a CA signed
certificate and this can be done with certificate chaining. The next example demonstrates this.
Example 2.1. Remote Management via HTTPS with CA Signed Certificates
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Settings RemoteMgmtSettings
HTTPSCertificate=HostA
HTTPSRootCertificates=RootA2,RootA1,RootA3

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Remote Management > Advanced Settings

2.

Under WebUI enter the HTTPS Certificate and the Remote Management certificates.

3.

Click OK

These same CA signed certificates are also used by the NetDefendOS SSL VPN feature when a
user is connecting for the first time and a dialog of options is displayed.

Caution: Don't expose the management interface to the Internet

The above examples are provided for illustrative purposes only. It is never recommended
to expose any management interface to any user on the Internet.

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Logging out from the Web Interface

After finishing working with the Web Interface, it is advisable to always logout to prevent other
users with access to the workstation getting unauthorized access to NetDefendOS. Logout is
achieved by clicking on the Logout button at the right of the menu bar.

Management Traffic Routing with VPN Tunnels

If there is a problem with the management interface when communicating alongside VPN
tunnels, check the main routing table and look for an all-nets route to the VPN tunnel.
Management traffic may be using this route.
If no specific route is set up for the management interface then all management traffic coming
from NetDefendOS will automatically be routed into the VPN tunnel. If this is the case then a
route should be added by the administrator to route management traffic destined for the
management network to the correct interface.

2.1.4. The CLI

NetDefendOS provides a Command Line Interface (CLI) for administrators who prefer or require a
command line approach to administration, or who need more granular control of system
configuration. The CLI is available either locally through the serial console port (connection to
this is described below), or remotely via an Ethernet interface using the Secure Shell (SSH)
protocol from an SSH client.
The CLI provides a comprehensive set of commands that allow the display and modification of
configuration data as well as allowing runtime data to be displayed and allowing system
maintenance tasks to be performed.
This section only provides a summary for using the CLI. For a complete reference for all CLI
commands, see the separate D-Link CLI Reference Guide.
The most often used CLI commands are:

add - Adds an object such as an IP address or a rule to a NetDefendOS configuration.

set - Sets some property of an object to a value. For example, this might be used to set the
source interface on an IP rule.

show - Displays the current categories or display the values of a particular object.

delete - Deletes a specific object.

CLI Command Structure

CLI commands usually have the structure:
<command> <object_category> <object_type> <object_name>

For example, to display an IP address object called my_address, the command would be:
gw-world:/> show Address IP4Address my_address

The object category in this case is Address and the type within this category is IPAddress.
When typing commands, the object category can be left out where the command's meaning is

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unambiguous. For example, the show command above could have been entered as:
gw-world:/> show IPAddress my_address

However, tab completion will always assume the category is included. For example, tab
completion would not be able to help complete the above command if the tab is pressed during
or after the IPAddress object type.
The same object name could be used within two different categories or types although this is
best avoided in order to avoid ambiguity when reading configurations.

Note: The terms Category and Context

When describing the CLI, the terms object category and object context are used
interchangeably.

A command like add can also include object properties. To add a new IP4Address object with an IP
address of 10.49.02.01, the command would be:
gw-world:/> add IP4Address my_address Address=10.49.02.01

The object type can be optionally preceded by the object category. A category groups together a
set of types and mainly used with tab completion which is described below.

Tip: Getting help about help

Typing the CLI command:
gw-world:/> help help

will give information about the help command itself.

The CLI Command History

Just like the console in many versions of Microsoft Windows, the up and down arrow keys allow
the user to move through the list of commands in the CLI command history. For example,
pressing the up arrow key once will make the last command executed appear at the current CLI
prompt. After a command appears it can be re-executed in its original form or changed first
before execution.

Tab Completion
Remembering all the commands and their options can be difficult. NetDefendOS provides a
feature called tab completion which means that pressing the tab key will cause automatically
completion of the current part of the command. If completion is not possible then pressing the
tab key will alternatively display the possible command options that are available.

Optional Parameters Are Tab Completed Last

Tab completion does not work with optional parameters until all the mandatory parameters
have been entered.

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For example, when creating an IP rule for a particular IP rule set, the command line might begin:
gw-world:/> add IPRule

If the tab key is now pressed, the mandatory parameters are displayed by NetDefendOS:
A value is required for the following properties:
Action
DestinationInterface

DestinationNetwork
Service

SourceInterface
SourceNetwork

The Name parameter is not in this list since it is not mandatory because rules can be referenced
with their index number. Similarly, the following might be entered:
gw-world:/> add IPRule Na

If the tab key is now pressed, the letters Na will not be completed to be Name= because Name is
optional and all the mandatory parameters must be entered before tab completion works for
optional parameters.

Note: CLI commands in this guide are reformatted

In order to make the individual elements of CLI commands in this guide clearer, they are
broken into indented separate lines. In a console window they would appear as a single
continuous line which folds at the right margin.

For example, if the following command is typed:

gw-world:/> add IPRule
SourceInterface=If2
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=If2
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Action=Allow
Service=all_services
Na

If the tab key is now pressed, the letters Na will now be completed to be Name= because all the
mandatory parameters have already been entered.

Note: Rule names are recommended

Even when it is optional, it is recommended that a Name value is assigned to a rule. This
makes examining and understanding the configuration easier.

Getting the Default or Current Property Value

The period "." character before a tab can be used to automatically fill in the default value for an
object property in an Add command. For example:
gw-world:/> add LogReceiver LogReceiverSyslog log_example
Address=example_ip
LogSeverity=.<tab>

This will fill in the default value for LogSeverity:

gw-world:/> add LogReceiverSyslog example
Address=example_ip
LogSeverity=Emergency,Alert,Critical,Error,Warning,Notice,Info

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This severity list can then be edited with the back arrow and backspace keys. A default value is
not always available. For example, the Action of an IP rule has no default.
This same sequence can be used to get the current property value in a Set command. For
example:
gw-world:/> set LogReceiver LogReceiverSyslog log_example Address=.<tab>

This will display the current value for the Address property.

Appending Property Values

Another usage of the period character before a tab is to automatically fill in the current value of
an object property in a command line. This is very useful when there is a need to append a new
value to a list of pre-existing values.
For example, the following unfinished command may have been typed:
gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address If1_ip Address=

If a period "." followed by a tab is now entered, NetDefendOS displays the current value for
Address. If that value were the IPv4 list 10.6.58.10,192.168.2.1 then the unfinished command line
will automatically become:
gw-world:/> set Address IPAddress If1_ip Address=10.6.58.10,192.168.2.1

The displayed values can then be added to or changed with the backspace and back arrow keys
before completing the command.

Object Categories
It has been mentioned that objects are grouped by type, such as IP4Address. Types themselves
are grouped by category. The type IP4Address belongs to the category Address. The main use of
categories is in tab completion when searching for the right object type to use.
If a command such as add is entered and then the tab key is pressed, NetDefendOS displays all
the available categories. By choosing a category and then pressing tab again all the object types
for that category is displayed. Using categories means that the user has a simple way to specify
what kind of object they are trying to specify and a manageable number of options are displayed
after pressing tab.
Not all object types belong in a category. The object type UserAuthRule is a type without a
category and will appear in the category list after pressing tab at the beginning of a command.
The category is sometimes also referred to as the CLI context. The category does not have to be
entered for the command to be valid but always appears when using tab completion. As
discussed later, when commands are created automatically using CLI scripting, NetDefendOS
omits the category in the commands it creates.

Selecting Object Categories

With some categories, it is necessary to first choose a member of that category with the cc
(change category) command before individual objects can be manipulated. This is the case, for
example, with routes. There can be more than one routing table, so when adding or
manipulating a route we first have to use the cc command to identify which routing table we are
interested in.
Suppose a route is to be added to the routing table main. The first command would be:

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gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable main

gw-world:/main>

Notice that the command prompt changes to indicate the current category. The route can now
be added:
gw-world:/main> add Route Name=new_route1 Interface=lan Network=If1_net

To deselect the category, the command is cc on its own:

gw-world:/main> cc
gw-world:/>

The categories that require an initial cc command before object manipulation have a "/"
character following their names when displayed by a show command. For example:
RoutingTable/ .

Specifying Multiple Property Values

Sometimes a command property may need multiple values. For example, some commands use
the property AccountingServers and more than one value can be specified for this property. When
specifying multiple values, they should be separated by a comma "," character. For example, if
three servers server1, server2, server3 need to be specified then the property assignment in the
command would be:
AccountingServers=server1,server2,server3

Inserting into Rule Lists

Rule lists such as the IP rule set have an ordering which is important. When adding using the CLI
add command, the default is to add a new rule to the end of a list. When placement at a
particular position is crucial, the add command can include the Index= parameter as an option.
Inserting at the first position in a list is specified with the parameter Index=1 in an add command,
the second position with the parameter Index=2 and so on.

Referencing by Name
The naming of some objects is optional and is done with the Name= parameter in an add
command. An object, such as a threshold rule, will always have an Index value which indicates its
position in the rule list but can optionally be allocated a name as well. Subsequent manipulation
of such a rule can be done either by referring to it by its index, that is to say its list position, or by
alternatively using the name assigned to it.
The CLI Reference Guide lists the parameter options available for each NetDefendOS object,
including the Name= and Index= options.

Using Unique Names

For convenience and clarity, it is recommended that a name is assigned to all objects so that it
can be used for reference if required. Reference by name is particularly useful when writing CLI
scripts. For more on scripts see Section 2.1.5, CLI Scripts.
The CLI will enforce unique naming within an object type. For reasons of backward compatibility
to earlier NetDefendOS releases, an exception exists with IP rules which can have duplicate
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names, however it is strongly recommended to avoid this. If a duplicate IP rule name is used in
two IP rules then only the Index value can uniquely identify each IP rule in subsequent CLI
commands. Referencing an IP rule with a duplicated name will fail and result in an error message.

Using Hostnames in the CLI

For certain CLI commands, IP addresses can optionally be specified as a textual hostname instead
an IP4Address object or raw IP address such as 192.168.1.10. When this is done, the hostname
must be prefixed with the letters dns: to indicate that a DNS lookup must be done to resolve the
hostname to an IP address. For example, the hostname host.company.com would be specified as
dns:host.company.com in the CLI.
The parameters where this might be used with the CLI are:

The Remote Endpoint for IPsec, L2TP and PPTP tunnels.

The Host for LDAP servers.

When DNS lookup needs to be done, at least one public DNS server must be configured in
NetDefendOS for hostnames to be translated to IP addresses.

Serial Console CLI Access

The serial console port is a local RS-232 port on the NetDefend Firewall that allows direct access
to the NetDefendOS CLI through a serial connection to a PC or dumb terminal. To locate the
serial console port on D-Link hardware, see the D-Link Quick Start Guide .
To use the console port, the following equipment is required:

A terminal or a computer with a serial port and the ability to emulate a terminal (such as
using the Hyper Terminal software included in some Microsoft Windows editions). The serial
console port uses the following default settings: 9600 bps, No parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit.

A RS-232 cable with appropriate connectors. An appliance package includes a RS-232

null-modem cable.

To connect a terminal to the console port, follow these steps:

1.

Set the terminal protocol as described previously.

2.

Connect one of the connectors of the RS-232 cable directly to the console port on the
NetDefend Firewall system.

3.

Connect the other end of the cable to the terminal or the serial connector of the computer
running the communications software.

4.

Press the enter key on the terminal. The NetDefendOS login prompt should appear on the
terminal screen.

SSH (Secure Shell) CLI Access

The SSH (Secure Shell) protocol can be used to access the CLI over the network from a remote
host. SSH is a protocol primarily used for secure communication over insecure networks,
providing strong authentication and data integrity. SSH clients are freely available for almost all
hardware platforms.

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NetDefendOS supports version 1, 1.5 and 2 of the SSH protocol. SSH access is regulated by the
remote management policy in NetDefendOS, and is disabled by default.
Example 2.2. Enabling SSH Remote Access
This example shows how to enable remote SSH access from the lannet network through the lan
interface by adding a rule to the remote management policy.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtSSH ssh
Network=lannet
Interface=lan
LocalUserDatabase=AdminUsers

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Remote Management > Add > Secure Shell Management

2.

Enter a Name for the SSH remote management policy, for example ssh_policy

3.

Select the following:

4.

User Database: AdminUsers

Interface: lan

Network: lannet

Click OK

Logging on to the CLI

When access to the CLI has been established to NetDefendOS through the serial console or an
SSH client, the administrator will need to logon to the system before being able to execute any
CLI command. This authentication step is needed to ensure that only trusted users can access the
system, as well as providing user information for auditing.
When accessing the CLI remotely through SSH, NetDefendOS will respond with a login prompt.
Enter the username and press the Enter key, followed by the password and then Enter again.
After a successful logon, the CLI command prompt will appear:
gw-world:/>

If a welcome message has been set then it will be displayed directly after the logon. For security
reasons, it is advisable to either disable or anonymize the CLI welcome message.

Changing the admin User Password

It is recommended to change the default password of the admin account from admin to
something else as soon as possible after initial startup. User passwords can be any combination
of characters and cannot be greater than 256 characters in length. It is recommended to use only
printable characters.
To change the password to, for example, my-password the following CLI commands are used.

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First we must change the current category to be the LocalUserDatabase called AdminUsers (which
exists by default):
gw-world:/> cc LocalUserDatabase AdminUsers

We are now in AdminUsers and can change the password of the admin user:
gw-world:/AdminUsers> set User admin Password="my-password"

Finally, we return the current category to the top level:

gw-world:/AdminUsers> cc

Note: The console password is separate

The password that can be set to protect direct serial console access is a separate
password and should not be confused with the passwords related to user accounts. The
console password is described in Section 2.1.7, The Console Boot Menu.

Changing the CLI Prompt

The default CLI prompt is:
gw-world:/>

where Device is the model number of the NetDefend Firewall. This can be customized, for
example, to my-prompt:/>, by using the CLI command:
gw-world:/> set device name="my-prompt"

The CLI Reference Guide uses the command prompt gw-world:/> throughout.

Tip: The CLI prompt is the Web Interface device name

When the command line prompt is changed to a new string value, this string also
appears as the new device name in the top level node of the Web Interface navigation
tree.

Activating and Committing Changes

If any changes are made to the current configuration through the CLI, those changes will not be
uploaded to NetDefendOS until the command:
gw-world:/> activate

is issued. Immediately following the activate command, the command:

gw-world:/> commit

should be issued to make those changes permanent.

Note: Examples in this guide assume activation will be performed

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Most of the examples in this guide deal with editing a NetDefendOS configuration. The
final activation step is usually not explicitly stated.

If the commit command is not entered after a activate command within a given time period (the
default is 30 seconds) then the changes are automatically undone and the old configuration
restored. This topic is discussed further in Section 2.1.8, Changing Management Access.

Note: CLI commits terminate Web Interface sessions

There is a possible side effect of committing changes through the CLI. Any Web Interface
browser session that is logged in at the time of the commit will require that the user logs
in again. This is because the Web Interface view of the configuration may no longer be
valid.

Restarting and Rebooting NetDefendOS with the CLI

The CLI can be used to reboot NetDefendOS using the command:
gw-world:/> shutdown

This command performs a graceful shutdown of all connections and VPN tunnels before the
restart and is sufficient for most situations that require a system restart. In includes a reloading of
the configuration (in other words, a reconfiguration operation).
To shut down and restart both NetDefendOS and completely reinitialize the hardware, including
the NetDefendOS loader (equivalent to switching the hardware off then on), use the command:
gw-world:/> shutdown -reboot

The -reboot option is rarely needed in normal circumstances and because it requires more time
for the restart it is best not to use it. When NetDefendOS is upgraded the -reboot option is
executed automatically during the upgrade process.
The same restart functions can be performed with the Web Interface by selecting the option
Status > Maintenance > Reset & Restore > Restart.

Reconfiguring NetDefendOS with the CLI

NetDefendOS can be forced to reread and reload the current configuration with the command:
gw-world:/> reconf

Apart from reloading the configuration, many of NetDefendOS's internal data structures related
to rules and traffic processing are reinitialized. It is not usual to execute a reconfigure during
normal operation but it can sometimes be a way to solve transient problems related to
NetDefendOS memory management.
Unlike the system restart described above, a reconfiguration does not usually affect current
connections or VPN tunnels. However, with some IPsec tunnel changes, a reconfiguration will
mean the tunnels are lost and have to be re-established because the tunnel SAs are no longer
valid.

Checking Configuration Integrity

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After changing a NetDefendOS configuration and before issuing the activate and commit
commands, it is possible to explicitly check for any problems in a configuration using the
command:
gw-world:/> show -errors

This will cause NetDefendOS to scan the configuration about to be activated and list any
problems. A possible problem that might be found in this way is a reference to an IP object in the
address book that does not exist in a restored configuration backup.

Logging off from the CLI

After finishing working with the CLI, it is recommended to logout in order to avoid letting
anyone getting unauthorized access to the system. Log off by using the exit or the logout
command.

Configuring Remote Management Access on an Interface

Remote management access may need to be configured through the CLI. Suppose management
access is to be through Ethernet interface If2 which has an IP address 10.8.1.34.
Firstly, we set the values for the IPv4 address objects for If2 which already exist in the
NetDefendOS address book, starting with the interface IP:
gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/If2_ip
Address=10.8.1.34

The network IP address for the interface must also be set to the appropriate value:
gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/If2_net
Address=10.8.1.0/24

In this example, local IP addresses are used for illustration but these could be public IPv4
addresses instead. It is also assumed that the default address objects for the configuration are
stored in an address book folder called InterfaceAddresses.
Next, create a remote HTTP management access object, in this example called HTTP_If2:
gw-world:/> add RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtHTTP HTTP_If2
Interface=If2
Network=all-nets
LocalUserDatabase=AdminUsers
AccessLevel=Admin
HTTP=Yes

If we now activate and commit the new configuration, remote management access via the IPv4
address 10.8.1.34 is now possible using a web browser. If SSH management access is required
then a RemoteMgmtSSH object should be added.
The assumption made with the above commands is that an all-nets route exists to the ISP's
gateway. In other words, Internet access has been enabled for the NetDefend Firewall.

Managing Management Sessions with sessionmanager

The CLI provides a command called sessionmanager for managing management sessions
themselves. The command can be used to manage all types of management sessions, including:

Secure Shell (SSH) CLI sessions.

Any CLI session through the serial console interface.

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Secure Copy (SCP) sessions.

Web Interface sessions connected by HTTP or HTTPS.

The command without any options gives a summary of currently open sessions:
gw-world:/> sessionmanager
Session Manager status
---------------------Active connections
Maximum allowed connections
Local idle session timeout
NetCon idle session timeout

:
:
:
:

3
64
900
600

To see a list of all sessions use the -list option. Below, is some typical output showing the local
console session:
gw-world:/> sessionmanager -list
User
Database
IP
-------- ---------------- --------local
<empty>
0.0.0.0

Type
Mode
------- ------local
console

Access
-------admin

If the user has full administrator privileges, they can forcibly terminate another management
session using the -disconnect option of the sessionmanager command.
The sessionmanager command options are fully documented in the CLI Reference Guide.

2.1.5. CLI Scripts

To allow the administrator to easily store and execute sets of CLI commands, NetDefendOS
provides a feature called CLI scripting. A CLI script is a predefined sequence of CLI commands
which can be executed after they are saved to a file and the file is then uploaded to the
NetDefend Firewall.
The steps for creating a CLI script are as follows:
1.

Create a text file with a text editor containing a sequential list of CLI commands, one per
line.
The D-Link recommended convention is for these files to use the file extension .sgs (Security
Gateway Script). The filename, including the extension, should not be more than 16
characters.

2.

Upload the file to the NetDefend Firewall using Secure Copy (SCP). Script files must be
stored in a directory under the root called /scripts. SCP uploading is discussed in detail in
Section 2.1.6, Secure Copy.

3.

Use the CLI command script -execute to run the script file.

The CLI script command is the tool used for script management and execution. The complete
syntax of the command is described in the CLI Reference Guide and specific examples of usage are
detailed in the following sections. See also Section 2.1.4, The CLI in this manual.

Note
Uploaded CLI script files are not held in permanent memory and will disappear after

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system restarts.

Only Four Commands are Allowed in Scripts

The commands allowed in a script file are limited to four and these are:
add
set
delete
cc
If any other command appears in a script file, it is ignored during execution and a warning
message is output. For example, the ping command will be ignored.

Executing Scripts
As mentioned above, the script -execute command launches a named script file that has been
previously uploaded to the NetDefend Firewall. For example, to execute the script file
my_script.sgs which has already been uploaded, the CLI command would be:
gw-world:/> script -execute -name=my_script.sgs

Script Variables
A script file can contain any number of script variables which are called:
$1, $2, $3, $4......$n
The values substituted for these variable names are specified as a list at the end of the script
-execute command line. The number n in the variable name indicates the variable value's position
in this list. $1 comes first, $2 comes second and so on.

Note: The symbol $0 is reserved

Notice that the name of the first variable is $1. The variable $0 is reserved and is always
replaced before execution by the name of the script file itself.

For example, a script called my_script.sgs is to be executed with IP address 126.12.11.01 replacing
all occurrences of $1 in the script file and the string If1 address replacing all occurrences of $2.
The file my_script.sgs contains the single CLI command line:
add IP4Address If1_ip Address=$1 Comments=$2

To run this script file after uploading, the CLI command would be:
gw-world:/> script -execute -name=my_script.sgs 126.12.11.01 "If1 address"

When the script file runs, the variable replacement would mean that the file becomes:
add IP4Address If1_ip Address=126.12.11.01 Comments="If1 address"

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Script Validation and Command Ordering

CLI scripts are not, by default, validated. This means that the written ordering of the script does
not matter. There can be a reference to a configuration object at the beginning of a script which
is only created at the end of the script.
Although this approach might seem illogical, it is done to improve the readability of scripts. If
something always has to be created before it is referred to then this can result in confused and
disjointed script files and in large script files it is often preferable to group together related CLI
commands.

Error Handling
If an executing CLI script file encounters an error condition, the default behavior is for the script
to terminate. This behavior can be overridden by using the -force option.
For example, to run a script file called my_script2.sgs in this way so that errors do not terminate
execution, the CLI command would be:
gw-world:/> script -execute -name=my_script2.sgs -force

If -force is used, the script will continue to execute even if errors are returned by a command in
the script file.

Script Output
Any output from script execution will appear at the CLI console. Normally this output only
consists of any error messages that occur during execution. To see the confirmation of each
command completing, the -verbose option should be used:
gw-world:/> script -execute -name=my_script2.sgs -verbose

Saving Scripts
When a script file is uploaded to the NetDefend Firewall, it is initially kept only in temporary RAM
memory. If NetDefendOS restarts then any uploaded scripts will be lost from this volatile
memory and must be uploaded again to run. To store a script between restarts, it must explicitly
be moved to non-volatile NetDefendOS disk memory by using the script -store command.
For example, to move my_script.sgs to non-volatile memory, the command would be:
gw-world:/> script -store -name=my_script.sgs

Alternatively, all scripts can be moved to non-volatile memory with the command:
gw-world:/> script -store -all

Removing Scripts
To remove a saved script, the script -remove command can be used. For example, to remove the
my_script.sgs script file, the command would be:
gw-world:/> script -remove -name=my_script.sgs

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Listing Scripts
The script on its own, command without any parameters, lists all the scripts currently available
and indicates the size of each script as well as the type of memory where it resides (residence in
non-volatile memory is indicated by the word "Disk" in the Memory column).
gw-world:/> script
Name
-------------my_script.sgs
my_script2.sgs

Storage
-----------RAM
Disk

Size (bytes)
-------------8
10

To list the content of a specific uploaded script file, for example my_script.sgs the command
would be:
gw-world:/> script -show -name=my_script.sgs

Creating Scripts Automatically

When the same configuration objects needs to be copied between multiple NetDefend Firewalls,
then one way to do this with the CLI is to create a script file that creates the required objects and
then upload to and run the same script on each device.
If we already have a NetDefendOS installation that already has the objects configured that need
to be copied, then running the script -create command on that installation provides a way to
automatically create the required script file. This script file can then be downloaded to the local
management workstation and then uploaded to and executed on other NetDefend Firewalls to
duplicate the objects.
For example, suppose the requirement is to create the same set of IP4Address objects on
several NetDefend Firewalls that already exist on a single unit. The administrator would connect
to the single unit with the CLI and issue the command:
gw-world:/> script -create Address IP4Address -name new_script.sgs

This creates a script file called new_script_sgs which contains all the CLI commands necessary to
create all IP4Address address objects in that unit's configuration. The created file's contents
might, for example, be:
add
add
add
add

IP4Address
IP4Address
IP4Address
IP4Address

If1_ip Address=10.6.60.10
If1_net Address=10.6.60.0/24
If1_br Address=10.6.60.255
If1_dns1 Address=141.1.1.1
"
"
"

The file new_script_sgs can then be downloaded with SCP to the local management workstation
and then uploaded and executed on the other NetDefend Firewalls. The end result is that all
units will have the same IP4Address objects in their address book.
The following should be noted for automatically created scripts:

Automatically created scripts omit the object category.

In the created script example above, adding an IP address is done with the command:
add IP4Address...

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This is instead of the usual way of qualifying the object with its category name:
add Address IP4Address...

Both are valid forms of the command. If an object type can be uniquely identified with its
name, its object category need not be specified. With automatically generated scripts, this is
always the case. This shortened form can also be used when typing the entire command in a
CLI console although tab completion will always include the object category.

The script filename length has a limit.

The name of the file created using the -create option cannot be greater than 16 characters in
length (including the extension) and the filetype should always be .sgs.

Both Set and Add appear in scripts.

The default configuration objects will have a Set action and the objects added to the default
configuration will have an Add action.

Creating scripts for the entire configuration.

It is possible to create a script for the entire configuration with the command:
gw-world:/> script -create -name=entire_config.sgs

This can be useful if the entire configuration is to be recreated.

Note that any objects marked for deletion will not be included in the script

Some objects are always excluded from created script files.

Certain aspects of a configuration which are hardware dependent cannot have a script file
entry created when using the -create option. This is true when the CLI node type in the script
-create command is one of the following:

COMPortDevice
Ethernet
EthernetDevice
Device

These node types are skipped when the script file is created and NetDefendOS gives the
message No objects of selected category or type.

Tip: Listing created script commands on the console

To list the created CLI commands on the console instead of saving them to a file, leave
out the option -name= in the script -create command.

Commenting Script Files

Any line in a script file that begins with the # character is treated as a comment. For example:
# The following line defines the If1 IP address
add IP4Address If1_ip Address=10.6.60.10

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Scripts Running Other Scripts

It is possible for one script to run another script. For example, the script my_script.sgs could
contain the line:
script -execute -name my_script2.sgs

NetDefendOS allows the script file my_script2.sgs to execute another script file and so on. The
maximum depth of this script nesting is 5.

2.1.6. Secure Copy

To upload and download files to or from the NetDefend Firewall, the secure copy (SCP) protocol
can be used. SCP is based on the SSH protocol and many freely available SCP clients exist for
almost all platforms. The command line examples below are based on the most common
command format for SCP client software.

SCP Command Format

SCP command syntax is straightforward for most console based clients. The basic command
used here is scp followed by the source and destination for the file transfer.
Upload is performed with the command:
> scp <local_filename> <destination_firewall>

Download is done with the command:

> scp <source_firewall> <local_filename>

The source or destination NetDefend Firewall is of the form:

<user_name>@<firewall_ip_address>:<filepath>.
For example: [email protected]:config.bak. The <user_name> must be a defined NetDefendOS
user in the administrator user group.

Note: SCP examples do not show the password prompt

SCP will normally prompt for the user password after the command line but that prompt
is not shown in the examples given here.

The following table summarizes the operations that can be performed between an SCP client
and NetDefendOS:
File type

Upload possible

Download possible

Configuration Backup (config.bak)

Yes (also with WebUI)

Yes (also with WebUI)

System Backup (full.bak)

Yes (also with WebUI)

Yes (also with WebUI)

Firmware upgrades

Yes

No

Certificates

Yes

No

SSH public keys

Yes

No

Web auth banner files

Yes

Yes

Web content filter banner files

Yes

Yes

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NetDefendOS File organization

NetDefendOS maintains a simple 2 level directory structure which consists of the top level root
and a number of sub-directories. However, these "directories" such as sshlclientkey should be
more correctly thought of as object types. All the files stored in the NetDefendOS root as well as
all the object types can be displayed using the CLI command ls.
The resulting output is shown below:
gw-world:/> ls
HTTPALGBanners/
HTTPAuthBanners/
certificate/
config.bak
full.bak
script/
sshclientkey/

Apart from the individual files, the objects types listed are:

HTTPALGBanners/ - The banner files for user authentication HTML. Uploading these is
described further in Section 6.3.4.4, Customizing WCF HTML Pages.

HTTPAuthBanner/ - The banner files for HTML ALG dynamic content filtering. Uploading these
is described further in Section 6.3.4.4, Customizing WCF HTML Pages.

certificate/ - The object type for all digital certificates.

script/ - The object type for all CLI scripts. Scripts are described further in Section 2.1.5, CLI
Scripts.

sshclientkey/ - The SSH client key object type.

Examples of Uploading and Downloading

In some cases, a file is located in the NetDefendOS root. The license file (license.lic) falls into this
category, as well as configuration backup files (config.bak) and the complete system backup files
(full.bak).
When uploading, these files contain a unique header which identifies what they are.
NetDefendOS checks this header and ensures the file is stored only in the root (all files do not
have a header).
If an administrator username is admin1 and the IPv4 address of the NetDefend Firewall is
10.5.62.11 then to upload a configuration backup, the SCP command would be:
> scp config.bak [email protected]:

To download a configuration backup to the current local directory, the command would be:
> scp [email protected]:config.bak ./

To upload a file to an object type under the root, the command is slightly different. If we have a
local CLI script file called my_script.sgs then the upload command would be:
> scp my_script.sgs [email protected]:script/

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If we have the same CLI script file called my_scripts.sgs stored on the NetDefend Firewall then the
download command would be:
> scp [email protected]:script/my_script.sgs ./

Activating Uploads
Like all configuration changes, SCP uploads only become active after the CLI commands activate
have been issued and this must be followed by commit to make the change permanent.
Uploads of firmware upgrades (packaged in .upg files) or a full system backup (full.bak) are the
exception. Both of these file types will result in an automatic system reboot. The other exception
is for script uploads which do not affect the configuration.

2.1.7. The Console Boot Menu

The NetDefendOS loader is the base software on top of which NetDefendOS runs and the
administrator's direct interface to this is called the console boot menu (also known simply as the
boot menu). This section discusses the boot menu options.

Accessing the Console Boot Menu

The boot menu is only accessible through a console device attached directly to the serial console
located on the NetDefend Firewall. It can be accessed through the console after the NetDefend
Firewall is powered up and before NetDefendOS is fully started.
After powering up the NetDefend Firewall, there is a 3 second interval before NetDefendOS
starts up and in that time the message Press any key to abort and load boot menu is displayed as
shown below:

If any console key is pressed during these 3 seconds then NetDefendOS startup pauses and the
console boot menu is displayed.

Initial Boot Menu Options without a Password Set

When NetDefendOS is started for the first time with no console password set for console access
then the full set of boot menu options are displayed as shown below:

The options available in the boot menu are:

1.

Start firewall
This initiates the complete startup of the NetDefendOS software on the NetDefend Firewall.

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2.

Reset unit to factory defaults

This option will restore the hardware to its initial factory state. The operations performed if
this option is selected are the following:

3.

Remove console security so there is no console password.

Restore default NetDefendOS executables along with the default configuration.

Revert to default configuration

This will only reset the configuration to be the original, default NetDefendOS configuration
file. Other options, such as console security, will not be affected.

4.

Set console password

Set a password for console access. Until a password is set, anyone can utilize the console so
selecting setting the password as soon as possible is recommended. After it is set, the
console will prompt for the password before access is allowed to either the boot menu or
the command line interface (CLI).

Initial Options with a Console Password Set

If a console password is set then the initial options that appear when NetDefendOS loading is
interrupted with a key press are shown below.

The 1. Start firewall option re-continues the interrupted NetDefendOS startup process. If the 2.
Login option is chosen, the console password must be entered and the full boot menu described
above is entered.

Removing the Console Password

Once the console password is set it can be removed by selecting the Set console password option
in the boot menu and entering nothing as the password and just pressing the Enter key to the
prompt.

The Console Password is Only for the Console

The password set for the console is not connected to the management username/password
combinations used for administrator access through a web browser. It is valid only for console
access.

2.1.8. Changing Management Access

Management HTTP/HTTPS and SSH access to NetDefendOS is allowed by default from the IPv4
network 192.168.1.0/24 which is routed on the default management interface. The default
management interface chosen by NetDefendOS can be different depending on the hardware
and is usually the first one found by NetDefendOS when the available interfaces are first scanned
on initial startup. NetDefendOS assigns the default IPv4 address 192.168.1.1 to this interface.

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In general, management access depends on two factors:

What kind of access the configuration's remote management rules allow. This decides the
interface on which management access is allowed, which protocol is allowed and from which
IP range.

The IP address assigned to a management interface. This IP address can be changed as long
as the new IP belongs to the network allowed by the relevant remote management rule.

The Default Remote Management Rules

In the default NetDefendOS configuration, the following remote management rule objects
already exist:

A RemoteMgmtHTTP object which controls HTTP and HTTPS access through the Web
Interface. By default, only HTTPS is allowed from the 192.168.1.0/24 network on the default
management interface.

For other types of access such as using SSH and SNMP, additional objects for remote access must
be defined.

Preventing Loss of Management Access

When the IP address of the management interface or a remote management rule is changed,
there is a risk that the change can prevent further management access. NetDefendOS prevents
this in the following ways:

Changes made through the Web Interface

For configuration changes to the Web Interface, there is a delay after performing a Save and
Activate operation (the default is 30 seconds) followed by an automatic check that the web
browser and NetDefendOS can still communicate. If communication is lost after the delay,
the original configuration is restored.
If the administrator expects that configuration changes will break the communication
between NetDefendOS and the web browser (for example, by changing the management IP),
they should select Save and Activate then login again before the timeout period expires. This
login tells NetDefendOS that the administrator still has access and the configuration will not
revert back to the old version.

Changes made through the CLI over SSH

When using the CLI via an SSH connection, the administrator must first issue the command:
gw-world:/> activate

This activates the new configuration but the changes are not made permanent until the
following command is issued:
gw-world:/> commit

If the commit command is not issued within a fixed period of time (the default is 30 seconds)
after the activate, NetDefendOS assumes communication has been lost and the original
configuration is restored.
If a configuration change breaks SSH communication, the administrator must login in again
over SSH in order to issue the commit command and make the changes persistent.

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Changes made via the Serial Console CLI

Unlike when using SSH, communication with the local serial console cannot be lost if
changing a management interface IP address and/or a remote management rule. This means
that a commit command can always be issued after an activate command to make changes
persistent. However, the administrator must then check manually if access via the
management interface is still possible after entering commit.

If the default 30 second delay is too short, the delay can be changed in the configuration's
advanced settings. The setting's name is Validation Timeout in the Web Interface
(NetconBiDirTimeout in the CLI) and is a global setting.
Example 2.3. Changing the Management Validation Timeout
This example will change the validation timeout from its default value of 30 seconds to 60
seconds.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Settings RemoteMgmtSettings NetconBiDirTimeout=60

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Remote Management > Advanced Settings

2.

Set the following:

3.

Validation Timeout: 60

Click OK

An Alternative Method of Changing Management Interface

An alternative method of changing the management interface and to avoid the 30 second delay
entirely, is as follows:
1.

Login using the existing remote management interface and add a new remote
management object for HTTP/HTTPS and/or SSH for the new interface. Then activate and
commit the change.

2.

Disconnect and reconnect using the interface specified by the new remote management
object.

3.

Delete or disable the old remote management object, then activate and commit the
change.

Changing the Management IP Address

The following example shows how the IPv4 address for access on the default management
interface can be changed. The new address must belong to the network allowed by the relevant
remote management rule for that interface. If it does not, the relevant remote management
rule(s) must be changed to allow the IP.

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There are two ways of changing the management interface:

Change the IP address of the interface directly. For example, the CLI for this would be:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet <interface> IP=<ip_address>

This is not recommended since the address object in the address book for this IP address
would not change and therefore would any of the other rules and object that refer to it.

Change the IP address of the address object for the interface IP. This is the recommended
method of setting a new management IP address.

Example 2.4. Changing the Management Interface IP Address

This example will change the IPv4 address on the management If1 interface from 192.168.1.1 to
192.168.1.2. Since these belong to the same network, the network of the management policies
do not need to be changed.
There are two ways of performing the operation
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/If1_ip
IP=192.168.1.2

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book

2.

Select the address folder InterfaceAddresses

3.

Select the address object If1

4.

Set the following:

5.

IP address: 192.168.1.2

Click OK

Changing a Remote Access Rule

If the network as well as the IP address changes for a management interface, and/or a different
interface is used, then the relevant management access rule will also need to be changed as
shown in the example below.
Example 2.5. Changing a Remote Access Rule
This example will change the current rule for HTTP and HTTPS management access to allow
access on the If2 interface and from the network defined by the address book object
management_net which is already defined.
Command-Line Interface

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gw-world:/> set RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtHTTP rmgmt_http

Network=management_net
Interface=If2

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Remote Management > rmgmt_http

2.

Set the following:

3.

Interface: If2

Network: management_net

Click OK

HA Cluster Management IPs Must Be Different

In a NetDefendOS high availability cluster, the management IPs should always be different on
the master and slave units for their management interfaces. The shared IP address cannot be
used for NetDefendOS management.
The individual IPv4 addresses for the management interface of the cluster master and slave units
are held in the IP4 HA Address object for that interface and this is duplicated on both master and
slave units. If the management interface IP in this address object is changed on one unit it will be
automatically copied over to the other unit by the synchronization process.
Example 2.6. Changing the HA Management IP Address
This example will change the slave management IP address for the lan interface to 192.168.1.2 for
an HA cluster.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Address IP4HA lan_ha_ip Address:2=192.168.1.2

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book

2.

Select the address book object. In this case, lan_ha_ip

3.

Set the following:

4.

Slave IP Address: 192.168.1.2

Click OK

This change will now by synched over to the other unit in the cluster when it is activated and
committed.

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Adding Extra Management Access Rules

Extra management access objects can be added to a configuration. For example, to allow only
HTTPS access on the If2 interface using the Web Interface, an additional RemoteMgmtHTTP could
be added as shown in the next example.
Example 2.7. Enabling Remote Management via HTTPS
This example assumes that a new RemoteMgmtHTTP object is to be added called https_access.
This will allow HTTPS access on the If2 interface from any network and use the local database
AdminUsers to authenticate the administrator's login credentials.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtHTTP https_access
Network=all-nets
Interface=If2
LocalUserDatabase=AdminUsers
HTTPS=Yes

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Remote Management > Add > HTTP/HTTPS Management

2.

Enter a Name for the HTTP/HTTPS remote management rule, in this case https_access

3.

Enable the HTTPS option

4.

Select the following:

5.

User Database: AdminUsers

Interface: If2

Network: all-nets

Click OK

2.1.9. Management Advanced Settings

Under the Remote Management section of the Web Interface a number of advanced settings
can be found. These are:

SSH Before Rules

Enable SSH traffic to the firewall regardless of configured IP Rules.
Default: Enabled

WebUI Before Rules

Enable HTTP(S) traffic to the firewall regardless of configured IP Rules.

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Default: Enabled

Local Console Timeout

Number of seconds of inactivity until the local console user is automatically logged out.
Default: 900

Validation Timeout
Specifies the amount of seconds to wait for the administrator to log in before reverting to the
previous configuration.
Default: 30

WebUI HTTP port

Specifies the HTTP port for the Web Interface.
Default: 80

WebUI HTTPS port

Specifies the HTTP(S) port for the Web Interface.
Default: 443

HTTPS Certificate
Specifies which certificate to use for HTTPS traffic. Only RSA certificates are supported.
Default: HTTPS

2.1.10. Working with Configurations

Configuration Objects
The system configuration is built up by Configuration Objects, where each object represents a
configurable item of any kind. Examples of configuration objects are routing table entries,
address book entries, service definitions, IP rules and so on. Each configuration object has a
number of properties that constitute the values of the object.

Object Types
A configuration object has a well-defined type. The type defines the properties that are available
for the configuration object, as well as the constraints for those properties. For instance, the
IP4Address type is used for all configuration objects representing a named IPv4 address.

Object Organization
In the Web Interface the configuration objects are organized into a tree-like structure based on
the type of the object.
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In the CLI, similar configuration object types are grouped together in a category. These categories
are different from the structure used in the Web Interface to allow quick access to the
configuration objects in the CLI. The IP4Address, IP4Group and EthernetAddress types are, for
instance, grouped in a category named Address, as they all represent different addresses.
Consequently, Ethernet and VLAN objects are all grouped in a category named Interface, as they
are all interface objects. The categories have actually no impact on the system configuration;
they are merely provided as means to simplify administration.
The following examples show how to manipulate objects.
Example 2.8. Listing Configuration Objects
To find out what configuration objects exist, you can retrieve a listing of the objects. This
example shows how to list all service objects.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> show Service

A list of all services will be displayed, grouped by their respective type.

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Services

2.

A web page listing all services will be presented.

A list contains the following basic elements:

Add Button - Displays a dropdown menu when clicked. The menu will list all types of
configuration items that can be added to the list.

Header - The header row displays the titles of the columns in the list. The tiny arrow images
next to each title can be used for sorting the list according to that column.

Rows - Each row in the list corresponds to one configuration item. Most commonly, each row
starts with the name of the object (if the item has a name), followed by values for the
columns in the list.

A single row in the list can be selected by clicking on the row on a spot where there is no
hyperlink. The background color of the row will turn dark blue. Right-clicking the row will display
a menu which gives the option to edit or delete the object as well as modify the order of the
objects.

Example 2.9. Displaying a Configuration Object

The simplest operation on a configuration object is to show its contents, in other words the
values of the object properties. This example shows how to display the contents of a
configuration object representing the telnet service.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> show Service ServiceTCPUDP telnet
Property
----------------Name:

Value
------telnet

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DestinationPorts:
Type:
SourcePorts:
SYNRelay:
PassICMPReturn:
ALG:
MaxSessions:
Comments:

23
TCP
0-65535
No
No
<empty>
1000
Telnet

The Property column lists the names of all properties in the ServiceTCPUDP class and the Value
column lists the corresponding property values.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Services

2.

Select the telnet entry in the list

3.

A web page displaying the telnet service will be presented

Note
When accessing object via the CLI you can omit the category name and just use the type
name. The CLI command in the above example, for instance, could be simplified to:
gw-world:/> show ServiceTCPUDP telnet

Example 2.10. Editing a Configuration Object

When the behavior of NetDefendOS is changed, it is most likely necessary to modify one or
several configuration objects. This example shows how to edit the Comments property of the
telnet service.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Service ServiceTCPUDP telnet Comments="Modified Comment"

Show the object again to verify the new property value:

gw-world:/> show Service ServiceTCPUDP telnet
Property
----------------Name:
DestinationPorts:
Type:
SourcePorts:
SYNRelay:
PassICMPReturn:
ALG:
MaxSessions:
Comments:

Value
------telnet
23
TCP
0-65535
No
No
<empty>
1000
Modified Comment

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Services

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2.

Select the telnet entry in the list

3.

In the Comments textbox, a suitable comment

4.

Click OK

Verify that the new comment has been updated in the list.

Important: Configuration changes must be activated

Changes to a configuration object will not be applied to a running system until the new
NetDefendOS configuration is activated.

Example 2.11. Adding a Configuration Object

This example shows how to add a new IP4Address object, here creating the IPv4 address
192.168.10.10, to the address book.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address myhost Address=192.168.10.10

Show the new object:

gw-world:/> show Address IP4Address myhost
Property
--------------------Name:
Address:
UserAuthGroups:
NoDefinedCredentials:
Comments:

Value
------------myhost
192.168.10.10
<empty>
No
<empty>

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book

2.

Click on the Add button

3.

In the dropdown menu displayed, select IP Address

4.

In the Name text box, enter myhost

5.

Enter 192.168.10.10 in the IP Address textbox

6.

Click OK

7.

Verify that the new IP4 address object has been added to the list

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Example 2.12. Deleting a Configuration Object

This example shows how to delete the newly added IP4Address object.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> delete Address IP4Address myhost

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book

2.

Right-click on the row containing the myhost object

3.

In the dropdown menu displayed, select Delete

The row will be rendered with a strike-through line indicating that the object is marked for
deletion.

Example 2.13. Undeleting a Configuration Object

A deleted object can always be restored until the configuration has been activated and
committed. This example shows how to restore the deleted IP4Address object shown in the
previous example.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> undelete Address IP4Address myhost

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book

2.

Right-click on the row containing the myhost object

3.

In the dropdown menu displayed, select Undo Delete

Listing Modified Objects

After modifying several configuration objects, you might want to see a list of the objects that
were changed, added and removed since the last commit.
Example 2.14. Listing Modified Configuration Objects
This example shows how to list configuration objects that have been modified.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> show -changes

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Type
------------IP4Address
ServiceTCPUDP

Object
-----myhost
telnet

A "+" character in front of the row indicates that the object has been added. A "*" character
indicates that the object has been modified. A "-" character indicates that the object has been
marked for deletion.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Configuration > View Changes in the menu bar

A list of changes is displayed

Activating and Committing a Configuration

After changes to a configuration have been made, the configuration has to be activated for those
changes to have an impact on the running system. During the activation process, the new
proposed configuration is validated and NetDefendOS will attempt to initialize affected
subsystems with the new configuration data.

Important: Committing IPsec Changes

The administrator should be aware that if any changes that affect the configurations of
live IPsec tunnels are committed, then those live tunnels connections will be terminated
and must be re-established.

If the new configuration is validated, NetDefendOS will wait for a short period (30 seconds by
default) during which a connection to the administrator must be re-established. As described
previously, if the configuration was activated via the CLI with the activate command then a
commit command must be issued within that period. If a lost connection could not be
re-established or if the commit command was not issued, then NetDefendOS will revert to using
the previous configuration. This is a fail-safe mechanism and, amongst others things, can help
prevent a remote administrator from locking themselves out.
Example 2.15. Activating and Committing a Configuration
This example shows how to activate and commit a new configuration.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> activate

The system will validate and start using the new configuration. When the command prompt is
shown again:
gw-world:/> commit

The new configuration is now committed.

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Configuration > Save and Activate in the menu bar

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2.

Click OK to confirm

The web browser will automatically try to connect back to the Web Interface after 10 seconds. If
the connection succeeds, this is interpreted by NetDefendOS as confirmation that remote
management is still working. The new configuration is then automatically committed.

Note: Changes must be committed

The configuration must be committed before changes are saved. All changes to a
configuration can be ignored simply by not committing a changed configuration.

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2.2. Events and Logging

2.2.1. Overview
The ability to log and analyze system activities is an essential feature of NetDefendOS. Logging
enables not only monitoring of system status and health, but also allows auditing of network
usage and assists in trouble-shooting.

Log Message Generation

NetDefendOS defines a large number of different log event messages, which are generated as a
result of corresponding system events. Examples of such events are the establishment and
teardown of connections, receipt of malformed packets as well as the dropping of traffic
according to filtering policies.
Log events are always generated for some aspects of NetDefendOS processing such as buffer
usage, DHCP clients, High Availability and IPsec. The generation of events for some NetDefendOS
subsystems such as IP Rules usage can be disabled or enabled as required.
Whenever an event message is generated, it can be filtered and distributed to all configured
Event Receivers. Multiple event receivers can be configured by the administrator, with each event
receiver having its own customizable event filter.

2.2.2. Log Messages

Event Types
NetDefendOS defines several hundred events for which log messages can be generated. The
events range from high-level, customizable, user events down to low-level and mandatory
system events.
The conn_open event, for example, is a typical high-level event that generates an event message
whenever a new connection is established, given that the matching security policy rule has
defined that event messages should be generated for that connection.
An example of a low-level event would be the startup_normal event, which generates a
mandatory event message as soon as the system starts up.

Message Format
All event messages have a common format, with attributes that include category, severity and
recommended actions. These attributes enable easy filtering of messages, either within
NetDefendOS prior to sending to an event receiver, or as part of the analysis after logging and
storing messages on an external log server.
A list of all event messages can be found in the NetDefendOS Log Reference Guide. That guide
also describes the design of event messages, the meaning of severity levels and the various
attributes available.

Event Severity
The default severity of each log event is predefined and it can be, in order of highest to lowest
severity, one of:

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Emergency
Alert
Critical
Error
Warning
Notice
Info
Debug

By default, NetDefendOS sends any generated messages of level Info and above to any
configured log servers but the level required for sending can be changed by the administrator.
The Debug severity is intended for system troubleshooting only and is not normally used. All
individual log event messages with their meaning are described in the separate NetDefendOS
Log Reference Guide.

Event Message Timestamping

When log messages are generated by NetDefendOS for sending to an external log server, they
are always timestamped with the time expressed as UTC/GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). This
makes it possible to compare events from different firewalls in different time zones which are set
with different system times.
The exception to this is log messages which are displayed using the local Memlog feature. These
are always timestamped with the current, local system time.

2.2.3. Log Receiver Types

The event messages generated by NetDefendOS can be sent to various types of log receivers. To
receive messages, it is necessary to configure in NetDefendOS one or more event receivers
objects that specify what events to capture, and where to send them.
NetDefendOS can distribute event messages to different types of receivers and these are
enabled by creating any of the following types of Log Receiver objects.

MemoryLogReceiver
NetDefendOS has its own logging mechanism also known as the MemLog. This retains all
event log messages in memory and allows direct viewing of recent log messages through the
Web Interface.
This is enabled by default but can be disabled.
This receiver type is discussed further below in Section 2.2.4, Logging to the
MemoryLogReceiver (Memlog).

Syslog Receiver
Syslog is the de-facto log message standard for logging events from network devices. If other
network devices are already logging to Syslog servers, using Syslog for NetDefendOS log
messages can simplify overall administration.
This receiver type is discussed further below in Section 2.2.5, Logging to Syslog Hosts.

2.2.4. Logging to the MemoryLogReceiver (Memlog)

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Overview
The MemoryLogReceiver (also known as Memlog) is a NetDefendOS feature that allows logging
direct to memory in the NetDefend Firewall instead of sending messages to an external server.
These messages can be examined through the standard user interfaces.

Memlog has Limited Capacity

Memlog memory available for new messages is limited to a fixed predetermined size. When the
allocated memory is filled up with log messages, the oldest messages are discarded to make
room for newer incoming messages. This means that MemLog holds a limited number of
messages since the last system initialization and once the buffer fills they will only be the most
recent. This means that when NetDefendOS is creating large numbers of messages in systems
with, for example, large numbers of VPN tunnels, the Memlog information becomes less
meaningful since it reflects a limited recent time period.

Memlog Timestamps
The timestamp shown is Memlog console output is always the local system time of the firewall.
This is different from the timestamp on log messages sent to external log Receivers which are
always timestamped with GMT time.

Disabling and Enabling Memlog

A single MemoryLogReceiver object exists by default in NetDefendOS and memlog is therefore
enabled by default. If logging to memlog is not required then the MemoryLogReceiver object can
be deleted and this type of logging will not occur. To re-enable memlog, add back the
MemoryLogReceiver object to the configuration. Only one instance of the MemoryLogReceiver can
exist at any one time.

2.2.5. Logging to Syslog Hosts

Overview
Syslog is a standardized protocol for sending log data although there is no standardized format
for the log messages themselves. The format used by NetDefendOS is well suited to automated
processing, filtering and searching.
Although the exact format of each log entry depends on how a Syslog receiver works, most are
similar. The way in which logs are read is also dependent on how the syslog receiver works.
Syslog daemons on UNIX servers usually log to text files, line by line.

Message Format
Most Syslog recipients preface each log entry with a timestamp and the IP address of the
machine that sent the log data:
Feb 5 2000 09:45:23 firewall.ourcompany.com

This is followed by the text the sender has chosen to send.

Feb 5 2000 09:45:23 firewall.ourcompany.com EFW: DROP:

Subsequent text is dependent on the event that has occurred.

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In order to facilitate automated processing of all messages, NetDefendOS writes all log data to a
single line of text. All data following the initial text is presented in the format name=value. This
enables automatic filters to easily find the values they are looking for without assuming that a
specific piece of data is in a specific location in the log entry.

Note: The Prio and Severity fields

The Prio= field in SysLog messages contains the same information as the Severity field
for D-Link Logger messages. However, the ordering of the numbering is reversed.

Setting the Facility

The Facility property indicates to the server the type of program generating the Syslog message.
If not specified, this is set to local0 (meaning a kernel message) by NetDefendOS. The facility
name is commonly used as a filtering parameter by most syslog daemons.
Example 2.16. Enable Logging to a Syslog Host
This example enables logging of all events with a severity equal to Emergency or Alert to a Syslog
server with the IPv4 address 192.168.6.1.
The facility name will also be set to local1 for this Syslog server.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add LogReceiverSyslog my_syslog
IPAddress=192.168.6.1
LogSeverity=Emergency,Alert
Facility=local1

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Log and Event Receivers > Add > Syslog Receiver

2.

Specify a name for the event receiver, in this example my_syslog

3.

Enter 192.168.6.1 as the IP Address

4.

Select local1 from the Facility list

5.

Select SeverityFilter and choose Emergency and Alert as the severities.

6.

Click OK

Note: The Syslog server itself must be correctly configured

The external Syslog server itself may have to be configured to correctly receive log
messages from NetDefendOS. Refer to the documentation for the specific Syslog server
being used in order to do this.

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RFC 5424 Compliance

By default, NetDefendOS sends Syslog messages in a format that is suitable for most Syslog
servers. However, some servers may require stricter adherence to the latest Syslog standard as
defined by RFC 5424. For this reason, NetDefendOS provides the option to enable strict RFC 5424
compliance.

Setting the Hostname

In the header of every Syslog message there is a string field which is the Syslog hostname. By
default, NetDefendOS always sets this to be the IP address of the sending interface.
If RFC 5424 compliance is enabled, it is also possible to set the hostname to a specific value. The
example below shows how this is done.
Example 2.17. Enabling Syslog RFC 5424 Compliance with Hostname
This example enables logging of all events with a severity greater equal to Emergency or Alert to a
Syslog server with the IPv4 address 192.168.5.1. RFC 5224 compliance will also be enabled with a
hostname of my_host1 in the Syslog header.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add LogReceiverSyslog my_syslog
IPAddress=192.168.5.1
RFC5224=Yes
Hostname=my_host1
LogSeverity=Emergency,Alert

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Log and Event Receivers > Add > Syslog Receiver

2.

Specify a name for the event receiver, in this example my_syslog_host

3.

Enter 192.168.5.1 as the IP Address

4.

Select an appropriate facility from the Facility list.

5.

Enable the option RFC 5424 Compliance.

6.

Enter my_host1 for the Hostname

7.

Select SeverityFilter and choose Emergency and Alert as the severities.

8.

Click OK

2.2.6. Severity Filter and Message Exceptions

For each log receiver it is possible to impose rules on what log message categories and severities
are sent to that receiver. It is also possible to lower or raise the severity of specific events.

The Severity Filter

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The Severity Filter is a means of specifying what severities, if any, are sent to the receiver. By
default, all log messages except Debug are sent. This can be restricted further so, for example,
only Emergency, Alert and Critical messages are sent.

Log Message Exceptions

After the severity filter is applied, any Log Message Exceptions are applied to generated messages.
There can be more than one message exception for a log receiver and each consists of the
following:

Category and ID
This specifies the log messages that will be affected by the exception. If the ID number of the
log message is not specified then all log messages for the specified category will be included.
The ID of specific log messages can be found in the Log Reference Guide.

Type
This can be one the following:
i.

Exclude - This will exclude the specified log message(s) even if they are allowed by the
severity filter.

ii.

Include - This will include the specified log message(s) even if they are excluded by the
severity filter.
In addition, the Severity of the included message(s) can be specified. If this is set to
Default the original severity is used. Otherwise, the severity is set to the specified value.
This provides the ability to raise (or lower) the severity of specific log messages.

2.2.7. SNMP Traps

The SNMP protocol
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a means for communicating between a Network
Management System (NMS) and a managed device. SNMP defines 3 types of messages: a Read
command for an NMS to examine a managed device, a Write command to alter the state of a
managed device and a Trap which is used by managed devices to send messages
asynchronously to an NMS about a change of state.

SNMP Traps in NetDefendOS

NetDefendOS takes the concept of an SNMP Trap one step further by allowing any event
message to be sent as an SNMP trap. This means that the administrator can set up SNMP Trap
notification of events that are considered significant in the operation of a network.
The file DLINK-DFL-TRAPS-MIB.mib defines the SNMP objects and data types that are used to
describe an SNMP Trap received from NetDefendOS.
This file is contained within NetDefendOS itself and can be extracted to a management
workstation's local disk either using the Web Interface or Secure Copy (SCP). Doing this is
described further in Section 2.4.2, SNMP Monitoring.
For each NetDefend Firewall model there is one generic trap object called DLNNNosGenericTrap,
that is used for all traps (where NNN indicates the model number). This object includes the
following parameters:

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System - The system generating the trap.

Severity - Severity of the message.

Category - What NetDefendOS subsystem is reporting the problem

ID - Unique identification within the category.

Description - A short textual description.

Action - What action is NetDefendOS taking.

This information can be cross-referenced to the separate Log Reference Guide using the ID.

Note: SNMP Trap standards

NetDefendOS sends SNMP Traps which are based on the SNMPv2c standard as defined
by RFC1901, RFC1905 and RFC1906.

Example 2.18. Sending SNMP Traps to an SNMP Trap Receiver

This example configures an SNMP2cEventReceiver receiver in NetDefendOS that will receive
SNMP traps for all events with a severity of Emergency or Alert
The receiver is assumed to have an IPv4 address of 192.168.3.1.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add LogReceiver EventReceiverSNMP2c my_snmp
IPAddress=192.168.3.1
LogSeverity=Emergency,Alert

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Log & Event Receivers > Add > SNMP2cEventReceiver

2.

Specify the name for the event receiver, in this example my_snmp

3.

Enter 192.168.3.1 for the IP Address

4.

Enter an SNMP Community String if needed by the trap receiver

5.

Select SeverityFilter and choose Emergency and Alert as the severities.

6.

Click OK

2.2.8. Advanced Log Settings

The following advanced settings for NetDefendOS event logging are available to the
administrator:

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Send Limit
This setting specifies the maximum log messages that NetDefendOS will send per second. This
value should never be set too low as this may result in important events not being logged. When
the maximum is exceeded, the excess messages are dropped and are not buffered.
The administrator must make a case by case judgment about the message load that log servers
can deal with. This can often depend on the server hardware platform being used and if the
resources of the platform are being shared with other tasks.
Default: 2000

Alarm Repeat Interval

The delay in seconds between alarms when a continuous alarm is used. As discussed in
Section 2.4.3, Hardware Monitoring, the log event messages generated by hardware monitoring
are continuous and this setting should be used to limit the frequency of those messages.
Minimum 0, Maximum 10,000.
Default: 60 (one minute)

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2.3. RADIUS Accounting

2.3.1. Overview
The Central Database Approach
Within a network environment containing large numbers of users, it is advantageous to have one
or a cluster of central servers that maintain user account information and are responsible for
authentication and authorization tasks. The central database residing on such dedicated servers
contains all user credentials as well as details of connections. This significantly reducing
administration complexity.
The Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service (RADIUS) is an Authentication, Authorization and
Accounting (AAA) protocol widely used to implement this central database approach and is used
by NetDefendOS to implement user accounting.

RADIUS Architecture
The RADIUS protocol is based on a client/server architecture. The NetDefend Firewall acts as the
client of the RADIUS server, creating and sending requests to a dedicated server(s). In RADIUS
terminology the firewall acts as the Network Access Server (NAS).
For user authentication, the RADIUS server receives the requests, verifies the user's information
by consulting its database, and returns either an "accept" or "reject" reply to the requesting
client.
With the RFC 2866 standard, RADIUS was extended to handle the delivery of accounting
information and this is the standard followed by NetDefendOS for user accounting. In this way,
all the benefits of centralized servers are thus extended to user connection accounting.
The usage of RADIUS for NetDefendOS authentication is discussed in Section 8.2, Authentication
Setup.

2.3.2. RADIUS Accounting Messages

Message Generation
Statistics, such as number of bytes sent and received, and number of packets sent and received
are updated and stored throughout RADIUS sessions. All statistics are updated for an
authenticated user whenever a connection related to an authenticated user is closed.
When a new client session is started by a user establishing a new connection through the
NetDefend Firewall, NetDefendOS sends an AccountingRequest START message to a nominated
RADIUS server, to record the start of the new session. User account information is also delivered
to the RADIUS server. The server will send back an AccountingResponse message to
NetDefendOS, acknowledging that the message has been received.
When a user is no longer authenticated, for example, after the user logs out or the session time
expires, an AccountingRequest STOP message is sent by NetDefendOS containing the relevant
session statistics. The information included in these statistics is user configurable. The contents
of the START and STOP messages are described in detail below:

START Message Parameters

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Parameters included in START messages sent by NetDefendOS are:

Type - Marks this AccountingRequest as signalling the beginning of the service (START).

ID - A unique random 7 character string identifier to enable matching of an

AccountingRequest with Acct-Status-Type set to STOP.

User Name - The user name of the authenticated user.

NAS IP Address - The IP address of the NetDefend Firewall.

NAS Port - The port of the NAS on which the user was authenticated (this is a physical
interface and not a TCP or UDP port).

User IP Address - The IP address of the authenticated user. This is sent only if specified on
the authentication server.

How Authenticated - How the user was authenticated. This is set to either RADIUS if the user
was authenticated via RADIUS, or LOCAL if the user was authenticated via a local user
database.

Delay Time - The time delay (in seconds) since the AccountingRequest packet was sent and
the authentication acknowledgement was received. This can be subtracted from the time of
arrival on the server to find the approximate time of the event generating this
AccountingRequest. Note that this does not reflect network delays. The first attempt will have
this parameter set to 0.

Timestamp - The number of seconds since 1st January, 1970. Used to set a timestamp when
this packet was sent from NetDefendOS.

STOP Message Parameters

Parameters included in STOP messages sent by NetDefendOS are:

Type - Marks this accounting request as signalling the end of a session (STOP).

ID - An identifier matching a previously sent AccountingRequest packet, with

Acct-Status-Type set to START.

User Name - The user name of the authenticated user.

NAS IP Address - The IP address of the NetDefend Firewall.

NAS Port - The port on the NAS on which the user was authenticated. (This is a physical
interface and not a TCP or UDP port).

User IP Address - The IP address of the authenticated user. This is sent only if specified on
the authentication server.

Input Bytes - The number of bytes received by the user. (*)

Output Bytes - The number of bytes sent by the user. (*)

Input Packets - The number of packets received by the user. (*)

Output Packets - The number of packets sent by the user. (*)

Session Time - The number of seconds this session lasted. (*)

Termination Cause - The reason why the session was terminated.

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How Authenticated - How the user was authenticated. This is set to either RADIUS if the user
was authenticated via RADIUS, or LOCAL if the user was authenticated via a local user
database.

Delay Time - See the above comment about this parameter.

Timestamp - The number of seconds since 1970-01-01. Used to set a timestamp when this
packet was sent from the NetDefend Firewall.

In addition, two more attributes may be sent:

Input Gigawords - Indicates how many times the Input Bytes counter has wrapped. This is
only sent if Input Bytes has wrapped, and if the Input Bytes attribute is sent.

Output Gigawords - Indicates how many times the Output Bytes counter has wrapped. This
is only sent if Output Bytes has wrapped, and if the Output Bytes attribute is sent.

Tip: The meaning of the asterisk after a list entry

The asterisk (*) symbol after an entry in the list above indicates that the sending of the
parameter is optional and is configurable.

2.3.3. Interim Accounting Messages

In addition to START and STOP messages NetDefendOS can optionally periodically send Interim
Accounting Messages to update the accounting server with the current status of an authenticated
user.

Messages are Snapshots

An interim accounting message can be seen as a snapshot of the network resources that an
authenticated user has used up until a given point. With this feature, the RADIUS server can track
how many bytes and packets an authenticated user has sent and received up until the point
when the last message was sent.
An Interim Accounting Message contains the current values of the statistics for an authenticated
user. It contains more or less the same parameters as found in an accounting request STOP
message, except that the Acct-Terminate-Cause is not included (as the user has not disconnected
yet).

Message Frequency
The frequency of interim accounting messages can be specified either on the authentication
server or in NetDefendOS. Switching on the setting in NetDefendOS will override the setting on
the accounting server.

2.3.4. Configuring RADIUS Accounting

In order to activate RADIUS accounting a number of steps must be followed:

The RADIUS server must be defined in NetDefendOS.

A user authentication object must have a rule associated with it where a RADIUS server is
specified.

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The external RADIUS server itself must be correctly configured.

Important: The RADIUS Vendor ID must be set to 5089

When configuring the external RADIUS server to communicate with NetDefendOS, it is
necessary to enter a value for the Vendor ID (vid). This value should be specified as
5089.

Some important points should be noted about activation:

RADIUS Accounting will not function where a connection is subject to a FwdFast rule in the IP
rule set.

The same RADIUS server does not need to handle both authentication and accounting; one
server can be responsible for authentication while another is responsible for accounting
tasks.

Multiple RADIUS servers can be configured in NetDefendOS to deal with the event when the
primary server is unreachable.

Example 2.19. RADIUS Accounting Server Setup

This example shows configuring of NetDefendOS with a local RADIUS server called
my-accounting using IP address 192.168.3.1 and port 1813. Assume the shared secret is
231562514098273.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add RadiusAccounting my-accounting
IPAddress=192.168.3.1
SharedSecret=231562514098273
Port=1813
RetryTimeout=2
RoutingTable=main

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > User Authentication > RADIUS > Add > RADIUS Server

2.

Now enter:

Name: my-accounting

IP Address: 192.168.3.1

Port: 1813

Retry Timeout: 2

Shared Secret: 231562514098273

Confirm Secret: 231562514098273

Routing Table: main

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3.

Click OK

2.3.5. RADIUS Accounting Security

Communication between NetDefendOS and any RADIUS accounting server is protected by the
use of a shared secret. This secret is never sent over the network but instead a 16 byte long
Authenticator code is calculated using a one way MD5 hash function and this is used to
authenticate accounting messages.
The shared secret is case sensitive, can contain up to 100 characters, and must be typed exactly
the same for NetDefendOS and for the RADIUS server.
Messages are sent using the UDP protocol and the default port number used is 1813 although
this is user configurable.

2.3.6. RADIUS Accounting and High Availability

In an HA cluster, accounting information is synchronized between the active and passive
NetDefend Firewalls. This means that accounting information is automatically updated on both
cluster members whenever a connection is closed.

Special Accounting Events

Two special accounting events are also used by the active unit to keep the passive unit
synchronized:

An AccountingStart event is sent to the inactive member in an HA setup whenever a

response has been received from the accounting server. This specifies that accounting
information should be stored for a specific authenticated user.

A problem with accounting information synchronization could occur if an active unit has an
authenticated user for whom the associated connection times out before it is synchronized
on the inactive unit.
To get around this problem, a special AccountingUpdate event is sent to the passive unit on
a timeout and this contains the most recent accounting information for connections.

2.3.7. Handling Unresponsive RADIUS Servers

It can happen that a RADIUS client sends an AccountingRequest START packet which a RADIUS
server never replies to. If this happens, NetDefendOS will re-send the request after the
user-specified number of seconds. This will mean, however, that a user will still have
authenticated access while NetDefendOS is trying to contact to the accounting server.

Three Connection Attempts are Made

Only after NetDefendOS has made three attempts to reach the server will it conclude that the
accounting server is unreachable. The administrator can use the NetDefendOS advanced setting
Allow on error to determine how this situation is handled.
If the Allow on error setting is enabled, an already authenticated user's session will be
unaffected. If it is not enabled, any affected user will automatically be logged out even if they

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have already been authenticated.

2.3.8. Accounting and System Shutdowns

In the case that the client for some reason fails to send a RADIUS AccountingRequest STOP
packet, the accounting server will never be able to update its user statistics, but will most likely
believe that the session is still active. This situation should be avoided.
In the case that the NetDefend Firewall administrator issues a shutdown command while
authenticated users are still online, the AccountingRequest STOP packet will potentially never be
sent. To avoid this, the advanced setting Logout at shutdown allows the administrator to
explicitly specify that NetDefendOS must first send a STOP message for any authenticated users
to any configured RADIUS servers before commencing with the shutdown.

2.3.9. Limitations with NAT

The User Authentication module in NetDefendOS is based on the user's IP address. Problems can
therefore occur with users who have the same IP address.
This can happen, for example, when several users are behind the same network using NAT to
allow network access through a single external IP address. This means that as soon as one user is
authenticated, traffic coming through that NAT IP address could be assumed to be coming from
that one authenticated user even though it may come from other users on the same network.
NetDefendOS RADIUS Accounting will therefore gather statistics for all the users on the network
together as though they were one user instead of individuals.

2.3.10. Advanced RADIUS Settings

The following advanced settings are available with RADIUS accounting:

Allow on error
If there is no response from a configured RADIUS accounting server when sending accounting
data for a user that has already been authenticated, then enabling this setting means that the
user will continue to be logged in.
Disabling the setting will mean that the user will be logged out if the RADIUS accounting server
cannot be reached even though the user has been previously authenticated.
Default: Enabled

Logout at shutdown
If there is an orderly shutdown of the NetDefend Firewall by the administrator, then
NetDefendOS will delay the shutdown until it has sent RADIUS accounting STOP messages to
any configured RADIUS server.
If this option is not enabled, NetDefendOS will shutdown even though there may be RADIUS
accounting sessions that have not been correctly terminated. This could lead to the situation
that the RADIUS server will assume users are still logged in even though their sessions have been
terminated.
Default: Enabled

Maximum Radius Contexts

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The maximum number of contexts allowed with RADIUS. This applies to RADIUS use with both
accounting and authentication.
Default: 1024

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2.4. Monitoring
The real-time performance of NetDefendOS can be monitored in a number of ways. They are:

The NetDefendOS link monitor.

Monitoring through an SNMP client.

Hardware monitoring for specific hardware models.

2.4.1. The Link Monitor

Overview
The Link Monitor is a NetDefendOS feature that allows monitoring of the connectivity to one or
more IP addresses external to the NetDefend Firewall. This monitoring is done using standard
ICMP "Ping" requests and allows NetDefendOS to assess the availability of the network pathways
to these IP addresses. The administrator can select one of a number of actions to occur should a
pathway appear to be broken for some reason.

Note: Link monitoring is not available on all NetDefend models

The link monitoring feature is only available with the D-Link NetDefend
DFL-1600, 1660, 2500, 2560 and 2560G.

Link Monitor Actions

If sufficient replies are not received to link monitor polling, NetDefendOS makes the assumption
that the common link to those IP address is down and can then initiate one of 3 configurable
actions:

A NetDefendOS reconfigure.

A High Availability (HA) cluster failover.

An HA cluster failover followed by a NetDefendOS reconfigure.

Monitoring Multiple Hosts

A single Link Monitor object can monitor a single host or it can monitor multiple hosts. When
monitoring a single host, either a failure of the host or the connection to the host can cause the
monitor's action to be trigger.
When multiple hosts are specified for a single Link Monitor object, more than 50% of the hosts
have to be unreachable for the object's action to trigger. This is useful when it is the availability
of the connection to the hosts that is important and not the hosts themselves. If it is the
availability of a single host that is important then a Link Monitor object should be created that
monitors only that host.

The Link Monitor Reconfigure is Different

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The reconfigure that can be triggered by the link monitor has one special aspect to it. The link
monitor reconfigure has the additional action of restarting all interfaces. This means that if there
is a problem related to a particular Ethernet NIC, perhaps due to overload, then this can be
cleared by interface initialization. This results in only a momentary delay in throughput while the
reconfigure takes place.

Link Monitor Uses

The Link Monitor is useful in two distinct scenarios:

An external device develops an occasional problem with its link to the NetDefend Firewall
and the physical link needs to be renegotiated. Such problems can occur sometimes with
some older equipment such as ADSL Modems. For this scenario action 1. Reconfigure
should be selected.
A reconfigure means that the NetDefendOS configuration will be reloaded. All connections
and states are saved but reloading means all traffic is suspended for a short period and all
interface links to external devices are renegotiated.

In an HA cluster setup, the link from the master to the external Internet (or other part of a
network) can be continually monitored so that should the link fail, the slave will take over
(assuming that the slave has a different physical connection to the monitored address). The
action chosen for HA should be either 2. Failover or 3. Failover and reconfigure.
If the first action option 1. Reconfigure is chosen in an HA cluster, then the reconfigure will
also cause a failover since it will temporarily suspend the master's operation while the
reconfigure takes place and the slave will take over when it detects this inactivity. If
reconfiguration with failover is desirable it is better to select the option 3. Failover and
reconfigure since this performs the failover first and is nearly instantaneous with almost no
traffic interruption. Reconfiguration first is slower and results in some traffic interruption.
To preserve all tunnels in a VPN scenario, it is best to choose the 2. Failover option since a
reconfiguration can cause some tunnels to be lost.

Link Monitoring with HA Clusters

The most common use for link monitoring is in the HA cluster scenario described above. It is
important that the master and slave do not duplicate the same condition that triggered the link
monitor. For example, if a particular router connected to the master NetDefend Firewall was
being "pinged" by link monitoring, the slave should not also be connected to that router. If it is,
the continued triggering of a reconfiguration by the link monitor will then cause the slave to
failover back to the master, which will then failover back to the slave again and so on.
If it is important to not allow a failover during reconfiguration of the active unit in an HA cluster
then the advanced setting Reconf Failover Time should be set to a value which is neither too
low or too high.
Reconf Failover Time controls how long the inactive unit will wait for the active unit to
reconfigure before taking over. Setting this value too low will mean the inactive unit does not
wait long enough. Setting the value too high could mean significant downtime if the active unit
fails during reconfiguration and the inactive unit needs to take over.
More information on clusters can be found in Chapter 11, High Availability.

IPsec Tunnels and HA Clusters

If the triggered link monitor action is a failover or failover and reconfigure, any IPsec tunnels are
automatically closed and the tunnel SAs deleted at both ends. After the failover takes place the

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following will occur:

If the IPsec tunnel was a LAN-to-LAN tunnel, it will be automatically re-established provided
traffic flows within the keepalive time specified for the tunnel.

Any IPsec tunnels from external clients will be lost and will not be re-established
automatically. The client must initiate a new connection.

Link Monitor Object Properties

A Link Monitor configuration object has the following properties:
Action

Specifies which of the 3 actions described above NetDefendOS

should take.

Addresses

This property specifies the IP address of one or more hosts to

monitor. For multiple hosts, if half (50%) or more respond then
there is assumed to be no problem. If less than half of multiple
hosts do not respond, NetDefendOS assumes that there is a link
problem. With a single host, it either responds or it doesn't so the
50% rule is not relevant.
A host is not used in this 50% calculation until NetDefendOS has
been able to reach it at least once since the last NetDefendOS
reconfiguration or full restart. This means that an unreachable
host can be responsible for triggering an action once but not
twice.
A group of three hosts, where one has been unreachable since
the last reconfiguration, will therefore be treated as a two-host
group until the third becomes reachable. This also means that if a
problem triggers an action and the problem is not solved,
NetDefendOS will not attempt to repeat the same action until the
problem is solved and the hosts are again reachable.

Max Loss

A single host is considered unreachable if this number of

consecutive ping responses to that host are not replied to. The
default value is 7.

Initial Grace Period

Do not allow the link monitor to trigger an action for this number
of seconds after the last reconfiguration. This avoids false
positives during initial link negotiation. The default value is 45
seconds.

Ping Interval

The number of milliseconds between pings sent to hosts. The

default value is 250.

Routing Table

This is the routing table used for looking up the route for the host
IP addresses. The default is the main routing table.

Use Shared IP

This is only used when monitoring in a HA cluster. It allows the

link monitor pings to be sent from the shared IP address instead
of sending using the individual IPs of each unit. This is useful if
public IPv4 addresses are not available for each unit in the cluster.
See also Section 11.6, Link Monitoring and HA.

Example 2.20. Link Monitor Setup

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This example creates a Link Monitor object that will monitor the availability of the host found at
the IPv4 address my_host. It is assumed this IPv4 address is already defined in the NetDefendOS
address book.
The action for the monitor is HA Failover if it detects that the host is unavailable.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add LinkMonitor Action=HAFailover Addresses=my_host

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Link Monitors > Add > Link Monitor

2.

Enter the following:

3.

Action: HA Failover

Addresses: my_host

Click OK

2.4.2. SNMP Monitoring

Overview
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a standardized protocol for management of
network devices. An SNMP compliant client can connect to a network device which supports the
SNMP protocol to query and control it.
NetDefendOS supports SNMP version 1 and version 2. Connection can be made by any SNMP
compliant clients to devices running NetDefendOS. However, only query operations are
permitted for security reasons. Specifically, NetDefendOS supports the following SNMP request
operations by a client:

The GET REQUEST operation

The GET NEXT REQUEST operation

The GET BULK REQUEST operation (SNMP Version 2c only)

The NetDefendOS MIB

The Management Information Base (MIB) is a database, usually in the form of a text file, which
defines the parameters on a network device that an SNMP client can query or change. The MIB
file for a device running NetDefendOS is distributed with the standard NetDefendOS distribution
pack as a file with the name DFLNNN-TRAP.MIB (where NNN indicates the model number of the
firewall).
This MIB file should be transferred to the hard disk of the workstation that will run the SNMP
client so it can be imported by the client software. When the SNMP client runs, the MIB file is read
and tells the client which values can be queried on a NetDefendOS device.

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Defining SNMP Access

SNMP access is defined through the definition of a NetDefendOS Remote object with a Mode
value of SNMP. The Remote object requires the entry of:

Interface - The NetDefendOS interface on which SNMP requests will arrive.

Network - The IP address or network from which SNMP requests will come.

Community - The community string which provides password security for the accesses.

The Community String

Security for SNMP Versions 1 and 2c is handled by the Community String which is the same as a
password for SNMP access. The Community String should be difficult to guess and should
therefore be constructed in the same way as any other password, using combinations of upper
and lower case letters along with digits.

Enabling an IP Rule for SNMP

The advanced setting SNMP Before Rules controls if the IP rule set checks all accesses by SNMP
clients. This is by default disabled and the recommendation is to always enable this setting.
The effect of enabling this setting is to add an invisible Allow rule at the top of the IP rule set
which automatically permits accesses on port 161 from the network and on the interface
specified for SNMP access. Port 161 is usually used for SNMP and NetDefendOS always expects
SNMP traffic on that port.

Remote Access Encryption

It should be noted that SNMP Version 1 or 2c access means that the community string will be
sent as plain text over a network. This is clearly insecure if a remote client is communicating over
the public Internet. It is therefore advisable to have remote access take place over an encrypted
VPN tunnel or similarly secure means of communication.

Preventing SNMP Overload

The advanced setting SNMP Request Limit restricts the number of SNMP requests allowed per
second. This can help prevent attacks through SNMP overload.

Example 2.21. Enabling SNMP Monitoring

This example enables SNMP access through the internal lan interface from the network
mgmt-net using the community string Mg1RQqR.
Since the management client is on the internal network, there is no need for it to communicate
via a VPN tunnel.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtSNMP my_snmp
Interface=lan

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Network=mgmt-net
SNMPGetCommunity=Mg1RQqR

Should it be necessary to enable SNMP Before Rules (which is enabled by default) then the
command is:
gw-world:/> set Settings RemoteMgmtSettings SNMPBeforeRules=Yes

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Remote Management > Add > SNMP management

2.

For Remote access type enter:

3.

4.

Name: a suitable name, for example snmp_access

Community: Mg1RQqR

For Access Filter enter:

Interface: lan

Network: mgmt-net

Click OK

Should it be necessary to enable SNMP Before Rules (which is enabled by default) then the
setting can be found in System > Device > Remote Management > Advanced Settings.

SNMP Advanced Settings

The following SNMP advanced settings can be found under the Remote Management section in
the Web Interface. They can also be set through the CLI.

SNMP Before RulesLimit

Enable SNMP traffic to the firewall regardless of configured IP Rules.
Default: Enabled

SNMP Request Limit

Maximum number of SNMP requests that will be processed each second by NetDefendOS.
Should SNMP requests exceed this rate then the excess requests will be ignored by
NetDefendOS.
Default: 100

System Contact
The contact person for the managed node.
Default: N/A

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System Name
The name for the managed node.
Default: N/A

System Location
The physical location of the node.
Default: N/A

Interface Description (SNMP)

What to display in the SNMP MIB-II ifDescr variables.
Default: Name

Interface Alias
What to display in the SNMP ifMIB ifAlias variables.
Default: Hardware

2.4.3. Hardware Monitoring

Feature Availability
Certain D-Link hardware models allow the administrator to use the CLI to query the current value
of various hardware operational parameters such as the current temperature inside the firewall.
This feature is referred to as Hardware Monitoring.

Note: Hardware monitoring is not available on all NetDefend

models
The hardware monitoring feature is only available on the D-Link NetDefend
DFL-1660, 2560 and 2560G.

Configuring and performing hardware monitoring can be done either through the CLI or
through the Web Interface.

Enabling Hardware Monitoring

The System > Device > Hardware Monitoring section of the Web Interface provides the
administrator with the following settings for enabling hardware monitoring when it is available:
Enable Sensors
Enable/disable all hardware monitoring functionality.
Default: Disabled
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Poll Interval
Polling interval for the Hardware Monitor which is the delay in milliseconds between readings of
hardware monitor values.
Minimum value: 100
Maximum value: 10000
Default: 500

Using the hwm CLI Command

To get a list current values from all available sensors, the following command can be used:
gw-world:/> hwm -all

This can be abbreviated to:

gw-world:/> hwm -a

Some typical output from this command for two temperature sensors is shown below:
gw-world:/> hwm -a
Name
Current value (unit)
---------------------------------SYS Temp
=
44.000 (C)
(x)
CPU Temp
=
41.500 (C)
(x)

The SYS temperature is for the overall temperature inside the hardware unit. The CPU
temperature relates specifically to the unit's central processor which can be lower than the
overall temperature due to the method of cooling.

Note: The meaning of "(x)"

The "(x)" at the side of each the sensor line, indicates that the sensor is enabled.

The -verbose option displays the current values plus the configured ranges:
gw-world:/> hwm -a -v
2 sensors available
Poll interval time = 500ms
Name [type][number] = low_limit] current_value [high_limit (unit)
----------------------------------------------------------------SYS Temp
[TEMP ][ 0] =
44.000]
45.000 [ 0.000 (C)
CPU Temp
[TEMP ][ 1] =
42.000]
42.500 [ 0.000 (C)
Time to probe sensors: 2.980000e-05 seconds

Each physical attribute listed on the left is given a minimum and maximum range within which it
should operate. When the value returned after polling falls outside this range, NetDefendOS
optionally generates a log message that is sent to the configured log servers.

Note: Different hardware has different sensors and ranges

Each hardware model may have a different set of sensors and a different operating
range. The above output and its values are for illustration only.

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Setting the Minimum and Maximum Range

The minimum and maximum values shown in the output from the hwm command are set
through the Web Interface by going to System > Device > Hardware Monitoring > Add and
selecting the hardware parameter to monitor. The desired operating range can then be specified.
A sensor is identified in the Web Interface by specifying a unique combination of the following
parameters:

Type
This is the type of sensor shown in the CLI output above and is presented as a list of choices in
the Web Interface. For example, Temp.

Sensor
This is the number of the sensor as shown in the CLI output above. For example, the SYS Temp
number is 0.

Name
This is the Name of the sensor as shown in the CLI output above. For example, SYS Temp.

Enabled
An individual sensor can be enabled or disabled used this setting. When enabled, an "(x)" is
displayed next to the sensor in the output from the hwm command.

Controlling the Event Sending Frequency

The maximum frequency of log event generation when hardware monitoring values fall outside
their preset range can be limited using the AlarmRepeatInterval setting in the LogSettings object.
This setting is used because the monitored values are continuous.
For example, to change the interval from the default of 60 seconds to a new value of 900
seconds, use the CLI command:
gw-world:/> set Settings LogSettings AlarmRepeatInterval=900

This means that a new event message must now wait for 900 seconds after the previous one has
been sent.
All the options for LogSettings can be found in Section 2.2.8, Advanced Log Settings.

2.4.4. Memory Monitoring Settings

The System > Device > Hardware Monitoring section of the Web Interface provides the
administrator with a number of settings related to the monitoring of available memory. These
are:

Memory Poll Interval

Memory polling interval which is the delay in minutes between readings of memory values.
Minimum 1, Maximum 200.
Default: 15 minutes

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Memory Use Percentage

True if the memory monitor uses a percentage as the unit for monitoring, False if megabytes are
used. Applies to Alert Level, Critical Level and Warning Level.
Default: True

Memory Log Repetition

Should we send a log message for each poll result that is in the Alert, Critical or Warning level, or
should we only send when a new level is reached. If True, a message is sent each time Memory
Poll Interval is triggered. If False, a message is sent when a value goes from one level to another.
Default: False

Alert Level
Generate an Alert log message if free memory is below this number of bytes. Disable by setting
to 0. Maximum value is 10,000.
Default: 0

Critical Level
Generate a Critical log message if free memory is below this number of bytes. Disable by setting
to 0. Maximum value is 10,000.
Default: 0

Warning Level
Generate a Warning log message if free memory is below this number of bytes. Disable by
setting to 0. Maximum value 10,000.
Default: 0

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2.5. The pcapdump Command

A valuable diagnostic tool is the ability to examine the packets that enter and leave the
interfaces of a NetDefend Firewall. For this purpose, NetDefendOS provides the CLI command
pcapdump which not only allows the examination of packet streams entering and leaving
interfaces but also allows the filtering of these streams according to specified criteria.
The packets that are filtered out by pcapdump can then be saved in a file of type .cap which is the
defacto libpcap library file format standard for packet capture.
The complete syntax of the pcapdump command is described in the CLI Reference Guide.

A Simple Example
An example of pcapdump usage is the following sequence:
gw-world:/>
gw-world:/>
gw-world:/>
gw-world:/>
gw-world:/>

pcapdump
pcapdump
pcapdump
pcapdump
pcapdump

-start lan -size 1024

-stop lan
-show
-write lan -filename=cap_lan.cap
-cleanup

Going through this line by line we have:

1. Recording is started for the lan interface using a buffer size of 1024 Kbytes.
gw-world:/> pcapdump -size 1024 -start lan

2. The recording is stopped for the lan interface.

gw-world:/> pcapdump -stop lan

3. The dump output is displayed on the console in a summarized form.

gw-world:/> pcapdump -show

4. The same information is written in its complete form to a file called cap_lan.cap.
gw-world:/> pcapdump -write lan -filename=cap_lan.cap

At this point, the file cap_lan.cap should be downloaded to the management workstation for
analysis.
5. A final cleanup is performed and all memory taken is released.
gw-world:/> pcapdump -cleanup

Re-using Capture Files

Since the only way to delete files from the NetDefend Firewall is through the serial console, the
recommendation is to always use the same filename when using the pcapdump -write option.
Each new write operation will then overwrite the old file.

Running on Multiple Interfaces

It is possible to have multiple pcapdump executions being performed at the same time. The
following points describe this feature:
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1.

All capture from all executions goes to the same memory buffer.
The command can be launched multiple times with different interfaces specified. In this
case the packet flow for the different executions will be grouped together in different
sections of the report.
If a clearer picture of packets flowing between interfaces is required in the output then it is
best to issue one pcapdump command with the interfaces of interest specified.

2.

If no interface is specified then the capture is done on all interfaces.

3.

The -stop option without an interface specified will halt capture on all interfaces.

4.

pcapdump prevents capture running more than once on the same interface by detecting
command duplication.

Filter Expressions
Seeing all packets passing through a particular interface often provides an excess of information
to be useful. To focus on particular types of traffic the pcapdump command has the option to add
an filter expression which has one of the following forms:
-eth=<macaddr> - Filter on source or destination MAC address.
-ethsrc=<macaddr> - Filter on source MAC address.
-ethdest=<macaddr> - Filter on destination MAC address.
-ip=<ipaddr> - Filter source or destination IP address.
-ipsrc=<ipaddr> - Filter on source IP address.
-ipdest=<ipaddr> - Filter on destination IP address.
-port=<portnum> - Filter on source or destination port number.
-srcport=<portnum> - Filter on source port number.
-destport=<portnum> - Filter on destination port number.
-proto=<id> - Filter on protocol where id is the decimal protocol id.
-<protocolname> - Instead of the protocol number, the protocol name alone can be specified
and can be one of -tcp, -udp or -icmp.

Downloading the Output File

As shown in one of the examples above, the -write option of pcapdump can save buffered packet
information to a file on the NetDefend Firewall.
These output files are placed into the NetDefendOS root directory and the file name is specified
in the pcapdump command line, usually with a filetype of .cap. The name of output files must
follow certain rules which are described below. Files can then be downloaded to the local
workstation using Secure Copy (SCP) (see Section 2.1.6, Secure Copy). A list of all files in the
NetDefendOS root directory can be viewed by issuing the ls CLI command.
The -cleanup option will erase any saved pcapdump files (including any left over from earlier uses
of the command) so cleanup should only be done after file download is complete.

Note: NetDefendOS keeps track of saved files

NetDefendOS keeps track of all files created by pcapdump. This is true even between
system restarts so the -cleanup option is always able to delete all files from the firewall's
memory.

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Output File Naming Restrictions

The name of the file used for pcapdump output must comply with the following rules:

Excluding the filename extension, the name may not exceed 8 characters in length.

The filename extension cannot exceed 3 characters in length.

The filename and extension can only contain the characters A-Z, 0-9, "-" and "_".

Combining Filters
It is possible to use several of these filter expressions together in order to further refine the
packets that are of interest. For example we might want to examine the packets going to a
particular destination port at a particular destination IP address.

Compatibility with Wireshark

The open source tool Wireshark (formerly called Ethereal) is an extremely useful analysis tool for
examining logs of captured packets. The industry standard .pcap file format used by pcapdump
with its -write option means that it is compatible with Wireshark.
For more complete information about this topic, see http://www.wireshark.org.

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2.6. Maintenance
2.6.1. Auto-Update Mechanism
A number of the NetDefendOS security features rely on external servers for automatic updates
and content filtering. The Intrusion Prevention and Detection system and Anti-Virus modules
require access to updated signature databases in order to provide protection against the latest
threats.
To facilitate the Auto-Update feature D-Link maintains a global infrastructure of servers
providing update services for NetDefend Firewalls. To ensure availability and low response times,
NetDefendOS employs a mechanism for automatically selecting the most appropriate server to
supply updates.
For more details on these features see the following sections:

Section 6.5, Intrusion Detection and Prevention

Section 6.4, Anti-Virus Scanning

Section 6.3, Web Content Filtering

2.6.2. Backing Up Configurations

The administrator has the ability to take a snapshot of a NetDefendOS system at a given point in
time and restore it when necessary. The snapshot can be of two types:

A Configuration Backup
This is the entire current NetDefendOS configuration saved into a single file. It does not
include the installed NetDefendOS version. This is useful when restoring only the
configuration.
It is important to create, at the minimum, a configuration backup on a regular basis so that a
configuration can be easily recreated in the event of hardware replacement. The alternative is
to recreate a configuration by manually adding its contents, piece by piece.

A System Backup
This a complete backup of both the configuration and the installed NetDefendOS software
saved into a single file. This is useful if restoring both the configuration and the NetDefendOS
version upgraded.
A complete system backup is a much larger file than a configuration backup and can be
many megabytes, it is therefore not recommended to perform this on a regular basis because
of the time involved. However, it is recommended to create this at least once when the
NetDefend Firewall is initially configured and goes live. This is because it a full system backup
makes it easier to restore the current configuration on new hardware.

Note: Backups do not contain everything

Backups include only static information from the NetDefendOS configuration. Dynamic
information such as the DHCP server lease database or Anti-Virus/IDP databases will not
be backed up.

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Version Compatibility
Since a full system backup includes a NetDefendOS version, compatibility is not an issue with
these types of backup.
With configuration only backups, the following should be noted:

A configuration backup created on a higher NetDefendOS version should never be uploaded

to a lower NetDefendOS version. For example, a backup created from a firewall running a
10.00.00 version of NetDefendOS should never be uploaded to a firewall running a 9.30.02
version.

A configuration backup created on a lower version can always be uploaded to a higher

version, however there can be compatibility issues in certain cases which will be indicated by
messages from NetDefendOS when the uploaded configuration is activated. Such issues can
result in a NetDefendOS reboot.
For this reason, a full system backup is useful when trying to transfer a saved configuration to
new hardware where the new hardware comes preloaded with a higher NetDefendOS
version. First, upload the full system backup to get a system with the right version and then
upload the latest configuration backup. If there is a requirement to move to a higher
NetDefendOS version, an NetDefendOS upgrade can then be performed.

The Management Interfaces Used

Both types of backup, configuration and system, can be performed either by downloading the
file directly from the NetDefend Firewall using SCP (Secure Copy) or alternatively using the Web
Interface. Backup cannot be done using CLI commands.
Similarly, restoring a backup is done in the reverse fashion. Either by uploading the backup file
using SCP or alternatively through the Web Interface. A restore cannot be done with CLI
commands.

Warning: Do not upload a system backup to dissimilar hardware

Do not try to upload a full system backup (configuration plus NetDefendOS) to
hardware that is not the same model as the original.
This will cause the configuration to be automatically activated and NetDefendOS
rebooted, with the possibility that NetDefendOS becomes unreachable. Upload of full
system backups must be done to similar hardware since there is no opportunity to
change the configuration before it is activated.

Operation Interruption
Backups can be created at any time without disturbing NetDefendOS operation. For restores,
however, it is not recommended to have live traffic flowing since the restored configuration may
significantly alter the security policies of the firewall.
After restoring a backup it is necessary to Activate the new configuration, as is done with a
normal configuration change.
A complete system restore will require that NetDefendOS reinitializes, with the loss of all existing
connections. Initialization may require some seconds to complete depending on the hardware
type and normal operation will not be possible during this time.

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Backup and Restore using SCP

There are two files located in the NetDefendOS root directory:

config.bak - This is the backup of the current configuration.

full.bak - This is the backup of the complete system.

SCP can be used to download either of these files. When the download is complete the filename
will be altered to include the date. For example, full.bak might become full-20081121.bak to show
it is a snapshot of the state on November 21st, 2008.
To restore a backup file, the administrator should upload the file to the NetDefend Firewall. The
name of the file does not need to be changed in any way and can retain the date since
NetDefendOS will read a header in the file to determine what it is.

Backup and Restore using the Web Interface

As an alternative to using SCP, the administrator can initiate a backup or restore of the
configuration or complete system directly through the Web Interface. The example below
illustrates how this is done.
Example 2.22. Performing a Complete System Backup
In this example we will back up the entire system.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Status > Maintenance > Backup and Restore > Backup System

2.

A file dialog is shown - choose a directory for the created file and change the filename from
the default if desired.

3.

Download of the backup file will then start

Tip: Examining configuration backup files

It is possible to open a configuration only .bak file in a normal text editor and examine
its contents although the file will contain some binary information which means it
cannot be modified and saved.
Furthermore, a configuration .bak file only shows object property values that are
different from the default values. Therefore, the best way to examine the configuration
in a .bak file is to load it into NetDefendOS and use the Web Interface to view it without
saving and activating it.

2.6.3. Restore to Factory Defaults

A restore to factory defaults can be applied so that it is possible to return to the original hardware
state that existed when the NetDefend Firewall was shipped by D-Link. When a restore is applied
all data such as the IDP and Anti-Virus databases are lost and must be reloaded.
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Example 2.23. Complete Hardware Reset to Factory Defaults

Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> reset -unit

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Status > Maintenance > Reset & Restore > Reset

2.

Select Restore the entire unit to factory defaults then confirm and wait for the restore to
complete.

Important: Any upgrades will be lost after a factory reset

It should be understood that a reset to factory defaults is exactly that. Any
NetDefendOS upgrades performed since the unit left the factory will be lost.

Reset Procedure for the NetDefend DFL-210, 260, 260E, 800, 860 and 860E
To reset the NetDefend DFL-210, 260, 260E, 800, 860 and 860E models, hold down the reset
button located at the rear of the unit for 10-15 seconds while powering on the unit. After that,
release the reset button and the unit will continue to load and startup with its default factory
settings.
The IPv4 address 192.168.1.1 will be assigned to the LAN interface on the DFL-210, 260, 800 and
860 models. The IPv4 address 192.168.10.1 is assigned to the LAN interface on the DFL-260E and
DFL-860E models.

Reset Procedure for the NetDefend DFL-1600, 1660, 2500, 2560 and 2560G
To reset the DFL-1600, 1660, 2500, 2560 and 2560G models, press any key on the keypad when
the Press keypad to Enter Setup message appears on the front display. Now, select the Reset
firewall option and confirm by selecting Yes. Then wait for the reset process to complete after
which the unit will startup with its default factory settings.
The IPv4 address 192.168.1.1 will be assigned to the default management interface LAN1 on the
DFL-1600 and DFL-2500 models. The management interface IP address for the DFL-1660,
DFL-2560 and DFL-2560G models will default to 192.168.10.1.
The default IP address factory setting for the default management interface is discussed further
in Section 2.1.3, The Web Interface.

Warning: Do NOT abort a reset to defaults

If the process of resetting to factory defaults is aborted before it finishes, the NetDefend
Firewall can then cease to function properly with the complete loss of all stored user
data.

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End of Life Procedures

The restore to factory defaults option should also be used as part of the end of life procedure
when a NetDefend Firewall is taken out of operation and will no longer be used. As part of the
decommissioning procedure, a restore to factory defaults should always be run in order to
remove all sensitive information such as VPN settings.
As a further precaution at the end of the product's life, it also recommended that the memory
media in a NetDefend Firewall is destroyed and certified as destroyed by a suitable provider of
computer disposal services.

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This chapter describes the fundamental logical objects which make up a NetDefendOS
configuration. These objects include such items as IP addresses and IP rules. Some exist by
default and some must be defined by the administrator.
In addition, the chapter explains the different interface types and explains how security policies
are constructed by the administrator.
The Address Book, page 103
IPv6 Support, page 109
Services, page 118
Interfaces, page 127
ARP, page 148
IP Rules and IP Policies, page 158
Schedules, page 180
Certificates, page 183
Date and Time, page 189
DNS, page 196
ICMP Ping, page 199

3.1. The Address Book

3.1.1. Overview
The NetDefendOS Address Book contains named objects representing various types of IP
addresses, including single IP addresses, networks as well as ranges of IP addresses.
Using address book objects has a number of important benefits:

It increases understanding of the configuration by using meaningful symbolic names.

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Using address object names instead of entering numerical addresses reduces errors.

By defining an IP address object just once in the address book, changing the definition
automatically also changes all references to it.

3.1.2. IP Addresses
IP Address objects are used to define symbolic names for various types of IP addresses.
Depending on how the address is specified, an IP Address object can represent either a single IP
address (a specific host), a network or a range of IP addresses.
In addition, IP Address objects can be used for specifying the credentials used in user
authentication. For more information about this topic, see Chapter 8, User Authentication.
The following list presents the various types of addresses an IP Address object can hold, along
with what format that is used to represent that specific type:
Host

A single host is represented simply by its IP address.

For example, 192.168.0.14.

IP Network

An IP Network is represented using Classless Inter Domain Routing (CIDR) form.

CIDR uses a forward slash and a digit (0-32) to denote the size of the network as
a postfix. This is also known as the netmask.
/24 corresponds to a class C net with 256 addresses (netmask 255.255.255.0), /27
corresponds to a 32 address net (netmask 255.255.255.224) and so on.
The numbers 0-32 correspond to the number of binary ones in the netmask. For
example: 192.168.0.0/24.

IP Range

A range of IPv4 addresses is represented with the form a.b.c.d - e.f.g.h.

Note that ranges are not limited to netmask boundaries. They may include any
span of IP addresses. For example, 192.168.0.10-192.168.0.15 represents six hosts
in consecutive order.

Example 3.1. Adding an IP Host Address

This example adds the IPv4 host www_srv1 with IP address 192.168.10.16 to the address book:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address www_srv1 Address=192.168.10.16

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the IP host, in this case wwww_srv1

3.

Enter 192.168.10.16 for the IP Address

4.

Click OK

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Example 3.2. Adding an IP Network

This example adds an IPv4 network named wwwsrvnet with address 192.168.10.0/24 to the
address book:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address wwwsrvnet Address=192.168.10.0/24

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the IP network, for example wwwsrvnet

3.

Enter 192.168.10.0/24 as the IP Address

4.

Click OK

Example 3.3. Adding an IP Range

This example adds a range of IPv4 addresses from 192.168.10.16 to 192.168.10.21 and names the
range wwwservers:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address wwwservers
Address=192.168.10.16-192.168.10.21

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the IP Range, for example wwwservers.

3.

Enter 192.168.10.16-192.168.10.21 as the IP Address

4.

Click OK

Example 3.4. Deleting an Address Object

To delete an object named wwwsrv1 in the address book, do the following:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> delete Address IP4Address wwwsrv1

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Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book

2.

Select the address object wwwsrv1

3.

Choose Delete from the menu

4.

Click OK

Deleting In-use IP Objects

If an IP object is deleted that is in use by another object then NetDefendOS will not allow the
configuration to be deployed and will generate a warning message. In other words, it will appear
that the object has been successfully deleted but NetDefendOS will not allow the configuration
to be saved to the NetDefend Firewall.

3.1.3. Ethernet Addresses

Ethernet Address objects are used to define symbolic names for MAC addresses. This is useful, for
example, when populating the ARP table with static ARP entries or for other parts of the
configuration where symbolic names are preferred over numerical Ethernet addresses.
When specifying an Ethernet address the format aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff should be used. Ethernet
addresses are also displayed using this format.
Example 3.5. Adding an Ethernet Address
The following example adds an Ethernet Address object named wwwsrv1_mac with the
numerical MAC address 08-a3-67-bc-2e-f2.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Address EthernetAddress wwwsrv1_mac
Address=08-a3-67-bc-2e-f2

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > Ethernet Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the Ethernet Address object, for example wwwsrv1_mac

3.

Enter 08-a3-67-bc-2e-f2 as the MAC Address

4.

Click OK

3.1.4. Address Groups

Groups Simplify Configuration

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Address objects can be grouped in order to simplify configuration. Consider a number of public
servers that should be accessible from the Internet. The servers have IP addresses that are not in
a sequence, and can therefore not be referenced to as a single IP range. Consequently, individual
IP Address objects have to be created for each server.
Instead of having to cope with the burden of creating and maintaining separate filtering policies
allowing traffic to each server, an Address Group named, for example web-servers, could be
created with the web server hosts as group members. Now, a single policy can be used with this
group, thereby greatly reducing the administrative workload.

IP Addresses Can Be Excluded

When groups are created with the Web Interface, it is possible to not only add address objects to
a group but also to explicitly exclude addresses from the group. However, exclusion is not
possible when creating groups with the CLI.
For example, if a network object is the network 192.168.2.0/24 and this is added to a group, it is
possible to then explicitly exclude the IPv4 address 192.168.2.1. This means that the group will
then contain the range 192.168.2.2 to 192.168.2.255.

Groups Can Contain Different Subtypes

Address Group objects are not restricted to contain members of the same subtype. IP host
objects can be teamed up with IP ranges, IP networks and so on. All addresses of all group
members are then combined by NetDefendOS, effectively resulting in the union of all the
addresses.
For example, if a group contains the following two IP address ranges:

192.168.0.10 - 192.168.0.15

192.168.0.14 - 192.168.0.19

The result of combining these two will be a single address range containing 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.19.

3.1.5. Auto-Generated Address Objects

To simplify the configuration, a number of address objects in the address book are automatically
created by NetDefendOS when the system starts for the first time and these objects are used in
various parts of the initial configuration.
The following address objects are auto-generated:

Interface Addresses
For each Ethernet interface in the system, two IP Address objects are predefined; one object
for the IPv4 address of the actual interface, and one object representing the local network for
that interface.
Interface IPv4 address objects are named <interface-name>_ip and network objects are
named <interface-name>_net. As an example, an interface named If1 will have an associated
interface IP object named If1_ip, and a network object named If1_net.
These addresses are stored in an address book folder called InterfaceAddresses.
When changing the IP address of an Ethernet interface, it is strongly recommended to
change the address of the default address book object and not change the IP address directly

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on the Ethernet interface.

The Default Gateway Address

An IPv4 Address object with the suffix "_gw" is also auto-generated for the default interface
used for connection to the public Internet. For example, if the Internet connection is assumed
to be on interface wan then the default gateway address gets the name wan_gw. This IP
address represents the external router which acts as the gateway to the Internet.
This address is used primarily by the routing table, but is also used by the DHCP client
subsystem to store gateway address information acquired through DHCP. If a default
gateway address has been provided during the setup phase, the default gateway object will
contain that address. Otherwise, the object will be left as 0.0.0.0/0.

The all-nets Address Object

The all-nets IP address object is initialized to the IPv4 address 0.0.0.0/0, which represents all
possible IPv4 addresses. The all-nets IP object is used extensively when configuring of
NetDefendOS and it is important to understand its significance.

3.1.6. Address Book Folders

In order to help organize large numbers of entries in the address book, it is possible to create
address book folders. These folders are just like a folder in a computer's file system. They are
created with a given name and can then be used to contain all the IP address objects that are
related together as a group.
Using folders is simply a way for the administrator to conveniently divide up address book
entries and no special properties are given to entries in different folders. NetDefendOS continues
to see all entries as though they were in a large table of IP address objects.
The folder concept is also used by NetDefendOS in other contexts such as IP rule sets, where
related IP rules can be grouped together in administrator created folders.
As discussed previously, there will be a default folder created on initial startup called
InterfaceAddresses which contains the default address objects for the Ethernet interfaces
detected by NetDefendOS.

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3.2. IPv6 Support

All the IP addresses discussed so far are of the IPv4 type. The IP address standard IPv6 is designed
as a successor to IPv4 with the principal advantage of providing a much larger 128 bit address
space. Among many other advantages, the large number of available global IPv6 addresses
means that NAT is no longer required to share a limited number of public IPv4 addresses.

NetDefendOS Configuration Objects Supporting IPv6

The following parts of NetDefendOS provide IPv6 support:

The address book.

Routing tables.

Routing rules.

IP rules (excluding some actions).

Adding an IPv6 Address

IPv6 address objects are created in the NetDefendOS address book as objects which are distinct
from IPv4 objects.
Only the all-nets6 object (IPv6 address ::/0) already exists in the address book. This means that the
IPv6 address and network objects associated with an interface must first be created.
Example 3.6. Adding IPv6 Host Addresses
Assume that an IPv6 address and network have to be associated with the wan interface. This
example adds two new IPv6 address objects to the address book consisting of the network
wan_net6 (the IPv6 prefix 2001:DB8::/32) and the single IP address wan_ip6 (2001:DB8::1) within
that network.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Address IP6Address wan_net6 Address=2001:DB8::/32

gw-world:/> add Address IP6Address wan_ip6 Address=2001:DB8::1

Web Interface
Add the network address (the IPv6 prefix):
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP6 Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the object, in this case: wan_net6

3.

Enter 2001:DB8::/32 for the IP6 Address

4.

Click OK

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Add the IP address:

1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP6 Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the object, in this case: wan_ip6

3.

Enter 2001:DB8::1 for the IP6 Address

4.

Click OK

Note: The prefix 2001:DB8::/32 is reserved for documentation

As described in RFC3849, the IPv6 prefix 2001:DB8::/32 is specifically reserved for
documentation purposes. All IPv6 examples in this manual therefore use this network or
addresses from it.

IPv6 Must be Enabled Globally and on Each Interface

IPv6 must be explicitly enabled in NetDefendOS for it to function. This is done in the two ways:
A. Enable IPv6 globally.
B. Enable IPv6 on an Ethernet interface.
These are described next.
A. Enable IPv6 Globally
There is a global advanced setting that enables IPv6 and if it is not enabled, all IPv6 traffic is
ignored. By default, this setting is disabled.

Example 3.7. Enabling IPv6 Globally

This example enables all IPv6 features across the whole of NetDefendOS. If an IPv6 feature is used
and this setting is not enabled, a warning will be generated when the configuration is activated.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Settings IPSettings EnableIPv6=Yes

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Advanced Settings > IP Settings

2.

Enable the setting: Enable IPv6

3.

Click OK

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B. Enable IPv6 on an Interface

Once IPv6 is enabled globally, IPv6 should then be enabled on any Ethernet interface with
which it is to be used. At the same time that an interface is enabled for IPv6, an IPv6 address
and IPv6 network (prefix) must be assigned to it. The interface can then be used in rules and
routes with IPv6 properties. By default, this setting is disabled for all interfaces.

Example 3.8. Enabling IPv6 on an Interface

This example enables IPv6 on the wan Ethernet interface using the address objects created
previously.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet wan
EnableIPv6=Yes
IPv6IP=wan_ip6
IPv6Network=wan_net6

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet > wan

2.

Enable the option: Enable IPv6

3.

Now enter:

4.

IP Address: wan_ip6

Network: wan_net6

Click OK

An IPv6 gateway address could also be entered for the interface if it is connected to an ISP router.

An Interface Route is Added Automatically

When an IPv6 address and network are assigned to an Ethernet interface (both are required) then
an IPv6 route for that interface should be added to the main routing table.
The route is added provided the automatic route creation for the interface is enabled (it is
enabled by default).

Enabling IPv6 Router Advertisement

An additional option for an Ethernet interface is to enable IPv6 router advertisement. This means
that any external client connected to the interface can solicit and receive IPv6 messages to allow
it to perform Stateless Address Auto-Configuration (SLAAC). The SLAAC process allows the client to
create its own unique global IPv6 address based on the MAC address of its interface and the
prefix of the IPv6 address for the NetDefendOS interface it is connected to.
Example 3.9. Enabling IPv6 Advertisements

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This example enables IPv6 advertisements on the wan Ethernet interface.

Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet wan EnableRouterAdvertisement=Yes

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet > wan

2.

Go to: Advanced and enable the option: Enable router advertisement for this interface

3.

Click OK

IPv4 and IPv6 Cannot Share an Address Group Object

IPv6 address objects are created and managed in a similar way to IPv4 objects They are called an
IP6 Address and can be used in NetDefendOS rules and other objects in the same way as an IPv4
address. However, it is not possible to combine the two in one configuration object.
For example, it is not possible to create an Address Group that contains both. The standard
Address Group object can contain only IPv4 address objects. For IPv6 there is a special object
called an IP6 Group object that can contain only IPv6 addresses.

The all-nets6 Address Object

The predefined all-nets address object is a catch-all object only for all IPv4 addresses. Another
object, all-nets6, represents all IPv6 addresses and only IPv6 addresses.
Furthermore, it is not possible to combine all-nets (all IPv4 addresses) with all-nets6 in a single
Address Group object. For example, if a DropAll rule is needed as the last "catch-all" rule in an IP
rule set, two rules are required to catch all IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. This is discussed further in
Section 3.6, IP Rules and IP Policies.
In the same way, a routing table could route traffic for either a IPv4 network or an IPv6 network
to the same interface but this must be done with two separate routes in the routing table, one
for IPv4 and one for IPv6. It cannot be achieved using a single route.

Enabling ICMP Error Pass Through

Unlike IPv4, fragmentation of IPv6 packets is only done by the originating host using the host's
selection of MTU size. Should the packets then encounter network equipment that cannot
handle the chosen MTU size, ICMP error messages are sent back to the originating host to
indicate that the MTU must be reduced and the packets resent.
For this reason, it is recommended to always enable the Pass returned ICMP errors messages
from destination property for any Service object used with an IP rule or IP policy for IPv6 traffic.
An alternative to this is to set up IP rules or policies which explicitly allow the ICMP error
messages in both directions.
The exception to this is if the MTU is initially set to 1280 which is the minimum MTU supported
by IPv6. In this case, there is no need for ICMP error messages to be passed since they will not
occur.

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IPv6 Neighbor Discovery

IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND) is the IPv6 equivalent of the IPv4 ARP protocol (see Section 3.5,
ARP).
When IPv6 is enabled for a given Ethernet interface, NetDefendOS will respond to any IPv6
Neighbor Solicitations (NS) sent to that interface with IPv6 Neighbor Advertisements (NA) for the
IPv6 address configured for that interface. NetDefendOS will also respond with neighbor
advertisements for any networks configured using Proxy Neighbor Discovery.

Proxy Neighbor Discovery

The IPv6 feature of Proxy Neighbor Discovery (Proxy ND) in NetDefendOS functions in the same
way as Proxy ARP does with IPv4 (described in Section 4.2.6, Proxy ARP). There are two ways of
enabling proxy ND:
A. Directly publish an address on an interface.
This is done in exactly the same way as ARP publish by setting option on an Ethernet
interface. Both the options Publish and Xpublish are supported for IPv6. These options are
explained in Section 3.5.3, ARP Publish.
B. Publish an address as part of a static route.
When a route for an IPv6 address on a given Ethernet interface is created, IPv6 should already
be enabled for the interface which means that IPv6 neighbor discovery is operational.
Optionally, Proxy Neighbor Discovery (Proxy ND) can also be enabled for an IPv6 route so that
all or selected interfaces will also respond to any neighbor solicitations for the route's
network.
An example of using this second method is given below.

Example 3.10. Adding an IPv6 Route and Enabling Proxy ND

Assume that a route needs to be in the main routing table so that the IPv6 network my_ipv6_net
is routed on the interface If1 where that interface already has IPv6 enabled.
In addition, proxy neighbor discovery for my_ipv6_net needs to be enabled for the If3 interface.
Command-Line Interface
First, change the CLI context to be the main routing table:
gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable main

Add the IPv6 route:

gw-world:/main> add Route6 Network=my_ipv6_net
Interface=If1
ProxyNDInterfaces=If3

Lastly, return to the default CLI context:

gw-world:/main> cc
gw-world:/>

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Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > main > Add > RouteIPv6

2.

Now enter:

Interface: If1

Network: my_ipv6_net

3.

Go to: Proxy ND and move the interface If3 from Available to Selected

4.

Click OK

Troubleshooting IPv6 with ICMP Ping

The CLI command ping can be used for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 2001:DB8::2

This provides the means to determine if an IPv6 host is reachable and responding.
Ping can also be initiated in the Web Interface by going to: Status > Tools > Ping.
Outgoing ICMP messages from the firewall do not require an IP rule which allows them since the
gateway is trusted. However, if the firewall is to be pinged by an external host then an IP rule or
IP policy must be set up to allow this, just as it is needed for IPv4. Such an IP rule or policy would
use the predefined Service object called ping6-inbound The service object called all_icmpv6
covers all IPv6 ICMP messages except mobile ICMP messages.
An appropriate IP rule to allow NetDefendOS to respond to IPv6 ping messages would be the
following:
Action

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Destination
Interface

Destination
Network

Service

Allow

wan

all-nets6

core

wan_ip6

ping6-inbound

The above rule assumes that IPv6 has been enabled on the wan interface.
A general discussion of ping and its options along with IPv4 usage can be found in Section 3.11,
ICMP Ping.

IPv6 Usage Restrictions

The following is a summary of IPv6 restrictions in the current version of NetDefendOS:

Management access with any NetDefendOS management interface is not possible using IPv6.

IP rules using IPv4 and IPv6 addresses can coexist in the same IP rule set but a single rule
cannot combine IPv4 and IPv6.

IPv6 addresses are not currently supported in IP rules with the following actions:
i.

NAT

ii.

SAT

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iii.

SLB SAT

iv.

Multiplex SAT

Routes using IPv4 and IPv6 addresses can coexist in the same routing table set but a single
route cannot combine IPv4 and IPv6.

Routing rules using IPv4 and IPv6 addresses coexist but a single rule cannot combine IPv4
and IPv6.

IPv6 cannot be used for VPN or with ALGs, IDP or traffic shaping.

IPv6 and High Availability

NetDefendOS High Availability (HA) does not fully support IPv6. Any IPv6 configuration objects
will be mirrored on both the HA master and slave units. However, if a failover occurs, state
information will be lost when one unit takes over processing from the other and IPv6
connections will be lost.
In an HA configuration where interfaces have IPv6 enabled and IPv6 addresses assigned, there is
no private and shared IPv6 IP for each pair of interfaces. Each interface pair will have the same
IPv6 IP address on both master and slave. A private IPv6 interface address for each interface in a
pair is not possible.

IPv6 and Transparent Mode

Transparent Mode in NetDefendOS does not directly support IPv6 since Switched Routes cannot
be defined for IPv6 networks (see Section 4.7, Transparent Mode).
However, it is possible to split networks transparently in the same way that Proxy ARP is used for
this with IPv4. Doing this for IPv4 is explained in Section 4.2.6, Proxy ARP. The only difference
with IPv6 is that Neighbor Discovery (ND) is used instead of proxy ARP. The method is otherwise
the same and the two can be used alongside each other to split both IPv4 and IPv6 networks at
the same time.

Using Neighbor Discovery Advanced Settings

This section will look more closely at configuring Neighbor Discovery (ND) for IPv6. In particular, it
examines the NetDefendOS neighbor discovery cache.
Neighbor discovery handling in NetDefendOS resembles ARP handling in that a cache is
maintained in local memory of IPv6 hosts, retaining information about external host's link-layer
and IP address tuples. Below is a summary of the NetDefendOS ND cache states (these are also
defined in RFC 4861):

INCOMPLETE
Address resolution is in progress and the link-layer address of the neighbor has not yet been
determined.

REACHABLE
The neighbor is known to have been reachable recently (within the last tens of seconds).

STALE
The neighbor is no longer known to be reachable but until traffic is sent, no attempt will be
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made to verify its reachability.

DELAY
The neighbor is no longer known to be reachable and traffic has recently been sent. Before
probing reachability, wait for a short time to allow reachability confirmation.

PROBE
The neighbor is no longer known to be reachable and unicast neighbor solicitation probes
are being sent to verify reachability.

Neighbor entries appear in the cache for the following reasons:

When NetDefendOS is about to send a packet to a neighbor, an entry is created.

When NetDefendOS receives neighbor solicitations containing source link-layer address

options, an entry is created.

When static entries are added by the administrator. These are regarded as always being in
the REACHABLE state.

The key advanced settings for neighbor discovery are the following:

NDMatchEnetSender
Check if the Ethernet sender address does not match the sender Ethernet address derived
from the source/target link-layer address option in a packet. This can be a sign of address
spoofing and the default is to have this setting enabled so that non-matching packets are
dropped. In some situations it might be desirable to skip this check.

NDValSenderIP
When enabled, NetDefendOS requires that the non-link local source address of neighbor
discovery packets match the routing table routes. If they do not, the packets are dropped.
When no such matching routes have been configured, this setting needs to be disabled if the
neighbor discovery packets are to be processed.

NDChanges
If occasional loss of connectivity to certain hosts is being experienced, this setting should be
given the value AcceptLog. This can help identify if the cause is the same IPv6 address moving
between hardware Ethernet addresses.

NDCacheSize
The neighbor discovery cache provides higher traffic throughput speeds by reducing
neighbor discovery traffic and the time required to process this traffic. The size of the cache
can be adjusted with this setting to suit particular scenarios with different network sizes.
A larger cache means a greater allocation of physical memory. However, if the cache is too
small, items may be discarded because they cannot fit and this will lead to higher latency
times and more neighbor discovery traffic.

Timing Settings
There are a number of timing settings associated with neighbor discovery:

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NDMulticastSolicit
NDMaxUnicastSolicit
NDBaseReachableTime
NDDelayFirstProbeTime
NDRetransTimer
Lower values for these means that the cache is better able to deal with stray hosts that only
communicate for a short period but it also leads to an increase in neighbor discovery traffic.
In order to increase the time an entry stays in the cache before triggering a time-out or
sending probes, it is recommended to increase the value of NDBaseReachableTime.
All settings relevant to neighbor discovery can be found in the separate NetDefendOS CLI
Reference Guide under the object name ARPNDSettings.

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3.3. Services
3.3.1. Overview
A Service object is a reference to a specific IP protocol with associated parameters. A service
definition is usually based on one of the major transport protocols such as TCP or UDP which is
associated with a specific source and/or destination port number(s). For example, the HTTP
service is defined as using the TCP protocol with the associated destination port 80 and any
source port.
However, service objects are not restricted to just the TCP or UDP protocols. They can be used to
encompass ICMP messages as well as a user-definable IP protocol.

A Service is Passive
Services are passive NetDefendOS objects in that they do not themselves carry out any action in
the configuration. Instead, service objects must be associated with the security policies defined
by various NetDefendOS rule sets and then act as a filter to apply those rules only to a specific
type of traffic.
For example, an IP rule in a NetDefendOS IP rule set has a service object associated with it as a
filtering parameter to decide whether or not to allow a specific type of traffic to traverse the
NetDefend Firewall. Inclusion in IP rules is one the most important usage of service objects and it
is also how ALGs become associated with IP rules since an ALG is associated with a service and
not directly with an IP rule.
For more information on how service objects are used with IP rules, see Section 3.6, IP Rules and
IP Policies.

Predefined Services
A large number of service objects are predefined in NetDefendOS. These include common
services such as HTTP, FTP, Telnet and SSH.
Predefined services can be used and also modified just like custom, user defined services.
However, it is recommended to not make any changes to predefined services and instead create
custom services with the desired characteristics.
Custom service creation in detail later in Section 3.3.2, Creating Custom Services.
Example 3.11. Listing the Available Services
To produce a listing of the available services in the system:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> show Service

The output will look similar to the following listing with the services grouped by type with the
service groups appearing first:
ServiceGroup
Name
-----------all_services

Comments
-------------------------------------------------All ICMP, TCP and UDP services

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all_tcpudp
ipsec-suite
l2tp-ipsec
l2tp-raw
pptp-suite

All TCP and UDP services

The IPsec+IKE suite
L2TP using IPsec for encryption and authentication
L2TP control and transport, unencrypted
PPTP control and transport

ServiceICMP
Name
-----------all_icmp
"
"

Comments
-------------------------------------------------All ICMP services

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Services

Example 3.12. Viewing a Specific Service

To view a specific service in the system:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> show Service ServiceTCPUDP echo

The output will look similar to the following listing:

Property
----------------Name:
DestinationPorts:
Type:
SourcePorts:
PassICMPReturn:
ALG:
MaxSessions:
Comments:

Value
---------------echo
7
TCPUDP (TCP/UDP)
0-65535
No
<empty>
1000
Echo service

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Services

2.

Select the specific service object in the table

3.

A listing all services will be presented

3.3.2. Creating Custom Services

If the list of predefined NetDefendOS service objects does not meet the requirements for certain
traffic then a new service can be created. Reading this section will explain not only how new
services are created but also provides an understanding of the properties of predefined services.
The Type of service created can be one of the following:
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TCP/UDP Service
A service based on the UDP or TCP protocol or both. This type of service is discussed further
in this section.

ICMP Service
A service based on the ICMP protocol. This is discussed further in Section 3.3.3, ICMP Services.

IP Protocol Service A service based on a user defined protocol. This is discussed further in
Section 3.3.4, Custom IP Protocol Services.

Service Group
A service group consisting of a number of services. This is discussed further in Section 3.3.5,
Service Groups.

TCP and UDP Based Services

Most applications use TCP and/or UDP as transport protocol for transferring data over IP
networks.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a connection-oriented protocol that includes mechanisms
for reliable point to point transmission of data. TCP is used by many common applications where
error-free transfers are mandatory, such as HTTP, FTP and SMTP.

UDP Orientated Applications

For applications where data delivery speed is of greatest importance, for example with streaming
audio and video, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is the preferred protocol. UDP is
connectionless, provides minimal transmission error recovery, and has a much lower overhead
when compared with TCP. Due to the lower overhead, UDP is also used for some non-streaming
services and in those cases the applications themselves must provide any error recovery
mechanisms.

TCP and UDP Service Definition

To define a TCP or UDP based protocol to NetDefendOS, a TCP/UDP service object is used. Apart
from a unique name describing the service, the object contains information about what protocol
(TCP, UDP or both) and what source and destination ports are applicable for the service.

Specifying Port Numbers

Port numbers are specified with all types of services and it is useful to understand how these can
be entered in user interfaces. They can be specified for both the Source Port and/or the
Destination Port of a service in the following ways:
Single Port

For many services, a single destination port is sufficient. For

example, HTTP usually uses destination port 80. The SMTP
protocol uses port 25 and so on. For these types of service,
the single port number is simply specified in the service
definition as a single number.

Port Ranges

Some services use a range of destination ports. As an

example, the NetBIOS protocol used by Microsoft
Windows uses destination ports 137 to 139.

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To define a range of ports in a TCP/UDP service object, the

format mmm-nnn is used. A port range is inclusive, meaning
that a range specified as 137-139 covers ports 137, 138 and
139.
Multiple Ports and Port Ranges

Multiple ranges or individual ports may also be entered,

separated by commas. This provides the ability to cover a
wide range of ports using only a single TCP/UDP service
object.
For example, all Microsoft Windows networking can be
covered using a port definition specified as 135-139,445.
HTTP and HTTPS can be covered by specifying destination
ports 80,443.

Tip: Specifying source ports

It is usual with many services that the source ports are left as their default value which is
the range 0-65535 (corresponding to all possible source ports).
With certain application, it can be useful to also specify the source port if this is always
within a limited range of values. Making the service definition as narrow as possible is
the recommended approach.

Other Service Properties

Apart from the basic protocol and port information, TCP/UDP service objects also have several
other properties:

SYN Flood Protection

This option allows a TCP based service to be configured with protection against SYN Flood
attacks. This option only exists for the TCP/IP service type.
For more details on how this feature works see Section 6.6.8, TCP SYN Flood Attacks.

Pass ICMP Errors

If an attempt to open a TCP connection is made by a user application behind the NetDefend
Firewall and the remote server is not in operation, an ICMP error message is returned as the
response. Such ICMP messages are interpreted by NetDefendOS as new connections and will
be dropped unless an IP rule explicitly allows them.
The Pass returned ICMP error messages from destination option allows such ICMP
messages to be automatically passed back to the requesting application. In some cases, it is
useful that the ICMP messages are not dropped. For example, if an ICMP quench message is
sent to reduce the rate of traffic flow. On the other hand, dropping ICMP messages increases
security by preventing them being used as a means of attack.

ALG
A TCP/UDP service can be linked to an Application Layer Gateway (ALG) to enable deeper
inspection of certain protocols. This is the way that an ALG is associated with an IP rule. First,
associate the ALG with a service and then associate the service with an IP rule.

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For more information on this topic see Section 6.2, ALGs.

Max Sessions
An important parameter associated with a service is Max Sessions. This parameter is given a
default value when the service is associated with an ALG. The default value varies according
to the ALG it is associated with. If the default is, for example 100, this would mean that only
100 connections are allowed in total for this service across all interfaces.
For a service involving, for example, an HTTP ALG the default value can often be too low if
there are large numbers of clients connecting through the NetDefend Firewall. It is therefore
recommended to consider if a higher value is required for a particular scenario.

Specifying All Services

When setting up rules that filter by services it is possible to use the service object called
all_services to refer to all protocols. However, using this is not recommended and specifying a
narrower service provides better security.
If, for example, the requirement is only to filter using the principal protocols of TCP, UDP and
ICMP then the service group all_tcpudpicmp can be used instead.

Tip: The http-all service does not include DNS

A common mistake is to assume that the predefined service http-all includes the DNS
protocol. It does not so the predefined service dns-all is usually also required for most
web surfing. This could be included in a group with http-all and then associated with
the IP rules that allow web surfing.

Restrict Services to the Minimum Necessary

When choosing a service object to construct a policy such as an IP rule, the protocols included in
that object should be as few as necessary to achieve the traffic filtering objective. Using the
all_services object may be convenient but removes any security benefits that a more specific
service object could provide.
The best approach is to narrow the service filter in a security policy so it allows only the protocols
that are absolutely necessary. The all_tcpudpicmp service object is often a first choice for general
traffic but even this may allow many more protocols than are normally necessary and the
administrator can often narrow the range of allowed protocols further.
Example 3.13. Creating a Custom TCP/UDP Service
This example shows how to add a TCP/UDP service, using destination port 3306, which is used by
MySQL:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP MySQL
DestinationPorts=3306
Type=TCP

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Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP service

2.

Specify a suitable name for the service, for example MySQL

3.

Now enter:

4.

Type: TCP

Source: 0-65535

Destination: 3306

Click OK

3.3.3. ICMP Services

Another type of custom service that can be created is an ICMP Service.
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a protocol that is integrated with IP for error
reporting and transmitting control information. For example, the ICMP Ping feature uses ICMP to
test Internet connectivity.

ICMP Types and Codes

ICMP messages are delivered in IP packets, and includes a Message Type that specifies the format
of the ICMP message and a Code that is used to further qualify the message. For example, the
message type Destination Unreachable uses the Code parameter to specify the exact reason for
the error.
Either all ICMP message types can be accepted by a service (there are 256 possible types) or it is
possible to filter the types.

Specifying Codes
If a type is selected then the codes for that type can be specified in the same way that port
numbers are specified. For example, if the Destination Unreachable type is selected with the
comma delimited code list 0,1,2,3 then this will filter Network unreachable, Host unreachable,
Protocol unreachable and Port unreachable.
When a message type is selected but no code values are given then all codes for that type is
assumed.

ICMP Message Types

The message types that can be selected are as follows:
Echo Request

Sent by PING to a destination in order to check connectivity.

Destination Unreachable

The source is told that a problem has occurred when

delivering a packet. There are codes from 0 to 5 for this type:

Code 0: Net Unreachable

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Redirect

Code 1: Host Unreachable

Code 2: Protocol Unreachable

Code 3: Port Unreachable

Code 4: Cannot Fragment

Code 5: Source Route Failed

The source is told that there is a better route for a particular

packet. Codes assigned are as follows:

Code 0: Redirect datagrams for the network

Code 1: Redirect datagrams for the host

Code 2: Redirect datagrams for the Type of Service and

the network

Code 3: Redirect datagrams for the Type of Service and

the host

Parameter Problem

Identifies an incorrect parameter on the datagram.

Echo Reply

The reply from the destination which is sent as a result of the

Echo Request.

Source Quenching

The source is sending data too fast for the receiver, the buffer
has filled up.

Time Exceeded

The packet has been discarded as it has taken too long to be

delivered.

3.3.4. Custom IP Protocol Services

Services that run over IP and perform application/transport layer functions can be uniquely
identified by IP protocol numbers. IP can carry data for a number of different protocols. These
protocols are each identified by a unique IP protocol number specified in a field of the IP header.
For example, ICMP, IGMP and EGP have protocol numbers 1, 2 and 8 respectively.
Similar to the TCP/UDP port ranges described previously, a range of IP protocol numbers can be
used to specify multiple applications for one service. For example, specifying the range 1-4,7 will
match the protocols ICMP, IGMP, GGP, IP-in-IP and CBT.

IP protocol numbers
The currently assigned IP protocol numbers and references are published by the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and can be found at:
http://www.iana.org/assignments/protocol-numbers
Example 3.14. Adding an IP Protocol Service
This example shows how to add an IP Protocol service, with the Virtual Router Redundancy
Protocol.

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Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Service ServiceIPProto VRRP IPProto=112

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Services > Add > IP protocol service

2.

Specify a suitable name for the service, for example VRRP

3.

Enter 112 in the IP Protocol control

4.

Optionally enter Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol in the Comments control

5.

Click OK

3.3.5. Service Groups

A Service Group is, exactly as the name suggests, a NetDefendOS object that consists of a
collection of services. Although the group concept is simple, it can be very useful when
constructing security policies since the group can be used instead of an individual service.

The Advantage of Groups

For example, there may be a need for a set of IP rules that are identical to each other except for
the service parameter. By defining a service group which contains all the service objects from all
the individual rules, we can replace all of them with just one IP rule that uses the group.
Suppose that we create a service group called email-services which combines the three services
objects for SMTP, POP3 and IMAP. Now only one IP rule needs to be defined that uses this group
service to allow all email related traffic to flow.

Groups Can Contain Other Groups

When a group is defined then it can contain individual services and/or service groups. This ability
to have groups within groups should be used with caution since it can increase the complexity of
a configuration and decrease the ability to troubleshoot problems.

3.3.6. Custom Service Timeouts

Any service can have its custom timeouts set. These can also be set globally in NetDefendOS but it
is more usual to change these values individually in a custom service.
The timeout settings that can be customized are as follows:

Initial Timeout
This is the time allowed for a new connection to be open.

Establish (Idle) Timeout

If there is no activity on a connection for this amount of time then it is considered to be
closed and is removed from the NetDefendOS state table. The default setting for this time
with TCP/UDP connections is 3 days.
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Closing Timeout
The is the time allowed for the connection to be closed.

The administrator must make a judgement as what the acceptable values should be for a
particular protocol. This may depend, for example, on the expected responsiveness of servers to
which clients connect.

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3.4. Interfaces
3.4.1. Overview
An Interface is an important logical building block in NetDefendOS. All network traffic that
transits through, originates from or is terminated in the NetDefend Firewall, does so through one
or more interfaces.

Source and Destination Interfaces

An interface can be viewed as a doorway through which network traffic passes to or from
NetDefendOS. A NetDefendOS interface has one of two functions:

The Source Interface

When traffic arrives through an interface, that interface is referred to in NetDefendOS as the
source interface (also sometimes known as the receiving or incoming interface).

The Destination Interface

When traffic leaves after being checked against NetDefendOS's security policies, the interface
used to send the traffic is referred to in NetDefendOS as the destination interface (also
sometimes known as the sending interface).

All traffic passing through NetDefendOS has both a source and destination interface. As explained
in more depth later, the special logical interface core is used when NetDefendOS itself is the
source or destination for traffic.

Interface Types
NetDefendOS supports a number of interface types, which can be divided into the following four
major groups:

Ethernet Interfaces
Each Ethernet interface represents a physical Ethernet interface on a NetDefendOS-based
product. All network traffic that originates from or enters a NetDefend Firewall will pass
through one of the physical interfaces.
NetDefendOS currently supports Ethernet as the only physical interface type. For more
information about Ethernet interfaces, see Section 3.4.2, Ethernet Interfaces.

Sub-interfaces
Some interfaces require a binding to an underlying physical interface in order to transfer
data. This group of interfaces is called Physical Sub-Interfaces.
NetDefendOS has support for two types of sub-interfaces:

Virtual LAN (VLAN) interfaces as specified by IEEE 802.1Q. When routing IP packets over a
Virtual LAN interface, they will be encapsulated in VLAN-tagged Ethernet frames. For
more information about Virtual LAN interfaces, please see Section 3.4.3, VLAN.

PPPoE (PPP-over-Ethernet) interfaces for connections to PPPoE servers. More information

about this topic can be found in Section 3.4.4, PPPoE.

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Tunnel Interfaces
Tunnel interfaces are used when network traffic is being tunneled between the system and
another tunnel end-point in the network, before it gets routed to its final destination. VPN
tunnels are often used to implement virtual private networks (VPNs) which can secure
communication between two firewalls.
To accomplish tunneling, additional headers are added to the traffic that is to be tunneled.
Furthermore, various transformations can be applied to the network traffic depending on the
type of tunnel interface. For example, when routing traffic over an IPsec interface, the
payload is usually encrypted to achieve confidentiality.
NetDefendOS supports the following tunnel interface types:
i.

IPsec interfaces are used as end-points for IPsec VPN tunnels. More information about
this topic can be found in Section 9.3, IPsec Components.

ii.

PPTP/L2TP interfaces are used as end-points for PPTP or L2TP tunnels. More information
about this topic can be found in Section 9.5, PPTP/L2TP.

iii.

GRE interfaces are used to establish GRE tunnels. More information about this topic can
be found in Section 3.4.5, GRE Tunnels.

All Interfaces are Logically Equivalent

Even though the different types of interfaces may be very different in the way they function,
NetDefendOS treats all interfaces as logically equivalent. This is an important and powerful
concept and means that all types of interfaces can be used almost interchangeably in the various
NetDefendOS rule sets and other configuration objects. This results in a high degree of flexibility
in how traffic can be examined, controlled and routed.

Interfaces have Unique Names

Each interface in NetDefendOS is given a unique name to be able to identify and select it for use
with other NetDefendOS objects in a configuration. Some interface types, such as physical
Ethernet interfaces, are already provided by NetDefendOS with relevant default names that are
possible to modify if required. New interfaces defined by the administrator will always require a
user-provided name to be specified.

Warning
If an interface definition is removed from a NetDefendOS configuration, it is important
to first remove or change any references to that interface. For example, rules in the IP
rule set that refer to that interface should be removed or changed.

The any and core Interfaces

In addition, NetDefendOS provides two special logical interfaces which are named any and core.
The meaning of these are:

any represents all possible interfaces including the core interface.

core indicates that it is NetDefendOS itself that will deal with traffic to and from this interface.
Examples of the use of core are when the NetDefend Firewall acts as a PPTP or L2TP server or
responds to ICMP "Ping" requests. By specifying the Destination Interface of a route as core,
NetDefendOS will then know that it is itself that is the ultimate destination of the traffic.

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Disabling an Interface
Should it be desirable to disable an interface so that no traffic can flow through it, this can be
done with the CLI using the command:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet <interface-name> -disable

Where <interface-name> is the interface to be disabled.

To re-enable an interface, the command is:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet <interface-name> -enable

Disabling interfaces can also be done through the Web Interface.

3.4.2. Ethernet Interfaces

The IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard allows various devices to be attached at arbitrary points or
"ports" to a physical transport mechanism such as a coaxial cable. Using the CSMA/CD protocol,
each Ethernet connected device "listens" to the network and sends data to another connected
device when no other is sending. If 2 devices broadcast simultaneously, algorithms allow them to
re-send at different times.

Note: Usage of the terms "interface" and "port"

The terms Ethernet interface and Ethernet port can be used interchangeably. In this
document, the term Ethernet interface is used throughout so it is not confused with the
port associated with IP communication.

Ethernet Frames
Devices broadcast data as Ethernet frames and other devices "listen" to determine if they are the
intended destination for any of these frames. A frame is a sequence of bits which specify the
originating device plus the destination device plus the data payload along with error checking
bits. A pause between the broadcasting of individual frames allows devices time to process each
frame before the next arrives and this pause is progressively smaller with the faster data
transmission speeds found in normal Ethernet, then Fast Ethernet and finally Gigabit Ethernet.

Physical Ethernet Interfaces

Each logical NetDefendOS Ethernet interface corresponds to a physical Ethernet interface in the
system. The number of interfaces, their link speed and the way the interfaces are realized, is
dependent on the hardware model.

Note: Interface sockets connected via a switch fabric

Some hardware platforms for NetDefendOS use an integrated layer 2 switch for
providing additional physical Ethernet interface sockets. Externally there can be several
separate sockets but these are joined via an internal switch fabric.
Such joined interfaces are seen as a single interface by NetDefendOS and the
NetDefendOS configuration uses a single logical interface name to refer to all of them.

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The specifications for different hardware models will indicate where this is the case.

Ethernet Properties
An Ethernet object in a NetDefendOS configuration corresponds to a physical Ethernet interface.
The following are the key properties that can be set for this type of object:

Interface Name
The names of the Ethernet interfaces are predefined by the system, and are mapped to the
names of the physical interfaces.
The names of the Ethernet interfaces can be changed to better reflect their usage. For
example, if an interface named dmz is connected to a wireless LAN, it might be convenient to
change the interface name to radio. For maintenance and troubleshooting, it is
recommended to tag the corresponding physical interface with the new name.

Note: Interface enumeration

The startup process will enumerate all available Ethernet interfaces. Each interface
will be given a name of the form lanN, wanN and dmz, where N represents the
number of the interface if the NetDefend Firewall has more than one of these
interfaces. In most of the examples in this guide lan is used for LAN traffic and wan is
used for WAN traffic. If the NetDefend Firewall does not have these interface names,
please substitute the references with the actual names of the interfaces.

IP Address
Each Ethernet interface is required to have an Interface IP Address, which can be either a static
address or an address provided by DHCP. The interface IP address is used as the primary
address for communicating with the system through the specific Ethernet interface.
NetDefendOS IP4 Address objects are usually used to define the IPv4 addresses of Ethernet
interfaces. Those objects are normally auto-generated by the system. For more information,
please see Section 3.1.5, Auto-Generated Address Objects.

Tip: Specifying multiple IP addresses on an interface

Multiple IP addresses can be specified for an Ethernet interface by using the ARP
Publish feature. (For more information, see Section 3.5, ARP).

Network
In addition to the interface IP address, a Network address is also specified for an Ethernet
interface. The Network address provides information to NetDefendOS about what IP
addresses are directly reachable through the interface. In other words, those residing on the
same LAN segment as the interface itself. In the routing table associated with the interface,
NetDefendOS will automatically create a direct route to the specified network over the actual
interface.

Default Gateway

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A Default Gateway address can optionally be specified for an Ethernet interface. This is
normally the address of a router and very often the router which acts as the gateway to the
Internet.
Normally, only one default all-nets route to the default gateway needs to exist in the routing
table.

Enable DHCP Client

NetDefendOS includes a DHCP client feature for dynamic assignment of address information
by a connected DHCP server. This feature is often used for receiving external IP address
information from an ISP's DHCP server for public Internet connection.
The information that can be set using DHCP includes the IP address of the interface, the local
network that the interface is attached to, and the default gateway.
All addresses received from the DHCP server are assigned to corresponding IP4Address
objects. In this way, dynamically assigned addresses can be used throughout the
configuration in the same way as static addresses. By default, the objects in use are the same
ones as defined in Section 3.1.5, Auto-Generated Address Objects.
By default, DHCP is disabled on Ethernet interfaces. If the interface is being used for
connection to the public Internet via an ISP using fixed IP addresses then DHCP shouldn't be
used.
DNS server addresses received through DHCP on an interface named <interface-name> will
be allocated to NetDefendOS address objects with the names <interface-name>_dns1 and
<interface-name>_dns2.

Note: A gateway IP cannot be deleted with DHCP enabled

If DHCP is enabled for a given Ethernet interface then any gateway IP address that is
defined for that interface cannot be deleted. To remove the gateway address, the
DHCP option must be first disabled.

If DHCP is enabled then there is a set of interface specific advanced settings:

i.

A preferred IP address can be requested.

ii.

A preferred lease time can be requested.

iii.

Static routes can be sent from the DHCP server.

iv.

Do not allow IP address collisions with static routes.

v.

Do not allow network collisions with static routes.

vi.

Specify an allowed IP address for the DHCP lease.

vii. Specify an address range for DHCP servers from which leases will be accepted.

DHCP Hostname
In some, infrequent cases a DHCP server may require a hostname to be sent by the DHCP
client.

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Enable Transparent Mode

The recommended way to enable Transparent Mode is to add switch routes, as described in
Section 4.7, Transparent Mode. An alternative method is to enable transparent mode directly
on an interface with this option.
When enabled, default switch routes are automatically added to the routing table for the
interface and any corresponding non-switch routes are automatically removed.

Hardware Settings
In some circumstances it may be necessary to change hardware settings for an interface. The
available options are:

i.

The speed of the link can be set. Usually this is best left as Auto.

ii.

The MAC address can be set if it needs to be different to the MAC address built into the
hardware. Some ISP connections might require this.

Virtual Routing
To implement virtual routing where the routes related to different interfaces are kept in
separate routing table, there are a number of options:

i.

Make the interface a member of all routing tables. This option is enabled by default and
means that traffic arriving on the interface will be routed according to the main routing
table. Routes for the interface IP will be inserted into all routing tables.

ii.

The alternative to the above is to insert the route for this interface into only a specific
routing table. The specified routing table will be used for all route lookups unless
overridden by a routing rule.

Automatic Route Creation

Routes can be automatically added for the interface. This addition can be of the following
types:

i.

Add a route for this interface for the given network. This is enabled by default.

ii.

Add a default route for this interface using the given default gateway. This is enabled by
default.

MTU
This determines the maximum size of packets in bytes that can be sent on this interface. By
default, the interface uses the maximum size supported.

High Availability
There are two options which are specific to high availability clusters:

i.

A private IPv4 address can be specified for this interface.

ii.

An additional option is to disable the sending of HA cluster heartbeats from this

interface.

Quality Of Service

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The option exists to copy the IP DSCP precedence to the VLAN priority field for any VLAN
packets. This is disabled by default.

Promiscuous Mode
In most situations, an interface will run in normal, non-promiscuous mode. This means that when
an arriving packet has a destination MAC address which does not match the MAC address of the
receiving interface, the packet is discarded by the interface without being passed on to
NetDefendOS for processing. However, this behavior is incorrect with the following
NetDefendOS features:

Multicast
High Availability
OSPF

For these features, the packet needs to be passed to NetDefendOS even though there is a
mismatch of MAC addresses. To do this, promiscuous mode must be enabled on the interface but
the administrator does not need to do this manually. NetDefendOS will automatically switch an
interface to promiscuous mode when required. With multicast only, the automatic usage of
promiscuous mode can be controlled using the Ethernet object property Receive Multicast Traffic
which has a default value of Auto so the correct mode is selected by NetDefendOS.
The current mode of an Ethernet interface can be viewed by using the ifstat <ifname> command
and looking at the value for Receive Mode. This value will be Normal for non-promiscuous mode
or it will be set automatically by NetDefendOS to Promiscuous as shown in the CLI example
below (note that the output is truncated here):
gw-world:/> ifstat If1
Iface f1
Builtin e1000 - Gigabit Ethernet Bus 0 Slot 4 Port 0 IRQ 0
Media
: "Autonegotiated"
Link Status
: 100 Mbps Full Duplex
Receive Mode : Promiscuous

Changing the IP address of an Ethernet Interface

To change the IP address on an interface, we can use one of two methods:

Change the IP address directly on the interface. For example, if we want to change the IPv4
address of the lan interface to 10.1.1.2, we could use the CLI command:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet lan IP=10.1.1.2

As explained next, this way of changing the IPv4 address is not recommended.

Instead, the lan_ip object in the NetDefendOS Address Book should be assigned the new
address since it is this object that is used by many other NetDefendOS objects such as IP
rules. The CLI command to do this would be:
gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/lan_ip
Address=10.1.1.2

This same operation could also be done through the Web Interface.
A summary of CLI commands that can be used with Ethernet interfaces can be found in
Section 3.4.2.1, Useful CLI Commands for Ethernet Interfaces.

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The Difference Between Logical and Physical Ethernet Interfaces

The difference between logical and physical interfaces can sometimes be confusing. The logical
Ethernet interfaces are those which are referred to in a NetDefendOS configuration. When using
the Web Interface, only the logical interfaces are visible and can be managed.
When using the CLI, both the logical and physical interfaces can be managed. For example, to
change the name of the logical interface If1 to be lan, the CLI command is:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet If1 Name=lan

This changes the logical name of the interface (and all references to it) but does not change the
underlying physical name. For example, the CLI command ifstat shows the names of only the
physical interfaces and this list is unaffected by the above name change.
In the CLI, a physical interface is represented by the object EthernetInterface. To display all the
characteristics of an interface, for example for interface If1, the CLI command is:
gw-world:/> show EthernetDevice If1

The output from this command shows details about the physical Ethernet card including the bus,
slot and port number of the card as well as the Ethernet driver being used. These details are not
relevant to the logical interface object associated with the physical interface.

3.4.2.1. Useful CLI Commands for Ethernet Interfaces

This section summarizes the CLI commands most commonly used for examining and
manipulating NetDefendOS Ethernet interfaces.
Ethernet interfaces can also be examined through the Web Interface but for some operations the
CLI must be used.

Showing Assigned Interfaces

To show the current interface assigned to the IP address wan_ip:
gw-world:/> show Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/wan_ip
Property Value
--------------------- --------------------------Name: wan_ip
Address: 0.0.0.0
UserAuthGroups: <empty>
NoDefinedCredentials: No
Comments: IP address of interface wan

To show the current interface assigned to the network wan_net:

gw-world:/> show Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/wan_net
Property
--------------------Name:
Address:
UserAuthGroups:
NoDefinedCredentials:
Comments:

Value
-----------------------wan_net
0.0.0.0/0
<empty>
No
Network on interface wan

To show the current interface assigned to the gateway wan_gw:

gw-world:/> show Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/wan_gw

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Property
--------------------Name:
Address:
UserAuthGroups:
NoDefinedCredentials:
Comments:

Value
--------------------------------wan_gw
0.0.0.0
<empty>
No
Default gateway for interface wan

By using the tab key at the end of a line, tab completion can be used to complete the command:
gw-world:/> show Address IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/wan_<tab>
[<Category>] [<Type> [<Identifier>]]:
InterfaceAddresses/wan_br
InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns1
InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns2

InterfaceAddresses/wan_gw
InterfaceAddresses/wan_ip
InterfaceAddresses/wan_net

Here, tab completion is used again at the end of the command line:
gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address<tab>
[<Category>] <Type> [<Identifier>]:
dnsserver1_ip
InterfaceAddresses/aux_ip
InterfaceAddresses/aux_net
InterfaceAddresses/dmz_ip
InterfaceAddresses/dmz_net
InterfaceAddresses/lan_ip
InterfaceAddresses/lan_net

InterfaceAddresses/wan_br timesyncsrv1_ip
InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns1
InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns2
InterfaceAddresses/wan_gw
InterfaceAddresses/wan_ip
InterfaceAddresses/wan_net
Server

Setting Interface Addresses

The CLI can be used to set the address of the interface:
gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address
InterfaceAddresses/wan_ip
Address=172.16.5.1
Modified IP4Address InterfaceAddresses/wan_ip.

Enabling DHCP
The CLI can be used to enable DHCP on the interface:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet wan DHCPEnabled=yes
Modified Ethernet wan.

Ethernet Device Commands

Some interface settings provide direct management of the Ethernet settings themselves. These
are particularly useful if D-Link hardware has been replaced and Ethernet card settings are to be
changed, or if configuring the interfaces when running NetDefendOS on non-D-Link hardware.
For example, to display all Ethernet interface information use the command:
gw-world:/> show EthernetDevice

This command lists all Ethernet interfaces. Those defined as logical interfaces in the current
configuration are marked by a plus "+" symbol on the left of the listing.
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Those interfaces that physically exist but are not part of the configuration are indicated with a
minus "-" symbol at the left. These will be deleted after the configuration is activated. If a deleted
interface in the interface list is to be restored, this can be done with the undelete command:
gw-world:/> undelete EthernetDevice <interface>

Individual interface details can be displayed, for example for the interface If1, with the command:
gw-world:/> show EthernetDevice If1
Property
--------------Name:
EthernetDriver:
PCIBus:
PCISlot:
PCIPort:

Value
---------------------If1
E1000EthernetPCIDriver
0
17
0
"
"

The set command can be used to control an Ethernet interface. For example, to disable an
interface lan, the following command can be used:
gw-world:/> set EthernetDevice lan -disable

To enable the interface lan:

gw-world:/> set EthernetDevice lan -enable

To set the driver on an Ethernet interface card the command is:

gw-world:/> set EthernetDevice lan EthernetDriver=<driver>
PCIBus=<X> PCISlot=<Y> PCIPort=<Z>

For example, if the driver name is IXP4NPEEthernetDriver for the bus, slot, port combination 0, 0, 2
on the wan interface, the set command would be:
gw-world:/> set EthernetDevice lan
EthernetDriver=IXP4NPEEthernetDriver
PCIBus=0
PCISlot=0
PCIPort=2

This command is useful when a restored configuration contains interface names that do not
match the interface names of new hardware. By assigning the values for bus, slot, port and driver
of a physical interface to a logical interface in the configuration, the logical interface is mapped
to the physical interface. However, this mapping must be done before the configuration is
activated.
For a complete list of all CLI options see the CLI Reference Guide.

3.4.3. VLAN
Overview
Virtual LAN (VLAN) support in NetDefendOS allows the definition of one or more Virtual LAN
interfaces which are associated with a particular physical interface. These are then considered to
be logical interfaces by NetDefendOS and can be treated like any other interfaces in
NetDefendOS rule sets and routing tables.

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VLANs are useful in several different scenarios. A typical application is to allow one Ethernet
interface to appear as many separate interfaces. This means that the number of physical Ethernet
interfaces on a NetDefend Firewall need not limit how many totally separated external networks
can be connected.
Another typical usage of VLANs is to group together clients in an organization so that the traffic
belonging to different groups is kept completely separate in different VLANs. Traffic can then
only flow between the different VLANs under the control of NetDefendOS and is filtered using
the security policies described by the NetDefendOS rule sets.
As explained in more detail below, VLAN configuration with NetDefendOS involves a
combination of VLAN trunks from the NetDefend Firewall to switches and these switches are
configured with port based VLANs on their interfaces. Any physical firewall interface can, at the
same time, carry both non-VLAN traffic as well VLAN trunk traffic for one or multiple VLANs.

VLAN Processing
NetDefendOS follows the IEEE 802.1Q specification. The specifies how VLAN functions by adding
a Virtual LAN Identifier (VLAN ID) to Ethernet frame headers which are part of a VLAN's traffic.
The VLAN ID is a number between 0 and 4095 which is used to identify the specific Virtual LAN to
which each frame belongs. With this mechanism, Ethernet frames can belong to different Virtual
LANs but can still share the same physical Ethernet link.
The following principles are followed when NetDefendOS processes VLAN tagged Ethernet
frames at a physical interface:

Ethernet frames received on a physical interface by NetDefendOS, are examined for a VLAN
ID. If a VLAN ID is found and a matching VLAN interface has been defined for that interface,
NetDefendOS will use the VLAN interface as the logical source interface for further rule set
processing.

If there is no VLAN ID attached to an Ethernet frame received on an interface then the source
of the frame is considered to be the physical interface and not a VLAN.

If VLAN tagged traffic is received on a physical interface and there is no VLAN defined for that
interface in the NetDefendOS configuration with a corresponding VLAN ID then that traffic is
dropped by NetDefendOS and an unknown_vlanid log message is generated.

The VLAN ID must be unique for a single NetDefendOS physical interface but the same VLAN
ID can be used on more than one physical interface. In other words, the same VLAN can span
many physical interfaces.

A physical interface does not need to be dedicated to VLANs and can carry a mixture of VLAN
and non-VLAN traffic.

Physical VLAN Connection with VLAN

The illustration below shows the connections for a typical NetDefendOS VLAN scenario.

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Figure 3.1. VLAN Connections

With NetDefendOS VLANs, the physical connections are as follows:

One of more VLANs are configured on a physical NetDefend Firewall interface and this is
connected directly to a switch. This link acts as a VLAN trunk. The switch used must support
port based VLANs. This means that each port on the switch can be configured with the ID of
the VLAN or VLANs that a port is connected to. The port on the switch that connects to the
firewall should be configured to accept the VLAN IDs that will flow through the trunk.
In the illustration above the connections between the interfaces if1 and if2 to the switches
Switch1 and Switch2 are VLAN trunks.

Other ports on the switch that connect to VLAN clients are configured with individual VLAN
IDs. Any device connected to one of these ports will then automatically become part of the
VLAN configured for that port. In Cisco switches this is called configuring a Static-access VLAN.
On Switch1 in the illustration above, one interface is configured to be dedicated to VLAN2 and
two others are dedicated to VLAN1.
The switch could also forward trunk traffic from the firewall into another trunk if required.

More than one interface on the firewall can carry VLAN trunk traffic and these will connect to
separate switches. More than one trunk can be configured to carry traffic with the same VLAN
ID.

Note: 802.1ad is not supported

NetDefendOS does not support the IEEE 802.1ad (provider bridges) standard which

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allows VLANs to be run inside other VLANs.

License Limitations
The number of VLAN interfaces that can be defined for a NetDefendOS installation is limited by
the parameters of the license used. Different hardware models have different licenses and
different limits on VLANs.

Summary of VLAN Setup

Below are the key steps for setting up a VLAN interface.
1.

Assign a name to the VLAN interface.

2.

Select the physical interface for the VLAN.

3.

Assign a VLAN ID that is unique on the physical interface.

4.

Optionally specify an IP address for the VLAN.

5.

Optionally specify an IP broadcast address for the VLAN.

6.

Create the required route(s) for the VLAN in the appropriate routing table.

7.

Create rules in the IP rule set to allow traffic through on the VLAN interface.

It is important to understand that the administrator should treat a VLAN interface just like a
physical interface in that they require both appropriate IP rules and routes to exist in the
NetDefendOS configuration for traffic to flow through them. For example, if no IP rule with a
particular VLAN interface as the source interface is defined allowing traffic to flow then packets
arriving on that interface will be dropped.

VLAN advanced settings

There is a single advanced setting for VLAN:

Unknown VLAN Tags

What to do with VLAN packets tagged with an unknown ID.
Default: DropLog

Example 3.15. Defining a VLAN

This simple example defines a virtual LAN called VLAN10 with a VLAN ID of 10. The IP address of
the VLAN is assumed to be already defined in the address book as the object vlan10_ip.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Interface VLAN VLAN10
Ethernet=lan
IP=vlan10_ip

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Network=all-nets
VLANID=10

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Add > VLAN

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: Enter a name, for example VLAN10

Interface: lan

VLAN ID: 10

IP Address: vlan10_ip

Network: all-nets

Click OK

3.4.4. PPPoE
Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) is a tunneling protocol used for connecting multiple
users on an Ethernet network to the Internet through a common serial interface, such as a single
DSL line, wireless device or cable modem. All the users on the Ethernet share a common
connection, while access control can be done on a per-user basis.
Internet server providers (ISPs) often require customers to connect through PPPoE to their
broadband service. Using PPPoE the ISP can:

Implement security and access-control using username/password authentication

Trace IP addresses to a specific user

Allocate IP address automatically for PC users (similar to DHCP). IP address provisioning can
be per user group

The PPP Protocol

Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), is a protocol for communication between two computers using a
serial interface, such as the case of a personal computer connected through a switched
telephone line to an ISP.
In terms of the layered OSI model, PPP provides a layer 2 encapsulation mechanism to allow
packets of any protocol to travel through IP networks. PPP uses Link Control Protocol (LCP) for
link establishment, configuration and testing. Once the LCP is initialized, one or several Network
Control Protocols (NCPs) can be used to transport traffic for a particular protocol suite, so that
multiple protocols can interoperate on the same link, for example, both IP and IPX traffic can
share a PPP link.

PPP Authentication
PPP authentication is optional with PPP. Authentication protocols supported are Password
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Authentication Protocol (PAP), Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) and Microsoft
CHAP (version 1 and 2). If authentication is used, at least one of the peers has to authenticate
itself before the network layer protocol parameters can be negotiated using NCP. During the LCP
and NCP negotiation, optional parameters such as encryption, can be negotiated.

PPPoE Client Configuration

Since the PPPoE protocol allows PPP to operate over Ethernet, the firewall needs to use one of
the normal physical Ethernet interfaces to run PPPoE over.
Each PPPoE tunnel is interpreted as a logical interface by NetDefendOS, with the same routing
and configuration capabilities as regular interfaces and with IP rules being applied to all traffic.
Network traffic arriving at the firewall through the PPPoE tunnel will have the PPPoE tunnel
interface as its source interface. For outbound traffic, the PPPoE tunnel interface will be the
destination interface.
As with any interface, one or more routes are defined so NetDefendOS knows what IP addresses
it should accept traffic from and which to send traffic to through the PPPoE tunnel. The PPPoE
client can be configured to use a service name to distinguish between different servers on the
same Ethernet network.

IP address information
PPPoE uses automatic IP address allocation which is similar to DHCP. When NetDefendOS
receives this IP address information from the ISP, it stores it in a network object and uses it as the
IP address of the interface.

User authentication
If user authentication is required by the ISP, the username and password can be setup in
NetDefendOS for automatic sending to the PPPoE server.

Dial-on-demand
If dial-on-demand is enabled, the PPPoE connection will only be up when there is traffic on the
PPPoE interface. It is possible to configure how the firewall should sense activity on the interface,
either on outgoing traffic, incoming traffic or both. Also configurable is the time to wait with no
activity before the tunnel is disconnected.

Unnumbered PPPoE
When NetDefendOS acts as a PPPoE client, support for unnumbered PPPoE is provided by default.
The additional option also exists to force unnumbered PPPoE to be used in PPPoE sessions.
Unnumbered PPPoE is typically used when ISPs want to allocate one or more preassigned IP
addresses to users. These IP addresses are then manually entered into client computers. The ISP
does not assign an IP address to the PPPoE client at the time it connects.
A further option with the unnumbered PPPoE feature in NetDefendOS is to allow the
specification of a single IP address which is used as the address of the PPPoE client interface. This
address can serve the following purposes:

The IP address specified will be sent to the PPPoE server as the "preferred IP". If unnumbered
PPPoE is not forced, the server may choose to not accept the preferred IP and instead assign
another IP address to the PPPoE client.
When the option to force unnumbered PPPoE is selected, the client (that is to say
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NetDefendOS) will not accept assignment of another IP address by the server.

The IP address specified, or possibly the address assigned by the PPPoE server when
unnumbered PPPoE is not forced, will serve as the IP address of the PPPoE client interface.
This will be used as the local IP address for traffic leaving the interface when the traffic is
originated or NATed by the NetDefend Firewall.

Note: PPPoE has a discovery protocol

To provide a point-to-point connection over Ethernet, each PPP session must learn the
Ethernet address of the remote peer, as well as establish a unique session identifier.
PPPoE includes a discovery protocol that provides this.

PPPoE cannot be used with HA

For reasons connected with the way IP addresses are shared in a NetDefendOS high availability
cluster, PPPoE will not operate correctly. It should therefore not be configured with HA.
Example 3.16. Configuring a PPPoE Client
This example shows how to configure a PPPoE client on the wan interface with traffic routed over
PPPoE.
CLI
gw-world:/> add Interface PPPoETunnel PPPoEClient
EthernetInterface=wan
Network=all-nets
Username=exampleuser
Password=examplepw

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > PPPoE > Add > PPPoE Tunnel

2.

Then enter:

Name: PPPoEClient

Physical Interface: wan

Remote Network: all-nets (as we will route all traffic into the tunnel)

Service Name: Service name provided by the service provider

Username: Username provided by the service provider

Password: Password provided by the service provider

Confirm Password: Retype the password

Under Authentication specify which authentication protocol to use

(the default settings will be used if not specified)

Disable the option Enable dial-on-demand

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3.

Under Advanced, if Add route for remote network is enabled then a new route will be
added for the interface

Click OK

3.4.5. GRE Tunnels

Overview
The Generic Router Encapsulation (GRE) protocol is a simple, encapsulating protocol that can be
used whenever there is a need to tunnel traffic across networks and/or through network devices.
GRE does not provide any security features but this means that its use has extremely low
overhead.

Using GRE
GRE is typically used to provide a method of connecting two networks together across a third
network such as the Internet. The two networks being connected together communicate with a
common protocol which is tunneled using GRE through the intervening network. Examples of
GRE usage are:

Traversing network equipment that blocks a particular protocol.

Tunneling IPv6 traffic across an IPv4 network.

Where a UDP data stream is to be multicast and it is necessary to transit through a network
device which does not support multicasting. GRE allows tunneling through the network
device.

GRE Security and Performance

A GRE tunnel does not use any encryption for the communication and is therefore not, in itself,
secure. Any security must come from the protocol being tunneled. The advantage of GRE's lack
of encryption is the high performance which is achievable because of the low traffic processing
overhead.
The lack of encryption can be acceptable in some circumstances if the tunneling is done across
an internal network that is not public.

Setting Up GRE
Like other tunnels in NetDefendOS such as an IPsec tunnel, a GRE Tunnel is treated as a logical
interface by NetDefendOS, with the same filtering, traffic shaping and configuration capabilities
as a standard interface. The GRE options are:

IP Address
This is the IPv4 address of the inside of the tunnel on the local side. This cannot be left blank
and must be given a value.
The specified IP address is then used for the following:

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i.

An ICMP Ping can be sent to this tunnel endpoint.

ii.

Log messages related to the tunnel will be generated with this IP address as the source.

iii.

If NAT is being used then it will not be necessary to set the source IP on the IP rule that
performs NAT on traffic going through the tunnel. This IP address will be used as the
source address for NAT.

Remote Network
The remote network which the GRE tunnel will connect with.

Remote Endpoint
This is the IPv4 address of the remote device which the tunnel will connect with.

Use Session Key

A unique number can optionally be specified for the tunnel. This allows more than one GRE
tunnel to run between the same two endpoints. The Session Key value is used to distinguish
between them.

Additional Encapsulation Checksum

The GRE protocol allows for an additional checksum over and above the IPv4 checksum. This
provides an extra check of data integrity.

The Advanced settings for a GRE interface are:

Automatically add route for remote network - This option would normally be checked in
order that the routing table is automatically updated. The alternative is to manually create
the required route.

Address to use as source IP - It is possible to specify a particular IP address as the source

interface IP for the GRE tunnel. The tunnel setup will appear to be initiated by this IP address
instead of the IPv4 address of the interface that actually sets up the tunnel.
This might be done if, for example, if ARP publishing is being used and the tunnel is to be
setup using an ARP published IP address.

GRE and the IP Rule Set

An established GRE tunnel does not automatically mean that all traffic coming from or to that
GRE tunnel is trusted. On the contrary, network traffic coming from the GRE tunnel will be
transferred to the NetDefendOS IP rule set for evaluation. The source interface of the network
traffic will be the name of the associated GRE Tunnel.
The same is true for traffic in the opposite direction, that is, going into a GRE tunnel. Furthermore
a Route has to be defined so NetDefendOS knows what IP addresses should be accepted and
sent through the tunnel.

An Example GRE Scenario

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The diagram above shows a typical GRE scenario, where two NetDefend Firewalls A and B must
communicate with each other through the intervening internal network 172.16.0.0/16.
Any traffic passing between A and B is tunneled through the intervening network using a GRE
tunnel and since the network is internal and not public there is no need for encryption.

Setup for NetDefend Firewall "A"

Assuming that the network 192.168.10.0/24 is lannet on the lan interface, the steps for setting up
NetDefendOS on A are:
1.

2.

In the address book set up the following IP objects:

remote_net_B: 192.168.11.0/24

remote_gw: 172.16.1.1

ip_GRE: 192.168.0.1

Create a GRE Tunnel object called GRE_to_B with the following parameters:

IP Address: ip_GRE

Remote Network: remote_net_B

Remote Endpoint: remote_gw

Use Session Key: 1

Additional Encapsulation Checksum: Enabled

3.

Define a route in the main routing table which routes all traffic to remote_net_B on the
GRE_to_B GRE interface. This is not necessary if the option Add route for remote network
is enabled in the Advanced tab, since this will add the route automatically.

4.

Create the following rules in the IP rule set that allow traffic to pass through the tunnel:

Name

Action

Src Int

Src Net

Dest Int

Dest Net

Service

To_B

Allow

lan

lannet

GRE_to_B

remote_net_B

all_services

From_B

Allow

GRE_to_B

remote_net_B

lan

lannet

all_services

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Setup for NetDefend Firewall "B"

Assuming that the network 192.168.11.0/24 is lannet on the lan interface, the steps for setting up
NetDefendOS on B are as follows:
1.

2.

In the address book set up the following IP objects:

remote_net_A: 192.168.10.0/24

remote_gw: 172.16.0.1

ip_GRE: 192.168.0.2

Create a GRE Tunnel object called GRE_to_A with the following parameters:

IP Address: ip_GRE

Remote Network: remote_net_A

Remote Endpoint: remote_gw

Use Session Key: 1

Additional Encapsulation Checksum: Enabled

3.

Define a route in the main routing table which routes all traffic to remote_net_A on the
GRE_to_A GRE interface. This is not necessary if the option Add route for remote network
is enabled in the Advanced tab, since this will add the route automatically.

4.

Create the following rules in the IP rule set that allow traffic to pass through the tunnel:

Name

Action

Src Int

Src Net

Dest Int

Dest Net

Service

To_A

Allow

lan

lannet

GRE_to_A

remote_net_A

all_services

From_A

Allow

GRE_to_A

remote_net_A

lan

lannet

all_services

Checking GRE Tunnel Status

IPsec tunnels have a status of being either up or not up. With GRE tunnels in NetDefendOS this
does not really apply. The GRE tunnel is up if it exists in the configuration.
However, we can check on the what is going on with a GRE tunnel. For example, if the tunnel is
called gre_interface then we can use the ifstat CLI command:
gw-world:/> ifstat gre_interface

This will show us what is happening with the tunnel and the ifstat command options can provide
various details.

3.4.6. Interface Groups

Any set of NetDefendOS interfaces can be grouped together into an Interface Group. This then
acts as a single NetDefendOS configuration object which can be used in creating security policies
in the place of a single group. When a group is used, for example, as the source interface in an IP
rule , any of the interfaces in the group could provide a match for the rule.
A group can consist of ordinary Ethernet interfaces or it could consist of other types such as
VLAN interfaces or VPN Tunnels. Also, the members of a group do not need to be of the same
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type. A group might consist, for example, of a combination of two Ethernet interfaces and four
VLAN interfaces.

The Security/Transport Equivalent Option

When creating an interface group, the option Security/Transport Equivalent can be enabled (it is
disabled by default). Enabling the option means that the group can be used as the destination
interface in NetDefendOS rules where connections might need to be moved between two
interfaces. For example, the interface might change with route failover or OSPF.
If a connection is moved from one interface to another within a group and Security/Transport
Equivalent is enabled, NetDefendOS will not check the connection against the NetDefendOS rule
sets with the new interface.
With the option disabled, a connection cannot be moved to another interface in the group and is
instead dropped and must be reopened. This new connection is then checked against the
NetDefendOS rule sets. In some cases, such as an alternative interface that is much slower, it may
not be sensible to allow certain connections over the new interface.
Example 3.17. Creating an Interface Group
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Interface InterfaceGroup examplegroup
Members=exampleIf1,exampleIf2

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Interface Groups > Add > InterfaceGroup

2.

Enter the following information to define the group:

3.

Name: The name of the group to be used later

Security/Transport Equivalent: If enabled, the interface group can be used as a

destination interface in rules where connections might need to be moved between the
interfaces.

Interfaces: Select the interfaces to be in the group

Click OK

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3.5. ARP
3.5.1. Overview
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) allows the mapping of a network layer protocol (OSI layer 3)
address to a data link layer hardware address (OSI layer 2). In data networks it is used to resolve
an IPv4 address into its corresponding Ethernet address. ARP operates at the OSI layer 2, data link
layer, and is encapsulated by Ethernet headers for transmission.

Tip: OSI Layers

See Appendix D, The OSI Framework for an overview of the different OSI layers.

IP Addressing Over Ethernet

A host in an Ethernet network can communicate with another host only if it knows the Ethernet
address (MAC address) of that host. Higher level protocols such as IP make use of IP addresses
which are fundamentally different from a lower level hardware addressing scheme like the MAC
address. ARP is used to retrieve the Ethernet MAC address of a host by using its IP address.
When a host needs to resolve an IPv4 address to the corresponding Ethernet address, it
broadcasts an ARP request packet. The ARP request packet contains the source MAC address, the
source IPv4 address and the destination IPv4 address. Each host in the local network receives this
packet. The host with the specified destination address, sends an ARP reply packet to the
originating host with its MAC address.

3.5.2. The ARP Cache

The ARP Cache in network equipment, such as switches and firewalls, is an important component
in the implementation of ARP. It consists of a dynamic table that stores the mappings between IP
addresses and Ethernet MAC addresses.
NetDefendOS uses an ARP cache in exactly the same way as other network equipment. Initially,
the cache is empty at NetDefendOS startup and becomes populated with entries as traffic flows.
The typical contents of a minimal ARP Cache table might look similar to the following:
Type

IPv4 Address

Ethernet Address

Expires

Dynamic

192.168.0.10

08:00:10:0f:bc:a5

45

Dynamic

193.13.66.77

0a:46:42:4f:ac:65

136

Publish

10.5.16.3

4a:32:12:6c:89:a4

The explanation for the table contents are as follows:

The first entry in this ARP Cache is a dynamic ARP entry which tells us that IPv4 address
192.168.0.10 is mapped to an Ethernet address of 08:00:10:0f:bc:a5.

The second entry in the table dynamically maps the IPv4 address 193.13.66.77 to Ethernet
address 0a:46:42:4f:ac:65.

The third entry is a static ARP entry binding the IPv4 address 10.5.16.3 to Ethernet address
4a:32:12:6c:89:a4.

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The Expires Column

The third column in the table, Expires, is used to indicate how much longer the ARP entry will be
valid for.
For example, the first entry has an expiry value of 45 which means that this entry will be rendered
invalid and removed from the ARP Cache in 45 seconds. If traffic is going to be sent to the
192.168.0.10 address after the expiration, NetDefendOS will issue a new ARP request.
The default expiration time for dynamic ARP entries is 900 seconds (15 minutes). This can be
changed by modifying the advanced setting ARP Expire.
The advanced setting ARP Expire Unknown specifies how long NetDefendOS will remember
addresses that cannot be reached. This limit is needed to ensure that NetDefendOS does not
continuously request such addresses. The default value for this setting is 3 seconds.
Example 3.18. Displaying the ARP Cache
The contents of the ARP Cache can be displayed from within the CLI.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> arp -show
ARP cache of iface lan
Dynamic 10.4.0.1
Dynamic 10.4.0.165

= 1000:0000:4009
= 0002:a529:1f65

Expire=196
Expire=506

Flushing the ARP Cache

If a host in a network is replaced with new hardware and retains the same IP address then it will
probably have a new MAC address. If NetDefendOS has an old ARP entry for the host in its ARP
cache then that entry will become invalid because of the changed MAC address and this will
cause data to be sent to the host over Ethernet which will never reach its destination.
After the ARP entry expiration time, NetDefendOS will learn the new MAC address of the host but
sometimes it may be necessary to manually force the update. The easiest way to achieve this is
by flushing the ARP cache. This deletes all dynamic ARP entries from the cache and forces
NetDefendOS to issue new ARP queries to discover the MAC/IP address mappings for connected
hosts.
Flushing can be done with the CLI command arp -flush.
Example 3.19. Flushing the ARP Cache
This example shows how to flush the ARP Cache from within the CLI.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> arp -flush
ARP cache of all interfaces flushed.

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The Size of the ARP Cache

By default, the ARP Cache is able to hold 4096 ARP entries at the same time. This is adequate for
most scenarios but on rare occasions, such as when there are several very large LANs directly
connected to the firewall, it may be necessary to adjust this value upwards. This can be done by
modifying the ARP advanced setting ARP Cache Size.
Hash tables are used to rapidly look up entries in the ARP Cache. For maximum efficiency, a hash
table should be twice as large as the entries it is indexing, so if the largest directly connected LAN
contains 500 IP addresses, the size of the ARP entry hash table should be at least 1000. The
administrator can modify the ARP advanced setting ARP Hash Size to reflect specific network
requirements. The default value of this setting is 512.
The setting ARP Hash Size VLAN setting is similar to the ARP Hash Size setting, but affects the
hash size for VLAN interfaces only. The default value is 64.

3.5.3. ARP Publish

Overview
NetDefendOS supports the publishing of IP addresses on interfaces other than the one the IP
address is actually connected to. This can optionally be done along with a specific MAC address
instead of the publishing interface's MAC address. NetDefendOS will then send out ARP replies
for ARP requests received on the interface for the published IP addresses. This feature is referred
to in NetDefendOS as ARP Publish.

Usage
Publishing may be done for a number of reasons:

To give the impression that an interface in NetDefendOS has more than one IP address.
This is useful if there are several separate IP spans on a single LAN. The hosts on each IP span
may then use a gateway in their own span when these gateway addresses are published on
the corresponding NetDefendOS interface.

Another use is publishing multiple addresses on an external interface, enabling NetDefendOS

to statically address translate traffic to these addresses and send it onwards to internal
servers with private IPv4 addresses.

A less common purpose is to aid nearby network equipment responding to ARP in an

incorrect manner.

Methods of Enabling ARP Publishing

ARP publishing is enabled in one of two ways:

An ARP object can be created for any interface by defining a single address which is to be ARP
published on that interface.

When a static route is created for an IPv4 address or network, the route option called Proxy
ARP can be used to publish the address or network on all or selected interfaces.
Using ARP objects, single IP addresses only can be published one at a time. However, the
Proxy ARP feature can publish entire networks. It also provides a single step to publish on all
interfaces.
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Proxy ARP is covered in Section 4.2.6, Proxy ARP and is not discussed further in this section.

ARP Object Properties

An ARP object has the following properties:
Mode

The type of ARP object. As explained above, this can be one of:

Static - Create a fixed mapping in the local ARP cache.

Publish - Publish an IP address on a particular MAC address (or this

interface).

XPublish - Publish an IP address on a particular MAC address and "lie"

about the sending MAC address of the Ethernet frame containing the ARP
response.

Interface

The local physical Ethernet interface for the ARP object.

IP Address

The IP address for the MAC/IP mapping.

MAC Address

The MAC address for the MAC/IP mapping. If it is omitted, the MAC address of
the Ethernet interface is used.

The three publishing mode options for ARP objects of Static, Publish and XPublishare further
explained next.

Static Mode ARP Objects

A Static ARP object inserts a mapping into the NetDefendOS ARP cache which connects a
specified IP address with the associated Ethernet interface's MAC address.
This mode is not for publishing the address for external devices but rather for telling
NetDefendOS itself how to reach external devices. A static ARP entry tells NetDefendOS that a
specific IP address can be reached through a specific interface using a specific MAC address. This
means, that when NetDefendOS wants to communicate with the address, it consults the ARP
table static entries and can determine that it can be reached at a specific MAC address on a
specific interface.
The most frequent use of static ARP objects is in situations where some external network device
is not responding to ARP requests correctly and is reporting an incorrect MAC address. Some
network devices, such as wireless modems, can have these problems.
It may also be used to lock an IP address to a specific MAC address for increasing security or to
avoid denial-of-service if there are rogue users in a network. However, such protection only
applies to packets being sent to that IP address. It does not apply to packets being sent from that
IP address.

Publish and XPublish Modes

With Publish and XPublish modes, the ARP object creates an association between an IP address
and a MAC address for publishing on the interface to external devices.
If the MAC address is not specified, the MAC address of the associated Ethernet interface is used.

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The Difference Between Publish and XPublish Modes

To understand the difference between Publish and XPublish it is necessary to understand that
when NetDefendOS responds to an ARP query, there are two MAC addresses in the Ethernet
frame sent back with the ARP response:
1.

The MAC address in the Ethernet frame of the Ethernet interface sending the response.

2.

The MAC address in the ARP response which is contained within this frame. This is usually
the same as (1) the source MAC address in the Ethernet frame but does not have to be.

These are shown in the illustration below of an Ethernet frame containing an ARP response:

Figure 3.2. An ARP Publish Ethernet Frame

The Publish option uses the real MAC address of the sending interface for the address (1) in the
Ethernet frame.
In rare cases, some network equipment will require that both MAC addresses in the response (1
and 2 above) are the same. In this case XPublish is used since it changes both MAC addresses in
the response to be the published MAC address. In other words, XPublish "lies" about the source
address of the ARP response.
If a published MAC address is the same as the MAC address of the physical interface, it will make
no difference if Publish or XPublish is selected, the result will be the same.

ARP and Neighbor Discovery

Neighbor Discovery with IPv6 is the equivalent of ARP with IPv4. For this reason, ARP and
neighbor discovery are combined in The graphical interface to NetDefendOS uses the same
dialog to add either one. Neighbor Discovery is discussed further in Section 3.2, IPv6 Support.
Example 3.20. Defining an ARP/Neighbor Discovery Object
This example will create a static mapping between IPv4 address 192.168.10.15 and Ethernet

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address 4b:86:f6:c5:a2:14 on the lan interface:

Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add ARPND Interface=lan
IP=192.168.10.15
Mode=Static
MACAddress=4b-86-f6-c5-a2-14

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > ARP/NeighborDiscovery > Add >
ARP/NeighborDiscovery

2.

Select the following:

3.

4.

Mode: Static

Interface: lan

Enter the following:

IP Address: 192.168.10.15

MAC: 4b-86-f6-c5-a2-14

Click OK

3.5.4. Using ARP Advanced Settings

This section presents some of the advanced settings related to ARP. In most cases, these settings
need not to be changed, but in some deployments, modifications might be needed. A summary
of all ARP advanced settings can be found in the next section.

Multicast and Broadcast

ARP requests and ARP replies containing multicast or broadcast addresses are usually never
correct, with the exception of certain load balancing and redundancy devices, which make use of
hardware layer multicast addresses.
The default behavior of NetDefendOS is to drop and log such ARP requests and ARP replies. This
can, however, be changed by modifying the advanced settings ARP Multicast and ARP
Broadcast.

Unsolicited ARP Replies

It is possible for a host on a connected network to send an ARP reply to NetDefendOS even
though a corresponding ARP request was not issued. This is known as an unsolicited ARP reply.
According to the ARP specification, the recipient should accept these types of ARP replies.
However, because this could be a malicious attempt to hijack a connection, NetDefendOS will, by
default, drop and log unsolicited ARP replies.
This behavior can be changed by modifying the advanced setting Unsolicited ARP Replies.

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ARP Requests
The ARP specification states that a host should update its ARP Cache with data from ARP
requests received from other hosts. However, as this procedure can facilitate hijacking of local
connections, NetDefendOS will normally not allow this.
To make the behavior compliant with the RFC 826 specification, the administrator can modify
the setting ARP Requests. Even if this is set to Drop (meaning that the packet is discarded
without being stored), NetDefendOS will reply to it provided that other rules approve the
request.

Changes to the ARP Cache

A received ARP reply or ARP request can possibly alter an existing entry in the ARP cache.
Allowing this to take place may allow hijacking of local connections. However, not allowing this
may cause problems if, for example, a network adapter is replaced since NetDefendOS will not
accept the new address until the previous ARP cache entry has timed out.
The advanced setting Static ARP Changes can modify this behavior. The default behavior is that
NetDefendOS will allow changes to take place, but all such changes will be logged.
A similar issue occurs when information in ARP replies or ARP requests could collide with static
entries in the ARP cache. This should not be allowed to happen and changing the setting Static
ARP Changes allows the administrator to specify whether or not such situations are logged.

Sender IP 0.0.0.0
NetDefendOS can be configured for handling ARP queries that have a sender IP of 0.0.0.0. Such
sender IPs are never valid as responses, but network units that have not yet learned of their IP
address sometimes ask ARP questions with an "unspecified" sender IP. Normally, these ARP
replies are dropped and logged, but the behavior can be changed by modifying the setting ARP
Query No Sender.

Matching Ethernet Addresses

By default, NetDefendOS will require that the sender address at Ethernet level should comply
with the Ethernet address reported in the ARP data. If this is not the case, the reply will be
dropped and logged. The behavior can be changed by modifying the setting ARP Match
Ethernet Sender.

3.5.5. ARP Advanced Settings Summary

The following advanced settings are available with ARP:

ARP Match Ethernet Sender

Determines if NetDefendOS will require the sender address at Ethernet level to comply with the
hardware address reported in the ARP data.
Default: DropLog

ARP Query No Sender

Handles ARP queries that have a sender IP of 0.0.0.0. Such sender IPs are never valid in responses,
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but network units that have not yet learned of their IP address sometimes ask ARP questions with
an "unspecified" sender IP.
Default: DropLog

ARP Sender IP
Determines if the IP sender address must comply with the rules in the Access section.
Default: Validate

Unsolicited ARP Replies

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle ARP replies that it has not asked for. According to the
ARP specification, the recipient should accept these. However, because this can facilitate
hijacking of local connections, it is not normally allowed.
Default: DropLog

ARP Requests
Determines if NetDefendOS will automatically add the data in ARP requests to its ARP table. The
ARP specification states that this should be done, but as this procedure can facilitate hijacking of
local connections, it is not normally allowed. Even if ARPRequests is set to "Drop", meaning that
the packet is discarded without being stored, NetDefendOS will, provided that other rules
approve the request, reply to it.
Default: Drop

ARP Changes
Determines how NetDefendOS will deal with situations where a received ARP reply or ARP
request would alter an existing item in the ARP table. Allowing this to take place may facilitate
hijacking of local connections. However, not allowing this may cause problems if, for example, a
network adapter is replaced, as NetDefendOS will not accept the new address until the previous
ARP table entry has timed out.
Default: AcceptLog

Static ARP Changes

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle situations where a received ARP reply or ARP request
would alter a static item in the ARP table. Of course, this is never allowed to happen. However,
this setting does allow the administrator to specify whether or not such situations are to be
logged.
Default: DropLog

Log ARP Resolve Failure

This determines whether NetDefendOS will log failed ARP resolve requests or not. Logging can
be used for monitoring purposes and can be helpful for troubleshooting network related
problems. However, disabling logging can prevent attempts to "spam" log receivers with failed
resolve requests.
Default: Enabled

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ARP Expire
Specifies how long a normal dynamic item in the ARP table is to be retained before it is removed
from the table.
Default: 900 seconds (15 minutes)

ARP Expire Unknown

Specifies in seconds how long NetDefendOS is to remember addresses that cannot be reached.
This is done to ensure that NetDefendOS does not continuously request such addresses.
Default: 3

ARP Multicast
Determines how NetDefendOS is to deal with ARP requests and ARP replies that state that they
are multicast addresses. Such claims are usually never correct, with the exception of certain load
balancing and redundancy devices, which make use of hardware layer multicast addresses.
Default: DropLog

ARP Broadcast
Determines how NetDefendOS deals with ARP requests and ARP replies that state that they are
broadcast addresses. Such claims are usually never correct.
Default: DropLog

ARP cache size

How many ARP entries there can be in the cache in total.
Default: 4096

ARP Hash Size

Hashing is used to rapidly look up entries in a table. For maximum efficiency, the hash size
should be twice as large as the table it is indexing. If the largest directly-connected LAN contains
500 IP addresses then the size of the ARP entry hash should be at least 1000 entries.
Default: 512

ARP Hash Size VLAN

Hashing is used to rapidly look up entries in a table. For maximum efficiency, the hash size
should be twice as large as the table it is indexing, so if the largest directly-connected VLAN
contains 500 IP addresses, the size of the ARP entry hash should be at least 1000 entries.
Default: 64

ARP IP Collision

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Determines the behavior when receiving an ARP request with a sender IP address that collides
with one already used on the receive interface. Possible actions: Drop or Notify.
Default: Drop

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3.6. IP Rules and IP Policies

3.6.1. Security Policies
Before examining IP rule sets in detail, we will first look at the generic concept of security polices
to which IP rule sets belong.

Security Policy Characteristics

NetDefendOS security policies are configured by the administrator to regulate the way in which
traffic can flow through the NetDefend Firewall. Such policies are described by the contents of
different NetDefendOS rule sets. These rule sets share a uniform means of specifying filtering
criteria which determine the type of traffic to which they will apply. The possible filtering criteria
consist of the following:
Source Interface

An Interface or Interface Group where the packet is received

at the NetDefend Firewall. This could also be a VPN tunnel.

Source Network

The network that contains the source IP address of the packet.

This might be a NetDefendOS IP object which could define a
single IP address or range of addresses.

Destination Interface

An Interface or an Interface Group from which the packet

would leave the NetDefend Firewall. This could also be a VPN
tunnel.

Destination Network

The network to which the destination IP address of the packet

belongs. This might be a NetDefendOS IP object which could
define a single IP address or range of addresses.

Service

The protocol type to which the packet belongs. Service objects

define a protocol/port type. Examples are HTTP and ICMP.
Service objects also define any ALG which is to be applied to the
traffic
NetDefendOS provides a large number of predefined service
objects but administrator defined custom services can also be
created. Existing service objects can also be collected together
into service groups.
See Section 3.3, Services for more information about this topic.

The NetDefendOS Security Policy Rule Sets

The principle NetDefendOS rule sets that define NetDefendOS security policies, and which use
the same filtering parameters described above (networks/interfaces/service), include:

IP Rules
IP Rule objects determine which traffic is permitted to pass through the NetDefend Firewall as
well as determining if the traffic is subject to address translation. The network filter for these
rules can be IPv4 or IPv6 addresses (but not both in a single rule). They are described further
later in this section.

IP Policies
The IP Policy object is an alternative to using IP Rule objects. They are designed to simply the
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creation of policies and make it easier to define such common tasks as address translation. IP
Policy objects are implemented in the background by IP Rule objects and one IP Policy may
correspond to more than one IP Rule.

Pipe Rules
These determine which traffic triggers traffic shaping to take place and are described in
Section 10.1, Traffic Shaping.

Policy-based Routing Rules

These rules determine the routing table to be used by traffic and are described in Section 4.3,
Policy-based Routing. The network filter for these rules can be IPv4 or IPv6 addresses (but
not both in a single rule).

Authentication Rules
These determine which traffic triggers authentication to take place (source net/interface
only) and are described in Chapter 8, User Authentication.

The Default main IP Rule Set

IP rule sets are the most important of these security policy rule sets. They determine the critical
packet filtering function of NetDefendOS, regulating what is allowed or not allowed to pass
through the NetDefend Firewall, and if necessary, how address translations like NAT are applied.
IP rule sets can contain both IP Rule and IP Policy objects. By default, one IP rule set always exist
and this has the name main.
There are two possible approaches to how traffic traversing the NetDefend Firewall could be
dealt with:

Everything is denied unless specifically permitted.

Or everything is permitted unless specifically denied.

To provide the best security, the first of these approaches is adopted by NetDefendOS. This
means that when first installed and started, the NetDefendOS has no rules defined in the main IP
rule set and all traffic is therefore dropped. In order to permit any traffic to traverse the
NetDefend Firewall (as well as allowing NetDefendOS to respond to ICMP Ping requests), some IP
rules must be defined by the administrator.
Each IP rule or IP policy that is added by the administrator will define the following basic filtering
criteria:

From what interface to what interface traffic flows.

From what network to what network the traffic flows.

What kind of protocol is affected (the service).

What action the rule will take when a match on the filter triggers.

Specifying Any Interface or Network

When specifying the filtering criteria in any of the policy rule sets, there are several useful
predefined configuration objects that can be used:

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For a source or destination network, the all-nets option is equivalent to the IP address
0.0.0.0/0 which will mean that any IP address is acceptable.

For source or destination interface, the any option can be used so that NetDefendOS will not
care about the interface which the traffic is going to or coming from.

The destination interface can be specified as core. This means that traffic, such as an ICMP
Ping, is destined for the NetDefend Firewall itself and NetDefendOS will respond to it.
New connections that are initiated by NetDefendOS itself do not need an explicit IP rule as
they are allowed by default. For this reason, the interface core is not used as the source
interface. Such connections include those needed to connect to the external databases
needed for such NetDefendOS features as IDP and dynamic web content filtering.

The Service can be specified as all_services which includes all possible protocols.

Creating a Drop All Rule

Traffic that does not match any rule in the IP rule set is, by default, dropped by NetDefendOS. In
order to be able to log the dropped connections, it is recommended that an explicit IP rule with
an action of Drop for all source/destination networks/interfaces is placed as the last IP rule in the
IP rule set. This is often referred to as a Drop All rule.

Tip: Include the rule set name in the drop all name
There may be several IP rule sets in use. It is recommended to include the IP rule set name
in the name of the drop all rule so it can be easily identified in log messages.
For example, the drop all rule for the main rule set should be called main_drop_all or
similar.

The IP Addresses in IP Rules can be IPv4 or IPv6

IP rules support either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses as the source and destination network for a rule's
filtering properties.
However both the source and destination network must be either IPv4 or IPv6. It is not
permissible to combine IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in a single rule. For this reason, two Drop All
rules will be required when using IPv6, one for IPv4 and one for IPv6 as shown below:
Name

Action

Source Iface

Source Net

Dest Iface

Dest Net

Service

DropAll

Drop

any

all-nets

any

all-nets

all_services

DropAll6

Drop

any

all-nets6

any

all-nets6

all_services

For further discussion of this topic, see Section 3.2, IPv6 Support.

Traffic Flow Needs an IP Rule and a Route

As stated above, when NetDefendOS is started for the first time, the default IP rules drop all
traffic so at least one IP rule must be added to allow traffic to flow. In fact, two NetDefendOS
components need to be present:

A route must exist in a NetDefendOS routing table which specifies on which interface packets
should leave in order to reach their destination.

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A second route must also exist that indicates the source of the traffic is found on the interface
where the packets enter.

An IP rule in a NetDefendOS IP rule set which specifies the security policy that allows the
packets from the source interface and network bound for the destination network to leave
the NetDefend Firewall on the interface decided by the route.
If the IP rule used is an Allow rule then this is bi-directional by default.

The ordering of these steps is important. The route lookup occurs first to determine the exiting
interface and then NetDefendOS looks for an IP rule that allows the traffic to leave on that
interface. If a rule does not exist then the traffic is dropped.

Figure 3.3. Simplified NetDefendOS Traffic Flow

This description of traffic flow is an extremely simplified version of the full flow description found
in Section 1.3, NetDefendOS State Engine Packet Flow.
For example, before the route lookup is done, NetDefendOS first checks that traffic from the
source network should, in fact, be arriving on the interface where it was received. This is done by
NetDefendOS performing a reverse route lookup which means that the routing tables are
searched for a route that indicates the network should be found on that interface.
This second route should logically exist if a connection is bi-directional and it must have a pair of
routes associated with it, one for each direction.

3.6.2. IP Rule Set Evaluation

When a new connection, such as a TCP/IP connection, is being established through the
NetDefend Firewall, the IP rule set if scanned from top to bottom until a rule that matches the
parameters of the new connection is found. The first matching rule's Action is then performed.
If the action allows it, the establishment of the new connection will go ahead. A new entry or
state representing the new connection will then be added to the NetDefendOS internal state
table which allows monitoring of opened and active connections passing through the
NetDefend Firewall. If the action is Drop or Reject then the new connection is refused.

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Tip: Rules in the wrong order sometimes cause problems

It is important to remember the principle that NetDefendOS searches the IP rule set from
top to bottom, looking for the first matching rule.
If a rule set entry seems to be ignored, check that some other rule above it is not being
triggered first.

Stateful Inspection
After initial rule evaluation of the opening connection, subsequent packets belonging to that
connection will not need to be evaluated individually against the rule set. Instead, a much faster
search of the state table is performed for each packet to determine if it belongs to an established
connection.
This approach to packet processing is known as stateful inspection and is applied not only to
stateful protocols such as TCP but is also applied to stateless protocols such as UDP and ICMP by
using the concept of "pseudo-connections" . This approach means that evaluation against the IP
rule set is only done in the initial opening phase of a connection. The size of the IP rule set
therefore has negligible effect on overall throughput.

The First Matching Principle

If several rules match the same parameters, the first matching rule in a scan from top to bottom
is the one that decides how the connection will be handled.
The exception to this is SAT rules since these rely on a pairing with a second rule to function.
After encountering a matching SAT rule the search will therefore continue on looking for a
matching second rule. See Section 7.4, SAT for more information about this topic.

Non-matching Traffic
Incoming packets that do not match any rule in the rule set and that do not have an already
opened matching connection in the state table, will automatically be subject to a Drop action. As
mentioned above, to be able to log non-matching traffic, it is recommended to create an explicit
rule called DropAll as the final rule in the rule set with an action of Drop with Source/Destination
Network all-nets and Source/Destination Interface all. This allows logging to be turned on for
traffic that matches no IP rule.

3.6.3. IP Rule Actions

A rule consists of two parts: the filtering parameters and the action to take if there is a match
with those parameters. As described above, the parameters of any NetDefendOS rule, including
IP rules are:

Source Interface

Source Network

Destination Interface

Destination Network

Service

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When an IP rule is triggered by a match then one of the following Actions can occur:
Allow

The packet is allowed to pass. As the rule is applied to only the opening of a
connection, an entry in the "state table" is made to record that a connection is open.
The remaining packets related to this connection will pass through the
NetDefendOS "stateful engine".

FwdFast

Let the packet pass through the NetDefend Firewall without setting up a state for it
in the state table. This means that the stateful inspection process is bypassed and is
therefore less secure than Allow or NAT rules. Packet processing time is also slower
than Allow rules since every packet is checked against the entire rule set.

NAT

This functions like an Allow rule, but with dynamic address translation (NAT) enabled
(see Section 7.2, NAT in Chapter 7, Address Translation for a detailed description).

SAT

This tells NetDefendOS to perform static address translation. A SAT rule always
requires a matching Allow, NAT or FwdFast IP rule further down the rule set (see
Section 7.4, SAT in Chapter 7, Address Translation for a detailed description).

Drop

This tells NetDefendOS to immediately discard the packet. This is an "impolite"

version of Reject in that no reply is sent back to the sender. It is often preferable
since it gives a potential attacker no clues about what happened to their packets.

Reject

This acts like Drop but will return a TCP RST or ICMP Unreachable message, informing
the sending computer that the packet was dropped. This is a "polite" version of the
Drop IP rule action.
Reject is useful where applications that send traffic wait for a timeout to occur before
realizing that the traffic was dropped. If an explicit reply is sent indicating that the
traffic was dropped, the application need not wait for the timeout.

Note: Some actions alter TCP sequence numbers

In some situations with certain types of network equipment, the TCP sequence number
needs to remain the same as data traffic traverses the firewall.
It is therefore important to know that only the FwdFast action guarantees that the TCP
sequence number is unaltered. Other IP rule actions, such as Allow and NAT change the
TCP sequence number as traffic flows through NetDefendOS.

Logging
When an IP Rule or IP Policy object is created the default is that logging is enabled. This means
that a log message is generated whenever either is triggered. This behavior can be altered by
disabling logging on the individual rule or policy object.

Bi-directional Connections
A common mistake when setting up IP Rules is to define two rules, one rule for traffic in one
direction and another rule for traffic coming back in the other direction. In fact nearly all IP Rules
types allow bi-directional traffic flow once the initial connection is set up. The Source Network
and Source Interface in the rule means the source of the initial connection request. If a
connection is permitted and then becomes established, traffic can flow in either direction over it.
The exception to this bi-directional flow is FwdFast rules. If the FwdFast action is used, the rule
will not allow traffic to flow from the destination back to the source. If bi-directional flow is

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required then two FwdFast rules are needed, one for either direction. This is also the case if a
FwdFast rule is used with a SAT rule.

Using Reject
In certain situations the Reject action is recommended instead of the Drop action because a
"polite" reply is required from NetDefendOS. An example of such a situation is when responding
to the IDENT user identification protocol. Some applications will pause for a timeout if Drop is
used and Reject can avoid such processing delays.

3.6.4. Editing IP rule set Entries

After adding various rules to the rule set editing any rule can be achieved in the Web Interface by
right clicking on that line.
A context menu will appear with the following options:
Edit

This allows the contents of the rule to be changed.

Delete

This will remove the rule permanently from the rule set.

Disable/Enable

This allows the rule to be disabled but left in the rule set. While disabled
the rule set line will not affect traffic flow and will appear grayed out in the
user interface. It can be re-enabled at any time.

Move options

The last section of the context menu allows the rule to be moved to a
different position in the rule set and therefore have a different precedence

3.6.5. IP Rule Set Folders

In order to help organize large numbers of entries in IP rule sets, it is possible to create IP rule set
folders. These folders are just like a folder in a computer's file system. They are created with a
given name and can then be used to contain all the IP rules that are related together as a group.
Using folders is simply a way for the administrator to conveniently divide up IP rule set entries
and no special properties are given to entries in different folders. NetDefendOS continues to see
all entries as though they were in a single set of IP rules.
The folder concept is also used by NetDefendOS in the address book, where related IP address
objects can be grouped together in administrator created folders.
Example 3.21. Adding an Allow IP Rule
This example shows how to create a simple Allow rule that will allow HTTP connections to be
opened from the lannet network on the lan interface to any network (all-nets) on the wan
interface.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add IPRule
Action=Allow
Service=http
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Name=lan_http

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Configuration changes must be saved by then issuing an activate followed by a commit

command.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example LAN_HTTP

3.

Now enter:

4.

Name: A suitable name for the rule. For example lan_http

Action: Allow

Service: http

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: all-nets

Click OK

3.6.6. Configuration Object Groups

The concept of folders can be used to organise groups of NetDefendOS objects into related
collections. These work much like the folders concept found in a computer's file system. Folders
are described in relation to the address book in Section 3.1.6, Address Book Folders and can also
be used when organizing IP rules.
A compliment and alternative to folders for organizing objects is using configuration object
groups. Object groups allows the administrator to gather together and color code configuration
objects under a specified title text so their relationships are more easily understood when they
are displayed in a NetDefendOS graphical user interface. Unlike folders, they do not require each
folder to be opened for individual objects to become visible. Instead, all objects in all groupings
are visible at once.
Object groups can be used not only for address book objects but in most cases where
NetDefendOS objects are displayed as tables and each line represents an object instance. The
most common usage of this feature is likely to be for either the NetDefendOS Address Book to
arrange IP addresses or for organizing rules in IP rule sets.

Tip: Object groups help to document configurations

Object groups are a recommended way to document the contents of NetDefendOS
configurations.
This can be very useful for someone seeing a configuration for the first time. In an IP rule
set that contains hundreds of rules, object groups provide a means to quickly identify
those rules associated with a specific aspect of NetDefendOS operation.

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Object Groups and the CLI

The display function of object groups means they do not have relevance to the command line
interface (CLI). It is not possible to define or otherwise modify object groups with the CLI and
they will not be displayed in CLI output. Any group editing must be done through the Web
Interface and this is described next.

A Simple Example
As an example, consider the IP rule set main which contains just two rules to allow web surfing
from an internal network and a third Drop-all rule to catch any other traffic so that it can be
logged:

Note
The screen images used in this example show just the first few columns of the object
properties.

If it is desirable to create an object group for the two IP rules for web surfing, this is done with the
following steps:

Select the first object to be in the new group by right clicking it.

Select the New Group option from the context menu.

A group is now created with a title line and the IP rule as its only member. The default title of
"(new Group)" is used.
The entire group is also assigned a default color and the group member is also indented. The
object inside the group retains the same index number to indicate its position in the whole
table. The index is not affected by group membership. The group title line does not have or
need an index number since it is only a textual label.

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Editing Group Properties

To change the properties of a group, right click the group title line and select the Edit option
from the context menu.

A Group editing dialog will be displayed which allows two functions:

Specify the Title

The title of the group can be any text that is required and can contain new lines as well as
empty lines. There is also no requirement that the group name is unique since it is used
purely as a label.

Change the Display Color

Any color can be chosen for the group. The color can be selected from the 16 predefined
color boxes or entered as a hexadecimal RGB value. In addition, when the hexadecimal value
box is selected, a full spectrum color palette appears which allows selection by clicking any
color in the box with the mouse.

In this example, we might change the name of the group to be Web surfing and also change the
group color to green. The resulting group display is shown below:

Adding Additional Objects

A new group will always contain just one object. Now, we must add more objects to the group.
By right clicking the object that immediately follows the group, we can select the Join
Preceding option to add it to the preceding group.

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Once we do this for the second IP rule in our example then the result will be the following:

To add any object to the group we must first position it immediately following the group and
then select the Join Preceding option. This is explained in more detail next.

Adding Preceding Objects

If an object precedes a group or is in any position other than immediately following the group,
then this is done in a multi-step process:
i.

Right click the object and select the Move to option.

ii.

Enter the index of the position immediately following the target group.

iii.

After the object has been moved to the new position, right click the object again and select
the Join Preceding option.

Moving Group Objects

Once an object, such as an IP rule, is within a group, the context of move operations becomes the
group. For example, right clicking a group object and selecting Move to Top will move the
object to the top of the group, not the top of the entire table.

Moving Groups
Groups can be moved in the same way as individual objects. By right clicking the group title line,
the context menu includes options to move the entire group. For example, the Move to Top
option moves the entire group to the top of the table.

Leaving a Group
If an object in a group is right clicked then the context menu contains the option Leave Group.
Selecting this removes the object from the group AND moves it down to a position immediately
following the group.

Removing a Group
By right clicking on a group title, the displayed context menu includes the Ungroup option. This
removes the group, however all the group's member objects remain. The group title line
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disappears and the individual members appear unindented in the normal ungrouped color.
Individual object index positions within the table are not affected.
A group is also removed if there are no members left. If there is only one member of a group,
when this leaves the group, the group will no longer exist and the title line will disappear..

Groups and Folders

It is important to distinguish between collecting together objects using a folder and collecting it
together using groups.
Either can be used to group objects but a folder is similar to the concept of a folder in a
computer's file system. However, a folder can not be part of a group. Groups collect together
related basic objects and a folder is not of this type. It is possible, on the other hand, to use
groups within a folder.
It is up to the administrator how to best use these features to best arrange NetDefendOS objects.

3.6.7. IP Policies
The IP Rule objects described previously provide very finely grained control over how arriving
traffic is handled by NetDefendOS. The IP Policy object provides the ability to achieve the same
results as IP rules but in a more intuitive way so that simple policies can be quickly defined.
The aim with an IP policy is to hide some of the potential complexities of IP rules. For example, a
NAT policy might require several IP rules but may be achievable with a single IP policy. The
several IP rules are still created in the background but the administrator is only aware of the IP
policy object.
It is up to the administrator to decide if they will use an IP rule or an IP policy to describe what is
required from NetDefendOS. Where there is a choice, using an IP policy is recommended.

Creating IP Policies
An IP policy has the following basic properties:

Allow or Deny Action

An IP policy either allows a particular type of traffic or it denies it. The action Deny is
equivalent to the action Drop in IP rules.

Source/Destination Interface/Network Filter

This filter identifies the traffic of interest in the same way that an IP rule filter does.

Service
This identifies the type of protocol for the policy. When using an IP policy with certain
options, only services that have the Protocol property set can be used. These are listed below.

Policy Options
The traffic identified by the filter is subject to one of more of possible options. These are:
i.

Logging - This is enabled or disabled.

ii.

Anti-Virus - An Anti-Virus policy can be selected. This requires a Service object with the
Protocol property set.

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iii.

Web Content Filtering - A WCF policy can be selected. This requires a Service object with
the Protocol property set.

iv.

Application Control - An Application Control policy can be selected. Any Service object
can be used with this option.

v.

URL Filter - When the service includes the protocols HTTP and/or HTTPS, this can be
selected to whitelist or blacklist URLs. This requires a Service object with the Protocol
property set.

vi.

File Control - This can block or allow specific filetypes. It is only applicable to the HTTP,
SMTP, POP3 and FTP protocols. This requires a Service object with the Protocol property
set.

vii. Advanced Actions - It is possible to specify the Reject action for denied connections (no
acknowledgement is sent to the source host).

Some Policy Options Require a Service with a Protocol Set

As mentioned above, certain IP policy options can be used only if the service used has the
Protocol property set. Certain predefined services already have a Protocol set. Any newly created,
custom services must have the protocol set if they are to be used with those options..
For example, if Dynamic Web Content Filtering is to be enabled with an IP Policy object then the
predefined service called http-outbound should be used and this has the Protocol set to HTTP. The
more general service object called http-all could not be used since the protocol is not be set
(although it could be set).
Application control is the one option which does not require a special Service object.

Viewing IP Rules Created by IP Policies

As mentioned previously, IP policies create IP rules in the background. These IP rules cannot be
viewed through the Web Interface. However, they can be seen in the output from the CLI
command:
gw-world:/> rules

Example 3.22. Setting up a Policy to Allow Connections to a DMZ

In this simple example, new HTTP connections will be allowed from the internal lan_net network
on the lan interface to the network dmz_net on the dmz interface.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add IPPolicy
Name=lan_to_dmz
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lan_net
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=dmz_net
Service=http-all
Action=Allow

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Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > IP Policy

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: lan_to_dmz

Action: Allow

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lan_net

Destination Interface: dmz

Destination Network: dmz_net

Service: http-all

Select OK

Example 3.23. Setting up a SAT Policy to an Internal Web Server

In this example, a SAT policy will be set up to allow external public Internet traffic to access an
internal web server with an IP of server_ip.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add IPPolicy
Name=http_to_server
Action=Allow
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
DestinationAction=SAT
DestNewIP=server_ip

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > IP Policy

2.

Now enter:

Name: http_to_server

Action: Allow

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: wan_ip

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Service: http-all

3.

Select Address Translation

4.

Select the SAT option

5.

Enter the web server's IP address for New IP

3.6.8. Application Control

IP rules or IP policies can be set up so they apply only to traffic related to specific applications. An
example of an application that might require this kind of administrator control is traffic related to
BitTorrent. Applying IP rules or IP policies based on the application type is known in
NetDefendOS as Application Control.
The application control subsystem is driven using a database of application signatures. Each
signature corresponding to one type of application. The entire signature database is listed in the
separate document entitled NetDefendOS Application Control Signatures.
For application control to work, the current NetDefendOS license must allow the feature and the
effect of not having a license that allows it is discussed later in this section.

Enabling Application Control

Application Control can be enabled in two ways:

Specifying applications directly for IP rules or IP policies.

This is the basic way of either allowing or denying the data flows associated with a given
application. This is often used when testing application control since it is simple but does not
provide much flexibility.

Associating an Application Rule Set with an IP rule or IP policy

This is the recommended method of using application control and provides more flexible
ways to handle the data flows associated with applications. An Application Rule Set is first
created which defines how an application is to be handled, then one or more Application Rule
objects are added to it. The entire rule set is then associated with an IP rule or IP policy object

These two methods of configuring application control and these are examined next.

Associating Directly with IP Rules or IP Policies

IP rules that use application control are created in the following way:

Create an IP rule or IP policy with a set of filter parameters to identify connections.

Use an Action of Allow or NAT.

Enable application control, select the option to use manual configuration and add the
applications that are to be allowed or denied.
If the Deny option is selected but no applications are selected then everything is allowed. If
the Allow option is selected but no applications are selected then nothing will be allowed.
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Example 3.24. Specifying an Application Control Policy

This example creates an IP rule to deny connections originating from the lan network which
match the *_groups signature filter. These will include access to sites such as yahoo_groups and
google_groups.
Command-Line Interface
First, the appcontrol command must be used to create a list of the applications we are interested
in.
gw-world:/> appcontrol -filter -name=*_groups -save_list

This creates a list with a designation of 1. Next, the list is used in an IP rule.
gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=all
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=all_services
AppControl=Yes
AC_AppAction=Deny
AC_Applications=1
Name=Allow_Comp

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, in this case Allow_Comp

3.

Now enter:

4.

5.

Action: Allow

Service: all_services

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Interface: all

Destination Network: all-nets

Go to the Application Control tab and enter the following:

Application Control: Enable

Use Manual Configuration: Enable

Application Action: Deny

Using the Add button, select yahoo_groups and google_groups from the application
definitions.

Click OK

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Using an Application Rule Set

As described previously, another, recommended way of controlling applications is to create an
Application Rule Set and associate this with an IP rule or IP Policy.
An Application Rule Set will contain one or more Application Rule objects which define an
application and what actions are to be taken when the application is recognized. This method of
using application control allows not only data for a certain application to be allowed or denied
but also the following additional controls:

Authentication Settings
For an Allow rule, the requesting client is only permitted the connection if they already been
authenticated by NetDefendOS and are one of the usernames specified for the rule or belong
to one of the specified groups.
For a Deny rule, the requesting client is denied the connection if they are authenticated and
are one of the usernames specified or belong to one of the specified groups.
Authentication may have performed using any of the methods available in NetDefendOS
Authentication Rule objects, including Identity Awareness.
If no groups or usernames are specified in the rule, authentication is ignored.

Traffic Shaping Settings

Predefined NetDefendOS Pipe objects can be associated with the rule so the bandwidth limit
specified by pipe objects can be placed on the either direction of data flow or both.
This feature therefore allows bandwidth limits to be placed on a given application and, if
used in conjunction with the authentication setting, on particular users or user groups using
that application.
Traffic shaping is only relevant if the Application Control Rule has an action of Allow.

Example 3.25. Using an Application Control Rule Set

Assume that an IP Policy object called lan_to_wan_policy has already been defined that allows
connections from a protected internal network to the public internet.
This example will limit the usage by the user called rogue_user to 0.25 Megabit of bandwidth for
both uploading and downloading of data using BitTorrent. Let's assume that a Pipe object called
narrow_025_pipe has already been defined in NetDefendOS that permits this data flow.
It is assumed that all clients on the local network that access the Internet must be authenticated.
Command-Line Interface
First, the appcontrol command is used to create a filter for BitTorrent. This should also include the
uTP protocol:
gw-world:/> appcontrol -filter -application=bittorrent,utp -save_list

Assume that this filter list is the third filter list created and is therefore assigned the list number 3.
All filters can be displayed with the command:
gw-world:/> appcontrol -show_lists

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Next, create an ApplicationRuleSet called bt_app_list:

gw-world:/> add Policy ApplicationRuleSet bt_app_list
DefaultAction=Allow

Then, change the CLI context to be bt_app_list:

gw-world:/> cc Policy ApplicationRuleSet bt_app_list

gw-world:/bt_app_list>

Now, add the ApplicationRule object:

gw-world:/bt_app_list> add ApplicationRule
Action=Allow
AppFilter=3
UserAuthGroups=rogue_user
ForwardChain=narrow_025_pipe
ReturnChain=narrow_025_pipe

Then, return to the default context:

gw-world:/bt_app_list> cc

gw-world:/>

Last, associate this ApplicationRuleSet with the IPPolicy:

gw-world:/> set IPPolicy lan_to_wan_policy
AppControl=Yes
AC_RuleList=bt_app_list

Web Interface
First, define the Application Rule Set:
1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Control > Add > Application Rule Set

2.

Specify a suitable name for the list, in this case bt_app_list

3.

Set the Default Action to Allow

4.

Click OK

Next, define a Application Rule as a child.

1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Control > bt_app_list > Add > Application
Rule

2.

Select Allow for the Action

3.

Enable Application Control and add the signatures bittorrentandutp (both are required for
BitTorrent).

4.

Select Authentication Settings and enter the user name rogue_user

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5.

Select Traffic Shaping Settings and move the pipe narrow_025_pipe into the Selected list
for both the Forward chain and Return chain

6.

Click OK

Last, associate the Application Rule Set with the IP Policy:

1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > lan_to_wan_policy

2.

Specify a suitable name for the list, in this case bt_app_list

3.

Select Application Control

4.

In the dialog:

5.

Set Enable Application Control to Yes

Set the Application Rule Set to bt_app_list

Click OK to close the dialog

Click OK

Note: BitTorrent should include uTP

As seen in the above example, when application control is configured to target
BitTorrent, the two signatures bittorrent and utp should be selected.

Browsing the Application Control Database

In the CLI, the command appcontrol can be used to examine the application control database of
application definitions. Without any parameters, this command shows the database size. For
example:
gw-world:/> appcontrol
Application library contents:
842 application definitions.
34 families.
4 tags.

If tab completion is used after the command, all the definition families are displayed. For
example:
gw-world:/> appcontrol <tab>
antivirus/
application_service/
audio_video/
authentication/
compression/
database/
encrypted/
erp/
file_server/

file_transfer/
forum/
game/
instant_messaging/
mail/
messenger/
microsoft_office/
middleware/
music_player/

network_management/
network_service/
peer_to_peer/
printer/
qosmos/
routing/
security_service/
telephony/
terminal/

thin_client/
tunneling/
unclassified/
wap/
web/
webmail/

These families consist of the individual definitions. For example, to view the two definitions in
the compression family, use the command:
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gw-world:/> appcontrol compression

compression - Compression:
ccp
comp
2 application(s)

To view a single definition, the individual name can be used without the family. For example, to
display the comp definition within the compression family:
gw-world:/> appcontrol comp
comp - Compression
COMP protocol is used for data compression over PPP.
Family:
Risk Level:
Tags:
Revision:
Enabled:

Compression
1 - Very low risk
0
Yes

The Tags and Risk Level add further information to each definition but are not part of the
definition herarchy. The Risk Level indicates the degree of threat that this particular application
poses. The Tags provide more information about the data traffic related to the application, for
example High Bandwidth might be a typical tag.
It is possible to search the definition database by using any of the filter parameters:

name
family
name
risk
tag

The name parameter must always be the first in a search but the asterisk "*" character can be
used as a wildcard. For example:
gw-world:/> appcontrol -name=* -family=mail -risk=HIGH

As demonstrated earlier, the -save_list option is used to save a filter list so it can be used with IP
rules and IP policies.

Managing Filters
As shown in the application example above for controlling BitTorrent, the appcontrol CLI
command is also used to create saved filters which are then used with the CLI in ApplicationRule
objects. For example, the following will create a saved filter for BitTorrent:
gw-world:/> appcontrol -filter -application=bittorrent,utp -save_list

The -application parameter specifies the individual signatures by name. An alternative is to use
the -name parameter which allows wildcarding and searches the signatures names looking for
character pattern matches. For example, we could have specified:
gw-world:/> appcontrol -filter -name=bit* -save_list

All the signatures with names that begin with the prefix bit would have been selected. It would
not have been possible to select bittorrent and utp using the -name parameter.

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All the saved filters can be displayed with the command:

gw-world:/> appcontrol -filter -show_lists

To delete all saved filters, use the command: All the saved filters can be deleted with the
command:
gw-world:/> appcontrol -delete_lists=all

Individual saved filters can be deleted by specifying the number of the filter after -delete_lists=.

Selecting All Signatures

If the administrators aim is to find out what applications users are accessing, application control
can be used to do this by triggering on all signatures and allowing instead of blocking the traffic.
The log events generated will indicate the applications that are being detected.
Selecting all signatures is done through a checkbox in the Web Interface and can be done with
the CLI by using wildcarding with an ApplicationRuleSet object. The CLI cannot be used when
using application control directly with IP rules.

Risk Guidelines
The following are guidelines for how the risk parameter for each application control signature
should be viewed by the administrator:

Risk Level 5
Very high risk. This traffic should be blocked unless special circumstances or requirements
exist. For example, PHP-, CGI-, HTTPS-proxies; known attack sites.

Risk Level 4
High risk. This traffic should be reviewed and a block or allow action taken. Site-to-site
tunnelling should be used where possible. For example, SSH, LDAP, RADIUS, Dropbox and
similar.

Risk Level 3
Medium risk. Signatures with this risk level can affect network security, bandwidth usage and
company integrity if care is not taken. For example, Facebook and other social networks,
Google Analytics and similar aggregators, P2P/filesharing

Risk Level 2
Moderate risk. Signatures with this risk level can affect network security and/or affect
bandwidth usage. For example, video streaming sites, Java/Flash game sites

Risk Level 1
Low-risk. Signatures that could be candidates for blocking. Typically not a threat. For
example, E-commerce sites, news portals.

Application Control Licensing

As mentioned at the beginning of this section, for application control to function, the current
NetDefendOS license must allow it and a D-Link sales office can provide details about obtaining
an appropriate license.
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Application control is a subscription service, so the expiry date for the feature may be different to
the expiry date of the license itself. Should the application control subscription expire, the
following will happen if application control has been configured on any IP Policy objects:

A console message is generated at system startup or on reconfiguration to indicate

subscription expiry.

Application control will continue to function so that traffic continues to flow through
NetDefendOS but, whenever it triggers, the data type will be set to Unknown.
For example, if the administrator had configured BitTorrent traffic to be dropped, it will no
longer be dropped because it has been recognized and then reclassified as Unknown traffic.

Whenever application control triggers, the log message application_identified will be

generated as usual but the traffic type will be marked as Unknown. Similarly, the type
Unknown will also appear in the application_end log message.

In addition, the log message application_control_disabled will also be generated when

application control triggers.

The current status of application control licensing can be viewed with the Web Interface by
going to Status > Maintenance > License.

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3.7. Schedules
In some scenarios, it might be useful to control not only what functionality is enabled, but also
when that functionality is being used.
For instance, the IT policy of an enterprise might stipulate that web traffic from a certain
department is only allowed access outside that department during normal office hours. Another
example might be that authentication using a specific VPN connection is only permitted on
weekdays before noon.

Schedule Objects
NetDefendOS addresses this requirement by providing Schedule objects (often referred to as
simply schedules) that can be selected and used with various types of security policies to
accomplish time-based control.

Multiple Time Ranges

A Schedule object also offers the possibility to enter multiple time ranges for each day of the
week. Furthermore, a start and a stop date can be specified that will impose additional
constraints on the schedule. For instance, a schedule can be defined as Mondays and Tuesdays,
08:30 - 10:40 and 11:30 - 14:00, Fridays 14:30 - 17:00.

Schedule Parameters
Each schedule object consists of the following parameters:
Name

The name of the schedule. This is used in user interface display and as a
reference to the schedule from other objects.

Scheduled Times

These are the times during each week when the schedule is applied.
Times are specified as being to the nearest hour. A schedule is either
active or inactive during each hour of each day of a week.

Start Date

If this option is used, it is the date after which this schedule object
becomes active.

End Date

If this option is used, it is the date after which this schedule object is no
longer active.

Comment

Any descriptive text that should be associated with the object.

This functionality is not limited to IP Rules, but is valid for most types of policies, including Traffic
Shaping rules, Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) rules and Virtual Routing rules. including
Traffic Shaping rules and Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) rules. A Schedule object is, in
other words, a very powerful component that can allow detailed regulation of when functions in
NetDefendOS are enabled or disabled.

Important: Set the system date and time

As schedules depend on an accurate system date and time, it is very important that the
system date and time are set correctly. This is also important for some other features
such as certificate usage in VPN tunnels.
Preferably, time synchronization has also been enabled to ensure that scheduled

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policies will be enabled and disabled at the right time. For more information, please see
Section 3.9, Date and Time.

Example 3.26. Setting up a Time-Scheduled Security Policy

This example creates a schedule object for office hours on weekdays, and attaches the object to
an IP Rule that allows HTTP traffic.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add ScheduleProfile OfficeHours
Mon=8-17 Tue=8-17 Wed=8-17 Thu=8-17 Fri=8-17

Now create the IP rule that uses this schedule.

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=NAT
Service=http
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Schedule=OfficeHours name=AllowHTTP

Configuration changes must be saved by then issuing an activate followed by a commit

command.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Schedules > Add > Schedule

2.

Enter the following:

Name: OfficeHours

3.

Select 08-17, Monday to Friday in the grid

4.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Enter the following:

3.

Name: AllowHTTP

Select the following from the dropdown lists:

Action: NAT

Service: http

Schedule: OfficeHours

SourceInterface: lan

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4.

SourceNetwork lannet

DestinationInterface: any

DestinationNetwork: all-nets

Click OK

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3.8. Certificates
3.8.1. Overview
The X.509 Standard
NetDefendOS supports digital certificates that comply with the ITU-T X.509 standard. This
involves the use of an X.509 certificate hierarchy with public-key cryptography to accomplish key
distribution and entity authentication. References in this document to certificates mean X.509
certificates.
When distributed to another party, a certificate performs two functions:

It distributes the certificate owner's public key.

It establishes the certificate owner's identity.

A certificate acts as a digital proof of identity. It links an identity to a public key in order to
establish whether a public key truly belongs to the supposed owner. By doing this, it prevents
data transfer interception by a malicious third-party who might post a fake key with the name
and user ID of an intended recipient.

Certificates with VPN Tunnels

The main usage of certificates in NetDefendOS is with VPN tunnels. The simplest and fastest way
to provide security between the ends of a tunnel is to use Pre-shared Keys (PSKs). As a VPN
network grows so does the complexity of using PSKs. Certificates provide a means to better
manage security in much larger networks.

Certificate Components
A certificate consists of the following:

A public key.

The "identity" of the user, such as name and user ID.

Digital signatures that verify that the information enclosed in the certificate has been verified
by a CA.

By binding the above information together, a certificate is a public key with identification
attached, coupled with a stamp of approval by a trusted party.

Certificate Authorities
A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues certificates to other entities. The CA
digitally signs all certificates it issues. A valid CA signature in a certificate verifies the identity of
the certificate holder, and guarantees that the certificate has not been tampered with by any
third party.
A CA is responsible for making sure that the information in every certificate it issues is correct. It
also has to make sure that the identity of the certificate matches the identity of the certificate
holder.

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Certificate Chains
A CA can also issue certificates to other CAs. This leads to a chain-like certificate hierarchy. The
highest certificate is called the Root Certificate and it is signed by the Root CA. Each certificate in
the chain is signed by the CA of the certificate directly above it in the chain. However, the root
certificate is signed by itself (it is "self-signed"). Certificates in the chain between the root
certificate and the end certificate are called Intermediate Certificates.
A Certification Path refers to the path of certificates from one certificate to another. When
verifying the validity of a user certificate, the entire path from the user certificate up to the
trusted root certificate has to be examined before establishing the validity of the user certificate.
The CA certificate is just like any other certificate, except that it allows the corresponding private
key to sign other certificates. Should the private key of the CA be compromised, the whole CA,
including every certificate it has signed, is also compromised.
Chained certificates are supported in the following NetDefendOS features:

Access with HTTPS to the Web Interface.

IPsec VPN.

SSL VPN.

The TLS ALG.

In NetDefendOS IPsec VPN, the maximum length of a certificate chain is 4. In VPN scenarios with
roaming clients, the client's certificate will be the bottom of the certificate chain.

Validity Time
A certificate is not valid forever. Each certificate contains values for two points in time between
which the certificate is valid. When this validity period expires, the certificate can no longer be
used and a new certificate must be issued.

Important: The system date and time must be correct

Make sure the NetDefendOS system date and time are set correctly when using
certificates. Problems with certificates, for example in VPN tunnel establishment, can be
due to an incorrect system date or time.

The NetDefendOS Certificate Cache

NetDefendOS maintains a Certificate Cache in local memory which provides processing speed
enhancement when certificates are being repeatedly accessed. This cache is only completely
cleared and initialized when NetDefendOS is restarted.
For this reason, it is important to restart NetDefendOS if any certificates are added, modified or
deleted. This can be done with the CLI command:
gw-world:/> shutdown

Certificate Revocation Lists

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A Certificate Revocation List (CRL) contains a list of all certificates that have been canceled before
their expiration date. They are normally held on an external server which is accessed to
determine if the certificate is still valid. The ability to validate a user certificate in this way is a key
reason why certificate security simplifies the administration of large user communities.
CRLs are published on servers that all certificate users can access, using either the LDAP or HTTP
protocols. Revocation can happen for several reasons. One reason could be that the keys of the
certificate have been compromised in some way, or perhaps that the owner of the certificate has
lost the rights to authenticate using that certificate, perhaps because they have left the
company. Whatever the reason, server CRLs can be updated to change the validity of one or
many certificates.
Certificates often contain a CRL Distribution Point (CDP) field, which specifies the location from
where the CRL can be downloaded. In some cases, certificates do not contain this field. In those
cases the location of the CRL has to be configured manually.
A CA usually updates its CRL at a given interval. The length of this interval depends on how the
CA is configured. Typically, this is somewhere between an hour to several days.

Trusting Certificates
When using certificates, NetDefendOS trusts anyone whose certificate is signed by a given CA.
Before a certificate is accepted, the following steps are taken to verify the validity of the
certificate:

Construct a certification path up to the trusted root CA.

Verify the signatures of all certificates in the certification path.

Fetch the CRL for each certificate to verify that none of the certificates have been revoked.

Identification Lists
In addition to verifying the signatures of certificates, NetDefendOS also employs identification
lists. An identification list is a list naming all the remote identities that are allowed access through
a specific VPN tunnel, provided the certificate validation procedure described above succeeded.

Reusing Root Certificates

In NetDefendOS, root certificates should be seen as global entities that can be reused between
VPN tunnels. Even though a root certificate is associated with one VPN tunnel in NetDefendOS, it
can still be reused with any number of other, different VPN tunnels.

Other Considerations
A number of other factors should be kept in mind when using certificates:

If Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) are used then the CRL distribution point is defined as an
FQDN (for example, caserver.somecompany.com) which must be resolved to an IP address
using a public DNS server. At least one DNS server that can resolve this FQDN should
therefore be defined in NetDefendOS.

Do not get the Host Certificate files and Root Certificate files mixed up. Although it is not
possible to use a Host Certificate in NetDefendOS as a Root Certificate, it is possible to
accidentally use a Host Certificate as a Root Certificate.

Certificates have two files associated with them and these have the filetypes .key file and .cer.

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The filename of these files must be the same for NetDefendOS to be able to use them. For
example, if the certificate is called my_cert then the files my_cert.key and my_cert.cer.

3.8.2. Certificates in NetDefendOS

There are two types of certificates that can be uploaded: self-signed certificates and the remote
certificates belonging to a remote peer or CA server. Self-signed certificates can be generated by
using one of a number of freely available utilities for doing this.

Uploading Certificates
Certificates can be uploaded to NetDefendOS in one of two ways:

Upload using Secure Copy (SCP).

Upload through the Web Interface.

The following command lines show how a typical SCP utility might upload a certificate consisting
of the two files called cert-1.cer and cert-1.key to a firewall which has the management IP address
192.168.3.1:
> scp C:\cert-1.cer [email protected]:certificate/MyCert

> scp C:\cert-1.key [email protected]:certificate/MyCert

The certificate object name in NetDefendOS is MyCert for the certificate and this is how it is
referenced by other objects in the configuration.
All certificate uploads should be followed by the configuration being activated since it has been
changed with new objects.
Example 3.27. Uploading a Certificate with Web Interface
The certificate may either be self-signed or belonging to a remote peer or CA server.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Certificate

2.

Specify a suitable name for the certificate

3.

Now select one of the following:

4.

Upload self-signed X.509 Certificate

Upload a remote certificate

Click OK and follow the instructions

Using Uploaded Certificates

Once certificates are uploaded, they are stored in non-volatile NetDefendOS memory. To be used
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they must be explicitly associated with a NetDefendOS object. For example, an IPsec tunnel
object that uses certificates must be assigned a Gateway and Root certificate.
Example 3.28. Associating Certificates with IPsec Tunnels
To associate an imported certificate with an IPsec tunnel.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec

2.

Display the properties of the IPsec tunnel

3.

Select Authentication

4.

Select the X509 Certificate option

5.

Select the correct Gateway and Root certificates

6.

Click OK

3.8.3. CA Certificate Requests

To request certificates from a CA server or CA company, the best method is to send a CA
Certificate Request which is a file that contains a request for a certificate in a well known,
predefined format.

Manually Creating Windows CA Server Requests

The NetDefendOS Web Interface (WebUI) does not currently include the ability to generate
certificate requests that can be sent to a CA server for generation of the .cer and .key files
required by NetDefendOS.
It is possible, however, to manually create the required files for a Windows CA server using the
following stages.

Create a gateway certificate on the Windows CA server and export it as a file in the .pfx format.

Convert the .pfx file into the .pem format.

Take out the relevant parts of the .pem file to form the required .cer and .key files.

The detailed steps for the above stages are as follows:

1.

Create the gateway certificate on the Windows CA server and export it to a .pfx file on the
local NetDefendOS management workstation disk.

2.

Now convert the local .pfx file to a .pem file. This can be done with the OpenSSL utility using
the console command line:
> openssl pkcs12 -in gateway.pfx -out gateway.pem -nodes

In this command line example, the file exported from the CA server is assumed to be called
gateway.pfx and it is assumed to be in the same local directory as the OpenSSL executable.

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The original gateway.pfx file contained 3 certificates: CA root certificate, a personal

certificate and a private key certificate. The gateway.pem file now contains these in format
which can be cut and pasted with a text editor.

Note
OpenSSL is being used here as a conversion utility and not in its normal role as a
communication utility.

3.

Create two blank text files with a text editor, such as Windows Notepad. Give the files the
same filename but use the extension .cer for one and .key for the other. For example,
gateway.cer and gateway.key might be the names.

4.

Start a text editor and open the downloaded .pem file and locate the line that begins:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

5.

Mark and copy into the system clipboard that line and everything under it, up to and
including the line:
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

6.

Now paste the copied text into the .key file and save it.

7.

Back in the .pem file, locate the line that begins:

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----

and copy into the system clipboard that line and everything under it, up to and including:
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

8.

Now paste this copied text into the .cer file and save it.

The saved .key and .cer files are now ready for upload into NetDefendOS.

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3.9. Date and Time

3.9.1. Overview
Correctly setting the date and time is important for NetDefendOS to operate properly. Time
scheduled policies, auto-update of the IDP and Anti-Virus databases, and other product features
such as digital certificates require that the system clock is accurately set.
In addition, log messages are tagged with time-stamps in order to indicate when a specific event
occurred. Not only does this assume a working clock, but also that the clock is correctly
synchronized with other equipment in the network.

Time Synchronization Protocols

NetDefendOS supports the optional use of Time Synchronization Protocols in order to
automatically adjust the local system clock from the response to queries sent over the public
Internet to special external servers which are known as Time Servers.

3.9.2. Setting Date and Time

Current Date and Time
The administrator can set the date and time manually and this is recommended when a new
NetDefendOS installation is started for the first time.
Example 3.29. Setting the Current Date and Time
To adjust the current date and time, follow the steps outlined below:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> time -set YYYY-mm-DD HH:MM:SS

Where YYYY-mm-DD HH:MM:SS is the new date and time. Note that the date order is year, then
month and then day. For example, to set the date and time to 9:25 in the morning on April 27th,
2008 the command would be:
gw-world:/> time -set 2008-04-27 09:25:00

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2.

Click Set Date and Time

3.

Set year, month, day and time via the dropdown controls

4.

Click OK

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Note: A reconfigure is not required

A new date and time will be applied by NetDefendOS as soon as it is set. There is no need
to reconfigure or restart the system.

Time Zones
The world is divided up into a number of time zones with Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in
London at zero longitude being taken as the base time zone. All other time zones going east and
west from zero longitude are taken as being GMT plus or minus a given integer number of hours.
All locations counted as being inside a given time zone will then have the same local time and
this will be one of the integer offsets from GMT.
The NetDefendOS time zone setting reflects the time zone where the NetDefend Firewall is
physically located.
Example 3.30. Setting the Time Zone
To modify the NetDefendOS time zone to be GMT plus 1 hour, follow the steps outlined below:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set DateTime Timezone=GMTplus1

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2.

Select (GMT+01:00) in the Timezone drop-down list

3.

Click OK

Daylight Saving Time

Many regions follow Daylight Saving Time (DST) (or "Summer-time" as it is called in some
countries) and this means clocks are advanced for the summer period. Unfortunately, the
principles regulating DST vary from country to country, and in some cases there can be variations
within the same country. For this reason, NetDefendOS does not automatically know when to
adjust for DST. Instead, this information has to be manually provided if daylight saving time is to
be used.
There are two parameters governing daylight saving time; the DST period and the DST offset.
The DST period specifies on what dates daylight saving time starts and ends. The DST offset
indicates the number of minutes to advance the clock during the daylight saving time period.
Example 3.31. Enabling DST
To enable DST, follow the steps outlined below:

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Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set DateTime DSTEnabled=Yes

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System/Date and Time

2.

Check Enable daylight saving time

3.

Click OK

3.9.3. Time Servers

The hardware clock which NetDefendOS uses can sometimes become fast or slow after a period
of operation. This is normal behavior in most network and computer equipment and is solved by
utilizing Time Servers.
NetDefendOS is able to adjust the clock automatically based on information received from one
or more Time Servers which provide a highly accurate time, usually using atomic clocks. Using
Time Servers is highly recommended as it ensures NetDefendOS will have its date and time
aligned with other network devices.

Time Synchronization Protocols

Time Synchronization Protocols are standardized methods for retrieving time information from
external Time Servers. NetDefendOS supports the following time synchronization protocols:

SNTP
Defined by RFC 2030, The Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) is a lightweight
implementation of NTP (RFC 1305). This is used by NetDefendOS to query NTP servers.

UDP/TIME
The Time Protocol (UDP/TIME) is an older method of providing time synchronization service
over the Internet. The protocol provides a site-independent, machine-readable date and
time. The server sends back the time in seconds since midnight on January first, 1900.

Most public Time Servers run the NTP protocol and are accessible using SNTP.

Configuring Time Servers

Up to three Time Servers can be configured to query for time information. By using more than a
single server, situations where an unreachable server causes the time synchronization process to
fail can be prevented. NetDefendOS always queries all configured Time Servers and then
computes an average time based on all responses. Internet search engines can be used to list
publicly available Time Servers.

Important: DNS servers need to be configured in NetDefendOS

Make sure at least one external DNS server is correctly configured in NetDefendOS so

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that Time Server URLs can be resolved (see Section 3.10, DNS). This is not needed if
using IP addresses for the servers.

Example 3.32. Enabling Time Synchronization using SNTP

In this example, time synchronization is set up to use the SNTP protocol to communicate with
the NTP servers at the Swedish National Laboratory for Time and Frequency. The NTP server URLs
are ntp1.sp.se and ntp2.sp.se.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set DateTime TimeSynchronization=custom
TimeSyncServer1=dns:ntp1.sp.se
TimeSyncServer2=dns:ntp2.sp.se
TimeSyncInterval=86400

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2.

Check the Enable time synchronization

3.

Now enter:

4.

Time Server Type: SNTP

Primary Time Server: dns:ntp1.sp.se

Secondary Time Server: dns:ntp2.sp.se

Click OK

The time server URLs must have the prefix dns: to specify that they should be resolved with a
DNS server. NetDefendOS must therefore also have a DNS server defined so this resolution can
be performed.

Note
If the TimeSyncInterval parameter is not specified when using the CLI to set the
synchronization interval, the default of 86400 seconds (equivalent to one day) is used.

Example 3.33. Manually Triggering a Time Synchronization

Time synchronization can be triggered from the CLI. The output below shows a typical response.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> time -sync
Attempting to synchronize system time...
Server time: 2008-02-27 12:21:52 (UTC+00:00)
Local time: 2008-02-27 12:24:30 (UTC+00:00) (diff: 158)

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Local time successfully changed to server time.

Maximum Time Adjustment

To avoid situations where a faulty Time Server causes the clock to be updated with a extremely
inaccurate time, a Maximum Adjustment value (in seconds) can be set. If the difference between
the current NetDefendOS time and the time received from a Time Server is greater than this
Maximum Adjustment value, then the Time Server response will be discarded. For example,
assume that the maximum adjustment value is set to 60 seconds and the current NetDefendOS
time is 16:42:35. If a Time Server responds with a time of 16:43:38 then the difference is 63
seconds. This is greater than the Maximum Adjustment value so no update occurs for this
response.
Example 3.34. Modifying the Maximum Adjustment Value
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set DateTime TimeSyncMaxAdjust=40000

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2.

For the setting Maximum time drift that a server is allowed to adjust, enter the
maximum time difference in seconds that an external server is allowed to adjust for. There
may be a valid reason why there is a significant difference such as an incorrect NetDefendOS
configuration.

3.

Click OK

Sometimes it might be necessary to override the maximum adjustment. For example, if time
synchronization has just been enabled and the initial time difference is greater than the
maximum adjust value. It is then possible to manually force a synchronization and disregard the
maximum adjustment parameter.
Example 3.35. Forcing Time Synchronization
This example demonstrates how to force time synchronization, overriding the maximum
adjustment setting.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> time -sync -force

Synchronization Intervals

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The interval between each synchronization attempt can be adjusted if needed. By default, this
value is 86,400 seconds (1 day), meaning that the time synchronization process is executed once
in a 24 hour period.

D-Link Time Servers

Using D-Link's own Time Servers is an option in NetDefendOS and this is the recommended way
of synchronizing the firewall clock. These servers communicate with NetDefendOS using the
SNTP protocol.
When the D-Link Server option is chosen, a predefined set of recommended default values for
the synchronization are used.
Example 3.36. Enabling the D-Link NTP Server
To enable the use of the D-Link NTP server:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set DateTime TimeSynchronization=D-Link

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2.

Select D-Link TimeSync Server

3.

Click OK

As mentioned above, it is important to have an external DNS server configured so that the D-Link
Time Server URLs can be resolved during the access process.

3.9.4. Settings Summary for Date and Time

Below is a summary of the various settings for date and time:

Time Zone
Time zone offset in minutes.
Default: 0

DST Offset
Daylight saving time offset in minutes.
Default: 0

DST Start Date

What month and day DST starts, in the format MM-DD.

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Default: none

DST End Date

What month and day DST ends, in the format MM-DD.
Default: none

Time Sync Server Type

Type of server for time synchronization, UDPTime or SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol).
Default: SNTP

Primary Time Server

DNS hostname or IP Address of Timeserver 1.
Default: None

Secondary Time Server

DNS hostname or IP Address of Timeserver 2.
Default: None

tertiary Time Server

DNS hostname or IP Address of Timeserver 3.
Default: None

Interval between synchronization

Seconds between each resynchronization.
Default: 86400

Max time drift

Maximum time drift in seconds that a server is allowed to adjust.
Default: 600

Group interval
Interval according to which server responses will be grouped.
Default: 10

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3.10. DNS
Overview
A DNS server can resolve a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) into the corresponding numeric
IP address. FQDNs are unambiguous textual domain names which specify a node's unique
position in the Internet's DNS tree hierarchy. FQDN resolution allows the actual physical IP
address to change while the FQDN can stay the same.
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) differs from an FQDN in that the URL includes the access
protocol along with the FQDN. For example the protocol might be specified http//: for world
wide web pages.
FQDNs are used in many aspects of a NetDefendOS configuration where IP addresses are
unknown or where it makes more sense to make use of DNS resolution instead of using static IP
addresses.

DNS with NetDefendOS

To accomplish DNS resolution, NetDefendOS has a built-in DNS client that can be configured to
make use of up to three DNS servers. The are called the Primary Server, the Secondary Server and
the Tertiary Server. For DNS to function, at least the primary server must be configured. It is
recommended to have both a primary and secondary defined so that there is a backup should
the primary be unavailable.

Features Requiring DNS Resolution

Having at least one DNS server defined is vital for functioning of the following modules in
NetDefendOS:

Automatic time synchronization.

Access to an external certificate authority server for CA signed certificates.

UTM features that require access to external servers such as anti-virus and IDP.

Example 3.37. Configuring DNS Servers

In this example, the DNS client is configured to use one primary and one secondary DNS server,
having IPv4 addresses 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 respectively.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set DNS DNSServer1=10.0.0.1 DNSServer2=10.0.0.2

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Device > DNS

2.

Enter the following:

Primary Server: 10.0.0.1

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3.

Secondary Server: 10.0.0.2

Click OK

DNS Lookup and IP Rules

In the case of DNS server request being generated by NetDefendOS itself, no IP rules need to be
defined for the connection to succeed. This is because connections initiated by NetDefendOS are
considered to be trusted. For example, this would be the case if NetDefendOS is accessing a CA
server to establish the validity of a certificate and first needs to resolve the certificate's FQDN to
an IP address.

Dynamic DNS and HTTP Poster

A DNS feature offered by NetDefendOS is the ability to explicitly inform DNS servers when the
external IP address of the NetDefend Firewall has changed. This is sometimes referred to as
Dynamic DNS and is useful where the NetDefend Firewall has an external address that can
change.
Dynamic DNS can also be useful in VPN scenarios where both ends of the tunnel have dynamic IP
addresses. If only one side of the tunnel has a dynamic address then the NetDefendOS VPN keep
alive feature solves this problem.
Under System > Misc. Clients in the Web Interface, several dynamic DNS services are defined.
The HTTP Poster client object is a generic dynamic DNS client with the following characteristics:

Multiple HTTP Poster objects can be defined, each with a different URL and different optional
settings.

By default, an HTTP Poster object sends an HTTP GET request to the defined URL. Some servers
require an HTTP POST request and to achieve this the option HTTP Post the Values should be
enabled. This is usually needed when authentication parameters are being sent in the URL.

By default, HTTP Poster does not automatically send the server request after NetDefendOS
reconfiguration. This behavior can be changed by enabling the option Repost on each
reconfiguration.
There is one exception to the default behavior and that is after a reconfigure which is the
result of getting a new local IP address on the interface that connects to the DNS server.
In this case, NetDefendOS always waits a predefined period of 20 seconds before reposting
after the reconfiguration.

The default Repost Delay is 1200 seconds (20 minutes). This can be altered.
The predefined DynDNS client has an predefined refetch time of 30 days which cannot be
changed.

The difference between HTTP Poster and the predefined named DNS servers is that HTTP Poster
can be used to send any URL. The named services are a convenience that make it easy to
correctly format the URL needed for that particular service. For example, the http:// URL for the
dyndns.org service might be:
myuid:[email protected]/nic/update?hostname=mydns.dyndns.org

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This could be sent by using HTTP Poster. Alternatively, the URL could be automatically formatted
for the administrator by NetDefendOS through using the DynDNS option and entering only the
information required for dyndns.org.
The CLI console command httpposter can be used to troubleshoot problems by seeing what
NetDefendOS is sending and what the servers are returning:
gw-world:/> httpposter

Note: A high rate of server queries can cause problems

Dynamic DNS services are often sensitive to repeated logon attempts over short periods
of time and may blacklist source IP addresses that are sending excessive requests. It is
therefore not advisable to query these servers too often, otherwise they may cease to
respond.

A repost for an individual server can be forced with the command:

gw-world:/> httpposter -repost=<index>

Where <index> is the position of the object in the list of posters. For example, to force a report of
the second in the list:
gw-world:/> httpposter -repost=2

HTTP Poster Has Other Uses

HTTP Poster may be used for other purposes than dynamic DNS. Any requirement for
NetDefendOS to send an HTTP GET or POST message to a particular URL could be met using this
feature.

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3.11. ICMP Ping

The combination of the ICMP echo request and echo reply messages are known as ping. They
provide a simple diagnostic tool to find out if a host is reachable. In the NetDefendOS CLI, the
ping command provides this feature.
In its simplest form, the CLI command to ping a remote IP address takes the form:
gw-world:/> ping <ipaddress>

For example, to ping the IPv4 address 10.6.58.10:

gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10
Sending 1 4-byte ICMP ping to 10.6.58.10 from 192.168.3.20
using PBR rable "main"
ICMP Reply from 192.168.1.1 seq=0 time=<10 ms TTL=128
Ping Results:

Sent: 1, Received:1, Avg RTT: 10.0 ms

Here, the RTT is the round trip time for the ICMP echo request and reply messages. The TTL value
is the Time To Live which is a hop counter. The initial TTL value is set by the sender and
decremented by each router passed. When it reaches zero, the packet is discarded preventing
packets from circulating forever.
This basic form of the ping command is also available in the NetDefendOS Web Interface by
going to: Status > Tools > Ping.

Choosing the Routing Table

By default, the outgoing source interface for ICMP ping is chosen by performing a lookup of the
destination IP address in the main routing table. This can be overridden with the -pbr option in
order to specify which routing table to use for the lookup. For example, if the routing table
my_routing_table is to be used, the command would be:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -pbr=my_routing_table -verbose

Note: The -pbr option cannot be used with the -srcif option
The -pbr option cannot be used with packet simulation using the -srcif option described
later. This is because the routing table lookup for the outgoing interface is not relevant
when simulating incoming packets.

IP Rules and Policies for Outgoing Ping Messages

When the ICMP ping message is outgoing from NetDefendOS, it does not require any IP rules or
IP policies to allow the traffic since NetDefendOS is always trusted. In the NetDefendOS event
message logs, an outgoing ping will generate a conn_open and conn_close log event using the
Stock_Allow_All_Rule. The source interface will always be the core interface (meaning
NetDefendOS itself ).

IP Rules and Policies for Incoming Ping Messages

Any ping messages that are incoming require an allowing IP rule or IP policy for NetDefendOS to
respond and these should have the associated Service object set to be the predefined service

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ping-inbound. An example IP rule for ping messages arriving on the wan interface would be the
following:
Action

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Destination
Interface

Destination
Network

Service

Allow

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

ping-inbound

Using the -verbose Option

The -verbose option is recommended to get the maximum amount of information from ping
usage. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -verbose
Sending 1 4-byte ICMP ping to 10.6.58.10 from 192.168.3.20
... using route "192.168.3.20 via lan, gw (Iface IP)" in PBR table "main"
ICMP Reply from 192.168.3.20 seq=0 time=<10 ms TTL=255
Ping Results:

Sent: 1, Received:1, Avg RTT: 10.0 ms

Here, the IPv4 address 192.168.3.20 is the IP address of the Ethernet interface on the firewall from
which the ping is sent. The output shows the route lookup that was performed to find the correct
interface.
When packet simulation is performed with the -scrif option (discussed later), the -verbose option
is required in order to show the rules that are triggered.

Testing TCP and UDP Connectivity

ICMP messages are neither UDP or TCP but are considered to be their own third category of IP
traffic. However, the NetDefendOS ping command has the ability to send a messages to test
either TCP or UDP connectivity.
To send as TCP, the -port option is used along with the -tcp option. Successful connectivity then
results in a 3-way TCP handshake taking place with the destination host. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -port=80 -tcp -verbose
Sending 0-byte TCP ping to 10.6.58.10:80 from 192.168.3.20:41207
using PBR table "main"
... using route "10.6.10.0/24 via aux, no gw" in PBR table "main"
TCP Reply from 10.6.58.10:80 to 192.168.3.20:41207 seq=0 SYN+ACK
time=>10 ms TTL=128
TCP Reply from 10.6.58.10:80 to 192.168.3.20:41207 seq=0 ACK
time=>10 ms TTL=128
TCP Ping Results:

Sent: 1, RST/ACKs Received:1, Loss: 0%, Avg RTT: 10.0 ms

This allows the remote hosts responsiveness to an incoming TCP connection to be established.
For testing UDP connectivity, use the -udp option with the -port option. The UDP message size
must also be specified using the -count option to specify the number of packets and the -length
option to specify each packet's length. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -udp -port=53 -verbose -count=1 -length=30
Sending 30-byte UDP ping to 10.6.58.10:53 from 192.168.3.20:22307
using PBR table "main"
... using route "0.0.0.0/0 via ext, gw 192.168.3.1" in PBR table "main"
UDP Reply from 10.6.58.10:53 to :192.168.3.20:22307 seq=0 time=50 ms TTL=58
Ping Results:

Sent: 1, Received:1, Loss: 0%, Avg RTT: 50.0 ms

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Incoming Packet Simulation with -srcif

Instead of testing the responsiveness of a remote host, the NetDefendOS ping command can be
used to simulate an incoming ICMP ping message and thereby test the locally configured IP
rules/policies and routes. This is done by using the srcif option. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -srcif=wan -verbose

This command will construct an ICMP packet with destination IP 10.6.58.10 and NetDefendOS will
behave as though the packet has arrived on the specified source interface (in this case, wan).
As the packet appears to arrive on the interface specified, the administrator can observe the
behavior of the configuration and which IP rules/policies and routes are triggered. The IP address
specified could be an actual host in which case the packet will be forwarded to it through the
firewall.
If there is no route that matches the combination of source IP and receiving interface (the -srcif
parameter), the packet it will be dropped by the default access rule. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -srcif=wan -verbose
Rule and routing information for ping:
PBR selected by rule "iface_member_main" - PBR table "main"
DROPPED by rule "Default_Access_Rule"

For the ping not to be dropped, there must not only be a route that matches the IP address and
interface combination but also an IP rule that allows the packet on that interface. If administrator
simulates the packet coming from the public Internet on the wan interface and going to some
host on the protected lannet, the allowing IP rule might look similar to the following:
Action

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Destination
Interface

Destination
Network

Service

NAT

lan

lannet

wannet

all-nets

ping-inbound

If there is no IP rule or IP policy that permits the packet it will also be dropped. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -srcif=wan -verbose
Rule and routing information for ping:
PBR selected by rule "iface_member_main" - PBR table "main"
DROPPED by rule "Default_Rule"

The -srcif option is usually used in combination with the -srcip option described next.

Specifying the Source IP

It is also possible to construct and send out an ICMP ping packet with a specific source IP address
using the -srcip option. For example:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -srcip=192.168.3.1 -verbose

Again, this is a feature that is intended for use by administrators for network testing purposes.

Note: ALGs cannot be used alongside -srcif or -srcip

A restriction with the -srcif and -srcip options is that ALGs cannot be used with the IP
rules that are triggered.

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Combining -srcif with -srcip

It is possible to combine -srcip with the -srcif option to simulate a packet arriving on a given
interface with a given source IP. This is probably the most common way that both of these
options are used.
In this example it can also be seen how the simulation will also show any pipe rules that are
triggered:
gw-world:/> ping 10.6.58.10 -srcif=lan -srcip=192.168.3.1 -verbose
Rule and routing information for ping:
PBR selected by rule "iface_member_main" - PBR table "main"
allowed by rule "nat_all_wan"
piped by rule "out_pipe" - Fwd Chain: out
piped by rule "out_pipe" - Ret Chain: in
Sending 1 4-byte ICMP ping to 10.6.58.10 from 192.168.3.20
sent via route "0.0.0.0/0 via lan, gw 192.168.3.1" in PBR table "main"
ICMP Reply from 10.6.58.10 seq=0 time= 10 ms TTL=247
Ping Results:

Sent: 1, Received:1, Avg RTT: 10.0 ms

The above output shows how a Pipe Rule object called out_pipe is triggered.
These options could also be combined further with the -tcp and port options.

Ping with IPv6

So far, the use of the ping command has been discussed only for IPv4 addresses. IPv6 addresses
can also be pinged and this is discussed in Section 3.2, IPv6 Support

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Chapter 4: Routing
This chapter describes how to configure IP routing in NetDefendOS.
Overview, page 204
Static Routing, page 205
Policy-based Routing, page 224
Route Load Balancing, page 231
OSPF, page 238
Multicast Routing, page 268
Transparent Mode, page 285

4.1. Overview
IP routing is one of the most fundamental functions of NetDefendOS. Any IP packet flowing
through a NetDefend Firewall will be subjected to at least one routing decision at some point in
time, and properly setting up routing is crucial for the system to function as expected.
NetDefendOS offers support for the following types of routing mechanisms:

Static routing

Dynamic routing

Additionally, NetDefendOS supports route monitoring to achieve route and link redundancy with
fail-over capability.

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4.2. Static Routing

The most basic form of routing is known as Static Routing. The term "static" is used because most
entries in a routing table are part of the NetDefendOS system's static configuration. They usually
remain unchanged during long periods of system operation.
Due to this manual approach, static routing is most appropriate to use in smaller network
deployments where addresses are fairly fixed and where the amount of connected networks are
limited to a few. However, for larger networks, or whenever the network topology is complex,
the work of manually maintaining static routing tables can be time-consuming and also
problematic. Dynamic routing should therefore be used in such cases.
For more information about the dynamic routing capabilities of NetDefendOS, please see
Section 4.5, OSPF. Note, however, that even if dynamic routing is chosen for a network,
understanding the principles of static routing and how it is implemented in NetDefendOS is still
required.

4.2.1. The Principles of Routing

IP routing is the mechanism used in TCP/IP based networks for delivering IP packets from their
source to their ultimate destination through a number of intermediary network devices. These
devices are most often referred to as routers since they are performing the task of routing
packets to their destination.
In each router, one or more routing tables contain a list of routes and these are consulted to find
out where to send a packet so it can reach its destination. The components of a single route are
discussed next.

The Components of a Route

When a route is defined it consists of the following parameters:

Interface
The interface to forward the packet on in order to reach the destination network. In other
words, the interface to which the destination IP range is connected, either directly or through
a router.
The interface might be a physical interface of the firewall or it might be VPN tunnel (tunnels
are treated like physical interfaces by NetDefendOS).

Network
This is the destination network IP address range which this route will reach. The route chosen
from a routing table is the one that has a destination IP range which includes the IP address
being sought. If there is more than one such matching route, the route chosen is the one
which has the smallest IP address range.
The destination network all-nets is usually always used in the route for public Internet access
via an ISP.

Gateway
The IP address of the gateway which is the next router in the path to the destination network.
This is optional. If the destination network is connected directly to the interface, this is not
needed.
When a router lies between the NetDefend Firewall and the destination network, a gateway
IP must be specified. For example, if the route is for public Internet access via an ISP then the
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public IPv4 address of the ISP's gateway router would be specified.

Local IP address
This parameter usually does not need to be specified. If it is specified, NetDefendOS responds
to ARP queries sent to this address. A special section below explains this parameter in more
depth.
Local IP Address and Gateway are mutually exclusive and either one or the other should be
specified.

Metric
This is a metric value assigned to the route and is used as a weight when performing
comparisons between alternate routes. If two routes are equivalent but have different metric
values then the route with the lowest metric value is taken.
The metric value is also used by Route Failover and Route Load Balancing.
For more information, see Section 4.4, Route Load Balancing and Section 4.2.3, Route
Failover.

A Typical Routing Scenario

The diagram below illustrates a typical NetDefend Firewall usage scenario.

Figure 4.1. A Typical Routing Scenario

In the above diagram, the LAN interface is connected to the network 192.168.0.0/24 and the
DMZ interface is connected to the network 10.4.0.0/16. The WAN interface is connected to the
network 195.66.77.0/24 and the address of the ISP gateway to the public Internet is 195.66.77.4.
The associated routing table for this would be as follows:
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Route #

Interface

Destination

lan

192.168.0.0/24

dmz

10.4.0.0/16

wan

195.66.77.0/24

wan

all-nets

Gateway

195.66.77.4

The above routing table provides the following information:

Route #1
All packets going to hosts on the 192.168.0.0/24 network should be sent out on the lan
interface. As no gateway is specified for the route entry, the host is assumed to be located on
the network segment directly reachable from the lan interface.

Route #2
All packets going to hosts on the 10.4.0.0/16 network are to be sent out on the dmz interface.
Also for this route, no gateway is specified.

Route #3
All packets going to hosts on the 195.66.77.0/24 network will be sent out on the wan
interface. No gateway is required to reach the hosts.

Route #4
All packets going to any host (the all-nets network will match all hosts) will be sent out on the
wan interface and to the gateway with IP address 195.66.77.4. That gateway will then consult
its routing table to find out where to send the packets next.
A route with the destination all-nets is often referred to as the Default Route as it will match all
packets for which no specific route has been configured. This route usually specifies the
interface which is connected to the public internet.

The Narrowest Routing Table Match is Selected

When a routing table is evaluated, the ordering of the routes is not important. Instead, all routes
in the relevant routing table are evaluated and the most specific route is used. In other words, if
two routes have destination networks that overlap, the narrower network definition will be taken
before the wider one. This behavior is in contrast to IP rules where the first matching rule is used.
In the above example, a packet with a destination IP address of 192.168.0.4 will theoretically
match both the first route and the last one. However, the first route entry is a narrower, more
specific match so the evaluation will end there and the packet will be routed according to that
entry.
Although routing table ordering is not important, it is still recommended for readability to try
and place narrower routes first and the default all-nets route last.

The Local IP Address Parameter

The correct usage of the Local IP Address parameter can be difficult to understand so additional
explanation can be helpful.
Normally, a physical interface such as lan is connected to a single network and the interface and
network are on the same network. We can say that the network is bound to a physical interface
and clients on the connected network can automatically find the NetDefend Firewall through

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ARP queries. ARP works because the clients and the NetDefendOS interface are part of the same
network.
A second network might then be added to the same physical interface via a switch, but with a
new network range that does not include the physical interface's IP address. This network is said
to be not bound to the physical interface. Clients on this second network won't then be able to
communicate with the NetDefend Firewall because ARP won't function between the clients and
the interface.
To solve this problem, a new route is added to NetDefendOS with the following parameters:

Interface: The interface on which the second network is found.

Network: The IP address range of the second network.

Local IP Address: An address within the second network's IP range.

When the Default Gateway of the second network's clients is now set to the same value as the
Local IP Address of the above route, the clients will be able to communicate successfully with the
interface. The IP address chosen in the second network is not significant, as long as it is the same
value for the Default Gateway of the clients and the Local IP Address.
The effect of adding the route with the Local IP Address is that the firewall will act as a gateway
with the Local IP Address and respond to, as well as send out, ARP queries as though the interface
had that IP address.
The diagram below illustrates a scenario where this feature could be used. The network
10.1.1.0/24 is bound to a physical interface that has an IP address within the network of 10.1.1.1. If
we now attach a second network 10.2.2.0/24 to the interface via the switch, it is unbound since
the interface's IP address does not belong to it.

Figure 4.2. Using Local IP Address with an Unbound Network

By adding a NetDefendOS route for this second network with the Local IP Address specified as
10.2.2.1, the interface will then respond to ARP requests from the 10.2.2.0/24 network. The clients
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in this second network must also have their Default Gateway set to 10.2.2.1 in order to reach the
NetDefend Firewall.
This feature is normally used when an additional network is to be added to an interface but it is
not desirable to change the existing IP addresses of the network. From a security standpoint,
doing this can present significant risks since different networks will typically be joined together
through a switch which imposes no controls on traffic passing between those networks. Caution
should therefore be exercised before using this feature.

All Traffic Must have Two Associated Routes

Something that is not intuitive when trying to understand routing in NetDefendOS is the fact
that all traffic must have two routes associated with it. Not only must a route be defined for the
destination network of a connection but also for the source network.
The route that defines the source network simply says that the source network is found on a
particular interface. When a new connection is opened, NetDefendOS performs a check known
as a reverse route lookup which looks for this route. The source network route is not used to
perform routing but instead as a check that the source network should be found on the interface
where it arrived. If this check fails, NetDefendOS generates a Default Access Rule error log
message.
Even traffic destined for Core (NetDefendOS itself ), such as ICMP ping requests must follow this
rule of having two routes associated with it. In this case, the interface of one of the routes is
specified as Core.

4.2.2. Static Routing

This section describes how routing is implemented in NetDefendOS, and how to configure static
routing.
NetDefendOS supports multiple routing tables. A default table called main is predefined and is
always present in NetDefendOS. However, additional and completely separate routing tables can
be defined by the administrator to provide alternate routing.
These user-defined extra routing toubles can be used to implement Policy Based Routing which
means the administrator can set up rules in the IP rule set that decide which of the routing tables
will handle certain types of traffic. (see Section 4.3, Policy-based Routing).

The Route Lookup Mechanism

The NetDefendOS route lookup mechanism has some slight differences to how some other
router products work. In many routers, where the IP packets are forwarded without context (in
other words, the forwarding is stateless), the routing table is scanned for each and every IP
packet received by the router. In NetDefendOS, packets are forwarded with state-awareness, so
the route lookup process is tightly integrated into the NetDefendOS stateful inspection
mechanism.
When an IP packet is received on any of the interfaces, the connection table is consulted to see if
there is an already open connection for which the received packet belongs. If an existing
connection is found, the connection table entry includes information on where to route the
packet so there is no need for lookups in the routing table. This is far more efficient than
traditional routing table lookups, and is one reason for the high forwarding performance of
NetDefendOS.
If an established connection cannot be found, then the routing table is consulted. It is important
to understand that the route lookup is performed before any of the various policy rules get
evaluated (for example, IP rules). Consequently, the destination interface is known at the time
NetDefendOS decides if the connection should be allowed or dropped. This design allows for a
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more fine-grained control in security policies.

NetDefendOS Route Notation

NetDefendOS uses a slightly different way of describing routes compared to most other systems
but this way is easier to understand, making errors less likely.
Many other products do not use the specific interface in the routing table, but specify the IP
address of the interface instead. The routing table below is from a Microsoft Windows XP
workstation:
====================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x10003 ...00 13 d4 51 8d dd ...... Intel(R) PRO/1000 CT Network
0x20004 ...00 53 45 00 00 00 ...... WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
===================================================================
===================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination
Netmask
Gateway
Interface Metric
0.0.0.0
0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.10
20
10.0.0.0
255.0.0.0
10.4.2.143
10.4.2.143
1
10.4.2.143 255.255.255.255
127.0.0.1
127.0.0.1
50
10.255.255.255 255.255.255.255
10.4.2.143
10.4.2.143
50
85.11.194.33 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.10
20
127.0.0.0
255.0.0.0
127.0.0.1
127.0.0.1
1
192.168.0.0
255.255.255.0 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.10
20
192.168.0.10 255.255.255.255
127.0.0.1
127.0.0.1
20
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.10
20
224.0.0.0
240.0.0.0
10.4.2.143
10.4.2.143
50
224.0.0.0
240.0.0.0 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.10
20
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255
10.4.2.143
10.4.2.143
1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.0.10 192.168.0.10
1
Default Gateway:
192.168.0.1
===================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

The corresponding routing table in NetDefendOS will be similar to the following:

Flags Network
----- -----------------192.168.0.0/24
10.0.0.0/8
0.0.0.0/0

Iface
Gateway
Local IP
-------- -------------- --------lan
wan
wan
192.168.0.1

Metric
-----20
1
20

NetDefendOS Route Definition Advantages

The NetDefendOS method of defining routes makes the reading and understanding of routing
information easier.
A further advantage with the NetDefendOS approach is that the administrator can directly
specify a gateway for a particular route and the following is true:

A separate route does not need to be defined that includes the gateway IP address.

It does not matter even if there is a separate route which includes the gateway IP address and
that routes traffic to a different interface.

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Composite Subnets can be Specified

Another advantage with the NetDefendOS approach to route definition is that it allows the
administrator to specify routes for destinations that are not aligned with traditional subnet
masks.
For example, it is perfectly legal to define one route for the destination IP address range
192.168.0.5 to 192.168.0.17 and another route for IP addresses 192.168.0.18 to 192.168.0.254. This
is a feature that makes NetDefendOS highly suitable for routing in highly complex network
topologies.

Displaying Routing Tables

It is important to note that routing tables that are initially configured by the administrator can
have routes added, deleted and changed automatically during live operation and these changes
will appear when the routing table contents are displayed.
These routing table changes can take place for different reasons. For example, if dynamic routing
with OSPF has been enabled then routing tables will become populated with new routes learned
from communicating with other OSPF routers in an OSPF network. Other events such as route
fail-over can also cause routing table contents to change over time.
Example 4.1. Displaying the main Routing Table
This example illustrates how to display the contents of the default main routing table.
Command-Line Interface
To see the routing table contents:
gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable main
gw-world:/main> show
Route
#
1
2
3

Interface
--------wan
lan
wan

Network
Gateway
Local IP
-------- ------------- -------all-nets 213.124.165.1 <empty>
lannet
<empty>
<empty>
wannet
<empty>
<empty>

To return the default CLI context:

gw-world:/main> cc
gw-world:/>

To see the active routing table enter:

gw-world:/> routes
Flags Network
----- -----------------192.168.0.0/24
213.124.165.0/24
0.0.0.0/0

Iface
Gateway
Local IP
------- --------------- -------lan
wan
wan
213.124.165.1

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Metric
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0
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Web Interface
To see the configured routing table:
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables

2.

Select the main routing table

The main window will list the configured routes

To see the active routing table in the Web Interface, select the Routes item in the Status
dropdown menu in the menu bar - the main window will list the active routing table

Tip: The cc command may be needed to change context

In the CLI example above, it was necessary to first select the name of a specific routing
table with the cc command (meaning change category or change context) before
manipulating individual routes.

Default Static Routes are Added Automatically for Each Interface

When the NetDefend Firewall is started for the first time, NetDefendOS will automatically add a
route in the main routing table for each physical interface. These routes are assigned a default IP
address object in the address book and these IP objects must have their addresses changed to
the appropriate range for traffic to flow.

Note: The metric for default routes is 100

The metric assigned to the default routes automatically created for the physical
interfaces is always 100.

These automatically added routes cannot be removed manually by deleting them one at a time
from a routing table. Instead, the properties of the interface must be selected and the advanced
option Automatically add a route for this interface using the given network must be
disabled. This will remove any route that was added automatically at startup. This option has no
other purpose but to delete the automatically added routes.

The all-nets Route

The most important route that should be defined is the route to all-nets which usually
corresponds to an ISP that provides public Internet access. If using the NetDefendOS setup
wizard, this route is also added automatically.
However, the option also exists for any physical interface to indicate that it should be used for
connection to the Internet. In the Web Interface this is an advanced setting in the Ethernet
interface properties called:
Automatically add a default route for this interface using the given default gateway.
When this option is selected, the appropriate all-nets route is automatically added to the main
routing table for the interface.

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Example 4.2. Adding a Route to the main Table

This example shows how an all-nets route is added to the routing table called main. This route
will be for the ISP connected to the wan interface and the ISP is accessed via a router with the IP
address isp_gw_ip which will be the gateway for the route.
Command-Line Interface
Change the context to be the routing table:
gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable main

Add the route:

gw-world:/main> add Route
Interface=wan
Network=all-nets
Gateway=isp_gw_ip

Return to the default CLI context:

gw-world:/main> cc
gw-world:/>

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > main > Add > Route

2.

Now enter:

3.

Interface: wan

Network: all-nets

Gateway: isp_gw_ip

Click OK

Routes can Contain IPv4 or IPv6 Addresses

A single route can contain either an IPv4 or IPv6 address but not both. Routes that use IPv4 and
IPv6 addresses can be mixed in the same routing table. This topic is described further in
Section 3.2, IPv6 Support.

Routes to the Core Interface

NetDefendOS automatically populates the active routing table with Core Routes. These routes are
present for NetDefendOS to understand how to route traffic that is destined for the itself.
There is one route added for each Ethernet interface in the system. For example, if there two
interfaces named lan and wan with the IPv4 addresses 192.168.0.10 and 193.55.66.77, this will
result in the following routes existing:

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Route #

Interface

Destination

core

192.168.0.10

core

193.55.66.77

Gateway

When the system receives an IP packet whose destination address is one of the interface IPs, the
packet will be routed to the core interface. In other words, it is processed by NetDefendOS itself.
There is also a core route added for all multicast addresses:
Route #

Interface

Destination

core

224.0.0.0/4

Gateway

To include the core routes when the active routing table is displayed, it is necessary to explicitly
specify that all routes are to be displayed. This is shown in the example below.
Example 4.3. Displaying the Core Routes
This example illustrates how to display the core routes in the active routing table.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> routes -all
Flags Network
----- -----------------127.0.0.1
192.168.0.1
213.124.165.181
127.0.3.1
127.0.4.1
192.168.0.0/24
213.124.165.0/24
224.0.0.0/4
0.0.0.0/0

Iface
Gateway
Local IP Metric
---------- ------------- -------- -----core
(Shared IP)
0
core
(Iface IP)
0
core
(Iface IP)
0
core
(Iface IP)
0
core
(Iface IP)
0
lan
0
wan
0
core
(Iface IP)
0
wan
213.124.165.1
0

Web Interface
1.

Select the Routes item in the Status dropdown menu in the menu bar

2.

Check the Show all routes checkbox and click the Apply button

3.

The main window will list the active routing table, including the core routes

Tip: Understanding output from the routes command

For detailed information about the output of the CLI routes command, refer to the
separate CLI Reference Guide.

4.2.3. Route Failover

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Overview
NetDefend Firewalls are often deployed in mission-critical locations where availability and
connectivity is crucial. For example, an enterprise relying heavily on access to the Internet could
have operations severely disrupted if a single connection to the external Internet via a single
Internet Service Provider (ISP) fails.
It is therefore not unusual to have backup Internet connectivity using a secondary ISP. The
connections to the two service providers often use different routes to avoid a single point of
failure.
To allow for a situation with multiple ISPs, NetDefendOS provides a Route Failover capability so
that should one route fail, traffic can automatically failover to another, alternate route.
NetDefendOS implements route failover through the use of Route Monitoring in which
NetDefendOS monitors the availability of routes and then switches traffic to an alternate route
should the primary, preferred route fail.

Figure 4.3. A Route Failover Scenario for ISP Access

Setting Up Route Failover

To set up route failover, Route Monitoring must be enabled and this is an option that is enabled
on a route by route basis. To enable route failover in a scenario with a preferred and a backup
route, the preferred route will have route monitoring enabled, however the backup route does
not require this since it will usually have no route to failover to. When route monitoring is
enabled for a route, one of the following monitoring methods must be chosen:
Interface Link Status

NetDefendOS will monitor the link status of the interface

specified in the route. As long as the interface is up, the route is
diagnosed as healthy. This method is appropriate for
monitoring that the interface is physically attached and that the
cabling is working as expected. As any changes to the link status
are instantly noticed, this method provides the fastest response
to failure.

Gateway Monitoring

If a specific gateway has been specified as the next hop for a

route, accessibility to that gateway can be monitored by
sending periodic ARP requests. As long as the gateway
responds to these requests, the route is considered to be
functioning correctly.
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Automatically Added Routes Need Redefining

It is important to note that the route monitoring cannot be enabled on automatically added
routes. For example, the routes that NetDefendOS creates at initial startup for physical interfaces
are automatically added routes. The reason why monitoring cannot be enabled for these routes
is because automatically created routes have a special status in an NetDefendOS configuration
and are treated differently.
If route monitoring is required on an automatically created route, the route should first be
deleted and then recreated manually as a new route. Monitoring can then be enabled on the
new route.

Setting the Route Metric

When specifying routes, the administrator should manually set a route's Metric. The metric is a
positive integer that indicates how preferred the route is as a means to reach its destination.
When two routes offer a means to reach the same destination, NetDefendOS will select the one
with the lowest metric value for sending data (if two routes have the same metric, the route
found first in the routing table will be chosen).
A primary, preferred route should have a lower metric (for example "10"), and a secondary,
failover route should have a higher metric value (for example "20").

Multiple Failover Routes

It is possible to specify more than one failover route. For instance, the primary route could have
two other routes as failover routes instead of just one. In this case the metric should be different
for each of the three routes: "10" for the primary route, "20" for the first failover route and "30" for
the second failover route. The first two routes would have route monitoring enabled in the
routing table but the last one (with the highest metric) would not since it has no route to failover
to.

Failover Processing
Whenever monitoring determines that a route is not available, NetDefendOS will mark the route
as disabled and instigate route failover for existing and new connections. For already established
connections, a route lookup will be performed to find the next best matching route and the
connections will then switch to using the new route. For new connections, route lookup will
ignore disabled routes and the next best matching route will be used instead.
The table below defines two default routes, both having all-nets as the destination, but using two
different gateways. The first, primary route has the lowest metric and also has route monitoring
enabled. Route monitoring for the second, alternate route is not meaningful since it has no
failover route.
Route #

Interface

Destination

Gateway

Metric

Monitoring

wan

all-nets

195.66.77.1

10

On

wan

all-nets

193.54.68.1

20

Off

When a new connection is about to be established to a host on the Internet, a route lookup will
result in the route that has the lowest metric being chosen. If the primary WAN router should
then fail, this will be detected by NetDefendOS, and the first route will be disabled. As a
consequence, a new route lookup will be performed and the second route will be selected with
the first one being marked as disabled.

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Re-enabling Routes
Even if a route has been disabled, NetDefendOS will continue to check the status of that route.
Should the route become available again, it will be re-enabled and existing connections will
automatically be transferred back to it.

Route Interface Grouping

When using route monitoring, it is important to check if a failover to another route will cause the
routing interface to be changed. If this could happen, it is necessary to take some precautionary
steps to ensure that policies and existing connections will be maintained.
To illustrate the problem, consider the following configuration:
Firstly, there is one IP rule that will NAT all HTTP traffic destined for the Internet through the wan
interface:
Action

Src Iface

Src Net

Dest Iface

Dest Net

Parameters

NAT

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

http

The routing table consequently contains the following default route:

Interface

Destination

Gateway

Metric

Monitoring

wan

all-nets

195.66.77.1

10

Off

Now a secondary route is added over a backup DSL connection and Route Monitoring is enabled
for this. The updated routing table will look like this:
Route #

Interface

Destination

Gateway

Metric

Monitoring

wan

all-nets

195.66.77.1

10

On

dsl

all-nets

193.54.68.1

20

Off

Notice that Route Monitoring is enabled for the first route but not the backup, failover route.
As long as the preferred wan route is healthy, everything will work as expected. Route
Monitoring will also be functioning, so the secondary route will be enabled if the wan route
should fail.
There are, however, some problems with this setup: if a route failover occurs, the default route
will then use the dsl interface. When a new HTTP connection is established, a route lookup will
be made resulting in a destination interface of dsl. The IP rules will then be evaluated, but the
original NAT rule assumes the destination interface to be wan so the new connection will be
dropped by the rule set.
In addition, any existing connections matching the NAT rule will also be dropped as a result of
the change in the destination interface. Clearly, this is undesirable.
To overcome this issue, potential destination interfaces should be grouped together into an
Interface Group and the Security/Transport Equivalent flag should be enabled for the Group.
The Interface Group is then used as the Destination Interface when setting policies. For more
information on groups, see Section 3.4.6, Interface Groups.

Gratuitous ARP Generation

By default NetDefendOS generates a gratuitous ARP request when a route failover occurs. The

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reason for this is to notify surrounding systems that there has been a route change. This behavior
can be controlled by the advanced setting Gratuitous ARP on Fail.

4.2.4. Host Monitoring for Route Failover

Overview
To provide a more flexible and configurable way to monitor the integrity of routes, NetDefendOS
provides the additional capability to perform Host Monitoring. This feature means that one or
more external host systems can be routinely polled to check that a particular route is available.
The advantages of Host Monitoring are twofold:

In a complex network topology it is more reliable to check accessibility to external hosts. Just
monitoring a link to a local switch may not indicate a problem in another part of the internal
network.

Host monitoring can be used to help in setting the acceptable Quality of Service level of
Internet response times. Internet access may be functioning but it may be desirable to
instigate route failover if response latency times become unacceptable using the existing
route.

Enabling Host Monitoring

As part of Route Properties Host Monitoring can be enabled and a single route can have multiple
hosts associated with it for monitoring. Multiple hosts can provide a higher certainty that any
network problem resides in the local network rather than because one remote host itself is
down.
In association with Host Monitoring there are two numerical parameters for a route:
Grace Period

This is the period of time after startup or after

reconfiguration of the NetDefend Firewall which
NetDefendOS will wait before starting Route Monitoring.
This waiting period allows time for all network links to
initialize once the firewall comes online.

Minimum Number of Hosts

Available

This is the minimum number of hosts that must be

considered to be accessible before the route is deemed to
have failed. The criteria for host accessibility are described
below.

Specifying Hosts
For each host specified for host monitoring there are a number of property parameters that
should be set:

Method
The method by which the host is to be polled. This can be one of:

ICMP - ICMP "Ping" polling. An IP address must be specified for this.

TCP - A TCP connection is established to and then disconnected from the host. An IP
address must be specified for this.

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HTTP - A normal HTTP server request using a URL. A URL must be specified for this as well
as a text string which is the beginning (or complete) text of a valid response. If no text is
specified, any response from the server will be valid.

IP Address
The IP address of the host when using the ICMP or TCP option.

Port Number
The port number for polling when using the TCP option.

Interval
The interval in milliseconds between polling attempts. The default setting is 10,000 and the
minimum value allowed is 100 ms.

Sample
The number of polling attempts used as a sample size for calculating the Percentage Loss and
the Average Latency. This value cannot be less than 1.

Maximum Failed Poll Attempts

The maximum permissible number of polling attempts that fail. If this number is exceeded
then the host is considered unreachable.

Max Average Latency

The maximum number of milliseconds allowable between a poll request and the response. If
this threshold is exceeded then the host is considered unreachable. Average Latency is
calculated by averaging the response times from the host. If a polling attempt receives no
response then it is not included in the averaging calculation.

The Reachability Required option

An important option that can be enabled for a host is the Reachability Required option. When
this is selected, the host must be determined as accessible in order for that route to be
considered to be functioning. Even if other hosts are accessible, this option says that the
accessibility of a host with this option set is mandatory.
Where multiple hosts are specified for host monitoring, more than one of them could have
Reachability Required enabled. If NetDefendOS determines that any host with this option
enabled is not reachable, Route Failover is initiated.

HTTP Parameters
If the HTTP polling method is selected then two further parameters can be entered:

Request URL
The URL which is to be requested.

Expected Response
The text that is expected back from querying the URL.
Testing for a specific response text provides the possibility of testing if an application is

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offline. If, for example, a web page response from a server can indicate if a specific database is
operational with text such as "Database OK", then the absence of that response can indicate
that the server is operational but the application is offline.

A Known Issue When No External Route is Specified

With connections to an Internet ISP, an external network route should always be specified. This
external route specifies on which interface the network which exists between the NetDefend
Firewall and the ISP can be found. If only an all-nets route is specified to the ISP's gateway, route
failover may, depending on the connected equipment, not function as expected.
This issue rarely occurs but the reason why it occurs is that ARP queries arriving on a disabled
route will be ignored.

4.2.5. Advanced Settings for Route Failover

The following NetDefendOS advanced settings are available for route failover:

Iface poll interval

The time in milliseconds between polling for interface failure.
Default: 500

ARP poll interval

The time in milliseconds between ARP-lookup of hosts. This may be overridden in individual
routes.
Default: 1000

Ping poll interval

The time in milliseconds between sending a Ping to hosts.
Default: 1000

Grace time
The length of time in seconds between startup or reconfigure and monitoring start.
Default: 30

consecutive fails
The number of consecutive failures that occurs before a route is marked as being unavailable.
Default: 5

Consecutive success
The number of consecutive successes that must occur before a route is marked as being
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available.
Default: 5

Gratuitous ARP on fail

Send a gratuitous ARP on HA failover to alert hosts of the changes in interface Ethernet and IP
addresses.
Default: Enabled

4.2.6. Proxy ARP

Overview
As discussed previously in Section 3.5, ARP, the ARP protocol facilitates a mapping between an
IP address and the MAC address of a host on an Ethernet network.
However, situations may exist where a network running Ethernet is separated into two parts with
a routing device such as a NetDefend Firewall in between. In such a case, NetDefendOS itself can
respond to ARP requests directed to the network on the other side of the NetDefend Firewall
using the feature known as Proxy ARP.
The splitting of an Ethernet network into distinct parts so that traffic between them can be
controlled is a common usage of the proxy ARP feature. NetDefendOS rule sets can then be used
to impose security policies on the traffic passing between the different network parts.

A Typical Scenario
As an example of a typical proxy ARP scenario, consider a network split into two sub-networks
with a NetDefend Firewall between the two.
Host A on one sub-network might send an ARP request to find out the MAC address for the IP
address of host B on the other sub-network. With the proxy ARP feature configured,
NetDefendOS responds to this ARP request instead of host B. NetDefendOS sends its own MAC
address in reply, pretending to be the target host. After receiving the reply, Host A then sends
data directly to NetDefendOS which forwards the data to host B. In the process NetDefendOS
checks the traffic against the configured rule sets.

Setting Up Proxy ARP

Setting up proxy ARP is done by specifying the option for a route in a routing table. Suppose
there is a network that is divided into two parts called net_1 and net_2.
The network net_1 is connected to the interface if1 and the network net_2 is connected to the
interface if2. In NetDefendOS there will be a route configured that says net_1 can be found on if1.
This might be called route_1.
For route_1 it is possible to specify the option that this network should be proxy ARPed on
interface if2. Now any ARP request issued by a net_2 host connected to if2 looking for an IP
address in net_1 will get a positive response from NetDefendOS. In other words, NetDefendOS
will pretend that the net_1 address is found on if2 and will forward data traffic to net_1.
In the same way, net_2 could be published on the interface if1 so that there is a mirroring of
routes and ARP proxy publishing.

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Route #

Network

Interface

Proxy ARP Published

net_1

if1

if2

net_2

if2

if1

In this way there is complete separation of the sub-networks but the hosts are unaware of this.
The routes are a pair which are a mirror image of each other but there is no requirement that
proxy ARP is used in a pairing like this.
Keep in mind that if the host has an ARP request for an IP address outside of the local network
then this will be sent to the gateway configured for that host. The entire example is illustrated
below.

Figure 4.4. A Proxy ARP Example

Transparent Mode as an Alternative

Transparent Mode is an alternative and preferred way of splitting Ethernet networks. Setup is
simpler than using proxy ARP since only the appropriate switch routes need to be defined. Using
switch routes is fully explained in Section 4.7, Transparent Mode.
Proxy ARP depends on static routing where the location of networks on interfaces are known
and usually fixed. Transparent mode is more suited to networks whose interface location can
change.

Proxy ARP and High Availability Clusters

In HA clusters, switch routes cannot be used and transparent mode is therefore not an option.
However, proxy ARP does function with HA and is consequently the only way to implement
transparent mode functionality with a cluster.

Note: Not all interfaces can make use of Proxy ARP

It is only possible to have Proxy ARP functioning for Ethernet and VLAN interfaces. Proxy
ARP is not relevant for other types of NetDefendOS interfaces since ARP is not involved.

Automatically Added Routes

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Proxy ARP cannot be enabled for automatically added routes. For example, the routes that
NetDefendOS creates at initial startup for physical interfaces are automatically added routes. The
reason why Proxy ARP cannot be enabled for these routes is because automatically created
routes have a special status in the NetDefendOS configuration and are treated differently.
If Proxy ARP is required on an automatically created route, the route should first be deleted and
then manually recreated as a new route. Proxy ARP can then be enabled on the new route.

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4.3. Policy-based Routing

Overview
Policy-based Routing (PBR) is an extension to the standard routing described previously. It offers
administrators significant flexibility in implementing routing decision policies by being able to
use different routing tables according to specified criteria.
Normal routing forwards packets according to destination IP address information derived from
static routes or from a dynamic routing protocol. For example, using OSPF, the route chosen for
packets will be the least-cost (shortest) path derived from an SPF calculation. Policy-based
routing means that routes chosen for traffic can be based on specific traffic parameters.
Policy-based routing allows the following to be possible:

Source-based Routing
A different routing table may need to be chosen based on the source of traffic. When more
than one ISP is used to provide Internet services, policy-based routing can route traffic
originating from different sets of users through different routes.
For example, traffic from one address range might be routed through one ISP, whilst traffic
from another address range might be through a second ISP.

Service-based Routing
A different routing table might need to be chosen based on the service. Policy-based routing
can route a given protocol such as HTTP, through proxies such as Web caches. Specific
services might also be routed to a specific ISP so that one ISP handles all HTTP traffic.

User-based Routing
A different routing table might need to be chosen based on the user identity or the group to
which the user belongs.
This is particularly useful in provider-independent metropolitan area networks where all users
share a common active backbone but each can use different ISPs and subscribe to different
providers.

PBR Components
Policy-based routing implementation in NetDefendOS is implemented using two components:

Additional Routing Tables

One or more user-defined alternate Routing Tables are created in addition to the standard
default main routing table.

Routing Rules
One or more Routing Rules are created to determine which routing table to use for which
traffic.
Without routing rules, the main routing table is the default.

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Routing Tables
NetDefendOS, as standard, has one default routing table called main. In addition to the main
table, it is possible to define one or more, additional routing tables for policy-based routing.
(these will sometimes be referred to as alternate routing tables).
Alternate routing tables contain the same information for describing routes as main, except that
there is an extra property defined for each of them which is called ordering. The ordering property
decides how route lookup is done using alternate tables in conjunction with the main table. This
is described further below.
Example 4.4. Creating a Routing Table
In this example, a new routing table called MyPBRTable is created with the Ordering property set
to First.
Command-Line Interface
To see the configured routing table:
gw-world:/> add RoutingTable MyPBRTable Ordering=First

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > Add > RoutingTable

2.

Now enter:

Name: MyPBRTable

For Ordering select one of:

First - the named routing table is consulted first of all. If this lookup fails, the lookup
will continue in the main routing table.

Default - the main routing table will be consulted first. If the only match is the
default route (in other words the all-nets route), the named routing table will be
consulted. If the lookup in the named routing table fails, the lookup as a whole is
considered to have failed.

Only - the named routing table is the only one consulted. If this lookup fails, the
lookup will not continue in the main routing table.

3.

If Remove Interface IP Routes is enabled, the default interface routes are removed, that is
to say routes to the core interface (which are routes to NetDefendOS itself ).

4.

Click OK

Example 4.5. Adding Routes

After defining the routing table MyPBRTable, routes can be added to the table. Assume that the
route to a network my_network is to be defined for the lan interface.

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Command-Line Interface
Change the context to be the routing table:
gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable MyPBRTable

Add the route

gw-world:/main> add Route Interface=lan Network=my_network

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > MyPBRTable > Add > Route

2.

Now enter:

3.

Interface: lan

Network: my_network

Gateway: The gateway router is there is one

Local IP Address: The IP address specified here will be automatically published on the
corresponding interface. This address will also be used as the sender address in ARP
queries. If no address is specified, the firewall's interface IP address will be used.

Metric: Specifies the metric for this route. (Mostly used in route fail-over scenarios)

Click OK

Routing Rules
A rule in the routing rule set can decide which routing table is selected. A routing rule has a
number of filtering properties that are similar to those used in an IP rule. A rule can trigger on a
type of service (HTTP for example) in combination with the specified Source/Destination
Interface and Source/Destination Network.
When looking up routing rules, it is the first matching rule found that is triggered.
Example 4.6. Creating a Routing Rule
In this example, a routing rule called my_routing_rule is created. This will select the routing table
MyPBRTable for any http traffic destined for the network my_network.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add RoutingRule Service=http
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=my_network
ForwardRoutingTable=MyPBRTable
ReturnRoutingTable=MyPBRTable
Name=my_routing_rule

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Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > Add > RoutingTable

2.

Now enter:

Name: my_routing_rule

Service: http

SourceInterface: any

SourceNetwork: all-nets

DestinationInterface: any

DestinationNetwork: my_network

ForwardRoutingTable: MyPBRTable

ReturnRoutingTable: MyPBRTable

3.

If Remove Interface IP Routes is enabled, the default interface routes are removed, that is
to say routes to the core interface (which are routes to NetDefendOS itself ).

4.

Click OK

Routing Rules can use IPv4 or IPv6 Addresses

Routing rules support either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses as the source and destination network for a
rule's filtering properties.
However both the source and destination network must be either IPv4 or IPv6. It is not
permissible to combine IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in a single rule. For further discussion of this
topic, see Section 3.2, IPv6 Support.

The Forward and Return Routing Table can be Different

In most cases, the routing table for forward and return traffic will be the same. In some cases it
can be advantageous to have different values.
Take the example of a firewall with two hypothetical interfaces wan1 and wan2 connected to
two ISPs plus a protected network If1_net on the If1 interface. There are two routing tables, the
main routing table and an isp2 routing table which look like the following:
The main routing table
Index #

Interface

Network

Gateway

If1

If1_net

wan1

all-nets

isp1_ip

Index #

Interface

Destination

Gateway

wan2

all-nets

isp2_ip

The isp2 routing table

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If traffic coming through wan2 is to have access to If1_net then a routing rule needs to
constructed as follows:
Source
Interface

Source
Network

Destination
Interface

Destination
Network

Forward
Routing Table

Return
Routing Table

wan2

all-nets

any

If1_net

main

isp2

This rule allows the forward traffic through the wan2 table to find the route for If1_net in the
main routing table. The return traffic will use the isp2 table so it can reach the initiator of the
connection.
This example should also have some address translation rules since If1_net will probably be a
private IP network. For simplicity, that has been omitted.

The Routing Table Selection Process

When a packet corresponding to a new connection first arrives, the processing steps are as
follows to determine which routing table is chosen:
1.

The routing rules are first looked up but to do this the packet's destination interface must be
determined and this is always done by a lookup in the main routing table. It is therefore
important that a match for the destination network is found or at least a default all-nets
route exists which can catch anything not explicitly matched.

2.

A search is now made for a routing rule that matches the packet's source/destination
interface/network as well as service. If a matching rule is found then this determines the
routing table to use. If no routing rule is found then the main table will be used.

3.

Once the correct routing table has been located, a check is made to make sure that the
source IP address in fact belongs on the receiving interface. The Access Rules are firstly
examined to see if they can provide this check (see Section 6.1, Access Rules for more details
of this feature). If there are no Access Rules or a match with the rules cannot be found, a
reverse lookup in the previously selected routing table is done using the source IP address. If
the check fails then a Default access rule log error message is generated.

4.

At this point, using the routing table selected, the actual route lookup is done to find the
packet's destination interface. At this point the ordering parameter is used to determine how
the actual lookup is done and the options for this are described in the next section. To
implement virtual systems, the Only ordering option should be used.

5.

The connection is then subject to the normal IP rule set. If a SAT rule is encountered, address
translation will be performed. The decision of which routing table to use is made before
carrying out address translation but the actual route lookup is performed on the altered
address. Note that the original route lookup to find the destination interface used for all rule
look-ups was done with the original, untranslated address.

6.

If allowed by the IP rule set, the new connection is opened in the NetDefendOS state table
and the packet forwarded through this connection.

The Ordering parameter

Once the routing table for a new connection is chosen and that table is an alternate routing
table, the Ordering parameter associated with the table is used to decide how the alternate table
is combined with the main table to lookup the appropriate route. The three available options
are:
1.

Default

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The default behavior is to first look up the route in the main table. If no matching route is
found, or the default route is found (the route with the destination all-nets), a lookup for a
matching route in the alternate table is done. If no match is found in the alternate table then
the default route in the main table will be used.
2.

First
This behavior is to first look up the connection's route in the alternate table. If no matching
route is found there then the main table is used for the lookup. The default all-nets route
will be counted as a match in the alternate table if it exists there.

3.

Only
This option ignores the existence of any other table except the alternate table so that is the
only one used for the lookup.
One application of this option is to give the administrator a way to dedicate a single routing
table to one set of interfaces. The Only option should be used when creating virtual systems
since it can dedicate a routing table to a set of interfaces.

The first two options can be regarded as combining the alternate table with the main table and
assigning one route if there is a match in both tables.

Important: Ensure all-nets appears in the main table

A common mistake when setting up policy-based routing is the absence of a default
route with a destination interface of all-nets in the default main routing table.
If there is no route that is an exact match then the absence of a default all-nets route
will mean that the connection will be dropped.

Example 4.7. Policy-based Routing with Multiple ISPs

This example illustrates a multiple ISP scenario which is a common use of policy-based routing.
The following is assumed:

Each ISP will provide an IPv4 network from its network range. A 2 ISP scenario is assumed in
this case, with the network 10.10.10.0/24 belonging to ISP A and 20.20.20.0/24 belonging to
ISP B. The ISP provided gateways are 10.10.10.1 and 20.20.20.1 respectively.

All addresses in this scenario are public addresses for the sake of simplicity.

This is a "drop-in" design, where there are no explicit routing subnets between the ISP
gateways and the NetDefend Firewall.

In a provider-independent network, clients will likely have a single IP address, belonging to one
of the ISPs. In a single-organization scenario, publicly accessible servers will be configured with
two separate IP addresses: one from each ISP. However, this difference does not matter for the
policy routing setup itself.
Note that, for a single organization, Internet connectivity through multiple ISPs is normally best
done with the BGP protocol, which means not worrying about different IP spans or about policy
routing. Unfortunately, this is not always possible, and this is where Policy Based Routing
becomes a necessity.
We will set up the main routing table to use ISP A and add a named routing table called r2 that

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uses the default gateway of ISP B.

Interface

Network

Gateway

ProxyARP

lan1

10.10.10.0/24

wan1

lan1

20.20.20.0/24

wan2

wan1

10.10.10.1/32

lan1

wan2

20.20.20.1/32

wan1

all-nets

lan1
10.10.10.1

Contents of the named Policy-based Routing table r2:

Interface

Network

Gateway

wan2

all-nets

20.20.20.1

The table r2 has its Ordering parameter set to Default, which means that it will only be consulted
if the main routing table lookup matches the default route (all-nets).
Contents of the Policy-based Routing Policy:
Source
Interface

Source
Range

Destination
Interface

Destination
Range

Selected/
Service

Forward
VR table

Return
VR table

lan1

10.10.10.0/24

wan1

all-nets

all_services

r2

r2

wan2

all-nets

lan1

20.20.20.0/24

all_services

r2

r2

To configure this example scenario:

Web Interface
1.

Add the routes in the list to the main routing table, as shown above.

2.

Create a routing table called r2 and make sure the ordering is set to Default.

3.

Add the routes found in the list above for the routing table r2.

4.

Add the PBR routing rules according to the list with the following:

Go to: Network > Routing > Policy-based Routing Rules > Add > Routing Rule

Enter the information from the list

Repeat to add the next rule

Note
Routing rules in the above example are added for both inbound and outbound
connections.

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4.4. Route Load Balancing

Overview
NetDefendOS provides the option to perform Route Load Balancing (RLB). This is the ability to
distribute traffic over multiple alternate routes using one of a number of distribution algorithms.
The purpose of this feature is to provide the following:

Balancing of traffic between interfaces in a policy driven fashion.

To balance simultaneous utilization of multiple Internet links so networks are not dependent
on a single ISP.

To allow balancing of traffic across multiple VPN tunnels which might be setup over different
physical interfaces.

Enabling RLB
RLB is enabled on a routing table basis and this is done by creating an RLB Instance object. This
object specifies two parameters: a routing table and an RLB algorithm. A table may have only
one Instance object associated with it.
One of the algorithms from the following list can be specified in an RLB Instance object:

Round Robin
Matching routes are used equally often by successively going to the next matching route.

Destination
This is an algorithm that is similar to Round Robin but provides destination IP "stickiness" so
that the same destination IP address gets the same route. The algorithm is always used in
conjunction with an ALG.

Spillover
This uses the next route when specified interface traffic limits are exceeded continuously for
a given time.

Important: Destination must be used with an ALG

The Destination algorithm must be used for traffic that is also subject to a
NetDefendOS ALG. If either Round Robin or Spillover is used in combination with an
ALG, the behavior may not be as expected.

Disabling RLB
Deleting a routing table's Instance object has the effect of switching off RLB for that table.

RLB Operation
When RLB is enabled for a routing table through an RLB Instance object, the sequence of
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processing steps is as follows:

1.

Route lookup is done in the routing table and a list of all matching routes is assembled. The
routes in the list must cover the exact same IP address range (further explanation of this
requirement can be found below).

2.

If the route lookup finds only one matching route then that route is used and balancing
does not take place.

3.

If more than one matching route is found then RLB is used to choose which one to use. This
is done according to which algorithm is selected in the table's RLB Instance object:

Round Robin
Successive routes are chosen from the matching routes in a "round robin" fashion
provided that the metric of the routes is the same. This results in route lookups being
spread evenly across matching routes with same metric. If the matching routes have
unequal metrics then routes with lower metrics are selected more often and in
proportion to the relative values of all metrics (this is explained further below).

Figure 4.5. The RLB Round Robin Algorithm

Destination
This is similar to Round Robin but provides "stickiness" so that unique destination IP
addresses always get the same route from a lookup. The importance of this is that it
means that a particular destination application can see all traffic coming from the same
source IP address.

Spillover
Spillover is not similar to the previous algorithms. With spillover, the first matching
route's interface is repeatedly used until the Spillover Limits of that route's interface are
continuously exceeded for the Hold Timer number of seconds.
Once this happens, the next matching route is then chosen. The Spillover Limits for an
interface are set in the RLB Algorithm Settings along with the Hold Timer number of
seconds (the default is 30 seconds) for the interface.
When the traffic passing through the original route's interface falls below the Spillover
Limits continuously for the Hold Timer number of seconds, route lookups will then revert
back to the original route and its associated interface.
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Figure 4.6. The RLB Spillover Algorithm

Spillover Limits are set separately for ingoing and outgoing traffic with only one of these
typically being specified. If both are specified then only one of them needs to be
exceeded continuously for Hold Timer seconds for the next matching route to be chosen.
The units of the limits, such as Mbps, can be selected to simplify specification of the
values.

Using Route Metrics with Round Robin

An individual route has a metric associated with it, with the default metric value being zero.
With the Round Robin and the associated Destination algorithms, the metric value can be set
differently on matching routes to create a bias towards the routes with lower metrics. Routes
with lower metrics will be chosen more frequently than those with higher metrics and the
proportion of usage will be based on the relative differences between the metrics of matching
routes.
In a scenario with two ISPs, if the requirement is that the bulk of traffic passes through one of the
ISPs then this can be achieved by enabling RLB and setting a low metric on the route to the
favoured ISP. A relatively higher metric is then set on the route to the other ISP.

Using Route Metrics with Spillover

When using the Spillover algorithm, a number of points should be noted regarding metrics and
the way alternative routes are chosen:

Route metrics should always be set.

With spillover, NetDefendOS always chooses the route in the matching routes list that has the
lowest metric. The algorithm is not intended to be used with routes having the same metric
so the administrator should set different metrics for all the routes to which spillover applies.
Metrics determine a clear ordering for which route should be chosen next after the interface
traffic limits for the chosen route have been exceeded.

There can be many alternative routes.

Several alternative routes can be set up, each with their own interface limits and each with a
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different metric. The route with the lowest metric is chosen first and when that route's
interface limits are exceeded, the route with the next highest metric is then chosen.
When that new route's interface limits are also exceeded then the route with the next highest
metric is taken and so on. As soon as any route with a lower metric falls below its interface
limit for its Hold Timer number of seconds, then it reverts to being the chosen route.

If there is no alternative route, the route does not change.

If the spillover limit is reached but all alternative routes have also reached their limit then the
route will not change.

The Requirement for Matching IP Ranges

As explained above, when RLB is assembling a list of matching routes from a routing table, the
routes it selects must have the same range. Balancing between routes will not take place if their
ranges are not exactly the same.
For instance, if one matching route has an IP address range of 10.4.16.0/24 and there is a second
matching route with an address range 10.4.16.0/16 (which is a range that includes 10.4.16.0/24)
then RLB will not take place between these routes. The ranges are not exactly the same so RLB
will treat the routes as being different.
It should also be remembered that route lookup will select the route that has the narrowest
range that matches the destination IP address used in the lookup. In the above example,
10.4.16.0/24 may be chosen over 10.4.16.0/16 because the range is narrower with 10.4.16.0/24 for
an IP address they both contain.

RLB Resets
There are two occasions when all RLB algorithms will reset to their initial state:

After NetDefendOS reconfiguration.

After a high availability failover.

In both these cases, the chosen route will revert to the one selected when the algorithms began
operation.

RLB Limitations
It should be noted that the selection of different alternate routes occurs only when the route
lookup is done and it is based on the algorithm being used with the routing table used for the
lookup and the algorithm's state.
RLB cannot know how much data traffic will be related to each lookup. The purpose of RLB is to
be able to spread route lookups across alternatives on the assumption that each lookup will
relate to a connection carrying some assumed amount of traffic.

An RLB Scenario
Below, is an illustration which shows a typical scenario where RLB might be used. Here, there is a
group of clients on a network connected via the LAN interface of the NetDefend Firewall and
these will access the internet.

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Internet access is available from either one of two ISPs, whose gateways GW1 GW2 are connected
to the firewall interfaces WAN1 and WAN2. RLB will be used to balance the connections
between the two ISPs.

Figure 4.7. A Route Load Balancing Scenario

We first need to define two routes to these two ISPs in the main routing table as shown below:
Route No.

Interface

Destination

Gateway

Metric

WAN1

all-nets

GW1

100

WAN2

all-nets

GW2

100

We will not use the spillover algorithm in this example so the routing metric for both routes
should be the same, in this case a value of 100 is selected.
By using the Destination RLB algorithm we can ensure that clients communicate with a particular
server using the same route and therefore the same source IP address. If NAT was being used for
the client communication, the IP address seen by the server would be WAN1 or WAN2.
In order to flow, any traffic requires both a route and an allowing IP rule. The following rules will
allow traffic to flow to either ISP and will NAT the traffic using the external IP addresses of
interfaces WAN1 and WAN2.
Rule No.

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface Dest Network

Service

NAT

lan

lannet

WAN1

all-nets

all_services

NAT

lan

lannet

WAN2

all-nets

all_services

The service All is used in the above IP rules but this should be further refined to a service or
service group that covers all the traffic that will be allowed to flow.

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Example 4.8. Setting Up RLB

In this example, the details of the RLB scenario described above will be implemented. The
assumption is made that the various IP address book objects needed have already been defined.
The IP objects WAN1 and WAN2 represent the interfaces that connect to the two ISPs and the IP
objects GW1 and GW2 represent the IP addresses of the gateway routers at the two ISPs.
Step 1. Set up the routes in the main routing table
Step 2. Create an RLB Instance object
A Route Load Balancing Instance object is now created which uses the Destination algorithm will
be selected to achieve stickiness so the server always sees the same source IP address (WAN1 or
WAN2) from a single client.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add RouteBalancingInstance main Algorithm=Destination

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Instances > Add > Route Balancing Instance

2.

The route balancing instance dialog will appear. Now select:

Routing Table: main

Algorithm: Destination

Click OK

Step 3. Create IP rules to allow traffic to flow

Finally, IP rules needed to be added to an IP rule set to allow traffic to flow. The detailed steps for
this are not included here but the created rules would follow the pattern described above.

RLB with VPN

When using RLB with VPN, a number of issues need to be overcome.
If we were to try and use RLB to balance traffic between two IPsec tunnels, the problem that
arises is that the Remote Endpoint for any two IPsec tunnels in NetDefendOS must be different.
The solutions to this issue are as follows:

Use two ISPs, with one tunnel connecting through one ISP and the other tunnel connecting
through the other ISP. RLB can then be applied as normal with the two tunnels.
In order to get the second tunnel to function in this case, it is necessary to add a single host
route in the main routing table that points to the secondary ISPs interface and with the
secondary ISPs gateway.
This solution has the advantage of providing redundancy should one ISP link fail.

Use VPN with one tunnel that is IPsec based and another tunnel that is uses a different
protocol.
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If both tunnels must be, for example, IPsec connects, it is possible to wrap IPsec in a GRE
tunnel (in other words, the IPsec tunnel is carried by a GRE tunnel). GRE is a simple tunneling
protocol without encryption and therefore involves a minimum of extra overhead. See
Section 3.4.5, GRE Tunnels for more about this topic.

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4.5. OSPF
The feature called Dynamic Routing is implemented in NetDefendOS using the Open Shortest Path
First (OSPF) architecture.
This section begins by looking generally at what dynamic routing is and how it can be
implemented. It then goes on to look at how OSPF can provide dynamic routing followed by a
description of how a simple OSPF network can be set up.

4.5.1. Dynamic Routing

Before looking at OSPF in detail this section will discuss generally the concept of Dynamic routing
and what type of dynamic routing OSPF provides. It introduces important concepts in dynamic
routing and in OSPF.

Differences to Static Routing

Dynamic routing is different to static routing in that a routing network device, such as a
NetDefend Firewall, can adapt to changes of network topology automatically.
Dynamic routing involves first learning about all the directly connected networks and then
getting further routing information from other connected routers specifying which networks
they are connected to. All this routing information is then processed and the most suitable
routes for both locally connected and remotely connected destinations are added into local
routing tables.
Dynamic routing responds to routing updates dynamically but has some disadvantages in that it
can be more susceptible to certain problems such as routing loops. One of two types of
algorithms are generally used to implement the dynamic routing mechanism:

A Distance Vector (DV) algorithm.

A Link State (LS) algorithm.

How a router decides the optimal or "best" route and shares updated information with other
routers depends on the type of algorithm used. The two algorithm types will be discussed next.

Distance Vector Algorithms

A Distance vector algorithm is a decentralized routing algorithm that computes the best path in a
distributed way.
Each router in a network computes the "costs" of its own attached links, and shares routing
information only with its neighboring routers. Each router determines the least-cost path to a
destination by iterative computation and also using information exchanged with its neighbors.
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a well-known DV algorithm for router information exchange
and operates by sending regular update messages and reflecting routing changes in routing
tables. Path determination is based on the "length" of the path which is the number of
intermediate routers (also known as "hops") to the destination.
After updating its own routing table, the router immediately begins transmitting its entire
routing table to neighboring routers to inform them of changes.

Link State Algorithms

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In contrast to DV algorithms, Link State (LS) algorithms enable routers to keep routing tables that
reflect the topology of the entire network.
Each router broadcasts its attached links and link costs to all other routers in the network. When
a router receives these broadcasts it runs the LS algorithm and calculates its own set of least-cost
paths. Any change of the link state will be sent everywhere in the network, so that all routers
keep the same routing table information and have a consistent view of the network.

Advantages of Link State Algorithms

Due to the fact that the global link state information is maintained everywhere in a network, LS
algorithms, like that used in OSPF, offer a high degree of configuration control and scalability.
Changes result in broadcasts of just the updated information to other routers which means faster
convergence and less possibility of routing loops. OSPF can also function within a hierarchy,
whereas RIP has no knowledge of sub-network addressing.

The OSPF Solution

Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a widely used protocol based on an LS algorithm. Dynamic
routing is implemented in NetDefendOS using OSPF.

OSPF is not available on all D-Link NetDefend models

The OSPF feature is only available on the D-Link NetDefend DFL-860E, 1660, 2560 and
2560G.
OSPF is not available on the DFL-210, 260 and 260E.

An OSPF enabled router first identifies the routers and sub-networks that are directly connected
to it and then broadcasts the information to all the other routers. Each router uses the
information it receives to add the OSPF learned routes to its routing table.
With this larger picture, each OSPF router can identify the networks and routers that lead to a
given destination IP and therefore the best route. Routers using OSPF then only broadcast
updates to inform others of any route changes instead of broadcasting the entire routing table.
OSPF depends on various metrics for path determination, including hops, bandwidth, load and
delay. OSPF can also provide a high level of control over the routing process since its parameters
can be finely tuned.

A Simple OSPF Scenario

The simple network topology illustrated below provides an excellent example of what OSPF can
achieve. Here we have two NetDefend Firewalls A and B connected together and configured to
be in the same OSPF area (the concept of area will be explained later).

Figure 4.8. A Simple OSPF Scenario

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OSPF allows firewall A to know that to reach network Y, traffic needs to be sent to firewall B.
Instead of having to manually insert this routing information into the routing tables of A, OSPF
allows B's routing table information to be automatically shared with A.
In the same way, OSPF allows firewall B to automatically become aware that network X is
attached to firewall A.
Under OSPF, this exchange of routing information is completely automatic.

OSPF Provides Route Redundancy

If we now take the above scenario and add a third NetDefend Firewall called C then we have a
situation where all three firewalls are aware, through OSPF, of what networks are attached to the
other firewalls. This is illustrated below.

Figure 4.9. OSPF Providing Route Redundancy

In addition, we now have route redundancy between any two of the firewalls. For example, if the
direct link between A and C fails then OSPF allows both firewalls to know immediately that there
is an alternate route between them via firewall B.
For instance, traffic from network X which is destined for network Z will be routed automatically
through firewall B.
From the administrator's point of view, only the routes for directly connected networks need to
be configured on each firewall. OSPF automatically provides the required routing information to
find networks connected to other firewalls, even if traffic needs to transit several other firewalls
to reach its destination.

Tip: Ring topologies always provide alternate routes

When designing the topology of a network that implements OSPF, arranging NetDefend
Firewalls in a circular ring means that any firewall always has two possible routes to any
other. Should any one inter-firewall connection fail, an alternative path always exists.

A Look at Routing Metrics

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In discussing dynamic routing and OSPF further, an understanding of Routing Metrics can be
useful and a brief explanation is given here.
Routing metrics are the criteria that a routing algorithm will use to compute the "best" route to a
destination. A routing protocol relies on one or several metrics to evaluate links across a network
and to determine the optimal path. The principal metrics used include:
Path length

The sum of the costs associated with each link. A commonly used value for
this metric is called "hop count" which is the number of routing devices a
packet must pass through when it travels from source to destination.

Item Bandwidth

The traffic capacity of a path, rated by "Mbps".

Load

The usage of a router. The usage can be evaluated by CPU utilization and
throughput.

Delay

The time it takes to move a packet from the source to the destination. The
time depends on various factors, including bandwidth, load, and the
length of the path.

4.5.2. OSPF Concepts

Overview
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is a routing protocol developed for IP networks by the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF). The NetDefendOS OSPF implementation is based upon RFC 2328,
with compatibility to RFC 1583.

OSPF is not available on all D-Link NetDefend models

The OSPF feature is only available on the NetDefend DFL-860E, 1660, 2560 and 2560G.

OSPF functions by routing IP packets based only on the destination IP address found in the IP
packet header. IP packets are routed "as is", in other words they are not encapsulated in any
further protocol headers as they transit the Autonomous System (AS).

The Autonomous System

The term Autonomous System refers to a single network or group of networks with a single,
clearly defined routing policy controlled by a common administrator. It forms the top level of a
tree structure which describes the various OSPF components.
In NetDefendOS, an AS corresponds to an OSPF Router object. This must be defined first when
setting up OSPF. In most scenarios only one OSPF router is required to be defined and it must be
defined separately on each NetDefend Firewall involved in the OSPF network. This NetDefendOS
object is described further in Section 4.5.3.1, OSPF Router Process.
OSPF is a dynamic routing protocol as it quickly detects topological changes in the AS (such as
router interface failures) and calculates new loop-free routes to destinations.

Link-state Routing
OSPF is a form of link-state routing (LS) that sends Link-state Advertisements (LSAs) to all other
routers within the same area. Each router maintains a database, known as a Link-state Database,
which maps the topology of the autonomous system (AS). Using this database, each router

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constructs a tree of shortest paths to other routers with itself as the root. This shortest-path tree
yields the best route to each destination in the AS.

Authentication.
All OSPF protocol exchanges can, if required, be authenticated. This means that only routers with
the correct authentication can join an AS. Different authentication schemes can be used and
with NetDefendOS the scheme can be either a passphrase or an MD5 digest.
It is possible to configure separate authentication methods for each AS.

OSPF Areas
An OSPF Area consists of networks and hosts within an AS that have been grouped together.
Routers that are only within an area are called internal routers. All interfaces on internal routers
are directly connected to networks within the area.
The topology of an area is hidden from the rest of the AS. This information hiding reduces the
amount of routing traffic exchanged. Also, routing within the area is determined only by the
area's own topology, lending the area protection from bad routing data. An area is a
generalization of an IP sub netted network.
In NetDefendOS, areas are defined by OSPF Area objects and are added to the AS which is itself
defined by an OSPF Router object. There can be more than one area within an AS so multiple
OSPF Area objects could be added to a single OSPF Router. In most cases, one is enough and it
should be defined separately on each NetDefend Firewall which will be part of the OSPF
network.
This NetDefendOS object is described further in Section 4.5.3.2, OSPF Area.

OSPF Area Components

A summary of OSPF components related to an area is given below:
ABRs

Area Border Routers are routers that have interfaces connected to more
than one area. These maintain a separate topological database for each
area to which they have an interface.

ASBRs

Routers that exchange routing information with routers in other

Autonomous Systems are called Autonomous System Boundary Routers.
They advertise externally learned routes throughout the Autonomous
System.

Backbone Areas

All OSPF networks need to have at least the Backbone Area which is the
OSPF area with an ID of 0. This is the area that other related areas should
be connected to. The backbone ensures routing information is distributed
between connected areas. When an area is not directly connected to the
backbone it needs a virtual link to it.
OSPF networks should be designed by beginning with the backbone.

Stub Areas

Stub areas are areas through which or into which AS external

advertisements are not flooded. When an area is configured as a stub area,
the router will automatically advertise a default route so that routers in
the stub area can reach destinations outside the area.

Transit Areas

Transit areas are used to pass traffic from an area that is not directly
connected to the backbone area.

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The Designated Router

Each OSPF broadcast network has a single Designated Router (DR) and a single Backup Designated
Router. The routers use OSPF Hello messages to elect the DR and BDR for the network based on
the priorities advertised by all the routers. If there is already a DR on the network, the router will
accept that one, regardless of its own router priority.
With NetDefendOS, the DR and the BDR are automatically assigned.

Neighbors
Routers that are in the same area become neighbors in that area. Neighbors are elected by the
use of Hello messages. These are sent out periodically on each interface using IP multicast.
Routers become neighbors as soon as they see themselves listed in a neighbor's Hello message.
In this way, a two way communication is guaranteed.
The following Neighbor States are defined:
Down

This is the initial state of the neighbor relationship.

Init

When a Hello message is received from a neighbor, but does NOT include the
Router ID of the firewall in it, the neighbor will be placed in the Init state.
As soon as the neighbor in question receives a Hello message it will know the
sending router's Router ID and will send a Hello message with that included. The
state of the neighbors will change to the 2-way state.

2-Way

In this state the communication between the router and the neighbor is
bi-directional.
On Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint OSPF interfaces, the state will be changed
to Full. On Broadcast interfaces, only the DR/BDR will advance to the Full state with
their neighbors, all the remaining neighbors will remain in the 2-Way state.

ExStart

Preparing to build adjacency.

Exchange

Routers are exchanging Data Descriptors.

Loading

Routers are exchanging LSAs.

Full

This is the normal state of an adjacency between a router and the DR/BDR.

Aggregates
OSPF Aggregation is used to combine groups of routes with common addresses into a single
entry in the routing table. This is commonly used to minimize the routing table.
To set this feature up in NetDefendOS, see Section 4.5.3.5, OSPF Aggregates.

Virtual Links
Virtual links are used for the following scenarios:
A. Linking an area that does not have a direct connection to the backbone area.
B. Linking backbone areas when the backbone is partitioned.

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The two uses are discussed next.

A. Linking areas without direct connection to the backbone

The backbone area always needs to be the center of all other areas. In some rare cases where it is
impossible to have an area physically connected to the backbone, a Virtual Link is used. Virtual
links can provide an area with a logical path to the backbone area.
This virtual link is established between two Area Border Routers (ABRs) that are on one common
area, with one of the ABRs connected to the backbone area. In the example below two routers
are connected to the same area (Area 1) but just one of them, fw1, is connected physically to the
backbone area.

Figure 4.10. Virtual Links Connecting Areas

In the above example, a Virtual Link is configured between fw1 and fw2 on Area 1 as it is used as
the transit area. In this configuration only the Router ID has to be configured. The diagram shows
that fw2 needs to have a Virtual Link to fw1 with Router ID 192.168.1.1 and vice versa. These
virtual links need to be configured in Area 1.

B. Linking a Partitioned Backbone

OSPF allows for linking a partitioned backbone using a virtual link. The virtual link should be
configured between two separate ABRs that touch the backbone from each side and have a
common area in between.

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Figure 4.11. Virtual Links with Partitioned Backbone

The virtual link is configured between fw1 and fw2 on Area 1 as it is used as the transit area. In the
configuration, only the Router ID has to be configured, as in the example above show fw2 need to
have a virtual link to fw1 with the Router ID 192.168.1.1 and vice versa. These virtual links need to
be configured in Area 1.
To set this feature up in NetDefendOS, see Section 4.5.3.6, OSPF VLinks.

OSPF High Availability Support

There are some limitations in High Availability support for OSPF that should be noted:
Both the active and the inactive part of an HA cluster will run separate OSPF processes, although
the inactive part will make sure that it is not the preferred choice for routing. The HA master and
slave will not form adjacency with each other and are not allowed to become DR/BDR on
broadcast networks. This is done by forcing the router priority to 0.
For OSPF HA support to work correctly, the NetDefend Firewall needs to have a broadcast
interface with at least ONE neighbor for ALL areas that the firewall is attached to. In essence, the
inactive part of the cluster needs a neighbor to get the link state database from.
It should also be noted that is not possible to put an HA cluster on the same broadcast network
without any other neighbors (they will not form adjacency with each other because of the router
priority 0). However, it may be possible, depending on the scenario, to setup a point to point link
between them instead. Special care must also be taken when setting up a virtual link to an
firewall in an HA cluster. The endpoint setting up a link to the HA firewall must setup 3 separate
links: one to the shared, one to the master and one to the slave router id of the firewall.

Using OSPF with NetDefendOS

When using OSPF with NetDefendOS, the scenario will be that we have two or more NetDefend
Firewalls connected together in some way. OSPF allows any of these firewall to be able to
correctly route traffic to a destination network connected to another firewall without having a

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route in its routing tables for the destination.

The key aspect of an OSPF setup is that connected NetDefend Firewalls share the information in
their routing tables so that traffic entering an interface on one of the firewalls can be
automatically routed so that it exits the interface on another gateway which is attached to the
correct destination network.
Another important aspect is that the firewalls monitor the connections between each other and
route traffic by an alternate connection if one is available. A network topology can therefore be
designed to be fault tolerant. If a connection between two firewalls fails then any alternate route
that also reaches the destination will be used.

4.5.3. OSPF Components

This section looks at the NetDefendOS objects that need to be configured for OSPF routing.
Defining these objects creates the OSPF network. The objects should be defined on each
NetDefend Firewall that is part of the OSPF network and should describe the same network.
An illustration of the relationship between NetDefendOS OSPF objects is shown below.

Figure 4.12. NetDefendOS OSPF Objects

4.5.3.1. OSPF Router Process

This object defines the autonomous system (AS) which is the top level of the OSPF network. A
similar Router Process object should be defined on each NetDefend Firewall which is part of the
OSPF network.

General Parameters
Name

Specifies a symbolic name for the OSPF AS.

Router ID

Specifies the IP address that is used to identify the router in a

AS. If no Router ID is configured, the firewall computes the
Router ID based on the highest IP address of any interface

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participating in the OSPF AS.

Private Router ID

This is used in an HA cluster and is the ID for this firewall and

not the cluster.

Note
When running OSPF on a HA Cluster there is a need
for a private master and private slave Router ID as
well as the shared Router ID.

Reference Bandwidth

Set the reference bandwidth that is used when calculating the

default interface cost for routes.
If bandwidth is used instead of specifying a metric on an OSPF
Interface, the cost is calculated using the following formula:
cost = reference bandwidth / bandwidth

RFC 1583 Compatibility

Enable this if the NetDefend Firewall will be used in an

environment that consists of routers that only support RFC
1583.

Debug
The debug options provides a troubleshooting tool by enabling the generation of additional
OSPF log events. These are described more fully in Section 4.5.7, OSPF Troubleshooting.

Authentication
The primary purpose of OSPF authentication is to make sure that the correct OSPF router
processes are talking to each and it is therefore mostly used when there are multiple OSPF AS'.
OSPF supports the following authentication options:
No (null) authentication

No authentication is used for OSPF protocol exchanges.

Passphrase

A simple password is used to authenticate all the OSPF

protocol exchanges.

MD5 Digest

MD5 authentication consists of a key ID and 128-bit key.

When MD5 digest is used the specified key is used to
produce the 128-bit MD5 digest.
This does NOT mean that the OSPF packets are encrypted.
If the OSPF traffic needs to be encrypted then they must be
sent using a VPN. For example, using IPsec. Sending OSPF
packets through an IPsec tunnel is discussed further in
Section 4.5.5, Setting Up OSPF.

Note: Authentication must be the same on all routers

If a passphrase or MD5 authentication is configured for OSPF, the passphrase or
authentication key must be the same on all OSPF Routers in that Autonomous System.

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In other words, the OSPF authentication method must be replicated on all NetDefend
Firewalls.

Advanced
Time Settings
SPF Hold Time

Specifies the minimum time, in seconds, between two SPF calculations.

The default time is 10 seconds. A value of 0 means that there is no
delay. Note however that SPF can potentially be a CPU demanding
process, so in a big network it may not be a good idea to run it too
frequently.

SPF Delay Time

Specifies the delay time, in seconds, between when OSPF receives a

topology change and when it starts a SPF calculation. The default time
is 5 seconds. A value of 0 means that there is no delay. Note however
that SPF can potentially be a CPU demanding process, so in a big
network it might not be a good idea to run it too often.

LSA Group Pacing

This specifies the time in seconds at which interval the OSPF LSAs are
collected into a group and refreshed. It is more optimal to group many
LSAs and process them at the same time, instead of running them one
and one.

Routes Hold Time

This specifies the time in seconds that the routing table will be kept
unchanged after a reconfiguration of OSPF entries or a HA failover.

Memory Settings
Memory Max Usage

Maximum amount in Kilobytes of RAM that the OSPF AS process are

allowed to use, if no value is specified the default is 1% of installed
RAM. Specifying 0 indicates that the OSPF AS process is allowed to use
all available ram in the firewall.

4.5.3.2. OSPF Area

The Autonomous System (AS) is divided into smaller parts called an Area, this section explains
how to configure areas. An area collects together OSPF interfaces, neighbors, aggregates and
virtual links.
An OSPF Area is a child of the OSPF Router Process and there can be many area objects defined
under a single router process. In most simple networking scenarios, a single area is sufficient. Like
the router process object, a similar area object should be defined on all the NetDefend Firewalls
which will be part of the OSPF network.

General Parameters
Name

Specifies the name of the OSPF Area.

ID

Specifies the area id. If 0.0.0.0 is specified then this is the

backbone area.

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There can only be one backbone area and it forms the central
portion of an AS. Routing information that is exchanged
between different area always transits the backbone area.
Is stub area

Enable this option if the area is a stub area.

Become Default Router

It is possible to configure if the firewall should become the

default router for the stub area, and with what metric.

Import Filter
The import filter is used to filter what can be imported in the OSPF AS from either external
sources (like the main routing table or a policy based routing table) or inside the OSPF area.
External

Specifies the network addresses allowed to be imported into this OSPF area from
external routing sources.

Interarea

Specifies the network addresses allowed to be imported from other routers inside
the OSPF area.

4.5.3.3. OSPF Interface

This section describes how to configure an OSPF Interface object. OSPF interface objects are
children of OSPF areas. Unlike areas, they are not similar on each NetDefend Firewall in the OSPF
network. The purpose of an OSPF interface object is to describe a specific interface which will be
part of an OSPF network.

Note: Different interface types can be used with OSPF interfaces

Note that an OSPF Interface does not always correspond to a physical interface
although this is the most common usage. Other types of interfaces, such as a VLAN,
could instead be associated with an OSPF Interface.

General Parameters
Interface

Specifies which interface on the firewall will be used for this OSPF
interface.

Network

Specifies the IPv4 network address for this OSPF interface. If is not
specified it defaults to the network assigned to the underlying
NetDefendOS interface.
This network is automatically exported to the OSPF AS and does not
require a Dynamic Routing Rule.

Interface Type

This can be one of the following:

Auto - Tries to automatically detect interface type. This can be used for
physical interfaces.

Broadcast - The Broadcast interface type is an interface that has native

Layer 2 broadcast/multicast capabilities. The typical example of a
broadcast/multicast network is an ordinary physical Ethernet interface.
When broadcast is used, OSPF will send OSPF Hello packets to the IP

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multicast address 224.0.0.5. Those packets will be heard by all other

the OSPF routers on the network. For this reason, no configuration of
OSPF Neighbor objects is required for the discovery of neighboring
routers.

Point-to-Point - Point-to-Point is used for direct links which involve

only two routers (in other words, two firewalls). A typical example of
this is a VPN tunnel which is used to transfer OSPF traffic between two
firewalls. The neighbor address of such a link is configured by defining
an OSPF Neighbor object.
Using VPN tunnels is discussed further in Section 4.5.5, Setting Up
OSPF.

Point-to-Multipoint - The Point-to-Multipoint interface type is a

collection of Point-to-Point networks, where there is more than one
router in a link that does not have OSI Layer 2 broadcast/multicast
capabilities.

Metric

Specifies the metric for this OSPF interface. This represents the "cost" of
sending packets over this interface. This cost is inversely proportional to
the bandwidth of the interface.

Bandwidth

If the metric is not specified, the bandwidth is specified instead. If the

bandwidth is known then this can be specified directly instead of the
metric.

Authentication
All OSPF protocol exchanges can be authenticated using a simple password or MD5
cryptographic hashes.
If Use Default for Router Process is enabled then the values configured in the router process
properties are used. If this is not enabled then the following options are available:

No authentication.

Passphrase.

MD5 Digest.

Advanced
Passive

Unless an interface is being used by the OSPF router process to

connect to another OSPF router, this option should be enabled. In
the Web Interface the option is called No OSPF routers connected
to this interface.
When enabled, no OSPF traffic will be generated on the interface.

Hello Interval

Specifies the number of seconds between Hello packets sent on

the interface.

Router Dead Interval

If not Hello packets are received from a neighbor within this

interval then that neighbor router will be considered to be out of
operation.

RXMT Interval

Specifies the number of seconds between retransmissions of

LSAs to neighbors on this interface.

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InfTrans Delay

Specifies the estimated transmit delay for the interface. This value
represents the maximum time it takes to forward a LSA packet
trough the router.

Wait Interval

Specifies the number of seconds between the interface brought

up and the election of the DR and BDR. This value should be
higher than the hello interval.

Router Priority

Specifies the router priority, a higher number increases this

routers chance of becoming a DR or a BDR. If 0 is specified then
this router will not be eligible in the DR/BDR election.

Note
An HA cluster will always have 0 as router priority, and
can never be used as a DR or BDR.

Sometimes there is a need to include networks into the OSPF router process, without running
OSPF on the interface connected to that network. This is done by enabling the Passive option: No
OSPF routers connected to this interface ("Passive").
This is an alternative to using a Dynamic Routing Policy to import static routes into the OSPF
router process.
If the Ignore received OSPF MTU restrictions is enabled, OSPF MTU mismatches will be
allowed.

Promiscuous Mode
The Ethernet interfaces that are also OSPF interfaces must operate in promiscuous mode for OSPF
to function. This mode means that traffic with a destination MAC address that does not match
the Ethernet interface's MAC address will be sent to NetDefendOS and not discarded by the
interface. Promiscuous mode is enabled automatically by NetDefendOS and the administrator
does not need to worry about doing this.
If the administrator enters a CLI command ifstat <ifname>, the Receive Mode status line will show
the value Promiscuous next to it instead of Normal to indicate the mode has changed. This is
discussed further in Section 3.4.2, Ethernet Interfaces.

4.5.3.4. OSPF Neighbors

In some scenarios the neighboring OSPF router to a firewall needs to be explicitly defined. For
example, when the connection is not between physical interfaces.
The most common situation for using this is when a VPN tunnel is used to connect two
neighbors and we need to tell NetDefendOS that the OSPF connection needs to be made
through the tunnel. This type of VPN usage with IPsec tunnels is described further in Section 4.5.5,
Setting Up OSPF.
NetDefendOS OSPF Neighbor objects are created within an OSPF Area and each object has the
following property parameters:
Interface

Specifies which OSPF interface the neighbor is located on.

IP Address

The IP Address of the neighbor. This is the IP Address of the neighbors OSPF
interface connecting to this router. For VPN tunnels this will be the IP address of
the tunnel's remote end.
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Metric

Specifies the metric to this neighbor.

4.5.3.5. OSPF Aggregates

OSPF Aggregation is used to combine groups of routes with common addresses into a single
entry in the routing table. If advertised this will decreases the size of the routing table in the
firewall, if not advertised this will hide the networks.
NetDefendOS OSPF Aggregate objects are created within an OSPF Area and each object has the
following parameters:
Network

The network consisting of the smaller routers.

Advertise

If the aggregation should be advertised or not.

In most, simple OSPF scenarios, OSPF Aggregate objects will not be needed.

4.5.3.6. OSPF VLinks

All areas in an OSPF AS must be physically connected to the backbone area (the area with ID 0).
In some cases this is not possible and in that case a Virtual Link (VLink) can be used to connect to
the backbone through a non-backbone area.
NetDefendOS OSPF VLink objects are created within an OSPF Area and each object has the
following parameters:
General Parameters
Name

Symbolic name of the virtual link.

Neighbor Router ID

The Router ID of the router on the other side of the virtual link.

Authentication
Use Default For AS

Use the values configured in the AS properties page.

Note: Linking partitioned backbones

If the backbone area is partitioned, a virtual link is used to connect the different parts.

In most, simple OSPF scenarios, OSPF VLink objects will not be needed.

4.5.4. Dynamic Routing Rules

This section examines Dynamic Routing Rules. These rules determine which routes can be
exported to an OSPF AS from the local routing tables and which can be imported into the local
routing tables from the AS.

4.5.4.1. Overview
The Final OSPF Setup Step is Creating Dynamic Routing Rules

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After the OSPF structure is created, the final step is always to create a Dynamic Routing Rule on
each NetDefend Firewall which allows the routing information that the OSPF AS delivers from
remote firewalls to be added to the local routing tables.
Dynamic routing rules are discussed here in the context of OSPF, but can also be used in other
contexts.

The Reasons for Dynamic Routing Rules

In a dynamic routing environment, it is important for routers to be able to regulate to what
extent they will participate in the routing exchange. It is not feasible to accept or trust all
received routing information, and it might be crucial to avoid parts of the routing database
getting published to other routers.
For this reason, Dynamic Routing Rules are used to regulate the flow of routing information.
These rules filter either statically configured or OSPF learned routes according to parameters like
the origin of the routes, destination, metric and so on. The matched routes can be controlled by
actions to be either exported to OSPF processes or to be added to one or more routing tables.

Usage with OSPF

Dynamic Routing Rules are used with OSPF to achieve the following:

Allowing the import of routes from the OSPF AS into local routing tables.

Allowing the export of routes from a local routing tables to the OSPF AS.

Allowing the export of routes from one OSPF AS to another OSPF AS.

Note
The last usage of joining asynchronous systems together is rarely encountered except in
very large networks.

OSPF Requires at Least an Import Rule

By default, NetDefendOS will not import or export any routes. For OSPF to function, it is therefore
mandatory to define at least one dynamic routing rule which will be an Import rule.
This Import rule specifies the local OSPF Router Process object. This enables the external routes
made available in the OSPF AS to be imported into the local routing tables.

Specifying a Filter
Dynamic routing rules allow a filter to be specified which narrows the routes that are imported
based on the network reached. In most cases, the Or is within option should be specified as
all-nets so that no filter is applied.

When to Use Export Rules

Although an Import rule is needed to import routes from the OSPF AS, the opposite is not true.
The export of routes to networks that are part of OSPF Interface objects are automatic.

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A dynamic routing export rule must be created to explicitly export the route to the OSPF AS.

Dynamic Routing Rule Objects

The diagram below shows the relationship between the NetDefendOS dynamic routing rule
objects.

Figure 4.13. Dynamic Routing Rule Objects

4.5.4.2. Dynamic Routing Rule

This object defines a dynamic routing rule.

General Parameters
Name

Specifies a symbolic name for the rule.

From OSPF AS

Specifies the from which OSPF AS (in other words, an OSPF

Router Process) the route should be imported from into either a
routing table or another AS.

From Routing Table

Specifies from which routing table a route should be imported

into the OSPF AS or copied into another routing table.

Destination Interface

Specifies if the rule has to have a match to a certain destination

interface.

Destination Network
Exactly Matches

Specifies if the network needs to exactly match a specific network.

Or is within

Specifies if the network needs to be within a specific network.

More Parameters
Next Hop

Specifies what the next hop (in other words, router) needs to be for this

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rule to be triggered.
Metric

Specifies an interval that the metric of the routers needs to be in

between.

Router ID

Specifies if the rule should filter on Router ID.

OSPF Route Type

Specifies if the rule should filter on the OSPF Router Type.

OSPF Tag

Specifies an interval that the tag of the routers needs to be in between.

4.5.4.3. OSPF Action

This object defines an OSPF action.

General Parameters
Export to Process

Specifies into which OSPF AS the route change should be imported.

Forward

If needed, specifies the IP to route via.

Tag

Specifies a tag for this route. This tag can be used in other routers for
filtering.

Route Type

Specifies what the kind of external route type. Specify 1 if OSPF

should regard external routes as type 1 OSPF routes. Type 2 is the most
significant cost of a route.

OffsetMetric

Increases the metric of an imported route by this value.

Limit Metric To

Limits the metrics for these routes to a minimum and maximum value.
If a route has a higher or lower value than specified then it will be set
to the specified value.

4.5.4.4. Routing Action

A Routing Action is used to manipulate and export routing changes to one or more local routing
tables.
Destination

Specifies into which routing table the route changes to the

OSPF AS should be imported.

Offset Metric

Increases the metric by this value.

Offset Metric Type 2

Increases the Type 2 router's metric by this value.

Limit Metric To

Limits the metrics for these routes to a minimum and

maximum value. If a route has a higher value than specified
then it will be set to the specified value.

Static Route Override

Allows the override of the static routes.

Default Route Override

Allows the override of the default route.

4.5.5. Setting Up OSPF

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Setting up OSPF can seem complicated because of the large number of configuration
possibilities that OSPF offers. However, in many cases a simple OSPF solution using a minimum
of NetDefendOS objects is needed and setup can be straightforward.
Let us examine again the simple scenario described earlier with just two NetDefend Firewalls.
In this example we connect together the two NetDefend Firewalls with OSPF so they can share
the routes in their routing tables. Both will be inside a single OSPF area which will be part of a
single OSPF autonomous system (AS). If unfamiliar with these OSPF concepts, please refer to
earlier sections for further explanation.
Beginning with just one of these firewalls, the NetDefendOS setup steps are as follows:
1. Create an OSPF Router object
Create a NetDefendOS OSPF Router Process object. This will represent an OSPF Autonomous Area
(AS) which is the highest level in the OSPF hierarchy. Give the object an appropriate name. The
Router ID can be left blank since this will be assigned automatically by NetDefendOS.
2. Add an OSPF Area to the OSPF Router
Within the OSPF Router Process created in the previous step, add a new OSPF Area object. Assign
an appropriate name and use the value 0.0.0.0 for the Area ID.
An AS can have multiple areas but in many cases only one is needed. The ID 0.0.0.0 identifies this
area as the backbone area which forms the central portion of the AS.
3. Add OSPF Interfaces to the OSPF Area
Within the OSPF Area created in the previous step, add a new OSPF Interface for each physical
interface that will be part of the area.
The OSPF Interface object needs the following parameters specified in its properties:

Interface - the physical interface which will be part of the OSPF area.

Network - the network on the interface that will be part of the area.
This does not need to be specified and if it is not, the network assigned to the physical
interface is used. For example if lan is the interface then lannet will be the default network.

Interface Type - this would normally be Auto so that the correct type is automatically
selected.

The Passive option No OSPF routers connected to this interface must be enabled if the
physical interface does not connect directly to another OSPF Router (in other words, with
another NetDefend Firewall that acts as an OSPF router). For example, the interface may only
be connected to a network of clients, in which case the option would be enabled.
The option must be disabled if the physical interface is connected to another firewall which is
set up as an OSPF Router. In this example, the physical interface connected to the other
firewall would have this option disabled.

4. Add a Dynamic Routing Rule

Finally, a Dynamic Routing Rule needs to be defined to deploy the OSPF network. This involves
two steps:
i.

A Dynamic Routing Policy Rule object is added. This rule should be an Import rule that
enables the option From OSPF Process so that the previously defined OSPF Router Process
object is selected. What we are doing is saying that we want to import all routes from the

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OSPF AS.
In addition, the optional Or is within filter parameter for the destination network must be
set to be all-nets. We could use a narrower filter for the destination network but in this case
we want all networks.
ii.

Within the Dynamic Routing Policy Rule just added, we now add a Routing Action object. Here
we add the routing table into the Selected list which will receive the routing information
from OSPF.
In the typical case this will be the routing table called main.

There is no need to have a Dynamic Routing Policy Rule which exports the local routing table into
the AS since this is done automatically for OSPF Interface objects.
The exception to this is if a route involves an ISP gateway (in other words, a router hop). In this
case the route MUST be explicitly exported. The most frequent case when this is necessary is for
the all-nets route to the external public Internet where the gateway is the ISP's router. Doing this
is discussed in the next step.
5. Add a Dynamic Routing Rule for all-nets
Optionally, a Dynamic Routing Rule needs to be defined if any routes except the OSPF Interface
routes are to be exported. This involves the following steps
i.

A Dynamic Routing Policy Rule object is added. This rule should be an Export rule that enables
the option From Routing Table with the main routing table moved to the Selected list.
In addition, the optional Or is within filter parameter for the destination network must be
set to be all-nets. This means all routes will be exported.

ii.

Within the Dynamic Routing Policy Rule just added, we now add an OSPF Action object. Here
set the Export to process option to be the OSPF Router Process which represents the OSPF
AS.

6. Repeat these steps on the other firewall

Now repeat steps 1 to 5 for the other NetDefend Firewall that will be part of the OSPF AS and
area. The OSPF Router and OSPF Area objects will be identical on each. The OSPF Interface objects
will be different depending on which interfaces and networks will be included in the OSPF
system.
If more than two firewalls will be part of the same OSPF area then all of them should be
configured similarly.

OSPF Routing Information Exchange Begins Automatically

As the new configurations are created in the above steps and then deployed, OSPF will
automatically start and begin exchanging routing information. Since OSPF is a dynamic and
distributed system, it does not matter in which order the configurations of the individual
firewalls are deployed.
When the physical link is plugged in between two interfaces on two different firewalls and those
interfaces are configured with OSPF Router Process objects, OSPF will begin exchanging routing
information.

Confirming OSPF Deployment

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It is now possible to check that OSPF is operating and that routing information is exchanged.
This can be done by examining the routing tables. Routes that have been imported into the
routing tables though OSPF are indicated with the letter "O" to the left of the route description.
For example, the routes command might give the following output:
gw-world:/> routes
Flags Network
----- --------------192.168.1.0/24
172.16.0.0/16
O
192.168.2.0/24

Iface
Gateway
Local IP
----------- --------------- ---------lan
wan
wan
172.16.2.1

Metric
-----0
0
1

Here, the route for 192.168.2.0/24 has been imported via OSPF and that network can be found on
the WAN interface with the gateway of 172.16.2.1. The gateway in this case is of course the
NetDefend Firewall to which the traffic should be sent. That firewall may or may not be attached
to the destination network but OSPF has determined that that is the optimum route to reach it.
The CLI command ospf can also be used to indicate OSPF status. The options for this command
are fully described in the CLI Reference Guide.

Sending OSPF Traffic Through a VPN Tunnel

In some cases, the link between two NetDefend Firewalls which are configured with OSPF Router
Process objects may be insecure. For example, over the public Internet.
In this case, we can secure the link by setting up a VPN tunnel between the two firewalls and
telling OSPF to use this tunnel for exchange of OSPF information. Next, we will look at how to set
this up and assume that IPsec will be the chosen method for implementing the tunnel.
To create this setup we need to perform the normal OSPF steps described above but with the
following additional steps:
1. Set up an IPsec tunnel
First set up an IPsec tunnel in the normal way between the two firewalls A and B. The IPsec setup
options are explained in Section 9.2, VPN Quick Start.
This IPsec tunnel is now treated like any other interface when configuring OSPF in NetDefendOS.
2. Choose a random internal IP network
For each firewall, we need to choose a random IP network using internal, private IPv4 addresses.
For example, for firewall A we could use the network 192.168.55.0/24.
This network is used just as a convenience with OSPF setup and will never be associated with a
real physical network.
3. Define an OSPF Interface for the tunnel
Define an NetDefendOS OSPF Interface object which has the IPsec tunnel for the Interface
parameter. Specify the Type parameter to be point-to-point and the Network parameter to be the
network chosen in the previous step, 192.168.55.0/24.
This OSPF Interface tells NetDefendOS that any OPSF related connections to addresses within the
network 192.168.55.0/24 should be routed into the IPsec tunnel.
4. Define an OSPF Neighbor
Next, we must explicitly tell OSPF how to find the neighbouring OSPF router. Do this by defining
a NetDefendOS OSPF Neighbor object. This consists of a pairing of the IPsec tunnel (which is
treated like an interface) and the IP address of the router at the other end of the tunnel.

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For the IPv4 address of the router, we simply use any single IP address from the network
192.168.55.0/24. For example, 192.168.55.1.
When NetDefendOS sets up OSPF, it will look at this OSPF Neighbor object and will try to send
OSPF messages to the IPv4 address 192.168.55.1. The OSPF Interface object defined in the
previous step tells NetDefendOS that OSPF related traffic to this IP address should be routed into
the IPsec tunnel.
5. Set the Local IP of the tunnel endpoint
To finish the setup for firewall A there needs to be two changes made to the IPsec tunnel setup
on firewall B. These are:
i.

In the IPsec tunnel properties, the Local Network for the tunnel needs to be set to all-nets.
This setting acts as a filter for what traffic is allowed into the tunnel and all-nets will allow all
traffic into the tunnel.

ii.

In the routing section of the IPsec properties, the Specify address manually option needs
to be enabled and the IPv4 address in this example of 192.168.55.1 needs to be entered (in
the CLI, OriginatorType is set to manual and the OriginatorIP is 192.168.55.1). This sets the
tunnel endpoint IP to be 192.168.55.1 so that all OSPF traffic will be sent to firewall A with
this source IP.

The result of doing this is to "core route" OSPF traffic coming from firewall A. In other words the
traffic is destined for NetDefendOS.
6. Repeat the steps for the other firewall
What we have done so far is allow OSPF traffic to flow from A to B. The steps above need to be
repeated as a mirror image for firewall B using the same IPsec tunnel but using a different
random internal IP network for OSPF setup.

Tip: Non-OSPF traffic can also use the tunnel

A VPN tunnel can carry both OSPF traffic as well as other types of traffic. There is no
requirement to dedicate a tunnel to OSPF traffic.

4.5.6. An OSPF Example

This section goes through the detailed setup steps for the simple OSPF scenario illustrated
below.

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Figure 4.14. An OSPF Example

Here, two identical NetDefend Firewalls called A and B are joined together directly via their If3
interfaces. Each has a network of hosts attached to its If1 interface. On one side, If1_net is the
IPv4 network 10.4.0.0/16 and on the other side it is the IPv4 network 192.168.0.0/24.
The goal is to configure OSPF on both firewalls so routing information is automatically
exchanged and traffic can be correctly routed between the 10.4.0.0/16 network and the
192.168.0.0/24 network. The IP rules that are needed to allow such traffic to flow are not included
in this example.
Example 4.9. Creating an OSPF Router Process
First the Autonomous System (AS) must be defined on both firewalls.
On firewall A, create an OSPF Router Process object. Assume the object name will be as_0.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add OSPFProcess as_0

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > OSPF > Add > OSPF Router Process

2.

Enter the process name, in this case as_0

3.

Click OK

Now, repeat this for firewall B, using the same OSPF Router Process object name of as_0.

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Example 4.10. Add an OSPF Area

Now add an OSPF Area object to the OSPF Router Process object as_0 on firewall A. This area will
be the OSPF backbone area and will therefore have the ID 0.0.0.0. Assume the name for the area
object will be area_0.
Command-Line Interface
First, change the CLI context to be the OSPFProcess object created above:
gw-world:/> cc OSPFProcess as_0

Now, add the area:

gw-world:/as_0> add OSPFArea area_0 AreaID=0.0.0.0

This new OSPFArea object can be displayed with the command:

gw-world:/as_0> show
OSPFArea/

Name
---area_1

Area ID
------0.0.0.0

Comments
-------<empty>

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > OSPF

2.

Select the routing process as_0

3.

Select Add > OSPF Area

4.

For the area properties:

5.

Enter the area name, in this case area_0

Specify the Area ID as 0.0.0.0

Click OK

Now, repeat this for firewall B, using the same OSPF Area object name of area_0.

Example 4.11. Add OSPF Interface Objects

For firewall A, add OSPF Interface objects for each physical interface that is to be part of the OSPF
area called area_0.
Command-Line Interface
Assume the context is still the OSPFProcess called as_0 from the last example. Now, change the
context to be the OSPFArea that was created previously:
gw-world:/as_0> cc area_0

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Next, add the OSPFInterface object:

gw-world:/as_0/area_0> add OSPFInterface If1 Passive=Yes

Enabling the Passive option means that this interface is not connected to another OSPF router.
Finally, return to the default CLI context:
gw-world:/as_0/area_0> cc
gw-world:/>

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > OSPF > as_0 > area_0 > OSPF Interfaces

2.

Select Add > OSPF Interface

3.

Select the Interface. In this case, If1

4.

Select the Advanced tab

5.

Select No OSPF routers connected to this interface

6.

Click OK

Just selecting the Interface means that the Network defaults to the network bound to that
interface. In this case If1_net.
This should be repeated for all interfaces that will be part of the OSPF area. In this case, the
interface If3 must also be added as an OSPFInterface but the Passive property should be left at its
default value of enabled since this interface is connected to another router.
firewall B, should then be set up in the same way.

Example 4.12. Import Routes from an OSPF AS into the Main Routing Table
In this example, the routes received using OSPF will be added into the main routing table. To do
this, a Dynamic Routing Policy Rule first needs to be created. In this example, the rule is called
ImportOSPFRoutes.
The rule must specify from what OSPF AS the routes should be imported. In this example, the
OSPF AS configured above, with the name as_0, is used.
Depending on the routing topology, it may be preferable to just import certain routes using the
Destination Interface/Destination Network filters, but in this scenario all routes that are within the
all-nets network object are allowed.
The steps are first performed for firewall A.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add DynamicRoutingRule
OSPFProcess=as_0
Name=ImportOSPFRoutes
DestinationNetworkIn=all-nets

Web Interface

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1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Rules > Add > Dynamic Routing Policy Rule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule. For example, ImportOSPFRoutes.

3.

Select the option From OSPF Process

4.

Move as_0 from Available to Selected

5.

Choose all-nets in the ...Or is within filter option for Destination Interface

6.

Click OK

Now, create a Dynamic Routing Action that will import routes into the routing table. The
destination routing table that the routes should be added to is main.
Command-Line Interface
First, change the CLI context to be the DynamicRoutingRule just added for import:
gw-world:/> cc DynamicRoutingRule ImportOSPFRoutes

Next, add a DynamicRoutingRuleAddRoute object:

gw-world:/1(ImportOSPFRoutes)> add DynamicRoutingRuleAddRoute
Destination=main

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Rules

2.

Click on the newly created ImportOSPFRoutes

3.

Go to: Routing Action > Add > DynamicRoutingRuleAddRoute

4.

Move the routing table main from Available to Selected

5.

Click OK

The same procedure should be repeated for firewall B.

Example 4.13. Exporting the Routes into an OSPF AS

In this example, routes from the main routing table will be exported into an OSPF AS named
as_0. This must be done explicitly because routes are not exported automatically.
The exception to this are the routes for the OSPF interface networks which are exported
automatically (in this example If1_net and If3_net).
The steps are first performed for firewall A.
First, add a new Dynamic Routing Policy Rule.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add DynamicRoutingRule

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OSPFProcess=as_0
Name=ExportDefRoute
DestinationNetworkIn=all-nets
DestinationInterface=If3
From=RTable
RoutingTable=main

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Rules > Add > Dynamic Routing Policy Rule

2.

Specify a name for the rule. In this case, ExportAllNets

3.

Select the option From Routing Table

4.

Move the routing table main to the Selected list

5.

Choose all-nets in the ...Or is within filter for Destination Interface

6.

Click OK

Next, create an OSPF Action that will export the filtered route to the specified OSPF AS:
Command-Line Interface
First, change the CLI context to be the DynamicRoutingRule just added for export:
gw-world:/> cc DynamicRoutingRule ExportDefRoute

Next, add a DynamicRoutingRuleExportOSPF object:

gw-world:/2(ExportDefRoute)> add DynamicRoutingRuleExportOSPF
ExportToProcess=as_0

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Rules

2.

Click on the newly created ExportAllNets

3.

Go to: OSPF Actions > Add > DynamicRoutingRuleExportOSPF

4.

For Export to process choose as_0

5.

Click OK

The same procedure should be repeated for firewall B.

4.5.7. OSPF Troubleshooting

There are two special ways of troubleshooting OSPF issues:

Additional OSPF Log Event Messages.

The OSPF CLI command.

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These are discussed next.

Additional OSPF Log Event Messages

By default, a range of basic log event messages are generated by OSPF operation within
NetDefendOS. For example, if the OSPFProcess object running under NetDefendOS is called
my_ospf_proc, normal log generation would be enabled with the CLI command:
gw-world:/> set OSPFProcess my_ospf_proc LogEnabled=Yes

This is the default setting so the command is only for illustration.

The following properties can be enabled to provide additional OSPF log messages for
troubleshooting and/or monitoring purposes:

DebugPacket - Log general packet parsing events.

DebugHello - Log Hello packets.

DebugDDesc - Log database description packets.

DebugExchange - Log exchange packets.

DebugLSA - Log LSA events.

DebugSPF - Log SPF calculation events.

DebugRoute - Log routing table manipulation events.

Each of these properties can be assigned one of the following values:

Off - Nothing is logged.

Low - Logs all actions.

Medium - Logs all actions but with more detail.

High - Logs everything with maximum detail.

Note: The high setting generates large amounts of data

When using the High setting, the firewall will log a large amount of information, even
when just connected to a small AS. Changing the advanced setting Log Send Per Sec
Limit may be required.

Example 4.14. Enabling OSPF Debug Log Events

In this example, the DebugHello and DebugRoute log events will be enabled for the OSPFProcess
called my_ospf_proc.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set OSPFProcess my_ospf_proc DebugHello=Low DebugRoute=High

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Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > OSPF > my_ospf_proc

2.

Select the Debug option

3.

Now enter:

4.

Hello Packets: Low

Routing Table Manipulation: High

Click OK

The OSPF CLI command

The CLI command ospf provides various options for examining the behavior of OSPF in real-time
on a particular.
In order to see general OSPF activity on a CLI console, the -snoop option can be used:
gw-world:/> ospf -snoop=on

Usually, there is only one OSPFProcess defined for a firewall and there is therefore no need to
specify this explicitly in the command. The snooping processes is turned off with:
gw-world:/> ospf -snoop=off

A snapshot of the state of any of the different OSPF components can be displayed. For example,
if an OSPFInterface object has the name ospf_If1, details about this can be shown with the
command:
gw-world:/> ospf -interface ospf_If1

A similar snapshot can be displayed for areas, neighbors, routes and LSAs.
OSPF interface operation can also be selectively halted and restarted. For example, to stop the
OSPFInterface called ospf_If1, the CLI command would be:
gw-world:/> ospf -ifacedown ospf_If1

To restart the same interface:

gw-world:/> ospf -ifacedown ospf_If1

An entire functioning OSPFRouteProcess can also be halted. For example, assuming that there is
only one OSPFRouteProcess object defined in the configuration, the CLI command to halt it is:
gw-world:/> ospf -execute=stop

To start the stopped OSPFRouteProcess:

gw-world:/> ospf -execute=start

To stop and then start in a single command:

gw-world:/> ospf -execute=restart

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The ospf command options are fully described in the separate NetDefendOS CLI Reference Guide.

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4.6. Multicast Routing

4.6.1. Overview
The Multicast Problem
Certain types of Internet interactions, such as conferencing and video broadcasts, require a
single client or host to send the same packet to multiple receivers. This could be achieved
through the sender duplicating the packet with different receiving IP addresses or by a broadcast
of the packet across the Internet. These solutions waste large amounts of sender resources or
network bandwidth and are therefore not satisfactory. An appropriate solution should also be
able to scale to large numbers of receivers.

The Multicast Routing Solution

Multicast Routing solves the problem by the network routers themselves, replicating and
forwarding packets via the optimum route to all members of a group.
The IETF standards that allow multicast routing are the following:

Class D of the IPv4 address space which is reserved for multicast traffic. Each multicast IP
address represent an arbitrary group of recipients.

The Internet Group Membership Protocol (IGMP) allows a receiver to tell the network that it is a
member of a particular multicast group.

Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is a group of routing protocols for deciding the optimal
path for multicast packets.

Underlying Principles
Multicast routing functions on the principle that an interested receiver joins a group for a
multicast by using the IGMP protocol. PIM routers can then duplicate and forward packets to all
members of such a multicast group, thus creating a distribution tree for packet flow. Rather than
acquiring new network information, PIM uses the routing information from existing protocols,
such as OSPF, to decide the optimal path.

Reverse Path Forwarding

A key mechanism in the multicast routing process is Reverse Path Forwarding. For unicast traffic, a
router is concerned only with a packet's destination. With multicast, the router is also concerned
with a packets source since it forwards the packet on paths which are known to be downstream,
away from the packet's source. This approach is adopted to avoid loops in the distribution tree.

Routing to the Correct Interface

By default, multicast packets are routed by NetDefendOS to the core interface (in other words, to
NetDefendOS itself ). SAT Multiplex rules are set up in the IP rule set in order to perform forwarding
to the correct interfaces. This is demonstrated in the examples described later.

Promiscuous Mode

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If an IP rule exists in the rule set which applies to a multicast packet's destination IP address, then
that Ethernet interface automatically gets its receive mode set to promiscuous in order to receive
multicast packets. Promiscuous mode means that traffic with a destination MAC address that does
not match the Ethernet interface's MAC address will be sent to NetDefendOS and not discarded
by the interface. Promiscuous mode is enabled automatically by NetDefendOS and the
administrator does not need to worry about doing this.
With multicast only, the usage of promiscuous mode can be explicitly controlled using the
Ethernet object property Receive Multicast Traffic which has a default value of Auto. If this
property is set to Off, the multicast forwarding feature cannot function.
If the administrator enters a CLI ifstat <ifname> command, the Receive Mode status line will show
the value Promiscuous next to it instead of Normal to indicate the mode has changed. This is
discussed further in Section 3.4.2, Ethernet Interfaces.

4.6.2. Multicast Forwarding with SAT Multiplex Rules

The SAT Multiplex rule is used to achieve duplication and forwarding of packets through more
than one interface. This feature implements multicast forwarding in NetDefendOS, where a
multicast packet is sent through several interfaces.
Note that since this rule overrides the normal routing tables, packets that should be duplicated
by the multiplex rule needs to be routed to the core interface.
By default, the multicast IP range 224.0.0.0/4 is always routed to core and does not have to be
manually added to the routing tables. Each specified output interface can individually be
configured with static address translation of the destination address. The Interface field in the
Interface/Net Tuple dialog may be left empty if the IPAddress field is set. In this case, the
output interface will be determined by a route lookup on the specified IP address.
The multiplex rule can operate in one of two modes:

Using IGMP
The traffic flow specified by the multiplex rule must have been requested by hosts using
IGMP before any multicast packets are forwarded through the specified interfaces. This is the
default behavior of NetDefendOS.

Not using IGMP

The traffic flow will be forwarded according to the specified interfaces directly without any
inference from IGMP.

Note: An Allow or NAT rule is also needed

Since the Multiplex rule is a SAT rule, an Allow or NAT rule also has to be specified as
well as the Multiplex rule.

4.6.2.1. Multicast Forwarding - No Address Translation

This scenario describes how to configure multicast forwarding together with IGMP. The multicast
sender is 192.168.10.1 and generates the multicast streams 239.192.10.0/24:1234. These multicast
streams should be forwarded from interface wan through the interfaces if1, if2 and if3. The
streams should only be forwarded if some host has requested the streams using the IGMP
protocol.
The example below only covers the multicast forwarding part of the configuration. The IGMP
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configuration can be found later in Section 4.6.3.1, IGMP Rules Configuration - No Address
Translation.

Figure 4.15. Multicast Forwarding - No Address Translation

Note: SAT Multiplex rules must have a matching Allow rule

Remember to add an Allow rule that matches the SAT Multiplex rule.
The matching rule could also be a NAT rule for source address translation (see below)
but cannot be a FwdFast or SAT rule.

Example 4.15. Forwarding of Multicast Traffic using the SAT Multiplex Rule
In this example, we will create a multiplex rule in order to forward the multicast groups
239.192.10.0/24:1234 to the interfaces if1, if2 and if3. All groups have the same sender
192.168.10.1 which is located somewhere behind the wan interface.
The multicast groups should only be forwarded to the out interfaces if clients behind those
interfaces have requested the groups using IGMP. The following steps need to be performed to
configure the actual forwarding of the multicast traffic. IGMP has to be configured separately.
Web Interface
A. Create a custom service for multicast called multicast_service:

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1.

Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2.

Now enter:

Name: multicast_service

Type: UDP

Destination: 1234

B. Create an IP rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IP Rule

2.

Under General enter.

3.

Name: a name for the rule, for example Multicast_Multiplex

Action: Multiplex SAT

Service: multicast_service

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: 192.168.10.1

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: 239.192.10.0/24

4.

Click the Multiplex SAT tab and add the output interfaces if1, if2 and if3 one at a time. For
each interface, leave the IPAddress field blank since no destination address translation is
wanted.

5.

Enable the option:

Multicast traffic must have been requested using IGMP before it is forwarded

6.

Click OK

Creating Multiplex Rules with the CLI

Creating multiplex rules through the CLI requires some additional explanation.
The CLI command to create the multiplex rule is then:
gw-world:/> add IPRule
SourceNetwork=<srcnet>
SourceInterface=<srcif>
DestinationInterface=<srcif>
DestinationNetwork=<destnet>
Action=MultiplexSAT
Service=<service>
MultiplexArgument={outif1;ip1},{outif2;ip2},{outif3;ip3}...

The two values {outif;ip} represent a combination of output interface and, if address translation of
a group is needed, an IP address.

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If, for example, multiplexing of the multicast group 239.192.100.50 is required to the output
interfaces if2 and if3, then the command to create the rule would be:
gw-world:/> add IPRule
SourceNetwork=<srcnet>
SourceInterface=<if1>
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=239.192.100.50
Action=MultiplexSAT
Service=<service>
MultiplexArgument={if2;},{if3;}

The destination interface is core since 239.192.100.50 is a multicast group. No address translation
of 239.192.100.50 was added but if it is required for, say, if2 then the final argument would be:
MultiplexArgument={if2;<new_ip_address>},{if3;}

4.6.2.2. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation Scenario

Figure 4.16. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation

This scenario is based on the previous scenario but this time the multicast group is translated.
When the multicast streams 239.192.10.0/24 are forwarded through the if2 interface, the
multicast groups should be translated into 237.192.10.0/24.
No address translation should be made when forwarding through interface if1. The configuration
of the corresponding IGMP rules can be found below in Section 4.6.3.2, IGMP Rules Configuration
- Address Translation.

Tip
As previously noted, remember to add an Allow rule matching the SAT Multiplex rule.

Example 4.16. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation

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The following SAT Multiplex rule needs to be configured to match the scenario described above:
Web Interface
A. Create a custom service for multicast called multicast_service:
1.

Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2.

Now enter:

Name: multicast_service

Type: UDP

Destination: 1234

B. Create an IP rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IP Rule

2.

Under General enter.

3.

Name: a name for the rule, for example Multicast_Multiplex

Action: Multiplex SAT

Service: multicast_service

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: 192.168.10.1

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: 239.192.10.0/24

4.

Click the Multiplex SAT tab

5.

Add interface if1 but leave the IPAddress empty

6.

Add interface if2 but this time, enter 237.192.10.0 as the IPAddress

7.

Enable the option:

Multicast traffic must have been requested using IGMP before it is forwarded

8.

Click OK

Note: Replace Allow with NAT for source IP translation

If address translation of the source address is required, the Allow rule following the SAT
Multiplex rule should be replaced with a NAT rule.

4.6.3. IGMP Configuration

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IGMP signaling between hosts and routers can be divided into two categories:

IGMP Reports
Reports are sent from hosts towards the router when a host wants to subscribe to new
multicast groups or change current multicast subscriptions.

IGMP Queries
Queries are IGMP messages sent from the router towards the hosts in order to make sure that
it will not close any stream that some host still wants to receive.

Normally, both types of rule have to be specified for IGMP to function but there are two
exceptions:
1.

If the multicast source is located on a network directly connected to the router, no query
rule is needed.

2.

If a neighboring router is statically configured to deliver a multicast stream to the

NetDefend Firewall, an IGMP query would also not have to be specified.

NetDefendOS supports two IGMP modes of operation:

Snoop Mode

Proxy Mode

The operation of these two modes are shown in the following illustrations:

Figure 4.17. Multicast Snoop Mode

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Figure 4.18. Multicast Proxy Mode

In Snoop Mode, the NetDefend Firewall will act transparently between the hosts and another
IGMP router. It will not send any IGMP Queries. It will only forward queries and reports between
the other router and the hosts.
In Proxy Mode, the firewall will act as an IGMP router towards the clients and actively send
queries. Towards the upstream router, the firewall will be acting as a normal host, subscribing to
multicast groups on behalf of its clients.

4.6.3.1. IGMP Rules Configuration - No Address Translation

This example describes the IGMP rules needed for configuring IGMP according to the No Address
Translation scenario described above. The router is required to act as a host towards the
upstream router and therefore IGMP must be configured to run in proxy mode.
Example 4.17. IGMP - No Address Translation
The following example requires a configured interface group IfGrpClients including interfaces if1,
if2 and if3. The IP address of the upstream IGMP router is known as UpstreamRouterIP.
Two rules are needed. The first one is a report rule that allows the clients behind interfaces if1, if2
and if3 to subscribe for the multicast groups 239.192.10.0/24. The second rule, is a query rule that
allows the upstream router to query us for the multicast groups that the clients have requested.
The following steps need to be executed to create the two rules.
Web Interface
A. Create the first IGMP Rule:
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2.

Under General enter:

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3.

4.

Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Reports

Type: Report

Action: Proxy

Output: wan (this is the relay interface)

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: lfGrpClients

Source Network: if1net, if2net, if3net

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: auto

Multicast Source: 192.168.10.1

Multicast Destination: 239.192.10.0/24

Click OK

B. Create the second IGMP Rule:

1.

Again, go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2.

Under General enter:

3.

4.

Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Queries

Type: Query

Action: Proxy

Output: IfGrpClients (this is the relay interface)

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: UpstreamRouterIp

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: auto

Multicast Source: 192.168.10.1

Multicast Group: 239.192.10.0/24

Click OK

4.6.3.2. IGMP Rules Configuration - Address Translation

The following examples illustrates the IGMP rules needed to configure IGMP according to the
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Address Translation scenario described above in Section 4.6.2.2, Multicast Forwarding - Address
Translation Scenario. We need two IGMP report rules, one for each client interface. The interface
if1 uses no address translation and if2 translates the multicast group to 237.192.10.0/24. We also
need two query rules, one for the translated address and interface, and one for the original
address towards if1.
Two examples are provided, one for each pair of report and query rule. The upstream multicast
router uses IP UpstreamRouterIP.
Example 4.18. if1 Configuration
The following steps needs to be executed to create the report and query rule pair for if1 which
uses no address translation.
Web Interface
A. Create the first IGMP Rule:
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2.

Under General enter:

3.

4.

Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Reports_if1

Type: Report

Action: Proxy

Output: wan (this is the relay interface)

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: if1

Source Network: if1net

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: auto

Multicast Source: 192.168.10.1

Multicast Group: 239.192.10.0/24

Click OK

B. Create the second IGMP Rule:

1.

Again, go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2.

Under General enter:

Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Queries_if1

Type: Query

Action: Proxy

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3.

4.

Output: if1 (this is the relay interface)

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: UpstreamRouterIp

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: auto

Multicast Source: 192.168.10.1

Multicast Group: 239.192.10.0/24

Click OK

Example 4.19. if2 Configuration - Group Translation

The following steps needs to be executed to create the report and query rule pair for if2 which
translates the multicast group. Note that the group translated therefore the IGMP reports include
the translated IP addresses and the queries will contain the original IP addresses
Web Interface
A. Create the first IGMP Rule:
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2.

Under General enter:

3.

4.

Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Reports_if2

Type: Report

Action: Proxy

Output: wan (this is the relay interface)

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: if2

Source Network: if2net

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: auto

Multicast Source: 192.168.10.1

Multicast Group: 239.192.10.0/24

Click OK

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B. Create the second IGMP Rule:

1.

Again, go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2.

Under General enter:

3.

4.

Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Queries_if2

Type: Query

Action: Proxy

Output: if2 (this is the relay interface)

Under Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: UpstreamRouterIp

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: auto

Multicast Source: 192.168.10.1

Multicast Group: 239.192.10.0/24

Click OK

Advanced IGMP Settings

There are a number of IGMP advanced settings which are global and apply to all
interfaces which do not have IGMP settings explicitly specified for them.

4.6.4. Advanced IGMP Settings

The following advanced settings for IGMP can be found in the Web Interface by going to:
Network > Routing > Advanced Multicast Settings

Auto Add Multicast Core Route

This setting will automatically add core routes in all routing tables for the multicast IP address
range 224.0.0.0/4. If the setting is disabled, multicast packets might be forwarded according to
the default route.
Default: Enabled

IGMP Before Rules

For IGMP traffic, by-pass the normal IP rule set and consult the IGMP rule set.
Default: Enabled

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IGMP React To Own Queries

The firewall should always respond with IGMP Membership Reports, even to queries originating
from itself. Global setting on interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: Disabled

IGMP Lowest Compatible Version

IGMP messages with a version lower than this will be logged and ignored. Global setting on
interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: IGMPv1

IGMP Router Version

The IGMP protocol version that will be globally used on interfaces without a configured IGMP
Setting. Multiple querying IGMP routers on the same network must use the same IGMP version.
Global setting on interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: IGMPv3

IGMP Last Member Query Interval

The maximum time in milliseconds until a host has to send an answer to a group or
group-and-source specific query. Global setting on interfaces without an overriding IGMP
Setting.
Default: 5,000

IGMP Max Total Requests

The maximum global number of IGMP messages to process each second.
Default: 1000

IGMP Max Interface Requests

The maximum number of requests per interface and second. Global setting on interfaces without
an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: 100

IGMP Query Interval

The interval in milliseconds between General Queries sent by the device to refresh its IGMP state.
Global setting on interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: 125,000

IGMP Query Response Interval

The maximum time in milliseconds until a host has to send a reply to a query. Global setting on

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interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.

Default: 10,000

IGMP Robustness Variable

IGMP is robust to (IGMP Robustness Variable - 1) packet losses. Global setting on interfaces
without an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: 2

IGMP Startup Query Count

The firewall will send IGMP Startup Query Count general queries with an interval of
IGMPStartupQueryInterval at startup. Global setting on interfaces without an overriding IGMP
Setting.
Default: 2

IGMP Startup Query Interval

The interval of General Queries in milliseconds used during the startup phase. Global setting on
interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: 30,000

IGMP Unsolicitated Report Interval

The time in milliseconds between repetitions of an initial membership report. Global setting on
interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.
Default: 1,000

4.6.5. Tunneling Multicast using GRE

It is possible to tunnel NetDefendOS multicast between two NetDefend Firewalls through a GRE
tunnel. The multicast server will be behind one firewall and the clients behind the other with a
GRE tunnel linking the two firewalls.

Setup Issues
There are certain issues that must be noted with tunneling multicast:

Make sure that the multicast server is sending the stream with a higher TTL than 1 (VLC uses
TTL=1 by default).

When using IGMP, make sure that the destination network is not set to all-nets. If it is, the
multiplex rule will not forward the stream to the correct interface.

SAT Multiplex rules must be setup both on the firewall the server is behind and on the
firewall the clients are behind (in other words, the tunnel terminator).

Incoming and outgoing IGMP rules for reporting and querying must be configured on both
sides of the tunnel if IGMP is used.

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Tunneling Setup Summary

The following components are needed on both the client and server side:

Configure a GRE Tunnel object with the remote network being the client network for the
server side and the server network on the client side.

Configure routes that route multicast traffic bound for the network on the other side through
the GRE tunnel.

Configure a MultiplexSAT IP rule and an Allow Multiplex IP rule on both sides.

For the SAT Multiplex rules, enable the option: Multicast traffic must have been requested
using IGMP before it is forwarded.

Configure IGMP rule objects for the multicast traffic.

An Example Configuration
An example multicast tunneling scenario is illustrated below.

Figure 4.19. Tunneling Multicast using GRE

The IPv4 address book object called mc_group on both sides of the tunnel is the same multicast
IPv4 range. In this example, 239.100.100.0/24.

A. Server Side Configuration Setup

For the server side configuration, assume the client network is the IPv4 address book object

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client_net, the local internal tunnel endpoint is If2_ip (the server is on the If2 interface). A GRE
tunnel called gre_to_clients is configured and the remote network is the address book object
called client_net.
GRE Tunnel
Name

IP Address

Remote Endpoint

Remote Network

gre_to_clients

If2_ip

client_interface_ip

client_net

Routes
Provided that the above GRE object has the option to automatically add routes enabled, the
following route will be added by NetDefendOS to the main routing table.
Network

Interface

client_net

gre_to_clients

Services
Name

Type

Destination Ports

mc_stream

udp

1234

IP Rules
Action

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Destination
Interface

Destination
Network

Service

MultiplexSAT
Interface

MultiplexSAT

If2

If2_net

core

mc_group

mc_stream

gre_to_clients

Allow

If2

If2_net

core

mc_group

mc_stream

Type

Action

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Multicast
Group

Multicast
Source

Relay
Interface

Query

Proxy

If2

If2_net

mc_group

all-nets

gre_to_clients

Report

Proxy

gre_clients

all-nets

all-nets

all-nets

If2

IGMP Rules

B. Client Side Configuration Setup

For the client side configuration, assume the server network is the IPv4 address book object
server_net, the local internal tunnel endpoint is If3_ip (the clients are on the If3 interface). A GRE
tunnel called gre_to_server is configured and the remote network is the address book object
called server_net.
GRE Tunnel
Name

IP Address

Remote Endpoint

Remote Network

gre_to_server

If3_ip

server_interface_ip

server_net

Routes
Provided that the above GRE object has the option to automatically add routes enabled, the
following route will be added by NetDefendOS to the main routing table.
Network

Interface

server_net

gre_to_server

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Services
Name

Type

Destination Ports

mc_stream

udp

1234

IP Rules
Action

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Destination
Interface

Destination
Network

Service

MultiplexSAT
Interface

MultiplexSAT

gre_to_server

server_net

core

mc_group

mc_stream

If3

Allow

gre_to_server

server_net

core

mc_group

mc_stream

Type

Action

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Multicast
Group

Multicast
Source

Relay
Interface

Query

Proxy

If3

If3_net

mc_group

all-nets

gre_to_server

Report

Proxy

gre_to_server

all-nets

all-nets

all-nets

If3

IGMP Rules

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4.7. Transparent Mode

4.7.1. Overview
Transparent Mode Usage
The NetDefendOS Transparent Mode feature allows a NetDefend Firewall to be placed at a point
in a network without any reconfiguration of the network and without hosts being aware of its
presence. All NetDefendOS features can then be used to monitor and manage traffic flowing
through that point. NetDefendOS can allow or deny access to different types of services (for
example HTTP) and in specified directions. As long as users are accessing the services permitted,
they will not be aware of the NetDefend Firewall's presence.
Network security and control can therefore be significantly enhanced with deployment of a
NetDefend Firewall operating in transparent mode but while disturbance to existing users and
hosts is minimized.

Switch Routes
Transparent mode is enabled by specifying a Switch Route instead of a standard Route in routing
tables. The switch route usually specifies that the network all-nets is found on a specific interface.
NetDefendOS then uses ARP message exchanges over the connected Ethernet network to
identify and keep track of which host IP addresses are located on that interface (this is explained
further below). There should not be a normal non-switch route for that same interface.
In certain, less usual circumstances, switch routes can have a network range specified instead of
all-nets. This is usually when a network is split between two interfaces but the administrator does
not know exactly which users are on which interface.

Usage Scenarios
Two examples of transparent mode usage are:

Implementing Security Between Users

In a corporate environment, there may be a need to protect the computing resources of
different departments from one another. The finance department might require access to
only a restricted set of services (HTTP for example) on the sales department's servers whilst
the sales department might require access to a similarly restricted set of applications on the
finance department's hosts. By deploying a single NetDefend Firewall between the two
department's physical networks, transparent but controlled access can be achieved.

Controlling Internet Access

An organization allows traffic between the external Internet and a range of public IPv4
addresses on an internal network. Transparent mode can control what kind of service is
permitted to these IP addresses and in what direction. For instance the only services
permitted in such a situation may be HTTP access out to the Internet. This usage is dealt with
in greater depth below in Section 4.7.2, Enabling Internet Access.

Comparison with Routing Mode

The NetDefend Firewall can be regarded as operating in either of two modes:

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Routing Mode using non-switch routes.

Transparent Mode using switch routes.

With non-switch routes, the NetDefend Firewall acts as a router and routing operates at layer 3 of
the OSI model. If the firewall is placed into a network for the first time, or if network topology
changes, the routing configuration must therefore be checked and adjusted to ensure that the
routing table is consistent with the new layout. Reconfiguration of IP settings may be required
for pre-existing routers and protected servers. This works well when comprehensive control over
routing is desired.
With switch routes, the NetDefend Firewall operates in transparent mode and resembles a OSI
Layer 2 Switch in that it screens IP packets and forwards them transparently to the correct
interface without modifying any of the source or destination information at the IP or Ethernet
levels. This is achieved by NetDefendOS keeping track of the MAC addresses of the connected
hosts and NetDefendOS allows physical Ethernet networks on either side of the NetDefend
Firewall to act as though they were a single logical IP network. (See Appendix D, The OSI
Framework for an overview of the OSI layer model.)
Two benefits of transparent mode over conventional routing are:

A user can move from one interface to another in a "plug-n-play" fashion, without changing
their IP address (assuming their IP address is fixed). The user can still obtain the same services
as before (for example HTTP, FTP) without any need to change routes.

The same network address range can exist on several interfaces.

Note: Transparent and Routing Mode can be combined

Transparent mode and routing mode can operate together on a single NetDefend
Firewall. Switch Routes can be defined alongside standard non-switch routes although
the two types cannot be combined for the same interface. An interface operates in one
mode or the other.
It is also possible to create a hybrid case by applying address translation on otherwise
transparent traffic.

How Transparent Mode Functions

In transparent mode, NetDefendOS allows ARP transactions to pass through the NetDefend
Firewall, and determines from this ARP traffic the relationship between IP addresses, physical
addresses and interfaces. NetDefendOS remembers this address information in order to relay IP
packets to the correct receiver. During the ARP transactions, neither of the endpoints will be
aware of the NetDefend Firewall.
When beginning communication, a host will locate the target host's physical address by
broadcasting an ARP request. This request is intercepted by NetDefendOS and it sets up an
internal ARP Transaction State entry and broadcasts the ARP request to all the other switch-route
interfaces except the interface the ARP request was received on. If NetDefendOS receives an ARP
reply from the destination within a configurable timeout period, it will relay the reply back to the
sender of the request, using the information previously stored in the ARP Transaction State entry.
During the ARP transaction, NetDefendOS learns the source address information for both ends
from the request and reply. NetDefendOS maintains two tables to store this information: the
Content Addressable Memory (CAM) and Layer 3 Cache. The CAM table tracks the MAC
addresses available on a given interface and the Layer 3 cache maps an IP address to MAC

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address and interface. As the Layer 3 Cache is only used for IP traffic, Layer 3 Cache entries are
stored as single host entries in the routing table.
For each IP packet that passes through the NetDefend Firewall, a route lookup for the destination
is done. If the route of the packet matches a Switch Route or a Layer 3 Cache entry in the routing
table, NetDefendOS knows that it should handle this packet in a transparent manner. If a
destination interface and MAC address is available in the route, NetDefendOS has the necessary
information to forward the packet to the destination. If the route was a Switch Route, no specific
information about the destination is available and the firewall will have to discover where the
destination is located in the network.
Discovery is done by NetDefendOS sending out ARP as well as ICMP (ping) requests, acting as the
initiating sender of the original IP packet for the destination on the interfaces specified in the
Switch Route. If an ARP reply is received, NetDefendOS will update the CAM table and Layer 3
Cache and forward the packet to the destination.
If the CAM table or the Layer 3 Cache is full, the tables are partially flushed automatically. Using
the discovery mechanism of sending ARP and ICMP requests, NetDefendOS will rediscover
destinations that may have been flushed.

Enabling Transparent Mode

To enable NetDefendOS transparent mode, the following steps are required:
1.

The interfaces that are to be transparent should be first collected together into a single
Interface Group object. Interfaces in the group should be marked as Security transport
equivalent if hosts are to move freely between them.

2.

A Switch Route is now created in the appropriate routing table and the interface group
associated with it. Any existing non-switch routes for interfaces in the group should be
removed from the routing table.
For the Network parameter in the switch route, specify all-nets or alternatively, specify a
network or range of IP addresses that will be transparent between the interfaces (this latter
option is discussed further below).

3.

Create the appropriate IP rules in the IP rule set to allow the desired traffic to flow between
the interfaces operating in transparent mode.
If no restriction at all is to be initially placed on traffic flowing in transparent mode, the
following single IP rule could be added but more restrictive IP rules are recommended.

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Service

Allow

any

all-nets

any

all-nets

all_services

Restricting the Network Parameter

As NetDefendOS listens to ARP traffic, it continuously adds single host routes to the routing table
as it discovers on which interface IP addresses are located. As the name suggests, single host
routes give a route for a single IP address. The number of these routes can therefore become
large as connections are made to more and more hosts.
A key advantage of specifying a network or a range of IP addresses instead of all-nets for the
Network parameter is that the number of routes automatically generated by NetDefendOS will
be significantly smaller. A single host route will only be added if the IP address falls within the
network or address specified. Reducing the number of routes added will reduce the processing
overhead of route lookups.

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Specifying a network or address range is, of course, only possible if the administrator has some
knowledge of the network topology and often this may not be the case.

Multiple Switch Routes are Connected Together

The setup steps listed above describe placing all the interfaces into a single interface group
object which is associated with a single switch route.
An alternative to one switch route is to not use an interface group but instead use an individual
switch route for each interface. The end result is the same. All the switch routes defined in a
single routing table will be connected together by NetDefendOS and no matter how interfaces
are associated with the switch routes, transparency will exist between them.
For example, if the interfaces if1 to if6 appear in a switch routes in routing table A, the resulting
interconnections will be as illustrated below.

Connecting together switch routes in this way only applies, however, if all interfaces are
associated with the same routing table. The situation where they are not, is described next.

Creating Separate Transparent Mode Networks

If we now have two routing tables A and B so that interfaces if1, if2 and if3 appear in a switch
route in table A and interfaces if4, if5, if6 appear in a switch route in table B, the resulting
interconnections will be as illustrated below.

The diagram above illustrates how switch route interconnections for one routing table are
completely separate from the switch route interconnections for another routing table. By using
different routing tables in this way we can create two separate transparent mode networks.
The routing table used for an interface is decided by the Routing Table Membership parameter for
each interface. To implement separate transparent mode networks, interfaces must have their
Routing Table Membership reset.
By default, all interfaces have Routing Table Membership set to be all routing tables. By default,
one main routing table always exists and once an additional routing table has been defined, the
Membership for any interface can then be set to be that new table.

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Transparent Mode with VLANs

If transparent mode is being set up for all hosts and users on a VLAN then the technique
described above of using multiple routing tables also applies. A dedicated routing table should
be defined for each VLAN ID and switch routes should then be defined in that routing table
which refer to the VLAN interfaces. The reason for doing this is to restrict the ARP requests to the
interfaces on which the VLAN is defined.
To better explain this, let us consider a VLAN vlan5 which is defined on two physical interfaces
called if1 and if2. Both physical interfaces have switch routes defined so they operate in
transparent mode. Two VLAN interfaces with the same VLAN ID are defined on the two physical
interfaces and they are called vlan5_if1 and vlan5_if2.
For the VLAN to operate in transparent mode we create a routing table with the ordering set to
only and which contains the following 2 switch routes:
Network

Interface

all-nets

vlan5_if1

all-nets

vlan5_if2

Instead of creating individual entries, an interface group could be used in the above routing
table.
No other non-switched routes should be in this routing table because traffic that follows such
routes will be tagged incorrectly with the VLAN ID.
Finally, we must associate this routing table with its VLAN interface by defining a Policy Based
Routing Rule.

Enabling Transparent Mode Directly on Interfaces

The recommended way to enable transparent mode is to add switch routes, as described above.
An alternative method is to enable transparent mode directly on an interface (a check box for
this is provided in the graphical user interfaces). When enabled in this way, default switch routes
are automatically added to the routing table for the interface and any corresponding non-switch
routes are automatically removed. This method is used in the detailed examples given later.

High Availability and Transparent Mode

Switch Routes cannot be used with High Availability and therefore true transparent mode cannot
be implemented with a NetDefendOS High Availability Cluster.
Instead of Switch Routes the solution in a High Availability setup is to use Proxy ARP to separate
two networks. This is described further in Section 4.2.6, Proxy ARP. The key disadvantage with
this approach is that firstly, clients will not be able to roam between NetDefendOS interfaces,
retaining the same IP address. Secondly, and more importantly, their network routes will need to
be manually configured for proxy ARP.

Transparent Mode with DHCP

In most transparent mode scenarios, the IP address of users is predefined and fixed and is not
dynamically fetched using DHCP. It is a key advantage of using transparent mode that users can
plug in anywhere and NetDefendOS can route traffic correctly after determining their location
and IP address from ARP exchanges.
However in some transparent mode scenarios, user IP addresses might be allocated by a DHCP
server. For example, it may be an ISP's DHCP server that hands out public IPv4 addresses to
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clients located behind a firewall operating in transparent mode. In this case, NetDefendOS must
be correctly configured as a DHCP relayer to correctly forward DHCP traffic between users and
the DHCP server.
It may also be the case that the exact IP address of the DHCP server is unknown but what is
known is the Ethernet interface to which the DHCP server is connected.
To enable DHCP requests to be relayed through the firewall, the following steps are needed:

Define a static route which routes the IPv4 address 255.255.255.255 to the interface
connected to the DHCP server.

Define a static ARP table entry which maps the MAC address FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF to the IPv4
address 255.255.255.255 on the interface connected to the DHCP server.

Configure a DHCP Relay object with the following property settings:

i.

Set the Source Interface to be the interface connected to the clients.

ii.

Set the DHCP server to relay to to be 255.255.255.255.

iii.

Enable the option: The relayer uses the IP of the interface which it uses to send
requests to the server.

Further explanation of setting up DHCP relay with NetDefendOS can be found in Section 5.3,
DHCP Relay.

4.7.2. Enabling Internet Access

A common misunderstanding when setting up Transparent Mode is how to correctly set up
access to the public Internet. Below is a typical scenario where a number of users on an IP
network called lannet access the Internet via an ISP's gateway with IP address gw-ip.

Figure 4.20. Non-transparent Mode Internet Access

The non-switch route usually needed to allow Internet access would be:
Route type

Interface

Destination

Gateway

Non-switch

if1

all-nets

gw-ip

Now lets suppose the NetDefend Firewall is to operate in transparent mode between the users
and the ISP. The illustration below shows how, using switch routes, the NetDefend Firewall is set
up to be transparent between the internal physical Ethernet network (pn2) and the Ethernet
network to the ISP's gateway (pn1). The two Ethernet networks are treated as a single logical IP
network in Transparent Mode with a common address range (in this example 192.168.10.0/24).

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Figure 4.21. Transparent Mode Internet Access

In this situation, any "normal" non-switch all-nets routes in the routing table should be removed
and replaced with an all-nets switch route (not doing this is a common mistake during setup).
This switch route will allow traffic from the local users on Ethernet network pn2 to find the ISP
gateway.
These same users should also configure the Internet gateway on their local computers to be the
ISPs gateway address. In non-transparent mode the user's gateway IP would be the NetDefend
Firewall's IP address but in transparent mode the ISP's gateway is on the same logical IP network
as the users and will therefore be gw-ip.

NetDefendOS May Also Need Internet Access

The NetDefend Firewall also needs to find the public Internet if it is to perform NetDefendOS
functions such as DNS lookup, Web Content Filtering or Anti-Virus and IDP updating. To allow
this, individual "normal" non-switch routes need to be set up in the routing table for each IP
address specifying the interface which leads to the ISP and the ISPs gateway IP address.
If the IPv4 addresses that need to be reached by NetDefendOS are 85.12.184.39 and
194.142.215.15 then the complete routing table for the above example would be:
Route type

Interface

Destination

Switch

if1

all-nets

Gateway

Switch

if2

all-nets

Non-switch

if1

85.12.184.39

gw-ip

Non-switch

if1

194.142.215.15

gw-ip

The appropriate IP rules will also need to be added to the IP rule set to allow Internet access
through the NetDefend Firewall.

Grouping IP Addresses
It can be quicker when dealing with many IP addresses to group all the addresses into a single
group IP object and then use that object in a single defined route. In the above example,
85.12.184.39 and 194.142.215.15 could be grouped into a single object in this way.

Using NAT
NAT should not be enabled for NetDefendOS in Transparent Mode since, as explained previously,
the NetDefend Firewall is acting like a level 2 switch and address translation is done at the higher
IP OSI layer.
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The other consequence of not using NAT is that IP addresses of users accessing the Internet
usually need to be public IPv4 addresses.
If NATing needs to be performed in the example above to hide individual addresses from the
Internet, it would have to be done by a device (possibly another NetDefend Firewall) between
the 192.168.10.0/24 network and the public Internet. In this case, internal, private IPv4 addresses
could be used by the users on Ethernet network pn2.

4.7.3. Transparent Mode Scenarios

Scenario 1
The firewall in transparent mode is placed between an Internet access router and the internal
network. The router is used to share the Internet connection with a single public IPv4 address.
The internal NATed network behind the firewall is in the 10.0.0.0/24 address space. Clients on the
internal network are allowed to access the Internet via the HTTP protocol.

Figure 4.22. Transparent Mode Scenario 1

Example 4.20. Setting up Transparent Mode for Scenario 1

Command-Line Interface
Configure the wan interface:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet wan
IP=10.0.0.1
Network=10.0.0.0/24
DefaultGateway=10.0.0.1
AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

Configure the lan interface:

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet lan
IP=10.0.0.2
Network=10.0.0.0/24
AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

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Add the IP rule:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow
Service=http
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=10.0.0.0/24
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Name=http_allow

Web Interface
Configure the wan interface:
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2.

Select the wan interface

3.

Now enter:

4.

IP Address: 10.0.0.1

Network: 10.0.0.0/24

Default Gateway: 10.0.0.1

Transparent Mode: Enable

Click OK

Configure the lan interface:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2.

Select the lan interface

3.

Now enter:

4.

IP Address: 10.0.0.2

Network: 10.0.0.0/24

Transparent Mode: Enable

Click OK

Configure the rules:

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: http_allow

Action: Allow

Service: http

Source Interface: lan

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3.

Destination Interface: any

Source Network: 10.0.0.0/24

Destination Network: all-nets

Click OK

Scenario 2
In the second scenario, the NetDefend Firewall in transparent mode separates server resources in
the DMZ from an internal local network. Each is connected to a separate interface without the
need for different address ranges.
All hosts connected to lan and dmz interfaces share the 10.0.0.0/24 address space. As this is
configured using transparent mode, any IP address can be used for the servers and there is no
need for the hosts on the internal network to know if a resource is on the same network or
placed in the DMZ.
The clients on the internal network are allowed to communicate with an HTTP server on the DMZ
network. At the same time, the DMZ HTTP server is reachable from the public Internet. The
NetDefend Firewall is transparent between the dmz and lan interfaces but traffic is still controlled
by IP rules.

Figure 4.23. Transparent Mode Scenario 2

Example 4.21. Setting up Transparent Mode for Scenario 2

Configure a Switch Route over the lan and dmz interfaces for address range 10.0.0.0/24 (assume
the wan interface is already configured).

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Command-Line Interface
Configure the lan interface:
gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet lan
IP=10.0.0.1
Network=10.0.0.0/24
AutoSwitchRoute=No

Configure the dmz interface:

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet dmz
IP=10.0.0.2
Network=10.0.0.0/24
AutoSwitchRoute=No

Configure an interface group:

gw-world:/> add Interface InterfaceGroup transparent_group
Members=lan,dmz
Equivalent=No

Add a switch route in the main routing table for the group:
gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable main
gw-world:/main> add SwitchRoute
Interface=transparent_group
Network=10.0.0.0/24
gw-world:/main> cc
gw-world:/>

Add the IP rule for lan to dmz:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow
Service=http
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=10.0.0.0/24
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=10.1.4.10
Name=http_lan_to_dmz

Add a SAT IP rule for wan to dmz:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=SAT
Service=http
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
SATTranslate=DestinationIP
SATTranslateToIP=10.1.4.10
Name=http_wan_to_dmz_sat

Add the triggering IP rule for the SAT rule above:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow
Service=http
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Name=http_wan_to_dmz

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Web Interface
Configure the interfaces:
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2.

Select the lan interface

3.

Now enter:

IP Address: 10.0.0.1

Network: 10.0.0.0/24

Transparent Mode: Disable

Add route for interface network: Disable

4.

Click OK

5.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

6.

Select the dmz

7.

Now enter:

8.

IP Address: 10.0.0.2

Network: 10.0.0.0/24

Transparent Mode: Disable

Add route for interface network: Disable

Click OK

Configure the interface groups:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Interface Groups > Add > InterfaceGroup

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: transparent_group

Security/Transport Equivalent: Disable

Select the interfaces lan and dmz

Click OK

Configure the routing:

1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > main > Add > SwitchRoute

2.

Now enter:

Switched Interfaces: transparent_group

Network: 10.0.0.0/24

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3.

Click OK

Configure the rules:

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: http_lan_to_dmz

Action: Allow

Service: http

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: dmz

Source Network: 10.0.0.0/24

Destination Network: 10.1.4.10

3.

Click OK

4.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

5.

Now enter:

Name: http_wan_to_dmz_sat

Action: SAT

Service: http

Source Interface: wan

Destination Interface: dmz

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Network: wan_ip

Translate: Destination IP

New IP Address: 10.1.4.10

6.

Click OK

7.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

8.

Now enter:

Name: http_wan_to_dmz

Action: Allow

Service: http

Source Interface: wan

Destination Interface: dmz

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9.

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Network: wan_ip

Click OK

4.7.4. Spanning Tree BPDU Support

NetDefendOS includes support for relaying the Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs) across the
NetDefend Firewall. BPDU frames carry Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) messages between layer 2
switches in a network. STP allows the switches to understand the network topology and avoid
the occurrences of loops in the switching of packets.
The diagram below illustrates a situation where BPDU messages would occur if the administrator
enables the switches to run the STP protocol. Two NetDefend Firewalls are deployed in
transparent mode between the two sides of the network. The switches on either side of the
firewall need to communicate and require NetDefendOS to relay switch BPDU messages in order
that packets do not loop between the firewalls.

Figure 4.24. An Example BPDU Relaying Scenario

Implementing BPDU Relaying

The NetDefendOS BDPU relaying implementation only carries STP messages. These STP
messages can be of three types:

Normal Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP)

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Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP)

Cisco proprietary PVST+ Protocol (Per VLAN Spanning Tree Plus)

NetDefendOS checks the contents of BDPU messages to make sure the content type is
supported. If it is not, the frame is dropped.

Enabling/Disabling BPDU Relaying

BPDU relaying is disabled by default and can be controlled through the advanced setting Relay
Spanning-tree BPDUs. Logging of BPDU messages can also be controlled through this setting.
When enabled, all incoming STP, RSTP and MSTP BPDU messages are relayed to all transparent
interfaces in the same routing table, except the incoming interface.

4.7.5. Advanced Settings for Transparent Mode

CAM To L3 Cache Dest Learning
Enable this if the firewall should be able to learn the destination for hosts by combining
destination address information and information found in the CAM table.
Default: Enabled

Decrement TTL
Enable this if the TTL should be decremented each time a packet traverses the firewall in
transparent mode.
Default: Disabled

Dynamic CAM Size

This setting can be used to manually configure the size of the CAM table. Normally Dynamic is
the preferred value to use.
Default: Dynamic

CAM Size
If the Dynamic CAM Size setting is not enabled then this is the maximum number of entries in
each CAM table.
Default: 8192

Dynamic L3C Size

Allocate the L3 Cache Size value dynamically.
Default: Enabled

L3 Cache Size
This setting is used to manually configure the size of the Layer 3 Cache. Enabling Dynamic L3C

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Size is normally preferred.

Default: Dynamic

Relay Spanning-tree BPDUs

When set to Ignore all incoming STP, RSTP and MSTP BPDUs are relayed to all transparent
interfaces in the same routing table, except the incoming interface. Options:

Ignore - Let the packets pass but do not log

Log - Let the packets pass and log the event

Drop - Drop the packets

DropLog - Drop packets log the event

Default: Drop

Relay MPLS
When set to Ignore all incoming MPLS packets are relayed in transparent mode. Options:

Ignore - Let the packets pass but do not log

Log - Let the packets pass and log the event

Drop - Drop the packets

DropLog - Drop packets log the event

Default: Drop

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Chapter 5: DHCP Services

This chapter describes DHCP services in NetDefendOS.
Overview, page 302
DHCP Servers, page 303
DHCP Relay, page 309
IP Pools, page 312

5.1. Overview
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a protocol that allows network administrators to
automatically assign IP numbers to computers on a network.

IP Address Assignment
A DHCP Server implements the task of assigning IP addresses to DHCP clients. These addresses
come from a predefined IP address pool which DHCP manages. When a DHCP server receives a
request from a DHCP client, it returns the configuration parameters (such as an IP address, a MAC
address, a domain name, and a lease for the IP address) to the client in a unicast message.

DHCP Leases
Compared to static assignment, where the client owns the address, dynamic addressing by a
DHCP server leases the address to each client for a predefined period of time. During the lifetime
of a lease, the client has permission to keep the assigned address and is guaranteed to have no
address collision with other clients.

Lease Expiration
Before the expiration of the lease, the client needs to renew the lease from the server so it can
keep using the assigned IP address. The client may also decide at any time that it no longer
wishes to use the IP address it was assigned, and may terminate the lease and release the IP
address.
The lease time can be configured in a DHCP server by the administrator.

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5.2. DHCP Servers

DHCP servers assign and manage the IP addresses taken from a specified address pool. In
NetDefendOS, DHCP servers are not limited to serving a single range of IP addresses but can use
any IP address range that can be specified by a NetDefendOS IP address object.

Multiple DHCP Servers

The administrator has the ability to set up one or more logical DHCP servers in NetDefendOS.
Filtering of DHCP client requests to different DHCP servers is based on a combination of:

Interface
Each NetDefendOS interface can have, at most, one single logical DHCP server associated
with it. In other words, NetDefendOS can provision DHCP clients using different address
ranges depending on what interface they are located on.

Relayer IP
The relayer IP address in the IP packet is also used to determine the server. The default value
of all-nets means that this all addresses are accepted and only the interface is considered in
making a DHCP server selection. The other options for this parameter are described further
below.

Searching the Server List

Multiple DHCP servers form a list as they are defined, the last defined being at the top of the list.
When NetDefendOS searches for a DHCP server to service a request, it goes through the list from
top to bottom and chooses the first server with a matching combination of interface and relayer
IP filter value. If there is no match in the list then the request is ignored.
The DHCP server ordering in the list can, of course, be changed through one of the user
interfaces.

Using Relayer IP Address Filtering

As explained above a DHCP server is selected based on a match of both interface and relayer IP
filter. Each DHCP server must have a relayer IP filter value specified and the possible values are as
follows:

all-nets
The default value is all-nets (0.0.0.0/0). This means all DHCP requests will match this filter
value regardless if the DHCP requests comes from a client on the local network or has arrived
via a DHCP relayer.

A value of 0.0.0.0
The value 0.0.0.0 will match DHCP requests that come from a local client only. DHCP requests
that have been relayed by a DHCP relayer will be ignored.

A specific IP address.
This is the IP address of the DHCP relayer through which the DHCP request has come.
Requests from local clients or other DHCP relayers will be ignored.

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DHCP Options
The following options can be configured for a DHCP server:
General Parameters
Name

A symbolic name for the server. Used as an interface reference but also
used as a reference in log messages.

Interface Filter

The source interface on which NetDefendOS will listen for DHCP

requests. This can be a single interface or a group of interfaces.

IP Address Pool

An IP range, group or network that the DHCP server will use as an IP

address pool for handing out DHCP leases.

Netmask

The netmask which will be sent to DHCP clients.

Optional Parameters
Default GW

This specifies what IP should be sent to the client for use as

the default gateway (the router to which the client
connects).

Domain

The domain name used for DNS resolution. For example,

domain.com.

Lease Time

The time, in seconds, that a DHCP lease is provided. After

this time the DHCP client must renew the lease.

Primary/Secondary DNS

The IP of the primary and secondary DNS servers.

Primary/Secondary NBNS/WINS

IP of the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) servers that

are used in Microsoft environments which uses the NetBIOS
Name Servers (NBNS) to assign IP addresses to NetBIOS
names.

Next Server

Specifies the IP address of the next server in the boot

process. This is usually a TFTP server.

DHCP Server Advanced Settings

There are two advanced settings which apply to all DHCP servers:

Auto Save Policy

The policy for saving the lease database to disk. The options are:

1.

Never - Never save the database.

2.

ReconfShut - Save the database on a reconfigure or a shutdown.

3.

ReconfShutTimer - Save the database on a reconfigure or a shutdown and also

periodically. The amount of time between periodic saves is specified by the next
parameter, Lease Store Interval.

Lease Store Interval

The number of seconds between auto saving the lease database to disk. The default value is

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86400 seconds.

Example 5.1. Setting up a DHCP server

This example shows how to set up a DHCP server called DHCPServer1 which assigns and manages
IP addresses from an IPv4 address pool called DHCPRange1.
This example assumes that an IP range for the DHCP Server has already been created.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add DHCPServer DHCPServer1
Interface=lan
IPAddressPool=DHCPRange1
Netmask=255.255.255.0

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Network Services > DHCP Servers >Add > DHCPServer

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: DHCPServer1

Interface Filter: lan

IP Address Pool: DHCPRange1

Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Click OK

Displaying IP to MAC Address Mapping

To display the mappings of IP addresses to MAC addresses that result from allocated DHCP
leases, the dhcpserver command can be used. Below is some typical output:
gw-world:/> dhcpserver -show -mappings
DHCP server mappings:
Client IP
Client MAC
------------------------------10.4.13.240
00-1e-0b-a0-c6-5f
10.4.13.241
00-0c-29-04-f8-3c
10.4.13.242
00-1e-0b-aa-ae-11
10.4.13.243
00-1c-c4-36-6c-c4
10.4.13.244
00-00-00-00-02-14
10.4.13.254
00-00-00-00-02-54
10.4.13.1
00-12-79-3b-dd-45
10.4.13.2
00-12-79-c4-06-e7
10.4.13.3
*00-a0-f8-23-45-a3
10.4.13.4
*00-0e-7f-4b-e2-29

Mode
------------ACTIVE(STATIC)
ACTIVE(STATIC)
ACTIVE(STATIC)
INACTIVE(STATIC)
INACTIVE(STATIC)
INACTIVE(STATIC)
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
ACTIVE

The asterisk "*" before a MAC address means that the DHCP server does not track the client using
the MAC address but instead tracks the client through a client identifier which the client has given
to the server.

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To display all DHCP information use the dhcpserver command with no options. Each individually
configured DHCP server is referred to as a Rule which is given a unique number. This number is
used to identify which lease belongs to which server in the CLI output. To see just the configured
DHCP servers, use the command:
gw-world:/> dhcpserver -show -rules

Tip: Lease database saving between restarts

DHCP leases are, by default, remembered by NetDefendOS between system restarts. The
DHCP advanced settings can be adjusted to control how often the lease database is
saved.

The DHCP Server Blacklist

Sometimes, an IP address offered in a lease is rejected by the client. This may because the client
detects that the IP address is already in use by issuing an ARP request. When this happens, the
NetDefendOS DHCP server adds the IP address to its own blacklist.
The CLI can be used to clear the DHCP server blacklist with the command:
gw-world:/> dhcpserver -release=blacklist

Additional Server Settings

A NetDefendOS DHCP server can have two other sets of objects associated with it:

Static Hosts.

Custom Options.

The illustration below shows the relationship between these objects.

Figure 5.1. DHCP Server Objects

The following sections discuss these two DHCP server options.

5.2.1. Static DHCP Hosts

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Where the administrator requires a fixed relationship between a client and the assigned IP
address, NetDefendOS allows the assignment of a given IP to a specific MAC address. In other
words, the creation of a static host.

Static Host Parameters

Many such assignments can be created for a single DHCP server and each object has the
following parameters:
Host

This is the IP address that will be handed out to the client.

MAC Address

This is the MAC address of the client. Either the MAC address can be
used or the alternative Client Identified parameter can be used.

Client Identified

If the MAC address is not used for identifying the client then the client
can send an identifier in its DHCP request. The value of this identifier
can be specified as this parameter. The option exists to also specify if
the identifier will be sent as an ASCII or Hexadecimal value.

Example 5.2. Static DHCP Host Assignment

This example shows how to assign the IPv4 address 192.168.1.1 to the MAC address
00-90-12-13-14-15. The example assumes that the DHCP server DHCPServer1 has already been
defined.
Command-Line Interface
1.

First, change the category to the DHCPServer1 context:

gw-world:/> cc DHCPServer DHCPServer1

2.

Add the static DHCP assignment:

gw-world:/DHCPServer1> add DHCPServerPoolStaticHost
Host=192.168.1.1
MACAddress=00-90-12-13-14-15

3.

All static assignments can then be listed and each is listed with an index number:
gw-world:/DHCPServer1> show

4.

#
1

Comments
------<empty>

An individual static assignment can be shown using its index number:

gw-world:/DHCPServer1> show DHCPServerPoolStaticHost 1
Property
----------Index:
Host:
MACAddress:
Comments:

Value
----------------1
192.168.1.1
00-90-12-13-14-15
<empty>

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5.

The assignment could be changed later to IP address 192.168.1.12 with the following
command:
gw-world:/DHCPServer1> set DHCPServerPoolStaticHost 1
Host=192.168.1.12
MACAddress=00-90-12-13-14-15

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > DHCP Services > DHCP Servers > DHCPServer1 > Static Hosts > Add >
Static Host Entry

2.

Now enter:

3.

Host: 19.168.1.1

MAC: 00-90-12-13-14-15

Click OK

5.2.2. Custom Options

Adding a Custom Option to the DHCP server definition allows the administrator to send specific
pieces of information to DHCP clients in the DHCP leases that are sent out.
An example of this is certain switches that require the IP address of a TFTP server from which
they can get certain extra information.

Custom Option Parameters

The following parameters can be set for a custom option:
Code

This is the code that describes the type of information being sent to the client. A large
list of possible codes exists.

Type

This describes the type of data which will be sent. For example, if the type is String then
the data is a character string.

Data

This is the actual information that will be sent in the lease. This can be one value or a
comma separated list.
The meaning of the data is determined by the Code and Type. For example, if the code is
set to 66 (TFTP server name) then the Type could be String and the Data would then be a
site name such as tftp.mycompany.com.

There is a large number of custom options which can be associated with a single DHCP server
and these are described in:
RFC 2132 - DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions
The code is entered according to the value specified in RFC 2132. The data associated with the
code is first specified in NetDefendOS as a Type followed by the Data.

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5.3. DHCP Relay

The DHCP Problem
With DHCP, clients send requests to locate the DHCP server(s) using broadcast messages.
However, broadcasts are normally only propagated across the local network. This means that the
DHCP server and client always need to be on the same physical network. In a large Internet-like
network topology, this means there would have to be a different DHCP server on every network.
This problem is solved by the use of a DHCP relayer.

The DHCP Relayer Solution

A DHCP relayer takes the place of the DHCP server in the local network and acts as the link
between the client and a remote DHCP server. It intercepts requests coming from clients and
relays them to the DHCP server. The DHCP server then responds to the relayer, which forwards
the response back to the client. DHCP relayers use the TCP/IP Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) to
implement this relay functionality. For this reason DHCP relayers are sometimes referred to as
BOOTP relay agents.

The Source IP of Relayed DHCP Traffic

For relayed DHCP traffic, the option exists in NetDefendOS to use the interface on which it listens
as the source interface for forwarded traffic or alternatively the interface on which it sends out
the forwarded request.
Although all NetDefendOS interfaces are core routed (that is to say, a route exists by default that
routes interface IP addresses to Core) for relayed DHCP requests this core routing does not apply.
Instead, the interface is the source interface and not core.
Example 5.3. Setting up a DHCP Relayer
This example allows clients on NetDefendOS VLAN interfaces to obtain IP addresses from a DHCP
server. It is assumed the NetDefend Firewall is configured with VLAN interfaces vlan1 and vlan2
that use DHCP relaying, and the DHCP server IP address is defined in the NetDefendOS address
book as ip-dhcp. NetDefendOS will add a route for the client when it has finalized the DHCP
process and obtained an IP.
Command-Line Interface
1.

Add the VLAN interfaces vlan1 and vlan2 that should relay to an interface group called
ipgrp-dhcp:
gw-world:/> add Interface InterfaceGroup ipgrp-dhcp
Members=vlan1,vlan2

2.

Add a DHCP relayer called vlan-to-dhcpserver:

gw-world:/> add DHCPRelay vlan-to-dhcpserver Action=Relay
TargetDHCPServer=ip-dhcp
SourceInterface=ipgrp-dhcp
AddRoute=Yes
ProxyARPInterfaces=ipgrp-dhcp

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Web Interface
Adding VLAN interfaces vlan1 and vlan2 that should relay to an interface group named as
ipgrp-dhcp:
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Interface Groups > Add > Interface Group

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: ipgrp-dhcp

Interfaces: select vlan1 and vlan2 from the Available list and put them into the
Selected list.

Click OK

Adding a DHCP relayer called as vlan-to-dhcpserver:

1.

Go to: Network > DHCP Services > DHCP Relay > Add

2.

Now enter:

Name: vlan-to-dhcpserver

Action: Relay

Source Interface: ipgrp-dhcp

DHCP Server to relay to: ip-dhcp

Allowed IP offers from server: all-nets

3.

Under the Add Route tab, check Add dynamic routes for this relayed DHCP lease

4.

Click OK

5.3.1. DHCP Relay Advanced Settings

The following advanced settings are available with DHCP relaying.

Max Transactions
Maximum number of transactions at the same time.
Default: 32

Transaction Timeout
For how long a dhcp transaction can take place.
Default: 10 seconds

Max PPM

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How many dhcp-packets a client can send to through NetDefendOS to the dhcp-server during
one minute.
Default: 500 packets

Max Hops
How many hops the dhcp-request can take between the client and the dhcp-server.
Default: 5

Max lease Time

The maximum lease time allowed by NetDefendOS. If the DHCP server has a higher lease time, it
will be reduced down to this value.
Default: 10000 seconds

Max Auto Routes

How many relays that can be active at the same time.
Default: 256

Auto Save Policy

What policy should be used to save the relay list to the disk, possible settings are Disabled,
ReconfShut, or ReconfShutTimer.
Default: ReconfShut

Auto Save Interval

How often, in seconds, should the relay list be saved to disk if DHCPServer_SaveRelayPolicy is set
to ReconfShutTimer.
Default: 86400

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5.4. IP Pools
Overview
An IP pool is used to offer other subsystems access to a cache of DHCP IP addresses. These
addresses are gathered into a pool by internally maintaining a series of DHCP clients (one DHCP
client per IP address). More than one DHCP server can be used by a pool and can either be
external or be local DHCP servers defined in NetDefendOS itself. Multiple IP Pools can be set up
with different identifying names.
External DHCP servers can be specified in one of two ways:

As the single DHCP server on a specific interface

One of more can be specified by a list of unique IP address.

IP Pools with Config Mode

A primary usage of IP Pools is with IKE Config Mode which is a feature used for allocating IP
addresses to remote clients connecting through IPsec tunnels. For more information on this see
Section 9.4.3, Roaming Clients.

Basic IP Pool Options

The basic options available for an IP Pool are:
DHCP Server behind interface

Indicates that the IP pool should use the DHCP server(s)

residing on the specified interface.

Specify DHCP Server Address

Specify DHCP server IP(s) in preferred ascending order to be

used. This option is used instead of the behind interface
option.
Using the IP loopback address 127.0.0.1 indicates that the
DHCP server is NetDefendOS itself.

Server filter

Optional setting used to specify which servers to use. If

unspecified any DHCP server on the interface will be used.
The order of the provided address or ranges (if multiple) will
be used to indicate the preferred servers.

Client IP filter

This is an optional setting used to specify which offered IPs

are acceptable. In most cases this will be set to the default
of all-nets so all addresses will be acceptable. Alternatively,
a set of acceptable IP ranges can be specified.
This filter option is used in the situation where there may be
a DHCP server response with an unacceptable IP address.

Advanced IP Pool Options

Advanced options available for IP Pool configuration are:
Routing Table

The routing table to be used for lookups when resolving the

destination interfaces for the configured DHCP servers.
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Receive Interface

A "simulated" virtual DHCP server receiving interface. This setting is

used to simulate a receiving interface when an IP pool is obtaining IP
addresses from internal DHCP servers. This is needed since the
filtering criteria of a DHCP server includes a Receive Interface.
An internal DHCP server cannot receive requests from the IP pool
subsystem on an interface since both the server and the pool are
internal to NetDefendOS. This setting allows such requests from a
pool to appear as though they come from a particular interface so
that the relevant DHCP server will respond.

MAC Range

A range of MAC addresses that will be use to create "fake" DHCP

clients. Used when the DHCP server(s) map clients by the MAC
address. An indication of the need for MAC ranges is when the DHCP
server keeps giving out the same IP for each client.

Prefetch leases

Specifies the number of leases to keep prefetched. Prefetching will

improve performance since there will not be any wait time when a
system requests an IP (while there exists prefetched IPs).

Maximum free

The maximum number of "free" IPs to be kept. Must be equal to or

greater than the prefetch parameter. The pool will start releasing
(giving back IPs to the DHCP server) when the number of free clients
exceeds this value.

Maximum clients

Optional setting used to specify the maximum number of clients (IPs)

allowed in the pool.

Sender IP

This is the source IP to use when communicating with the DHCP

server.

Memory Allocation for Prefetched Leases

As mentioned in the previous section, the Prefetched Leases option specifies the size of the cache
of leases which is maintained by NetDefendOS. This cache provides fast lease allocation and can
improve overall system performance. It should be noted however that the entire prefetched
number of leases is requested at system startup and if this number is too large then this can
degrade initial performance.
As leases in the prefetch cache are allocated, requests are made to DHCP servers so that the
cache is always full. The administrator therefore has to make a judgement as to the optimal initial
size of the prefetch cache.

Listing IP Pool Status

The CLI command ippools can be used to look at the current status of an IP pool. The simplest
form of the command is:
gw-world:/> ippool -show

This displays all the configured IP pools along with their status. The status information is divided
into four parts:

Zombies - The number of allocated but inactive addresses.

In progress - The number of addresses that in the process of being allocated.

Free maintained in pool - The number of addresses that are available for allocation.

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Used by subsystems - The number of addresses that are allocated and active.

Other options in the ippool command allow the administrator to change the pool size and to free
up IP addresses. The complete list of command options can be found in the CLI Reference Guide.
Example 5.4. Creating an IP Pool
This example shows the creation of an IP Pool object that will use the DHCP server on IP address
28.10.14.1 with 10 prefetched leases. It is assumed that this IP address is already defined in the
address book as an IP object called ippool_dhcp
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add IPPool ip_pool_1
DHCPServerType=ServerIP
ServerIP=ippool_dhcp
PrefetchLeases=10

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > IP Pools > Add > IP Pool

2.

Now enter Name: ip_pool_1

3.

Select Specify DHCP Server Address

4.

Add ippool_dhcp to the Selected list

5.

Select the Advanced tab

6.

Set Prefetched Leases to 10

7.

Click OK

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This chapter describes NetDefendOS security features.
Access Rules, page 316
ALGs, page 320
Web Content Filtering, page 379
Anti-Virus Scanning, page 398
Intrusion Detection and Prevention, page 405
Denial-of-Service Attacks, page 419
Blacklisting Hosts and Networks, page 424

6.1. Access Rules

6.1.1. Overview
One of the principal functions of NetDefendOS is to allow only authorized connections access to
protected data resources. Access control is primarily addressed by the NetDefendOS IP rule set in
which a range of protected LAN addresses are treated as trusted hosts, and traffic flow from
untrusted sources is restricted from entering trusted areas.
Before a new connection is checked against the IP rule set, NetDefendOS checks the connection
source against a set of Access Rules. Access Rules can be used to specify what traffic source is
expected on a given interface and also to automatically drop traffic originating from specific
sources. AccessRules provide an efficient and targeted initial filter of new connection attempts.

The Default Access Rule

Even if the administrator does not explicitly specify any custom Access Rules, an access rule is
always in place which is known as the Default Access Rule.
This default rule is not really a true rule but operates by checking the validity of incoming traffic
by performing a reverse lookup in the NetDefendOS routing tables. This lookup validates that the
incoming traffic is coming from a source that the routing tables indicate is accessible via the
interface on which the traffic arrived. If this reverse lookup fails then the connection is dropped
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and a Default Access Rule log message will be generated.

When troubleshooting dropped connections, the administrator should look out for Default
Access Rule messages in the logs. The solution to the problem is to create a route for the interface
where the connection arrives so that the route's destination network is the same as or contains
the incoming connection's source IP.

Custom Access Rules are Optional

For most configurations the Default Access Rule is sufficient and the administrator does not need
to explicitly specify other rules. The default rule can, for instance, protect against IP spoofing,
which is described in the next section. If Access Rules are explicitly specified, then the Default
Access Rule is still applied if a new connection does not match any of the custom Access Rules.
The recommendation is to initially configure NetDefendOS without any custom Access Rules and
add them if there is a requirement for stricter checking on new connections.

6.1.2. IP Spoofing
Traffic that pretends it comes from a trusted host can be sent by an attacker to try and get past a
firewall's security mechanisms. Such an attack is commonly known as Spoofing.
IP spoofing is one of the most common spoofing attacks. Trusted IP addresses are used to bypass
filtering. The header of an IP packet indicating the source address of the packet is modified by
the attacker to be a local host address. The firewall will believe the packet came from a trusted
source. Although the packet source cannot be responded to correctly, there is the potential for
unnecessary network congestion to be created and potentially a Denial of Service (DoS) condition
could occur. Even if the firewall is able to detect a DoS condition, it is hard to trace or stop
because of its nature.
VPNs provide one means of avoiding spoofing but where a VPN is not an appropriate solution
then Access Rules can provide an anti-spoofing capability by providing an extra filter for source
address verification. An Access Rule can verify that packets arriving at a given interface do not
have a source address which is associated with a network of another interface. In other words:

Any incoming traffic with a source IP address belonging to a local trusted host is NOT
allowed.

Any outgoing traffic with a source IP address belonging to an outside untrusted network is
NOT allowed.

The first point prevents an outsider from using a local host's address as its source address. The
second point prevents any local host from launching the spoof.
DOS attacks are discussed further in Section 6.6, Denial-of-Service Attacks.

6.1.3. Access Rule Settings

The configuration of an access rule is similar to other types of rules. It contains Filtering Fields as
well as the Action to take. If there is a match, the rule is triggered, and NetDefendOS will carry
out the specified Action.

Access Rule Filtering Fields

The Access Rule filtering fields used to trigger a rule are:

Interface: The interface that the packet arrives on.

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Network: The IP span that the sender address should belong to.

Access Rule Actions

The Access Rule actions that can be specified are:

Drop: Discard the packets that match the defined fields.

Accept: Accept the packets that match the defined fields for further inspection in the rule set.

Expect: If the sender address of the packet matches the Network specified by this rule, the
receiving interface is compared to the specified interface. If the interface matches, the packet
is accepted in the same way as an Accept action. If the interfaces do not match, the packet is
dropped in the same way as a Drop action.

Note: Enabling logging

Logging can be enabled as required for these actions.

Turning Off Default Access Rule Messages

If, for some reason, the Default Access Rule log message is continuously being generated by some
source and needs to be turned off, then the way to do this is to specify an Access Rule for that
source with an action of Drop.

Troubleshooting Access Rule Related Problems

It should be noted that Access Rules are a first filter of traffic before any other NetDefendOS
modules can see it. Sometimes problems can appear, such as setting up VPN tunnels, precisely
because of this. It is always advisable to check Access Rules when troubleshooting puzzling
problems in case a rule is preventing some other function, such as VPN tunnel establishment,
from working properly.

Example 6.1. Setting up an Access Rule

A rule is to be defined that ensures no traffic with a source address not within the lannet network
is received on the lan interface.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Access Name=lan_Access
Interface=lan
Network=lannet
Action=Expect

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Routing > Access > Add > Access

2.

Now enter:

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3.

Name: lan_Access

Action: Expect

Interface: lan

Network: lannet

Click OK

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6.2. ALGs
6.2.1. Overview
To complement low-level packet filtering, which only inspects packet headers in protocols such
as IP, TCP, UDP, and ICMP, NetDefend Firewalls provide Application Layer Gateways (ALGs) which
provide filtering at the higher application OSI level.
An ALG object acts as a mediator in accessing commonly used Internet applications outside the
protected network, for example web access, file transfer and multimedia transfer. ALGs provide
higher security than packet filtering since they are capable of scrutinizing all traffic for a specific
protocol and perform checks at the higher levels of the TCP/IP stack.
ALGs exist for the following protocols in NetDefendOS:

HTTP

FTP

TFTP

SMTP

POP3

SIP

H.323

TLS

Deploying an ALG
Once a new ALG object is defined by the administrator, it is brought into use by first associating
it with a Service object and then associating that service with an IP rule in the NetDefendOS IP
rule set.

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Figure 6.1. Deploying an ALG

Maximum Connection Sessions

The service associated with an ALG has a configurable parameter associated with it called Max
Sessions and the default value varies according to the type of ALG. For instance, the default value
for the HTTP ALG is 1000. This means that a 1000 connections are allowed in total for the HTTP
service across all interfaces. The full list of default maximum session values are:

HTTP ALG - 1000 sessions.

FTP ALG - 200 sessions.

TFTP ALG - 200 sessions.

SMTP ALG - 200 sessions.

POP3 ALG - 200 sessions.

H.323 ALG - 100 sessions.

SIP ALG - 200 sessions.

Tip: Maximum sessions for HTTP can sometimes be too low

This default value of the maximum sessions can often be too low for HTTP if there are
large number of clients connecting through the NetDefend Firewall and it is therefore
recommended to consider using a higher value in such circumstances.

6.2.2. The HTTP ALG

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the primary protocol used to access the World Wide Web
(WWW). It is a connectionless, stateless, application layer protocol based on a request/response
architecture. A client, such as a Web browser, sends a request by establishing a TCP/IP
connection to a known port (usually port 80) on a remote server. The server answers with a
response string, followed by a message of its own. That message might be, for example, an HTML
file to be shown in the Web browser or an ActiveX component to be executed on the client, or
perhaps an error message.
The HTTP protocol has particular issues associated with it because of the wide variety of web
sites that exist and because of the range of file types that can be downloaded using the protocol.

HTTP ALG Features

The HTTP ALG is an extensive NetDefendOS subsystem consisting of the options described
below:

Static Content Filtering

This deals with Blacklisting and Whitelisting of specific URLs.
1.

URL Blacklisting

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Specific URLs can be blacklisted so that they are not accessible. Wildcarding can be used
when specifying URLs, as described below.
2.

URL Whitelisting
The opposite to blacklisting, this makes sure certain URLs are always allowed.
Wildcarding can also be used for these URLs, as described below.
It is important to note that whitelisting a URL means that it cannot be blacklisted and it
also cannot be dropped by web content filtering (if that is enabled, although it will be
logged). Anti-Virus scanning, if it is enabled, is always applied to the HTTP traffic even if
it is whitelisted.

These features are described in depth in Section 6.3.3, Static Content Filtering.

Dynamic Content Filtering

Access to specific URLs can be allowed or blocked according to policies for certain types of
web content. Access to news sites might be allowed whereas access to gaming sites might be
blocked. This feature is described in depth in Section 6.3.4, Dynamic Web Content Filtering.

Anti-Virus Scanning
The contents of HTTP file downloads can be scanned for viruses. Suspect files can be dropped
or just logged. This feature is common to a number of ALGs and is described fully in
Section 6.4, Anti-Virus Scanning.

Verify File Integrity

This part of the ALG deals with checking the filetype of downloaded files. There are two
separate optional features with filetype verification: Verify MIME type and Allow/Block
Selected Types, and these are described below:
1.

Verify MIME type

This option enables checking that the filetype of a file download agrees with the
contents of the file (the term filetype here is also known as the filename extension).
All filetypes that are checked in this way by NetDefendOS are listed in Appendix C,
Verified MIME filetypes. When enabled, any file download that fails MIME verification, in
other words its filetype does not match its contents, is dropped by NetDefendOS on the
assumption that it can be a security threat.

2.

Allow/Block Selected Types

This option operates independently of the MIME verification option described above but
is based on the predefined filetypes listed in Appendix C, Verified MIME filetypes. When
enabled, the feature operates in either a Block Selected or an Allow Selected mode. These
two modes function as follows:
i. Block Selected
The filetypes marked in the list will be dropped as downloads. To make sure that this is
not circumvented by renaming a file, NetDefendOS looks at the file's contents (in a way
similar to MIME checking) to confirm the file is what it claims to be.
If, for example, .exe files are blocked and a file with a filetype of .jpg (which is not
blocked) is found to contain .exe data then it will be blocked. If blocking is selected but
nothing in the list is marked, no blocking is done.

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ii. Allow Selected

Only those filetypes marked will be allowed in downloads and other will be dropped. As
with blocking, file contents are also examined to verify the file's contents. If, for example,
.jpg files are allowed and a file with a filetype of .jpg is found to contain .exe data then
the download will be dropped. If nothing is marked in this mode then no files can be
downloaded.
Additional filetypes not included by default can be added to the Allow/Block list
however these cannot be subject to content checking meaning that the file extension
will be trusted as being correct for the contents of the file.

Note: Similarities with other NetDefendOS ALGs

The Verify MIME type and Allow/Block Selected Types options work in the
same way for the FTP, POP3 and SMTP ALGs.

Download File Size Limit

A file size limit can additionally be specified for any single download (this option is only
available for HTTP and SMTP ALG downloads).

Enforce SafeSearch
The HTTP ALG can enforce that all client web searches performed with the Google,
Microsoft Bing or Yahoo search engines are performed using the SafeSearch feature of the
engine in the Strict mode. Other search engines must be explicitly blocked, for example, by
using the NetDefendOS application control feature.
By default, SafeSearch is not forced so this property must be explicitly enabled for the HTTP
ALG configuration object.

Note: Google SSL searches require DNS changes

Google allows SSL to be used for searches which means the URLs are encrypted and
this makes it difficult for NetDefendOS to enforce Safesearch. The administrator can
solve this problem by adding a CNAME record to the local DNS server that causes
www.google.com to become nosslsearch.google.com. This will cause SSL to be
disabled for the search and give the user a message saying SSL has been disabled by
the administrator.

Blocking/Allowing Filetypes with an IP Policy

Instead of allowing or blocking certain filetypes using an ALG, it is possible to enable file control
as an option on an IP Policy object. This provides a more direct method of activation which can
be combined with the other options available in an IP policy such as anti-virus scanning and
traffic shaping.
IP policies are described further in Section 3.6.7, IP Policies.

The Ordering for HTTP Filtering

HTTP filtering obeys the following processing order and is similar to the order followed by the
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SMTP ALG:
1.

Whitelist.

2.

Blacklist.

3.

Web content filtering (if enabled).

4.

Anti-virus scanning (if enabled).

As described above, if a URL is found on the whitelist then it will not be blocked if it also found
on the blacklist. If it is enabled, Anti-virus scanning is always applied, even though a URL is
whitelisted.
If it is enabled, Web content filtering is still applied to whitelisted URLs but if instead of blocking,
flagged URLs are only logged. If it is enabled, Anti-virus scanning is always applied, even though
a URL is whitelisted.

Figure 6.2. HTTP ALG Processing Order

Using Wildcards in White and Blacklists

Entries made in the white and blacklists can make use of wildcarding to have a single entry be
equivalent to a large number of possible URLs. The wildcard character "*" can be used to
represent any sequence of characters.
For example, the entry *.some_domain.com will block all pages whose URLs end with
some_domain.com.
If we want to now explicitly allow one particular page then this can be done with an entry in the
whitelist of the form my_page.my_company.com and the blacklist will not prevent this page from
being reachable since the whitelist has precedence.

Deploying an HTTP ALG

As mentioned in the introduction, an HTTP ALG object is brought into use by first associating it
with a service object and then associating that service object with an IP rule in the IP rule set. A
number of predefined HTTP services could be used with the ALG. For example, the http service
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might be selected for this purpose. As long as the associated service is associated with an IP rule
then the ALG will be applied to traffic targeted by that IP rule.
With HTTPS, the traffic is encrypted and the HTTP ALG can therefore only perform two actions on
this traffic:

URL filtering.

Web content filtering.

This should be kept in mind when the service used with the ALG includes HTTPS (for example,
when using the http-all service).

6.2.3. The FTP ALG

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a TCP/IP-based protocol for exchanging files between a client and a
server. The client initiates the connection by connecting to the FTP server. Normally the client
needs to authenticate itself by providing a predefined login and password. After granting access,
the server will provide the client with a file/directory listing from which it can download/upload
files (depending on access rights). The FTP ALG is used to manage FTP connections through the
NetDefend Firewall.

FTP Connections
FTP uses two communication channels, one for control commands and one for the actual files
being transferred. When an FTP session is opened, the FTP client establishes a TCP connection
(the control channel) to port 21 (by default) on the FTP server. What happens after this point
depends on the FTP mode being used.

FTP Connection Modes

FTP operates in two modes: active and passive. These determine the role of the server when
opening data channels between client and server.

Active Mode
In active mode, the FTP client sends a command to the FTP server indicating what IP address
and port the server should connect to. The FTP server establishes the data channel back to
the FTP client using the received address information.

Passive Mode
In passive mode, the data channel is opened by the FTP client to the FTP server, just like the
command channel. This is the often recommended default mode for FTP clients though
some advice may recommend the opposite.

A Discussion of FTP Security Issues

Both active and passive modes of FTP operation present problems for NetDefend Firewalls.
Consider a scenario where an FTP client on the internal network connects through the firewall to
an FTP server on the Internet. The IP rule is then configured to allow network traffic from the FTP
client to port 21 on the FTP server.
When active mode is used, NetDefendOS does not know that the FTP server will establish a new
connection back to the FTP client. Therefore, the incoming connection for the data channel will
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be dropped. As the port number used for the data channel is dynamic, the only way to solve this
is to allow traffic from all ports on the FTP server to all ports on the FTP client. Obviously, this is
not a good solution.
When passive mode is used, the firewall does not need to allow connections from the FTP server.
On the other hand, NetDefendOS still does not know what port the FTP client will try to use for
the data channel. This means that it has to allow traffic from all ports on the FTP client to all ports
on the FTP server. Although this is not as insecure as in the active mode case, it still presents a
potential security threat. Furthermore, not all FTP clients are capable of using passive mode.

The NetDefendOS ALG Solution

The NetDefendOS FTP ALG deals with these issues by fully reassembling the TCP stream of the
FTP command channel and examining its contents. By doing this, the NetDefendOS knows what
port to open for the data channel. Furthermore, the FTP ALG also provides functionality to filter
out certain control commands and provide buffer overrun protection.

Hybrid Mode
An important feature of the NetDefendOS FTP ALG is its automatic ability to perform on-the-fly
conversion between active and passive mode so that FTP connection modes can be combined.
Passive mode can be used on one side of the firewall while active mode can be used on the
other. This type of FTP ALG usage is sometimes referred to as hybrid mode.
The advantage of hybrid mode can be summarized as follows:

The FTP client can be configured to use passive mode, which is the recommended mode for
clients.

The FTP server can be configured to use active mode, which is the safer mode for servers.

When an FTP session is established, the NetDefend Firewall will automatically and
transparently receive the passive data channel from the FTP client and the active data
channel from the server, and correctly tie them together.

This implementation results in both the FTP client and the FTP server working in their most
secure mode. The conversion also works the other way around, that is, with the FTP client using
active mode and the FTP server using passive mode. The illustration below shows the typical
hybrid mode scenario.

Figure 6.3. FTP ALG Hybrid Mode

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Note: Hybrid conversion is automatic

Hybrid mode does not need to enabled. The conversion between modes occurs
automatically within the FTP ALG.

Connection Restriction Options

The FTP ALG has two options to restrict which type of mode the FTP client and the FTP server can
use:

Allow the client to use active mode.

If this is enabled, FTP clients are allowed to use both passive and active transfer modes. With
this option disabled, the client is limited to using passive mode. If the FTP server requires
active mode, the NetDefendOS FTP ALG will handle the conversion automatically to active
mode.
A range of client data ports is specified with this option. The server will be allowed to connect
to any of these if the client is using active mode. The default range is 1024-65535.

Allow the server to use passive mode.

If this option is enabled, the FTP server is allowed to use both passive and active transfer
modes. With the option disabled, the server will never receive passive mode data channels.
NetDefendOS will handle the conversion automatically if clients use passive mode.
A range of server data ports is specified with this option. The client will be allowed to connect
to any of these if the server is using passive mode. The default range is 1024-65535.

These options can determine if hybrid mode is required to complete the connection. For
example, if the client connects with passive mode but this is not allowed to the server then
hybrid mode is automatically used and the FTP ALG performs the conversion between the two
modes.

Predefined FTP ALGs

NetDefendOS provides four predefined FTP ALG definitions, each with a different combination of
the client/server mode restrictions described above.

ftp-inbound - Clients can use any mode but servers cannot use passive mode.

ftp-outbound - Clients cannot use active mode but servers can use any mode.

ftp-passthrough - Both the client and the server can use any mode.

ftp-internal - The client cannot use active mode and the server cannot use passive mode.

FTP ALG Command Restrictions

The FTP protocol consists of a set of standard commands that are sent between server and client.
If the NetDefendOS FTP ALG sees a command it does not recognize then the command is
blocked. This blocking must be explicitly lifted and the options for lifting blocking are:

Allow unknown FTP commands. These are commands the ALG does not consider part of the

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standard set.

Allow the SITE EXEC command to be sent to an FTP server by a client.

Allow the RESUME command even if content scanning terminated the connection.

Note: Some commands are never allowed

Some commands, such as encryption instructions, are never allowed. Encryption would
mean that the FTP command channel could not be examined by the ALG and the
dynamic data channels could not be opened.

Control Channel Restrictions

The FTP ALG also allows restrictions to be placed on the FTP control channel which can improve
the security of FTP connections. These are:

Maximum line length in control channel

Creating very large control channel commands can be used as a form of attack against a
server by causing buffer overruns This restriction combats this threat. The default value is 256
If very long file or directory names on the server are used then this limit may need to be
raised. The shorter the limit, the better the security.

Maximum number of commands per second

To prevent automated attacks against FTP server, restricting the frequency of commands can
be useful. The default limit is 20 commands per second.

Allow 8-bit strings in control channel

The option determines if 8-bit characters are allowed in the control channel. Allowing 8-bit
characters enables support for filenames containing international characters. For example,
accented or umlauted characters.

Filetype Checking
The FTP ALG offers the same filetype verification for downloaded files that is found in the HTTP
ALG. This consists of two separate options:

MIME Type Verification

When enabled, NetDefendOS checks that a download's stated filetype matches the file's
contents. Mismatches result in the download being dropped.

Allow/Block Selected Types

If selected in blocking mode, specified filetypes are dropped when downloaded. If selected in
allow mode, only the specified filetypes are allowed as downloads.
NetDefendOS also performs a check to make sure the filetype matches the contents of the
file. New filetypes can be added to the predefined list of types.

The above two options for filetype checking are the same as those available in the HTTP ALG and

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are more fully described in Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG.

Anti-Virus Scanning
The NetDefendOS Anti-Virus subsystem can be enabled to scan all FTP downloads searching for
malicious code. Suspect files can be de dropped or just logged.
This feature is common to a number of ALGs and is described fully in Section 6.4, Anti-Virus
Scanning.

FTP ALG with ZoneDefense

Used together with the FTP ALG, ZoneDefense can be configured to protect an internal network
from virus spreading servers and hosts. This is relevant to 2 scenarios:

A. Infected clients that need to be blocked.

B. Infected servers that need to be blocked.

A. Blocking infected clients.

The administrator configures the network range to include the local hosts of the network. If a
local client tries to upload a virus infected file to an FTP server, NetDefendOS notices that the
client belongs to the local network and will therefore upload blocking instructions to the local
switches. The host will be blocked from accessing the local network and can no longer do any
harm.

Note: ZoneDefense won't block infected servers

If a client downloads an infected file from a remote FTP server on the Internet, the server
will not be blocked by ZoneDefense since it is outside of the configured network range.
The virus is, however, still blocked by the NetDefend Firewall.

B. Blocking infected servers.

Depending on the company policy, an administrator might want to take an infected FTP server
off-line to prevent local hosts and servers from being infected. In this scenario, the administrator
configures the address of the server to be within the range of the network to block. When a client
downloads an infected file, the server is isolated from the network.
The steps to setting up ZoneDefense with the FTP ALG are:

Configure the ZoneDefense switches to be used with ZoneDefense in the ZoneDefense

section of the Web Interface.

Set up the FTP ALG to use Anti-Virus scanning in enabled mode.

Choose the ZoneDefense network in the Anti-Virus configuration of the ALG that is to be
affected by ZoneDefense when a virus is detected.

For more information about this topic refer to Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.
Example 6.2. Protecting an FTP Server with an ALG

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As shown, an FTP Server is connected to the NetDefend Firewall on a DMZ with private IPv4
addresses, shown below:

In this case, we will set the FTP ALG restrictions as follows.

Enable the Allow client to use active mode FTP ALG option so clients can use both active
and passive modes.

Disable the Allow server to use passive mode FTP ALG option. This is more secure for the
server as it will never receive passive mode data. The FTP ALG will handle all conversion if a
client connects using passive mode.

The configuration is performed as follows:

Web Interface
A. Define the ALG:
(The ALG ftp-inbound is already predefined by NetDefendOS but in this example we will show
how it can be created from scratch.)
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > FTP ALG

2.

Enter Name: ftp-inbound

3.

Check Allow client to use active mode

4.

Uncheck Allow server to use passive mode

5.

Click OK

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B. Define the Service:

1.

Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP Service

2.

Enter the following:

3.

Name: ftp-inbound-service

Type: select TCP from the list

Destination: 21 (the port the FTP server resides on)

ALG: select ftp-inbound created above

Click OK

C. Define a rule to allow connections to the public IP on port 21 and forward that to the internal
FTP server:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: SAT-ftp-inbound

Action: SAT

Service: ftp-inbound-service

For Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: any

Destination Interface: core

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Network: wan_ip (assuming the external interface has been defined as
this)

4.

For SAT check Translate the Destination IP Address

5.

Enter To: New IP Address: ftp-internal (assume this internal IP address for FTP server has
been defined in the address book object)

6.

New Port: 21

7.

Click OK

D. Traffic from the internal interface needs to be NATed through a single public IPv4 address:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: NAT-ftp

Action: NAT

Service: ftp-inbound-service

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3.

For Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: dmz

Destination Interface: core

Source Network: dmznet

Destination Network: wan_ip

4.

For NAT check Use Interface Address

5.

Click OK

E. Allow incoming connections (SAT requires an associated Allow rule):

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

4.

Name: Allow-ftp

Action: Allow

Service: ftp-inbound-service

For Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: any

Destination Interface: core

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Network: wan_ip

Click OK

Example 6.3. Protecting FTP Clients

In this scenario shown below the NetDefend Firewall is protecting a workstation that will
connect to FTP servers on the Internet.

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In this case, we will set the FTP ALG restrictions as follows.

Disable the Allow client to use active mode FTP ALG option so clients can only use passive
mode. This is much safer for the client.

Enable the Allow server to use passive mode FTP ALG option. This allows clients on the
inside to connect to FTP servers that support active and passive mode across the Internet.

The configuration is performed as follows:

Web Interface
A. Create the FTP ALG
(The ALG ftp-outbound is already predefined by NetDefendOS but in this example we will show
how it can be created from scratch.)
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > FTP ALG

2.

Enter Name: ftp-outbound

3.

Uncheck Allow client to use active mode

4.

Check Allow server to use passive mode

5.

Click OK

B. Create the Service

1.

Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP Service

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2.

3.

Now enter:

Name: ftp-outbound-service

Type: select TCP from the dropdown list

Destination: 21 (the port the ftp server resides on)

ALG: ftp-outbound

Click OK

C. Create IP Rules
IP rules need to be created to allow the FTP traffic to pass and these are different depending on if
private or public IPv4 addresses are being used.
i. Using Public IPs
If using public IPs, make sure there are no rules disallowing or allowing the same kind of
ports/traffic before these rules. The service used here is the ftp-outbound-service which should be
using the predefined ALG definition ftp-outbound which is described earlier.
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

4.

Name: Allow-ftp-outbound

Action: Allow

Service: ftp-outbound-service

For Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: wan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: all-nets

Click OK

ii. Using Public IPs

If the firewall is using private IPs with a single external public IP, the following NAT rule need to
be added instead:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: NAT-ftp-outbound

Action: NAT

Service: ftp-outbound-service

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3.

For Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: wan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: all-nets

4.

Check Use Interface Address

5.

Click OK

Setting Up FTP Servers with Passive Mode

An important point about FTP server setup needs to be made if the FTP ALG is being used along
with passive mode.
Usually, the FTP server will be protected behind the NetDefend Firewall and NetDefendOS will
SAT-Allow connections to it from external clients that are connecting across the public Internet. If
FTP Passive mode is allowed and a client connects with this mode then the FTP server must
return an IP address and port to the client on which it can set up the data transfer connection.
This IP address is normally manually specified by the administrator in the FTP server software and
the natural choice is to specify the external IP address of the interface on the firewall that
connects to the Internet. This is, however, wrong if the FTP ALG is being used.
Instead, the local, internal IP address of the FTP server should be specified when setting up the
FTP server.

6.2.4. The TFTP ALG

Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a much simpler version of FTP with more limited capabilities.
Its purpose is to allow a client to upload files to or download files from a host system. TFTP data
transport is based on the UDP protocol and therefore it supplies its own transport and session
control protocols which are layered onto UDP.
TFTP is widely used in enterprise environments for updating software and backing up
configurations on network devices. TFTP is recognized as being an inherently insecure protocol
and its usage is often confined to internal networks. The NetDefendOS ALG provides an extra
layer of security to TFTP in being able to put restrictions on its use.

General TFTP Options

Allow/Disallow Read

The TFTP GET function can be disabled so that files cannot

be retrieved by a TFTP client. The default value is Allow.

Allow/Disallow Write

The TFTP PUT function can be disabled so that files cannot

be written by a TFTP client. The default value is Allow.

Remove Request Option

Specifies if options should be removed from request. The

default is False which means "do not remove".

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Allow Unknown Options

If this option is not enabled then any option in a request

other than the blocksize, the timeout period and the file
transfer size is blocked. The setting is disabled by default.

TFTP Request Options

As long as the Remove Request Option described above is set to false (options are not
removed) then the following request option settings can be applied:
Maximum Blocksize

The maximum blocksize allowed can be specified. The

allowed range is 0 to 65,464 bytes. The default value is
65,464 bytes.

Maximum File Size

The maximum size of a file transfer can be restricted. By

default this is the absolute maximum allowed which
999,999 Kbytes.

Block Directory Traversal

This option can disallow directory traversal through the use

of filenames containing consecutive periods ("..").

Allowing Request Timeouts

The NetDefendOS TFTP ALG blocks the repetition of an TFTP request coming from the same
source IP address and port within a fixed period of time. The reason for this is that some TFTP
clients might issue requests from the same source port without allowing an appropriate timeout
period.

6.2.5. The SMTP ALG

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a text based protocol used for transferring email between
mail servers over the Internet. Typically the local SMTP server will be located on a DMZ so that
mail sent by remote SMTP servers will traverse the NetDefend Firewall to reach the local server
(this setup is illustrated later in Section 6.2.5.1, Anti-Spam Filtering). Local users will then use
email client software to retrieve their email from the local SMTP server.
SMTP is also used when clients are sending email and the SMTP ALG can be used to monitor
SMTP traffic originating from both clients and servers.

SMTP ALG Options

Key features of the SMTP ALG are:
Email rate limiting

A maximum allowable rate of email messages can be

specified. This rate is calculated on a per source IP address
basis, in other words it is not the total rate that is of interest
but the rate from a certain email source.
This is a very useful feature to have since it is possible to put
in a block against either an infected client or an infected
server sending large amounts of malware generated emails.

Email size limiting

A maximum allowable size of email messages can be

specified. This feature counts the total amount of bytes sent
for a single email which is the header size plus body size

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plus the size of any email attachments after they are

encoded. It should be kept in mind that an email with, for
example, an attachment of 100 Kbytes, will be larger than
100 Kbytes. The transferred size might be 120 Kbytes or
more since the encoding which takes place automatically
for attachments may substantially increase the transferred
attachment size.
The administrator should therefore add a reasonable
margin above the anticipated email size when setting this
limit.
Email address blacklisting

A blacklist of sender or recipient email addresses can be

specified so that mail from/to those addresses is blocked.
The blacklist is applied after the whitelist so that if an
address matches a whitelist entry it is not then checked
against the blacklist.

Email address whitelisting

A whitelist of email addresses can be specified so that any

mail from/to those addresses is allowed to pass through the
ALG regardless if the address is on the blacklist or that the
mail has been flagged as Spam.

Verify MIME type

The content of an attached file can be checked to see if it

agrees with its stated filetype. A list of all filetypes that are
verified in this way can be found in Appendix C, Verified
MIME filetypes. This same option is also available in the HTTP
ALG and a fuller description of how it works can be found in
Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG.

Block/Allow filetype

Filetypes from a predefined list can optionally be blocked or

allowed as mail attachments and new filetypes can be
added to the list. This same option is also available in the
HTTP ALG and a fuller description of how it works can be
found in Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG. This same option is
also available in the HTTP ALG and a fuller description of
how it works can be found in Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG.

Anti-Virus scanning

The NetDefendOS Anti-Virus subsystem can scan email

attachments searching for malicious code. Suspect files can
be dropped or just logged. This feature is common to a
number of ALGs and is described fully in Section 6.4,
Anti-Virus Scanning.

The Ordering for SMTP Filtering

SMTP filtering obeys the following processing order and is similar to the order followed by the
HTTP ALG except for the addition of Spam filtering:
1.

Whitelist.

2.

Blacklist.

3.

Spam filtering (if enabled).

4.

Anti-virus scanning (if enabled).

As described above, if an address is found on the whitelist then it will not be blocked if it also
found on the blacklist. Spam filtering, if it is enabled, is still applied to whitelisted addresses but
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emails flagged as spam will not be tagged or dropped, only logged. Anti-virus scanning, if it is
enabled, is always applied, even though an email's address is whitelisted.
Notice that either an email's sender or receiver address can be the basis for blocking by one of
the first two filtering stages.

Figure 6.4. SMTP ALG Processing Order

Using Wildcards in White and Blacklists

Entries made in the white and blacklists can make use of wildcarding to have a single entry cover
a large number of potential email addresses. The wildcard character "*" can be used to represent
any sequence of characters.
For instance, the address entry *@some_domain.com can be used to specify all possible email
addresses for some_domain.com.
If, for example, wildcarding is used in the blacklist to block all addresses for a certain company
called my_company then the blacklist address entry required could be *@my_company.com.
If we want to now explicitly allow mails for just one department called my_department in
my_company then this could be done with an entry in the whitelist of the form
my_department@my_company.com.

Enhanced SMTP and Extensions

Enhanced SMTP (ESMTP) is defined in RFC 1869 and allows a number extensions to the standard
SMTP protocol.
When an SMTP client opens a session with an SMTP server using ESMTP, the client first sends an
EHLO command. If the server supports ESMTP it will respond with a list of the extensions that it
supports. These extensions are defined by various separate RFCs. For example, RFC 2920 defines
the SMTP Pipelining extension. Another common extension is Chunking which is defined in RFC
3030.
The NetDefendOS SMTP ALG does not support all ESMTP extensions including Pipelining and
Chunking. The ALG therefore removes any unsupported extensions from the supported
extension list that is returned to the client by an SMTP server behind the NetDefend Firewall.
When an extension is removed, a log message is generated with the text:
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unsupported_extension
capability_removed

The parameter "capa=" in the log message indicates which extension the ALG removed from the
server response. For example, this parameter may appear in the log message as:
capa=PIPELINING

To indicate that the pipelining extension was removed from the SMTP server reply to an EHLO
client command.
Although ESMTP extensions may be removed by the ALG and related log messages generated,
this does not mean that any emails are dropped. Email transfers will take place as usual but
without making use of unsupported extensions removed by the ALG.

SMTP ALG with ZoneDefense

SMTP is used for both mail clients that want to send emails as well as mail servers that relay
emails to other mail servers. When using ZoneDefense together with the SMTP ALG, the only
scenario of interest is to block local clients that try to spread viruses in the outgoing emails.
Using ZoneDefense for blocking relayed emails to an incoming SMTP server would be
inadvisable since it would disallow all incoming emails from the blocked email server. For
example, if a remote user is sending an infected email using a well known free email company,
blocking the sending server using ZoneDefense would block all future emails from that same
company to any local receiver. Using ZoneDefense together with the SMTP ALG should therefore
be used principally for blocking local email clients.
To implement blocking, the administrator configures the ZoneDefense network range to include
all local SMTP clients. It is made sure that the SMTP-server is excluded from this range.

Tip: Exclusion can be manually configured

It is possible to manually configure certain hosts and servers to be excluded from being
blocked by adding them to the ZoneDefense Exclude List.

When a client tries to send an email infected with a virus, the virus is blocked and ZoneDefense
isolates the host from the rest of the network.
The steps to setting up ZoneDefense with the SMTP ALG are:

Configure the ZoneDefense switches to be used with ZoneDefense in the ZoneDefense

section of the Web Interface.

Set up the SMTP ALG to use Anti-Virus scanning in enabled mode.

Choose the ZoneDefense network in the Anti-Virus configuration of the ALG that is to be
affected by ZoneDefense when a virus is detected.

For more information about this topic refer to Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

6.2.5.1. Anti-Spam Filtering

Unsolicited email, often referred to as Spam, has become both a major annoyance as well as a
security issue on the public Internet. Unsolicited email, sent out in massive quantities by groups
known as spammers, can waste resources, transport malware as well as try to direct the reader to
webpages which might exploit browser vulnerabilities.
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Integral to the NetDefendOS SMTP ALG is a spam module that provides the ability to apply spam
filtering to incoming email as it passes through the NetDefend Firewall on its way to a local SMTP
email server. Filtering is done based on the email's origin. This approach can significantly reduce
the burden of such email in the mailboxes of users behind the NetDefend Firewall.
NetDefendOS offers two approaches to handling spam:

Dropping email which has a very high probability of being spam.

Letting through but flagging email that has a moderate probability of being spam.

The NetDefendOS Anti-Spam Implementation

SMTP functions as a protocol for sending emails between servers. NetDefendOS applies Spam
filtering to emails as they pass through the NetDefend Firewall from an external remote SMTP
server to a local SMTP server (from which local clients will later download their emails). Typically,
the local, protected SMTP server will be set up on a DMZ network and there will usually be only
one "hop" between the sending server and the local, receiving server.

DNSBL Databases
A number of trusted organizations maintain publicly available databases of the origin IP address
of known spamming SMTP servers and these can be queried over the public Internet. These lists
are known as DNS Black List (DNSBL) databases and the information is accessible using a
standardized query method supported by NetDefendOS. The image below illustrates all the
components involved:

DNSBL Server Queries

When the NetDefendOS Anti-Spam filtering function is configured, the IP address of the email's
sending server is sent to one or more DNSBL servers to find out if any DNSBL servers think the
email is from a spammer or not. NetDefendOS examines the IP packet headers to do this.
The reply sent back by a server is either a not listed response or a listed response. In the latter case
of being listed, the DSNBL server is indicating the email might be spam and it will usually also
provide information known as a TXT record which is a textual explanation for the listing.

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Figure 6.5. Anti-Spam Filtering

Creating a DNSBL Consensus

The administrator can configure the NetDefendOS SMTP ALG to consult multiple DNSBL servers
in order to form a consensus opinion on an email's origin address. For each new email,
configured servers are queried to assess the likelihood that the email is spam, based on its origin
address. The NetDefendOS administrator assigns a weight greater than zero to each configured
server so that a weighted sum can then be calculated based on all responses. The administrator
can configure one of the following actions based on the weighted sum calculated:
1.

Dropped
If the sum is greater than or equal to a predefined Drop threshold then the email is
considered to be definitely Spam and is discarded or alternatively sent to a single, special
mailbox.
If it is discarded then the administrator has the option that an error message is sent back to
the sending SMTP server (this error message is similar to the one used with blacklisting).

2.

Flagged as Spam
If the sum is greater than or equal to a predefined Spam threshold then the email is
considered as probably being Spam but forwarded to the recipient with notifying text
inserted into it.

A Threshold Calculation Example

As an example, lets suppose that three DNSBL servers are configured: dnsbl1, dnsbl2 and dnsbl3.
Weights of 3, 2 and 2 are assigned to these respectively. The Spam threshold is then set to be 5.
If dnsbl1 and dnsbl2 say an email is Spam but dnsbl3 does not, then the total calculated will be
3+2+0=5. Since the total of 5 is equal to (or greater than) the threshold then the email will be
treated as Spam.
If the Drop threshold in this example is set at 7 then all three DNSBL servers would have to
respond in order for the calculated sum to cause the email to be dropped (3+2+2=7).

Alternative Actions for Dropped Spam

If the calculated sum is greater than or equal to the Drop threshold value then the email is not
forwarded to the intended recipient. Instead the administrator can choose one of two
alternatives for dropped email:

A special email address can be configured to receive all dropped email. If this is done then
any TXT messages sent by the DNSBL servers (described next) that identified the email as
Spam can be optionally inserted by NetDefendOS into the header of the forwarded email.

If no receiver email address is configured for dropped emails then they are discarded by
NetDefendOS. The administrator can specify that an error message is sent back to the sender
address along with the TXT messages from the DNSBL servers that failed the email.

Tagging Spam

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If an email is considered to be probably Spam because the calculated sum is above the Spam
threshold but it is below the Drop threshold, then the Subject field of the email is changed and
pre-fixed with a message and the email is forwarded on to the intended recipient. The tag
message text is specified by the administrator but can be left blank (although that is not
recommended).
An example of tagging might be if the original Subject field is:
Buy this stock today!

And if the tag text is defined to be "*** SPAM ***", then the modified email's Subject field will
become:
*** SPAM *** Buy this stock today!

And this is what the email's recipient will see in the summary of their inbox contents. The
individual user could then decide to set up their own filters in the local client to deal with such
tagged emails, possibly sending it to a separate folder.

Adding X-Spam Information

If an email is determined to be Spam and a forwarding address is configured for dropped emails,
then the administrator has the option to Add TXT Records to the email. A TXT Record is the
information sent back from the DNSBL server when the server thinks the sender is a source of
Spam. This information can be inserted into the header of the email using the X-Spam tagging
convention before it is sent on. The X-Spam fields added are:

X-Spam-Flag - This value will always be Yes.

X-Spam-Checker-Version - The NetDefendOS version that tagged the email.

X-Spam-Status - This will always be DNSBL.

X-Spam-Report - A list of DNSBL servers that flagged the email as Spam.

X-Spam-TXT-Records - A list of TXT records sent by the DNSBL servers that identified the
email as Spam.

X-Spam_Sender-IP - IP address used by the email sender.

These fields can be referred to in filtering rules set up by the administrator in mail server
software.

Allowing for Failed DNSBL Servers

If a query to a DNSBL server times out then NetDefendOS will consider that the query has failed
and the weight given to that server will be automatically subtracted from both the Spam and
Drop thresholds for the scoring calculation done for that email.
If enough DNSBL servers do not respond then this subtraction could mean that the threshold
values become negative. Since the scoring calculation will always produce a value of zero or
greater (servers cannot have negative weights) then all email will be allowed through if both the
Spam and Drop thresholds become negative.
A log message is generated whenever a configured DNSBL server does not respond within the
required time. This is done only once at the beginning of a consecutive sequence of response
failures from a single server to avoid unnecessarily repeating the message.

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Verifying the Sender Email

As part of the Anti-Spam module, the option exists to check for a mismatch of the "From" address
in the SMTP protocol command with the actual email header "From" address. Spammers can
deliberately make these different to get email past filters so this feature provides an extra check
on email integrity.
If a mismatch is detected, one of two actions can be configured:

The email is dropped.

Allow the email to pass but tag it using the configured spam tag.

When sender address verification is enabled, there is an additional option to only compare the
domain names in the "From" addresses.

Logging
There are three types of logging done by the Spam filtering module:

Logging of dropped or Spam tagged emails - These log messages include the source email
address and IP as well as its weighted points score and which DNSBLs caused the event.

DNSBLs not responding - DNSBL query timeouts are logged.

All defined DNBSLs stop responding - This is a high severity event since all email will be
allowed through if this happens.

Setup Summary
To set up DNSBL Spam filtering in the SMTP ALG, the following list summarizes the steps:

Specify the DNSBL servers that are to be used. There can be one or multiple. Multiple servers
can act both as backups to each other as well as confirmation of a sender's status.

Specify a weight for each server which will determine how important it is in deciding if email
is Spam or not in the calculation of a weighted sum.

Specify the thresholds for designating any email as Spam. If the weighted sum is equal or
greater than these then an email will be considered to be Spam. Two thresholds are specified:
i.

Spam Threshold - The threshold for tagging mail as spam.

ii. Drop Threshold - The threshold for dropping mail.

The Spam Threshold should be less than the Drop Threshold. If the two are equal then only the
Drop Threshold applies.

Specify a textual tag to prefix to the Subject field of email designated as Spam.

Optionally specify an email address to which dropped email will be sent (as an alternative to
simply discarding it). Optionally specify that the TXT messages sent by the DNSBL servers that
failed are inserted into the header of these emails.

Caching Addresses for Performance

To speed processing NetDefendOS maintains a cache of the most recently looked-up sender
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"From" addresses in local memory. If the cache becomes full then the oldest entry is written over
first. There are two parameters which can be configured for the address cache:

Cache Size
This is the number of entries that the cache can contain. If set to zero, the cache is not used.
Increasing the cache size increases the amount of NetDefendOS memory required for
Anti-Spam.

Cache Timeout
The timeout determines how long any address will be valid for once it is saved in the cache.
After this period of time has expired, a new query for a cached sender address must be sent
to the DNSBL servers.
The default value if 600 seconds.

The Anti-Spam address cache is emptied at startup or reconfiguration.

For the DNSBL subsystem overall:

Number of emails checked.

Number of emails Spam tagged.

Number of dropped emails.

For each DNSBL server accessed:

Number of positive (is Spam) responses from each configured DNSBL server.

Number of queries sent to each configured DNSBL server.

Number of failed queries (without replies) for each configured DNSBL server.

The dnsbl CLI Command

The dnsbl CLI command provides a means to control and monitor the operation of the Spam
filtering module. The dnsbl command on its own without options shows the overall status of all
ALGs. If the name of the SMTP ALG object on which DNSBL Spam filtering is enabled is
my_smtp_alg then the output would be:
gw-world:/> dnsbl
DNSBL Contexts:
Name
-----------------------my_smtp_alg
alt_smtp_alg

Status
Spam
Drop
Accept
-------- -------- -------- -------active
156
65
34299
inactive
0
0
0

The -show option provides a summary of the Spam filtering operation of a specific ALG. It is used
below to examine activity for my_smtp_alg although in this case, the ALG object has not yet
processed any emails.
gw-world:/> dnsbl my_smtp_alg -show
Drop Threshold
Spam Threshold
Use TXT records
IP Cache disabled

: 20
: 10
: yes

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Configured BlackLists : 4
Disabled BlackLists
: 0
Current Sessions
: 0
Statistics:
Total number of mails checked : 0
Number of mails dropped
: 0
Number of mails spam tagged
: 0
Number of mails accepted
: 0
BlackList
Status
Value Total
Matches Failed
------------------------- -------- ----- -------- -------- -------zen.spamhaus.org
active
25
0
0
0
cbl.abuseat.org
active
20
0
0
0
dnsbl.sorbs.net
active
5
0
0
0
asdf.egrhb.net
active
5
0
0
0

To examine the statistics for a particular DNSBL server, the following command can be used.
gw-world:/> dnsbl smtp_test zen.spamhaus.org -show
BlackList: zen.spamhaus.org
Status
: active
Weight value : 25
Number of mails checked
Number of matches in list
Number of failed checks (times disabled)

: 56
: 3
: 0

To clean out the dnsbl cache for my_smtp_alg and to reset all its statistical counters, the
following command option can be used:
gw-world:/> dnsbl my_smtp_alg -clean

Tip: DNSBL servers

A list of DNSBL servers can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_DNS_blacklists.

6.2.6. The POP3 ALG

POP3 is a mail transfer protocol that differs from SMTP in that the transfer of mail is directly from
a server to a user's client software.

POP3 ALG Options

Key features of the POP3 ALG are:
Block clients from sending USER
and PASS command

Block connections between client and server that send the

username/password combination as clear text which can be
easily read (some servers may not support other methods
than this).

Hide User

This option prevents the POP3 server from revealing that a

username does not exist. This prevents users from trying
different usernames until they find a valid one.

Allow Unknown Commands

Non-standard POP3 commands not recognized by the ALG

can be allowed or disallowed.

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Fail Mode

When content scanning detects bad file integrity, the file

can be allowed or disallowed.

Verify MIME type

The content of an attached file can be checked to see if it

agrees with its stated filetype. A list of all filetypes that are
verified in this way can be found in Appendix C, Verified
MIME filetypes. This same option is also available in the HTTP
ALG and a fuller description of how it works can be found in
Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG.

Block/Allow filetype

Filetypes from a predefined list can optionally be blocked or

allowed as mail attachments and new filetypes can be
added to the list. This same option is also available in the
HTTP ALG and a fuller description of how it works can be
found in Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG.

Anti-Virus Scanning

The NetDefendOS Anti-Virus subsystem can optionally scan

email attachments searching for malicious code. Suspect
files can be dropped or just logged. This feature is common
to a number of ALGs and is described fully in Section 6.4,
Anti-Virus Scanning.

6.2.7. The PPTP ALG

Why the PPTP ALG is Needed
The PPTP ALG is provided to deal with a specific issue when PPTP tunnels are used with NAT.
Let us suppose we have two clients A and B on a protected inner network behind a NetDefend
Firewall. The firewall is connected to the external Internet and a NAT rule is defined to allow
traffic from the clients to flow to the Internet. Both clients will therefore appear to have from the
same IP address as they make connections to servers across the Internet.
One client A now establishes a PPTP tunnel to an external host C across the Internet. The tunnel
endpoints are the client and the external server. Because of the NAT IP rule, the tunnel
connection will appear to be coming from the external IP address on the firewall.
This first connection will be successful but when the second client B also tries to connect to the
same server C at the same endpoint IP address, the first connection for A will be lost. The reason
is that both clients are trying to establish a PPTP tunnel from the same external IP address to the
same endpoint.

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Figure 6.6. PPTP ALG Usage

The PPTP ALG solves this problem. By using the ALG, the traffic from all the clients can be
multiplexed through a single PPTP tunnel between the firewall and the server.

PPTP ALG Setup

Setting up the PPTP ALG is similar to the set up of other ALG types. The ALG object must be
associated with the relevant service and the service is then associated with an IP rule. The full
sequence of steps for setup is as follows:

Define a new PPTP ALG object with an appropriate name, for example pptp_alg. The full list of
options for the ALG are listed towards the end of this section.

Associate the new ALG object with an appropriate Service object. The predefined service
called pptp-ctl can be used for this purpose.
Alternatively, a new custom service object can be defined, for example called pptp_service.
The service must have the following characteristics:

i.

Select the Type (the protocol) as TCP.

ii.

The Source port range can be the default of 0-65535.

iii.

Set the Destination port to be 1723.

iv.

Select the ALG to be the PPTP ALG object that was defined in the first step. In this case, it
was called pptp_alg.

Associate this service object with the NAT IP rule that permits the traffic to flow from clients
to the remote endpoint of the PPTP tunnel. This may be the rule that NATs the traffic out to
the Internet with a destination network of all-nets.
The single IP rule below shows how the custom service object called pptp_service is
associated with a typical NAT rule. The clients, which are the local end point of the PPTP
tunnels, are located behind the firewall on the network lannet which is connected to the lan
interface. The Internet is found on the wan interface which is the destination interface, with
all-nets as the destination network.

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Service

NAT

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

pptp_service

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PPTP ALG Settings

The following settings are available for the PPTP ALG:
Name

A descriptive name for the ALG.

Echo timeout

Idle timeout for Echo messages in the PPTP tunnel.

Idle timeout

Idle timeout for user traffic messages in the PPTP tunnel.

In most cases only the name needs to be defined and the other settings can be left at their
defaults.

6.2.8. The SIP ALG

Overview
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an ASCII (UTF-8) text based signalling protocol used to establish
sessions between clients in an IP network. It is a request-response protocol that resembles HTTP
and SMTP. The session which SIP sets up might consist of a Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) telephone call or
it could be a collaborative multi-media conference. Using SIP with VoIP means that telephony
can become another IP application which can integrate into other services.

SIP Sets Up Sessions

SIP does not know about the details of a session's content and is only responsible for initiating,
terminating and modifying sessions. Sessions set up by SIP are typically used for the streaming of
audio and video over the Internet using the RTP/RTCP protocol (which is based on UDP) but they
might also involve traffic based on the TCP protocol. An RTP/RTCP based sessions might also
involve TCP or TLS based traffic in the same session.

The SIP RFC

SIP is defined by IETF RFC 3261 and this is considered an important general standard for VoIP
communication. It is comparable to H.323, however, a design goal with SIP was to make SIP more
scalable than H.323. (For VoIP, see also Section 6.2.9, The H.323 ALG.)

Important: Third Party Equipment Compliance

NetDefendOS is based on the SIP implementation described in RFC 3261. However,
correct SIP message processing and media establishment cannot be guaranteed unless
local and remote clients as well as proxies are configured to follow RFC 3261.
Unfortunately, some third party SIP equipment may use techniques that lie outside RFC
3261 and it may not be possible to configure the equipment to disable these. For this
reason, such equipment may not be able to operate successfully with the NetDefendOS
SIP ALG.
For example, analog to digital converters that do not work with the SIP ALG may come
pre-configured by service providers with restricted configuration possibilities.
NAT traversal techniques like STUN also lie outside of RFC 3261 and need to be disabled.

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NetDefendOS Supports Three Scenarios

Before continuing to describe SIP in more depth, it is important to understand that NetDefendOS
supports SIP usage in three distinct scenarios:

Protecting Local Clients

In this scenario, the proxy is located somewhere on the public Internet.

Protecting Proxy and Local Clients

Here, the proxy is located on the same network as the clients. However, this case can be
divided into two scenarios:
i.

The clients and proxy are on an internal, trusted network.

ii.

The clients and proxy are on the DMZ network.

Traffic Shaping with SIP

Any traffic connections that trigger a NetDefendOS IP rule with an associated service object that
uses the SIP ALG cannot also be subject to traffic shaping.

SIP Components
The following components are the logical building blocks for SIP communication:
User Agents

These are the end points or clients that are involved in the client-to-client
communication. These would typically be the workstation or device used in
an IP telephony conversation. The term client will be used throughout this
section to describe a user agent.

Proxy Servers

These act as routers in the SIP protocol, performing both as client and
server when receiving client requests. They forward requests to a client's
current location as well as authenticating and authorizing access to
services. They also implement provider call-routing policies.
The proxy is often located on the external, unprotected side of the
NetDefend Firewall but can have other locations. All of these scenarios are
supported by NetDefendOS.

Registrars

A server that handles SIP REGISTER requests is given the special name of
Registrar. The Registrar server has the task of locating the host where the
other client is reachable.
The Registrar and Proxy Server are logical entities and may, in fact, reside on
the same physical server.

SIP Media-related Protocols

A SIP session makes use of a number of protocols. These are:
SDP

Session Description Protocol (RFC4566) is used for media session initialization.

RTP

Real-time Transport Protocol (RFC3550) is used as the underlying packet format for
delivering audio and video streaming via IP using the UDP protocol.
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RTCP

Real-time Control Protocol (RFC3550) is used in conjunction with RTP to provide

out-of-band control flow management.

NetDefendOS SIP Setup

When configuring NetDefendOS to handle SIP sessions the following steps are needed:

Define a single Service object for SIP communication.

Define a SIP ALG object which is associated with the Service object.

Define the appropriate IP rules for SIP communications which use the defined Service object.

SIP ALG Options

The following options can be configured for a SIP ALG object:
Maximum Sessions per ID

The number of simultaneous sessions that a single client

can be involved with is restricted by this value. The default
number is 5.

Maximum Registration Time

The maximum time for registration with a SIP Registrar. The

default value is 3600 seconds.

SIP Signal Timeout

The maximum time allowed for SIP sessions. The default

value is 43200 seconds.

Data Channel Timeout

The maximum time allowed for periods with no traffic in a

SIP session. A timeout condition occurs if this value is
exceeded. The default value is 120 seconds.

Allow Media Bypass

If this option is enabled then data. such as RTP/RTCP

communication, may take place directly between two
clients without involving the NetDefend Firewall. This
would only happen if the two clients were behind the same
interface and belong to the same network. The default
value is Disabled.

The SIP Proxy Record-Route Option

To understand how to set up SIP scenarios with NetDefendOS, it is important to first understand
the SIP proxy Record-Route option. SIP proxies have the Record-Route option either enabled or
disabled. When it is switched on, a proxy is known as a Stateful proxy. When Record-Route is
enabled, a proxy is saying it will be the intermediary for all SIP signalling that takes place
between two clients.
When a SIP session is being set up, the calling client sends an INVITE message to its outbound SIP
proxy server. The SIP proxy relays this message to the remote proxy server responsible for the
called, remote client's contact information. The remote proxy then relays the INVITE message to
the called client. Once the two clients have learnt of each other's IP addresses, they can
communicate directly with each other and remaining SIP messages can bypass the proxies. This
facilitates scaling since proxies are used only for the initial SIP message exchange.
The disadvantage of removing proxies from the session is that NetDefendOS IP rules must be set
up to allow all SIP messages through the NetDefend Firewall, and if the source network of the
messages is not known then a large number of potentially dangerous connections must be
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allowed by the IP rule set. This problem does not occur if the local proxy is set up with the
Record-Route option enabled. In this mode, all SIP messages will only come from the proxy.
The different rules required when the Record-Route option is enabled and disabled can be seen in
the two different sets of IP rules listed below in the detailed description of Scenario 1
Protecting local clients - Proxy located on the Internet.

IP Rules for Media Data

When discussing SIP data flows there are two distinct types of exchanges involved:

The SIP session which sets up communication between two clients prior to the exchange of
media data.

The exchange of the media data itself, for example the coded voice data which constitute a
VoIP phone call.

In the SIP setups described below, IP rules need only be explicitly defined to deal with the first of
the above, the SIP exchanges needed for establishing client-to-client communications. No IP
rules or other objects need to be defined to handle the second of the above, the exchange of
media data. The SIP ALG automatically and invisibly takes care of creating the connections
required (sometimes described as SIP pinholes) for allowing the media data traffic to flow
through the NetDefend Firewall.

Tip
Make sure there are no preceding rules already in the IP rule set disallowing or allowing
the same kind of traffic.

SIP Usage Scenarios

NetDefendOS supports a variety of SIP usage scenarios. The following three scenarios cover
nearly all possible types of usage:

Scenario 1
Protecting local clients - Proxy located on the Internet
The SIP session is between a client on the local, protected side of the NetDefend Firewall and
a client which is on the external, unprotected side. The SIP proxy is located on the external,
unprotected side of the NetDefend Firewall. Communication typically takes place across the
public Internet with clients on the internal, protected side registering with a proxy on the
public, unprotected side.

Scenario 2
Protecting proxy and local clients - Proxy on the same network as clients
The SIP session is between a client on the local, protected side of the NetDefend Firewall and
a client which is on the external, unprotected side. The SIP proxy is located on the local,
protected side of the NetDefend Firewall and can handle registrations from both clients
located on the same local network as well as clients on the external, unprotected side.
Communication can take place across the public Internet or between clients on the local
network.

Scenario 3
Protecting proxy and local clients - Proxy on a DMZ interface
The SIP session is between a client on the local, protected side of the NetDefend Firewall and

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a client which is on the external, unprotected side. The SIP proxy is located on the DMZ
interface and is physically separated from the local client network as well as the remote client
network and proxy network.
All the above scenarios will also deal with the situation where two clients in a session reside on
the same network.
These scenarios will now be examined in detail.

Scenario 1
Protecting local clients - Proxy located on the Internet
The scenario assumed is an office with VoIP users on a private internal network where the
network's topology will be hidden using NAT. This is illustrated below.

The SIP proxy in the above diagram could alternatively be located remotely across the Internet.
The proxy should be configured with the Record-Route feature enabled to insure all SIP traffic to
and from the office clients will be sent through the SIP Proxy. This is recommended since the
attack surface is minimized by allowing only SIP signalling from the SIP Proxy to enter the local
network.
This scenario can be implemented in two ways:

Using NAT to hide the network topology.

Without NAT so the network topology is exposed.

Note: NAT traversal should not be configured

SIP User Agents and SIP Proxies should not be configured to employ NAT Traversal in any
setup. For instance the Simple Traversal of UDP through NATs (STUN) technique
should not be used. The NetDefendOS SIP ALG will take care of all NAT traversal issues in
a SIP scenario.

The setup steps for this scenario are as follows:

1.

Define a SIP ALG object using the options described above.

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2.

3.

Define a Service object which is associated with the SIP ALG object. The service should have:

Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signalling port).

Type set to TCP/UDP.

Define two rules in the IP rule set:

A NAT rule for outbound traffic from clients on the internal network to the SIP Proxy
Server located externally. The SIP ALG will take care of all address translation needed by
the NAT rule. This translation will occur both on the IP level and the application level.
Neither the clients or the proxies need to be aware that the local users are being NATed.

An Allow rule for inbound SIP traffic from the SIP proxy to the IP of the NetDefend
Firewall. This rule will use core (in other words, NetDefendOS itself ) as the destination
interface. The reason for this is due to the NAT rule above. When an incoming call is
received, NetDefendOS will automatically locate the local receiver, perform address
translation and forward SIP messages to the receiver. This will be executed based on the
ALGs internal state.

A SAT rule for translating incoming SIP messages is not needed since the ALG will
automatically redirect incoming SIP requests to the correct internal user. When a SIP client
behind a NATing NetDefend Firewall registers with an external SIP proxy, NetDefendOS
sends its own IP address as contact information to the SIP proxy. NetDefendOS registers the
client's local contact information and uses this to redirect incoming requests to the user. The
ALG takes care of the address translations needed.
4.

Ensure the clients are correctly configured. The SIP Proxy Server plays a key role in locating
the current location of the other client for the session. The proxy's IP address is not specified
directly in the ALG. Instead its location is either entered directly into the client software used
by the client or in some cases the client will have a way of retrieving the proxy's IP address
automatically such as through DHCP.

The IP rules with the Record-Route option enabled would be as shown below, the changes that
apply when NAT is used are shown in parentheses "(..)".
Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Allow
(or NAT)

lan

lannet

wan

ip_proxy

Allow

wan

ip_proxy

lan
(or core)

lannet
(or wan_ip)

Without the Record-Route option enabled the IP rules would be as shown below, the changes
that apply when NAT is used are again shown in parentheses "(..)".
Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Allow
(or NAT)

lan

lannet

wan

<All possible IPs>

Allow

wan

<All possible IPs>

lan
(or core)

lannet
(or ipwan)

The advantage of using Record-Route is clear since now the destination network for outgoing
traffic and the source network for incoming traffic have to include all IP addresses that are
possible.

The Service object for IP rules

In this section, tables which list IP rules like those above, will omit the Service object

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associated with the rule. The same, custom Service object is used for all SIP scenarios.

Scenario 2
Protecting proxy and local clients - Proxy on the same network as clients
In this scenario the goal is to protect the local clients as well as the SIP proxy. The proxy is located
on the same, local network as the clients, with SIP signalling and media data flowing across two
interfaces. This scenario is illustrated below.

This scenario can be implemented in two ways:

Using NAT to hide the network topology.

Without NAT so the network topology is exposed.

Solution A - Using NAT

Here, the proxy and the local clients are hidden behind the IP address of the NetDefend Firewall.
The setup steps are as follows:
1.

Define a single SIP ALG object using the options described above.

2.

Define a Service object which is associated with the SIP ALG object. The service should have:

3.

Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signalling port)

Type set to TCP/UDP

Define three rules in the IP rule set:

A NAT rule for outbound traffic from the local proxy and the clients on the internal
network to the remote clients on, for example, the Internet. The SIP ALG will take care of
all address translation needed by the NAT rule. This translation will occur both on the IP
level and the application level. Neither the clients or the proxies need to be aware that
the local clients are being NATed.
If Record-Route is enabled on the SIP proxy, the source network of the NAT rule can
include only the SIP proxy, and not the local clients.

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A SAT rule for redirecting inbound SIP traffic to the private IPv4 address of the NATed
local proxy. This rule will have core as the destination interface (in other words
NetDefendOS itself ) since inbound traffic will be sent to the private IPv4 address of the
SIP proxy.

An Allow rule which matches the same type of traffic as the SAT rule defined in the
previous step.
Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

OutboundFrom
ProxyUsers

NAT

lan

lannet
(ip_proxy)

wan

all-nets

InboundTo
ProxyAndClients

SAT
SETDEST
ip_proxy

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

InboundTo
ProxyAndClients

Allow

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

If Record-Route is enabled then the Source Network for outbound traffic from proxy users can be
further restricted in the above rules by using "ip_proxy" as indicated.
When an incoming call is received, the SIP ALG will follow the SAT rule and forward the SIP
request to the proxy server. The proxy will in turn, forward the request to its final destination
which is the client.
If Record-Route is disabled at the proxy server, and depending on the state of the SIP session, the
SIP ALG may forward inbound SIP messages directly to the client, bypassing the SIP proxy. This
will happen automatically without further configuration.
Solution B - Without NAT
Without NAT, the outbound NAT rule is replaced by an Allow rule. The inbound SAT and Allow
rules are replaced by a single Allow rule.
Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

OutboundFrom
Proxy&Clients

Allow

lan

lannet
(ip_proxy)

wan

all-nets

InboundTo
Proxy&Clients

Allow

wan

all-nets

lan

lannet
(ip_proxy)

If Record-Route is enabled then the networks in the above rules can be further restricted by using
"(ip_proxy)" as indicated.

Scenario 3
Protecting proxy and local clients - Proxy on the DMZ interface
This scenario is similar to the previous but the major difference is the location of the local SIP
proxy server. The server is placed on a separate interface and network to the local clients. This
setup adds an extra layer of security since the initial SIP traffic is never exchanged directly
between a remote endpoint and the local, protected clients.

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The complexity is increased in this scenario since SIP messages flow across three interfaces: the
receiving interface from the call initiator, the DMZ interface towards the proxy and the
destination interface towards the call terminator. This the initial messages exchanges that take
place when a call is setup in this scenario are illustrated below:

The exchanges illustrated are as follows:

1,2 - An initial INVITE is sent to the outbound local proxy server on the DMZ.

3,4 - The proxy server sends the SIP messages towards the destination on the Internet.

5,6 - A remote client or proxy server replies to the local proxy server.

7,8 - The local proxy forwards the reply to the local client.

This scenario can be implemented in a topology hiding setup with DMZ (Solution A below) as
well as a setup without NAT (Solution B below).
Solution A - Using NAT
The following should be noted about this setup:

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The IP address of the SIP proxy must be a globally routable IP address. The NetDefend
Firewall does not support hiding of the proxy on the DMZ.

The IP address of the DMZ interface must be a globally routable IP address. This address can
be the same address as the one used on the external interface.

The setup steps are as follows:

1.

Define a single SIP ALG object using the options described above.

2.

Define a Service object which is associated with the SIP ALG object. The service should have:

3.

Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signalling port)

Type set to TCP/UDP

Define four rules in the IP rule set:

A NAT rule for outbound traffic from the clients on the internal network to the proxy
located on the DMZ interface. The SIP ALG will take care of all address translation
needed by the NAT rule. This translation will occur both at the IP level and at the
application level.

Note
Clients registering with the proxy on the DMZ will have the IP address of the
DMZ interface as the contact address.

An Allow rule for outbound traffic from the proxy behind the DMZ interface to the
remote clients on the Internet.

An Allow rule for inbound SIP traffic from the SIP proxy behind the DMZ interface to the
IP address of the NetDefend Firewall. This rule will have core (in other words,
NetDefendOS itself ) as the destination interface.
The reason for this is because of the NAT rule above. When an incoming call is received,
NetDefendOS automatically locates the local receiver, performs address translation and
forwards SIP messages to the receiver. This is done based on the SIP ALG's internal state.

4.

An Allow rule for inbound traffic from, for example the Internet, to the proxy behind the
DMZ.

If Record-Route is not enabled at the proxy, direct exchange of SIP messages must also be
allowed between clients, bypassing the proxy. The following additional rules are therefore
needed when Record-Route is disabled:

A NAT rule for outbound traffic from the clients on the internal network to the external
clients and proxies on, for example, the Internet. The SIP ALG will take care of all address
translation needed by the NAT rule. The translation will occur both at the IP level and the
application level.

An Allow rule for inbound SIP traffic from, for example the Internet, to the IP address of
the DMZ interface. The reason for this is because local clients will be NATed using the IP
address of the DMZ interface when they register with the proxy located on the DMZ.
This rule has core as the destination interface (in other words, NetDefendOS itself ).
When an incoming call is received, NetDefendOS uses the registration information of the
local receiver to automatically locate this receiver, perform address translation and
forward SIP messages to the receiver. This will be done based on the internal state of the
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SIP ALG.
The IP rules needed with Record-Route enabled are:
Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

OutboundToProxy

NAT

lan

lannet

dmz

ip_proxy

OutboundFromProxy

Allow

dmz

ip_proxy

wan

all-nets

InboundFromProxy

Allow

dmz

ip_proxy

core

dmz_ip

InboundToProxy

Allow

wan

all-nets

dmz

ip_proxy

With Record-Route disabled, the following IP rules must be added to those above:
Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

OutboundBypassProxy

NAT

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

InboundBypassProxy

Allow

wan

all-nets

core

ipdmz

Solution B - Without NAT

The setup steps are as follows:
1.

Define a single SIP ALG object using the options described above.

2.

Define a Service object which is associated with the SIP ALG object. The service should have:

3.

4.

Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signalling port)

Type set to TCP/UDP

Define four rules in the IP rule set:

An Allow rule for outbound traffic from the clients on the internal network to the proxy
located on the DMZ interface.

An Allow rule for outbound traffic from the proxy behind the DMZ interface to the
remote clients on the Internet.

An Allow rule for inbound SIP traffic from the SIP proxy behind the DMZ interface to the
clients located on the local, protected network.

An Allow rule for inbound SIP traffic from clients and proxies on the Internet to the proxy
behind the DMZ interface.

If Record-Route is not enabled at the proxy, direct exchange of SIP messages must also be
allowed between clients, bypassing the proxy. The following two additional rules are
therefore needed when Record-Route is disabled:

An Allow rule for outbound traffic from the clients on the local network to the external
clients and proxies on the Internet.

An Allow rule for inbound SIP traffic from the Internet to clients on the local network.

The IP rules with Record-Route enabled are:

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

OutboundToProxy

Allow

lan

lannet

dmz

ip_proxy

OutboundFromProxy

Allow

dmz

ip_proxy

lan

lannet

InboundFromProxy

Allow

dmz

ip_proxy

core

dmz_ip

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InboundToProxy

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Allow

wan

all-nets

dmz

ip_proxy

With Record-Route disabled, the following IP rules must be added to those above:
Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

OutboundBypassProxy

Allow

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

InboundBypassProxy

Allow

wan

all-nets

lan

lannet

6.2.9. The H.323 ALG

H.323 is a standard approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to allow
compatibility in video conference transmissions over IP networks. It is used for real-time audio,
video and data communication over packet-based networks such as the Internet. It specifies the
components, protocols and procedures for providing such multimedia communication,
including Internet phone and voice-over-IP (VoIP).

H.323 Components
H.323 consists of four main components:
Terminals

Devices used for audio and optionally video or data

communication, such as phones, conferencing units, or
"software phones" such as the product "NetMeeting".

Gateways

An H.323 gateway connects two dissimilar networks and

translates traffic between them. It provides connectivity
between H.323 networks and non-H.323 networks such as
public switched telephone networks (PSTN), translating
protocols and converting media streams. A gateway is not
required for communication between two H.323 terminals.

Gatekeepers

The Gatekeeper is a component in the H.323 system which

is used for addressing, authorization and authentication of
terminals and gateways. It can also take care of bandwidth
management, accounting, billing and charging. The
gatekeeper may allow calls to be placed directly between
endpoints, or it may route the call signalling through itself
to perform functions such as follow-me/find-me, forward
on busy, etc. It is needed when there is more then one
H.323 terminal behind a NATing device with only one
public IP.

Multipoint Control Units

MCUs provide support for conferences of three or more

H.323 terminals. All H.323 terminals participating in the
conference call have to establish a connection with the
MCU. The MCU then manages the calls, resources, video
and audio codecs used in the call.

H.323 Protocols
The different protocols used in implementing H.323 are:

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Control (Setup) signalling

Used for call signalling. It is used to establish a connection

between two H.323 endpoints. This call signal channel is
opened between two H.323 endpoints or between a H.323
endpoint and a gatekeeper. For communication between
two H.323 endpoints, TCP 1720 is used. When connecting
to a gatekeeper, UDP port 1719 (H.225 RAS messages) are
used.

H.245 Media Control and

Transport

Provides control of multimedia sessions established

between two H.323 endpoints. Its most important task is to
negotiate opening and closing of logical channels. A logical
channel could be, for example, an audio channel used for
voice communication. Video and T.120 channels are also
called logical channels during negotiation.

T.120

A suite of communication and application protocols.

Depending on the type of H.323 product, T.120 protocol
can be used for application sharing, file transfer as well as
for conferencing features such as whiteboards.

H.323 ALG features

The H.323 ALG is a flexible application layer gateway that allows H.323 devices such as H.323
phones and applications to make and receive calls between each other when connected via
private networks secured by NetDefend Firewalls.
The H.323 specification was not designed to handle NAT, as IP addresses and ports are sent in the
payload of H.323 messages. The H.323 ALG modifies and translates H.323 messages to make sure
that H.323 messages will be routed to the correct destination and allowed through the
NetDefend Firewall.
The H.323 ALG has the following features:

The H.323 ALG supports version 5 of the H.323 specification. This specification is built upon
H.225.0 v5 and H.245 v10.

In addition to support voice and video calls, the H.323 ALG supports application sharing over
the T.120 protocol. T.120 uses TCP to transport data while voice and video is transported over
UDP.

To support gatekeepers, the ALG monitors RAS traffic between H.323 endpoints and the
gatekeeper, in order to correctly configure the NetDefend Firewall to let calls through.

NAT and SAT rules are supported, allowing clients and gatekeepers to use private IPv4
addresses on a network behind the NetDefend Firewall.

H.323 ALG Configuration

The configuration of the standard H.323 ALG can be changed to suit different usage scenarios.
The configurable options are:

Allow TCP Data Channels

This option allows TCP based data channels to be negotiated. Data channels are used, for
example, by the T.120 protocol.

Number of TCP Data Channels

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The number of TCP data channels allowed can be specified.

Address Translation
For NATed traffic the Network can be specified, which is what is allowed to be translated.
The External IP for the Network is specified which is the IPv4 address to NAT with. If the
External IP is set as Auto then the external IP is found automatically through route lookup.

Translate Logical Channel Addresses

This would normally always be set. If not enabled then no address translation will be done on
logical channel addresses and the administrator needs to be sure about IP addresses and
routes used in a particular scenario.

Gatekeeper Registration Lifetime

The gatekeeper registration lifetime can be controlled in order to force re-registration by
clients within a certain time. A shorter time forces more frequent registration by clients with
the gatekeeper and less probability of a problem if the network becomes unavailable and the
client thinks it is still registered.

Presented below are some network scenarios where H.323 ALG use is applicable. For each
scenario a configuration example of both the ALG and the rules are presented. The three service
definitions used in these scenarios are:

Gatekeeper (UDP ALL > 1719)

H323 (H.323 ALG, TCP ALL > 1720)

H323-Gatekeeper (H.323 ALG, UDP > 1719)

Example 6.4. Protecting Phones Behind NetDefend Firewalls

In the first scenario a H.323 phone is connected to the NetDefend Firewall on a network (lannet)
with public IP addresses. To make it possible to place a call from this phone to another H.323
phone on the Internet, and to allow H.323 phones on the Internet to call this phone, we need to
configure rules. The following rules need to be added to the rule set, make sure there are no rules
disallowing or allowing the same kind of ports/traffic before these rules.

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Web Interface
Outgoing Rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323AllowOut

Action: Allow

Service: H323

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: any

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Comment: Allow outgoing calls

Click OK

Incoming Rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: H323AllowIn

Action: Allow

Service: H323

Source Interface: any

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3.

Destination Interface: lan

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Destination Network: lannet

Comment: Allow incoming calls

Click OK

Example 6.5. H.323 with Private IPv4 Addresses

In this scenario a H.323 phone is connected to the NetDefend Firewall on a network with private
IPv4 addresses. To make it possible to place a call from this phone to another H.323 phone on the
Internet, and to allow H.323 phones on the Internet to call this phone, we need to configure
rules. The following rules need to be added to the rule set, make sure there are no rules
disallowing or allowing the same kind of ports/traffic before these rules.
As we are using private IPs on the phone, incoming traffic needs to be SATed as in the example
below. The object ip-phone should be the internal IP of the H.323 phone.
Web Interface
Outgoing Rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323Out

Action: NAT

Service: H323

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: any

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Comment: Allow outgoing calls

Click OK

Incoming Rules:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: H323In

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Action: SAT

Service: H323

Source Interface: any

Destination Interface: core

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

Comment: Allow incoming calls to H.323 phone at ip-phone

3.

For SAT enter Translate Destination IP Address: To New IP Address: ip-phone (IP address
of phone)

4.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323In

Action: Allow

Service: H323

Source Interface: any

Destination Interface: core

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

Comment: Allow incoming calls to H.323 phone at ip-phone

Click OK

To place a call to the phone behind the NetDefend Firewall, place a call to the external IP address
on the firewall. If multiple H.323 phones are placed behind the firewall, one SAT rule has to be
configured for each phone. This means that multiple external addresses have to be used.
However, it is preferred to use a H.323 gatekeeper as in the "H.323 with Gatekeeper" scenario, as
this only requires one external address.
Example 6.6. Two Phones Behind Different NetDefend Firewalls
This scenario consists of two H.323 phones, each one connected behind the NetDefend Firewall
on a network with public IPv4 addresses. In order to place calls on these phones over the
Internet, the following rules need to be added to the rule listings in both firewalls. Make sure
there are no rules disallowing or allowing the same kind of ports/traffic before these rules.

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Web Interface
Outgoing Rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323AllowOut

Action: Allow

Service: H323

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: any

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Comment: Allow outgoing calls

Click OK

Incoming Rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: H323AllowIn

Action: Allow

Service: H323

Source Interface: any

Destination Interface: lan

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

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3.

Destination Network: lannet

Comment: Allow incoming calls

Click OK

Example 6.7. Using Private IPv4 Addresses

This scenario consists of two H.323 phones, each one connected behind the NetDefend Firewall
on a network with private IPv4 addresses. In order to place calls on these phones over the
Internet, the following rules need to be added to the rule set in the firewall. Make sure there are
no rules disallowing or allowing the same kind of ports/traffic before these rules.
As we are using private IPs on the phones, incoming traffic need to be SATed as in the example
below. The object ip-phone should be the internal IP of the H.323 phone behind each firewall.
Web Interface
Outgoing Rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323Out

Action: NAT

Service: H323

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: any

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Comment: Allow outgoing calls

Click OK

Incoming Rules:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: H323In

Action: SAT

Service: H323

Source Interface: any

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Destination Interface: core

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

Comment: Allow incoming calls to H.323 phone at ip-phone

3.

For SAT enter Translate Destination IP Address: To New IP Address: ip-phone (IP address
of phone)

4.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323In

Action: Allow

Service: H323

Source Interface: any

Destination Interface: core

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

Comment: Allow incoming calls to H.323 phone at ip-phone

Click OK

To place a call to the phone behind the NetDefend Firewall, place a call to the external IP address
on the firewall. If multiple H.323 phones are placed behind the firewall, one SAT rule has to be
configured for each phone. This means that multiple external addresses have to be used.
However, it is preferable to use an H.323 gatekeeper as this only requires one external address.
Example 6.8. H.323 with Gatekeeper
In this scenario, a H.323 gatekeeper is placed in the DMZ of the NetDefend Firewall. A rule is
configured in the firewall to allow traffic between the private network where the H.323 phones
are connected on the internal network and to the Gatekeeper on the DMZ. The Gatekeeper on
the DMZ is configured with a private address. The following rules need to be added to the rule
listings in both firewalls, make sure there are no rules disallowing or allowing the same kind of
ports/traffic before these rules.

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Web Interface
Incoming Gatekeeper Rules:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: H323In

Action: SAT

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: any

Destination Interface: core

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

Comment: SAT rule for incoming communication with the Gatekeeper located at
ip-gatekeeper

3.

For SAT enter Translate Destination IP Address: To New IP Address: ip-gatekeeper (IP
address of gatekeeper).

4.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: H323In

Action: Allow

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: any

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Destination Interface: core

Source Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

Comment: Allow incoming communication with the Gatekeeper

3.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323In

Action: Allow

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: dmz

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper (IP address of the gatekeeper)

Comment: Allow incoming communication with the Gatekeeper

Click OK

Note: Outgoing calls do not need a specific rule

There is no need to specify a specific rule for outgoing calls. NetDefendOS monitors the
communication between "external" phones and the Gatekeeper to make sure that it is
possible for internal phones to call the external phones that are registered with the
gatekeeper.

Example 6.9. H.323 with Gatekeeper and two NetDefend Firewalls

This scenario is quite similar to scenario 3, with the difference that the NetDefend Firewall is
protecting the "external" phones. The NetDefend Firewall with the Gatekeeper connected to the
DMZ should be configured exactly as in scenario 3. The other NetDefend Firewall should be
configured as below. The rules need to be added to the rule listings, and it should be make sure
there are no rules disallowing or allowing the same kind of ports/traffic before these rules.

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Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: H323Out

Action: NAT

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: any

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets)

Comment: Allow outgoing communication with a gatekeeper

Click OK

Note: Outgoing calls do not need a specific rule

There is no need to specify a specific rule for outgoing calls. NetDefendOS monitors the
communication between "external" phones and the Gatekeeper to make sure that it is
possible for internal phones to call the external phones that are registered with the
gatekeeper.

Example 6.10. Using the H.323 ALG in a Corporate Environment

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This scenario is an example of a more complex network that shows how the H.323 ALG can be
deployed in a corporate environment. At the head office DMZ a H.323 Gatekeeper is placed that
can handle all H.323 clients in the head-, branch- and remote offices. This will allow the whole
corporation to use the network for both voice communication and application sharing. It is
assumed that the VPN tunnels are correctly configured and that all offices use private IP-ranges
on their local networks. All outside calls are done over the existing telephone network using the
gateway (ip-gateway) connected to the ordinary telephone network.

The head office has placed a H.323 Gatekeeper in the DMZ of the corporate NetDefend Firewall.
This firewall should be configured as follows:
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: LanToGK

Action: Allow

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: dmz

Source Network: lannet

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Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper

Comment: Allow H.323 entities on lannet to connect to the Gatekeeper

3.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: LanToGK

Action: Allow

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: dmz

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: ip-gateway

Comment: Allow H.323 entities on lannet to call phones connected to the H.323
Gateway on the DMZ

3.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: GWToLan

Action: Allow

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: dmz

Destination Interface: lan

Source Network: ip-gateway

Destination Network: lannet

Comment: Allow communication from the Gateway to H.323 phones on lannet

3.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: BranchToGW

Action: Allow

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Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: vpn-branch

Destination Interface: dmz

Source Network: branch-net

Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper, ip-gateway

Comment: Allow communication with the Gatekeeper on DMZ from the Branch
network

3.

Click OK

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: BranchToGW

Action: Allow

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: vpn-remote

Destination Interface: dmz

Source Network: remote-net

Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper

Comment: Allow communication with the Gatekeeper on DMZ from the Remote
network

Click OK

Example 6.11. Configuring remote offices for H.323

If the branch and remote office H.323 phones and applications are to be configured to use the
H.323 Gatekeeper at the head office, the NetDefend Firewalls in the remote and branch offices
should be configured as follows: (this rule should be in both the Branch and Remote Office
firewalls).
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

Name: ToGK

Action: Allow

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3.

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: lan

Destination Interface: vpn-hq

Source Network: lannet

Destination Network: hq-net

Comment: Allow communication with the Gatekeeper connected to the Head Office
DMZ

Click OK

Example 6.12. Allowing the H.323 Gateway to register with the Gatekeeper
The branch office NetDefend Firewall has a H.323 Gateway connected to its DMZ. In order to
allow the Gateway to register with the H.323 Gatekeeper at the Head Office, the following rule
has to be configured:
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: GWToGK

Action: Allow

Service: H323-Gatekeeper

Source Interface: dmz

Destination Interface: vpn-hq

Source Network: ip-branchgw

Destination Network: hq-net

Comment: Allow the Gateway to communicate with the Gatekeeper connected to the
Head Office

Click OK

Note: Outgoing calls do not need a specific rule

There is no need to specify a specific rule for outgoing calls. NetDefendOS monitors the
communication between "external" phones and the Gatekeeper to make sure that it is
possible for internal phones to call the external phones that are registered with the
gatekeeper.

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6.2.10. The TLS ALG

Overview
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that provides secure communications over the public
Internet between two end points through the use of cryptography as well as providing endpoint
authentication.
Typically in a TLS client/server scenario, only the identity of the server is authenticated before
encrypted communication begins. TLS is very often encountered when a web browser connects
with a server that uses TLS such as when a customer accesses online banking facilities. This is
sometimes referred to as an HTTPS connection and is often indicated by a padlock icon
appearing in the browser's navigation bar.
TLS can provide a convenient and simple solution for secure access by clients to servers and
avoids many of the complexities of other types of VPN solutions such as using IPsec. Most web
browsers support TLS and users can therefore easily have secure server access without requiring
additional software.

The Relationship with SSL

TLS is a successor to the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) but the differences are slight. Therefore, for
most purposes, TLS and SSL can be regarded as equivalent. In the context of the TLS ALG, we can
say that the NetDefend Firewall is providing SSL termination since it is acting as an SSL end-point.

Supported Standards
With SSL and TLS, NetDefendOS provides termination support for SSL 3.0 as well as TLS 1.0, with
RFC 2246 defining the TLS 1.0 support (and NetDefendOS supporting the server side part of RFC
2246).
Both NetDefendOS TLS ALG and SSL VPN also support renegotiation as defined by RFC 5746.

TLS is Certificate Based

TLS security is based on the use of digital certificates which are present on the server side and
sent to a client at the beginning of a TLS session in order to establish the server's identity and
then be the basis for encryption. Certificates which are Certificate Authority (CA) signed can be
used on the server in which case a client's web browser will automatically recognize the validity
of the certificate.
Self-signed certificates can be used instead of CA signed certificates on the server. With
self-signed certificates, the client's web browser will alert the user that the certificate's
authenticity is not recognized and the user will have to explicitly tell the browser to accept the
certificate and continue.

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Figure 6.7. TLS Termination

Advantages of Using NetDefendOS for TLS Termination

TLS can be implemented directly in the server to which clients connect, however, if the servers
are protected behind a NetDefend Firewall, then NetDefendOS can take on the role of the TLS
endpoint. NetDefendOS then performs TLS authentication, encryption and unencryption of data
to/from clients and the transfer of unencrypted data to/from servers. The advantages of this
approach are:

TLS support can be centralized in the NetDefend Firewall instead of being set up on
individual servers.

Certificates can be managed centrally in the NetDefend Firewall instead of on individual

servers. Unique certificates (or one wildcard certificate) does not need to be present on each
server.

The encryption/decryption processing overhead required by TLS can be offloaded to the

NetDefend Firewall. This be sometimes referred to as SSL acceleration. Any processing
advantages that can be achieved can, however, vary and will depend on the comparative
processing capabilities of the servers and the NetDefend Firewall.

Decrypted TLS traffic can be subject to other NetDefendOS features such as traffic shaping or
looking for server threats with IDP scanning.

TLS can be combined with NetDefendOS server load balancing to provide a means to spread
traffic across servers.

Enabling TLS
The steps to take to enable TLS in NetDefendOS are as follows:
1.

Upload the host and root certificates to be used with TLS to NetDefendOS if not done
already.

2.

Define a new TLS ALG object and associate the appropriate host and root certificates with
the ALG. If the certificate is self-signed then the root and host certificate should both be set
to the same certificate. Certificate chaining is supported and more than one root certificate
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can be configured.
3.

Create a new custom Service object based on the TCP protocol.

4.

Associate the TLS ALG object with the newly created service object.

5.

Create a NAT or Allow IP rule for the targeted traffic and associate the custom service object
with it.

6.

Optionally, a SAT rule can be created to change the destination port for the unencrypted
traffic. Alternatively an SLB_SAT rule can be used to do load balancing (the destination port
can also be changed through a custom service object).

URLs Delivered by Servers

It should be noted that using NetDefendOS for TLS termination will not change URLs in
webpages delivered by servers which lie behind the NetDefend Firewall.
What this means is that if a client connects to a web server behind the NetDefend Firewall using
the https:// protocol then any web pages delivered back containing absolute URLs with the
http:// protocol (perhaps to refer to other pages on the same site) will not have these URLs
converted to https:// by NetDefendOS. The solution to this issue is for the servers to use relative
URLs instead of absolute ones.

Cryptographic Suites Supported by NetDefendOS TLS

NetDefendOS TLS supports the following cryptographic suites:
1.

TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA.

2.

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA.

3.

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5.

4.

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_56_SHA (certificate key size up to 1024 bits).

5.

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5 (certificate key size up to 1024 bits).

6.

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC2_CBC_40_MD5 (certificate key size up to 1024 bits).

7.

TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_MD5.

8.

TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA.

NetDefendOS TLS Limitations

As discussed above, NetDefendOS TLS provides support for server side termination only. The
other limitations that should be noted are:

Client authentication is not supported (where NetDefend Firewall authenticates the identity
of the client).

Renegotation is not supported.

Sending server key exchange messages is not supported which means the key in the
certificate must be sufficiently weak in order to use export ciphers.

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The certificate chain used by NetDefendOS can contain at most 2 certificates.

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6.3. Web Content Filtering

6.3.1. Overview
Web traffic is one of the biggest sources for security issues and misuse of the Internet.
Inappropriate surfing habits can expose a network to many security threats as well as legal and
regulatory liabilities. Productivity and Internet bandwidth can also be impaired.

Filtering Mechanisms
Through the HTTP ALG, NetDefendOS provides the following mechanisms for filtering out web
content that is deemed inappropriate for an organization or group of users:

Active Content Handling can be used to remove content from web pages that the
administrator considers a potential threat, such as ActiveX objects and Java Applets.

Static Content Filtering provides a means for manually classifying web sites as "good" or "bad".
This is also known as URL blacklisting and whitelisting.

Dynamic Content Filtering is a powerful feature that enables the administrator to allow or
block access to web sites depending on the category they have been classified into by an
automatic classification service. Dynamic content filtering requires a minimum of
administration effort and has very high accuracy.

Enabling Using IP Rules or IP Policies

Web content filtering scanning can be enabled using either an IP Rule object or an IP Policy
object.
With an IP Rule object, Web content filtering is first enabled on an HTTP ALG object. Then, that
ALG is associated with a Service object which is in turn is associated with an IP rule. The setup
example in this section uses an IP Rule object.
Configuring web content filtering using an IP Policy object is simpler than with an IP Rule object
since it is not necessary to configure separate ALG and service objects. However, certain ALG
options are not available with this method. Such an unavailable option is the Fail Mode
property, which is always set to Deny when using web content filtering with an IP Policy object.
The HTTP ALG is described further in Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG and IP Policy objects are
discussed further in Section 3.6.7, IP Policies.

6.3.2. Active Content Handling

Some web content can contain malicious code designed to harm the workstation or the network
from where the user is surfing. Typically, such code is embedded into various types of objects or
files which are embedded into web pages.
NetDefendOS includes support for removing the following types of objects from web page
content:

ActiveX objects (including Flash)

Java applets

Javascript/VBScript code

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Cookies

Invalidly formatted UTF-8 Characters (invalid URL formatting can be used to attack web
servers)

The object types to be removed can be selected individually by configuring the corresponding
HTTP Application Layer Gateway accordingly.

Caution: Consider the consequences of removing objects

Careful consideration should be given before enabling removal any object types from
web content. Many web sites use Javascript and other types of client-side code and in
most cases, the code is non-malicious. Common examples of this is the scripting used to
implement drop-down menus as well as hiding and showing elements on web pages.
Removing such legitimate code could, at best, cause the web site to look distorted, at
worst, cause it to not work in a browser at all. Active Content Handling should therefore
only be used when the consequences are well understood.

Example 6.13. Stripping ActiveX and Java applets

This example shows how to configure a HTTP Application Layer Gateway to strip ActiveX and
Java applets. The example will use the content_filtering ALG object and assumes one of the
previous examples has been done.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set ALG ALG_HTTP content_filtering
RemoveActiveX=Yes
RemoveApplets=Yes

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG

2.

In the table, click on the HTTP ALG object, content_filtering

3.

Check the Strip ActiveX objects (including flash) control

4.

Check the Strip Java applets control

5.

Click OK

6.3.3. Static Content Filtering

Through the HTTP ALG, NetDefendOS can block or permit certain web pages based on
configured lists of URLs which are called blacklists and whitelists. This type of filtering is also
known as Static Content Filtering. The main benefit with Static Content Filtering is that it is an
excellent tool to target specific web sites, and make the decision as to whether they should be
blocked or allowed.

Static and Dynamic Filtering Order

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Additionally, Static Content Filtering takes place before Dynamic Content Filtering (described
below), which allows the possibility of manually making exceptions from the automatic dynamic
classification process. In a scenario where goods have to be purchased from a particular on-line
store, Dynamic Content Filtering might be set to prevent access to shopping sites by blocking
the "Shopping" category. By entering the on-line store's URL into the HTTP Application Layer
Gateway's whitelist, access to that URL is always allowed, taking precedence over Dynamic
Content Filtering.

Wildcarding
Both the URL blacklist and URL whitelist support wildcard matching of URLs in order to be more
flexible. This wildcard matching is also applicable to the path following the URL hostname which
means that filtering can be controlled to a file and directory level.
Below are some good and bad blacklist example URLs used for blocking:
*.example.com/*

Good. This will block all hosts in the example.com domain and all web
pages served by those hosts.

www.example.com/*

Good. This will block the www.example.com website and all web
pages served by that site.

*/*.gif

Good. This will block all files with .gif as the file name extension.

www.example.com

Bad. This will only block the first request to the web site. Surfing to
www.example.com/index.html, for example, will not be blocked.

*example.com/*

Bad. This will also cause www.myexample.com to be blocked since it

blocks all sites ending with example.com.

Note: The hosts and networks blacklist is separate

Web content filtering URL blacklisting is a separate concept from Section 6.7,
Blacklisting Hosts and Networks.

Example 6.14. Setting up a white and blacklist

This example shows the use of static content filtering where NetDefendOS can block or permit
certain web pages based on blacklists and whitelists. As the usability of static content filtering
will be illustrated, dynamic content filtering and active content handling will not be enabled in
this example.
In this small scenario a general surfing policy prevents users from downloading .exe-files.
However, the D-Link website provides secure and necessary program files which should be
allowed to download.
Command-Line Interface
Start by adding an HTTP ALG in order to filter HTTP traffic:
gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_HTTP content_filtering

Then create a HTTP ALG URL to set up a blacklist:

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gw-world:/> cc ALG ALG_HTTP content_filtering

gw-world:/content_filtering> add ALG_HTTP_URL

URL=*/*.exe
Action=Blacklist

Finally, make an exception from the blacklist by creating a specific whitelist:

gw-world:/content_filtering> add ALG_HTTP_URL
URL=www.D-Link.com/*.exe
Action=Whitelist

Web Interface
Start by adding an HTTP ALG in order to filter HTTP traffic:
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > HTTP ALG

2.

Enter a suitable name for the ALG, for example content_filtering

3.

Click OK

Then create a HTTP ALG URL to setup a blacklist:

1.

Go to: Objects > ALG

2.

In the table, click on the recently created HTTP ALG to view its properties

3.

Click the HTTP URL tab

4.

Now click Add and select HTTP ALG URL from the menu

5.

Select Blacklist as the Action

6.

Enter */*.exe in the URL textbox

7.

Click OK

Finally, make an exception from the blacklist by creating a whitelist:

1.

Go to: Objects > ALG

2.

In the table, click on the recently created HTTP ALG to view its properties

3.

Click the HTTP URL tab

4.

Now click Add and select HTTP ALG URL from the menu

5.

Select Whitelist as the Action

6.

In the URL textbox, enter www.D-Link.com/*.exe

7.

Click OK

Simply continue adding specific blacklists and whitelists until the filter satisfies the needs.

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Using URL Filter Objects

An alternative method for URL filtering is to define a separate URL Filter object. These are used in
the following series of steps:

Define the URL to be filtered in a URL Filter object.

Select or create a service which has the Protocol property set to be HTTP or HTTPS or both. A
created service object should have the port number set appropriately.

Use this service object as the service of an IP policy that filters the relevant traffic.

Set the URL filter of the IP policy to the URL filter created in the first step. This last step will
only be possible if the appropriate service has already been assigned to the policy.

URL Filtering with HTTPS

If URL filtering is to be done on HTTPS traffic, this could be done in the following ways using the
two static filtering methods described above:

Using an IP Rule
1.

Create an HTTP ALG object, set the URL filter and set the Allowed Protocol to be HTTPS.

2.

Use this ALG in a service object. The service object could be an existing or created object
that allows HTTPS traffic. The service must include the port number 443.

3.

Use the service object in an IP rule.

Using an IP Policy
1.

Create a URL Filter object.

2.

Select or create a service which has the Protocol property set to be HTTPS. The service
must include the port number 443.

3.

Use the service object with an IP policy that filters the relevant traffic.

4.

Set the URL filter of the IP policy to the filter created earlier.

Note: HTTPS encryption limits filtering options

HTTPS traffic is encrypted so that NetDefendOS can only perform URL filtering and
dynamic web content filtering on it.

6.3.4. Dynamic Web Content Filtering

6.3.4.1. Overview
As part of the HTTP ALG, NetDefendOS supports Dynamic Web Content Filtering (Dynamic WCF) of
web traffic, which enables an administrator to permit or block access to web pages based on the
content type of those web pages.
Dynamic WCF can be configured to work with HTTP or HTTPS connections or both.

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Dynamic WCF Databases

NetDefendOS Dynamic WCF allows web page blocking to be automated so it is not necessary to
manually specify beforehand which URLs to block or to allow. Instead, D-Link maintains a global
infrastructure of databases containing huge numbers of current web site URL addresses which
are already classified and grouped into a variety of categories such as shopping, news, sport,
adult-oriented and so on.
The Dynamic WCF URL databases are updated almost hourly with new, categorized URLs while at
the same time older, invalid URLs are dropped. The scope of the URLs in the databases is global,
covering websites in many different languages and hosted on servers located in many different
countries.

Note: Dynamic WCF database access uses TCP port 9998

When NetDefendOS sends a query to the external WCF databases, it sends it as a TCP
request to the destination port 9998.
Therefore, any network equipment through which the request passes, including other
firewalls, must not block TCP traffic with destination port 9998.
If the equipment through which the message passes is another NetDefend Firewall, an IP
rule with the action Allow should be created along with a custom service that is then
associated with the rule.

Dynamic WCF Processing Flow

When a user of a web browser requests access to a web site, NetDefendOS queries the Dynamic
WCF databases in order to retrieve the category of the requested site. Access to the URL can then
be allowed or denied based on the filtering policy that the administrator has put in place for that
category.
If access is denied, a web page will be presented to the user explaining that the requested site
has been blocked. To make the lookup process as fast as possible NetDefendOS maintains a local
cache in memory of recently accessed URLs. Caching can be highly efficient since a given user
community, such as a group of university students, often surfs to a limited range of websites.

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Figure 6.8. Dynamic Web Content Filtering Flow

If the requested web page URL is not present in the databases, then the webpage content at the
URL will automatically be downloaded to D-Link's central data warehouse and automatically
analyzed using a combination of software techniques. Once categorized, the URL is distributed
to the global databases and NetDefendOS receives the category for the URL. Dynamic WCF
therefore requires a minimum of administration effort.

Note: New URL submissions are done anonymously

New, uncategorized URLs sent to the D-Link network are treated as anonymous
submissions and no record of the source of new submissions is kept.

Categorizing Pages and Not Sites

NetDefendOS dynamic content filtering categorizes web pages and not sites. In other words, a
web site may contain particular pages that should be blocked without blocking the entire site.
NetDefendOS provides blocking down to the page level so that users may still access parts of
websites that are not blocked by the filtering policy.

Dynamic WCF and Whitelisting

If a particular URL is whitelisted then it will bypass the WCF subsystem. No classification will be
done on the URL and it will always be allowed. This applies if the URL has an exact match with an
entry on the whitelist or if it matches an entry that makes use of wildcarding.

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6.3.4.2. Setting Up Dynamic Web Content Filtering

Activation
Dynamic Content Filtering is a feature that is enabled by purchasing a subscription to the service.
This is an addition to the normal NetDefendOS license.
Once a subscription is purchased, an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object should be
defined with Dynamic Content Filtering enabled. This object is then associated with a service
object and the service object is then associated with a rule in the IP rule set to determine which
traffic should be subject to the filtering. This makes possible the setting up of a detailed filtering
policy based on the filtering parameters that are used for rules in the IP rule set.

Tip: Using a schedule

If the administrator would like the content filtering policy to vary depending on the time
of the day, they can make use of a Schedule object associated with the corresponding IP
rule. For more information about this, see Section 3.7, Schedules.

Setting Fail Mode

The option exists to set the HTTP ALG fail mode in the same way that it can be set for some other
ALGs and it applies to WCF just as it does to functions such as Anti-Virus scanning. The fail mode
setting determines what happens when dynamic content filtering cannot function. This is usually
because NetDefendOS is unable to reach the external databases to perform URL lookup.
Fail mode can have one of two settings:

Deny
If WCF is unable to function then URLs are denied if external database access to verify them is
not possible. The user will see an "Access denied" web page.

Allow
If the external WCF database is not accessible, URLs are allowed even though they might be
disallowed if the WCF databases were accessible.

Example 6.15. Enabling Dynamic Web Content Filtering

This example shows how to set up dynamic content filtering for HTTP traffic from a protected
network to all-nets. It will be configured to block all search sites, and it is assumed that there is
using a single NAT IP rule controlling HTTP traffic.
Note that this example configures filtering using an IP Rule object. It could also be done with an
IP Policy object but the steps would be different.
Command-Line Interface
First, create an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object:
gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_HTTP content_filtering
WebContentFilteringMode=Enabled
FilteringCategories=SEARCH_SITES

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Then, create a service object using the new HTTP ALG:

gw-world:/> add ServiceTCPUDP http_content_filtering Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=80
ALG=content_filtering

Finally, modify the NAT rule to use the new service. Assume rule is called NATHttp:
gw-world:/> set IPRule NATHttp Service=http_content_filtering

Web Interface
First, create an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object:
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > HTTP ALG

2.

Specify a suitable name for the ALG, for example content_filtering

3.

Click the Web Content Filtering tab

4.

Select Enabled in the Mode list

5.

In the Blocked Categories list, select Search Sites and click the >> button.

6.

Click OK

Then, create a service object using the new HTTP ALG:

1.

Go to: Local Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP service

2.

Specify a suitable name for the Service, for example http_content_filtering

3.

Select TCP in the Type list

4.

Enter 80 in the Destination Port textbox

5.

Select the HTTP ALG just created in the ALG list

6.

Click OK

Finally, modify the NAT IP rule to use the new service:

1.

Go to: Policies

2.

Select the NAT rule handling the HTTP traffic

3.

Go to: Service

4.

Select the new service, http_content_filtering, in the predefined Service list

5.

Click OK

Dynamic content filtering is now activated for all web traffic from lannet to all-nets.
We can validate the functionality with the following steps:
1.

On a workstation on the lannet network, launch a standard web browser.

2.

Try to browse to a search site. For example, www.google.com.

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3.

If everything is configured correctly, the web browser will present a web page that informs
the user about that the requested site is blocked.

Dynamic Web Content Filtering with HTTPS

It is possible in the HTTP ALG to have either the ALG apply to either HTTP or HTTPS traffic or both.
If filtering of HTTPS traffic is to work then the Service object associated with the ALG should be
one that allows the appropriate port numbers.
For example, the predefined service http-all could be used when both HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS
(port 443) traffic are allowed. A custom service may need to be defined and used if an existing
pre-defined service does not meet the requirements of the traffic.
A further point to note with dynamic content filtering over an HTTPS connection is that if access
to a particular site is denied, the HTTPS connection is automatically dropped. This means that the
browser will not be able to display the usual NetDefendOS generated messages to indicate that
the dynamic WCF feature has intervened and why. Instead, the browser will only display its own
message to indicate the connection is broken.
The Fail Mode setting can also affect HTTP connections. If no hostname is found in either the
ClientHello from the client or the ServerHello from the server in the initial HTTPS handshake
session before encrypted packets are sent then the connection is dropped if the Fail Mode action
is Deny and not dropped if the action is Allow.

Audit Mode
In Audit Mode, the system will classify and log all surfing according to the content filtering policy,
but restricted web sites will still be accessible to the users. This means the content filtering
feature of NetDefendOS can then be used as an analysis tool to analysis what categories of
websites are being accessed by a user community and how often.
After running in Audit Mode for some period of time, it is easier to then have a better
understanding of the surfing behavior of different user groups and also to better understand the
potential impact of turning on the WCF feature.

Introducing Blocking Gradually

Blocking websites can disturb users if it is introduced suddenly. It is therefore recommended that
the administrator gradually introduces the blocking of particular categories one at a time. This
allows individual users time to get used to the notion that blocking exists and could avoid any
adverse reaction that might occur if too much is blocked at once. Gradual introduction also
makes it easier to evaluate if the goals of site blocking are being met.

Example 6.16. Enabling Audit Mode

This example is based on the same scenario as the previous example, but now with audit mode
enabled.
Command-Line Interface
First, create an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object:
gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_HTTP content_filtering

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WebContentFilteringMode=Audit
FilteringCategories=SEARCH_SITES

Web Interface
First, create an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object:
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > HTTP ALG

2.

Specify a suitable name for the ALG, for example content_filtering

3.

Click the Web Content Filtering tab

4.

Select Audit in the Mode list

5.

In the Blocked Categories list, select Search Sites and click the >> button

6.

Click OK

The steps to then create a service object using the new HTTP ALG and modifying the NAT IP rule
to use the new service, are described in the previous example.

Allowing Override
On some occasions, Active Content Filtering may prevent users carrying out legitimate tasks.
Consider a stock analyst who deals with on-line gaming companies. In his daily work, he might
need to browse gambling web sites to conduct company assessments. If the corporate policy
blocks gambling web-sites, he will not be able to do his job.
For this reason, NetDefendOS supports a feature called Allow Override. With this feature enabled,
the content filtering component will present a warning to the user that he is about to enter a
web site that is restricted according to the corporate policy, and that his visit to the web site will
be logged. This page is known as the restricted site notice. The user is then free to continue to the
URL, or abort the request to prevent being logged.
By enabling this functionality, only users that have a valid reason to visit inappropriate sites will
normally do so. Other will avoid those sites due to the obvious risk of exposing their surfing
habits.

Caution: Overriding the restriction of a site

If a user overrides the restricted site notice page, they are allowed to surf to all pages
without any new restricted site message appearing again. However, the user is still
being logged. When the user has been inactive for 5 minutes, the restricted site page will
reappear if they then try to access a restricted site.

Reclassification of Blocked Sites

As the process of classifying unknown web sites is automated, there is always a small risk that
some sites are given an incorrect classification. NetDefendOS provides a mechanism for allowing
users to manually propose a new classification of sites.
This mechanism can be enabled on a per-HTTP ALG level, which means that the administrator
can choose to enable this functionality for regular users or for a selected user group only.
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If reclassification is enabled and a user requests a web site which is disallowed, the block web
page will include a dropdown list containing all available categories. If the user believes the
requested web site is wrongly classified, he can select a more appropriate category from the
dropdown list and submit that as a proposal.
The URL to the requested web site as well as the proposed category will then be sent to D-Link's
central data warehouse for manual inspection. That inspection may result in the web site being
reclassified, either according to the category proposed or to a category which is felt to be correct.
Example 6.17. Reclassifying a blocked site
This example shows how a user may propose a reclassification of a web site if he believes it is
wrongly classified. This mechanism is enabled on a per-HTTP ALG level basis.
Command-Line Interface
First, create an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object:
gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_HTTP content_filtering
WebContentFilteringMode=Enable
FilteringCategories=SEARCH_SITES
AllowReclassification=Yes

Then, continue setting up the service object and modifying the NAT rule as we have done in the
previous examples.
Web Interface
First, create an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object:
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > HTTP ALG

2.

Specify a suitable name for the ALG, for example content_filtering

3.

Click the Web Content Filtering tab

4.

Select Enabled in the Mode list

5.

In the Blocked Categories list, select Search Sites and click the >> button

6.

Check the Allow Reclassification control

7.

Click OK

Then, continue setting up the service object and modifying the NAT rule as we have done in the
previous examples.
Dynamic content filtering is now activated for all web traffic from lannet to all-nets and the user is
able to propose reclassification of blocked sites. Validate the functionality by following these
steps:
1.

On a workstation on the lannet network, launch a standard web browser.

2.

Try to browse to a search site, for example www.google.com.

3.

If everything is configured correctly, the web browser will present a block page where a
dropdown list containing all available categories is included.

4.

The user is now able to select a more proper category and propose a reclassification.

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Enabling Dynamic WCF with an IP Policy

Dynamic WCF can be enabled on a particular traffic flow by enabling the option on an IP Policy
object instead of through an ALG. This provides a more direct method of activation which can be
combined with the other options available in an IP policy such as traffic shaping or anti-virus
scanning.
IP policies are described further in Section 3.6.7, IP Policies.

6.3.4.3. Content Filtering Categories

This section lists all the categories used with Dynamic Content Filtering and describes the
purpose of each category.

Category 1: Adult Content

A web site may be classified under the Adult Content category if its content includes the
description or depiction of erotic or sexual acts or sexually oriented material such as
pornography. Exceptions to this are web sites that contain information relating to sexuality and
sexual health, which may be classified under the Health Sites Category (21).

Category 2: News
A web site may be classified under the News category if its content includes information articles
on recent events pertaining to topics surrounding a locality (for example, town, city or nation) or
culture, including weather forecasting information. Typically this would include most real-time
online news publications and technology or trade journals. This does not include financial
quotes, refer to the Investment Sites category (11), or sports, refer to the Sports category (16).

Category 3: Job Search

A web site may be classified under the Job Search category if its content includes facilities to
search for or submit online employment applications. This also includes resume writing and
posting and interviews, as well as staff recruitment and training services.

Category 4: Gambling
A web site may be classified under the Gambling category if its content includes advertisement
or encouragement of, or facilities allowing for the partaking of any form of gambling; For money
or otherwise. This includes online gaming, bookmaker odds and lottery web sites. This does not
include traditional or computer based games; refer to the Games Sites category (10).

Category 5: Travel / Tourism

A web site may be classified under the Travel / Tourism category if its content includes
information relating to travel activities including travelling for recreation and travel reservation
facilities.

Category 6: Shopping
A web site may be classified under the Shopping category if its content includes any form of
advertisement of goods or services to be exchanged for money, and may also include the
facilities to perform that transaction online. Included in this category are market promotions,
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catalogue selling and merchandising services.

Category 7: Entertainment
A web site may be classified under the Entertainment category if its content includes any general
form of entertainment that is not specifically covered by another category. Some examples of
this are music sites, movies, hobbies, special interest, and fan clubs. This category also includes
personal web pages such as those provided by ISPs. The following categories more specifically
cover various entertainment content types, Pornography / Sex (1), Gambling (4), Chatrooms (8),
Game Sites (10), Sports (16), Clubs and Societies (22) and Music Downloads (23).

Category 8: Chatrooms
A web site may be classified under the Chatrooms category if its content focuses on or includes
real-time on-line interactive discussion groups. This also includes bulletin boards, message
boards, online forums, discussion groups as well as URLs for downloading chat software.

Category 9: Dating Sites

A web site may be classified under the Dating Sites category if its content includes facilities to
submit and review personal advertisements, arrange romantic meetings with other people, mail
order bride / foreign spouse introductions and escort services.

Category 10: Game Sites

A web site may be classified under the Game Sites category if its content focuses on or includes
the review of games, traditional or computer based, or incorporates the facilities for
downloading computer game related software, or playing or participating in online games.

Category 11: Investment Sites

A web site may be classified under the Investment Sites category if its content includes
information, services or facilities pertaining to personal investment. URLs in this category include
contents such as brokerage services, online portfolio setup, money management forums or stock
quotes. This category does not include electronic banking facilities; refer to the E-Banking
category (12).

Category 12: E-Banking

A web site may be classified under the E-Banking category if its content includes electronic
banking information or services. This category does not include Investment related content; refer
to the Investment Sites category (11).

Category 13: Crime / Terrorism

A web site may be classified under the Crime / Terrorism category if its content includes the
description, promotion or instruction in, criminal or terrorist activities, cultures or opinions.

Category 14: Personal Beliefs / Cults

A web site may be classified under the Personal Beliefs / Cults category if its content includes the
description or depiction of, or instruction in, systems of religious beliefs and practice.

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Category 15: Politics

A web site may be classified under the Politics category if its content includes information or
opinions of a political nature, electoral information and including political discussion groups.

Category 16: Sports

A web site may be classified under the Sports category if its content includes information or
instructions relating to recreational or professional sports, or reviews on sporting events and
sports scores.

Category 17: www-Email Sites

A web site may be classified under the www-Email Sites category if its content includes online,
web-based email facilities.

Category 18: Violence / Undesirable

A web site may be classified under the Violence / Undesirable category if its contents are
extremely violent or horrific in nature. This includes the promotion, description or depiction of
violent acts, as well as web sites that have undesirable content and may not be classified
elsewhere.

Category 19: Malicious

A web site may be classified under the Malicious category if its content is capable of causing
damage to a computer or computer environment, including malicious consumption of network
bandwidth. This category also includes "Phishing" URLs which designed to capture secret user
authentication details by pretending to be a legitimate organization.

Category 20: Search Sites

A web site may be classified under the Search Sites category if its main focus is providing online
Internet search facilities. Refer to the section on unique categories at the start of this document.

Category 21: Health Sites

A web site may be classified under the Health Sites category if its content includes health related
information or services, including sexuality and sexual health, as well as support groups, hospital
and surgical information and medical journals.

Category 22: Clubs and Societies

A web site may be classified under the Clubs and Societies category if its content includes
information or services of relating to a club or society. This includes team or conference web
sites.

Category 23: Music Downloads

A web site may be classified under the Music Downloads category if it provides online music
downloading, uploading and sharing facilities as well as high bandwidth audio streaming.

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Category 24: Business Oriented

A web site may be classified under the Business Oriented category if its content is relevant to
general day-to-day business or proper functioning of the Internet, for example Web browser
updates. Access to web sites in this category would in most cases not be considered
unproductive or inappropriate.

Category 25: Government Blocking List

This category is populated by URLs specified by a government agency, and contains URLs that
are deemed unsuitable for viewing by the general public by way of their very extreme nature.

Category 26: Educational

A web site classified under the Educational category may belong to other categories but has
content that relates to educational services or has been deemed of educational value, or to be an
educational resource, by educational organizations. This category is populated by request or
submission from various educational organizations.

Category 27: Advertising

A web site may be classified under the Advertising category if its main focus includes providing
advertising related information or services.

Category 28: Drugs/Alcohol

A web site may be classified under the Drugs/Alcohol category if its content includes drug and
alcohol related information or services. Some URLs categorized under this category may also be
categorized under the Health category.

Category 29: Computing/IT

A web site may be classified under the Computing/IT category if its content includes computing
related information or services.

Category 30: Swimsuit/Lingerie/Models

A web site may be categorized under the Swimsuit/Lingerie/Models category if its content
includes information pertaining to, or images of swimsuit, lingerie or general fashion models.

Category 31: Spam

A web site may be classified under the Spam category if it is found to be contained in bulk or
spam emails.

Category 32: Non-Managed

Unclassified sites and sites that do not fit one of the other categories will be placed in this
category. It is unusual to block this category since this could result in most harmless URLs being
blocked.

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6.3.4.4. Customizing WCF HTML Pages

The Web Content Filtering (WCF) feature of the HTTP ALG make use of a set of HTML files to
present information to the user when certain conditions occur such as trying to access a blocked
site.
These HTML web pages stored as files in NetDefendOS and these files are known as HTTP Banner
Files. The administrator can customize the appearance of the HTML is these files to suit a
particular installation's needs. The NetDefendOS management interface provides a simple way to
download, edit and re-upload the edited files.

Note
The banner files related to authentication rules and web authentication are a separate
subject and are discussed in Section 8.3, Customizing Authentication HTML Pages.

Available Banner Files

The predefined HTML ALG banner files for WCF are:

CompressionForbidden
ContentForbidden
URLForbidden
RestrictedSiteNotice
ReclassifyURL

HTML Page Parameters

The HTML pages contain a number of parameters that can be used as needed. The parameters
available are:

%URL% - The URL which was requested.

%IPADDR% - The IP address which is being browsed from.

%REASON% - The reason that access was denied.

%RESTRICTED_SITE_NOTICE_BEGIN_SECTION% - This begins the restricted site section.

%RESTRICTED_SITE_NOTICE_FORM% - Allows the restricted notice to be ignored.

%RESTRICTED_SITE_NOTICE_END_SECTION% - This ends the restricted site section.

%RECLASSIFICATION_FORM% - Allows site reclassification to be flagged.

By not including the section between %RESTRICTED_SITE_NOTICE_BEGIN_SECTION% and

%RESTRICTED_SITE_NOTICE_END_SECTION%, the ability to ignore the restricted site warning can
be removed.

Customizing Banner Files

To perform customization it is necessary to first create a new, named ALG Banner Files object.
This new object automatically contains a copy of all the files in the Default ALG Banner Files
object. These new files can then be edited and uploaded back to NetDefendOS. The original
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Default object cannot be edited. The following example goes through the necessary steps.
Example 6.18. Editing Content Filtering HTTP Banner Files
This example shows how to modify the contents of the URL forbidden HTML page.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Advanced Settings > HTTP Banner files > Add > ALG Banner Files

2.

Enter a name such as new_forbidden and press OK

3.

The dialog for the new set of ALG banner files will appear

4.

Click the Edit & Preview tab

5.

Select URLForbidden from the Page list

6.

Now edit the HTML source that appears in the text box for the Forbidden URL page

7.

Use Preview to check the layout if required

8.

Press Save to save the changes

9.

Click OK to exit editing

10. Go to: Policies > User Authentication User Authentication Rules

11. Select the relevant HTML ALG and click the Agent Options tab
12. Set the HTTP Banners option to be new_forbidden
13. Click OK
14. Go to: Configuration > Save & Activate to activate the new file
15. Press Save and then click OK
The new file will be uploaded to NetDefendOS

Tip: Saving changes

In the above example, more than one HTML file can be edited in a session but the Save
button should be pressed to save all edits before beginning to edit another file.

Uploading with SCP

It is possible to upload new HTTP Banner files using SCP. The steps to do this are:
1.

Since SCP cannot be used to download the original default HTML, the source code must be
first copied from the Web Interface and pasted into a local text file which is then edited
using an appropriate editor.

2.

A new ALG Banner Files object must exist which the edited file(s) is uploaded to. If the
object is called mytxt, the CLI command to create this object is:
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gw-world:/> add HTTPALGBanners mytxt

This creates an object which contains a copy of all the Default content filtering banner files.
3.

The modified file is then uploaded using SCP. It is uploaded to the object type
HTTPALGBanner and the object mytxt with the property name URLForbidden. If the edited
URLForbidden local file is called my.html then using the Open SSH SCP client, the upload
command would be:
scp myhtml [email protected]:HTTPAuthBanners/mytxt/URLForbidden

The usage of SCP clients is explained further in Section 2.1.6, Secure Copy.
4.

Using the CLI, the relevant HTTP ALG should now be set to use the mytxt banner files. If the
ALG us called my_http_alg, the command would be:
set ALG_HTTP my_http_alg HTTPBanners=mytxt

5.

As usual, the activate followed by the commit CLI commands must be used to activate the
changes on the NetDefend Firewall.

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6.4. Anti-Virus Scanning

6.4.1. Overview
The NetDefendOS anti-virus module protects against malicious code carried in data passing
through the NetDefend Firewall. The following can be scanned:

Any files downloaded. For example, files downloaded using HTTP transfer or FTP or perhaps
as an attachment to email delivered via SMTP.

Scripts contained within webpages delivered via HTTP.

URL contained within webpages delivered via HTTP.

Malicious code in downloads can have different intents ranging from programs that merely
cause annoyance to more sinister aims such as sending back passwords, credit card numbers and
other sensitive information. The term "Virus" can be used as a generic description for all forms of
malicious code carried in files.

Combining with Client Anti-Virus Scanning

Unlike IDP, which is primarily directed at attacks against servers, anti-virus scanning is focused on
downloads by clients. NetDefendOS anti-virus is designed to be a complement to the standard
antivirus scanning normally carried out locally by specialized software installed on client
computers. It is not intended as a complete substitute for local scanning but rather as an extra
shield to boost client protection. Most importantly, it can act as a backup for when local client
anti-virus scanning is not available.

Enabling Through ALGs

NetDefendOS anti-virus is enabled for different types of traffic by enabling it in the related ALG
object. It is available for file downloads associated with the following ALGs:

The HTTP ALG

The FTP ALG

The POP3 ALG

The SMTP ALG

6.4.2. Implementation
Streaming
As a data transfer is streamed through the NetDefend Firewall, NetDefendOS will scan the data
for the presence of viruses if the anti-virus module is enabled. Since data is being streamed and
not being read completely into memory, a minimum amount of memory is required and there is
minimal effect on overall throughput.

Pattern Matching
The inspection process is based on pattern matching against a database of known virus patterns
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and can determine, with a high degree of certainty, if a virus is in the process of being
downloaded to a user behind the NetDefend Firewall. Once a virus is recognized in the contents
of a file, the download can be terminated before it completes.

Types of Data Scanned

As described above, anti-virus scanning is enabled on a per ALG basis and can scan data
downloads associated with the HTTP, FTP, SMTP and POP3 ALGs. More specifically:

Any uncompressed file type transferred through these ALGs can be scanned.

If the download has been compressed, ZIP and GZIP file downloads can be scanned.

For the HTTP ALG, webpage scripts and URLs are scanned.

Messages displayed by the HTTP ALG

If enabled through the HTTP ALG, webpage scripts and URLs as well as files can be scanned for
malicious code. If a threat is encounted, the connection is dropped and NetDefendOS will
generate a log message for the event. HTTPS traffic cannot be scanned so this does not apply for
that protocol.
As well as the connection being dropped, NetDefendOS will try to insert a message into the web
browser HTML of the affected user indicating the action taken (in some cases it might not be
possible to do this successfully). For malicious files and scripts, the following is an example of an
inserted message:

Figure 6.9. Anti-Virus Malicious File Message

For malicious URLs, the message displayed will be similar to the following:

Figure 6.10. Anti-Virus Malicious URL Message

Simultaneous Scans
There is no fixed limit on how many anti-virus scans can take place simultaneously in a single
NetDefend Firewall. However, the available free memory can place a limit on the number of
concurrent scans that can be initiated.

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Protocol Specific behavior

Since anti-virus scanning is implemented through an Application Level Gateway (ALG), specific
protocol specific features are implemented in NetDefendOS. With FTP, for example, scanning is
aware of the dual control and data transfer channels that are opened and can send a request via
the control connection to stop a download if a virus in the download is detected.

Relationship with IDP

A question that is often posed is the "ordering" of Anti-virus scanning in relation to IDP scanning.
In fact, the concept of ordering is not relevant since the two scanning processes can occur
simultaneously and operate at different protocol levels.
If IDP is enabled, it scans all packets designated by a defined IDP rule and does not take notice of
higher level protocols, such as HTTP, that generate the packet streams. However, Anti-virus is
aware of the higher level protocol and only looks at the data involved in file transfers. Anti-virus
scanning is a function that therefore logically belongs in an ALG, whereas IDP does not belong
there.

The Signature Database

NetDefendOS anti-virus scanning is implemented using the SafeStream II virus signature
database. The SafeStream II database is created and maintained by Kaspersky, a company which
is a world leader in the field of virus detection. The database provides protection against virtually
all known virus threats including trojans, worms, backdoor exploits and others. The database is
also thoroughly tested to provide near zero false positives.

Database Updates
The SafeStream database is updated on a daily basis with new virus signatures. Older signatures
are seldom retired but instead are replaced with more generic signatures covering several
viruses. The local NetDefendOS copy of the SafeStream database should therefore be updated
regularly and this updating service is enabled as part of a D-Link subscription.

Subscribing to the D-Link Anti-Virus Service

The D-Link anti-virus feature is purchased as an additional component to the base D-Link license
and is bought in the form of a renewable subscription. This includes regular updates of the
Kaspersky SafeStream database during the subscription period with the signatures of the latest
virus threats.

6.4.3. Activating Anti-Virus Scanning

Anti-virus scanning is activated in one of two ways:

Activating Using IP Rules

IP rules are one of the means by which the anti-virus feature is deployed, the deployment. IP
rules specify that the ALG and its associated anti-virus scanning can apply to traffic going in a
given direction and between specific source and destination IP addresses and/or networks.
Scheduling can also be applied to virus scanning so that it takes place only at specific times.
When used with IP rules, an ALG must then be associated with an appropriate service object
for the protocol to be scanned. The service object is then associated with a rule in the IP rule

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set which defines the origin and destination of the traffic to which the ALG is to be applied.

Activating Using IP Policies Anti-virus scanning can be enabled on an IP Policy object

without using an ALG. This provides a more direct method of activation which can be
combined with the other options available in an IP policy such as traffic shaping and file
control.
IP policies are described further in Section 3.6.7, IP Policies.

Example 6.19. Activating Anti-Virus Scanning

This example shows how to setup an anti-virus scanning policy for HTTP traffic from lannet to
all-nets. We will assume there is already a NAT rule defined in the IP rule set to NAT this traffic.
Command-Line Interface
First, create an HTTP Application Layer Gateway (ALG) Object with anti-virus scanning enabled:
gw-world:/> set ALG ALG_HTTP anti_virus Antivirus=Protect

Next, create a Service object using the new HTTP ALG:

gw-world:/> add ServiceTCPUDP http_anti_virus
Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=80
ALG=anti_virus

Finally, modify the NAT rule to use the new service:

gw-world:/> set IPRule NATHttp Service=http_anti_virus

Web Interface
A. First, create an HTTP ALG Object:
1.

Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > HTTP ALG

2.

Specify a suitable name for the ALG, for instance anti_virus

3.

Click the Antivirus tab

4.

Select Protect in the Mode dropdown list

5.

Click OK

B. Then, create a Service object using the new HTTP ALG:

1.

Go to: Local Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP service

2.

Specify a suitable name for the Service, for instance http_anti_virus

3.

Select the TCP in the Type dropdown list

4.

Enter 80 in the Destination Port textbox

5.

Select the HTTP ALG just created in the ALG dropdown list

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6.

Click OK

C. Finally, modify the NAT rule (called NATHttp in this example) to use the new service:
1.

Go to: Policies

2.

Select the NAT rule handling the traffic between lannet and all-nets

3.

Click the Service tab

4.

Select the new service, http_anti_virus, in the predefined Service dropdown list

5.

Click OK

Anti-virus scanning is now activated for all web traffic from lannet to all-nets.

6.4.4. Anti-Virus Options

When configuring anti-virus scanning in an ALG, the following parameters can be set:

1. General options
Mode

Fail mode behavior

This must be one of:

i.

Disabled - Anti-virus is switched off.

ii.

Audit - Scanning is active but logging is the only action.

iii.

Protect - Anti-virus is active. Suspect files are dropped and

logged.

If a virus scan fails for any reason then the transfer can be dropped
or allowed, with the event being logged. If this option is set to Allow
then a condition such as the virus database not being available or
the current license not being valid will not cause files to be dropped.
Instead, they will be allowed through and a log message will be
generated to indicate a failure has occurred.

2. Scan Exclude Option

Certain filetypes may be explicitly excluded from virus-scanning if that is desirable. This can
increase overall throughput if an excluded filetype is a type which is commonly encountered in a
particular scenario, such as image files in HTTP downloads.
NetDefendOS performs MIME content checking on all the filetypes listed in Appendix C, Verified
MIME filetypes to establish the file's true filetype and then look for that filetype in the excluded
list. If the file's type cannot be established from its contents (and this may happen with filetypes
not specified in Appendix C, Verified MIME filetypes) then the filetype in the file's name is used
when the excluded list is checked.

3. Compression Ratio Limit

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When scanning compressed files, NetDefendOS must apply decompression to examine the file's
contents. Some types of data can result in very high compression ratios where the compressed
file is a small fraction of the original uncompressed file size. This can mean that a comparatively
small compressed file attachment might need to be uncompressed into a much larger file which
can place an excessive load on NetDefendOS resources and noticeably slowdown throughput.
To prevent this situation, the administrator should specify a Compression Ratio limit. If the limit of
the ration is specified as 10 then this will mean that if the uncompressed file is 10 times larger
than the compressed file, the specified Action should be taken. The Action can be one of:

Allow - The file is allowed through without virus scanning

Scan - Scan the file for viruses as normal

Drop - Drop the file

In all three of the above cases the event is logged.

Verifying the MIME Type

The ALG File Integrity options can be utilized with anti-virus scanning to check that the file's
contents matches the MIME type it claims to be.
The MIME type identifies a file's type. For instance a file might be identified as being of type .gif
and therefore should contain image data of that type. Some viruses can try to hide inside files by
using a misleading file type. A file might pretend to be a .gif file but the file's data will not match
that type's data pattern because it is infected with a virus.
Enabling of this function is recommended to make sure this form of attack cannot allow a virus to
get through. The possible MIME types that can be checked are listed in Appendix C, Verified MIME
filetypes.

Setting the Correct System Time

It is important that a NetDefendOS has the correct system time set if the auto-update feature in
the anti-virus module can function correctly. An incorrect time can mean the auto-updating is
disabled.
The console command
gw-world:/> updatecenter -status

will show the current status of the auto-update feature. This can also be done through the Web
Interface.

Updating in High Availability Clusters

Updating the anti-virus databases for both the NetDefend Firewalls in an HA Cluster is performed
automatically by NetDefendOS. In a cluster there is always an active unit and an inactive unit.
Only the active unit in the cluster will perform regular checking for new database updates. If a
new database update becomes available the sequence of events will be as follows:
1.

The active unit determines there is a new update and downloads the required files for the
update.

2.

The active unit performs an automatic reconfiguration to update its database.

3.

This reconfiguration causes a failover so the passive unit becomes the active unit.

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4.

When the update is completed, the newly active unit also downloads the files for the update
and performs a reconfiguration.

5.

This second reconfiguration causes another failover so the passive unit reverts back to being
active again.

These steps result in both NetDefend Firewalls in a cluster having updated databases and with
the original active/passive roles. For more information about HA clusters refer to Chapter 11, High
Availability.

Anti-Virus with ZoneDefense

Anti-virus triggered ZoneDefense is a feature for isolating virus infected hosts and servers on a
local network. While the virus scanning firewall takes care of blocking inbound infected files from
reaching the local network, ZoneDefense can be used for stopping viruses to spread from an
already infected local host to other local hosts. When the NetDefendOS virus scanning engine
has detected a virus, the NetDefend Firewall will upload blocking instructions to the local
switches and instruct them to block all traffic from the infected host or server.
Since ZoneDefense blocking state in the switches is a limited resource, the administrator has the
possibility to configure which hosts and servers that should be blocked at the switches when a
virus has been detected.
For example: A local client downloads an infected file from a remote FTP server over the Internet.
NetDefendOS detects this and stops the file transfer. At this point, NetDefendOS has blocked the
infected file from reaching the internal network. Hence, there would be no use in blocking the
remote FTP server at the local switches since NetDefendOS has already stopped the virus.
Blocking the server's IP address would only consume blocking entries in the switches.
For NetDefendOS to know which hosts and servers to block, the administrator has the ability to
specify a network range that should be affected by a ZoneDefense block. All hosts and servers
that are within this range will be blocked.
The feature is controlled through the anti-virus configuration in the ALGs. Depending on the
protocol used, there exist different scenarios of how the feature can be used.
For more information about this topic refer to Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

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6.5. Intrusion Detection and Prevention

6.5.1. Overview
Intrusion Definition
Computer servers can sometimes have vulnerabilities which leave them exposed to attacks
carried by network traffic. Worms, trojans and backdoor exploits are examples of such attacks
which, if successful, can potentially compromise or take control of a server. A generic term that
can be used to describe these server orientated threats are intrusions.

Intrusion Detection
Intrusions differ from viruses in that a virus is normally contained in a single file download and
this is normally downloaded to a client system. An intrusion manifests itself as a malicious
pattern of Internet data aimed at bypassing server security mechanisms. Intrusions are not
uncommon and they can constantly evolve as their creation can be automated by the attacker.
NetDefendOS IDP provides an important line of defense against these threats.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) is a NetDefendOS subsystem that is designed to protect
against these intrusion attempts. It operates by monitoring network traffic as it passes through
the NetDefend Firewall, searching for patterns that indicate an intrusion is being attempted.
Once detected, NetDefendOS IDP allows steps to be taken to neutralize both the intrusion
attempt as well as its source.

IDP Issues
In order to have an effective and reliable IDP system, the following issues have to be addressed:

What kinds of traffic should be analyzed?

What should we search for in that traffic?

What action should be carried out when an intrusion is detected?

NetDefendOS IDP Components

NetDefendOS IDP addresses the above issues with the following mechanisms:
1.

IDP Rules are defined up by the administrator to determine what traffic should be scanned.

2.

Pattern Matching is applied by NetDefendOS IDP to the traffic that matches an IDP Rule as
it streams through the firewall.

3.

If NetDefendOS IDP detects an intrusion then the Action specified for the triggering IDP
Rule is taken.

IDP Rules, Pattern Matching and IDP Rule Actions are described in the sections which follow.

6.5.2. IDP Availability for D-Link Models

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Maintenance and Advanced IDP

D-Link offers two types of IDP:

Maintenance IDP
Maintenance IDP is the base IDP system included as standard with the NetDefend DFL 210,
800, 1600 and 2500.
Maintenance IDP is a simplified IDP that gives basic protection against IDP attacks. It is
upgradeable to the higher level and more comprehensive Advanced IDP which is discussed
next.
IDP does not come as standard with the DFL-260, 260E, 860, 860E, 1660, 2560 and 2560G and
a subscription to Advanced IDP must be purchased for these models.

Advanced IDP
Advanced IDP is a subscription based IDP system with a much broader range of database
signatures for more demanding installations. The standard subscription is for 12 months and
provides automatic IDP signature database updates.
This IDP option is available for all D-Link NetDefend models, including those that do not
come as standard with Maintenance IDP.
Maintenance IDP can be viewed as a restricted subset of Advanced IDP and the following
sections describe how the Advanced IDP option functions.

Subscribing to the D-Link Advanced IDP Service

Advanced IDP is purchased as an additional component to the base NetDefendOS license. It is a
subscription service and subscribing means that the IDP signature database can be downloaded
to a NetDefendOS installation and also that the database is regularly updated with the latest
intrusion threats.

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Figure 6.11. IDP Database Updating

A new, updated signature database is downloaded automatically by NetDefendOS system at a

configurable interval. This is done via an HTTP connection to the D-Link server network which
delivers the latest signature database updates. If the server's signature database has a newer
version than the current local database, the new database will be downloaded, replacing the
older version.

The Terms IDP, IPS and IDS

The terms Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP), Intrusion Prevention System (IDP) and Intrusion
Detection System (IDS) are used interchangeably in D-Link literature. They all refer to the same
feature, which is IDP.

Setting the Correct System Time

It is important that a NetDefendOS has the correct system time set if the auto-update feature in
the IDP module can function correctly. An incorrect time can mean the auto-updating is
disabled.
The console command
> updatecenter -status

will show the current status of the auto-update feature. This can also be done through the Web
Interface.

Updating in High Availability Clusters

Updating the IDP databases for both the NetDefend Firewalls in an HA Cluster is performed
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automatically by NetDefendOS. In a cluster there is always an active unit and an inactive unit.
Only the active unit in the cluster will perform regular checking for new database updates. If a
new database update becomes available the sequence of events will be as follows:
1.

The active unit determines there is a new update and downloads the required files for the
update.

2.

The active unit performs an automatic reconfiguration to update its database.

3.

This reconfiguration causes a failover so the passive unit becomes the active unit.

4.

When the update is completed, the newly active unit also downloads the files for the update
and performs a reconfiguration.

5.

This second reconfiguration causes another failover so the passive unit reverts back to being
active again.

These steps result in both NetDefend Firewalls in a cluster having updated databases and with
the original active/passive roles. For more information about HA clusters refer to Chapter 11, High
Availability.

6.5.3. IDP Rules

Rule Components
An IDP Rule defines what kind of traffic, or service, should be analyzed. An IDP Rule is similar in
makeup to an IP Rule. IDP Rules are constructed like other security policies in NetDefendOS such
as IP Rules. An IDP Rule specifies a given combination source/destination interfaces/addresses as
well as being associated with a service object which defines the IDP rules that will be used during
traffic scanning. A time schedule can also be associated with an IDP Rule. Most importantly, an
IDP Rule specifies the Action to take on detecting an intrusion in the traffic targeted by the rule.

IDP Signature Selection

When using the Web Interface, all IDP signatures in the local signature database are shown under
the selection choice IDP Signatures. This displays a two level tree of all signatures ordered by
group. However, its purpose is for reference only and it is not possible to add rule signatures
through this tree. A screen shot of the list from the Web Interface is shown below.
In the Web Interface, associating signatures with an IDP rule is done by selecting the Action for
the rule. A screenshot of selecting signatures in the Web Interface is shown below.

Figure 6.12. IDP Signature Selection

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There is a choice of either entering signatures in the upper text box or selecting them through
the tree underneath which collects the signatures together into their respective groups. When
collections of signatures are selected in the tree, the equivalent wildcard definition will
automatically appear in the box above. Individual signatures cannot be selected through the tree
and can only be entered in the text box.
What appears in the upper text box is equivalent to the way signatures are specified when using
the CLI to define an IDP rule.

HTTP Normalization
Each IDP rule has a section of settings for HTTP normalization. This allows the administrator to
choose the actions that should be taken when IDP finds inconsistencies in the URIs embedded in
incoming HTTP requests. Some server attacks are based on creating URIs with sequences that
can exploit weaknesses in some HTTP server products.
The URI conditions which IDP can detect are:

Invalid UTF8
This looks for any invalid UTF8 characters in a URI.

Invalid hex encoding

A valid hex sequence is where a percentage sign is followed by two hexadecimal values to
represent a single byte of data. An invalid hex sequence would be percentage sign followed
by something which is not a valid hexadecimal value.

Double encoding
This looks for any hex sequence which itself is encoded using other hex escape sequences.
An example would be the original sequence %2526 where %25 is then might be decoded by
the HTTP server to '%' and results in the sequence '%26'. This is then finally decoded to '&'.

Initial Packet Processing

The initial order of packet processing with IDP is as follows:
1.

A packet arrives at the firewall and NetDefendOS performs normal verification. If the packet
is part of a new connection then it is checked against the IP rule set before being passed to
the IDP module. If the packet is part of an existing connection it is passed straight to the IDP
system. If the packet is not part of an existing connection or is rejected by the IP rule set
then it is dropped.

2.

The source and destination information of the packet is compared to the set of IDP Rules
defined by the administrator. If a match is found, it is passed on to the next level of IDP
processing which is pattern matching, described in step below. If there is no match against
an IDP rule then the packet is accepted and the IDP system takes no further actions
although further actions defined in the IP rule set are applied such as address translation
and logging.

6.5.4. Insertion/Evasion Attack Prevention

Overview

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When defining an IDP Rule, the administrator can enable or disable the option Protect against
Insertion/Evasion attack. An Insertion/Evasion Attack is a form of attack which is specifically
aimed at evading IDP mechanisms. It exploits the fact that in a TCP/IP data transfer, the data
stream must often be reassembled from smaller pieces of data because the individual pieces
either arrive in the wrong order or are fragmented in some way. Insertions or Evasions are
designed to exploit this reassembly process.

Insertion Attacks
An Insertion attack consists of inserting data into a stream so that the resulting sequence of data
packets is accepted by the IDP subsystem but will be rejected by the targeted application. This
results is two different streams of data.
As an example, consider a data stream broken up into 4 packets: p1, p2, p3 and p4. The attacker
might first send packets p1 and p4 to the targeted application. These will be held by both the
IDP subsystem and the application until packets p2 and p3 arrive so that reassembly can be
done. The attacker now deliberately sends two packets, p2' and p3', which will be rejected by the
application but accepted by the IDP system. The IDP system is now able to complete reassembly
of the packets and believes it has the full data stream. The attacker now sends two further
packets, p2 and p3, which will be accepted by the application which can now complete
reassembly but resulting in a different data stream to that seen by the IDP subsystem.

Evasion Attacks
An evasion attack has a similar end-result to the Insertion Attack in that it also generates two
different data streams, one that the IDP subsystem sees and one that the target application sees,
but it is achieved in the reverse way. It consists of sending data packets that are rejected by the
IDP subsystem but are acceptable to the target application.

Detection Action
If an Insertion/Evasion Attack is detected with the Insertion/Evasion Protect option enabled,
NetDefendOS automatically corrects the data stream by removing the extraneous data
associated with the attack.

Insertion/Evasion Log Events

The Insertion/Evasion Attack subsystem in NetDefendOS can generate two types of log message:

An Attack Detected log message, indicating an attack has been identified and prevented.

An Unable to Detect log message when NetDefendOS has been unable to identify potential
attacks when reassembling a TCP/IP stream although such an attack may have been present.
This condition is caused by infrequent and unusually complex patterns of data in the stream.

Recommended Configuration
By default, Insertion/Evasion protection is enabled for all IDP rules and this is the recommended
setting for most configurations. There are two motivations for disabling the option:

Increasing throughput - Where the highest throughout possible is desirable, then turning
the option off, can provide a slight increase in processing speed.

Excessive False Positives - If there is evidence of an unusually high level of Insertion/Evasion

false positives then disabling the option may be prudent while the false positive causes are
investigated.
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6.5.5. IDP Pattern Matching

Signatures
In order for IDP to correctly identify an attack, it uses a profile of indicators, or pattern, associated
with different types of attack. These predefined patterns, also known as signatures, are stored in a
local NetDefendOS database and are used by the IDP module to analyze traffic for attack
patterns. Each IDP signature is designated by a unique number.
Consider the following simple attack example involving an exchange with an FTP server. A rogue
user might try to retrieve the password file "passwd" from an FTP server using the FTP command
RETR passwd. A signature looking for the ASCII text strings RETR and passwd would find a match
in this case, indicating a possible attack. In this example, the pattern is found in plaintext but
pattern matching is done in the same way on pure binary data.

Recognizing Unknown Threats

Attackers who build new intrusions often re-use older code. This means their new attacks can
appear "in the wild" quickly. To counter this, D-Link IDP uses an approach where the module
scans for these reusable components, with pattern matching looking for building blocks rather
than the entire complete code patterns. This means that "known" threats as well as new, recently
released, "unknown" threats, built with re-used software components, can be protected against.

Signature Advisories
An advisory is an explanatory textual description of a signature. Reading a signature's advisory
will explain to the administrator what the signature will search for. Due to the changing nature of
the signature database, advisories are not included in D-Link documentation but instead, are
available on the D-Link website at:
http://security.dlink.com.tw
Advisories can be found under the "NetDefend IDS" option in the "NetDefend Live" menu.

IDP Signature types

IDP offers three signature types which offer differing levels of certainty with regard to threats:

Intrusion Protection Signatures (IPS)

These are highly accurate and a match is almost certainly an indicator of a threat. Using the
Protect action is recommended. These signatures can detect administrative actions and
security scanners.

Intrusion Detection Signatures (IDS)

These can detect events that may be intrusions. They have lower accuracy than IPS and may
give some false positives so it is recommended that the Audit action is always used. Using
them with Protect may interrupt normal traffic.

Policy Signatures
These detect different types of application traffic. They can be used to block certain
applications such as file sharing applications and instant messaging.

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6.5.6. IDP Signature Groups

Using Groups
Usually, several lines of attacks exist for a specific protocol, and it is best to search for all of them
at the same time when analyzing network traffic. To do this, signatures related to a particular
protocol are grouped together. For example, all signatures that refer to the FTP protocol form a
group. It is best to specify a group that relates to the traffic being searched than be concerned
about individual signatures. For performance purposes, the aim should be to have NetDefendOS
search data using the least possible number of signatures.

Specifying Signature Groups

IDP Signature Groups fall into a three level hierarchical structure. The top level of this hierarchy is
the signature Type, the second level the Category and the third level the Sub-Category. The
signature group called POLICY_DB_MSSQL illustrates this principle where Policy is the Type, DB
is the Category and MSSQL is the Sub-Category. These 3 signature components are explained
below:
1. Signature Group Type
The group type is one of the values IDS, IPS or Policy. These types are explained above.
2. Signature Group Category
This second level of naming describes the type of application or protocol. Examples are:

BACKUP

DB

DNS

FTP

HTTP

3. Signature Group Sub-Category

The third level of naming further specifies the target of the group and often specifies the
application, for example MSSQL. The Sub-Category may not be necessary if the Type and
Category are sufficient to specify the group, for example APP_ITUNES.

Listing of IDP Groups

A listing of IDP groupings can be found in Appendix B, IDP Signature Groups. The listing shows
group names consisting of the Category followed by the Sub-Category, since the Type could be
any of IDS, IPS or POLICY.

Processing Multiple Actions

For any IDP rule, it is possible to specify multiple actions and an action type such as Protect can
be repeated. Each action will then have one or more signatures or groups associated with it.
When signature matching occurs it is done in a top-down fashion, with matching for the
signatures for the first action specified being done first.

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IDP Signature Wildcarding

When selecting IDP signature groups, it is possible to use wildcarding to select more than one
group. The "?" character can be used to wildcard for a single character in a group name.
Alternatively, the "*" character can be used to wildcard for any set of characters of any length in a
group name.

Caution: Use the minimum IDP signatures necessary

Do not use the entire signature database and avoid using signatures and signature
groups unnecessarily. Instead, use only those signatures or groups applicable to the type
of traffic being protected.
For example, using only the IDP groups IDS_WEB*, IPS_WEB*, IDS_HTTP* and
IPS_HTTP* would be appropriate for protecting an HTTP server.
IDP traffic scanning creates an additional load on the hardware that, in most cases,
should not noticeably degrade performance. Using too many signatures during
scanning can make the load on the hardware unnecessarily high, adversely affecting
throughput.

6.5.7. IDP Actions

Action Options
After pattern matching recognizes an intrusion in traffic subject to an IDP Rule, the Action
associated with that Rule is taken. The administrator can associate one of three Action options
with an IDP Rule:

Ignore - Do nothing if an intrusion is detected and allow the connection to stay open.

Audit - Allow the connection to stay open but log the event.

Protect - This option drops the connection and logs the event (with the additional option to
blacklist the source of the connection or switching on ZoneDefense as described below).

IDP Blacklisting
The Protect option includes the option that the particular host or network that triggers the IDP
Rule can be added to a Blacklist of offending traffic sources. This means that all subsequent traffic
coming from a blacklisted source with be automatically dropped by NetDefendOS. For more
details of how blacklisting functions see Section 6.7, Blacklisting Hosts and Networks.

IDP ZoneDefense
The Protect action includes the option that the particular D-Link switch that triggers the IDP Rule
can be de-activated through the D-Link ZoneDefense feature. For more details on how
ZoneDefense functions see Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

6.5.8. SMTP Log Receiver for IDP Events

In order to receive notifications via email of IDP events, a SMTP Log receiver can be configured.
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This email will contain a summary of IDP events that have occurred in a user-configurable period
of time.
When an IDP event occurrs, the NetDefendOS will wait for Hold Time seconds before sending
the notification email. However, the email will only be sent if the number of events occurred in
this period of time is equal to, or bigger than the Log Threshold. When this email has been sent,
NetDefendOS will wait for Minimum Repeat Time seconds before sending a new email.

The IP Address of SMTP Log Receivers is Required

When specifying an SMTP log receiver, the IP address of the receiver must be specified. A domain
name such as dns:smtp.domain.com cannot be used.
Example 6.20. Configuring an SMTP Log Receiver
In this example, an IDP Rule is configured with an SMTP Log Receiver. Once an IDP event occurs,
the Rule is triggered. At least one new event occurs within the Hold Time of 120 seconds, thus
reaching the log threshold level (at least 2 events have occurred). This results in an email being
sent containing a summary of the IDP events. Several more IDP events may occur after this, but
to prevent flooding the mail server, NetDefendOS will wait 600 seconds (equivalent to 10
minutes) before sending a new email. An SMTP server is assumed to have been configured in the
address book with the name smtp-server.
Command-Line Interface
Adding an SMTP log receiver:
gw-world:/> add LogReceiver LogReceiverSMTP smt4IDP IPAddress=smtp-server
[email protected]

IDP Rules:
gw-world:/> cc IDPRule examplerule

gw-world:/examplerule> set IDPRuleAction 1 LogEnabled=Yes

Web Interface
Adding an SMTP log receiver:
1.

Go to: System > Device > Log and Event Receivers > Add > SMTP Event Receiver

2.

Now enter:

Name: smtp4IDP

SMTP Server: smtp-server

Server Port: 25

Specify alternative email addresses (up to 3)

Sender: hostmaster

Subject: Log event from NetDefendOS

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Minimum Repeat Delay: 600

Hold Time: 120

Log Threshold: 2

Click OK

IDP Rules:
1.

Go to: Policies > Intrusion Prevention > Add > IDP Rule

2.

Select a rule and choose Edit

3.

Select the action you wish to log and choose Edit

4.

Check the Enable logging checkbox in the Log Settings tab

5.

Click OK

Example 6.21. Setting up IDP for a Mail Server

The following example details the steps needed to set up IDP for a simple scenario where a mail
server is exposed to the Internet on the DMZ network with a public IPv4 address. The public
Internet can be reached through the firewall on the WAN interface as illustrated below.

An IDP rule called IDPMailSrvRule will be created, and the Service to use is the SMTP service.
Source Interface and Source Network defines where traffic is coming from, in this example the
external network. The Destination Interface and Destination Network define where traffic is
directed to, in this case the mail server. Destination Network should therefore be set to the object
defining the mail server.
Command-Line Interface
Create an IDP Rule:

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gw-world:/> add IDPRule Service=smtp SourceInterface=wan

SourceNetwork=wannet
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=ip_mailserver
Name=IDPMailSrvRule

Specify the Rule Action:

gw-world:/> cc IDPRule IDPMailSrvRule
gw-world:/IDPMailSrvRule> add IDPRuleAction
Action=Protect
IDPServity=All
Signatures=IPS_MAIL_SMTP

Web Interface
Create an IDP Rule:
This IDP rule is called IDPMailSrvRule, and applies to the SMTP service. Source Interface and
Source Network define where traffic is coming from, in this example, the external network. The
Destination Interface and Destination Network define where traffic is directed to, in this case the
mail server. Destination Network should therefore be set to the object defining the mail server.
1.

Go to: Policies > Intrusion Prevention > IDP Rules > Add > IDP Rule

2.

Now enter:

Name: IDPMailSrvRule

Service: smtp

Also inspect dropped packets: In case all traffic matching this rule should be scanned
(this also means traffic that the main rule set would drop), the Protect against
insertion/evasion attacks checkbox should be checked, which is the case in this
example.

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: wannet

Destination Interface: dmz

Destination Network: ip_mailserver

Click OK

Specify the Action:

An action is now defined, specifying what signatures the IDP should use when scanning data
matching the rule, and what NetDefendOS should do when a possible intrusion is detected. In
this example, intrusion attempts will cause the connection to be dropped, so Action is set to
Protect. The Signatures option is set to IPS_MAIL_SMTP in order to use signatures that describe
attacks from the external network that are based on the SMTP protocol.
1.

Select the Rule Action for the IDP rule

2.

Now enter:

Action: Protect

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Signatures: IPS_MAIL_SMTP

Click OK

If logging of intrusion attempts is desired, this can be configured by clicking in the Rule Actions
tab when creating an IDP rule and enabling logging. The Severity should be set to All in order to
match all SMTP attacks.
In summary, the following will occur: If traffic from the external network to the mail server occurs,
IDP will be activated. If traffic matches any of the signatures in the IPS_MAIL_SMTP signature
group, the connection will be dropped, thus protecting the mail server.

Using Individual Signatures

The preceding example uses an entire IDP group name when enabling IDP. However, it is
possible to instead specify individual signatures or a list of signatures for an IDP rule. Individual
signatures are identified by their unique number ID and multiple signatures is specified as a
comma separated list of these IDs.
For example, to specify signatures with the ID 68343, the CLI in the above example would
become:
gw-world:/IDPMailSrvRule> add IDPRuleAction
Action=Protect
IDPServity=All
Signatures=68343

To specify a list which also includes signatures 68345 and 68349:

gw-world:/IDPMailSrvRule> add IDPRuleAction
Action=Protect
IDPServity=All
Signatures=68343,68345,68349

Individual signatures are entered in a similar way when using the Web Interface.

IDP Traffic Shaping

IDP offers an excellent means of identifying different types of traffic flow through NetDefendOS
and the applications responsible for them. This ability is combined with the traffic management
features of NetDefendOS to provide IDP Traffic Shaping which can place bandwidth and priority
restrictions on the specific flows identified.
The IDP traffic shaping feature is discussed in depth in Section 10.2, IDP Traffic Shaping.

6.5.9. Best Practice Deployment

IDP Deployment Recommendations
The following are the recommendations for IDP employment:

Enable only the IDP signatures for the traffic that is being allowed. For example, if the IP rule
set is only allowing HTTP traffic then there is no point enabling FTP signatures.

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Once the relevant signatures are selected for IDP processing, the IDP system should always
be initially run in Audit mode.

After running IDP in Audit mode for a sample period with live traffic, examines the log
messages generated. Check for the following:

i.

When IDP triggers, what kind of traffic is it triggering on?

ii.

Is the correct traffic being identified?

iii.

Are there any false positives with the signatures that have been chosen?

Adjust the signature selection and examine the logs again. There may be several adjustments
before the logs demonstrate that the desired effect is being achieved.
If certain signatures are repeatedly triggering it may be reason to look more closely to check
if a server is under attack.

After a few days running in Audit mode with satisfactory results showing in the logs, switch
over IDP to Protect mode so that triggering connection are dropped by NetDefendOS.
However, IDS signatures are best kept in Audit mode as they can interrupt normal traffic flows
because of false positives.

If required, enable the blacklisting feature of IDP so that the source IP for triggering traffic is
blocked. This is a powerful feature of IDP and useful when dealing with an application like
BitTorrent.

IDP Database Updating

The IDP signature database can be updated automatically and certain signatures can be dropped
or updated and new signatures introduced. In some cases, it can be preferable to force the
database update manually so that the effect of any changes can be observed following the
update.
Automatic updates might take place without the necessary checking in place to make sure there
are no disruptions to live traffic.

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6.6. Denial-of-Service Attacks

6.6.1. Overview
The same advantages that the Internet brings to business also benefit hackers who use the same
public infrastructure to mount attacks. Attack toolkits are readily available and development
work on these is often split across groups spread around the world. Many newer attack
techniques utilize the distributed topology of the Internet to launch Denial of Service (DoS)
attacks resulting in paralysed web servers that can no longer respond to legitimate connection
requests.
To be on the receiving end of a DoS attack is probably the last thing any network administrator
wants to experience. Attacks can appear out of thin air and the consequences can be devastating
with crashed servers, jammed Internet connections and business critical systems overloaded.
This section deals with how NetDefendOS is used to protect against these attacks.

6.6.2. DoS Attack Mechanisms

A DoS attack can be perpetrated in a number of ways but there are three basic types of attack:

Consumption of computational resources, such as bandwidth, disk space or CPU time.

Disruption of configuration information, such as routing information.

Disruption of physical network components.

One of the most commonly used method is the consumption of computational resources which
means that the DoS attack floods the network and ties up critical resources used to run business
critical applications. In some cases, vulnerabilities in the Unix and Windows operating systems
are exploited to intentionally crash the system, while in other cases large amounts of apparently
valid traffic are directed at sites until they become overloaded and crash.
Some of the most well known DoS attacks during the brief history of the public Internet have
included the following:

Ping of Death attacks

Fragmentation overlap attacks

Land and LaTierra attacks

The WinNuke attack

Amplification attacks

TCP SYN flood attacks

6.6.3. Ping of Death Attacks

This is one of the earliest OSI layer 3/4 attacks. A simple ways to execute this is to run the console
command "ping -l 65510 o.p.q.r" on certain operating systems where o.p.q.r is the IP address of
the intended victim. Jolt is the name of one of the purpose-written programs for generating such
packets on operating systems whose ping commands refuse to generate oversized packets.
Another name for this type of attack is Ping of Death.

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The triggering factor is that the last fragment makes the total packet size exceed 65535 bytes,
which is the highest number that a 16-bit integer can store. When the value overflows, it jumps
back to a very small number. What happens then is a function of how well the victim's IP stack is
implemented.
NetDefendOS will never allow fragments through that would result in the total size exceeding
65535 bytes. In addition to that, there are configurable limits for IP packet sizes in NetDefendOS's
advanced settings.
This type of attack will show up in NetDefendOS event logs as drops with the IP rule name set to
LogOversizedPackets. The sender IP address may be spoofed.

6.6.4. Fragmentation Overlap Attacks

Teardrop and its cousins (including Bonk, Boink, Nestea) are Fragment Overlap Attacks. Many IP
stacks have shown erratic behavior (excessive resource exhaustion or crashes) when exposed to
overlapping fragments.
NetDefendOS protects fully against fragmentation overlap attacks. Overlapping fragments are
never allowed to pass through the system.
Teardrop and its followers will show up in NetDefendOS event logs as drops with the rule name
set to IllegalFrags. The sender IP address may be spoofed.

6.6.5. The Land and LaTierra Attacks

Land and LaTierra type attacks work by sending a packet to a victim and making the victim
respond back to itself, which in turn generates yet another response to itself and so on. This will
either bog the victim's machine down, or cause it to crash.
The attack is accomplished by using the victim's IP address in the source field of an IP packet as
well as in the destination field.
NetDefendOS protects against this attack by applying IP spoofing protection to all packets. In its
default configuration, it will simply compare arriving packets to the contents of the routing table;
if a packet arrives on an interface that is different from the interface where the system expects
the source to be, the packet will be dropped.
These type of attacks show up in NetDefendOS event logs as IP rule set drops with the rule name
set to AutoAccess, by default, or if the configuration contains custom Access Rule objects, the
name of the access rule that dropped the packet. The sender IP address is of no interest since it is
always the same as the destination IP address.

6.6.6. The WinNuke attack

The WinNuke attack works by connecting to a TCP service that does not have handlers for
"out-of-band" data (TCP segments with the URG bit set), but still accepts such data. This will
usually put the service in a tight loop that consumes all available CPU time.
One such service was the NetBIOS over TCP/IP service on Windows machines, which gave the
attack its name.
NetDefendOS protects against this in two ways:

With a careful inbound policy, the attack surface is greatly reduced. Only exposed services
could possibly become victims to the attack, and public services tend to be more well-written
than services expected to only serve the local network.

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By stripping the URG bit by default from all TCP segments traversing the system. This is
configurable in the Web Interface by going to:
System > Advanced Settings > TCP Settings > TCP URG.

WinNuke attacks will usually show up in NetDefendOS logs as normal drops with the name of the
IP rule that disallowed the connection attempt.
For connections allowed through the system, "TCP" or "DROP" category (depending on the
TCPUrg setting) entries will appear, with a rule name of "TCPUrg". The sender IP address is not
likely to be spoofed; a full three-way handshake must be completed before out-of-band
segments can be sent.

6.6.7. Amplification Attacks

This category of attacks all make use of "amplifiers": poorly configured networks who amplify a
stream of packets and send it to the ultimate target. Historical examples of this include Smurf,
Papasmurf and Fraggle.
The goal with these attacks is excessive bandwidth consumption. That is to say, consuming all of
the victim's Internet connection capacity. An attacker with sufficient bandwidth can forgo the
entire amplification stage and simply stream enough bandwidth at the victim. However, these
attacks allows attackers with less bandwidth than the victim to amplify their data stream to
overwhelm the victim.

"Smurf" and "Papasmurf" send ICMP echo packets to the broadcast address of open networks
with many machines, faking the source IP address to be that of the victim. All machines on
the open network then "respond" to the victim.

"Fraggle" uses the same general idea, but instead using UDP echo (port 7) to accomplish the
task. Fraggle generally gets lower amplification factors since there are fewer hosts on the
Internet that have the UDP echo service enabled.

Smurf attacks will show up in NetDefendOS logs as masses of dropped ICMP Echo Reply packets.
The source IP addresses will be those of the amplifier networks used. Fraggle attacks will show
up in NetDefendOS logs as masses of dropped (or allowed, depending on policy) packets. The
source IP addresses will be those of the amplifier networks used.

Avoiding Becoming an Amplifier

Even though the brunt of the bandwidth stream is at the ultimate victim's side, being selected as
an amplifier network can also consume great resources. In its default configuration,
NetDefendOS explicitly drops packets sent to broadcast address of directly connected networks
(configurable via System > Advanced Settings > IP Settings > DirectedBroadcasts). However,
with a reasonable inbound policy, no protected network should ever have to worry about
becoming a smurf amplifier.

Protection on the Victim's Side

Smurf, and its followers, are resource exhaustion attacks in that they use up Internet connection
capacity. In the general case, the firewall is situated at the "wrong" side of the Internet
connection bottleneck to provide much protection against this class of attacks. The damage has
already been done by the time the packets reach the firewall.
However, NetDefendOS can help in keeping the load off of internal servers, making them
available for internal service, or perhaps service via a secondary Internet connection not targeted
by the attack.

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Smurf and Papasmurf type floods will be seen as ICMP Echo Responses at the victim side.
Unless FwdFast rules are in use, such packets are never allowed to initiate new connections,
regardless of whether or not there are rules that allow the traffic.

Fraggle packets may arrive at any UDP destination port targeted by the attacker. Tightening
the inbound rule set may help.

The Traffic Shaping feature built into NetDefendOS also help absorb some of the flood before it
reaches protected servers.

6.6.8. TCP SYN Flood Attacks

TCP SYN flood attacks work by sending large amounts of TCP SYN packets to a given port and
then not responding to SYN ACKs sent in response. This will tie up local TCP stack resources on
the victim's web server so that it is unable to respond to more SYN packets until the existing
half-open connections have timed out.
NetDefendOS can protect against TCP SYN Flood attacks if the Syn Flood Protection option is
enabled in a service object associated with the rule in the IP rule set that triggers on the traffic.
This is also sometimes referred to as the SYN Relay option.
Flood protection is enabled automatically in the predefined services http-in, https-in, smtp-in,
and ssh-in. If a new custom service object is defined by the administrator then the flood
protection option can be enabled or disabled as desired.

The SYN Flood Defence Mechanism

Syn flood protection works by completing the 3-way handshake with the client before doing a
second handshake of its own with the target service. Overload situations have difficulty
occurring in NetDefendOS due to superior resource management and an absence of the
restrictions normally placed on other operating systems. While other operating systems can
exhibit problems with as few as 5 outstanding half-open connections, NetDefendOS can fill its
entire state table before anything out of the ordinary happens. When the state table fills up, old
outstanding SYN connections will be the first to be dropped to make room for new connections.

Spotting SYN Floods

TCP SYN flood attacks will show up in NetDefendOS logs as excessive amounts of new
connections (or drops, if the attack is targeted at a closed port). The sender IP address is almost
invariably spoofed.

ALGs Automatically Provide Flood Protection

It should be noted that SYN Flood Protection does not need to be explicitly enabled on a service
object that has an ALG associated with it. ALGs provide automatic SYN flood protection.

6.6.9. The Jolt2 Attack

The Jolt2 type attack works by sending a steady stream of identical fragments at the victim
machine. A few hundred packets per second can freeze vulnerable machines completely until
the stream is ended.
NetDefendOS will protect completely against this attack. The first fragment will be queued,
waiting for earlier fragments to arrive so that they may be passed on in order, but this never
happens, so not even the first fragment gets through. Subsequent fragments will be thrown
away as they are identical to the first fragment.

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If the attacker chooses a fragment offset higher than the limits imposed by the values specified
in System > Advanced Settings > Length Limit Settings, the packets will not even get that far
and will be dropped immediately. Jolt2 attacks may or may not show up in NetDefendOS logs. If
the attacker chooses a too-high fragment offset for the attack, they will show up as drops from
the rule set to "LogOversizedPackets". If the fragment offset is low enough, no logging will occur.
The sender IP address may be spoofed.

6.6.10. Distributed DoS Attacks

A more sophisticated form of DoS is the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. These attacks
involve breaking into hundreds or thousands of individual computers around the Internet to
install DDoS software on them. This allows the hacker to direct the burgled machines to launch
coordinated attacks on victim sites. These attacks typically exhaust bandwidth, router processing
capacity, or network stack resources, breaking network connectivity to the victims.
Although recent DDoS attacks have been launched from both private corporate and public
institutional systems, hackers tend to often prefer university or institutional networks because of
their open, distributed nature. Tools used to launch DDoS attacks include Trin00, TribeFlood
Network (TFN), TFN2K and Stacheldraht.

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6.7. Blacklisting Hosts and Networks

Overview
NetDefendOS implements a Blacklist of host or network IP addresses which can be utilized to
protect against traffic coming from specific Internet sources.
Certain NetDefendOS subsystems have the ability to optionally blacklist a host or network when
certain conditions are encountered. These subsystems are:

Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP).

Threshold Rules. (Available on certain NetDefend models only - see Section 10.3, Threshold
Rules for details.)

Blacklisting Options
The automatic blacklisting of a host or network can be enabled in IDP and in threshold rules by
specifying the Protect action for when a rule is triggered. Once enabled, there are three
blacklisting options:
Time to Block Host/Network in
seconds

The host or network which is the source of the traffic will

stay on the blacklist for the specified time and then be
removed. If the same source triggers another entry to the
blacklist then the blocking time is renewed to its original,
full value (in other words, it is not cumulative).

Block only this Service

By default, blacklisting blocks all services for the triggering

host.

Exempt already established

connections from Blacklisting

If there are established connections that have the same

source as this new Blacklist entry then they will not be
dropped if this option is set.

IP addresses or networks are added to the list then the traffic from these sources is then blocked
for the period of time specified.

Note: NetDefendOS reboots do not effect the blacklist

The contents of the blacklist is not lost if the NetDefend Firewall shuts down and restarts.

Whitelisting
To ensure that Internet traffic coming from trusted sources, such as the management
workstation, are not blacklisted under any circumstances, a Whitelist is also maintained by
NetDefendOS. Any IP address object can be added to this whitelist

Tip: Important IP addresses should be whitelisted

It is recommended to add the NetDefend Firewall itself to the whitelist as well as the IP
address or network of the management workstation since blacklisting of either could
have serious consequences for network operations.

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It is also important to understand that although whitelisting prevents a particular source from
being blacklisted, it still does not prevent NetDefendOS mechanisms such as threshold rules
from dropping or denying connections from that source. What whitelisting does is prevent a
source being added to a blacklist if that is the action a rule has specified.
For further details on usage see Section 6.5.7, IDP Actions and Section 10.3, Threshold Rules.

Note: The content filtering blacklist is separate

Content filtering blacklisting is a separate subject and uses a separate logical list (see
Section 6.3, Web Content Filtering).

The CLI blacklist Command

The blacklist command can be used to look at as well as manipulate the current contents of the
blacklist and the whitelist. The current blacklist can be viewed with the command:
gw-world:/> blacklist -show -black

This blacklist command can be used to remove a host from the blacklist using the -unblock
option.

Example 6.22. Adding a Host to the Whitelist

In this example we will add an IP address object called white_ip to the whitelist. This will mean
this IP address can never be blacklisted.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add BlacklistWhiteHost Addresses=white_ip Service=all_tcp

Web Interface
1.

Go to: System > Whitelist > Add > Whitelist host

2.

Now select the IP address object white_ip so it is added to the whitelist

3.

Select the service all_tcp to be associated with this whitelist entry

4.

Click OK

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This chapter describes NetDefendOS address translation capabilities.
Overview, page 427
NAT, page 429
NAT Pools, page 436
SAT, page 440

7.1. Overview
The ability of NetDefendOS to change the IP address of packets as they pass through the
NetDefend Firewall is known as address translation.
The ability to transform one IP address to another can have many benefits. Two of the most
important are:

Private IPv4 addresses can be used on a protected network where protected hosts need to
have access to the public Internet. There may also be servers with private IPv4 addresses that
need to be accessible from the public Internet.

Security is increased by making it more difficult for intruders to understand the topology of
the protected network. Address translation hides internal IP addresses which means that an
attack coming from the "outside" is more difficult.

Types of Translation
NetDefendOS supports two types of translation:

Dynamic Network Address Translation (NAT)

Static Address Translation (SAT)

Application of both types of translation depend on the specified security policies, which means
that they are applied to specific traffic based on filtering rules that define combinations of
source/destination network/interface as well as service. Two types of NetDefendOS IP rules, NAT
rules and SAT rules are used to configure address translation.

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This section describes and provides examples of configuring NAT and SAT rules.

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7.2. NAT
Dynamic Network Address Translation (NAT) provides a mechanism for translating original source
IP addresses to a different address. Outgoing packets then appear to come from a different IP
address and incoming packets back to that address have their IP address translated back to the
original IP address.
NAT can have two important benefits:

The IP addresses of individual clients and hosts can be "hidden" behind the firewall's IP
address.

Only the firewall needs a public IPv4 address for public Internet access. Hosts and networks
behind the firewall can be allocated private IPv4 addresses but can still have access to the
public Internet through the public IPv4 address.

NAT Provides many-to-one IP Address Translation

NAT provides many-to-one translation. This means that each NAT rule in the IP rule set will
translate between several source IP addresses and a single source IP address.
To maintain session state information, each connection from dynamically translated addresses
uses a unique port number and IP address combination as its sender. NetDefendOS performs
automatic translation of the source port number as well as the IP address. In other words, the
source IP addresses for connections are all translated to the same IP address and the connections
are distinguished from one another by the allocation of a unique port number to each
connection.
The diagram below illustrates the concept of NAT.

Figure 7.1. NAT IP Address Translation

In the illustration above, three connections from IP addresses A, B and C are NATed through a
single source IP address N. The original port numbers are also changed.
The next source port number allocated for a new NAT connection will be the first free port
selected randomly by NetDefendOS. Ports are allocated randomly to increase security.

Limitations on the Number of NAT Connections

Approximately 64,500 simultaneous NAT connections are possible if a "connection" is considered
to be a unique pair of IP addresses and different port numbers are not used or the same
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destination port is used.

However, since there is a possible range of 64,500 source ports and the same number for
destination ports, it is theoretically possible to have over 4 billion connections between two IP
addresses if all ports are used.

Using NAT Pools Can Increase the Connections

To increase the number of NAT connections that can exist between the NetDefend Firewall and a
particular external host IP, the NetDefendOS NAT pools feature can be used which can
automatically make use of additional IP addresses on the firewall.
This is useful in situations where a remote server requires that all connections are to a single port
number. In such cases, the 64,500 limit for unique IP address pairs will apply.
See Section 7.3, NAT Pools for more information about this topic.

The Source IP Address Used for Translation

There are three options for how NetDefendOS determines the source IP address that will be used
for NAT:

Use the IP Address of the Interface

When a new connection is established, the routing table is consulted to resolve the
outbound interface for the connection. The IP address of that resolved interface is then used
as the new source IP address when NetDefendOS performs the address translation. This is the
default way that the IP address is determined.

Specify a Specific IP Address

A specific IP address can be specified as the new source IP address. The specified IP address
needs to have a matching ARP Publish entry configured for the outbound interface.
Otherwise, the return traffic will not be received by the NetDefend Firewall. This technique
might be used when the source IP is to differ based on the source of the traffic. For example,
an ISP that is using NAT, might use different IP addresses for different customers.

Use an IP Address from a NAT Pool

A NAT Pool, which is a set of IP addresses defined by the administrator, can be used. The next
available address from the pool can be used as the IP address used for NAT. There can be one
or many NAT pools and a single pool can be used in more than one NAT rule. This topic is
discussed further in Section 7.3, NAT Pools.

Applying NAT Translation

The following illustrates how NAT is applied in practice on a new connection:
1.

The sender at IP address 192.168.1.5 sends a packet from a dynamically assigned port, for
example 1038, to a server, for example 195.55.66.77 port 80.
192.168.1.5:1038 => 195.55.66.77:80

2.

In this example, the Use Interface Address option is used, and we will use 195.11.22.33 as the
interface address. In addition, the source port is changed to a random free port on the
NetDefend Firewall and which is above port 1024. In this example, we will assume port
32,789 is chosen. The packet is then sent to its destination.

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195.11.22.33:32789 => 195.55.66.77:80

3.

The recipient server then processes the packet and sends its response.
195.55.66.77:80 => 195.11.22.33:32789

4.

NetDefendOS receives the packet and compares it to its list of open connections. Once it
finds the connection in question, it restores the original address and forwards the packet.
195.55.66.77:80 => 192.168.1.5:1038

5.

The original sender now receives the response.

The sequence of these events is illustrated further in the diagram below.

Figure 7.2. A NAT Example

Example 7.1. Specifying a NAT IP Rule

The following will add a NAT rule that will perform address translation for all HTTP traffic
originating from the internal network lan as it flows out to the public Internet on the wan
interface. The IP address of the wan interface will be used as the NATing address for all
connections.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=NAT
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=http
NATAction=UseInterfaceAddress
Name=NAT_HTTP

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The NATAction option could be left out since the default value is to use the interface address. The
alternative is to specify UseSenderAddress and use the NATSenderAddress option to specify the IP
address to use. The sender address will also need to be explicitly ARP published on the interface.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example NAT_HTTP

3.

Now enter:

Action: NAT

Service: http

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: all-nets

4.

Under the NAT tab, make sure that the Use Interface Address option is selected

5.

Click OK

Logging is enabled by default.

Specifying NAT with an IP Policy

A NetDefendOS IP Policy object can be used instead of an IP Rule object. An IP policy is essentially
equivalent in function but makes it simpler to associate other functions with NAT such as
authentication, application control and traffic shaping. The example below performs the same
task as the previous example.
Example 7.2. Specifying a NAT IP Policy
This example adds a NAT IP policy that will perform address translation for all HTTP traffic
originating from the internal network lan flowing to the public Internet on the wan interface. The
IP address of the wan interface will be used as the NATing address for all connections.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add IPPolicy
Name=NAT_HTTP
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=http-all
Action=Allow
SourceAction=NAT

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The NATAction option could be left out since the default value is to use the interface address. The
alternative is to specify UseSenderAddress and use the NATSenderAddress option to specify the IP
address to use. The sender address will also need to be explicitly ARP published on the interface.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPPolicy

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example NAT_HTTP

3.

Now enter:

Action: NAT

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: all-nets

Service: http

4.

Select Address Translation, enable NAT and close the dialog

5.

Click OK

Logging is enabled by default.

Protocols Handled by NAT

Dynamic address translation is able to deal with the TCP, UDP and ICMP protocols with a good
level of functionality since the algorithm knows which values can be adjusted to become unique
in the three protocols. For other IP level protocols, unique connections are identified by their
sender addresses, destination addresses and protocol numbers.
This means that:

An internal machine can communicate with several external servers using the same IP
protocol.

An internal machine can communicate with several external servers using different IP
protocols.

Several internal machines can communicate with different external servers using the same IP
protocol.

Several internal machines can communicate with the same server using different IP
protocols.

Several internal machines can not communicate with the same external server using the
same IP protocol.

Note: Restrictions only apply to IP level protocols

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These restrictions apply only to IP level protocols other than TCP, UDP and ICMP, such as
OSPF and L2TP. They do not apply to the protocols transported by TCP, UDP and ICMP
such as telnet, FTP, HTTP and SMTP.
NetDefendOS can alter port number information in the TCP and UDP headers to make
each connection unique, even though such connections have had their sender
addresses translated to the same IP.

Some protocols, regardless of the method of transportation used, can cause problems during
address translation.

Anonymizing Internet Traffic with NAT

A useful application of the NAT feature in NetDefendOS is for anonymizing service providers to
anonymize traffic between clients and servers across the public Internet so that the client's
public IP address is not present in any server access requests or peer to peer traffic.
We shall examine the typical case where the NetDefend Firewall acts as a PPTP server and
terminates the PPTP tunnel for PPTP clients. Clients that wish to be anonymous, communicate
with their local ISP using PPTP. The traffic is directed to the anonymizing service provider where
a NetDefend Firewall is installed to act as the PPTP server for the client, terminating the PPTP
tunnel. This arrangement is illustrated in the diagram below.

Figure 7.3. Anonymizing with NAT

NetDefendOS is set up with NAT rules in the IP rule set so it takes communication traffic coming
from the client and NATs it back out onto the Internet. Communication with the client is with the
PPTP protocol but the PPTP tunnel from the client terminates at the firewall. When this traffic is
relayed between the firewall and the Internet, it is no longer encapsulated by PPTP.
When an application, such as a web server, now receives requests from the client it appears as
though they are coming from the anonymizing service provider's external IP address and not the
client's IP. The application therefore sends its responses back to the firewall which relays the

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traffic back to the client through the PPTP tunnel. The original IP address of the client is not
revealed in traffic as it is relayed beyond the termination of the PPTP tunnel at the NetDefendOS.
Typically, all traffic passes through the same physical interface and that interface has a single
public IP address. Multiple interfaces could be used if multiple public IPv4 addresses are
available. There is clearly a small processing overhead involved with anonymizing traffic but this
need not be an issue if sufficient hardware resources are employed to perform the anonymizing.
This same technique can also be used with L2TP instead of PPTP connections. Both protocols are
discussed further in Section 9.5.4, PPTP/L2TP Clients.

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7.3. NAT Pools

Overview
Network Address Translation (NAT) provides a way to have multiple internal clients and hosts with
unique private, internal IP addresses communicate to remote hosts through a single external
public IPv4 address (this is discussed in depth in Section 7.2, NAT). When multiple public
external IP addresses are available then a NAT Pool object can be used to allocate new
connections across these public IPv4 addresses.
NAT Pools are usually employed when there is a requirement for huge numbers of unique port
connections. The NetDefendOS Port Manager has a limit of approximately 65,000 connections
for a unique combination of source and destination IP addresses. Where large number of internal
clients are using applications such as file sharing software, very large numbers of ports can be
required for each client. The situation can be similarly demanding if a large number of clients are
accessing the Internet through a proxy-server. The port number limitation is overcome by
allocating extra external IP addresses for Internet access and using NAT Pools to allocate new
connections across them.

Types of NAT Pools

A NAT Pool can be one of the following three types with each allocating new connections in a
different way:

Stateful

Stateless

Fixed

The details of these three types are discussed next.

Stateful NAT Pools

When the Stateful option is selected, NetDefendOS allocates a new connection to the external IP
address that currently has the least number of connections routed through it with the
assumption that it is the least loaded. NetDefendOS keeps a record in memory of all such
connections. Subsequent connections involving the same internal client/host will then use the
same external IP address.
The advantage of the stateful approach is that it can balance connections across several external
ISP links while ensuring that an external host will always communicate back to the same IP
address which will be essential with protocols such as HTTP when cookies are involved. The
disadvantage is the extra memory required by NetDefendOS to track the usage in its state table
and the small processing overhead involved in processing a new connection.
To make sure that the state table does not contain dead entries for communications that are no
longer active, a State Keepalive time can be specified. This time is the number of seconds of
inactivity that must occur before a state in the state table is removed. After this period
NetDefendOS assumes no more communication will originate from the associated internal host.
Once the state is removed then subsequent communication from the host will result in a new
state table entry and may be allocated to a different external IP address in the NAT Pool.
The state table itself takes up memory so it is possible to limit its size using the Max States value
in a NAT Pool object. The state table is not allocated all at once but is incremented in size as
needed. One entry in the state table tracks all the connections for a single host behind the
NetDefend Firewall no matter which external host the connection concerns. If Max States is

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reached then an existing state with the longest idle time is replaced. If all states in the table is
active then the new connection is dropped. As a rule of thumb, the Max States value should be at
least the number of local hosts or clients that will connect to the Internet.
There is only one state table per NAT Pool so that if a single NAT Pool is re-used in multiple NAT
IP rules they share the same state table.

Stateless NAT Pools

The Stateless option means that no state table is maintained and the external IP address chosen
for each new connection is the one that has the least connections already allocated to it. This
means two connections between one internal host to the same external host may use two
different external IP addresses.
The advantage of a Stateless NAT Pool is that there is good spreading of new connections
between external IP addresses with no requirement for memory allocated to a state table and
there is less processing time involved in setting up each new connection. The disadvantage is
that it is not suitable for communication that requires a constant external IP address.

Fixed NAT Pools

The Fixed option means that each internal client or host is allocated one of the external IP
addresses through a hashing algorithm. Although the administrator has no control over which of
the external connections will be used, this scheme ensures that a particular internal client or host
will always communicate through the same external IP address.
The Fixed option has the advantage of not requiring memory for a state table and providing very
fast processing for new connection establishment. Although explicit load balancing is not part of
this option, there should be spreading of the load across the external connections due to the
random nature of the allocating algorithm.

IP Pool Usage
When allocating external IP addresses to a NAT Pool it is not necessary to explicitly state these.
Instead a NetDefendOS IP Pool object can be selected. IP Pools gather collections of IP addresses
automatically through DHCP and can therefore supply external IP addresses automatically to a
NAT Pool. See Section 5.4, IP Pools for more details about this topic.

Proxy ARP Usage

Where an external router sends ARP queries to the NetDefend Firewall to resolve external IP
addresses included in a NAT Pool, NetDefendOS will need to send the correct ARP replies for this
resolution to take place through its Proxy ARP mechanism so the external router can correctly
build its routing table.
By default, the administrator must specify in NAT Pool setup which interfaces will be used by NAT
pools. The option exists however to enable Proxy ARP for a NAT Pool on all interfaces but this can
cause problems sometimes by possibly creating routes to interfaces on which packets should not
arrive. It is therefore recommended that the interface(s) to be used for the NAT Pool Proxy ARP
mechanism are explicitly specified.

Using NAT Pools

NAT Pools are used in conjunction with a normal NAT IP rule. When defining a NAT rule, the
dialog includes the option to select a NAT Pool to use with the rule. This association brings the
NAT Pool into use.

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Example 7.3. Using NAT Pools

This example creates a stateful NAT pool with the external IP address range 10.6.13.10 to
10.16.13.15. This is then used with a NAT IP rule for HTTP traffic on the wan interface originating
from the lan_net.
Note that if a network such as 10.6.13.0/24 is used for the NAT pool IP range, the 0 and 255
addresses (10.6.13.0 and 10.6.13.255) are automatically excluded from the range.
Command-Line Interface
A. First, create an object in the address book for the address range:
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address nat_pool_range
Address=10.6.13.10-10.16.13.15

B. Next, create a stateful NAT Pool object called my_stateful_natpool :

gw-world:/> add NatPool my_stateful_natpool
Range=nat_pool_range
Type=Stateful
ProxyARPInterfaces=wan

C. Finally, define the NAT rule in the IP rule set:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=NAT
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=http-all
NATAction=UseInterfaceAddress
NATPool=my_stateful_natpool
Name=NAT_HTTP

Web Interface
A. First, create an object in the address book for the address range:
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the IP range nat_pool_range

3.

Enter 10.6.13.10-10.16.13.15 in the IP Address textbox

4.

Click OK

B. Next, create a stateful NAT Pool object called my_stateful_natpool :

1.

Go to: Objects > NAT Pools > Add > NAT Pool

2.

Now enter:

Name: my_stateful_natpool

Pool type: stateful

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IP Range: nat_pool_range

3.

Select the Proxy ARP tab and add the WAN interface

4.

Click OK

C. Finally, define the NAT rule in the IP rule set:

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IP Rule

2.

Under General enter:

3.

4.

5.

Name: Enter a suitable name such as nat_pool_rule

Action: NAT

Under Address filter enter:

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lan-net

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: all-nets

Service: http-all

Select the NAT tab and enter:

Check the Use NAT Pool option

Select my_stateful_natpool from the drop-down list

Click OK

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7.4. SAT
7.4.1. Introduction
NetDefendOS Static Address Translation (SAT) functionality can translate ranges of IP addresses
and/or port numbers to other, predefined static values. The translation can be to a single address
and/or port but can also be a transposition where each address and/or port in a range or
network is mapped to a corresponding value in a new range or network.

Note: SAT is the same as port forwarding

Some network equipment vendors use the term "port forwarding" when referring to
SAT. Both terms refer to the same functionality.

Types of Translation
SAT translation can be generally divided into three types:

One-to-one translation - A single value is translated to another single value.

Many-to-one translation - Multiple values are translated to one single value.

Many-to-many translation - Multiple values are transposed to different multiple values.

The values being translated may be the IP address and/or the port number for either the source
or destination of new connections set up by NetDefendOS. As discussed later, the many-to-one
translation is not available for port numbers.

SAT Requires Multiple IP Rules

Unlike NAT, SAT requires more than a single IP rule when it is configured. A SAT rule that triggers
for the target traffic must first be created to specify the translation required. However,
NetDefendOS does not terminate rule set lookups after finding a matching SAT rule. Instead, the
rule set search continues for a matching Allow, NAT or FwdFast rule. Only when NetDefendOS
finds such a second matching rule is the SAT rule applied to the traffic.
The SAT rule only defines the translation that is to take place. The second, associated IP rule, will
actually allow the traffic to flow.

The Second Rule Triggers on the Untranslated IP Address

An important principle to keep in mind when creating IP rules for SAT is that the second rule, for
example an Allow rule, must trigger on the old, untranslated IP address (either source or
destination IP depending on the type of SAT rule). A common mistake is to create a second IP
rule expecting that it should trigger on the new, translated IP address.
For example, if a SAT rule translates the destination IPv4 address from 192.168.0.1 to 172.16.0.1
then the second associated rule should allow traffic to pass to the destination 192.168.0.1 and
not 172.16.0.1.
Only after the second rule triggers to allow the traffic, is the route lookup then done by
NetDefendOS on the translated destination address to work out which interface the traffic

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should be sent from.

Translating Both Source and Destination Address

It also possible to have two SAT rules triggering for the same connection. Although unusual, it is
possible to have one SAT rule that translates the source IP address and a separate second SAT
rule that translates the destination address.

SAT IP Rule Properties

A SAT IP rule is similar to other types of IP rules in that it triggers on a combination of source
network/interface plus destination network/interface plus service. A SAT IP rule has the following
additional properties:

SAT Translate
This specifies the address that will be changed and can be one of:

i.

Destination IP - The original destination IP will be translated.

ii.

Source IP - The original source IP will be translated.

New IP Address
The new address for the translation.

New Port
The new port number used for translation. As explained below, port translation happens
independently of address translation and follows slightly different rules.

All-to-One Mapping
This is enabled if the mapping is to be many IP addresses to a single IP address. It is not used
for port translation as all-to-one port translation is not possible.

When using an IP Policy object instead of an IP rule for SAT, the properties are slightly different
and this is discussed further in Section 7.4.7, Using an IP Policy for SAT.

Specifying the Type of IP Address Mapping

NetDefendOS recognizes the type of SAT IP address mapping using the following rules:

If the original address is a single IP address then a one-to-one mapping is always performed.
The new IP address should also be a single address. This is the most common usage of SAT.

If the original address is an IP range or network then a many-to-many mapping is always

performed unless the All to One property is enabled in which case an all-to-one mapping is
always performed.
With a many-to-many mapping, a single new IP address is specified and the mappings are
done incrementally starting from that address. If an entire network is being transposed to
another network then the new IP address should be the first address in the new network. For
example, 192.168.1.0.

An all-to-one mapping is performed if the All to One property is enabled for the SAT IP rule.
For this, the original address should be a range or network and the new address should be a
single IP address.
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A SAT rule with an original, untranslated address of all-nets always results in an all-to-one
mapping.

Specifying the Type of Port Mapping

If the Port property is specified for the SAT rule, NetDefendOS performs port translation in a way
that is slightly different to IP address translation. It uses the following rules:

If the Service object used with the SAT IP rule does not have a single value or simple range
specified for its port property, port translation will never be performed.
The term simple range means a range with only a lower and upper value or a single value. For
example, 50-60 is a simple range.
For this reason, an all-to-one port translation is not possible and the All to One property for
the IP rule is ignored for port translation.

If a new port number is specified and the Service object used with the SAT IP rule has a single
number for its port property then all connections will be translated to the new port number.

If a new port number is specified and the Service object used with the SAT IP rule has a simple
number range for its port property then all connections will be transposed to a new range
which begins with the new port number.

7.4.2. One-to-One IP Translation

The simplest form of SAT usage is the translation of a single IP address to another single, static
address. A very common scenario for this usage is to enable external users to access a protected
server in a DMZ that has a private address. This is also sometimes referred to as implementing a
Virtual IP or a Virtual Server and is often used in conjunction with a DMZ.

The Role of a DMZ

At this point, it is relevant to discuss the role of the network known as the Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ) since SAT rules are often used for allowing DMZ access.
The DMZ's purpose is to have a network where the administrator can place those resources
which will be accessed by external, untrusted clients and where this access typically takes place
across the public Internet. The servers in the DMZ will have the maximum exposure to external
threats and are therefore at most risk of being compromised.
By isolating these servers in a DMZ, the object is to create a distinct network, separated from
much more sensitive local, internal networks. This allows NetDefendOS to have control over
what traffic flows between the DMZ and internal networks and to better isolate any security
breaches that might occur in DMZ servers.
The illustration below shows a typical network arrangement with a NetDefend Firewall
mediating communications between the public Internet and servers in the DMZ and between
the DMZ and local clients on a network called LAN.

Note: The DMZ port could be any port

On some models of D-Link NetDefend hardware, there is a specific Ethernet interface
which is marked as being for the DMZ network. Although this is the port's intended use,

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it could be used for other purposes and any Ethernet interface could also be used instead
for a DMZ.

Example 7.4. One-to-One IP Translation

In this example, SAT will be used to translate and allow connections from the public Internet to a
web server located in a DMZ. The NetDefend Firewall is connected to the Internet via the wan
interface with address object wan_ip (defined as 195.55.66.77) as its IP address. The web server
has the IPv4 address 10.10.10.5 and is reachable through the dmz interface. The port number will
not be translated.
Command-Line Interface
Create a SAT IP rule:
gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=SAT
Service=http
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
SATTranslate=DestinationIP
SATTranslateToIP=10.10.10.5
Name=SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

Then create a corresponding Allow rule:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow
Service=http
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Name=Allow_HTTP_To_DMZ

Web Interface
First create a SAT rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3.

Now enter:

Action: SAT

Service: http

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: wan_ip

SAT Translate: Destination IP

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4.

New IP Address: 10.10.10.5

Click OK

Then create a corresponding Allow rule:

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example Allow_HTTP_To_DMZ

3.

Now enter:

Action: Allow

Service: http

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: wan_ip

4.

Under the Service tab, select http in the Predefined list

5.

Click OK

The example above results in the following two rules being added into the IP rule set called
main:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

SAT Action

1 SAT

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

Destination IP: 10.10.10.5

2 Allow

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

These two rules allow web server access via the NetDefend Firewall's external IP address. Rule 1
states that address translation will take place if the connection has been permitted, and rule 2
permits the connection.
The SAT rule destination interface must be core (NetDefendOS itself ) because interface IPs are
always routed on core. The scenario is illustrated in the diagram below.

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Figure 7.4. SAT Address Translation

If internal clients require access to the public internet, a NAT rule is also needed and the source
interface of the SAT rule must be set to any. The correct second rule for the external or internal
traffic is then selected based on the source interface. In this example, the internal clients are
allowed any type of access to the DMZ, not just HTTP access.
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

1 SAT

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

all_services Destination IP: 10.10.10.5

SAT Action

2 Allow

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

3 NAT

lan

lannet

any

all-nets

all_services

Here, only one SAT rule is needed and once it triggers it will be used with whichever rule is
triggered next. The ordering of the Allow and NAT rules don't matter but they must be found
after the SAT rule.

The Importance of SAT Rule Ordering

To demonstrate how IP rules are processed for SAT, consider another simple case of a web server
with a private IPv4 address located on an internal network that will be accessed by both external
and internal users.
Assume the following IPv4 addresses:

wan_ip (195.55.66.77): the firewall's public IPv4 address

lan_ip (10.0.0.1): the local network's private IPv4 address

wwwsrv_ip (10.0.0.2): the web server's private IPv4 address

client_ip (10.0.0.3): the local client's private IPv4 address

The IP rules that are needed for external and internal access to the web server could be specified
as follows:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

1 SAT

any

core

all_services Destination IP: wwwsrv_ip Port: 80

all-nets

wan_ip

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# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

2 Allow

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

3 NAT

lan

lannet

core

wan_ip

all_services

SAT Action

With the above rules, the following will happen to traffic:

The local client sends a packet to wan_ip to reach the web server.
10.0.0.3:1038 => 195.55.66.77:80

NetDefendOS translates the address in accordance with SAT rule 1 and forwards the packet in
accordance with Allow rule 2:
10.0.0.3:1038 => 10.0.0.2:80

The server at wwwsrv_ip processes the packet and replies:

10.0.0.2:80 => 10.0.0.3:1038

This reply arrives directly to the local client without passing through the NetDefend Firewall and
this causes problems because the client expects a reply from 195.55.66.77:80 and not 10.0.0.2:80.
The unexpected reply is therefore discarded and the client continues to wait for a response from
195.55.66.77:80 which will never arrive.
Reversing the order of the NAT and Allow rules as shown below solves the problem.
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

SAT Action

1 SAT

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

Destination IP: wwwsrv_ip

2 NAT

lan

lannet

core

wan_ip

all_services

3 Allow

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

The order of events now becomes:

The client sends traffic to wan_ip in order to reach the webserver:

10.0.0.3:1038 => 195.55.66.77:80

NetDefendOS address translates this statically in accordance with rule 1 and dynamically in
accordance with rule 2:
10.0.0.1:32789 => 10.0.0.2:80

The server at wwwsrv_ip processes the traffic and replies:

10.0.0.2:80 => 10.0.0.1:32789

The reply arrives and both address translations are restored:

195.55.66.77:80 => 10.0.0.3:1038

In this way, the reply arrives at the client from the expected address.
Another possible solution to the problem is to allow internal clients to communicate directly to
10.0.0.2 without address translation. However, this is not always practical.

7.4.3. Many-to-Many IP Translation

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A single SAT rule can be used to transpose an entire range or network of IP addresses to another
range or network. The result is a many-to-many translation where the first original IP address is
translated to the first IP address in the new range or network, then the second to the second, and
so on.
To tell NetDefendOS to perform this type of translation, the original IP address must be a range
or network and the IP rule's All to One property must be disabled. The new range or network is
specified using a single IP address which is the starting address for the transposition. For
example, 192.168.1.0 would be specified as the new address if the transposition is to the network
192.168.1.0/24 and starting from the first address in the network.
As another example, a SAT IP rule might specify that connections to the 194.1.2.16/29 network
should be translated to 192.168.0.50. The IP rules for this would be:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

SAT Action

1 SAT

any

all-nets

core

194.1.2.16/29 all_services Destination IP: 192.168.0.50

2 Allow

any

all-nets

core

194.1.2.16/29 all_services

These IP rules would result in the following translations:

Original Destination Address

Translated Destination Address

194.1.2.16

192.168.0.50

194.1.2.17

192.168.0.51

194.1.2.18

192.168.0.52

194.1.2.19

192.168.0.53

194.1.2.20

192.168.0.54

194.1.2.21

192.168.0.55

194.1.2.22

192.168.0.56

194.1.2.23

192.168.0.57

These translations will mean:

Attempts to communicate with 194.1.2.16 will result in a connection to 192.168.0.50.

Attempts to communicate with 194.1.2.22 will result in a connection to 192.168.0.56.

An example of an application for this feature is when there are several protected servers in a
DMZ, and each server is to be accessible using a unique public IPv4 address.
Example 7.5. Many-to-Many IP Translation
In this example, a SAT IP rule will translate from five public IPv4 addresses to five web servers
located in a DMZ. The firewall is connected to the Internet via the wan interface and the public
IPv4 addresses are the range 195.55.66.77 to 195.55.66.81. The web servers have the private IPv4
address range 10.10.10.5 to 10.10.10.9 and are on the network connected to the dmz interface.
The following steps need to be performed:

Define an address object containing the public IPv4 addresses.

Define another address object for the base of the web server IP addresses.

Publish the public IPv4 addresses on the wan interface using the ARP publish mechanism.

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Create a SAT rule that will perform the translation.

Create an Allow rule that will permit the incoming HTTP connections.

Since the five public IPv4 addresses are being ARP published so these addresses are not routed
on core, the SAT destination interface is wan and not core.
Command-Line Interface
Create an address object for the public IPv4 addresses:
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address wwwsrv_pub
Address=195.55.66.77-195.55.66.81

Now, create another object for the base of the web server IP addresses:
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address wwwsrv_priv_base Address=10.10.10.5

Publish the public IPv4 addresses on the wan interface using ARP publish. One ARP item is
needed for every IP address:
gw-world:/> add ARP Interface=wan IP=195.55.66.77 mode=Publish

Repeat this for all the five public IPv4 addresses.

Create a SAT rule for the translation:
gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=SAT
Service=http
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=wwwsrv_pub
SATTranslateToIP=wwwsrv_priv_base
SATTranslate=DestinationIP

Finally, create an associated Allow Rule:

gw-world:/main> add IPRule Action=Allow
Service=http
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=wwwsrv_pub

Web Interface
Create an address object for the public IPv4 address:
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Address

2.

Specify a suitable name for the object, for example wwwsrv_pub

3.

Enter 195.55.66.77 - 195.55.66.77.81 as the IP Address

4.

Click OK

Now, create another address object for the base of the web server IP addresses:
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Address

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2.

Specify a suitable name for the object, for example wwwsrv_priv_base

3.

Enter 10.10.10.5 as the IP Address

4.

Click OK

Publish the public addresses on the wan interface using ARP publish. One ARP item is needed for
every IP address:
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > ARP/Neighbor Discovery > Add > ARP/Neighbor
Discovery

2.

Now enter:

3.

Mode: Publish

Interface: wan

IP Address: 195.55.66.77

Click OK and repeat for all 5 public IPv4 addresses

Create a SAT rule for the translation:

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3.

Now enter:

4.

Action: SAT

Service: http

Source Interface:any

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: wwwsrv_pub

SAT Translate: Destination IP

New IP Address: wwwsrv_priv

Click OK

Finally, create a corresponding Allow rule:

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example Allow_HTTP_To_DMZ

3.

Now enter:

Action: Allow

Service: http

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4.

Source Interface:any

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: wwwsrv_pub

Click OK

7.4.4. All-to-One IP Translation

NetDefendOS can be used to translate a range or a network to a single IP address. Suppose that
the requirement is to translate a range of destination IPv4 addresses which includes 194.1.2.16 to
194.1.2.20 plus 194.1.2.30 to the single IPv4 address 102.168.0.50. The port number will remain
unchanged.
The SAT IP rule to perform the translation would be:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

SAT Action

1 SAT

any

wan

http

Destination IP: 192.168.0.50 All-to-One

all-nets

194.1.2.16194.1.2.20,
194.1.2.30

This IP rule has the property All to One enabled. This will give an all-to-one translation of all
addresses in the range specified to the single IPv4 address 192.168.0.50. Some examples of this
translation are:

Attempts to communicate with IPv4 address 194.1.2.16, will result in a connection to

192.168.0.50.

Attempts to communicate with IPv4 address 194.1.2.30, will result in a connection to

192.168.0.50.

Note: An untranslated network of all-nets is always all-to-one

When all-nets is specified as the original, untranslated address in a SAT rule,
NetDefendOS will assume that the All-to-One property is enabled even though the
administrator does not enable it explicitly.

Example 7.6. All-to-One IP Translation

This example is similar to the previous many-to-many example but this time a SAT IP rule will
translate from five public IPv4 addresses to a single web server located in a DMZ.
The NetDefend Firewall is connected to the Internet via the wan interface and the public IPv4
addresses have the range of 195.55.66.77 to 195.55.66.81. The server has the private IPv4 address
10.10.10.5 and is on the network connected to the dmz interface.
The following steps need to be performed:

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Define an address object containing all the public IPv4 addresses with the name
wwwsrv_pub.

Define another address object set to be the IPv4 address 10.10.10.5 of the web server with the
name wwwsrv_priv.

Publish the public IPv4 addresses on the wan interface using the ARP publish feature.

Create a SAT rule that will perform the translation.

Create an Allow rule that will permit the incoming HTTP flows.

Command-Line Interface
Create an address object for the public IPv4 addresses:
gw-world:/> add Address IPAddress wwwsrv_pub
Address=195.55.66.77-195.55.66.81

Now, create another object for the base of the web server IP addresses:
gw-world:/> add Address IPAddress wwwsrv_priv Address=10.10.10.5

Publish the five public IPv4 addresses on the wan interface using ARP publish. A CLI command
like the following is needed for each IP address:
gw-world:/> add ARP Interface=wan IP=195.55.66.77 mode=Publish

Create a SAT IP rule for the translation:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=SAT
Service=http
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=wwwsrv_pub
SATTranslateToIP=wwwsrv_priv
SATTranslate=DestinationIP
SATAllToOne=Yes

Finally, create an associated Allow rule:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow
Service=http
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=wwwsrv_pub

Web Interface
Create a SAT IP rule for the translation:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3.

Now enter:

Action: SAT

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4.

Service: http

Source Interface: any

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: wwwsrv_pub

SAT Translate: Destination IP

New IP Address: wwwsrv_priv

Enable the option: All-to-One

Click OK

Finally, create an associated Allow rule:

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example Allow_HTTP_To_DMZ

3.

Now enter:

4.

Action: Allow

Service: http

Source Interface: any

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: wwwsrv_pub

Click OK

7.4.5. Port Translation

Port Address Translation (PAT) can be used to modify the source or destination port of a
connection. In previous SAT examples, a new port number was not been specified and the
original port number was used by default. If the port number is specified, both the IP address and
the port number are translated.
As explained above in the summary of SAT processing in Section 7.4.1, Introduction, port
translation is performed by the same SAT IP rule used for IP address translation but follows
slightly different processing rules to IP address translation. Only one-to-one and many-to-many
port translation can be performed. All-to-one port translation is not possible.
Once a new port number is defined in the SAT IP rule, the type of port translation performed is
decided by the Service object associated with the SAT IP rule. If the Service object has a single
value specified for its Port property, the port translation is one-to-one. If the Port property is a
simple range (for example, 60-70), the translation is many-to-many, with the transposition
beginning with the new port number specified.
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Port translation will not occur if the Service object's Port property is anything other than a single
value or a simple range. For example, if the property is 60-70,80, port translation will not take
place even though a new port number is specified in the SAT IP rule.
For example, consider the following SAT IP rule with a Service object associated with it that has
the simple port range 80-85. The rule specifies the destination address wwwsrv_pub is translated
to wwwsrv_priv with the new port number of 1080.
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

1 SAT

any

wan

all-nets

Service

wwwsrv_pub TCP 80-85

SAT Action
Destination IP: wwwsrv_priv Port:1080

This rule produces a many-to-many transposition of all ports in the range 80-85 to the range
1080-1085. For example, the following will happen:

Attempts to communicate with the web server's public address - port 80, will result in a
connection to the web server's private address - port 1080.

Attempts to communicate with the web server's public address - port 84, will result in a
connection to the web server's private address - port 1084.

If the Service was changed so that only the single value 80 was specified for is Port property then
the SAT rule would only trigger for port 80 and it would always be translated to the new port
1080 (a one-to-one relationship)

7.4.6. SAT with FwdFast Rules

It is possible to SAT IP rules in conjunction with FwdFast IP rules. In other words, to use SAT with
stateless connections. The difference in this case is that the return traffic must be explicitly
translated and allowed by separateFwdFast IP rules.
The following table shows the correct configuration of SAT rules with FwdFast rules for
connections to a web server with the private IP address wwwsrv located on an internal network:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

SAT Action

1 SAT

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

Destination IP: wwwsrv

2 SAT

lan

wwwsrv

any

all-nets

http

Source IP: wan_ip

3 FwdFast any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

4 FwdFast lan

wwwsrv

any

all-nets

http

Suppose now, that access to the public Internet by clients on the internal network lannet is
required. The following NAT rule might be added after the other rules by the administrator:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

5 NAT

lan

any

all_services

lannet

all-nets

SAT Action

However, this is not correct. What will happen with this additional rule is the following:

External traffic to wan_ip will match rules 1 and 3, and will be sent to wwwsrv. This is correct.

Return traffic from wwwsrv will match rules 2 and 4, and will appear to be sent from
wan_ip:80. This is correct.

Internal traffic to wan_ip will match rules 1 and 3, and will be sent to wwwsrv. This is almost
correct; the packets will arrive at wwwsrv, but:

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Return traffic from wwwsrv to internal machines will be sent directly to the machines
themselves. This will not work, as the packets will be interpreted as coming from the wrong
address.

The administrator might try moving the NAT IP rule to between the SAT and FwdFast rules as
shown below:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

SAT Action

1 SAT

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

Destination IP: wwwsrv

2 SAT

lan

wwwsrv

any

all-nets

http

Source IP: wan_ip

3 NAT

lan

lannet

any

all-nets

all_services

4 FwdFast any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

5 FwdFast lan

wwwsrv

any

all-nets

http

This will still not be correct since the following will happen:

External traffic to wan_ip will match rules 1 and 4, and will be sent to wwwsrv. This is correct.

Return traffic from wwwsrv will match rules 2 and 3. The replies will therefore be dynamically
address translated. This changes the source port to a different port, which is incorrect.

The correct set of IP rules that will provide the desired effect is the following:
# Action

Src Iface Src Net

Dest Iface Dest Net

Service

SAT Action

1 SAT

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http

Destination IP: wwwsrv

2 SAT

lan

wwwsrv

any

all-nets

http

Source IP: wan_ip

3 FwdFast lan

wwwsrv

any

all-nets

http

4 NAT

lannet

any

all-nets

all_services

wwwsrv

any

all-nets

http

lan

5 FwdFast lan

These rules will yield the following actions:

External traffic to wan_ip will match rules 1 and 5 and will be sent to wwwsrv.

Return traffic from wwwsrv will match rules 2 and 3.

Internal traffic to wan_ip will match rules 1 and 4, and will be sent to wwwsrv. The sender
address will be the NetDefend Firewall's internal IP address, guaranteeing that return traffic
passes through the NetDefend Firewall.

Return traffic will automatically be handled by the NetDefend Firewall's stateful inspection
mechanism.

7.4.7. Using an IP Policy for SAT

An alternative to using two IP rules for SAT is to use a single IP Policy object. This simplifies the
SAT definition process as well as allowing other features such as application control,
authentication and traffic shaping to be more easily associated with the rule.
When creating a SAT policy, the policy is either for source or destination translation, or both. The
way the translation functions for the source and/or destination address is determined by two
specifying one or both of the following actions:

Address Action

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This determines how the IP address is translated and can be one of the following:

i.

Single IP - Either a single original IP or a range/network will be translated to the single

new IP address specified. This yields both a one-to-one or a many-to-one IP address
translation.

ii.

Transposed - This yields a many-to-many translation where each address in the original
range/network is transposed to a new range/network, using the specified new IP
address as the base address for the transposition.

Port Action
This determines how the IP address is translated and can be one of the following:
i.

None - No port translation takes place.

ii.

Single Port - This is used for a one-to-one translation to the new port number specified.

iii.

Transposed - This transposes a range of port numbers to a new range using the new
port number as a base for the transposition. This is for a many-to-many port translation.

Example 7.7. Setting up a SAT IP Policy

This example has the same aim as the example described previously but an IP Policy object will
be used instead of multiple IP rules. The aim is to again allow connections from the Internet to a
web server located in a DMZ. The NetDefend Firewall is connected to the Internet using the wan
interface with address object wan_ip (defined as 195.55.66.77) as IP address. The web server has
the IPv4 address 10.10.10.5 and is reachable through the dmz interface.
Command-Line Interface
Create a SAT IP rule:
gw-world:/> add IPPolicy
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Name=SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ
Action=Allow
Service=http
DestNewIP=10.10.10.5

Web Interface
First create a SAT rule:
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPPolicy

2.

Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3.

Now enter:

Action: Allow

Source Interface: any

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4.

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: wan_ip

Service: http

SAT Translate: Destination IP

New IP Address: 10.10.10.5

Click OK

7.4.8. Protocols Handled by SAT

Generally, SAT can handle all protocols that allow address translation to take place. However,
there are protocols that can only be translated in special cases, and other protocols that cannot
be translated at all.
Protocols that are impossible to translate using SAT are most likely also impossible to translate
using NAT. Reasons for this include:

The protocol cryptographically requires that the addresses are unaltered; this applies to
many VPN protocols.

The protocol embeds its IP addresses inside the TCP or UDP level data, and subsequently
requires that, in some way or another, the addresses visible on IP level are the same as those
embedded in the data. Examples of this include FTP and logons to NT domains via NetBIOS.

Either party is attempting to open new dynamic connections to the addresses visible to that
party. In some cases, this can be resolved by modifying the application or the firewall
configuration.

There is no definitive list of what protocols can or cannot be address translated. A general rule is
that VPN protocols cannot usually be translated. In addition, protocols that open secondary
connections in addition to the initial connection can be difficult to translate.

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Chapter 8: User Authentication

This chapter describes how NetDefendOS implements user authentication.
Overview, page 458
Authentication Setup, page 460
Customizing Authentication HTML Pages, page 479
User Identity Awareness, page 483
Two Factor Authentication, page 489

8.1. Overview
In situations where individual users connect to protected resources through the NetDefend
Firewall, the administrator will often require that each user goes through a process of
authentication before access is allowed.
This chapter deals with setting up authentication for NetDefendOS but first the general issues
involved in authentication will be examined.

Proving Identity
The aim of authentication is to have the user prove their identity so that the network
administrator can allow or deny access to resources based on that identity. Possible types of
proof could be:
A. Something the user is. Unique attributes that are different for every person, such as a
fingerprint.
B. Something the user has, such a passcard, a X.509 Digital Certificate or Public and Private Keys.
C. Something the user knows such as a password.
Method A may require a special piece of equipment such as a biometric reader. Another problem
with A is that the special attribute often cannot be replaced if it is lost.
Methods B and C are therefore the most common means of identification in network security.
However, these have drawbacks: keys might be intercepted, passcards might be stolen,
passwords might be guessable, or people may simply be bad at keeping a secret. Methods B and

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C are therefore sometimes combined, for example in a passcard that requires a password or
pincode for use.

Making Use of Username/Password Combinations

This chapter deals specifically with user authentication performed with username/password
combinations that are manually entered by a user attempting to gain access to resources. Access
to the external public Internet through a NetDefend Firewall by internal clients using the HTTP
protocol is an example of this.
In using this approach, username/password pairs are often the subject of attacks using
guesswork or systematic automated attempts. To counter this, any password should be carefully
chosen. Ideally it should:

Be more than 8 characters with no repeats.

Use random character sequences not commonly found in phrases.

Contain both lower and upper case alphabetic characters.

Contain both digits and special characters.

To remain secure, passwords should also:

Not be recorded anywhere in written form.

Never be revealed to anyone else.

Changed on a regular basis such as every three months.

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8.2. Authentication Setup

8.2.1. Setup Summary
The following list summarizes the steps for User Authentication setup with NetDefendOS:

Have an authentication source which consists of a database of users, each with a

username/password combination. Any of the following can be an authentication source:
i.

A local user database internal to NetDefendOS.

ii.

A RADIUS server which is external to the NetDefend Firewall.

iii.

An LDAP Server which is also external to the NetDefend Firewall.

Define an Authentication Rule which describes which traffic passing through the firewall is to
be authenticated and which authentication source will be used to perform the authentication.
These are described further in Section 8.2.5, Authentication Rules.

If required, define an IP object for the IP addresses of the clients that will be authenticated.
This can be associated directly with an authentication rule as the originator IP or can be
associated with an Authentication Group.

Set up IP rules to allow the authentication to take place and also to allow access to resources
by the clients belonging to the IP object set up in the previous step.

The sections that follow describe the components of these steps in detail. These are:

Section 8.2.2, Local User Databases

Section 8.2.3, External RADIUS Servers

Section 8.2.4, External LDAP Servers

Section 8.2.5, Authentication Rules

8.2.2. Local User Databases

A Local User Database is a registry internal to NetDefendOS which contains the profiles of
authorized users and user groups. Combinations of usernames/password can be entered into
these with passwords stored using reversible cryptography for security. By default, a single local
user database exists called AdminUsers. Extra databases can be created by the administrator as
required.

Group Membership
Each user entered into the Local Database can optionally be specified to be a member of one or
more Authentication Groups. These groups are not predefined except for the administrators and
the auditors group described below. Instead they are entered as text strings which are case
sensitive.

Using Groups with IP Rules or IP Policies

Authentication groups are not used directly with Authentication Rule objects but are instead
associated with the source network or destination network IP object used in the IP rule or IP

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policy that allows the connections.

When specifying the Source Network for an IP rule or policy, a user defined IP object can be used
where the Authentication Group property for that IP object is defined. This will mean that the IP
rule or policy will then only apply to logged-in clients who also belong to the source network's
associated group.
Alternatively, the Destination Network could also be used so that only authenticated servers are
available to clients. Authentication of a server is achieved by opening a single connection once
to NetDefendOS as though the server were a client.
The purpose of this is to restrict access to certain networks to a particular group by having IP
rules or policies which will only apply to members of that group. To gain access to a resource
there must be an IP rule or policy that allows it and the client must belong to the same group as
that specified for the Source Network or Destination Network address object.

Granting Administration Privileges

When a user is defined, it can also be added to two default administration groups:

The administrators group

Members of this group can log into NetDefendOS through the Web Interface as well as
through the remote CLI interface and are allowed to edit the NetDefendOS configuration.

The auditors group

This is similar to the administrators group but members are only allowed to view the
configuration and cannot change it.

PPTP/L2TP Configuration
If a client is connecting to the NetDefend Firewall using PPTP/L2TP then the following three
options called also be specified for the local NetDefendOS user database:

Static Client IP Address

This is the IP address which the client must have if it is to be authenticated. If it is not
specified then the user can have any IP. This option offers extra security for users with fixed IP
addresses.

Network behind user

If a network is specified for this user then when the user connects, a route is automatically
added to the NetDefendOS main routing table. This existence of this added route means that
any traffic destined for the specified network will be correctly routed through the user's
PPTP/L2TP tunnel.
When the connection to the user ends, the route is automatically removed by NetDefendOS.

Caution: Use the network option with care

The administrator should think carefully what the consequences of using this option
will be. For example, setting this option to all-nets will possibly direct all Internet
traffic through the tunnel to this user.

Metric for Networks

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If the Network behind user option is specified then this is the metric that will be used with
the route that is automatically added by NetDefendOS. If there are two routes which give a
match for the same network then this metric decides which should be used.

Note: Other authentication sources do not have the PPTP/L2TP

option

Specifying an SSH Public Key

With PPTP/L2TP clients, using a key is often an alternative to specifying a username and
password. A private key can be specified for a local database user by selecting a previously
uploaded NetDefendOS SSH Client Key object.
When the user connects, there is an automatic checking of the keys used by the client to verify
their identity. Once verified, there is no need for the user to input their username and password.
To make use of this feature, the relevant SSH Client Key object or objects must first be defined
separately in NetDefendOS. Client keys are found as an object type within Key Ring in the Web
Interface. Definition requires the uploading of the public key file for the key pair used by the
client.
Example 8.1. Creating an Authentication Database
This example shows how to create a new user database called lan_users and how to add a new
username myusername that belongs to the group lan_group and has the password
myuserpassword.
Command-Line Interface
First, create a new user database:
gw-world:/> add LocalUserDatabase lan_users

Next, change the CLI context to be this new database:

gw-world:/> cc lan_users

Now, add a user to this database:

gw-world:/lan_users> add User myusername
Password=myuserpassword
Groups=lan_group

After adding any additional users, change the context back to the default:
gw-world:/lan_users> cc
gw-world:/>

Web Interface

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First, create a new user database:

1.

Go to: System > Device > Local User Databases > Add > LocalUserDatabase

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: lan_users

Comments: lan auth group

Click OK

Next, add a user to the newly created database:

1.

Go to: System > Device > Local User Databases

2.

Select lan_users

3.

Select Users then Add > User

4.

Now enter:

5.

Name: myusername

Password: myuserpassword

Confirm Password: myuserpassword

Groups: lan_group

Click OK

Repeat the last step to add all the members of the group.

8.2.3. External RADIUS Servers

Reasons for Using External Servers
In a larger network topology with a larger administration workload, it is often preferable to have
a central authentication database on a dedicated server. When there is more than one
NetDefend Firewall in the network and thousands of users, maintaining separate authentication
databases on each device becomes problematic. Instead, an external authentication server can
validate username/password combinations by responding to requests from NetDefendOS. To
provide this, NetDefendOS supports the Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service (RADIUS)
protocol.

RADIUS Usage with NetDefendOS

NetDefendOS can act as a RADIUS client, sending user credentials and connection parameter
information as a RADIUS message to a designated RADIUS server. The server processes the
requests and sends back a RADIUS message to accept or deny them. One or more external
servers can be defined in NetDefendOS.

RADIUS Security
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To provide security, a common shared secret is configured on both the RADIUS client and the
server. This secret enables encryption of the messages sent from the RADIUS client to the server
and is commonly configured as a relatively long text string. The string can contain up to 100
characters and is case sensitive.
RADIUS uses PPP to transfer username/password requests between client and RADIUS server, as
well as using PPP authentication schemes such as PAP and CHAP. RADIUS messages are sent as
UDP messages via UDP port 1812.

The Primary Retry Interval

The Primary Retry Interval property for an Authentication Interval object, specifies the behavior
after the primary RADIUS server is unresponsive and a secondary server is used instead. If the
Primary Retry Interval is set to zero, the selected secondary server will continue to be used even
through the primary server may become available later.
If set, the Primary Retry Interval property specifies the number of seconds to wait before
NetDefendOS tries to reach the primary server again. These retries will continue indefinitely. If
the primary server becomes available, NetDefendOS will immediately switch back to it from the
secondary.

Setting the Source IP

By default, the Source IP property will be set to Automatic and the IP address of the firewall's
sending interface will be used as the source address for traffic sent to the RADIUS server. If this
property is set to Manual, a specific source IP address can be used for traffic sent to the server.
If the source IP address is specified, the administrator must also manually configure
NetDefendOS to ARP publish the IP address on the sending interface. Doing this is described in
Section 3.5.3, ARP Publish.

Support for Groups

RADIUS authentication supports the specification of groups for a user. This means that a user can
also be specified as being in the administrators or auditors group.

Note: Set the RADIUS Vendor ID for group membership

If the RADIUS server is required to send the group membership, it is necessary to use the
user group vendor specific attribute vendor when configuring the server. The
NetDefendOS Vendor ID is 5089 and the user group is defined as vendor-type 1 with a
string value type.

Example 8.2. Configuring a RADIUS Server

The following steps illustrate how a RADIUS server is configured. Assume that the NetDefendOS
object will have the name rs_users and the IPv4 address radius_ip which is already defined in the
address book.
The connecting port will be 1812 (the default) and a shared secret of mysecretcode will be used
for security.
A retry timeout value of 2 means that NetDefendOS will resend the authentication request to the
sever if there is no response after 2 seconds. There will be a maximum of 3 retries.

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Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add RadiusServer rs_users
IPAddress=radius_ip
SharedSecret=mysecretcode
Port=1812
RetryTimeout=2

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > User Authentication > RADIUS > Add > RADIUS Server

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: rs_users

IP Address: radius_ip

Port: 1812

Retry Timeout: 2

Shared Secret: mysecretcode

Confirm Secret: mysecretcode

Click OK

8.2.4. External LDAP Servers

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers can also be used with NetDefendOS as an
authentication source. This is implemented by the NetDefend Firewall acting as a client to one or
more LDAP servers. Multiple servers can be configured to provide redundancy if any servers
become unreachable.

Setting Up LDAP Authentication

There are two steps for setting up user authentication with LDAP servers:

Define one or more user authentication LDAP server objects in NetDefendOS.

Specify one or a list of these LDAP server objects in a user authentication rule.
One or more LDAP servers can be associated as a list within a user authentication rule. The
ordering of the list determines the order in which server access is attempted.
The first server in the list has the highest precedence and will be used first. If authentication
fails or the server is unreachable then the second in the list is used and so on.

LDAP Issues
Unfortunately, setting up LDAP authentication may not be as simple as, for example, RADIUS
setup. Careful consideration of the parameters used in defining the LDAP server to NetDefendOS
is required. There are a number of issues that can cause problems:
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LDAP servers differ in their implementation. NetDefendOS provides a flexible way of

configuring an LDAP server and some configuration options may have to be changed
depending on the LDAP server software.

Authentication of PPTP or L2TP clients may require some administrative changes to the LDAP
server and this is discussed later.

Microsoft Active Directory as the LDAP Server

A Microsoft Active Directory can be configured in NetDefendOS as an LDAP server. There is one
option in the NetDefendOS LDAP server setup which has special consideration with Active
Directory and that is the Name Attribute. This should be set to SAMAccountName.
Due to LDAP protocol limitations, an LDAP user group set to primary cannot be received by
NetDefendOS from the Microsoft LDAP server and used in security policies.

Defining an LDAP Server

One or more named LDAP server objects can be defined in NetDefendOS. These objects tell
NetDefendOS which LDAP servers are available and how to access them.
Defining an LDAP server to NetDefendOS is sometimes not straightforward because some LDAP
server software may not follow the LDAP specifications exactly. It is also possible that an LDAP
administrator has modified the server LDAP schema so that an LDAP attribute has been renamed.

LDAP Attributes
To fully understand LDAP setup, it is important to note some setup values are attributes. These
are:

The Name attribute.

The Membership attribute.

The Password attribute.

An LDAP attribute is a tuple (a pair of data values) consisting of an attribute name (in this manual
we will call this the attribute ID to avoid confusion) and an attribute value. An example might be a
tuple for a username attribute that has an ID of username and a value of Smith.
These attributes can be used in different ways and their meaning to the LDAP server is usually
defined by the server's database schema. The database schema can usually be changed by the
server administrator to alter the attributes.

General Settings
The following general parameters are used for configuration of each server:

Name
The name given to the server object for reference purposes in NetDefendOS. For example,
NetDefendOS authentication rules may be defined which reference this name.
This value has nothing to do with the Name Attribute described below. It is only for use by
NetDefendOS and not the LDAP server.

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IP Address
The IP address of the LDAP server.

Port
The port number on the LDAP server which will receive the client request which is sent using
TCP/IP.
The default port number is 389.

Timeout
This is the timeout length for LDAP server user authentication attempts in seconds. If no
response to a request is received from the server after this time then the server will be
considered to be unreachable.
The default timeout setting is 5 seconds.

Name Attribute
The Name Attribute is the ID of the data field on the LDAP server that contains the username.
The NetDefendOS default value for this is uid which is correct for most UNIX based servers.
If using Microsoft Active Directory this should be set to SAMAccountName (which is NOT case
sensitive). When looking at the details of a user in Active Directory, the value for the user
logon name is defined in the SAMAccountName field under the Account tab.

Note: The LDAP server database determines the correct value

This is an attribute tuple and the LDAP server's database schema definitions
determines the correct ID to use.

Retrieve Group Membership

This option specifies if the groups that a user belongs to should be retrieved from the LDAP
server. The group name is often used when granting user access to a service after a successful
logon.
If the Retrieve Group Membership option is enabled then the Membership Attribute option,
described next can also be set.

Membership Attribute
The Membership Attribute defines which groups a user is a member of. This is similar to the
way a user belongs to either the admin or audit database group in NetDefendOS. This is
another tuple defined by the server's database schema and the default ID is MemberOf.
In Microsoft Active Directory, the groups a user belongs to can be found by looking at a users
details under the MemberOf tab.

Use Domain Name

Some servers require the domain name in combination with a username for performing
successful authentication. The domain name is the host name of the LDAP server, for
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example myldapserver. The choices for this parameter are:

i.

Do Not Use - This will not modify the username in any way. For example, testuser.

ii.

Username Prefix - When authenticating, this will put <domain name>\ in front of the
username. For example, myldapserver/testuser.

iii.

Username Postfix - When authenticating, this will add @<domain name> after the
username. For example, testuser@myldapserver.

If the choice is other than Do Not Use, the Domain Name parameter option described below
should be specified.
Different LDAP servers could handle the domain name differently so the server's
requirements should be checked. Most versions of Windows Active Directory require the
Postfix option to be used.
When using the OpenLDAP server and with most non-Microsoft LDAP servers, this option
should be set to Do not use and the next option Combined User Name should be enabled.

Combined User Name

When using the OpenLDAP server, the Use Domain Name option should be set to Do not use
and this option should be enabled. Other non-Microsoft LDAP servers will probably also
require that this option be enabled.

Optional Attribute
If the Combined User Name option is enabled, it is also possible to use this option to specify
an optional text attribute to be sent to the server. For example:
ou=people

Routing Table
The NetDefendOS routing table where route lookup will be done to resolve the server's IP
address into a route. The default is the main routing table.

Database Settings
The Database Settings are as follows:

Base Object
Defines where in the LDAP server tree search for user accounts shall begin.
The users defined on an LDAP server database are organized into a tree structure. The Base
Object specifies where in this tree the relevant users are located. Specifying the Base Object
has the effect of speeding up the search of the LDAP tree since only users under the Base
Object will be examined.

Important: The Base Object must be specified correctly

If the Base Object is specified incorrectly then this can mean that a user will not be
found and authenticated if they are not in the part of the tree below the Base Object.

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The recommended option is therefore to initially specify the Base Object as the root
of the tree.

The Base Object is specified as a common separated domainComponent (DC) set. If the full
domain name is myldapserver.local.eu.com and this is the Base Object then this is specified as:
DC=myldapserver,DC=local,DC=eu,DC=com

The username search will now begin at the root of the myldapserver tree.

Administrator Account
The LDAP server will require that the user establishing a connection to do a search has
administrator privileges. The Administration Account specifies the administrator username.
This username may be requested by the server in a special format in the same way as
described previously with Use Domain Name.

Password/Confirm Password
The password for the administrator account which was specified above.

Domain Name
The Domain Name is used when formatting usernames. This is the first part of the full domain
name. In our examples above, the Domain Name is myldapserver. The full domain name is a
dot separated set of labels, for example, myldapserver.local.eu.com.
This option is only available if the Server Type is NOT set to Other.
This option can be left empty but is required if the LDAP server requires the domain name
when performing a bind request.

Optional Settings
There is one optional setting:

Password Attribute
The password attribute specifies the ID of the tuple on the LDAP server that contains the
user's password. The default ID is userPassword.
This option should be left empty unless the LDAP server is being used to authenticate users
connecting via PPP with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1, MS-CHAPv2 or when using SSL VPN.
When it is used, it determines the ID of the data field in the LDAP server database which
contains the user password in plain text. The LDAP server administrator must make sure that
this field actually does contain the password. This is explained in greater detail later.
When LDAP is used with SSL VPN, the Password Attribute must be specified as userPassword or
Description based on the setting for the Agent option in the user authentication rule object.

Bind Request Authentication

LDAP server authentication is automatically configured to work using LDAP Bind Request
Authentication. This means that authentication succeeds if successful connection is made to the

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LDAP server. Individual clients are not distinguished from one another.
LDAP server referrals should not occur with bind request authentication but if they do, the server
sending the referral will be regarded as not having responded.

LDAP Server Responses

When an LDAP server is queried by NetDefendOS with a user authentication request, the
following are the possible outcomes:

The server replies with a positive response and the user is authenticated.
Clients using PPP with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2 is a special case and authentication
is actually done by NetDefendOS, as discussed later.

The server replies with a negative response and the user is not authenticated.

The server does not respond within the Timeout period specified for the server. If only one
server is specified then authentication will be considered to have failed. If there are alternate
servers defined for the user authentication rule then these are queried next.

Usernames may need the Domain

With certain LDAP servers, the domain name may need to be combined with the username when
the user is prompted for a username/password combination.
If the domain is mydomain.com then the username for myuser might need to be specified as
[email protected]. With some LDAP servers this might be myuser@domain
mydomain.com\myuser or even mydomain\myuser. The format depends entirely on the LDAP
server and what it expects.

Real-time Monitoring Statistics

The following statistics are available for real-time monitoring of LDAP server access for user
authentication:

Number of authentications per second.

Total number of authentication requests.

Total number of successful authentication requests.

Total number of failed authentication requests.

Total number of invalid usernames.

Total number of invalid password.

LDAP Authentication CLI Commands

The CLI objects that correspond to LDAP servers used for authentication are called
LDAPDatabase objects (LDAP servers used for certificate lookup are known as LDAPServer objects
in the CLI).
A specific LDAP server that is defined in NetDefendOS for authentication can be shown with the
command:

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gw-world:/> show LDAPDatabase <object_name>

The entire contents of the database can be displayed with the command:
gw-world:/> show LDAPDatabase

LDAP Authentication and PPP

When using a PPP based client for PPTP or L2TP access, special consideration has to be taken if
LDAP authentication is to succeed with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2 encryption. The two
cases of (A) normal PPP authentication and (B) PPP with encryption are examined next.
A. Normal LDAP Authentication
Normal LDAP authentication for Webauth, XAuth, or PPP with PAP security is illustrated in the
diagram below. An authentication bind request with the username and password is sent to the
LDAP server which then performs the authentication and sends back a bind response with the
result.

Figure 8.1. Normal LDAP Authentication

The processing is different if a group membership is being retrieved since a request is sent to the
LDAP server to search for memberships and any group memberships are then sent back in the
response.
B. PPP Authentication with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2 Encryption
If PPP with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2 is used for authentication, a digest of the user's
password will be sent to NetDefendOS by the client. NetDefendOS cannot just forward this
digest to the LDAP server since this won't be understood. The solution is for NetDefendOS to
obtain the password in plain-text from the LDAP server, create a digest itself, and then compare
the created digest with the digest from the client. If the two are the same, authentication is
successful but it is NetDefendOS that makes the authentication decision and not the LDAP
server.
To retrieve the password from the LDAP server, two things are needed:

The Password Attribute parameter needs to be specified when defining the server to
NetDefendOS. This will be the ID of the field on the LDAP server that will contain the
password when it is sent back.

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This ID must be different from the default password attribute (which is usually userPassword
for most LDAP servers). A suggestion is to use the description field in the LDAP database.

In order for the server to return the password in the database field with the ID specified, the
LDAP administrator must make sure that the plain text password is found there. LDAP servers
store passwords in encrypted digest form and do not provide automatic mechanisms for
doing this. It must therefore be done manually by the administrator as they add new users
and change existing users passwords.
This clearly involves some effort from the administrator, as well as leaving passwords
dangerously exposed in plain text form on the LDAP server. These are some of the reasons
why LDAP may not be viewed as a viable authentication solution for CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or
MS-CHAPv2 encrypted PPP.

When NetDefendOS receives the password digest from the client, it initiates a Search Request to
the LDAP server. The server replies with a Search Response which will contains the user's
password and any group memberships. NetDefendOS is then able to compare digests. The
diagram below illustrates this process.

Figure 8.2. LDAP for PPP with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2

Important: The link to the LDAP server must be protected

Since the LDAP server is sending back passwords in plain text to NetDefendOS, the link
between the NetDefend Firewall and the server must be protected. A VPN link should be
used if the link between the two is not local.
Access to the LDAP server itself must also be restricted as passwords will be stored in
plain text.

8.2.5. Authentication Rules

An Authentication Rule should be defined when a client establishing a connection through a
NetDefend Firewall is to be prompted for a username/password login sequence.
Authentication Rules are set up in a similar way to other NetDefendOS security policies, and that
is by specifying which traffic is to be subject to the rule. They differ from other policies in that the
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connection's destination network/interface is not of interest but only the source

network/interface of the client being authenticated.

Authentication Rule Properties

An Authentication Rule object has the following properties:

Authentication Agent
The type of traffic being authenticated. This can be one of:
i.

HTTP
HTTP web connections to be authenticated via a predefined or custom web page (see
the detailed HTTP explanation below).
An IP rule allowing client access to core is also required with this agent type.

ii.

HTTPS
HTTPS web connections to be authenticated via a predefined or custom web page (also
see the detailed HTTP explanation below).
An IP rule allowing client access to core is also required with this agent type.

iii.

XAUTH
This is the IKE authentication method which is used as part of VPN tunnel establishment
with IPsec.
XAuth is an extension to the normal IKE exchange and provides an addition to normal
IPsec security which means that clients accessing a VPN must provide a login username
and password.
It should be noted that an interface value is not entered with an XAuth authentication
rule since one single rule with XAuth as the agent will be used for all IPsec tunnels.
However, this approach assumes that a single authentication source is used for all
tunnels.
An IP rule allowing client access to core is not required.

iv.

L2TP/PPTP/SSL VPN
This is used specifically for L2TP, PPTP or SSL VPN authentication.
An IP rule allowing client access to core is not required.

Authentication Source
This specifies that authentication is to be performed using one of the following:
i.

LDAP - Users are looked up in an external LDAP server database.

ii.

RADIUS - An external RADIUS server is used for lookup.

iii.

Disallow - This option explicitly disallows all connections that trigger this rule. Such
connections will never be authenticated.
Any Disallow rules are best located at the end of the authentication rule set.

iv.

Local - A local user database defined within NetDefendOS is used for looking up user
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credentials.
v.

Allow - With this option, all connections that trigger this rule will be authenticated
automatically. No database lookup occurs.

Interface
The source interface on which the connections to be authenticated will arrive. This must be
specified.

Originator IP
The source IP or network from which new connections will arrive. For XAuth and PPP, this is
the Originator IP.

Terminator IP
The terminating IP with which new connections arrive. This is only specified where the
Authentication Agent is PPP.

Connection Timeouts
An Authentication Rule can specify the following timeouts related to a user session:

Idle Timeout
How long a connection is idle before being automatically terminated (1800 seconds by
default).

Session Timeout
The maximum time that a connection can exist (no value is specified by default).

If an authentication server is being used then the option to Use timeouts received from the
authentication server can be enabled to have these values set from the server.

Multiple Logins
An Authentication Rule can specify how multiple logins are handled where more than one user
from different source IP addresses try to login with the same username. The possible options are:

Allow multiple logins so that more than one client can use the same username/password
combination.

Allow only one login per username.

Allow one login per username and logout an existing user with the same name if they have
been idle for a specific length of time when the new login occurs.

8.2.6. Authentication Processing

The list below describes the processing flow through NetDefendOS for username/password
authentication:
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1.

A user creates a new connection to the NetDefend Firewall.

2.

NetDefendOS sees the new user connection on an interface and checks the Authentication
rule set to see if there is a matching rule for traffic on this interface, coming from this
network and data which is one of the following types:

HTTP traffic

HTTPS traffic

IPsec tunnel traffic

L2TP tunnel traffic

PPTP tunnel traffic

SSL VPN tunnel traffic

3.

If no rule matches, the connection is allowed, provided the IP rule set permits it, and
nothing further happens in the authentication process.

4.

Based on the settings of the first matching authentication rule, NetDefendOS may prompt
the user with an authentication request which requires a username/password pair to be
entered.

5.

NetDefendOS validates the user credentials against the Authentication Source specified in
the authentication rule. This will be either a local NetDefendOS database, an external
RADIUS database server or an external LDAP server.

6.

NetDefendOS then allows further traffic through this connection as long as authentication
was successful and the service requested is allowed by a rule in the IP rule set. That rule's
Source Network object has either the No Defined Credentials option enabled or
alternatively it is associated with a group and the user is also a member of that group.

7.

If a timeout restriction is specified in the authentication rule then the authenticated user will
be automatically logged out after that length of time without activity.

Any packets from an IP address that fails authentication are discarded.

8.2.7. HTTP Authentication

Where users are communicating through a web browser using the HTTP or HTTPS protocol then
authentication is done by NetDefendOS presenting the user with HTML pages to retrieve
required user information. This is sometimes also referred to as WebAuth and the setup requires
further considerations.

The Management Web Interface Port Must Be Changed

HTTP authentication will collide with the Web Interface's remote management service which also
uses TCP port 80 by default. To avoid this problem, the Web Interface port number must be
changed before configuring authentication.
Do this by going to Remote Management > Advanced settings in the Web Interface and
changing the setting WebUI HTTP Port. Port number 81 could instead, be used for this setting.
The same is true for HTTPS authentication and the default HTTPS management port number of
443 must also be changed.

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HTTP and HTTPS Agent Options

For HTTP and HTTPS authentication there is a set of options in an authentication rule called
Agent Options. These are:

Login Type - This can be one of:

i.

HTML form - The user is presented with an HTML page for authentication which is filled
in and the data sent back to NetDefendOS with a POST.

ii.

BASIC authentication - This sends a 401 - Authentication Required message back to

the browser which will cause it to use its own inbuilt dialog to ask the user for a
username/password combination. A Realm String can optionally be specified which will
appear in the browser's dialog.
HTML form is recommended over BASICAUTH because, in some cases, the browser
might hold the login data in its cache.

If the Agent is set to HTTPS then the Host Certificate and Root Certificate(s) have to be
chosen from a list of certificates already loaded into NetDefendOS. Certificate chaining is
supported for the root certificate.

IP Rules are Needed

HTTP authentication cannot operate unless a rule is added to the IP rule set to explicitly allow
authentication to take place. This is also true with HTTPS.
If we consider the example of a number of clients on the local network lannet who would like
access to the public Internet through the wan interface then the IP rule set would contain the
following rules:
#

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface Dest Network

Service

Allow

lan

lannet

core

lan_ip

http-all

NAT

lan

trusted_users

wan

all-nets

http-all

NAT

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

dns-all

The first rule allows the authentication process to take place and assumes the client is trying to
access the lan_ip IP address, which is the IP address of the interface on the NetDefend Firewall
where the local network connects.
The second rule allows normal surfing activity but we cannot just use lannet as the source
network since the rule would trigger for any unauthenticated client from that network. Instead,
the source network is an administrator defined IP object called trusted_users which is the same
network as lannet but has additionally either the Authentication option No Defined Credentials
enabled or has an Authentication Group assigned to it (which is the same group as that assigned
to the users).
The third rule allows DNS lookup of URLs.

Note
Do not modify the default http-all service in the IP rules above. This can cause
authentication to fail.

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Forcing Users to a Login Page

With this setup, when users that are not authenticated try to surf to any IP except lan_ip they will
fall through the rules and their packets will be dropped. To always have these users come to the
authentication page, a SAT rule and its associated Allow rule must be added. The rule set will now
look like this:
#

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface Dest Network

Service

Allow

lan

lannet

core

lan_ip

http-all

NAT

lan

trusted_users

wan

all-nets

http-all

NAT

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

dns-all

SAT

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets
all-to-one
127.0.0.1

http-all

Allow

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

http-all

The SAT rule catches all unauthenticated requests and must be set up with an all-to-one address
mapping that directs them to the address 127.0.0.1 which corresponds to core (NetDefendOS
itself ).
Example 8.3. User Authentication Setup for Web Access
The configurations below shows how to enable HTTP user authentication for the user group
lan_group on lannet. Only users that belong to the group users can get Web browsing service
after authentication, as it is defined in the IP rule.
It is assumed that the authentication IPv4 address object lan_users_net has been defined and this
has its Groups property set to lan_group. The group lan_group has been used as the Groups
property of individual users in the lan_users database.
Web Interface
A. Set up an IP rule to allow HTTP authentication.
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IP rule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: http_auth

Action: Allow

Service: http-all

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Interface core

Destination Network lan_ip

Click OK

B. Set up an Authentication Rule

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1.

Go to: Policies > User Authentication > Authentication Rules > Add > User
Authentication Rule

2.

Now enter:

Name: HTTPLogin

Authentication Agent: HTTP

Authentication Source: Local

Interface: lan

Originator IP: lannet

3.

For Local User DB choose lan_users

4.

For Login Type choose HTML form

5.

Click OK

C. Set up an IP rule to allow authenticated users to browse the Web.

1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IP rule

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: allow_http_auth

Action: NAT

Service: http-all

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lan_users_net

Destination Interface any

Destination Network all-nets

Click OK

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8.3. Customizing Authentication HTML Pages

User Authentication makes use of a set of HTML files to present information to the user during
the authentication process. The options available for HTTP authentication processing are as
follows:

When a user attempts to use a browser to open a web page they are directed to a login page
(the FormLogin page). After successful login, the user is taken to the originally requested
page.

After successful login, instead the user can be taken to a specified web page.

After successful login, the user is taken to a particular web page (the LoginSuccess page)
before being automatically redirected to the originally requested page.

HTTP Banner Files

The web page files, also referred to as HTTP banner files, are stored within NetDefendOS and
already exist by default at initial NetDefendOS startup. These files can be customized to suit a
particular installation's needs either by direct editing in Web Interface or by downloading and
re-uploading through an SCP client.
Banner files in NetDefendOS are of two types:
Banner files for authentication rules using Web Auth (HTTP and HTTPS login). These are
discussed below.
Banner files for the HTTP ALG. These are discussed in Section 6.3.4.4, Customizing WCF HTML
Pages.

Banner Files for Web Authentication

The web authentication files available for editing have the following names:

FormLogin
LoginSuccess
LoginFailure
LoginAlreadyDone
LoginChallenge
LoginChallengeTimeout
LoginSuccess
LoginSuccessBasicAuth
LogoutFailure
FileNotFound

Customizing Banner Files

The Web Interface provides a simple way to download and edit the files and then upload the
edited HTML back to NetDefendOS.
To perform customization it is necessary to first create a new Auth Banner Files object with a
new name. This new object automatically contains a copy of all the files in the Default Auth
Banner Files object. These new files can then be edited and uploaded back to NetDefendOS. The
original Default object cannot be edited. The example given below goes through the
customization steps.

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HTML Page Parameters

The HTML pages for WebAuth can contain a number of parameters. These are:

%CHALLENGE_MESSAGE% - The question text asked.

%IPADDR% - The IP address which is being browsed from.

%ERRORMSG% - The reason that access was denied.

%USER% - The username entered.

%REDIRHOST% - The IP of the host that was requested.

%REDURURL% - The path of the host that was requested.

%REDIRURLENC% - The URL encoded path.

%IPADDR% - The IP of the client.

%DEVICENAME% - The name of the authenticating firewall.

The LoginFailure Page with ARP Authentication

If authentication fails with ARP authentication, the %USER% parameter will contain the MAC
address of the requesting client (or the MAC address of the intervening router nearest the
firewall).
A typical parameter set of values for the LoginFailure page when ARP authentication is used
might be:
USER:
REDIRHOST:
REDIRURL:
REDIRURLENC:
IPADDR:
DEVICENAME:

00-0c-19-f9-14-6f
10.234.56.71
/testing?user=user&pass=pass
%2ftesting%3fuser%3duser%26pass%3dpass
10.1.6.1
MyGateway

The %REDIRURL% Parameter Should Not Be Removed

In certain banner web pages, the parameter %REDIRURL% appears. This is a placeholder for the
original URL which was requested before the user login screen appeared for an unauthenticated
user. Following successful authentication, the user becomes redirected to the URL held by this
parameter.
Since %REDIRURL% only has this internal purpose, it should not be removed from web pages and
should appear in the FormLogin page if that is used.
Example 8.4. Editing Content Filtering HTTP Banner Files
This example shows how to modify the contents of the URL forbidden HTML page.
Web Interface

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1.

Go to: System > Advanced Settings > HTTP Banner files > Add > ALG Banner Files

2.

Enter a name such as new_forbidden and press OK

3.

The dialog for the new set of ALG banner files will appear

4.

Click the Edit & Preview tab

5.

Select FormLogin from the Page list

6.

Now edit the HTML source that appears in the text box for the Forbidden URL page

7.

Use Preview to check the layout if required

8.

Press Save to save the changes

9.

Click OK to exit editing

10. Go to: Objects > ALG and select the relevant HTML ALG
11. Select new_forbidden as the HTML Banner
12. Click OK
13. Go to: Configuration > Save & Activate to activate the new file

Tip: HTML file changes need to be saved

In the above example, more than one HTML file can be edited in a session but the Save
button should be pressed to save any edits before beginning editing on another file.

Uploading with SCP

It is possible to upload new HTTP Banner files using SCP. The steps to do this are:
1.

Since SCP cannot be used to download the original default HTML, the source code must be
first copied from the Web Interface and pasted into a local text file which is then edited
using an appropriate editor.

2.

A new Auth Banner Files object must exist which the edited file(s) is uploaded to. If the
object is called ua_html, the CLI command to create this object is:
gw-world:/> add HTTPAuthBanners ua_html

This creates an object which contains a copy of all the Default user auth banner files.
3.

The modified file is then uploaded using SCP. It is uploaded to the object type
HTTPAuthBanner and the object ua_html with property name FormLogin. If the edited
Formlogon local file is called my.html then using the Open SSH SCP client, the upload
command would be:
pscp my.html [email protected]:HTTPAuthBanners/ua_html/FormLogin

The usage of SCP clients is explained further in Section 2.1.6, Secure Copy.
4.

Using the CLI, the relevant user authentication rule should now be set to use the ua_html. If
the rule us called my_auth_rule, the command would be:
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set UserAuthRule my_auth_rule HTTPBanners=ua_html

5.

As usual, use the activate followed by the commit CLI commands to activate the changes on
the NetDefend Firewall.

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8.4. User Identity Awareness

Sometimes it is more convenient for client users if they can automatically validate themselves to
NetDefendOS instead of being asked to type in username and password credentials every time
they wish to access certain resources. The NetDefendOS User Identity Awareness (UIA) feature
allows this to happen by receiving user authentication information from a Windows domain
controller server.
There are two separate components involved in the identity awareness feature:

The D-Link Identity Awareness Agent which is a separate piece of software that runs on all the
Windows domain controller servers in the active directory, sending client login information
to NetDefendOS.

The authentication process taking place in NetDefendOS as clients try to access resources
through the firewall. This uses the information sent by the Identity Awareness Agent.

The overall relationship between client, server and NetDefend Firewall is shown in the diagram
below.

Figure 8.3. User Identity Awareness

Event Flow During Authentication

The flow of events with the identity awareness feature is as follows:

A user of a Windows based client computer logs in.

The user is authenticated against a Windows Active Directory server running on a separate
computer.

The D-Link provided software service called the Identity Awareness Agent (IDA) runs on all the
domain controller servers in the domain. This listens for successful client authentications.
When a client is authenticated, the agent sends the following to the configured NetDefend
Firewall:
i.

The user name.

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ii.
iii.

The user's group.

The user's IP.

The Identity Awareness Agent must be installed on all domain controllers that make up the
active directory.

The user's IP address is now authenticated to NetDefendOS and connections coming from
that IP are permitted through the firewall if an IP Rule or IP Policy is defined to allow it.

A client attempts to open a connection through NetDefendOS.

A NetDefendOS IP Rule or IP Policy object is triggered that could allow this connection.

The source network address object for the triggered rule or policy has an associated
authentication list of allowed usernames and groups. If the client is part of this list, the
connection can be established.

The IP Rule or IP Policy object that is created for authentication has the dual purpose of
identifying and allowing the connection as well as triggering the authentication process. NAT
could also be a function included in the rule or policy.

Setting Up Identity Awareness

To set up identity awareness, the following steps are required:

Install and configure the Identity Awareness Agent software on the all the domain controller
servers in a domain. This is described in more depth at the end of this section.

Configure an Authentication Agent object in NetDefendOS which has IP Address and

Pre-shared Key properties that correspond to the ones used by the agents installed on the
domain controller servers. A new object should be created for each server in the domain.
If the Pre-shared Key property is not specified, this defaults to the value of the predefined PSK
object auth_agent_psk. This is also the default key value used by the D-Link Identity
Awareness Agent. However, this default key should never be used in a live system.
An IP rule or IP policy is not needed in NetDefendOS to allow the traffic coming from the
agent.

Configure an address book IP4 Address object that defines the IP address, IP range or network
from which authenticating clients will come.
Important: In the Authentication property of this address object, specify the usernames
and/or groups which are allowed to create connections. Usernames must be specified in the
format username@domain. For example, myusername@mycompanyname.

Specify an IP Rule or IP Policy object in the NetDefendOS configuration that triggers on the
client connections to be authenticated and allows them to be opened. The source network
for this rule or policy must be the IPv4 address object specified in the previous step.
It is the triggering of this rule or policy that triggers the authentication process.

Example 8.5. Enabling User Identity Awareness

This example assumes that there are external clients on a network client_net connected to the If1
interface. These clients will want HTTP access to hosts on a network server_net on the If2
interface.

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Clients connections will be authenticated using the identity awareness feature. The only
usernames that will be allowed are user1@mydomain and user2@mydomain.
It is also assumed that the D-Link Authentication Agent software has already been installed on a
single external Windows domain controller server and is configured with the IPv4 address
defined by the address book object aa_server_ip and the pre-shared key defined by the
aa_server_key PSK object.
It is assumed that the domain has only one domain controller server.
Command-Line Interface
Define an Authentication Agent object that describes the external server:
gw-world:/> add AuthAgent
IPAddress=aa_server_ip
PSK=aa_server_key
Name=my_auth_agent

Assign the permitted usernames to the network object for client IPs:
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address client_net
UserAuthGroups=user1@mydomain,user2@mydomain

Create an IP Policy which allows access and uses client_net as the source network.
gw-world:/main> add IPPolicy
Name=client_to_server
SourceInterface=If1
SourceNetwork=client_net
DestinationInterface=If2
DestinationNetwork=server_net
Service=http-all
Action=Allow

Web Interface
Define the Authentication Agent object that describes the external server:
1.

Go to:
Policies > Authentication > Authentication Agents > Add > Authentication Agent

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: my_auth_agent

IP Address: aa_server_ip

Pre-shared key: aa_server_key

Click OK

Assign the permitted usernames to the network object for client IPs:
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > client_net

2.

Select the User Authentication tab

3.

In the username box enter: user1@mydomain,user2@mydomain

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4.

Click OK

Create an IP Policy which allows access to the servers by the clients and uses client_net as the
source network.
1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Policy

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: client_to_server

Action: Allow

Source Network: client_net

Source Interface: If1

Destination Network: server_net

Destination Interface: If2

Service: http-all

Click OK

This example uses an IP Policy object to trigger authentication but an IP Rule could have been
used instead.

Installing the Identity Awareness Agent

The D-Link Identity Awareness Agent (IDA) is a separate piece of software provided at no extra
charge with NetDefendOS. The installation file is called IDA_Setup.exe and when it is installed on
a Windows based computer, it runs as a service called IDA.exe.
The agent is not included with NetDefendOS release packets but is provided as a download from
the D-Link website. It can be installed on a Windows 2003, Windows 2008 or Windows 2008R2
based server.
As explained previously, the agent service listens for authenticated users and sends their details
to the configured NetDefend Firewalls. The software has its own management user interface, an
example of which is shown below.

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Figure 8.4. The Identity Awareness Agent Interface

The Encryption Key and Listening IP should be set to the same values configured in the
NetDefendOS Authentication Agent object.
The Encryption Key will take on a default value if specified and this will be the same as the default
value of the Pre-Shared Key property of a NetDefendOS Authentication Agent object if it is not
explicitly specified. However, it is strongly recommended that this default key value is changed
as soon as possible.
The Allowed IP/Networks can optionally be used to specify from which external IPs the agent will
allow for connection with NetDefendOS. The default value of 0.0.0.0/0 will allow connections
from any IP address.

Note: The IDA service is not aware of NetDefendOS

authentication
The purpose of the IDA service is to send details of user logins to NetDefendOS. This
communication is one way and the IDA service is not aware of the authentications
being carried out by NetDefendOS and does not display this information in its interface.

The Identity Awareness Agent (IDA) software must be installed on all domain controller servers
that are part of the domain being authenticated.

Using IDA with a Windows Terminal Server

In some environments, a Terminal Server may be used as well as a domain controller. If this is the
case, the IDA service is installed as before but the option Remote Desktop IP Virtualization should
be enabled.

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The terminal server itself must have the following attributes:

At least Windows Server 2008 R2.

The role Remote Desktop Session Host must be installed.

The option IP virtualization per session must be enabled.

Note: DNS lookup is done using the terminal server IP

Any DNS lookups are performed using the IP of the Windows terminal server and not the
session IP assigned to the client. Therefore, IP rules or IP policies may be needed to allow
such DNS lookups through the firewall.

Monitoring Identity Awareness Activity

The administrator can ask NetDefendOS to show details of identity awareness activity.
In the Web Interface, the administrator can go to Status > Run-time Information >
Authentication Agents to see that the IDA service is connected to NetDefendOS. In the CLI, the
same can be achieved with the command:
gw-world:/> authagent

As users are authenticated, they can be seen in the Web Interface by going to Status > Run-time
Information > User Authentication. In the CLI, the same can be achieved with the command:
gw-world:/> userauth -list

In order to switch on console monitoring of the communication taking place between

NetDefendOS and the IDA service on the domain controller server, use the command:
gw-world:/> authagentsnoop

Entering the command a second time will terminate snooping.

The options for all the above CLI commands are listed in the separate NetDefendOS CLI Reference
Guide.

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8.5. Two Factor Authentication

When access to resources is based on username and password credentials, the security can be
further strengthened by using Two Factor Authentication (sometimes referred to as two step
verification). The first factor is the username/password combination and the second factor is a
one-time code which might be sent to the user at the time of the login or might be generated in
some way by the user.
Typically, the second code is sent to the user's mobile phone via SMS or similar phone messaging
service.
NetDefendOS provides support for two factor authentication by being able to recognize a
RADIUS Access-Challenge message and displaying a special webpage to request the additional
code. This webpage has the NetDefendOS Banner File name LoginChallenge.

Processing Sequence
The sequence of processing for two factor authentication with NetDefendOS is as follows:
1.

Authentication is set up as normal using an authentication rule and IP rules (or IP policies).

2.

The authentication source will be an external RADIUS server that has been configured to
perform two factor authentication.

3.

A user tries to access resources through the NetDefend Firewall and they are presented with
the standard NetDefendOS login page in which they enter their username and password
credentials.

4.

NetDefendOS now sends these credentials to the RADIUS server for authentication in a
RADIUS Access-Request message.

5.

The RADIUS server does two things:

i.

It causes a one-time code to be sent to the user. For example, in a text message to their
cell phone. If the code is generated by the user themselves then this may not be
necessary.

ii.

It informs NetDefendOS that two factor authentication must be used by sending a

RADIUS Access-Challenge message.

6.

When NetDefendOS is told that two factor authentication is being used, it automatically
displays to the user the webpage defined by the banner file called LoginChallenge.

7.

The user enters the code they receive or generate into the displayed web page and
NetDefendOS sends the entered code to the RADIUS server as the password in another
Access-Request message.

8.

The RADIUS server checks the code sent by NetDefendOS against the code expected and
nforms NetDefendOS if the user is authenticated by sending back an Access-Accept or
Access-Reject message.

Some points to note about setting up two factor authentication:

The same NetDefendOS setup is used if the challenge code is generated by a local code
generating device such as the RSA SecureID product or if a RADIUS server causes it to be
sent to the user.

No extra configuration is required in NetDefendOS. However, the banner file LoginChallenge

may need to be edited to display the appropriate text and this is discussed further in
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Section 8.3, Customizing Authentication HTML Pages.

The administrator must configure the RADIUS server appropriately and that is not covered in
this document.

If the RADIUS server causes the code to be sent to the user, the sending method is
independent of NetDefendOS. Various third party solutions are available to generate this
code and are not discussed further in this document.

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Chapter 9: VPN
This chapter describes the Virtual Private Network (VPN) functionality in NetDefendOS.
Overview, page 492
VPN Quick Start, page 496
IPsec Components, page 508
IPsec Tunnels, page 524
PPTP/L2TP, page 545
SSL VPN, page 564
CA Server Access, page 574
VPN Troubleshooting, page 577

9.1. Overview
9.1.1. VPN Usage
The Internet is increasingly used as a means to connect together computers since it offers
efficient and inexpensive communication. The requirement therefore exists for data to traverse
the Internet to its intended recipient without another party being able to read or alter it.
It is equally important that the recipient can verify that no one is falsifying data, in other words,
pretending to be someone else. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) meet this need, providing a
highly cost effective means of establishing secure links between two co-operating computers so
that data can be exchanged in a secure manner.
VPN allows the setting up of a tunnel between two devices known as tunnel endpoints. All data
flowing through the tunnel is then secure. The mechanism that provides tunnel security is
encryption.
There are two common scenarios where VPN is used:
1.

LAN to LAN connection - Where two internal networks need to be connected together
over the Internet. In this case, each network is protected by an individual NetDefend
Firewall and the VPN tunnel is set up between them.
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2.

Client to LAN connection - Where many remote clients need to connect to an internal
network over the Internet. In this case, the internal network is protected by the NetDefend
Firewall to which the client connects and the VPN tunnel is set up between them.

9.1.2. VPN Encryption

Encryption of VPN traffic is done using the science of cryptography. Cryptography is an umbrella
expression covering 3 techniques and benefits:
Confidentiality

No one but the intended recipients is able to receive and

understand the communication. Confidentiality is
accomplished by encryption.

Authentication and Integrity

Proof for the recipient that the communication was actually

sent by the expected sender, and that the data has not
been modified in transit. This is accomplished by
authentication, and is often implemented through the use
of cryptographic keyed hashing.

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Non-repudiation

Proof that the sender actually sent the data; the sender
cannot later deny having sent it. Non-repudiation is usually
a side-effect of authentication.

VPNs are normally only concerned with confidentiality and authentication. Non-repudiation is
normally not handled at the network level but rather is usually done at a higher, transaction
level.

9.1.3. VPN Planning

An attacker targeting a VPN connection will typically not attempt to crack the VPN encryption
since this requires enormous effort. They will, instead, see VPN traffic as an indication that there
is something worth targeting at the other end of the connection. Typically, mobile clients and
branch offices are far more attractive targets than the main corporate network. Once inside
those, getting to the corporate network then becomes easier.
In designing a VPN there are many issues that need to be addressed which aren't always obvious.
These include:

Protecting mobile and home computers.

Restricting access through the VPN to needed services only, since mobile computers are
vulnerable.

Creating DMZs for services that need to be shared with other companies through VPNs.

Adapting VPN access policies for different groups of users.

Creating key distribution policies.

Endpoint Security
A common misconception is that VPN-connections are equivalents to the internal network from
a security standpoint and that they can be connected directly to it with no further precautions. It
is important to remember that although the VPN-connection itself may be secure, the total level
of security is only as high as the security of the tunnel endpoints.
It is becoming increasingly common for users on the move to connect directly to their company's
network via VPN from their laptops. However, the laptop itself is often not protected. In other
words, an intruder can gain access to the protected network through an unprotected laptop and
already-opened VPN connections.

Placement in a DMZ
A VPN connection should never be regarded as an integral part of a protected network. The VPN
firewall should instead be located in a special DMZ or outside a firewall dedicated to this task. By
doing this, the administrator can restrict which services can be accessed via the VPN and ensure
that these services are well protected against intruders.
In instances where the firewall features an integrated VPN feature, it is usually possible to dictate
the types of communication permitted and NetDefendOS VPN has this feature.

9.1.4. Key Distribution

Key distribution schemes are best planned in advance. Issues that need to be addressed include:

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How will keys be distributed? Email is not a good solution. Phone conversations might be
secure enough.

How many different keys should be used? One key per user? One per group of users? One per
LAN-to-LAN connection? One key for all users and one key for all LAN-to-LAN connections? It
is probably better using more keys than is necessary today since it will be easier to adjust
access per user (group) in the future.

Should the keys be changed? If they are changed, how often? In cases where keys are shared
by multiple users, consider using overlapping schemes, so that the old keys work for a short
period of time when new keys have been issued.

What happens when an employee in possession of a key leaves the company? If several users
are using the same key, it should be changed.

In cases where the key is not directly programmed into a network unit, such as a VPN firewall,
how should the key be stored? On a floppy? As a pass phrase to memorize? On a smart card?
If it is a physical token, how should it be handled?

9.1.5. The TLS Alternative for VPN

If secure access by clients to web servers using HTTP is the scenario under consideration, then
using a NetDefend Firewall for TLS termination can offer an alternative "lightweight" VPN
approach that is quickly and easily implemented. This topic is described further in Section 6.2.10,
The TLS ALG.

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9.2. VPN Quick Start

Overview
Later sections in this chapter will explore VPN components in detail. To help put those later
sections in context, this section is a quick start summary of the steps needed for VPN setup.
It outlines the individual steps in setting up VPNs for the most common scenarios. These are:

IPsec LAN to LAN with Pre-shared Keys

IPsec LAN to LAN with Certificates

IPsec Roaming Clients with Pre-shared Keys

IPsec Roaming Clients with Certificates

L2TP Roaming Clients with Pre-Shared Keys

L2TP Roaming Clients with Certificates

PPTP Roaming Clients

Common Tunnel Setup Requirements

Before looking at each of these scenarios separately, it is useful to summarize the common
NetDefendOS requirements when setting up any VPN tunnel, regardless of the type.

Define the Tunnel

Firstly we must define the tunnel itself. NetDefendOS has various tunnel object types which
are used to do this, such as an IPsec Tunnel object.

A Route Must Exist

Before any traffic can flow into the tunnel, a route must be defined in a NetDefendOS routing
table. This route tells NetDefendOS which network can be found at the other end of the
tunnel so it knows which traffic to send into the tunnel.
In most cases, this route is created automatically when the tunnel is defined and this can be
checked by examining the routing tables.
If a route is defined manually, the tunnel is treated exactly like a physical interface in the
route properties, as it is in other aspects of NetDefendOS. In other words, the route is saying
to NetDefendOS that a certain network is found at the other end of the tunnel.

Define an IP Rule to Allow VPN Traffic

An IP rule must be defined that explicitly allows traffic to flow between a network and the
tunnel. As with route definitions, the tunnel is treated exactly like a physical interface when
defining the IP rule.
IP rules are not created automatically after defining the tunnel object and if they do not exist
then no traffic can flow through the tunnel and will instead, be dropped.

The following sections will look at the detailed setup for each of the VPN scenarios listed earlier.

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9.2.1. IPsec LAN to LAN with Pre-shared Keys

The objective is to create a secure means of joining two networks: a Local Network which is on
the protected side of a local firewall; and a Remote Network which is on the other side of some
remote device, located across an insecure network.
The steps for setup are as follows:
1.

Create a Pre-shared Key object.

2.

Optionally create a new IKE Algorithms object and/or an IPsec Algorithms object if the
default algorithm proposal lists do not provide a set of algorithms that are acceptable to the
tunnel remote end point. This will depend on the capabilities of the device at the other end
of the VPN tunnel.

3.

In the Address Book create IP objects for:

4.

The remote VPN gateway which is the IPv4 address of the network device at the other
end of the tunnel (let's call this object remote_gw). This may or may not be another
NetDefend Firewall.

The remote network which lies behind the remote VPN gateway (let's call this object
remote_net).

The local network behind the NetDefend Firewall which will communicate across the
tunnel. Here we will assume that this is the predefined address lannet and this network is
attached to the NetDefendOS lan interface which has the IPv4 address lan_ip.

Create an IPsec Tunnel object (let's call this object ipsec_tunnel). Specify the following
tunnel parameters:

Set Local Network to lannet.

Set Remote Network to remote_net.

Set Remote Endpoint to remote_gw.

Set Encapsulation mode to Tunnel.

Choose the IKE and IPsec algorithm proposal lists to be used.

For Authentication select the Pre-shared Key object defined in step (1) above.

The IPsec Tunnel object can be treated exactly like any NetDefendOS Interface object in
later steps.
5.

Set up two IP rules in the IP rule set for the tunnel:

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An Allow rule for outbound traffic that has the previously defined ipsec_tunnel object as
the Destination Interface. The rule's Destination Network is the remote network
remote_net.

An Allow rule for inbound traffic that has the previously defined ipsec_tunnel object as
the Source Interface. The Source Network is remote_net.

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Service

Allow

lan

lannet

ipsec_tunnel

remote_net

all_services

Allow

ipsec_tunnel

remote_net

lan

lannet

all_services

The Service used in these rules is All but it could be a predefined service.
6.

Define a new NetDefendOS Route which specifies that the VPN Tunnel ipsec_tunnel is the
Interface to use for routing packets bound for the remote network at the other end of the
tunnel.

Interface

Network

Gateway

ipsec_tunnel

remote_net

<empty>

9.2.2. IPsec LAN to LAN with Certificates

LAN to LAN security is usually provided with pre-shared keys but sometimes it may be desirable
to use X.509 certificates instead. If this is the case, Certificate Authority (CA) signed certificates
may be used and these come from an internal CA server or from a commercial supplier of
certificates.
Creating a LAN to LAN tunnel with certificates follows exactly the same procedures as the
previous section where a pre-shared key was used. The difference is that certificates now replace
pre-shared keys for authentication.
Two unique sets of two CA signed certificates (two for either end, a root certificate and a gateway
certificate) are required for a LAN to LAN tunnel authentication.
The setup steps are as follows:
1.

Open the management Web Interface for the NetDefend Firewall at one end of the tunnel.

2.

Under Key Ring, add the Root Certificate and Host Certificate into NetDefendOS. The root
certificate needs to have 2 parts added: a certificate file and a private key file. The gateway
certificate needs just the certificate file added.

3.

Set up the IPsec Tunnel object as for pre-shared keys, but specify the certificates to use
under Authentication. Do this with the following steps:

4.

a.

Enable the X.509 Certificate option.

b.

Add the Root Certificate to use.

c.

Select the Gateway Certificate.

Open the management Web Interface for the NetDefend Firewall at the other side of the
tunnel and repeat the above steps with a different set of certificates.

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Note: The system time and date should be correct

The NetDefendOS date and time should be set correctly since certificates have an expiry
date and time.

Also review Section 9.7, CA Server Access below, which describes important considerations for
certificate validation.
Self-signed certificates instead of CA signed can be used for LAN to LAN tunnels but the Web
Interface and other interfaces do not have a feature to generate them. Instead, they must be
generated by another utility and imported into NetDefendOS. This means that they are not truly
self-signed since they are generated outside of NetDefendOS control and it should be
remembered that there is no guarantee that their private key is unique. However, the security
provided can still be considered adequate for some scenarios.
Two self-signed certificates are required and the same two are used at either end of the tunnel
but their usage is reversed. In other words: one certificate is used as the root certificate at one
end, call it Side A, and as the host certificate at the other end, call it Side B. The second certificate
is used in the opposite way: as the host certificate at Side A and the root certificate at Side B.
No CA server considerations are needed with self-signed certificates since CRL lookup does not
occur.

9.2.3. IPsec Roaming Clients with Pre-shared Keys

This section details the setup with roaming clients connecting through an IPsec tunnel using
pre-shared keys to a protected Local Network which is located behind a NetDefend Firewall.
There are two types of roaming clients:
A. the IPv4 addresses of the clients are already allocated.
B. the IPv4 addresses of clients are not known beforehand and must be handed out by
NetDefendOS when the clients try to connect.

A. IP addresses already allocated

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the IPv4 addresses may be known beforehand and have been pre-allocated to the roaming
clients before they connect. The client's IP address will be manually input into the VPN client
software.
1.

Set up user authentication. XAuth user authentication is not required with IPsec roaming
clients but is recommended (this step could initially be left out to simplify setup). The
authentication source can be one of the following:

A Local User DB object which is internal to NetDefendOS.

An external authentication server.

An internal user database is easier to set up and is assumed here. Changing this to an
external server is simple to do later.
To implement user authentication with an internal database:

Define a Local User DB object (let's call this object TrustedUsers).

Add individual users to TrustedUsers. This should consist of at least a username and
password combination.
The Group string for a user can be specified if its group's access is to be restricted to
certain source networks. Group can be specified (with the same text string) in the
Authentication section of an IP object. If that IP object is then used as the Source
Network of a rule in the IP rule set, that rule will only apply to a user if their Group string
matches the Group string of the IP object.

Note
Group has no meaning in Authentication Rules.

Create a new User Authentication Rule with the Authentication Source set to
TrustedUsers. The other parameters for the rule are:

Agent

Auth Source

Src Network

Interface

Client Source IP

XAUTH

Local

all-nets

any

all-nets (0.0.0.0/0)

2.

The IPsec Tunnel object ipsec_tunnel should have the following parameters:

Set Local Network to lannet.

Set Remote Network to all-nets

Set Remote Endpoint to all-nets.

Set Encapsulation mode to Tunnel.

Set the IKE and IPsec algorithm proposal lists to match the capabilities of the clients.

No routes can be predefined so the option Dynamically add route to the remote
network when tunnel established should be enabled for the tunnel object. If all-nets is
the destination network, the option Add route for remote network should be disabled.

Note
The option to dynamically add routes should not be enabled in LAN to LAN
tunnel scenarios.

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3.

Enable the option Require IKE XAuth user authentication for inbound IPsec tunnels.
This will enable a search for the first matching XAUTH rule in the authentication rules.

The IP rule set should contain the single rule:

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Service

Allow

ipsec_tunnel

all-nets

lan

lannet

all_services

Once an Allow rule permits the connection to be set up, bidirectional traffic flow is allowed which
is why only one rule is used here. Instead of all-nets being used in the above, a more secure
defined IP object could be used which specifies the exact range of the pre-allocated IP addresses.

B. IP addresses handed out by NetDefendOS

If the client IP addresses are not known then they must be handed out by NetDefendOS. To do
this the above must be modified with the following:
1.

2.

If a specific IP address range is to be used as a pool of available addresses then:

Create a Config Mode Pool object (there can only be one associated with a
NetDefendOS installation) and in it specify the address range.

Enable the IKE Config Mode Pool option in the IPsec Tunnel object ipsec_tunnel.

If client IP addresses are to be retrieved through DHCP:

Create an IP Pool object and in it specify the DHCP server to use. The DHCP server can
be specified as a simple IP address or alternatively as being accessible on a specific
interface. If an internal DHCP server is to be used then specify the loopback address
127.0.0.1 as the DHCP server IP address.

Create a Config Mode Pool object (there can only be one associated with a
NetDefendOS installation) and associate with it the IP Pool object defined in the
previous step.

Enable the IKE Config Mode Pool option in the IPsec Tunnel object ipsec_tunnel so the
created pool is selected.

Configuring IPsec Clients

In both cases (A) and (B) above, the IPsec client will need to be correctly configured. The client
configuration will require the following:

Define the URL or IP address of the NetDefend Firewall. The client needs to locate the tunnel
endpoint.

Define the pre-shared key that is used for IPsec security.

Define the IPsec algorithms that will be used and which are supported by NetDefendOS.

Specify if the client will use config mode.

There are a variety of IPsec client software products available from a number of suppliers and this
manual will not focus on any specific one. The network administrator should use the client that is
best suited to their budget and needs.

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9.2.4. IPsec Roaming Clients with Certificates

If certificates are used with IPsec roaming clients instead of pre-shared keys then no Pre-shared
Key object is needed and the other differences in the setup described above are:
1.

Load a Root Certificate and a Gateway Certificate into NetDefendOS. The root certificate
needs to have 2 parts added: a certificate file and a private key file. The gateway certificate
needs just the certificate file added.

2.

When setting up the IPsec Tunnel object, specify the certificates to use under
Authentication. This is done by doing the following:

3.

a.

Enable the X.509 Certificate option.

b.

Select the Gateway Certificate.

c.

Add the Root Certificate to use.

The IPsec client software will need to be appropriately configured with the certificates and
remote IP addresses. As already mentioned above, many third party IPsec client products
are available and this manual will not discuss any particular client.

The step to set up user authentication is optional since this is additional security to certificates.

Note: The system time and date should be correct

The NetDefendOS date and time should be set correctly since certificates have an expiry
date and time.

Also review Section 9.7, CA Server Access, which describes important considerations for
certificate validation.

9.2.5. L2TP Roaming Clients with Pre-Shared Keys

Due to the inbuilt L2TP client in Microsoft Windows, L2TP is a popular choice for roaming client
VPN scenarios. L2TP is usually encapsulated in IPsec to provide encryption with IPsec running in
transport mode instead of tunnel mode. The steps for L2TP over IPsec setup are:
1.

Create an IPv4 address object (let's call it l2tp_pool) which defines the range of IP addresses
which can be handed out to clients. Note that this object is a normal address book object
and not an IP Pool object.
The range chosen for this address object can be one of the following two types:

2.

A range taken from the internal network to which clients will connect. If the internal
network is 192.168.0.0/24 then we might use the address range 192.168.0.10 to
192.168.0.20. The danger here is that an IP address might be accidentally used on the
internal network and handed out to a client.

Use a new address range that is totally different to any internal network. This prevents
any chance of an address in the range also being used on the internal network.

Define two other IP objects:

wan_ip which is the external public IPv4 address through which clients connect (assume
this is on the wan interface).
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lan_ip which is the internal IP address of the interface to which the internal network is
connected (let's call this interface lan).

3.

Define a Pre-shared Key for the IPsec tunnel.

4.

Define an IPsec Tunnel object (let's call this object ipsec_tunnel) with the following
parameters:

5.

6.

Set Local Network to wan_ip (specify all-nets instead if NetDefendOS is behind a

NATing device).

Set Remote Network to all-nets.

Set Remote Endpoint to none.

For Authentication select the Pre-shared Key object defined in the first step.

Set Encapsulation Mode to Transport.

Select the IKE and IPsec algorithm proposal lists to be used.

Disable the IPsec tunnel routing option Dynamically add route to the remote network
when tunnel established.

When all-nets is the destination network, as is the case here, the advanced setting option
Add route for remote network must also be disabled. This setting is enabled by
default.

Define an PPTP/L2TP Server object (let's call this object l2tp_tunnel) with the following
parameters:

Set Inner IP Address to lan_ip.

Set Tunnel Protocol to L2TP.

Set Outer Interface Filter to ipsec_tunnel.

Set Outer Server IP to wan_ip.

Select the Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption allowed. Since IPsec encryption is used
this can be set to be None only, otherwise double encryption will degrade throughput.

Set IP Pool to l2tp_pool.

Enable Proxy ARP on the lan interface to which the internal network is connected.

Make the interface a member of a specific routing table so that routes are automatically
added to that table. Normally the main table is selected.

For user authentication:

Define a Local User DB object (let's call this object TrustedUsers).

Add individual users to TrustedUsers. This should consist of at least a username and
password combination.
The Group string for a user can also be specified. This is explained in the same step in
the IPsec Roaming Clients section above.

Define a User Authentication Rule:

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Agent

Auth Source

Src Network

Interface

Client Source IP

PPP

Local

all-nets

l2tp_tunnel

all-nets (0.0.0.0/0)

7.

To allow traffic through the L2TP tunnel the following rules should be defined in the IP rule
set:

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Service

Allow

l2tp_tunnel

l2tp_pool

any

int_net

all_services

NAT

l2tp_tunnel

l2tp_pool

ext

all-nets

all_services

The second rule would be included to allow clients to surf the Internet via the lan interface on
the NetDefend Firewall. The client will be allocated a private internal IP address which must be
NATed if connections are then made out to the public Internet via the NetDefend Firewall.
8.

Set up the client. Assuming Windows XP, the Create new connection option in Network
Connections should be selected to start the New Connection Wizard. The key information to
enter in this wizard is the resolvable URL of the NetDefend Firewall or alternatively its
wan_ip IP address.
Then choose Network > Properties. In the dialog that opens choose the L2TP Tunnel and
select Properties. In the new dialog that opens select the Networking tab and choose
Force to L2TP. Now go back to the L2TP Tunnel properties, select the Security tab and click
on the IPsec Settings button. Now enter the pre-shared key.

9.2.6. L2TP Roaming Clients with Certificates

If certificates are used with L2TP roaming clients instead of pre-shared keys then the differences
in the setup described above are as follows:

The NetDefendOS date and time must be set correctly since certificates can expire.

Load a Gateway Certificate and Root Certificate into NetDefendOS.

When setting up the IPsec Tunnel object, specify the certificates to use under
Authentication. This is done by:

i.

Enable the X.509 Certificate option.

ii.

Select the Gateway Certificate.

iii.

Add the Root Certificate to use.

If using the Windows XP L2TP client, the appropriate certificates need to be imported into
Windows before setting up the connection with the New Connection Wizard.

The step to set up user authentication is optional since this is additional security to certificates.
Also review Section 9.7, CA Server Access, which describes important considerations for
certificate validation.

9.2.7. PPTP Roaming Clients

PPTP is simpler to set up than L2TP since IPsec is not used and instead relies on its own, less

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strong, encryption.
A major secondary disadvantage is not being able to NAT PPTP connections through a tunnel so
multiple clients can use a single connection to the NetDefend Firewall. If NATing is tried then
only the first client that tries to connect will succeed.
The steps for PPTP setup are as follows:
1.

2.

3.

In the Address Book define the following IP objects:

A pptp_pool IP object which is the range of internal IP addresses that will be handed out
from an internal network.

An int_net object which is the internal network from which the addresses come.

An lan_ip object which is the internal IP address of the interface connected to the
internal network. Let us assume that this interface is lan.

An wan_ip object which is the external public address which clients will connect to (let's
assume this is on the wan interface).

Define a PPTP/L2TP object (let's call it pptp_tunnel) with the following parameters:

Set Inner IP Address to ip_net.

Set Tunnel Protocol to PPTP.

Set Outer Interface Filter to wan.

Set Outer server IP to wan_ip.

For Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption it is recommended to disable all options

except 128 bit encryption.

Set IP Pool to pptp_pool.

Enable Proxy ARP on the lan interface.

As in L2TP, enable the insertion of new routes automatically into the main routing table.

Define a User Authentication Rule, this is almost identical to L2TP:

Agent

Auth Source

Src Network

Interface

Client Source IP

PPP

Local

all-nets

pptp_tunnel

all-nets (0.0.0.0/0)

4.

Now set up the IP rules in the IP rule set:

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Service

Allow

pptp_tunnel

pptp_pool

any

int_net

all_services

NAT

pptp_tunnel

pptp_pool

ext

all-nets

all_services

As described for L2TP, the NAT rule lets the clients access the public Internet via the NetDefend
Firewall.
5.

Set up the client. For Windows XP, the procedure is exactly as described for L2TP above but
without entering the pre-shared key.

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9.2.8. iOS Setup

The standard IPsec client built into Apple iOS devices can be used to connect to a NetDefend
Firewall using standard IPsec tunnels defined in NetDefendOS. The NetDefendOS setup steps are
as follows:
1.

Create address book objects for the tunnel. These will consist of:
i.

The network to which the local endpoint and the client addresses belong. For example,
192.168.99.0/24.

ii.

The local tunnel endpoint. For example, 192.168.99.1.

iii.

A range of addresses to be handed out to connecting clients. For example,

192.168.99.10-192.168.99.250.

2.

Create a Pre-shared Key (PSK) object of type Passphrase (ASCII). This is the shared secret that
will be entered into the IPsec client on the iOS device along with username and password.

3.

Create a Config Mode Pool object, select the option Use a Static IP Pool and associate the IP
address range defined in the first step.

4.

Populate a local user database with users that have a username and password. This function
could also be performed by a RADIUS server.

5.

Define an IPsec tunnel object using the default proposal lists and with the following
properties:
i.

Local Network: all-nets

ii.

Remote Network: all-nets

iii.

Remote Endpoint: None

iv.

Encapsulation mode: Tunnel

v.

IKE Config Mode Pool: Select the static IP pool

vi.

Authentication: Select the PSK defined above.

vii. Select XAuth authentication for inbound tunnels

viii. Allow DHCP over IPsec from single-host clients
ix.

Enable the option to Dynamically add a route to the remote network when tunnel is
established

x.

IP Addresses: Specify manually to be the local tunnel endpoint address

xi.

Security Assocation: Per Host

xii. Disable the option Add route to remote network

6.

Place the tunnel last in the list of IPsec tunnels. Also be aware that this tunnel cannot coexist
with a PSK tunnel for L2TP/IPsec.

7.

Create a User Authentication Rule with the following properties:

i.

Authentication Agent: XAuth

ii.

Authentication Source: Local (or RADIUS)

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8.

iii.

Originator IP: all-nets

iv.

Local User DB: The local user database

Add IP rules for the client traffic. Typical rules will be Allow rules that permit clients to access
protected resources and NAT rules to reach the public Internet via the tunnel.

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9.3. IPsec Components

This section looks at the IPsec standards and describes in general terms the various components,
techniques and algorithms that are used in IPsec based VPNs.

9.3.1. Overview
Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is a set of protocols defined by the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) to provide IP security at the network layer. An IPsec based VPN is made up of two
parts:

Internet Key Exchange protocol (IKE)

IPsec protocols (AH/ESP/both)

The first part, IKE, is the initial negotiation phase, where the two VPN endpoints agree on which
methods will be used to provide security for the underlying IP traffic. Furthermore, IKE is used to
manage connections, by defining a set of Security Associations, SAs, for each connection. SAs are
unidirectional, so there are usually at least two for each IPsec connection.
The second part is the actual IP data being transferred, using the encryption and authentication
methods agreed upon in the IKE negotiation. This can be accomplished in a number of ways; by
using IPsec protocols ESP, AH, or a combination of both.
The flow of events can be briefly described as follows:

IKE negotiates how IKE should be protected

IKE negotiates how IPsec should be protected

IPsec moves data in the VPN

The following sections will describe each of these stages in detail.

9.3.2. Internet Key Exchange (IKE)

This section describes IKE, the Internet Key Exchange protocol, and the parameters that are used
with it.
Encrypting and authenticating data is fairly straightforward, the only things needed are
encryption and authentication algorithms, and the keys used with them. The Internet Key
Exchange (IKE) protocol, IKE, is used as a method of distributing these "session keys", as well as
providing a way for the VPN endpoints to agree on how the data should be protected.
IKE has three main tasks:

Provide a means for the endpoints to authenticate each other

Establish new IPsec connections (create SA pairs)

Manage existing connections

Security Associations (SAs)

IKE keeps track of connections by assigning a set of Security Associations, SAs, to each
connection. An SA describes all parameters associated with a particular connection, such as the

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IPsec protocol used (ESP/AH/both) as well as the session keys used to encrypt/decrypt and/or
authenticate/verify the transmitted data.
An SA is unidirectional and relates to traffic flow in one direction only. For the bidirectional traffic
that is usually found in a VPN, there is therefore a need for more than one SA per connection. In
most cases, where only one of ESP or AH is used, two SAs will be created for each connection,
one describing the incoming traffic, and the other the outgoing. In cases where ESP and AH are
used in conjunction, four SAs will be created.

IKE Negotiation
The process of negotiating session parameters consists of a number of phases and modes. These
are described in detail in the below sections.
The flow of events can be summarized as follows:
IKE Phase-1

Negotiate how IKE should be protected

Negotiate how IPsec should be protected

Derive some fresh keying material from the key exchange in phase-1, to
provide session keys to be used in the encryption and authentication of
the VPN data flow

IKE Phase-2

IKE and IPsec Lifetimes

Both the IKE and the IPsec connections have limited lifetimes, described both in terms of time
(seconds), and data (kilobytes). These lifetimes prevent a connection from being used too long,
which is desirable from a crypto-analysis perspective.
The IPsec lifetime must be shorter than the IKE lifetime. The difference between the two must be
a minimum of 5 minutes. This allows for the IPsec connection to be re-keyed simply by
performing another phase-2 negotiation. There is no need to do another phase-1 negotiation
until the IKE lifetime has expired.

IKE Algorithm Proposals

An IKE algorithm proposal list is a suggestion of how to protect IPsec data flows. The VPN device
initiating an IPsec connection will send a list of the algorithms combinations it supports for
protecting the connection and it is then up to the device at the other end of the connection to
say which proposal is acceptable.
The responding VPN device, upon receiving the list of supported algorithms, will choose the
algorithm combination that best matches its own security policies, and reply by specifying which
member of the list it has chosen. If no mutually acceptable proposal can be found, the responder
will reply by saying that nothing on the list was acceptable, and possibly also provide a textual
explanation for diagnostic purposes.
This negotiation to find a mutually acceptable algorithm combination is done not just to find the
best way to protect the IPsec connection but also to find the best way to protect the IKE
negotiation itself.
Algorithm proposal lists contain not just the acceptable algorithm combinations for encrypting
and authenticating data but also other IKE related parameters. Further details of the IKE
negotiation and the other IKE parameters are described next.

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IKE Phase-1 - IKE Security Negotiation

An IKE negotiation is performed in two phases. The first phase, phase 1, is used to authenticate
the two VPN firewalls or VPN Clients to each other, by confirming that the remote device has a
matching Pre-Shared Key.
However, since we do not want to publish to much of the negotiation in plaintext, we first agree
upon a way of protecting the rest of the IKE negotiation. This is done, as described in the
previous section, by the initiator sending a proposal-list to the responder. When this has been
done, and the responder accepted one of the proposals, we try to authenticate the other end of
the VPN to make sure it is who we think it is, as well as proving to the remote device that we are
who we claim to be. A technique known as a Diffie Hellman Key Exchange is used to initially agree
a shared secret between the two parties in the negotiation and to derive keys for encryption.
Authentication can be accomplished through Pre-Shared Keys, certificates or public key
encryption. Pre-Shared Keys is the most common authentication method today. PSK and
certificates are supported by the NetDefendOS VPN module.

IKE Phase-2 - IPsec Security Negotiation

In phase 2, another negotiation is performed, detailing the parameters for the IPsec connection.
During phase 2 we will also extract new keying material from the Diffie-Hellman key exchange in
phase 1 in order to provide session keys to use in protecting the VPN data flow.
If Perfect Forwarding Secrecy (PFS) is used, a new Diffie-Hellman exchange is performed for each
phase 2 negotiation. While this is slower, it makes sure that no keys are dependent on any other
previously used keys; no keys are extracted from the same initial keying material. This is to make
sure that, in the unlikely event that some key was compromised, no subsequent keys can be
derived.
Once the phase 2 negotiation is finished, the VPN connection is established and ready for traffic
to pass through it.

IKE Parameters
There are a number of parameters used in the negotiation process.
Below is a summary of the configuration parameters needed to establish a VPN connection.
Understanding what these parameters do before attempting to configure the VPN endpoints is
strongly recommended, since it is of great importance that both endpoints are able to agree on
all of these parameters.
With two NetDefend Firewalls as VPN endpoints, the matching process is greatly simplified since
the default NetDefendOS configuration parameters will be the same at either end. However, it
may not be as straightforward when equipment from different vendors is involved in
establishing the VPN tunnel.
Endpoint Identification

The Local ID is a piece of data representing the identity of

the VPN tunnel endpoint. With Pre-Shared Keys this is a
unique piece of data uniquely identifying the endpoint.
Authentication using Pre-Shared Keys is based on the
Diffie-Hellman algorithm.

Local and Remote

Networks/Hosts

These are the subnets or hosts between which IP traffic will

be protected by the VPN. In a LAN-to-LAN connection,
these will be the network addresses of the respective LANs.

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If roaming clients are used, the remote network will most

likely be set to all-nets, meaning that the roaming client
may connect from anywhere.
Tunnel / Transport Mode

IPsec can be used in two modes, tunnel or transport.

Tunnel mode indicates that the traffic will be tunneled to a
remote device, which will decrypt/authenticate the data,
extract it from its tunnel and pass it on to its final
destination. This way, an eavesdropper will only see
encrypted traffic going from one of VPN endpoint to
another.
In transport mode, the traffic will not be tunneled, and is
hence not applicable to VPN tunnels. It can be used to
secure a connection from a VPN client directly to the
NetDefend Firewall, for example for IPsec protected remote
configuration.
This setting will typically be set to "tunnel" in most
configurations.

Remote Endpoint

The remote endpoint (sometimes also referred to as the

remote gateway) is the device that does the VPN
decryption/authentication and that passes the unencrypted
data on to its final destination. This field can also be set to
None, forcing the NetDefend Firewall to treat the remote
address as the remote endpoint. This is particularly useful in
cases of roaming access, where the IP addresses of the
remote VPN clients are not known beforehand. Setting this
to "none" will allow anyone coming from an IP address
conforming to the "remote network" address discussed
above to open a VPN connection, provided they can
authenticate properly.
The remote endpoint can be specified as a URL string such
as vpn.company.com. If this is done, the prefix dns: must be
used. The string above should therefore be specified as
dns:vpn.company.com.
The remote endpoint is not used in transport mode.

Main/Aggressive Mode

The IKE negotiation has two modes of operation, main

mode and aggressive mode.
The difference between these two is that aggressive mode
will pass more information in fewer packets, with the
benefit of slightly faster connection establishment, at the
cost of transmitting the identities of the security firewalls in
the clear.
When using aggressive mode, some configuration
parameters, such as Diffie-Hellman groups and PFS, cannot
be negotiated and this mean it is important to have
"compatible" configurations at both ends.

IPsec Protocols

The IPsec protocols describe how the data will be

processed. The two protocols to choose from are AH,
Authentication Header, and ESP, Encapsulating Security
Payload.

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ESP provides encryption, authentication, or both. However,

it is not recommended to use encryption only, since it will
dramatically decrease security.
Note that AH only provides authentication. The difference
from ESP with authentication only is that AH also
authenticates parts of the outer IP header, for instance
source and destination addresses, making certain that the
packet really came from who the IP header claims it is from.

Note
NetDefendOS does not support AH.

IKE Encryption

This specifies the encryption algorithm used in the IKE

negotiation, and depending on the algorithm, the size of
the encryption key used.
The algorithms supported by NetDefendOS IPsec are:

AES

Blowfish

Twofish

Cast128

3DES

DES

DES is only included to be interoperable with other older

VPN implementations. The use of DES should be avoided
whenever possible, since it is an older algorithm that is no
longer considered to be sufficiently secure.
IKE Authentication

This specifies the authentication algorithms used in the IKE

negotiation phase.
The algorithms supported by NetDefendOS IPsec are:

SHA1

MD5

IKE DH Group

This specifies the Diffie-Hellman group to use for the IKE

exchange. The available DH groups are discussed below.

IKE Lifetime

This is the lifetime of the IKE connection.

It is specified in time (seconds) as well as data amount
(kilobytes). Whenever one of these expires, a new phase-1
exchange will be performed. If no data was transmitted in
the last "incarnation" of the IKE connection, no new
connection will be made until someone wants to use the
VPN connection again. This value must be set greater than
the IPsec SA lifetime.

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PFS

With Perfect Forwarding Secrecy (PFS) disabled, initial keying

material is "created" during the key exchange in phase-1 of
the IKE negotiation. In phase-2 of the IKE negotiation,
encryption and authentication session keys will be
extracted from this initial keying material. By using PFS,
completely new keying material will always be created
upon re-key. Should one key be compromised, no other key
can be derived using that information.
PFS can be used in two modes: the first is PFS on keys,
where a new key exchange will be performed in every
phase-2 negotiation. The other type is PFS on identities,
where the identities are also protected, by deleting the
phase-1 SA every time a phase-2 negotiation has been
finished, making sure no more than one phase-2
negotiation is encrypted using the same key.
PFS is generally not needed, since it is very unlikely that any
encryption or authentication keys will be compromised.

PFS DH Group

This specifies the Diffie-Hellman group to use with PFS. The

available DH groups are discussed below.

IPsec DH Group

This specifies the Diffie-Hellman group to use for IPsec

communication. The available DH groups are discussed
below in the section titled Diffie-Hellman Groups.

IPsec Encryption

The encryption algorithm that will be used on the

protected IPsec traffic.
This is not needed when AH is used, or when ESP is used
without encryption.
The algorithms supported by NetDefend Firewall VPNs are:

IPsec Authentication

AES

Blowfish

Twofish

Cast128

3DES

DES

This specifies the authentication algorithm used on the

protected traffic.
This is not used when ESP is used without authentication,
although it is not recommended to use ESP without
authentication.
The algorithms supported by NetDefend Firewall VPNs are:

IPsec Lifetime

SHA1

MD5

This is the lifetime of the VPN connection. It is specified in

both time (seconds) and data amount (kilobytes). Whenever

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either of these values is exceeded, a re-key will be initiated,

providing new IPsec encryption and authentication session
keys. If the VPN connection has not been used during the
last re-key period, the connection will be terminated, and
re-opened from scratch when the connection is needed
again.
This value must be set lower than the IKE lifetime.

Diffie-Hellman Groups
Diffie-Hellman (DH) is a cryptographic protocol that allows two parties that have no prior
knowledge of each other to establish a shared secret key over an insecure communications
channel through a series of plain text exchanges. Even though the exchanges between the
parties might be monitored by a third party, Diffie-Hellman makes it extremely difficult for the
third party to determine what the agreed shared secret key is and to decrypt data that is
encrypted using the key.
Diffie-Hellman is used to establish the shared secret keys for IKE, IPsec and PFS.
The Diffie-Hellman group indicates the degree of security used for DH exchanges. The higher the
group number, the greater the security but also the processing overhead. The DH groups
supported by NetDefendOS are as follows:

DH group 1 (768-bit)

DH group 2 (1024-bit)

DH group 5 (1536-bit)

All these DH groups are available for use with IKE, IPsec and PFS.

9.3.3. IKE Authentication

Manual Keying
The "simplest" way of configuring a VPN is by using a method called manual keying. This is a
method where IKE is not used at all; the encryption and authentication keys as well as some
other parameters are directly configured on both sides of the VPN tunnel.

Note
NetDefendOS does not support manual keying.

Manual Keying Advantages

Since it is very straightforward it will be quite interoperable. Most interoperability problems
encountered today are in IKE. Manual keying completely bypasses IKE and sets up its own set of
IPsec SAs.

Manual Keying Disadvantages

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It is an old method, which was used before IKE came into use, and is thus lacking all the
functionality of IKE. This method therefore has a number of limitations, such as having to use the
same encryption/authentication key always, no anti-replay services, and it is not very flexible.
There is also no way of assuring that the remote host/firewall really is the one it says it is.
This type of connection is also vulnerable for something called "replay attacks", meaning a
malicious entity which has access to the encrypted traffic can record some packets, store them,
and send them to its destination at a later time. The destination VPN endpoint will have no way
of telling if this packet is a "replayed" packet or not. Using IKE eliminates this vulnerability.

PSK
Using a Pre-shared Key (PSK) is a method where the endpoints of the VPN "share" a secret key.
This is a service provided by IKE, and thus has all the advantages that come with it, making it far
more flexible than manual keying.

PSK Advantages
Pre-Shared Keying has a lot of advantages over manual keying. These include endpoint
authentication, which is what the PSKs are really for. It also includes all the benefits of using IKE.
Instead of using a fixed set of encryption keys, session keys will be used for a limited period of
time, where after a new set of session keys are used.

PSK Disadvantages
One thing that has to be considered when using Pre-Shared Keys is key distribution. How are the
Pre-Shared Keys distributed to remote VPN clients and firewalls? This is a major issue, since the
security of a PSK system is based on the PSKs being secret. Should one PSK be compromised, the
configuration will need to be changed to use a new PSK.

Certificates
Each VPN firewall has its own certificate, and one or more trusted root certificates.
The authentication is based on several things:

That each endpoint has the private key corresponding to the public key found in its
certificate, and that nobody else has access to the private key.

That the certificate has been signed by someone that the remote endpoint trusts.

Advantages of Certificates
A principal advantage of certificates is added flexibility. Many VPN clients, for instance, can be
managed without having the same pre-shared key configured on all of them, which is often the
case when using pre-shared keys and roaming clients. Instead, should a client be compromised,
the client's certificate can simply be revoked. No need to reconfigure every client.

Disadvantages of Certificates
The principal disadvantage of certificates is the added complexity. Certificate-based
authentication may be used as part of a larger public key infrastructure, making all VPN clients
and firewalls dependent on third parties. In other words, there are more aspects that have to be
configured, and there is more that can go wrong.

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9.3.4. IPsec Protocols (ESP/AH)

The IPsec protocols are the protocols used to protect the actual traffic being passed through the
VPN. The actual protocols used and the keys used with those protocols are negotiated by IKE.
There are two protocols associated with IPsec, AH and ESP. These are covered in the sections
below.

AH (Authentication Header)
AH is a protocol used for authenticating a data stream.

Figure 9.1. The AH protocol

AH uses a cryptographic hash function to produce a MAC from the data in the IP packet. This
MAC is then transmitted with the packet, allowing the remote endpoint to verify the integrity of
the original IP packet, making sure the data has not been tampered with on its way through the
Internet. Apart from the IP packet data, AH also authenticates parts of the IP header.
The AH protocol inserts an AH header after the original IP header. In tunnel mode, the AH header
is inserted after the outer header, but before the original, inner IP header.

ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload)

The ESP protocol inserts an ESP header after the original IP header, in tunnel mode, the ESP
header is inserted after the outer header, but before the original, inner IP header.
All data after the ESP header is encrypted and/or authenticated. The difference from AH is that
ESP also provides encryption of the IP packet. The authentication phase also differs in that ESP
only authenticates the data after the ESP header; thus the outer IP header is left unprotected.
The ESP protocol is used for both encryption and authentication of the IP packet. It can also be
used to do either encryption only, or authentication only.

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Figure 9.2. The ESP protocol

9.3.5. NAT Traversal

Both IKE and IPsec protocols present a problem in the functioning of NAT. Both protocols were
not designed to work through NATs and because of this, a technique called "NAT traversal" has
evolved. NAT traversal is an add-on to the IKE and IPsec protocols that allows them to function
when being NATed. NetDefendOS supports the RFC3947 standard for NAT-Traversal with IKE.
NAT traversal is divided into two parts:

Additions to IKE that lets IPsec peers tell each other that they support NAT traversal, and the
specific versions supported. NetDefendOS supports the RFC3947 standard for NAT-Traversal
with IKE.

Changes to the ESP encapsulation. If NAT traversal is used, ESP is encapsulated in UDP, which
allows for more flexible NATing.

Below is a more detailed description of the changes made to the IKE and IPsec protocols.
NAT traversal is only used if both ends have support for it. For this purpose, NAT traversal aware
VPNs send out a special "vendor ID" to tell the other end of the tunnel that it understands NAT
traversal, and which specific versions of the draft it supports.

Achieving NAT Detection

To achieve NAT detection both IPsec peers send hashes of their own IP addresses along with the
source UDP port used in the IKE negotiations. This information is used to see whether the IP
address and source port each peer uses is the same as what the other peer sees. If the source
address and port have not changed, then the traffic has not been NATed along the way, and NAT
traversal is not necessary. If the source address and/or port has changed, then the traffic has
been NATed, and NAT traversal is used.

Changing Ports
Once the IPsec peers have decided that NAT traversal is necessary, the IKE negotiation is moved
away from UDP port 500 to port 4500. This is necessary since certain NAT devices treat UDP
packet on port 500 differently from other UDP packets in an effort to work around the NAT
problems with IKE. The problem is that this special handling of IKE packets may in fact break the
IKE negotiations, which is why the UDP port used by IKE has changed.

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UDP Encapsulation
Another problem that NAT traversal resolves is that the ESP protocol is an IP protocol. There is no
port information as we have in TCP and UDP, which makes it impossible to have more than one
NATed client connected to the same remote gateway and at the same time. Because of this, ESP
packets are encapsulated in UDP. ESP-UDP traffic is sent on port 4500, the same port as IKE when
NAT traversal is used. Once the port has been changed, all following IKE communication is done
over port 4500. Keep-alive packets are also sent periodically to keep the NAT mapping alive.

NAT Traversal Configuration

Most NAT traversal functionality is completely automatic and in the initiating firewall no special
configuration is needed. However, for responding firewalls two points should be noted:

On responding firewalls, the Remote Endpoint field is used as a filter on the source IP of
received IKE packets. This should be set to allow the NATed IP address of the initiator.

When individual pre-shared keys are used with multiple tunnels connecting to one remote
firewall which are then NATed out through the same address, it is important to make sure the
Local ID is unique for every tunnel. The Local ID can be one of

Auto - The local ID is taken as the IP address of the outgoing interface. This is the
recommended setting unless the two firewalls have the same external IP address.

IP - An IP address can be manually entered

DNS - A DNS address can be manually entered

Email - An email address can be manually entered

9.3.6. Algorithm Proposal Lists

To agree on the VPN connection parameters, a negotiation process is performed. As a result of
the negotiations, the IKE and IPsec security associations (SAs) are established. A proposal list of
supported algorithms is the starting point for the negotiation. Each entry in the list defines
parameters for a supported algorithm that the VPN tunnel end point device is capable of
supporting (the shorter term tunnel endpoint will also be used in this manual). The initial
negotiation attempts to agree on a set of algorithms that the devices at either end of the tunnel
can support.
There are two types of proposal lists, IKE proposal lists and IPsec proposal lists. IKE lists are used
during IKE Phase-1 (IKE Security Negotiation), while IPsec lists are using during IKE Phase-2 (IPsec
Security Negotiation).
Several algorithm proposal lists are already defined by default in NetDefendOS for different VPN
scenarios and user defined lists can be added.
Two IKE algorithm lists and two IPsec lists are already defined by default:

High
This consists of a more restricted set of algorithms to give higher security. The complete list is
3DES, AES, Blowfish, MD5, SHA1.

Medium
This consists of a longer set of algorithms. The complete list is 3DES, AES, Blowfish, Twofish,

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CAST128, MD5, SHA1.

Example 9.1. Using an Algorithm Proposal List

This example shows how to create and use an IPsec Algorithm Proposal List for use in the VPN
tunnel. It will propose 3DES and DES as encryption algorithms. The hash function SHA1 and MD5
will both be used in order to check if the data packet is altered while being transmitted. Note
that this example does not illustrate how to add the specific IPsec tunnel object. It will also be
used in a later example.
Command-Line Interface
First create a list of IPsec Algorithms:
gw-world:/> add IPsecAlgorithms esp-l2tptunnel
DESEnabled=Yes
DES3Enabled=Yes
SHA1Enabled=Yes
MD5Enabled=Yes

Then, apply the algorithm proposal list to the IPsec tunnel:

gw-world:/> set Interface IPsecTunnel MyIPsecTunnel
IPsecAlgorithms=esp-l2tptunnel

Web Interface
First create a list of IPsec Algorithms:
1.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > IPsec Algorithms > Add > IPsec Algorithms

2.

Enter a name for the list, for example esp-l2tptunnel

3.

Now check the following:

4.

DES

3DES

SHA1

MD5

Click OK

Then, apply the algorithm proposal list to the IPsec tunnel:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec

2.

Select the target IPsec tunnel

3.

Select the recently created esp-l2tptunnel in the IPsec Algorithms control

4.

Click OK

9.3.7. Pre-shared Keys

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Pre-Shared Keys are used to authenticate VPN tunnels. The keys are secrets that are shared by
the communicating parties before communication takes place. To communicate, both parties
prove that they know the secret. The security of a shared secret depends on how "good" a
passphrase is. Passphrases that are common words are extremely vulnerable to dictionary
attacks.
Pre-shared Keys can be generated automatically through the Web Interface but they can also be
generated through the CLI using the command pskgen (this command is fully documented in the
CLI Reference Guide).

Beware of Non-ASCII Characters in a PSK on Different Platforms!

If a PSK is specified as a passphrase and not a hexadecimal value, the different encodings on
different platforms can cause a problem with non-ASCII characters. Windows, for example,
encodes pre-shared keys containing non ASCII characters in UTF-16 while NetDefendOS uses
UTF-8. Even though they can seem the same at either end of the tunnel there will be a mismatch
and this can sometimes cause problems when setting up a Windows L2TP client that connects to
NetDefendOS.
Example 9.2. Using a Pre-Shared key
This example shows how to create a Pre-shared Key and apply it to a VPN tunnel. Since regular
words and phrases are vulnerable to dictionary attacks, they should not be used as secrets. Here
the pre-shared key is a randomly generated hexadecimal key. Note that this example does not
illustrate how to add the specific IPsec tunnel object.
Command-Line Interface
First create a Pre-shared Key. To generate the key automatically with a 64 bit (the default) key,
use:
gw-world:/> pskgen MyPSK

To have a longer, more secure 512 bit key the command would be:
gw-world:/> pskgen MyPSK -size=512

Or alternatively, to add the Pre-shared Key manually, use:

gw-world:/> add PSK MyPSK Type=HEX PSKHex=<enter the key here>

Now apply the Pre-shared Key to the IPsec tunnel:

gw-world:/> set Interface IPsecTunnel MyIPsecTunnel PSK=MyPSK

Web Interface
First create a Pre-shared Key:
1.

Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Pre-shared key

2.

Enter a name for the pre-shared key, for example MyPSK

3.

Choose Hexadecimal Key and click Generate Random Key to generate a key to the
Passphrase textbox

4.

Click OK

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Then, apply the pre-shared key to the IPsec tunnel:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec

2.

Select the target IPsec tunnel object

3.

Under the Authentication tab, choose Pre-shared Key and select MyPSK

4.

Click OK

9.3.8. Identification Lists

When certificates are used as authentication method for IPsec tunnels, the NetDefend Firewall
will accept all remote devices or VPN clients that are capable of presenting a certificate signed by
any of the trusted Certificate Authorities. This can be a potential problem, especially when using
roaming clients.

A Typical Scenario
Consider the scenario of travelling employees being given access to the internal corporate
networks using VPN clients. The organization administers their own Certificate Authority, and
certificates have been issued to the employees. Different groups of employees are likely to have
access to different parts of the internal networks. For example, members of the sales force need
access to servers running the order system, while technical engineers need access to technical
databases.

The Problem
Since the IP addresses of the travelling employees VPN clients cannot be known beforehand, the
incoming VPN connections from the clients cannot be differentiated. This means that the firewall
is unable to control the access to various parts of the internal networks.

The ID List Solution

The concept of Identification Lists presents a solution to this problem. An identification list
contains one or more identities (IDs), where each identity corresponds to the subject field in a
certificate. Identification lists can thus be used to regulate what certificates that are given access
to what IPsec tunnels.
Example 9.3. Using an Identity List
This example shows how to create and use an Identification List for use in the VPN tunnel. This
Identification List will contain one ID with the type DN, distinguished name, as the primary
identifier. Note that this example does not illustrate how to add the specific IPsec tunnel object.
Command-Line Interface
First create an Identification List:
gw-world:/> add IDList MyIDList

Then, create an ID:

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gw-world:/> cc IDList MyIDList

gw-world:/MyIDList> add ID JohnDoe

Type=DistinguishedName
CommonName="John Doe"
OrganizationName=D-Link
OrganizationalUnit=Support
Country=Sweden
[email protected]

gw-world:/MyIDList> cc

Finally, apply the Identification List to the IPsec tunnel:

gw-world:/> set Interface IPsecTunnel MyIPsecTunnel
AuthMethod=Certificate
IDList=MyIDList
RootCertificates=AdminCert
GatewayCertificate=AdminCert

Web Interface
First create an Identification List:
1.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > IKE ID Lists > Add > ID List

2.

Enter a name for the list, for example MyIDList

3.

Click OK

Then, create an ID:

1.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > IKE ID Lists > Add > ID List

2.

Select MyIDList

3.

Enter a name for the ID, for example JohnDoe

4.

Select Distinguished name in the Type control

5.

Now enter:

6.

Common Name: John Doe

Organization Name: D-Link

Organizational Unit: Support

Country: Sweden

Email Address: [email protected]

Click OK

Finally, apply the Identification List to the IPsec tunnel:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec

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2.

Select the IPsec tunnel object of interest

3.

Under the Authentication tab, choose X.509 Certificate

4.

Select the appropriate certificate in the Root Certificate(s) and Gateway Certificate
controls

5.

Select MyIDList in the Identification List

6.

Click OK

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9.4. IPsec Tunnels

Many of the properties of the IPsec tunnel objects required for tunnel establishment have
already been discussed in Section 9.3.2, Internet Key Exchange (IKE). This section looks more
closely at IPsec tunnels in NetDefendOS, their definition, options and usage.

9.4.1. Overview
An IPsec Tunnel defines an endpoint of an encrypted tunnel. Each IPsec Tunnel is interpreted as a
logical interface by NetDefendOS, with the same filtering, traffic shaping and configuration
capabilities as regular interfaces.

Setting the Local Endpoint

By default, this property of an IPsec tunnel object is the IP address of the Ethernet interface being
used for the connection. Setting this property means the source address of the tunnel is a
specific IP address.
If this property is assigned an IP address, the administrator must also manually configure
NetDefendOS to ARP publish the IP address on the sending interface. Doing this is described in
Section 3.5.3, ARP Publish.

Setting the Source Interface

If set, the Source Interface property of a tunnel determines which Ethernet interface NetDefendOS
will listen on for incoming IPsec connections. This provides a means to specify that a particular
tunnel is used for connections being received on a particular interface as it takes precedence
over the normal procedure for selecting a tunnel.

Setting the Originator IP Address

This optional property is the local IP address inside the tunnel. NetDefendOS will attempt to set
this value automatically from routing table information but in some cases will be unable to do so
and it will default to the loopback IPv4 address of 127.0.0.1 which will be unacceptable in some
scenarios. Specifically, this property should be set for any of the following cases:

If the local network for the tunnel is all-nets then NetDefendOS will not be able to assign an IP
address and a value will need to be assigned manually. The assigned IP address can then be
used to NAT connections out into the tunnel.

If NetDefendOS itself is sending information through the tunnel such as log messages, a valid
source IP address is needed.

If ICMP ping messages are to be sent out inside the tunnel then a valid IP address is required.

Note that if a value is assigned to this property, a core route is automatically added to all routing
tables which routes the IP address on core.

Remote Initiation of Tunnel Establishment

When another NetDefend Firewall or another IPsec compliant networking product (also known
as the remote endpoint) tries to establish an IPsec VPN tunnel to a local NetDefend Firewall, the
list of currently defined IPsec tunnels in the NetDefendOS configuration is examined. If a
matching tunnel definition is found, that tunnel is opened. The associated IKE and IPsec

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negotiations then take place, resulting in the tunnel becoming established to the remote
endpoint.

Local Initiation of Tunnel Establishment

Alternatively, a user on a protected local network might try and access a resource which is
located at the end of an IPsec tunnel. In this case, NetDefendOS sees that the route for the IP
address of the resource is through a defined IPsec tunnel and establishment of the tunnel is then
initiated from the local NetDefend Firewall.

IP Rules Control Decrypted Traffic

Note that an established IPsec tunnel does not automatically mean that all the traffic flowing
from the tunnel is trusted. On the contrary, network traffic that has been decrypted will be
checked against the IP rule set. When doing this IP rule set check, the source interface of the
traffic will be the associated IPsec tunnel since tunnels are treated like interfaces in
NetDefendOS.
In addition, a Route or an Access rule may have to be defined for roaming clients in order for
NetDefendOS to accept specific source IP addresses from the IPsec tunnel.

Returning Traffic
For network traffic going in the opposite direction, back into an IPsec tunnel, a reverse process
takes place. First, the unencrypted traffic is evaluated by the rule set. If a rule and route matches,
NetDefendOS tries to find an established IPsec tunnel that matches the criteria. If not found,
NetDefendOS will try to establish a new tunnel to the remote endpoint specified by a matching
IPsec tunnel definition.

No IP Rules Are Needed for the Enclosing IPsec Traffic

With IPsec tunnels, the administrator usually sets up IPsec rules that allow unencrypted traffic to
flow into the tunnel (the tunnel being treated as an NetDefendOS interface). However, it is
normally not necessary to set up IP rules that explicitly allow the packets that implement IPsec
itself.
IKE and ESP packets are, by default, dealt with by the NetDefendOS's internal IPsec engine and the
IP rule set is not consulted.
This behavior can be changed in the IPsec advanced settings section with the IPsec Before
Rules setting. An example of why this might be done is if there are a high number of IPsec tunnel
connection attempts coming from a particular IP address or group of addresses. This can
degrade the performance of the NetDefendOS IPsec engine and explicitly dropping such traffic
with an IP rule is an efficient way of preventing it reaching the engine. In other words, IP rules
can be used for complete control over all traffic related to the tunnel.

Dead Peer Detection

Dead Peer Detection (DPD) can optionally be enabled for an IPsec tunnel. DPD monitors the
aliveness of the tunnel by looking for traffic coming from the peer at the other end of the tunnel.
If no message is seen within a length of time (specified by the advanced setting DPD Metric)
then NetDefendOS sends DPD-R-U-THERE messages to the peer to determine if it is still reachable
and alive.
If the peer does not respond to these messages during a period of time (specified by the
advanced setting DPD Expire Time) then the peer is considered dead and the tunnel is taken
down. NetDefendOS will then automatically try to re-establish the tunnel after a period of time
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(specified by the advanced setting DPD Keep Time).

The advanced settings for DPD are described further in Section 9.4.6, IPsec Advanced Settings.
DPD is enabled by default for NetDefendOS IPsec tunnels. Disabling does not disable to ability to
respond to DPD-R-U-THERE from another peer.

Keep-alive
The IPsec Keep-alive option ensures that the tunnel remains established at all possible times even
if no traffic flows. It does this by continuously sending ICMP Ping messages through the tunnel. If
replies to the ping messages are not received then the tunnel link is assumed to be broken and
an attempt is automatically made to re-establish the tunnel. This feature is only useful for LAN to
LAN tunnels.
Optionally, a specific source IP address and/or a destination IP address for the pings can be
specified. It is recommended to specify a destination IP of a host which is known to being able to
reliably respond to ICMP messages. If a destination IP is not specified, NetDefendOS will use the
first IP address on the remote network.
An important usage of keep-alive is if a LAN to LAN tunnel with infrequent data traffic can only
be established from one side but needs to be kept alive for hosts on the other peer. If the peer
that establishes the tunnel uses keep-alive to keep the tunnel established, any hosts on the other
side can use the tunnel even though the other peer cannot establish the tunnel when it is
needed.

Comparing DPD and Keep-alive

DPD and Keep-alive can be considered to perform a similar function which is detecting if an IPsec
tunnel is down and re-establishing it. However, there are differences:

Keep-alive can only be used for LAN to LAN IPsec tunnels. It cannot be used with roaming
clients.

Keep-alive is much faster at detecting that a tunnel is down and re-establishing it. It is
therefore a preferred solution for LAN to LAN tunnels.

Having keep-alive and DPD enabled simultaneously for a LAN to LAN tunnel is not needed since
DPD will never trigger if keep-alive pings are being sent.

IPsec Tunnel Quick Start

This section covers IPsec tunnels in some detail. A quick start checklist of setup steps for these
protocols in typical scenarios can be found in the following sections:

Section 9.2.1, IPsec LAN to LAN with Pre-shared Keys.

Section 9.2.2, IPsec LAN to LAN with Certificates.

Section 9.2.3, IPsec Roaming Clients with Pre-shared Keys.

Section 9.2.4, IPsec Roaming Clients with Certificates.

In addition to the quick start section, more explanation of tunnel setup is given below.

9.4.2. LAN to LAN Tunnels with Pre-shared Keys

A VPN can allow geographically distributed Local Area Networks (LANs) to communicate securely

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over the public Internet. In a corporate context this means LANs at geographically separate sites
can communicate with a level of security comparable to that existing if they communicated
through a dedicated, private link.
Secure communication is achieved through the use of IPsec tunneling, with the tunnel extending
from the VPN gateway at one location to the VPN gateway at another location. The NetDefend
Firewall is therefore the implementer of the VPN, while at the same time applying normal
security surveillance of traffic passing through the tunnel. This section deals specifically with
setting up LAN to LAN tunnels created with a Pre-shared Key (PSK).
A number of steps are required to set up LAN to LAN tunnels with PSK:

Set up the VPN tunnel properties and include the Pre-Shared key.

Set up the VPN tunnel properties.

Set up the Route in the main routing table (or another table if an alternate is being used).

Set up the Rules (a 2-way tunnel requires 2 rules).

9.4.3. Roaming Clients

An employee who is on the move who needs to access a central corporate server from a
notebook computer from different locations is a typical example of a roaming client. Apart from
the need for secure VPN access, the other major issue with roaming clients is that the mobile
user's IP address is often not known beforehand. To handle the unknown IP address the
NetDefendOS can dynamically add routes to the routing table as tunnels are established.

Dealing with Unknown IP addresses

If the IP address of the client is not known before hand then the NetDefend Firewall needs to
create a route in its routing table dynamically as each client connects. In the example below this
is the case and the IPsec tunnel is configured to dynamically add routes.
If clients are to be allowed to roam in from everywhere, irrespective of their IP address, then the
Remote Network needs to be set to all-nets (IP address: 0.0.0.0/0) which will allow all existing
IPv4-addresses to connect through the tunnel.
When configuring VPN tunnels for roaming clients it is usually not necessary to add to or modify
the algorithm proposal lists that are pre-configured in NetDefendOS.

PSK based client tunnels

The following example shows how a PSK based tunnel can be set up.
Example 9.4. Setting up a PSK based VPN tunnel for roaming clients
This example describes how to configure an IPsec tunnel at the head office NetDefend Firewall
for roaming clients that connect to the office to gain remote access. The head office network
uses the 10.0.1.0/24 network span with external firewall IP wan_ip.
Web Interface
A. Create a pre-shared key for IPsec authentication:

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1.

Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Pre-Shared Key

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: Enter a name for the key, for example SecretKey

Shared Secret: Enter a secret passphrase

Confirm Secret: Enter the secret passphrase again

Click OK

B. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2.

Now enter:

3.

4.

Name: RoamingIPsecTunnel

Local Network: 10.0.1.0/24 (This is the local network that the roaming users will connect
to)

Remote Network: all-nets

Remote Endpoint: (None)

Encapsulation Mode: Tunnel

For Algorithms enter:

IKE Algorithms: Medium or High

IPsec Algorithms: Medium or High

For Authentication enter:

5.

Under the Routing tab:

6.

Pre-Shared Key: Select the pre-shared key created earlier

Enable the option: Dynamically add route to the remote network when a tunnel is
established.

Click OK

C. Finally configure the IP rule set to allow traffic inside the tunnel.

Self-signed Certificate based client tunnels

The following example shows how a certificate based tunnel can be set up.
Example 9.5. Setting up a Self-signed Certificate based VPN tunnel for roaming clients
This example describes how to configure an IPsec tunnel at the head office NetDefend Firewall

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for roaming clients that connect to the office to gain remote access. The head office network
uses the 10.0.1.0/24 network span with external firewall IP wan_ip.
Web Interface
A. Create a Self-signed Certificate for IPsec authentication:
The step to actually create self-signed certificates is performed outside the Web Interface using a
suitable software product. The certificate should be in the PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) file
format.
B. Upload all the client self-signed certificates:
1.

Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Certificate

2.

Enter a suitable name for the Certificate object

3.

Select the X.509 Certificate option

4.

Click OK

C. Create Identification Lists:

1.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > ID List > Add > ID List

2.

Enter a suitable name, for example sales

3.

Click OK

4.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > ID List > Sales > Add > ID

5.

Enter the name for the client

6.

Select Email as Type

7.

In the Email address field, enter the email address selected when the certificate was
created on the client

8.

Create a new ID for every client that is to be granted access rights, according to the
instructions above

D. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: RoamingIPsecTunnel

Local Network: 10.0.1.0/24 (This is the local network that the roaming users will connect
to)

Remote Network: all-nets

Remote Endpoint: (None)

Encapsulation Mode: Tunnel

For Algorithms enter:

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4.

5.

IKE Algorithms: Medium or High

IPsec Algorithms: Medium or High

For Authentication enter:

Choose X.509 Certificate as authentication method

Root Certificate(s): Select all client certificates and add them to the Selected list

Gateway Certificate: Choose the newly created firewall certificate

Identification List: Select the ID List that is to be associated with the VPN Tunnel. In this
case, it will be sales

Under the Routing tab:

6.

Enable the option: Dynamically add route to the remote network when a tunnel is
established.

Click OK

E. Finally configure the IP rule set to allow traffic inside the tunnel.

Tunnels Based on CA Server Certificates

Setting up client tunnels using a CA issued certificate is largely the same as using Self-signed
certificates with the exception of a couple of steps.
It is the responsibility of the administrator to acquire the appropriate certificate from an issuing
authority for client tunnels. With some systems, such as Windows 2000 Server, there is built-in
access to a CA server (in Windows 2000 Server this is found in Certificate Services). For more
information on CA server issued certificates see Section 3.8, Certificates.
Example 9.6. Setting up CA Server Certificate based VPN tunnels for roaming clients
This example describes how to configure an IPsec tunnel at the head office NetDefend Firewall
for roaming clients that connect to the office to gain remote access. The head office network
uses the 10.0.1.0/24 network span with external firewall IP wan_ip.
Web Interface
A. Upload all the client certificates:
1.

Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Certificate

2.

Enter a suitable name for the Certificate object

3.

Select the X.509 Certificate option

4.

Click OK

B. Create Identification Lists:

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1.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > ID List > Add > ID List

2.

Enter a descriptive name, for example sales

3.

Click OK

4.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > ID List > Sales > Add > ID

5.

Enter the name for the client

6.

Select Email as Type

7.

In the Email address field, enter the email address selected when the certificate was
created on the client

8.

Create a new ID for every client that is to be granted access rights, according to the
instructions above

C. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2.

Now enter:

3.

4.

5.

Name: RoamingIPsecTunnel

Local Network: 10.0.1.0/24 (This is the local network that the roaming users will connect
to)

Remote Network: all-nets

Remote Endpoint: (None)

Encapsulation Mode: Tunnel

For Algorithms enter:

IKE Algorithms: Medium or High

IPsec Algorithms: Medium or High

For Authentication enter:

Choose X.509 Certificates as the authentication method

Root Certificate(s): Select the CA server root certificate imported earlier and add it to
the Selected list

Gateway Certificate: Choose the newly created firewall certificate

Identification List: Select the ID List that is to be associated with the VPN Tunnel. In this
case, it will be sales

Under the Routing tab:

6.

Enable the option: Dynamically add route to the remote network when a tunnel is
established

Click OK

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D. Finally configure the IP rule set to allow traffic inside the tunnel.

Using Config Mode

IKE Configuration Mode (Config Mode) is an extension to IKE that allows NetDefendOS to provide
LAN configuration information to remote VPN clients. It is used to dynamically configure IPsec
clients with IP addresses and corresponding netmasks, and to exchange other types of
information associated with DHCP. The IP address provided to a client can be either be based on
a range of predefined static IP addresses defined for Config Mode or it can come from DHCP
servers associated with an IP Pool object.
An IP pool is a cache of IP addresses collected from DHCP servers and leases on these addresses
are automatically renewed when the lease time is about to expire. IP Pools also manage
additional information such as DNS and WINS/NBNS, just as an ordinary DHCP server would. (For
detailed information on pools see Section 5.4, IP Pools.)

Defining the Config Mode Object

Currently only one Config Mode object can be defined in NetDefendOS and this is referred to as
the Config Mode Pool object. The key parameters associated with it are as follows:
Use Predefined IP Pool Object

The IP Pool object that provides the IP addresses.

Use a Static Pool

As an alternative to using an IP Pool, a static set of IP

addresses can be defined.

DNS

The IP address of the DNS used for URL resolution (already

provided by an IP Pool).

NBNS/WINS

The IP address for NBNS/WINS resolution (already provided

by an IP Pool).

DHCP

Instructs the host to send any internal DHCP requests to

this address.

Subnets

A list of the subnets that the client can access.

Example 9.7. Setting Up Config Mode

In this example, the Config Mode Pool object is enabled by associating with it an already
configured IP Pool object called ip_pool1.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > IKE Config Mode Pool

2.

The Config Mode Pool object properties web page now appears

3.

Select Use a predefined IPPool object

4.

Choose the ip_pool1 object from the IP Pool drop-down list

5.

Click OK

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After defining the Config Mode object, the only remaining action is to enable Config Mode to be
used with the IPsec Tunnel.
Example 9.8. Using Config Mode with IPsec Tunnels
Assuming a predefined tunnel called vpn_tunnel1 this example shows how to enable Config
Mode for that tunnel.
Web Interface

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec

Select the tunnel vpn_tunnel1 for editing

Select the pool in the IKE Config Mode Pool drop down list

Click OK

IP Validation
NetDefendOS always checks if the source IP address of each packet inside an IPsec tunnel is the
same as the IP address assigned to the IPsec client with IKE config mode. If a mismatch is
detected the packet is always dropped and a log message generated with a severity level of
Warning. This message includes the two IP addresses as well as the client identity.
Optionally, the affected SA can be automatically deleted if validation fails by enabling the
advanced setting IPsecDeleteSAOnIPValidationFailure . The default value for this setting is
Disabled.

Local Gateway
In the situation where clients are initiating IPsec connections to the firewall, the usual situation is
that the client will send the initial IKE request to the IP address bound to a physical interface.
However, if there are other IP addresses being ARP published on the interface and IKE requests
are being sent to these addresses, the IPsec tunnel property Local Gateway is used to specify the
IP addresses on which IKE requests will be accepted.
The Local Gateway property is never used if NetDefendOS is initiating the IPsec tunnel
connection.

9.4.4. Fetching CRLs from an alternate LDAP server

A Root Certificate usually includes the IP address or hostname of the Certificate Authority to
contact when certificates or CRLs need to be downloaded to the NetDefend Firewall. Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is used for these downloads.
However, in some scenarios, this information is missing, or the administrator wishes to use
another LDAP server. The LDAP configuration section can then be used to manually specify
alternate LDAP servers.

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Example 9.9. Setting up an LDAP server

This example shows how to manually setup and specify an LDAP server.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add LDAPServer
Host=192.168.101.146
Username=myusername
Password=mypassword
Port=389

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > LDAP > Add > LDAP Server

2.

Now enter:

3.

IP Address: 192.168.101.146

Username: myusername

Password: mypassword

Confirm Password: mypassword

Port: 389

Click OK

9.4.5. Troubleshooting with ikesnoop

VPN Tunnel Negotiation
When setting up IPsec tunnels, problems can arise because the initial negotiation fails when the
devices at either end of a VPN tunnel try but fail to agree on which protocols and encryption
methods will be used. The ikesnoop console command with the verbose option is a tool that can
be used to identify the source of such problems by showing the details of this negotiation.

Using ikesnoop
The ikesnoop command can be entered via a CLI console or directly via the RS232 Console.
To begin monitoring the full command is:
gw-world:/> ikesnoop -on -verbose

This means that ikesnoop output will be sent to the console for every VPN tunnel IKE negotiation.
The output can be overwhelming so to limit the output to a single IP address, for example the IP
address 10.1.1.10, the command would be:
gw-world:/> ikesnoop -on 10.1.1.10 -verbose

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the IPv4 address used is the IP address of the VPN tunnel's remote endpoint (either the IP of the
remote endpoint or the client IP). To turn off monitoring, the command is:
gw-world:/> ikesnoop -off

The output from verbose option can be troublesome to interpret by an administrator seeing it for
the first time. Presented below is some typical ikesnoop output with annotations to explain it.
The tunnel negotiation considered is based on Pre-shared Keys. A negotiation based on
certificates is not discussed here but the principles are similar.
Complete ikesnoop command options can be found in the CLI Reference Guide.

The Client and the Server

The two parties involved in the tunnel negotiation are referred to in this section as the client and
server. In this context, the word "client" is used to refer to the device which is the initiator of the
negotiation and the server refers to the device which is the responder.

Step 1. Client Initiates Exchange by Sending a Supported Algorithm List

The verbose option output initially shows the proposed list of algorithms that the client first
sends to the server. This list details the protocols and encryption methods it can support. The
purpose of the algorithm list is that the client is trying to find a matching set of
protocols/methods supported by the server. The server examines the list and attempts to find a
combination of the protocols/methods sent by the client which it can support. This matching
process is one of the key purposes of the IKE exchange.
IkeSnoop: Received IKE packet from 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Identity Protection (main mode) ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
:
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x00000000
Message ID
: 0x00000000
Packet length : 324 bytes
# payloads
: 8
Payloads:
SA (Security Association)
Payload data length : 152 bytes
DOI : 1 (IPsec DOI)
Proposal 1/1
Protocol 1/1
Protocol ID
: ISAKMP
SPI Size
: 0
Transform 1/4
Transform ID
: IKE
Encryption algorithm
: Rijndael-cbc (aes)
Key length
: 128
Hash algorithm
: MD5
Authentication method
: Pre-Shared Key
Group description
: MODP 1024
Life type
: Seconds
Life duration
: 43200
Life type
: Kilobytes
Life duration
: 50000
Transform 2/4
Transform ID
: IKE
Encryption algorithm
: Rijndael-cbc (aes)
Key length
: 128
Hash algorithm
: SHA
Authentication method
: Pre-Shared Key
Group description
: MODP 1024
Life type
: Seconds
Life duration
: 43200
Life type
: Kilobytes
Life duration
: 50000

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Transform 3/4
Transform ID
: IKE
Encryption algorithm
: 3DES-cbc
Hash algorithm
: MD5
Authentication method
: Pre-Shared Key
Group description
: MODP 1024
Life type
: Seconds
Life duration
: 43200
Life type
: Kilobytes
Life duration
: 50000
Transform 4/4
Transform ID
: IKE
Encryption algorithm
: 3DES-cbc
Hash algorithm
: SHA
Authentication method
: Pre-Shared Key
Group description
: MODP 1024
Life type
: Seconds
Life duration
: 43200
Life type
: Kilobytes
Life duration
: 50000
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 8f 9c c9 4e 01 24 8e cd f1 47 59 4c 28 4b 21
Description : SSH Communications Security QuickSec 2.1.0
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 27 ba b5 dc 01 ea 07 60 ea 4e 31 90 ac 27 c0
Description : draft-stenberg-ipsec-nat-traversal-01
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 61 05 c4 22 e7 68 47 e4 3f 96 84 80 12 92 ae
Description : draft-stenberg-ipsec-nat-traversal-02
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 44 85 15 2d 18 b6 bb cd 0b e8 a8 46 95 79 dd
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-00
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: cd 60 46 43 35 df 21 f8 7c fd b2 fc 68 b6 a4
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-02
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 90 cb 80 91 3e bb 69 6e 08 63 81 b5 ec 42 7b
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-02
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 7d 94 19 a6 53 10 ca 6f 2c 17 9d 92 15 52 9d
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-03

3b

d0

cd

cc

48

1f

56

Explanation of Values
Exchange type: Main mode or aggressive mode (IKEv1.0 only)
Cookies: A random number to identify the negotiation
Encryption algorithm: Cipher
Key length: Cipher key length
Hash algorithm: Hash
Authentication method: Pre-shared key or certificate
Group description: Diffie Hellman (DH) group
Life type: Seconds or kilobytes
Life duration: No of seconds or kilobytes
VID: The IPsec software vendor plus what standards are supported. For example, NAT-T

Step 2. Server Responds to Client

A typical response from the server is shown below. This must contain a proposal that is identical
to one of the choices from the client list above. If no match was found by the server then a "No

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proposal chosen" message will be seen, tunnel setup will fail and the ikesnoop command output
will stop at this point.
IkeSnoop: Sending IKE packet to 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Identity Protection (main mode) ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
:
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0x00000000
Packet length : 224 bytes
# payloads
: 8
Payloads:
SA (Security Association)
Payload data length : 52 bytes
DOI : 1 (IPsec DOI)
Proposal 1/1
Protocol 1/1
Protocol ID
: ISAKMP
SPI Size
: 0
Transform 1/1
Transform ID
: IKE
Encryption algorithm
: Rijndael-cbc (aes)
Key length
: 128
Hash algorithm
: MD5
Authentication method
: Pre-Shared Key
Group description
: MODP 1024
Life type
: Seconds
Life duration
: 43200
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 8f 9c c9 4e 01 24 8e cd f1 47 59 4c 28 4b 21
Description : SSH Communications Security QuickSec 2.1.0
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 27 ba b5 dc 01 ea 07 60 ea 4e 31 90 ac 27 c0
Description : draft-stenberg-ipsec-nat-traversal-01
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 61 05 c4 22 e7 68 47 e4 3f 96 84 80 12 92 ae
Description : draft-stenberg-ipsec-nat-traversal-02
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 44 85 15 2d 18 b6 bb cd 0b e8 a8 46 95 79 dd
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-00
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: cd 60 46 43 35 df 21 f8 7c fd b2 fc 68 b6 a4
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-02
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 90 cb 80 91 3e bb 69 6e 08 63 81 b5 ec 42 7b
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-02
VID (Vendor ID)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
Vendor ID
: 7d 94 19 a6 53 10 ca 6f 2c 17 9d 92 15 52 9d
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-03

3b

d0

cd

cc

48

1f

56

Step 3. Clients Begins Key Exchange

The server has accepted a proposal at this point and the client now begins a key exchange. In
addition, NAT detection payloads are sent to detect if NAT is being used.
IkeSnoop: Received IKE packet from 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Identity Protection (main mode) ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
:
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0x00000000
Packet length : 220 bytes
# payloads
: 4

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Payloads:
KE (Key Exchange)
Payload data length
NONCE (Nonce)
Payload data length
NAT-D (NAT Detection)
Payload data length
NAT-D (NAT Detection)
Payload data length

: 128 bytes
: 16 bytes
: 16 bytes
: 16 bytes

Step 4. Server Sends Key Exchange Data

The Server now sends key exchange data back to the client.
IkeSnoop: Sending IKE packet to 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Identity Protection (main mode) ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
:
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0x00000000
Packet length : 220 bytes
# payloads
: 4
Payloads:
KE (Key Exchange)
Payload data length : 128 bytes
NONCE (Nonce)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
NAT-D (NAT Detection)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
NAT-D (NAT Detection)
Payload data length : 16 bytes

Step 5. Client Sends Identification

The initiator sends the identification which is normally an IP address or the Subject Alternative
Name if certificates are used.
IkeSnoop: Received IKE packet from 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Identity Protection (main mode) ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
: E (encryption)
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0x00000000
Packet length : 72 bytes
# payloads
: 3
Payloads:
ID (Identification)
Payload data length : 8 bytes
ID : ipv4(any:0,[0..3]=192.168.0.10)
HASH (Hash)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
N (Notification)
Payload data length : 8 bytes
Protocol ID : ISAKMP
Notification : Initial contact

Explanation of Above Values

Flags: E means encryption (it is the only flag used).
ID: Identification of the client

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The Notification field is given as Initial Contact to indicate this is not a re-key.

Step 6. Server ID Response

The server now responds with its own ID.
IkeSnoop: Sending IKE packet to 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Identity Protection (main mode) ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
: E (encryption)
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0x00000000
Packet length : 60 bytes
# payloads
: 2
Payloads:
ID (Identification)
Payload data length : 8 bytes
ID : ipv4(any:0,[0..3]=192.168.10.20)
HASH (Hash)
Payload data length : 16 bytes

Step 7. Client Sends a List of Supported IPsec Algorithms

Now the client sends the list of supported IPsec algorithms to the server. It will also contain the
proposed host/networks that are allowed in the tunnel.
IkeSnoop: Received IKE packet from 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Quick mode ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
: E (encryption)
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0xaa71428f
Packet length : 264 bytes
# payloads
: 5
Payloads:
HASH (Hash)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
SA (Security Association)
Payload data length : 164 bytes
DOI : 1 (IPsec DOI)
Proposal 1/1
Protocol 1/1
Protocol ID
: ESP
SPI Size
: 4
SPI Value
: 0x4c83cad2
Transform 1/4
Transform ID
: Rijndael (aes)
Key length
: 128
Authentication algorithm : HMAC-MD5
SA life type
: Seconds
SA life duration
: 21600
SA life type
: Kilobytes
SA life duration
: 50000
Encapsulation mode
: Tunnel
Transform 2/4
Transform ID
: Rijndael (aes)
Key length
: 128
Authentication algorithm : HMAC-SHA-1
SA life type
: Seconds
SA life duration
: 21600
SA life type
: Kilobytes
SA life duration
: 50000
Encapsulation mode
: Tunnel
Transform 3/4
Transform ID
: Blowfish
Key length
: 128
Authentication algorithm : HMAC-MD5

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SA life type
: Seconds
SA life duration
: 21600
SA life type
: Kilobytes
SA life duration
: 50000
Encapsulation mode
: Tunnel
Transform 4/4
Transform ID
: Blowfish
Key length
: 128
Authentication algorithm : HMAC-SHA-1
SA life type
: Seconds
SA life duration
: 21600
SA life type
: Kilobytes
SA life duration
: 50000
Encapsulation mode
: Tunnel
NONCE (Nonce)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
ID (Identification)
Payload data length : 8 bytes
ID : ipv4(any:0,[0..3]=10.4.2.6)
ID (Identification)
Payload data length : 12 bytes
ID : ipv4_subnet(any:0,[0..7]=10.4.0.0/16)

Explanation of Above Values

Transform ID: Cipher
Key length: Cipher key length
Authentication algorithm: HMAC (Hash)
Group description: PFS and PFS group
SA life type: Seconds or Kilobytes
SA life duration: Number seconds or kilobytes
Encapsulation mode: Could be transport, tunnel or UDP tunnel (NAT-T)
ID: ipv4(any:0,[0..3]=10.4.2.6)
Here the first ID is the local network of the tunnel from the client's point of view and the second
ID is the remote network. If it contains any netmask it is usually SA per net and otherwise it is SA
per host.

Step 8. Client Sends a List of Supported Algorithms

The server now responds with a matching IPsec proposal from the list sent by the client. As in
step 2 above, if no match can be found by the server then a "No proposal chosen" message will
be seen, tunnel setup will fail and the ikesnoop command output will stop here.
IkeSnoop: Sending IKE packet to 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Quick mode ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
: E (encryption)
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0xaa71428f
Packet length : 156 bytes
# payloads
: 5
Payloads:
HASH (Hash)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
SA (Security Association)
Payload data length : 56 bytes
DOI : 1 (IPsec DOI)
Proposal 1/1
Protocol 1/1
Protocol ID
: ESP
SPI Size
: 4
SPI Value
: 0xafba2d15
Transform 1/1
Transform ID
: Rijndael (aes)

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Key length
: 128
Authentication algorithm : HMAC-MD5
SA life type
: Seconds
SA life duration
: 21600
SA life type
: Kilobytes
SA life duration
: 50000
Encapsulation mode
: Tunnel
NONCE (Nonce)
Payload data length : 16 bytes
ID (Identification)
Payload data length : 8 bytes
ID : ipv4(any:0,[0..3]=10.4.2.6)
ID (Identification)
Payload data length : 12 bytes
ID : ipv4_subnet(any:0,[0..7]=10.4.0.0/16)

Step 9. Client Confirms Tunnel Setup

This last message is a message from the client saying that the tunnel is up and running. All
client/server exchanges have been successful.
IkeSnoop: Received IKE packet from 192.168.0.10:500 Exchange type :
Quick mode ISAKMP Version : 1.0
Flags
: E (encryption)
Cookies
: 0x6098238b67d97ea6 -> 0x5e347cb76e95a
Message ID
: 0xaa71428f
Packet length : 48 bytes
# payloads
: 1
Payloads:
HASH (Hash)
Payload data length : 16 bytes

9.4.6. IPsec Advanced Settings

The following NetDefendOS advanced settings are available for configuring IPsec tunnels.

IPsec Max Rules

This specifies the total number of IP rules that can be connected to IPsec tunnels. By default, this
is initially approximately 4 times the licensed IPsecMaxTunnels and system memory for this is
allocated at startup. By reducing the number of rules, memory requirements can be reduced but
making this change is not recommended.
IPsec Max Rules will always be reset automatically to be approximately 4 times IPsec Max
Tunnels if the latter is changed. This linkage is broken once IPsec Max Rules is altered manually
so that subsequent changes to IPsec Max Tunnels will not cause an automatic change in IPsec
Max Rules.
Default: 4 times the license limit of IPsec Max Tunnels

IPsec Max Tunnels

Specifies the total number of IPsec tunnels allowed. This value is initially taken from the
maximum tunnels allowed by the license. The setting is used by NetDefendOS to allocate
memory for IPsec. If it is desirable to have less memory allocated for IPsec then this setting can
be reduced. Increasing the setting cannot override the license limit.
A warning log message is generated automatically when 90% of this setting's value is reached.
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Default: The limit specified by the license

IKE Send Initial Contact

Determines whether or not IKE should send the "Initial Contact" notification message. This
message is sent to each remote endpoint when a connection is opened to it and there are no
previous IPsec SA using that gateway.
Default: Enabled

IKE Send CRLs

Dictates whether or not CRLs (Certificate Revocation Lists) should be sent as part of the IKE
exchange. Should typically be set to ENABLE except where the remote peer does not understand
CRL payloads.
Note that this setting requires a restart to take effect.
Default: Enabled

IPsec Before Rules

Pass IKE and IPsec (ESP/AH) traffic sent to NetDefendOS directly to the IPsec engine without
consulting the rule set.
Default: Enabled

IKE CRL Validity Time

A CRL contains a "next update" field that dictates the time and date when a new CRL will be
available for download from the CA. The time between CRL updates can be anything from a few
hours and upwards, depending on how the CA is configured. Most CA software allow the CA
administrator to issue new CRLs at any time, so even if the "next update" field says that a new
CRL is available in 12 hours, there may already be a new CRL for download.
This setting limits the time a CRL is considered valid. A new CRL is downloaded when
IKECRLVailityTime expires or when the "next update" time occurs. Whichever happens first.
Default: 86400 seconds

IKE Max CA Path

When the signature of a user certificate is verified, NetDefendOS looks at the issuer name field in
the user certificate to find the CA certificate the certificate was signed by. The CA certificate may
in turn be signed by another CA, which may be signed by another CA, and so on. Each certificate
will be verified until one that has been marked as "trusted" is found, or until it is determined that
none of the certificates are trusted.
If there are more certificates in this path than what this setting specifies, the user certificate will
be considered invalid.
Default: 15

IPsec Cert Cache Max Certs

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Maximum number of certificates/CRLs that can be held in the internal certificate cache. When the
certificate cache is full, entries will be removed according to an LRU (Least Recently Used)
algorithm.
Default: 1024

IPsec Gateway Name Cache Time

Length of time in milliseconds to keep an IPsec tunnel open when the remote DNS name fails to
resolve.
Default: 14400

DPD Metric
The amount of time in tens of seconds that the peer is considered to be alive (reachable) since
the last received IKE message. This means that no DPD messages for checking aliveness of the
peer will be sent during this time even though no packets from the peer have been received
during this time.
In other words, the amount of time in tens of seconds that a tunnel is without traffic or any other
sign of life before the peer is considered dead. If DPD is due to be triggered but other evidence of
life is seen (such as IKE packets from the other side of the tunnel) within the time frame, no
DPD-R-U-THERE messages will be sent.
For example, if the other side of the tunnel has not sent any ESP packets for a long period but at
least one IKE-packet has been seen within the last (10 x the configured value) seconds, then
NetDefendOS will not send more DPD-R-U-THERE messages to the other side.
Default: 3 (in other words, 3 x 10 = 30 seconds)

DPD Keep Time

The amount of time in tens of seconds that a peer is assumed to be dead after NetDefendOS has
detected it to be so. While the peer is considered dead, NetDefendOS will not try to re-negotiate
the tunnel or send DPD messages to the peer. However, the peer will not be considered dead
any more as soon as a packet from it is received.
A more detailed explanation for this setting is that it is the amount of time in tens of seconds that
an SA will remain in the dead cache after a delete. An SA is put in the dead cache when the other
side of the tunnel has not responded to DPD-R-U-THERE messages for DPD Expire Time x 10
seconds and there is no other evidence of life. When the SA is placed in the dead cache,
NetDefendOS will not try to re-negotiate the tunnel. If traffic that is associated with the SA that is
in the dead cache is received, the SA will be removed from the dead cache. DPD will not trigger if
the SA is already cached as dead.
This setting is used with IKEv1 only.
Default: 2 (in other words, 2 x 10 = 20 seconds)

DPD Expire Time

The length of time in seconds for which DPD messages will be sent to the peer. If the peer has
not responded to messages during this time it is considered to be dead.
In other words, this is the length of time in seconds for which DPD-R-U-THERE messages will be
sent. If the other side of the tunnel has not sent a response to any messages then it is considered
to be dead (not reachable). The SA will then be placed in the dead cache.

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This setting is used with IKEv1 only.

Default: 15 seconds

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9.5. PPTP/L2TP
The access by a client using a modem link over dial-up public switched networks, possibly with
an unpredictable IP address, to protected networks via a VPN poses particular problems. Both the
PPTP and L2TP protocols provide two different means of achieving VPN access from remote
clients. The most commonly used feature that is relevant in this scenario is the ability of
NetDefendOS to act as either a PPTP or L2TP server and the first two sections below deal with
this. The third section deals with the further ability of NetDefendOS to act as a PPTP or L2TP
client.

PPTP/L2TP Quick Start

This section covers L2TP and PPTP in some detail. A quick start checklist of setup steps for these
protocols in typical scenarios can be found in the following sections:

Section 9.2.5, L2TP Roaming Clients with Pre-Shared Keys.

Section 9.2.6, L2TP Roaming Clients with Certificates.

Section 9.2.7, PPTP Roaming Clients.

9.5.1. PPTP Servers

Overview
Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is designed by the PPTP Forum, a consortium of
companies that includes Microsoft. It is an OSI layer 2 "data-link" protocol (see Appendix D, The
OSI Framework) and is an extension of the older Point to Point Protocol (PPP), used for dial-up
Internet access. It was one of the first protocols designed to offer VPN access to remote servers
via dial-up networks and is still widely used.

Implementation
PPTP can be used in the VPN context to tunnel different protocols across the Internet. Tunneling
is achieved by encapsulating PPP packets in IP datagrams using Generic Routing Encapsulation
(GRE - IP protocol 47). The client first establishes a connection to an ISP in the normal way using
the PPP protocol and then establishes a TCP/IP connection across the Internet to the NetDefend
Firewall, which acts as the PPTP server (TCP port 1723 is used). The ISP is not aware of the VPN
since the tunnel extends from the PPTP server to the client. The PPTP standard does not define
how data is encrypted. Encryption is usually achieved using the Microsoft Point-to-Point
Encryption (MPPE) standard.

Deployment
PPTP offers a convenient solution to client access that is simple to deploy. PPTP does not require
the certificate infrastructure found in L2TP but instead relies on a username/password sequence
to establish trust between client and server. The level of security offered by a non-certificate
based solution is arguably one of PPTP's drawbacks. PPTP also presents some scalability issues
with some PPTP servers restricting the number of simultaneous PPTP clients. Since PPTP does not
use IPsec, PPTP connections can be NATed and NAT traversal is not required. PPTP has been
bundled by Microsoft in its operating systems since Windows95 and therefore has a large
number of clients with the software already installed.

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Troubleshooting PPTP
A common problem with setting up PPTP is that a router and/or switch in a network is blocking
TCP port 1723 and/or IP protocol 47 before the PPTP connection can be made to the NetDefend
Firewall. Examining the log can indicate if this problem occurred, with a log message of the
following form appearing:
Error PPP lcp_negotiation_stalled ppp_terminated

Example 9.10. Setting up a PPTP server

This example shows how to setup a PPTP Network Server. The example assumes that certain
address objects in the NetDefendOS address book have already been created.
It is necessary to specify in the address book, the IP address of the PPTP server interface, an outer
IP address (that the PPTP server should listen to) and an IP pool that the PPTP server will use to
give out IP addresses to the clients from.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPServer MyPPTPServer
ServerIP=lan_ip
Interface=any
IP=wan_ip
IPPool=pp2p_Pool
TunnelProtocol=PPTP
AllowedRoutes=all-nets

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > PPTP/L2TP Servers > Add > PPTP/L2TP Server

2.

Enter a name for the PPTP Server, for example MyPPTPServer

3.

Now enter:

Inner IP Address: lan_ip

Tunnel Protocol: PPTP

Outer Interface Filter: any

Outer Server IP: wan_ip

4.

Under the PPP Parameters tab, select pptp_Pool in the IP Pool control

5.

Under the Add Route tab, select all-nets from Allowed Networks

6.

Click OK

Use User Authentication Rules is enabled as default. To be able to authenticate the users using
the PPTP tunnel it is required to configure NetDefendOS Authentication Rules but that will not be
covered in this example.

9.5.2. L2TP Servers

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Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) is an IETF open standard that overcomes many of the problems
of PPTP. Its design is a combination of Layer 2 Forwarding (L2F) protocol and PPTP, making use of
the best features of both. Since the L2TP standard does not implement encryption, it is usually
implemented with an IETF standard known as L2TP/IPsec, in which L2TP packets are
encapsulated by IPsec.
The client communicates with a Local Access Concentrator (LAC) and the LAC communicates
across the Internet with a L2TP Network Server (LNS). The NetDefend Firewall acts as the LNS. The
LAC tunnels data, such as a PPP session, using IPsec to the LNS across the Internet. In most cases
the client will itself act as the LAC.
L2TP is certificate based and therefore is simpler to administer with a large number of clients and
arguably offers better security than PPTP. Unlike PPTP, it is possible to set up multiple virtual
networks across a single tunnel. Because it is IPsec based, L2TP requires NAT traversal (NAT-T) to
be implemented on the LNS side of the tunnel.

Note: All DHCP special parameters are not sent to clients

When DHCP is configured on an L2TP/IPsec interface to hand out client IPs,
NetDefendOS does not return all the DHCP special parameters. This can be the source of
issues with Windows based L2TP clients running under Vista or Windows 7.

Example 9.11. Setting up an L2TP server

This example shows how to setup a L2TP Network Server. The example assumes that you have
created some IP address objects. You will have to specify the IP address of the L2TP server
interface, an outer IP address (that the L2TP server should listen to) and an IP pool that the L2TP
server will use to give out IP addresses to the clients from.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPServer MyL2TPServer
ServerIP=ip_l2tp
Interface=any
IP=wan_ip
IPPool=L2TP_Pool
TunnelProtocol=L2TP
AllowedRoutes=all-nets

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > PPTP/L2TP Servers > Add > PPTP/L2TP Server

2.

Enter a suitable name for the L2TP Server, for example MyL2TPServer

3.

Now enter:

4.

Inner IP Address: ip_l2tp

Tunnel Protocol: L2TP

Outer Interface Filter: any

Outer Server IP: wan_ip

Under the PPP Parameters tab, select L2TP_Pool in the IP Pool control.

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5.

Under the Add Route tab, select all-nets in the Allowed Networks control.

6.

Click OK

Use User Authentication Rules is enabled as default. To be able to authenticate users using the
PPTP tunnel, it is necessary to configure NetDefendOS Authentication Rules but that is not
covered in this example.

Example 9.12. Setting up an L2TP Tunnel Over IPsec

This example shows how to setup a fully working L2TP Tunnel based on IPsec encryption and will
cover many parts of basic VPN configuration.
Before starting, it is necessary to configure some address objects, for example the network that is
going to be assigned to the L2TP clients. Proposal lists and PSK are needed as well. Here we will
use the objects created in previous examples.
To be able to authenticate the users using the L2TP tunnel a local user database will be used.
A. Start by preparing a new Local User Database:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add LocalUserDatabase UserDB

gw-world:/> cc LocalUserDatabase UserDB

gw-world:/UserDB> add User testuser Password=mypassword

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > User Authentication Local User Databases > Add > Local User
Database

2.

Enter a suitable name for the user database, for example UserDB

3.

Go to: Policies > User Authentication Local User Databases > UserDB > Add > User

4.

Now enter:

5.

Username: testuser

Password: mypassword

Confirm Password: mypassword

Click OK

Now we will setup the IPsec Tunnel, which will later be used in the L2TP section. As we are going
to use L2TP, the Local Network is the same IP as the IP that the L2TP tunnel will connect to,
wan_ip. Furthermore, the IPsec tunnel needs to be configured to dynamically add routes to the
remote network when the tunnel is established.

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B. Continue setting up the IPsec Tunnel:

Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Interface IPsecTunnel l2tp_ipsec
LocalNetwork=wan_ip
RemoteNetwork=all-nets
IKEAlgorithms=Medium
IPsecAlgorithms=esp-l2tptunnel
PSK=MyPSK
EncapsulationMode=Transport
DHCPOverIPsec=No
AddRouteToRemoteNet=Yes
IPsecLifeTimeKilobytes=250000
IPsecLifeTimeSeconds=3600

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2.

Enter a name for the IPsec tunnel, for example l2tp_ipsec

3.

Now enter:
a.

Local Network: wan_ip

b.

Remote Network: all-nets

c.

Remote Endpoint: none

d.

Encapsulation Mode: Transport

e.

IKE Algorithms: High

f.

IPsec Algorithms: esp-l2tptunnel

4.

Enter 3600 in the IPsec Life Time seconds control

5.

Enter 250000 in the IPsec Life Time kilobytes control

6.

Under the Authentication tab, select Pre-shared Key

7.

Select MyPSK in the Pre-shared Key control

8.

Under the Routing tab, change the following controls:

9.

Disable Allow DHCP over IPsec from single-host clients

Enable Dynamically add route to the remote network when a tunnel is established

Click OK

Now it is time to setup the L2TP Server. The inner IP address should be a part of the network
which the clients are assigned IP addresses from, in this lan_ip. The outer interface filter is the
interface that the L2TP server will accept connections on, this will be the earlier created
l2tp_ipsec. ProxyARP also needs to be configured for the IPs used by the L2TP Clients.
C. Setup the L2TP Tunnel:
Command-Line Interface

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gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPServer l2tp_tunnel

IP=lan_ip
Interface=l2tp_ipsec
ServerIP=wan_ip
IPPool=l2tp_pool
TunnelProtocol=L2TP
AllowedRoutes=all-nets
ProxyARPInterfaces=lan

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > PPTP/L2TP Servers > Add > PPTP/L2TP Server

2.

Enter a name for the L2TP tunnel, for example l2tp_tunnel

3.

Now enter:

Inner IP Address: lan_ip

Tunnel Protocol: L2TP

Outer Interface Filter: l2tp_ipsec

Server IP: wan_ip

4.

Under the PPP Parameters tab, check the Use User Authentication Rules control

5.

Select l2tp_pool in the IP Pool control

6.

Under the Add Route tab, select all-nets in the Allowed Networks control

7.

In the ProxyARP control, select the lan interface

8.

Click OK

In order to authenticate the users using the L2TP tunnel, a user authentication rule needs to be
configured.
D. Next will be setting up the authentication rules:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add UserAuthRule AuthSource=Local
Interface=l2tp_tunnel
OriginatorIP=all-nets
LocalUserDB=UserDB
agent=PPP TerminatorIP=wan_ip
name=L2TP_Auth

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > User Authentication User Authentication Rules > Add > UserAuthRule

2.

Enter a suitable name for the rule, for example L2TP_Auth

3.

Now enter:

Agent: PPP

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Authentication Source: Local

Interface: l2tp_tunnel

Originator IP: all-nets

Terminator IP: wan_ip

4.

Under the Authentication Options tab enter UserDB as the Local User DB

5.

Click OK

When the other parts are done, all that is left is the rules. To let traffic through from the tunnel,
two IP rules should be added.
E. Finally, set up the rules:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add IPRule action=Allow
Service=all_services
SourceInterface=l2tp_tunnel
SourceNetwork=l2tp_pool
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
name=AllowL2TP

gw-world:/main> add IPRule action=NAT

Service=all_services
SourceInterface=l2tp_tunnel
SourceNetwork=l2tp_pool
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
name=NATL2TP

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

2.

Enter a name for the rule, for example AllowL2TP

3.

Now enter:

Action: Allow

Service: all_services

Source Interface: l2tp_tunnel

Source Network: l2tp_pool

Destination Interface: any

Destination Network: all-nets

4.

Click OK

5.

Go to: Policies > Add > IPRule

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6.

Enter a name for the rule, for example NATL2TP

7.

Now enter:

8.

Action: NAT

Service: all_services

Source Interface: l2tp_tunnel

Source Network: l2tp_pool

Destination Interface: any

Destination Network: all-nets

Click OK

9.5.3. L2TP/PPTP Server Advanced Settings

The following L2TP/PPTP server advanced settings are available to the administrator:

L2TP Before Rules

Pass L2TP traffic sent to the NetDefend Firewall directly to the L2TP Server without consulting
the rule set.
Default: Enabled

PPTP Before Rules

Pass PPTP traffic sent to the NetDefend Firewall directly to the PPTP Server without consulting
the rule set.
Default: Enabled

Max PPP Resends

The maximum number of PPP layer resends.
Default: 10

9.5.4. PPTP/L2TP Clients

The PPTP and L2TP protocols are described in the previous section. In addition to being able to
act as a PPTP or L2TP server, NetDefendOS also offers the ability to act as a PPTP or L2TP client.
This can be useful if PPTP or L2TP is preferred as the VPN protocol instead of IPsec. One
NetDefend Firewall can act as a client and connect to another unit which acts as the server.

Client Setup
PPTP and L2TP shares a common approach to client setup which involves the following settings:

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General Parameters

Name - A symbolic name for the client.

Tunnel Protocol - Specifies if it is a PPTP or L2TP client.

Remote Endpoint - The IP address of the remote endpoint. Where this is specified as a URL,
the prefix dns: must be precede it.

Authentication

Username - Specifies the username to use for this PPTP/L2TP interface.

Password - Specifies the password for the interface.

Security

IPsecInterface - Optionally specify an IPsecTunnel object to use. The tunnel should not have
the Dynamically add route to remote network option enabled since this can cause
problems.

Authentication - These choices specify which authentication protocol to use.

MPPE - Specifies if Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption is used and which level to use.

If Dial On Demand is enabled then the PPTP/L2TP tunnel will not be set up until traffic is sent on
the interface. The parameters for this option are:

Activity Sense - Specifies if dial-on-demand should trigger on Send or Recv or both.

Idle Timeout - The time of inactivity in seconds to wait before disconnection.

Using the PPTP Client Feature

One usage of the PPTP client feature is shown in the scenario depicted below.
Here a number of clients are being NATed through NetDefendOS before being connected to a
PPTP server on the other side of the NetDefend Firewall. If more that one of the clients is acting
as a PPTP client which is trying to connect to the PPTP server then this will not work because of
the NATing.
One way of achieving multiple PPTP clients being NATed like this is to use the PPTP ALG (see
Section 6.2.7, The PPTP ALG). Another way is for the NetDefend Firewall to act as a PPTP client
when it connects to the PPTP server and the setup for this requires the following:

A PPTP tunnel is defined between NetDefendOS and the server.

A route is added to the routing table in NetDefendOS which specifies that traffic for the
server should be routed through the PPTP tunnel.

Using this client approach is suitable for situations where an ISP requires PPTP for authentication.

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Figure 9.3. PPTP Client Usage

9.5.5. L2TP Version 3

L2TP Version 3 (L2TPv3) is a tunneling protocol that is an alternative to standard L2TP (standard
L2TP is also referred to as L2TPv2). L2TPv2 can only tunnel PPP traffic, whereas L2TPv3 has the
key advantage of emulating the properties of an OSI layer 2 service. This is sometimes referred to
as Layer 2 Tunneling or as a pseudowire. This means L2TPv3 can carry Ethernet frames over an IP
network, allowing one or more Ethernet LANs to be joined together across the public internet.
NetDefendOS L2TPv3 can tunnel both Ethernet as well as VLANs.
Here is a summary of other advantages of L2TPv3 over L2TPv2:

Can be carried directly over IP without UDP. L2TPv2 requires UDP.

Better security against man-in-the-middle or packet-insertion attacks.

Support for many more tunnels or many more sessions within one tunnel.

Can be manually configured with static parameters and does not require a control channel.

Other important considerations with L2TPv3 are:

Like standard L2TP, L2TPv3 does not provide encryption of transmitted data. If the L2TPv3
tunnel is to be secure, it should be used with IPsec or PPPoE.

NetDefendOS L2TPv3 can only be used with IPv4. IPv6 is not supported by NetDefendOS at
this time.

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L2TPv3 support in NetDefendOS allows the NetDefend Firewall to act as either an L2TPv3
server or a client. Setting up these two functions is described next.

9.5.5.1. L2TPv3 Server

When the NetDefend Firewall acts as an L2TPv3 server this means it allows connection of L2TPv3
clients so that networks on either side of the client and server can appear transparently
connected to each other.
The steps for setup are described below. First, setup for non-VLAN scenarios are described and
then setup for VLAN scenarios.

Setting Up a Standard L2TPv3 Server

Standard L2TPv3 setup for packets without VLAN tags requires the following:
A. Define an L2TPv3 Server object.
The object will require the following properties to be set:
i.

Local Network - Set this to the protected network that will be accessed through the
tunnel.

ii.

Inner IP Address - Set this to any IPv4 address within the network used for the Local
Network property. As a convention, it is recommended to use the IPv4 address of the
physical interface connected to the protected network.

iii.

Outer Interface Filter - Set this to be the listening interface for L2TPv3 client
connections. Without IPsec, this is set to a physical Ethernet interface. When using IPsec
for encryption, this is set to the IPsec tunnel object.

iv.

Server IP - Set this to be the IP address of the listening interface.

B. Enable transparent mode for the protected interface.

Change the properties of the Ethernet interface connected to the protected network so that
Transparent Mode is enabled.
C. Set any required L2TPv3 Server advanced options.
Some L2TPv3 clients may require the setting of the option Host Name or Router ID for the
server object. If the Host Name is set to None, the tunnel's Inner IP Address is used for this
setting.
The illustration below shows a typical setup for L2TPv3 where the protected network on
interface If3 can be accessed by L2TPv3 clients connecting to the L2TPv3 server listening on the
interface If2.

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Figure 9.4. An L2TPv3 Example

Setting up the above scenario is covered in the example below.

Example 9.13. L2TPv3 Server Setup
Assume an L2TPv3 Server object called my_l2tpv3_if is to be set up so that L2TPv3 clients can
connect to it on the If2 interface. The aim is to have the protected network If3_net on the If3
interface accessible to these clients using L2TPv3.
Command-Line Interface
A. First, define the L2TPv3 Server object:
gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPv3Server my_l2tpv3_if
IP=If3_ip
LocalNetwork=If3_net
Interface=If2
ServerIP=If2_ip

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If3:

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet If3 AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

Web Interface
A. First, define an L2TPv3 Server object:

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1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > L2TPv3 Servers > Add > L2TPv3 Server

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: my_l2tpv3_if

Inner IP Address: If3_ip

Local Network: If3_net

Outer Interface Filter: If2

Server IP: If2_ip

Click OK

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If3:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2.

Select the If3 interface

3.

Select the option Enable transparent mode

4.

Click OK

Using IPsec for Encryption

As with standard L2TP (L2TPv2), L2TPv3 does not provide encryption. The make communication
secure L2TPv3 should be set up in conjunction with an IPsec tunnel so that listening interface is
the IPsec tunnel itself.
The setup of the IPsec tunnel follows the same procedure as for standard L2TP and this is
described in Section 9.5.2, L2TP Servers.
Example 9.14. L2TPv3 Server Setup With IPsec
Assume the same scenario as the previous example, but this time the L2TPv3 tunnel is itself
being tunneled through an IPsec Tunnel object called my_ipsec_tunnel.
Setup of the IPsec tunnel is not shown in this example but follows the same setup described in
Section 9.5.2, L2TP Servers.
Command-Line Interface
A. First, define the L2TPv3 Server object:
gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPv3Server my_l2tpv3_if
IP=If3_ip
LocalNetwork=If3_net
Interface=my_ipsec_tunnel
ServerIP=If2_ip

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If3:

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gw-world:/> Set Interface Ethernet If3 AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

Web Interface
A. First, define an L2TPv3 Server object:
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > L2TPv3 Servers > Add > L2TPv3 Server

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: my_l2tpv3_if

Inner IP Address: If3_ip

Local Network: If3_net

Outer Interface Filter: my_ipsec_tunnel

Server IP: If2_ip

Click OK

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If3:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2.

Select the If3 interface

3.

Select the option Enable transparent mode

4.

Click OK

Setup With VLANs

The NetDefendOS L2TPv3 server can handle VLAN tagged Ethernet frames so that a protected
internal network can be accessed by external clients over VLAN connections.
To do this with NetDefendOS, two VLANs need to be configured, both with the same VLAN ID as
the ID used by the clients. One VLAN is configured on the local, protected Ethernet interface. The
other VLAN is configured on the L2TPv3 server interface. Both of these VLANs must have
transparent mode enabled.
A summary of the setup steps for VLAN follows:
A. Define an L2TPv3 server interface object as described previously but do not enable
transparent mode on the protected Ethernet interface.
B. Set up a NetDefendOS VLAN interface object with the following properties:
i.

The VLAN ID is the same as the VLAN ID of packets sent by clients.

ii.

The interface is the protected Ethernet interface.

iii.

The network is the same as the protected local network.

iv.

The IPv4 address for the VLAN is any arbitrary IP from the protected local network.
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v.

Transparent mode for this VLAN is enabled.

C. Set up a second VLAN interface object with the following properties:

i.

The VLAN ID is the same as the previous VLAN and the same as the ID of packets sent by
clients.

ii.

The interface is the L2TPv3 Server object defined previously.

iii.

The network is the same as the protected local network.

iv.

The IPv4 address for the VLAN is any arbitrary IP from the protected local network but
different from the previous VLAN.

v.

Transparent mode for this VLAN is enabled.

Example 9.15. L2TPv3 Server Setup For VLANs

Assume an L2TPv3 tunnel called my_l2tpv3_if is to be set up so that L2TPv3 clients can connect
on the If2. The protected network If3_net on the If3 interface will be accessible to these clients.
In addition, the clients will access over a VLAN within the tunnel that has a VLAN ID of 555.
It is assumed two arbitrary IPv4 addresses called If3_arbitrary_ip1 and If3_arbitrary_ip2 from the
protected network If3_net have already been defined in the NetDefendOS address book.
Command-Line Interface
A. First, define a L2TPv3 Server object:
gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPv3Server my_l2tpv3_if
IP=If3_ip
LocalNetwork=If3
Interface=If2
ServerIP=If2_ip

B. Next, create a VLAN object on the protected interface If3:

gw-world:/> add Interface VLAN my_vlan_local
Ethernet=If3
VLANID=555
IP=If3_arbitrary_ip1
Network=If3_net
AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

C. Last, create a VLAN object on the L2TPv3 tunnel interface my_l2tpv3_if:

gw-world:/> add Interface VLAN my_vlan_l2tpv3
Ethernet=my_l2tpv3_if
VLANID=555
IP=If3_arbitrary_ip2
Network=If3_net
AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

Web Interface
A. First, define a L2TPv3 Server object:

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1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > L2TPv3 Servers > Add > L2TPv3 Server

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: my_l2tpv3_if

Inner IP Address: If3_ip

Local Network: If3_net

Outer Interface Filter: If2

Server IP: If2_ip

Click OK

B. Next, create a VLAN object on the protected interface If3:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Add > VLAN

2.

Select the If3 interface

3.

Now enter:

Name: my_vlan_local

Interface: If3

VLAN ID: 555

IP Address: If3_arbitrary_ip1

Network: If3_net

4.

Select the option Enable transparent mode

5.

Click OK

C. Last, create a VLAN object on the L2TPv3 tunnel interface my_l2tpv3_if:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Add > VLAN

2.

Select the If3 interface

3.

Now enter:

Name: my_vlan_l2tpv3

Interface: my_l2tpv3_if

VLAN ID: 555

IP Address: If3_arbitrary_ip2

Network: If3_net

4.

Select the option Enable transparent mode

5.

Click OK

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9.5.5.2. L2TPv3 Client

A NetDefend Firewall can also act as an L2TPv3 client. This allows a remote firewall configured as
an L2TPv3 client to act as a concentrator of traffic from locally connected clients so it is sent
through a single L2TPv3 tunnel to an L2TPv3 server.
The following steps are required to configure NetDefendOS to be an L2TPv3 client:
A. Define an L2TPv3Client object with the following properties:
i.

Inner IP Address - The local IP address inside the tunnel. This is usually the IP address of
the physical interface which is the local tunnel endpoint

ii.

Local Network - The protected local network accessible through the tunnel.

iii.

Pseudowire Type - This will normally be Ethernet. Set to VLAN for VLANs

iv.

Protocol - This will normally be UDP.

v.

Remote Endpoint - The IP address of the server.

B. Enable transparent mode on the inner interface where the protected network is located.

Example 9.16. L2TPv3 Client Setup

In this example, an L2TPv3 Client object called my_l2tpv3_client is to be created. This will connect
with the L2TPv3 server with the IP address l2tpv3_server_ip.
This client will connect to the server over an IPsec tunnel called l2tpv3_ipsec_tunnel. It is assumed
that the tunnel has already been defined.
Command-Line Interface
A. First, define the L2TPv3Client object:
gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPv3Client my_l2tpv3_client
IP=inner_client_ip
LocalNetwork=If1_net
PseudowireType=Ethernet
Protocol=UDP
RemoteEndpoint=l2tpv3_server_ip

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If1:

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet If1 AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

Web Interface
A. First, define an L2TPv3 Client object:
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > L2TPv3 Client > Add > L2TPv3 Client

2.

Now enter:

Name: my_l2tpv3_client

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3.

Inner IP Address: inner_client_ip

Local Network: If1_net

Psudowire Type: Ethernet

Protocol: UDP

Remote Endpoint: l2tpv3_server_ip

Click OK

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If1:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2.

Select the If1 interface

3.

Select the option Enable transparent mode

4.

Click OK

Using IPsec for Encryption

As stated previously, L2TPv3 does not provide encryption. For encryption across the public
Internet, IPsec should be used. The following example shows how this is achieved by specifying
the IPsec tunnel to be used as a property of the L2TPv3 client object.
Example 9.17. L2TPv3 Client Setup With IPsec
This example is the same as the previous example but uses an IPsec tunnel to the server for
encryption. It is assumed that the IPsec tunnel object has already been defined with the name
l2tpv3_ipsec_tunnel.
IPsec tunnel setup is not shown here but it will follow the exact same procedure for L2TP which is
shown in Example 9.12, Setting up an L2TP Tunnel Over IPsec.
Command-Line Interface
A. Define the L2TPv3Client object:
gw-world:/> add Interface L2TPv3Client my_l2tpv3_client
IP=inner_client_ip
LocalNetwork=If1_net
PseudowireType=Ethernet
Protocol=UDP
RemoteEndpoint=l2tpv3_server_ip
IPsecInterface=l2tpv3_ipsec_tunnel

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If1:

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet If1 AutoSwitchRoute=Yes

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Web Interface
A. First, define an L2TPv3 Client object:
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > L2TPv3 Client > Add > L2TPv3 Client

2.

Now enter:

3.

Name: my_l2tpv3_client

Inner IP Address: inner_client_ip

Local Network: If1_net

Psudowire Type: Ethernet

Protocol: UDP

Remote Endpoint: l2tpv3_server_ip

IPsecInterface: l2tpv3_ipsec_tunnel

Click OK

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If1:

1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2.

Select the If1 interface

3.

Select the option Enable transparent mode

4.

Click OK

Setup With VLANs

The NetDefendOS L2TPv3 client can handle VLAN tagged Ethernet frames so that a protected
internal network can be access an external network over VLAN connections. The setup of the
VLANs is done in the same way as for the server and this is described in Section 9.5.5.1, L2TPv3
Server.
When setting up the L2TPv3 client object, the PseudowireType property must be set to the value
VLAN.

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9.6. SSL VPN

9.6.1. Overview
NetDefendOS provides an additional type of VPN connection called SSL VPN. This makes use of
the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to provide a secure tunnel between a remote client
computer and a NetDefend Firewall. Any application on the client can then communicate
securely with servers located on the protected side of the firewall.

The Advantage of SSL VPN

The key advantage of SSL VPN is that it enables secure communications between a client and a
firewall using the HTTPS protocol. In some environments where roaming clients have to operate,
such as hotels or airports, network equipment will often not allow other tunneling protocols,
such as IPsec, to be used.
In such cases, SSL VPN provides a viable, simple, secure client connection solution.

The SSL VPN Disadvantage

A disadvantage of SSL VPN is that it relies on tunneling techniques that make extensive use of
TCP protocol encapsulation for reliable transmission. This leads to extra processing overhead
which can cause noticeable latencies in some high load situations.
SSL VPN therefore demands more processing resources than, for example, IPsec. In addition,
hardware acceleration for IPsec is available on some hardware platforms to further boost
processing efficiency.

A Summary of SSL VPN Setup Steps

SSL VPN setup requires the following steps:

On the NetDefend Firewall side:

i.

An SSL VPN Interface object needs to be created which configures a particular Ethernet
interface to accept SSL VPN connections.

ii.

An Authentication Rule needs to be defined for incoming SSL VPN clients and the rule
must have the Interface property set to be the name of the SSL VPN object created
above.
The Authentication Agent of the rule must be set to L2TP/PPTP/SSL VPN and the rule's
Terminator IP must be set to the external IP address of the firewall's listening interface.
The PPP Agent Options for the rule can be any combination of PAP, CHAP, MS-CHAP,
MS-ChAPv2 and no authentication. The SSL client will go through all the options until it
finds a method that works. By default, all options are enabled except for no
authentication.
This topic is discussed further in Section 8.2.5, Authentication Rules.

iii.

If only a specific IP address, network or network range is to be made available to the

client through the tunnel then this can be specified as an option on the SSL VPN
interface. Otherwise, it is assumed that all client traffic will be routed through the tunnel.

iv.

Client users need to be defined in the Authentication Source of the authentication rule.

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This source can be a local user database, a RADIUS server or an LDAP server.
v.

Define appropriate NetDefendOS IP rules to allow data flow within the SSL VPN tunnel.
As discussed below, IP rules do not normally need to be defined for the setup of the SSL
VPN tunnel itself, they are only needed for the traffic that flows inside the tunnel.

vi.

Specify the interfaces on which client IPs will be ARP published. This is necessary so a
server behind the firewall knows how to send replies back to an SSL VPN client.
Usually, the only time proxy ARP needs to be enabled is if the IPs assigned to clients are
part of an already existing subnet that clients need access to. In that case, proxy ARP
must be enabled on the interface that has the corresponding subnet. If the traffic is
routed by the firewall, for example with an Allow or NAT rule, proxy ARP is not needed.
The option exists with NetDefendOS SSL VPN to automatically ARP publish all client IPs
on all firewall interfaces but this is not recommended because of the security issues that
are raised.

vii. Routes for clients do not need to be defined in the routing tables as these are added
automatically by NetDefendOS when SSL VPN tunnels are established.

On the Windows based client side:

A proprietary D-Link VPN SSL client application needs to be installed and configured to route
traffic to the correct interface on the firewall.
Installing and running the SSL VPN client software is done as part of the logging in process
for users as they access the firewall through a web browser. The Windows based client
software is automatically downloaded through the browser directly from the firewall.

SSL VPN with PPPoE

Where PPPoE is used as the method of connection to the NetDefend Firewall over the public
Internet, it is possible to have SSL VPN function over the PPPoE connection.
This is done by setting up the SSL VPN tunnel so that the Outer Interface property of the SSL VPN
tunnel object is specified to be a PPPoE configuration object instead of a physical Ethernet
interface. Setting up a PPPoE interface object is described in Section 3.4.4, PPPoE.

9.6.2. Configuring SSL VPN in NetDefendOS

To configure the SSL VPN in NetDefendOS, an SSL VPN Interface object must be defined for each
interface on which connections will be made. The object properties are as follows:
General Options

Name
A descriptive name for the object used for display in the NetDefendOS configuration.

Inner IP
This is the IP number within the tunnel that SSL VPN clients will connect to.
All clients that connect to the SSL VPN object interface are allocated an IP from the SSL VPN
interface's IP Pool. All the pool addresses as well as the Inner IP must belong to the same
network and these define the relationship between the firewall and the connecting clients.

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A private IP network should be used for this purpose. The Inner IP itself must not be one of
the IP Pool addresses that can be handed out to connecting SSL VPN clients.

Tip: The Inner IP can be pinged

For troubleshooting purposes, an ICMP Ping can be sent to the Inner IP address. In
order for NetDefendOS to be able to respond, an IP rule must exist that allows traffic to
flow from the SSL VPN interface to core (in other words, to NetDefendOS itself).

Outer Interface
The interface on which to listen for SSL VPN connection attempts. This could be a physical
Ethernet interface but it could also be another logical interface. For example, a PPPoE or
VLAN interface could be used.

Server IP
The Ethernet interface IP address on which to listen for SSL VPN connection attempts by
clients. This will typically be a public IPv4 address which will be initially accessed using a web
browser across the public Internet. The following should be noted about this IP:
i.

The Server IP must be specified and will not default to the IP of the Outer Interface.

ii.

The Server IP cannot be an IP address which is ARP published on the interface. In order
for SSL to work on ARP published IPs, a core route with an accompanying proxy ARP
property must be used. This is done with the following steps:

Define a route with the Interface property set to core and the Network property set to
the Server IP value.

Set the route's Proxy ARP property to the interfaces which clients are connecting to.

Proxy ARP is explained further in Section 4.2.6, Proxy ARP.

Server Port
The TCP/IP port number at the Server IP used in listening for SSL VPN connection attempts by
clients. The default value is 443 which is the standard port number for SSL.

Client IP Options

Dynamic Server Address

Instead of a fixed IP address for the SSL VPN Server IP being handed out to clients, this option
makes it possible to hand out a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) instead.
For example, the FQDN might be specified as server.some-domain.com. When a client
connects to the SSL VPN interface, this FQDN is handed out to the client which then resolves
the FQDN using DNS to a specific IP address. This allows the server address to change
dynamically with only the DNS entry being changed.
If this option is specified, the Server IP in General Options above is ignored.

IP Pool
As described above, client IP addresses for new SSL VPN connections are handed out from a
pool of private IPv4 addresses. This pool is specified by an IP address object defined in the

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NetDefendOS address book. It is not the same as an IP Pool object used with IPsec.
The pool addresses do not need to be a continuous range but must belong to the same
network. The Inner IP property must also belong to this network but must not be one of
the pool IPs.

Note: Pool addresses must not exceed a /24 network size

SSL VPN will not function correctly if an IP address is handed out that exceeds the
size of a Class C subnet (a /24 network with netmask 255.255.255.0).

Primary DNS
The primary DNS address handed out to a connecting client.

Secondary DNS
The secondary DNS address handed out to a connecting client.

Client Routes
By default, all client traffic is routed through the SSL tunnel when the client software is
activated. This behavior can be changed by specifying that only specific IPv4 addresses,
networks or address ranges will be accessible through the tunnel.
When this is done, only the specified routes through the tunnel are added to the client's
routing table and all other traffic is routed as normal. A maximum of five custom routes can
be specified for a tunnel.

Add Route Option

Proxy ARP
So that SSL VPN clients can be found by a network connected to another Ethernet interface,
client IP addresses need to be explicitly ARP published on that interface.
This Add Route option allows the interfaces for ARP publishing to be chosen. In most
situations it will be necessary to choose at least one interface on which to publish the client
network.

9.6.3. Installing the SSL VPN Client

For the SSL VPN to function, a proprietary D-Link SSL VPN client application must be installed on
the client computer. This is done with the following steps:
1.

A web browser must be opened and the protocol https:// needs to be entered into the
browser navigation field followed by the IP address or URL for the Ethernet interface on the
firewall that is configured for SSL VPN.
The IP address will be the same as the Server IP configured in the interface's SSL VPN object.
The port can also be specified after the IP address if it is different from the default value of
443.
With https, the firewall will send a certificate to the browser that is not CA signed and this
must be accepted as an exception by the user before continuing.

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2.

NetDefendOS now displays a login dialog in the browser.

3.

The credentials entered are checked against the user database. If the user is authenticated, a
web page is displayed which offers two choices:
i.

Download the D-Link SSL VPN client software

If this option has not been chosen before, it must be selected first to install the
proprietary D-Link SSL VPN client application.

ii.

Connect the SSL VPN client

If the client software is already installed, selecting this option starts the client running
and an SSL VPN tunnel is established to the firewall. This is discussed next in more
detail.

Figure 9.5. SSL VPN Browser Connection Choices

Using CA Signed Certificates

By default, NetDefendOS uses a self-signed certificate when it displays the dialog shown above. If
it is desirable to use a CA signed certificate, that may or may not use certificate chaining, this can
be configured on the RemoteMgmtSettings object. In other words, the certificates used for HTTPS
Web Interface access are the same ones used for SSL VPN login. Configuring these certificates is
explained further in Section 2.1.3, The Web Interface.

Running the Client SSL VPN Software

An SSL VPN tunnel becomes established whenever the D-Link SSL VPN client application runs.
Conversely, the tunnel is taken down when the application stops running.
There are two ways for the tunnel to be established:

To login by using a web browser to surf to the SSL VPN interface as described above. Once
the client software is installed, only the option to establish the tunnel is selected.

Once the client software is installed, it can be started by selecting it in the Windows Start
menu. The SSL VPN client user interface then opens, the user password is entered and when
OK is pressed the tunnel is established and any client computer application can then make
use of it.

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Figure 9.6. The SSL VPN Client Login

The difference between the two approaches above is that when the SSL VPN client software is
started by browsing to the SSL VPN interface, the correct settings for the tunnel are downloaded
to the SSL VPN client software and stored as the client's configuration file.
As long as these settings have not changed between tunnel sessions, it is possible to start the
SSL VPN client software running by selecting it in the Start menu and connecting to the same SSL
VPN interface. In particular, the SSL VPN client checks the certificate used by the SSL VPN
interface by comparing a certificate fingerprint stored in the configuration file with a fingerprint
sent by the interface.
The reason for checking the certificate in this way is that it solves the "man in the middle"
problem where a malicious third party might try to intercept communications between the
firewall and the client.

Custom Server Connection

When the SSL VPN client software is started, it is possible to connect to an SSL VPN interface on a
NetDefend Firewall that has not been connected to before. This is done by enabling the option
Specify Custom Server and explicitly specifying the IP address, port and login credentials for the
server.
With the Specify Custom Server option enabled, the SSL VPN client ignores any configuration
file parameters previously downloaded by an SSL VPN connection established using the web
interface. In particular, it does not check the certificate used by the firewall.
The disadvantage of using the custom server option is that there is no certificate checking and
the "man in the middle" problem remains.

Client Transfer Statistics

When the SSL VPN client is running, an icon for it will appear in the system tray. Clicking this icon
will bring up the client's interface showing amounts of data transferred since tunnel setup.

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Figure 9.7. The SSL VPN Client Statistics

SSL VPN Client Operation

Whenever the SSL VPN client application runs, the following happens:

A route is added to the Windows routing table. This route is equivalent to a NetDefendOS
default all-nets route.

The added default route directs all traffic from the Windows client through the SSL tunnel.
When the Windows SSL VPN client application ends, the SSL tunnel is closed and the default
route in the Windows routing table is removed, returning the routing table to its original
state.

An SSL connection is made to the configured Ethernet interface on a NetDefend Firewall and
the next available IP address is handed out to the client from the associated SSL VPN object's
IP pool.
In addition, a single route for the client is added to the NetDefendOS routing table. This route
maps the handed out client IP address to the associated SSL VPN interface.

Traffic can now flow between the client and the firewall, subject to NetDefendOS IP rules.

Specifying IP Rules for Traffic Flow

No IP rules need to be specified for the setup of an SSL VPN tunnel itself, provided that the
advanced setting SSLVPNBeforeRules is enabled. However, appropriate IP rules need to be
specified by the administrator to allow traffic to flow through the tunnel.
Since SSL VPN connections originate from the client side, the SSL VPN interface object should be
the source interface of the IP rule and the source network should be the range of possible IP
addresses that the clients can be given. Specifying the source network as all-nets would of course
work but it always more secure to use the narrowest possible IP address range.
For more information about specifying IP rules see Section 3.6, IP Rules and IP Policies.

Client Cleanup
Should the SSL VPN client application terminate prematurely for some reason, the Windows
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routing table may not be left in a consistent state and the automatically added all-nets route may
not have been removed.
To remedy this problem, the D-Link SSL VPN client software should be started by selecting it in
the Windows Start menu and then stopped.

Manually Specifying the Client's Default Gateway

If the SSL VPN client's connection to the server is NATed, it is important that the client's route to
the default gateway is not added manually in a DOS console using the route add command.
If the default gateway has been added in this way, the SSL VPN link will become established and
function for a short time before the link stops working and the client gives the following error
message: SSL stream closed unexpectedly. If the client console is then opened, it will show there
was an error when reading from the SSL socket.
This problem is solved by not using the DOS console to manually add the default gateway route.
Instead, do this through the Windows control panel or allow the SSL VPN client software to add
the route automatically.

9.6.4. SSL VPN Setup Example

Example 9.18. Setting Up an SSL VPN Interface
This example shows how to set up a new SSL VPN interface called my_sslvpn_if.
Assume that the physical interface If2 will be used to listen to client connections and this will
have an external IP address already defined in the address book called sslvpn_server_ip.
Connections will be made using SSL VPN to a server located on the network connected to the
firewall's If3 Ethernet interface.
Assume also that the IPv4 addresses that can be handed out to clients are defined in the address
book object sslvpn_pool. This might contain the simple address range 10.0.0.2-10.0.0.9.
Another address book IP object sslvpn_inner_ip might then be set as 10.0.0.1 and this is the inner
IP of the NetDefendOS end of the tunnel.
1. Create an SSL VPN Object
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Interface SSLVPNInterface my_sslvpn_if
InnerIP=sslvpn_inner_ip
IPAddressPool=sslvpn_pool
OuterInterface=If2
ServerIP=sslvpn_server_ip
ProxyARPInterfaces=If3

Note: If multiple Proxy ARP interfaces are needed, they are specified as a comma separated list.
For example: If3,If4,If5.
Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > SSL > Add > SSL VPN Interface

2.

Now enter:

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Specify a suitable name, in this example my_sslvpn_if

Inner IP: sslvpn_inner_ip

Outer Interface: If2

Server IP: sslvpn_server_ip

IP Pool: sslvpn_pool

3.

Click the tab Add Route

4.

Select the If3 interface in the Available list and press the ">>" button to move it into the
Selected list

5.

Click OK

2. Create an Authentication Rule

Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add UserAuthRule
Interface=my_sslvpn_if
AuthSource=Local
LocalUserDB=lannet_auth_users
OriginatorIP=all-nets
Agent=PPP
TerminatorIP=sslvpn_server_ip
Name=ssl_login

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > User Authentication User Authentication Rules > Add > User
Authentication Rule

2.

Now enter:

Name: ssl_login

Agent: L2TP/PPTP/SSL VPN

Authentication Source: Local

Interface: my_sslvpn_if

Originator IP: all-nets (a more specific range is more secure)

Terminator IP: sslvpn_server_ip

3.

For Local User DB choose lannet_auth_users.

4.

For Login Type choose HTMLForm

5.

Click OK

The new NetDefendOS configuration should now be deployed.

For external client connection, a web browser should be directed to the IP address my_sslvpn_if.
This is done either by typing the actual IP address or using a URL that can resolve to the IP

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address.

Example 9.19. Setting SSL VPN Interface Client Routes

This example shows how change the SSL VPN tunnel called my_sslvpn_if so that the only route
added to the routing table of clients is a route to the protected network protected_server_net
which is already defined in the NetDefendOS address book.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set Interface SSLVPNInterface my_sslvpn_if
ClientRoutes=protected_server_net

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > SSL

2.

Select the tunnel called my_sslvpn_if

3.

Under Client Routes move the address object protected_server_net from Available to
Selected.

4.

Click OK

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9.7. CA Server Access

Overview
Certificate validation can be done by accessing a separate Certifcation Server (CA) server. For
example, the two sides of an IPsec tunnel exchange their certificates during the tunnel setup
negotiation and either may then try to validate the received certificate.
A certificate contains a URL (the CRL Distribution Point) which specifies the validating CA server
and server access is performed using an HTTP GET request with an HTTP reply. (This URL is more
correctly called an FQDN - Fully Qualified Domain Name.)

CA Server Types
CA servers are of two types:

A commercial CA server operated by one of the commercial certificate issuing companies.

These are accessible over the public Internet and their FQDNs are resolvable through the
public Internet DNS server system.

A private CA server operated by the same organization setting up the VPN tunnels. The IP
address of a private server will not be known to the public DNS system unless it is explicitly
registered. It also will not be known to an internal network unless it is registered on an
internal DNS server.

Access Considerations
The following considerations should be taken into account for CA server access to succeed:

Either side of a VPN tunnel may issue a validation request to a CA server.

For a certificate validation request to be issued, the FQDN of the certificate's CA server must
first be resolved into an IP address. The following scenarios are possible:
1.

The CA server is a private server behind the NetDefend Firewall and the tunnels are set
up over the public Internet but to clients that will not try to validate the certificate sent
by NetDefendOS.
In this case, the IP address of the private server needs only be registered on a private
DNS server so the FQDN can be resolved. This private DNS server will also have to be
configured in NetDefendOS so it can be found when NetDefendOS issues a validation
request. This will also be the procedure if the tunnels are being set up entirely internally
without using the public Internet.

2.

The CA server is a private server with tunnels set up over the public Internet and with
clients that will try to validate the certificate received from NetDefendOS. In this case the
following must be done:
a.

A private DNS server must be configured so that NetDefendOS can locate the
private CA server to validate the certificates coming from clients.

b.

The external IP address of the NetDefend Firewall needs to be registered in the

public DNS system so that the FQDN reference to the private CA server in
certificates sent to clients can be resolved. For example, NetDefendOS may send a
certificate to a client with an FQDN which is ca.company.com and this will need to
be resolvable by the client to a public external IP address of the NetDefend Firewall

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through the public DNS system.

The same steps should be followed if the other side of the tunnel is another firewall
instead of being many clients.
3.

The CA server is a commercial server on the public Internet. In this, the simplest case,
public DNS servers will resolve the FQDN. The only requirement is that NetDefendOS will
need to have at least one public DNS server address configured to resolve the FQDNs in
the certificates it receives.

It must be also possible for an HTTP PUT request to pass from the validation request source
(either the NetDefend Firewall or a client) to the CA server and an HTTP reply to be received.
If the request is going to pass through the NetDefend Firewall, the appropriate rules in the
NetDefendOS IP rule set need to be defined to allow this traffic through.
IP rules are not required if it NetDefendOS itself that is issuing the request to the CA server.
Actions taken by NetDefendOS are trusted by default. This is a general rule that also applies
to DNS resolution requests issued by NetDefendOS.

Figure 9.8. Certificate Validation Components

CA Server Access by Clients

In a VPN tunnel with roaming clients connecting to the NetDefend Firewall, the VPN client
software may need to access the CA server. Not all VPN client software will need this access. In
the Microsoft clients prior to Vista, CA server requests are not sent at all. With Microsoft Vista
validation became the default with the option to disable it. Other non-Microsoft clients differ in
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the way they work but the majority will attempt to validate the certificate.

Placement of Private CA Servers

The easiest solution for placement of a private CA server is to have it on the unprotected side of
the NetDefend Firewall. This however, is not recommended from a security viewpoint. It is better
to place it on the inside (or preferably in the DMZ if available) and to have NetDefendOS control
access to it.
As explained previously, the address of the private CA server must be resolvable through public
DNS servers for certificate validation requests coming from the public Internet. If the certificate
queries are coming only from the NetDefend Firewall and the CA server is on the internal side of
the firewall then the IP address of the internal DNS server must be configured in NetDefendOS so
that these requests can be resolved.

Turning Off validation

As explained in the troubleshooting section below, identifying problems with CA server access
can be done by turning off the requirement to validate certificates. Attempts to access CA servers
by NetDefendOS can be disabled with the Disable CRLs option for certificate objects. This
means that checking against the CA server's revocation list will be turned off and access to the
server will not be attempted.

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9.8. VPN Troubleshooting

This section deals with how to troubleshoot the common problems that are found with VPN.

9.8.1. General Troubleshooting

In all types of VPNs some basic troubleshooting checks can be made:

Check that all IP addresses have been specified correctly.

Check that all pre-shared keys and usernames/passwords are correctly entered.

Use ICMP Ping to confirm that the tunnel is working. With roaming clients this is best done by
Pinging the internal IP address of the local network interface on the NetDefend Firewall from
a client (in LAN to LAN setups pinging could be done in any direction). If NetDefendOS is to
respond to a Ping then the following rule must exist in the IP rule set:

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface

Dest Network

Service

Allow

vpn_tunnel

all-nets

core

all-nets

ICMP

Ensure that another IPsec Tunnel definition is not preventing the correct definition being
reached. The tunnel list is scanned from top to bottom by NetDefendOS and a tunnel in a
higher position with the Remote Network set to all-nets and the Remote Endpoint set to
none could prevent the correct tunnel being reached. A symptom of this is often an Incorrect
Pre-shared Key message.

Try and avoid duplication of IP addresses between the remote network being accessed by a
client and the internal network to which a roaming client belongs.
If a roaming client becomes temporarily part of a network such as a Wi-Fi network at an
airport, the client will get an IP address from the Wi-Fi network's DHCP server. If that IP also
belongs to the network behind the NetDefend Firewall accessible through a tunnel, then
Windows will still continue to assume that the IP address is to be found on the client's local
network. Windows therefore will not correctly route packets bound for the remote network
through the tunnel but instead route them to the local network.
The solution to this problem of local/remote IP address duplication is to create a new route in
the client's Windows routing table that explicitly routes the IP address to the tunnel.

If roaming client user authentication is not asking the users for their username/password
then ensure that the following advanced settings are enabled:

IPsec Before Rules for pure IPsec roaming clients.

L2TP Before Rules for L2TP roaming clients.

PPTP Before Rules for PPTP roaming clients.

These settings should be enabled by default and they ensure that user authentication traffic
between NetDefendOS and the client can bypass the IP rule set. If the appropriate setting is
not enabled then an explicit rule needs to be added to the IP rule set to allow the
authentication traffic to pass between roaming clients and NetDefendOS. This rule will have a
destination interface of core (which means NetDefendOS itself ).

If the remote endpoint is specified as a URL, make sure that the URL string is preceded by the
prefix dns:. If, for example, the tunnel remote endpoint is to be specified as vpn.company.com,
this should be specified as dns:vpn.company.com.

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9.8.2. Troubleshooting Certificates

If certificates have been used in a VPN solution then the following should be looked at as a
source of potential problems:

Check that the correct certificates have been used for the right purposes.

Check that the certificate .cer and .key files have the same filename. For example, my_cert.key
and my_cert.cer.

Check that the certificates have not expired. Certificates have a specific lifetime and when
this expires they cannot be used and new certificates must be issued.

Check that the NetDefendOS date and time is set correctly. If the system time and date is
wrong then certificates can appear as being expired when, in fact, they are not.

Consider time-zone issues with newly generated certificates. The NetDefend Firewall's time
zone may not be the same as the CA server's time zone and the certificate may not yet be
valid in the local zone.

Disable CRL (revocation list) checking to see if CA server access could be the problem. CA
Server issues are discussed further in Section 9.7, CA Server Access.

9.8.3. IPsec Troubleshooting Commands

A number of commands can be used to diagnose IPsec tunnels:

The ipsecstat console command

ipsecstat can be used to show that IPsec tunnels have correctly established. A representative
example of output is:
gw-world:/> ipsecstat
--- IPsec SAs:
Displaying one line per SA-bundle
IPsec Tunnel
-----------L2TP_IPSec
IPsec_Tun1

Local Net
-------------214.237.225.43
192.168.0.0/24

Remote Net
-----------84.13.193.179
172.16.1.0/24

Remote GW
------------84.13.193.179
82.242.91.203

To examine the first IKE negotiation phase of tunnel setup use:

gw-world:/> ipsecstat -ike

To get complete details of tunnel setup use:

gw-world:/> ipsecstat -u -v

Warning: Be careful using the -num=all option

When using any IPsec related commands, if there are large numbers of tunnels then
avoid using the -num=all option since this will generate correspondingly large amounts
of output.

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For example, with a large number of tunnels avoid using:

gw-world:/> ipsecstat -num=all

Another example of what to avoid with many tunnels is:

gw-world:/> ipsectunnels -num=all

In these circumstances, using the option with a small number, for example -num=10, is
recommended.

The ikesnoop console command

A common problem with setting up IPsec is a list of proposed algorithms that is unacceptable to
the device at the other end of the tunnel. The ikesnoop command is a useful tool for diagnosing
incompatible algorithm proposal lists by showing the details of negotiations during tunnel
setup. The basic form of this command is:
gw-world:/> ikesnoop -on -verbose

Once issued, an ICMP ping can then be sent to the NetDefend Firewall from the remote end of
the tunnel. This will cause ikesnoop to output details of the tunnel setup negotiation to the
console and any algorithm proposal list incompatibilities can be seen.
If there are multiple tunnels in a setup or multiple clients on a single tunnel then the output from
verbose option can be overwhelming. It is therefore better to specify that the output comes from
a single tunnel by specifying the IP address of the tunnel's endpoint (this is either the IP of the
remote endpoint or a client's IP address). The command takes the form:
gw-world:/> ikesnoop -on <ip-address> -verbose

Ikesnoop can be turned off with the command:

gw-world:/> ikesnoop -off

For a more detailed discussion of this topic, see Section 9.4.5, Troubleshooting with ikesnoop.

9.8.4. Management Interface Failure with VPN

If any VPN tunnel is set up and then the management interface no longer operates then it is likely
to be a problem with the management traffic being routed back through the VPN tunnel instead
of the correct interface.
This happens when a route is established in the main routing table which routes any traffic for
all-nets through the VPN tunnel. If the management interface is not reached by the VPN tunnel
then the administrator needs to create a specific route that routes management interface traffic
leaving the NetDefend Firewall back to the management sub-network.
When any VPN tunnel is defined, an all-nets route is automatically defined in the routing table
so the administrator should always set up a specific route for the management interface to be
correctly routed.

9.8.5. Specific Error Messages

This section will deal with specific error messages that can appear with VPN and what they

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indicate. The messages discussed are:

1. Could not find acceptable proposal / no proposal chosen.
2. Incorrect pre-shared key.
3. Ike_invalid_payload, Ike_invalid_cookie.
4. Payload_Malformed.
5. No public key found.

1. Could not find acceptable proposal / no proposal chosen

This is the most common IPsec related error message. It means that depending on which side
initiates tunnel setup, the negotiations in either the IKE or the IPSec phase of setup failed since
they were unable to find a matching proposal that both sides could agree on.
Troubleshooting this error message can be involved since the reasons for this message can be
multiple depending on where in the negotiation it occurred.

If the negotiation fails during phase-1 IKE

The IKE proposal list does not match. Double check that the IKE proposal list matches that of
the remote side. A good idea is to use the ikesnoop verbose CLI command and get the tunnel
to initiate the tunnel from the remote side. It can then be seen what proposals the remote
side is sending and then compare the results with the local IKE proposal list. At least ONE
proposal has to match in order for it to pass phase-1. Remember that the lifetimes are also
important, as will be mentioned in Problem symptom-1.

If the negotiation fails during phase-2 IPsec

The IPsec proposal list does not match. Double check that the IPsec proposal list matches
that of the remote side. The same method described above of using ikesnoop can be used
from when the remote side initiates the tunnel and compare it against the local proposal list.
What is "extra" in the IPsec phase is that the networks are negotiated here, so even if the
IPsec proposal list seem to match, the problem may be with mismatching networks. The local
network(s) on one side need to be the remote network on the other side and vice versa.
Remember that multiple networks will generate multiple IPsec SAs, one SA per network (or
host if that option is used). The defined network size is also important in that it must be
exactly the same size on both sides, as will be mentioned again later in the symptoms
section.
There are also some settings on the IPsec tunnel's IKE tab that can be involved in a
no-proposal chosen issue. For example, PFS (for IPsec phase) or DH Group (for the IKE phase).

2. Incorrect pre-shared key

A problem with the pre-shared key on either side has caused the tunnel negotiation to fail. This is
perhaps the easiest of all the error messages to troubleshoot since it can be only one thing, and
that is incorrect pre-shared key. Double-check that the pre-shared key is of the same type
(Passphrase or Hex-key) and correctly added on both sides of the tunnel.
Another reason for why NetDefendOS detects that the pre-shared key is incorrect could be
because the wrong tunnel is triggering during tunnel negotiations. IPsec tunnels are processed
from the top to the bottom of the NetDefendOS tunnel list and are initially matched against the
remote gateway. An example is if there is a roaming tunnel that uses all-nets as its remote
gateway. This tunnel will trigger before the intended tunnel if it is placed above it in the
NetDefendOS tunnel list.
For example, consider the following IPsec tunnel definitions:

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Name

Local Network

Remote Network

Remote Gateway

VPN-1

lannet

office1net

office1gw

VPN-2

lannet

office2net

office2gw

L2TP

ip_wan

all-nets

all-nets

VPN-3

lannet

office3net

office3gw

Since the tunnel L2TP in the above table is above the tunnel VPN-3, a match will trigger before
VPN-3 because of the all-nets remote gateway (all-nets will match any network). Since these two
tunnels use different pre-shared keys, NetDefendOS will generate an "Incorrect pre-shared key"
error message.
The problem is solved if we reorder the list and move VPN-3 above L2TP. The gateway office3gw
will be then matched correctly and VPN-3 will be the tunnel selected by NetDefendOS.

3. Ike_invalid_payload, Ike_invalid_cookie
In this case the IPsec engine in NetDefendOS receives an IPsec IKE packet but is unable to match
it against an existing IKE.
If a VPN tunnel is only established on one side, this can be the resulting error message when
traffic arrives from a tunnel that does not exist. An example would be if, for some reason, the
tunnel has only gone down from the initiator side but the terminator still sees it as up. It then
tries to send packets through the tunnel but when they arrive at the initiator it will drop them
since no matching tunnel can be found.
Simply remove the tunnel from the side that believes it is still up to solve the immediate
problem. An investigation as to why the tunnel only went down from one side is recommended.
It could be that DPD and/or Keep-Alive is only used on one side. Another possible cause could be
that even though it has received a DELETE packet, it has not deleted/removed the tunnel.

4. Payload_Malformed
This problem is very similar to the Incorrect pre-shared key problem described above. A possible
reason is that the PSK is of the wrong TYPE on either side (Passphrase or Hex key).
Verify that the same type is being used on both sides of the IPsec tunnel. If one side is using Hex
and the other Passphrase then this is most likely the error message that will be generated.

5. No public key found

This is a very common error message when dealing with tunnels that use certificates for
authentication.
Troubleshooting this error message can be very difficult as the possible cause of the problem can
be quite extensive. Also it is very important to keep in mind that when dealing with certificates
there may be a need to combine the ikesnoop output with normal log messages as ikesnoop does
not give that extensive information about certificates, whereas normal logs can provide
important clues as to what the problem could be.
A good suggestion before starting to troubleshoot certificate based tunnels is to first configure it
as a PSK tunnel and then verify that it can be successfully established. Then move on to using
certificates (unless the type of configuration prevents that).
The possible causes of certificate problems can be the following:

The certificate on either side is not signed by the same CA server.

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A certificate's validity time has expired or it has not yet become valid. The latter can occur if
the clock is set incorrectly on either the CA server or the NetDefend Firewall or they are in
different time zones.

The NetDefend Firewall is unable to reach the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) on the CA
server in order to verify if the certificate is valid or not. Double-check that the CRL path is valid
in the certificate's properties. (Note that usage of the CRL feature can be turned off.)
Also make sure that there is a DNS client configured for NetDefendOS in order to be able to
correctly resolve the path to the CRL on the CA server.

Note: L2TP with Microsoft Vista

With L2TP, Microsoft Vista tries by default to contact and download the CRL list,
while Microsoft XP does not. This can be turned off in Vista.

If multiple similar or roaming tunnels exist and there is a need to separate them using ID lists,
a possible cause can be that none of the ID lists match the certificate properties of the
connecting user. Either the user is not authorized or the certificate properties are wrong on
the client or the ID list needs to be updated with this user/information.

With L2TP, the client certificate is imported into the wrong certificate store on the Windows
client. When the client connects, it is using the wrong certificate.

9.8.6. Specific Symptoms

There are two specific symptoms that will be discussed in this section:
1. The tunnel can only be initiated from one side.
2. The tunnel is unable to be set up and the ikesnoop command reports a config mode XAuth
problem even though XAuth is not used.

1. The tunnel can only be initiated from one side

This is a common problem and is due to a mismatch of the size in local or remote network and/or
the lifetime settings on the proposal list(s).
To troubleshoot this it is necessary to examine the settings for the local network, remote
network, IKE proposal list and IPsec proposal list on both sides to try to identify a miss-match.
For example, suppose the following IPsec settings are at either end of a tunnel:

Side A
Local Network = 192.168.10.0/24
Remote Network = 10.10.10.0/24

Side B
Local Network = 10.10.10.0/24
Remote Network = 192.168.10.0/16

In this scenario, it can be seen that the defined remote network on Side B is larger than that
defined for Side A's local network. This means that Side A can only initiate the tunnel
successfully towards Site B as its network is smaller.

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When Side B tries to initiate the tunnel, Side A will reject it because the network is bigger than
what is defined. The reason it works the other way around is because a smaller network is
considered more secure and will be accepted. This principle also applies to the lifetimes in the
proposal lists.

2. Unable to set up with config mode and getting a spurious XAuth message
The reason for this message is basically "No proposal chosen". The case where this will appear is
when there is something that fails in terms of network size on either local network or remote
network. Since NetDefendOS has determined that it is a type of network size problem, it will try
one last attempt to get the correct network by sending a config mode request.
By using ikesnoop when both sides initiate the tunnel, it should be simple to compare the
network that both sides are sending in phase-2. With that information it should be possible to
spot the network problem. It can be the case that it is a network size mismatch or that it does not
match at all.

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This chapter describes how NetDefendOS can manage network traffic.
Traffic Shaping, page 585
IDP Traffic Shaping, page 607
Threshold Rules, page 612
Server Load Balancing, page 615

10.1. Traffic Shaping

10.1.1. Overview
QoS with TCP/IP
A weakness of TCP/IP is the lack of true Quality of Service (QoS) functionality. QoS is the ability to
guarantee and limit network bandwidth for certain services and users. Solutions such as the
Differentiated Services (Diffserv) architecture have been designed to try and deal with the QoS
issue in large networks by using information in packet headers to provide network devices with
QoS information.

NetDefendOS Diffserv Support

NetDefendOS supports the Diffserv architecture the following ways:

NetDefendOS forwards the 6 bits which make up the Diffserv Differentiated Services Code
Point (DSCP) as well as copying these bits from the data traffic inside VPN tunnels to the
encapsulating packets.

As described later in this chapter, DSCP bits can be used by the NetDefendOS traffic shaping
subsystem as a basis for prioritizing traffic passing through the NetDefend Firewall.

It is important to understand that NetDefendOS traffic shaping does not add new Diffserv
information as packets traverse a NetDefend Firewall. The NetDefendOS traffic shaping priorities
described later in this chapter are for traffic shaping within NetDefendOS only and are not
translated into Diffserv information that is then added to packets.
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The Traffic Shaping Solution

Architectures like Diffserv however, fall short if applications themselves supply the network with
QoS information. In most networks it is rarely appropriate to let the applications, the users of the
network, decide the priority of their own traffic. If the users cannot be relied upon then the
network equipment must make the decisions concerning priorities and bandwidth allocation.
NetDefendOS provides QoS control by allowing the administrator to apply limits and guarantees
to the network traffic passing through the NetDefend Firewall. This approach is often referred to
as traffic shaping and is well suited to managing bandwidth for local area networks as well as to
managing the bottlenecks that might be found in larger wide area networks. It can be applied to
any traffic including that passing through VPN tunnels.

Traffic Shaping Objectives

Traffic shaping operates by measuring and queuing IP packets with respect to a number of
configurable parameters. The objectives are:

Applying bandwidth limits and queuing packets that exceed configured limits, then sending
them later when bandwidth demands are lower.

Dropping packets if packet buffers are full. The packets to be dropped should be chosen from
those that are responsible for the congestion.

Prioritizing traffic according to administrator decisions. If traffic with a high priority increases
while a communication line is full, traffic with a low priority can be temporarily limited to
make room for the higher priority traffic.

Providing bandwidth guarantees. This is typically accomplished by treating a certain amount

of traffic (the guaranteed amount) as high priority. The traffic that is in excess of the
guarantee then has the same priority as other traffic, competing with all the other
non-prioritized traffic.

Traffic shaping does not typically work by queuing up immense amounts of data and then
sorting out the prioritized traffic to send before sending non-prioritized traffic. Instead, the
amount of prioritized traffic is measured and the non-prioritized traffic is limited dynamically so
that it will not interfere with the throughput of prioritized traffic.

Note: Traffic shaping will not work with the SIP ALG
Any traffic connections that trigger an IP rule with a service object that uses the SIP ALG
cannot be also subject to traffic shaping.

10.1.2. Traffic Shaping in NetDefendOS

NetDefendOS offers extensive traffic shaping capabilities for the packets passing through the
NetDefend Firewall. Different rate limits and traffic guarantees can be created as policies based
on the traffic's source, destination and protocol, similar to the way in which security policies are
created based on IP rules.
The two key components for traffic shaping in NetDefendOS are:

Pipes

Pipe Rules

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Pipes
A Pipe is the fundamental object for traffic shaping and is a conceptual channel through which
data traffic can flow. It has various characteristics that define how traffic passing through it is
handled. As many pipes as are required can be defined by the administrator. None are defined by
default.
Pipes are simplistic in that they do not care about the types of traffic that pass through them nor
the direction of that traffic. They simply measure the aggregate data that passes through them
and then apply the administrator configured limits for the pipe as a whole or for Precedences
and/or Groups (these concepts are explained later in Section 10.1.6, Precedences).
NetDefendOS is capable of handling hundreds of pipes simultaneously, but in reality most
scenarios require only a handful of pipes. It is possible that dozens of pipes might be needed in
scenarios where individual pipes are used for individual protocols. Large numbers of pipes might
also be needed in an ISP scenario where individual pipes are allocated to each client.

Pipe Rules
One or more Pipe Rules make up the NetDefendOS Pipe Rule set which determine what traffic will
flow through which pipes.
Each pipe rule is defined like other NetDefendOS security policies: by specifying the
source/destination interface/network as well as the service to which the rule is to apply. Once a
new connection is permitted by the IP rule set, the pipe rule set is then checked for any matching
pipe rules.
Pipe rules are checked in the same way as IP rules, by going from top to bottom (first to last) in
the rule set. The first matching rule, if any, decides if the connection is subject to traffic shaping.
Keep in mind that any connection that does not trigger a pipe rule will not be subject to traffic
shaping and could potentially use as much bandwidth as it wants.

Note: No pipe rules are defined by default

The rule set for pipe rules is initially empty with no rules being defined by default. At least
one rule must be created for traffic shaping to begin to function.

Pipe Rule Chains

When a pipe rule is defined, the pipes to be used with that rule are also specified and they are
placed into one of two lists in the pipe rule. These lists are:

The Forward Chain

These are the pipe or pipes that will be used for outgoing (leaving) traffic from the NetDefend
Firewall. One, none or a series of pipes may be specified.

The Return Chain

These are the pipe or pipes that will be used for incoming (arriving) traffic. One, none or a
series of pipes may be specified.

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Figure 10.1. Pipe Rules Determine Pipe Usage

The pipes that are to be used are specified in a pipe list. If only one pipe is specified then that is
the pipe whose characteristics will be applied to the traffic. If a series of pipes are specified then
these will form a Chain of pipes through which traffic will pass. A chain can be made up of a
maximum of 8 pipes.

Explicitly Excluding Traffic from Shaping

If no pipe is specified in a pipe rule list then traffic that triggers the rule will not flow through any
pipe. It also means that the triggering traffic will not be subject to any other matching pipe rules
that might be found later in the rule set.
This provides a means to explicitly exclude particular traffic from traffic shaping. Such rules are
not absolutely necessary but if placed at the beginning of the pipe rule set, they can guard
against accidental traffic shaping by later rules.

Pipes Will Not Work With FwdFast IP Rules

It is important to understand that traffic shaping will not work with traffic that is flows as a result
of triggering a FwdFast IP rule in the NetDefendOS IP rule sets.
The reason for this is that traffic shaping is implemented by using the NetDefendOS state engine
which is the subsystem that deals with the tracking of connections. FwdFast IP rules do not set
up a connection in the state engine. Instead, packets are considered not to be part of a
connection and are forwarded individually to their destination, bypassing the state engine.

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Figure 10.2. FwdFast Rules Bypass Traffic Shaping

Using Pipes with Application Control

When using the Application Control feature, it is possible to associate a pipe object directly with
an Application Rule object in order to define a bandwidth for a particular application. For
example, the bandwidth allocated to the BitTorrent peer-to-peer application could be limited in
this way.
This feature is discussed further in Section 3.6.8, Application Control.

10.1.3. Simple Bandwidth Limiting

The simplest use of pipes is for bandwidth limiting. This is also a scenario that does not require
much planning. The example that follows applies a bandwidth limit to inbound traffic only. This
is the direction most likely to cause problems for Internet connections.
Example 10.1. Applying a Simple Bandwidth Limit
Begin with creating a simple pipe that limits all traffic that gets passed through it to 2 megabits
per second, regardless of what traffic it is.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Pipe std-in LimitKbpsTotal=2000

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Traffic Management > Pipes > Add > Pipe

2.

Specify a suitable name for the pipe, for instance std-in

3.

Enter 2000 in the Total textbox under Pipe Limits

4.

Click OK

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Traffic needs to be passed through the pipe and this is done by using the pipe in a Pipe Rule.
We will use the above pipe to limit inbound traffic. This limit will apply to the actual data packets,
and not the connections. In traffic shaping we're interested in the direction that data is being
shuffled, not which computer initiated the connection.
Create a simple rule that allows everything from the inside, going out. We add the pipe that we
created to the return chain. This means that the packets travelling in the return direction of this
connection (outside-in) should pass through the std-in pipe.
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add PipeRule ReturnChain=std-in
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=all_services
Name=Outbound

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Traffic Management > Traffic Shaping > Add > Pipe Rule

2.

Specify a suitable name for the pipe, for instance outbound

3.

Now enter:

Service: all_services

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lannet

Destination Interface: wan

Destination Network: all-nets

4.

Under the Traffic Shaping tab, make std-in selected in the Return Chain control

5.

Click OK

This setup limits all traffic from the outside (the Internet) to 2 megabits per second. No priorities
are applied, and neither is any dynamic balancing.

10.1.4. Limiting Bandwidth in Both Directions

Using a Single Pipe for Both Directions
A single pipe does not care in which direction the traffic through it is flowing when it calculates
total throughout. Using the same pipe for both outbound and inbound traffic is allowed by
NetDefendOS but this will not partition the pipe limit exactly in two between the two directions.
In the previous example only bandwidth in the inbound direction is limited. In most situations,
this is the direction that becomes full first. But what if the outbound traffic must be limited in the
same way?

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Just inserting std-in in the forward chain will not work since we probably want the 2 Mbps limit
for outbound traffic to be separate from the 2 Mbps limit for inbound traffic. If 2 Mbps of
outbound traffic attempts to flow through the pipe in addition to 2 Mbps of inbound traffic, the
total attempting to flow is 4 Mbps. Since the pipe limit is 2 Mbps, the actual flow will be close to 1
Mbps in each direction.
Raising the total pipe limit to 4 Mbps will not solve the problem since the single pipe will not
know that 2 Mbps of inbound and 2 Mbps of outbound are the intended limits. The result might
be 3 Mbps outbound and 1 Mbps inbound since this also adds up to 4 Mbps.

Using Two Separate Pipes Instead

The recommended way to control bandwidth in both directions is to use two separate pipes, one
for inbound and one for outbound traffic. In the scenario under discussion each pipe would have
a 2 Mbps limit to achieve the desired result. The following example goes through the setup for
this.
Example 10.2. Limiting Bandwidth in Both Directions
Create a second pipe for outbound traffic:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> add Pipe std-out LimitKbpsTotal=2000

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Policies > Traffic Management > Pipes > Add > Pipe

2.

Specify a name for the pipe, for example std-out

3.

Enter 2000 in Total textbox

4.

Click OK

After creating a pipe for outbound bandwidth control, add it to the forward pipe chain of the
rule created in the previous example:
Command-Line Interface
gw-world:/> set PipeRule Outbound ForwardChain=std-out

Web Interface
1.

Go to: Traffic Management > Traffic Shaping > Pipe Rules

2.

Right-click on the pipe rule that was created in the previous example and choose Edit

3.

Under the Traffic Shaping tab, select std-out in the Forward Chain list

4.

Click OK

This results in all outbound connections being limited to 2 Mbps in each direction.

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10.1.5. Creating Differentiated Limits Using Chains

In the previous examples a static traffic limit for all outbound connections was applied. What if
the aim is to limit web surfing more than other traffic? Assume that the total bandwidth limit is
250 Kbps and 125 Kbps of that is to be allocated to web surfing inbound traffic.

The Incorrect Solution

Two "surfing" pipes for inbound and outbound traffic could be set up. However, it is not usually
required to limit outbound traffic since most web surfing usually consists of short outbound
server requests followed by long inbound responses.
A surf-in pipe is therefore first created for inbound traffic with a 125 Kbps limit. Next, a new Pipe
Rule is set up for surfing that uses the surf-in pipe and it is placed before the rule that directs
everything else through the std-in pipe. That way web surfing traffic goes through the surf-in
pipe and everything else is handled by the rule and pipe created earlier.
Unfortunately this will not achieve the desired effect, which is allocating a maximum of 125 Kbps
to inbound surfing traffic as part of the 250 Kbps total. Inbound traffic will pass through one of
two pipes: one that allows 250 Kbps, and one that allows 125 Kbps, giving a possible total of 375
Kbps of inbound traffic but this exceeds the real limit of 250 Kbps.

The Correct Solution

To provide the solution, create a chain of the surf-in pipe followed by the std-in pipe in the pipe
rule for surfing traffic. Inbound surfing traffic will now first pass through surf-in and be limited to
a maximum of 125 Kbps. Then, it will pass through the std-in pipe along with other inbound
traffic, which will apply the 250 Kbps total limit.

Figure 10.3. Differentiated Limits Using Chains

If surfing uses the full limit of 125 Kbps, those 125 Kbps will occupy half of the std-in pipe leaving
125 Kbps for the rest of the traffic. If no surfing is taking place then all of the 250 Kbps allowed
through std-in will be available for other traffic.
This does not provide a bandwidth guarantee for web browsing but instead limits it to 125 Kbps

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and provides a 125 Kbps guarantee for everything else. For web browsing the normal rules of
first-come, first-forwarded will apply when competing for the 125 Kbps bandwidth. This may
mean 125 Kbps, but it may also mean much slower speed if the connection is flooded.
Setting up pipes in this way only puts limits on the maximum values for certain traffic types. It
does not give priorities to different types of competing traffic.

10.1.6. Precedences
The Default Precedence is Zero
All packets that pass through NetDefendOS traffic shaping pipes have a Precedence. In the
examples so far, precedences have not been explicitly set and so all packets have had the same
default precedence which is 0.

There are 8 Possible Precedence Levels

Eight precedences exist which are numbered from 0 to 7. Precedence 0 is the least important
(lowest priority) precedence and 7 is the most important (highest priority) precedence. A
precedence can be viewed as a separate traffic queue; traffic in precedence 2 will be forwarded
before traffic in precedence 0, precedence 4 forwarded before 2.

Figure 10.4. The Eight Pipe Precedences

Precedence Priority is Relative

The priority of a precedence comes from the fact that it is either higher or lower than another
precedence and not from the number itself. For example, if two precedences are used in a traffic
shaping scenario, choosing precedences 4 and 6 instead of 0 and 3 will makes no difference to
the end result.

Allocating Precedence to Traffic

The way precedence is assigned to traffic is specified in the triggering pipe rule and can be done
in one of three ways:

Use the precedence of the first pipe

Each pipe has a Default Precedence and packets take the default precedence of the first pipe
they pass through.

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Use a fixed precedence

The triggering pipe rule explicitly allocates a fixed precedence.

Use the DSCP bits

Take the precedence from the DSCP bits in the packet. DSCP is a subset of the Diffserv
architecture where the Type of Service (ToS) bits are included in the IP packet header.

Specifying Precedences Within Pipes

When a pipe is configured, a Default Precedence, a Minimum Precedence and a Maximum
Precedence can be specified. The default precedences are:

Minimum Precedence: 0

Default Precedence: 0

Maximum Precedence: 7

As described above, the Default Precedence is the precedence taken by a packet if it is not
explicitly assigned by a pipe rule.
The minimum and maximum precedences define the precedence range that the pipe will
handle. If a packet arrives with an already allocated precedence below the minimum then its
precedence is changed to the minimum. Similarly, if a packet arrives with an already allocated
precedence above the maximum, its precedence is changed to the maximum.
For each pipe, separate bandwidth limits may be optionally specified for each precedence level.
These limits can be specified in kilobits per second and/or packets per second (if both are
specified then the first limit reached will be the limit used).

Tip: Specifying bandwidth

Remember that when specifying network traffic bandwidths, the prefix Kilo means
1000 and NOT 1024. For example, 3 Kbps means 3000 bits per second.
Similarly, the prefix Mega means one million in a traffic bandwidth context.

Precedence Limits are also Guarantees

A precedence limit is both a limit and a guarantee. The bandwidth specified for precedence also
guarantees that the bandwidth will be available at the expense of lower precedences. If the
specified bandwidth is exceeded, the excess traffic falls to the lowest precedence. The lowest
precedence has a special meaning which is explained next.

The Lowest (Best Effort) Precedence

The precedence which is the minimum (lowest priority) pipe precedence has a special meaning:
it acts as the Best Effort Precedence. All packets processed at this precedence will always be
processed on a "first come, first forwarded" basis.
Packets with a higher precedence than best effort and that exceed the limit of their precedence
will automatically be transferred down into the lowest (best effort) precedence and they are
treated the same as other packets at the lowest precedence.
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In the illustration below the minimum precedence is 2 and the maximum precedence is 6.
Precedence 2 is taken as the best effort precedence.

Figure 10.5. Minimum and Maximum Pipe Precedence

Lowest Precedence Limits

It is usually is not needed to have a limit specified for the lowest (best effort) precedence since
this precedence simply uses any spare bandwidth not used by higher precedences. However, a
limit could be specified if there is a need to restrict the bandwidth used by the lowest
precedence. This might be the case if a particular traffic type always gets the lowest precedence
but needs to have restricted bandwidth usage.

Precedences Only Apply When a Pipe is Full

Precedences have no effect until the total limit specified for a pipe is reached. This is true
because until the pipe limit is reached (it becomes "full") there is no competition between
precedences.
When the pipe is full, traffic is prioritized by NetDefendOS according to precedence with higher
precedence packets that do not exceed the precedence limit being sent before lower
precedence packets. Lower precedence packets are buffered until they can be sent. If buffer
space becomes exhausted then they are dropped.
If a total limit for a pipe is not specified, it is the same as saying that the pipe has unlimited
bandwidth and consequently it can never become full so precedences have no meaning.

Applying Precedences
Continuing to use the previous traffic shaping example, let us add the requirement that SSH and
Telnet traffic is to have a higher priority than all other traffic. To do this we add a Pipe Rule
specifically for SSH and Telnet and set the priority in the rule to be a higher priority, say 2. We
specify the same pipes in this new rule as are used for other traffic.
The effect of doing this is that the SSH and Telnet rule sets the higher priority on packets related
to these services and these packets are sent through the same pipe as other traffic. The pipe then
makes sure that these higher priority packets are sent first when the total bandwidth limit

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specified in the pipe's configuration is exceeded. Lower priority packets will be buffered and sent
when higher priority traffic uses less than the maximum specified for the pipe. The buffering
process is sometimes referred to as "throttling back" since it reduces the flow rate.

The Need for Guarantees

A problem can occur however if prioritized traffic is a continuous stream such as real-time audio,
resulting in continuous use of all available bandwidth and resulting in unacceptably long
queuing times for other services such as surfing, DNS or FTP. A means is required to ensure that
lower priority traffic gets some portion of bandwidth and this is done with Bandwidth
Guarantees.

Using Precedences as Guarantees

Specifying a limit for a precedence also guarantees that there is a minimum amount of
bandwidth available for that precedence. Traffic flowing through a pipe will get the guarantee
specified for the precedence it has, at the expense of traffic with lower precedences.
To change the prioritized SSH and Telnet traffic from the previous example to a 96 Kbps
guarantee, the precedence 2 limit for the std-in pipe is set to be 96 Kbps.
This does not mean that inbound SSH and Telnet traffic is limited to 96 Kbps. Limits in
precedences above the best effort precedence will only limit how much of the traffic gets to pass
in that specific precedence.
If more than 96 Kbps of precedence 2 traffic arrives, any excess traffic will be moved down to the
best effort precedence. All traffic at the best effort precedence is then forwarded on a first-come,
first-forwarded basis.

Note: A limit on the lowest precedence has no meaning

Setting a maximum limit for the lowest (best effort) precedence or any lower
precedences has no meaning and will be ignored by NetDefendOS.

Differentiated Guarantees
A problem arises if the aim is to give a specific 32 Kbps guarantee to Telnet traffic, and a specific
64 Kbps guarantee to SSH traffic. A 32 Kbps limit could be set for precedence 2, a 64 Kbps limit
set for precedence 4 and then pass the different types of traffic through each precedence.
However, there are two obvious problems with this approach:

Which traffic is more important? This question does not pose much of a problem here, but it
becomes more pronounced as the traffic shaping scenario becomes more complex.

The number of precedences is limited. This may not be sufficient in all cases, even without
the "which traffic is more important?" problem.

The solution is to create two new pipes: one for telnet traffic, and one for SSH traffic, much like
the "surf" pipe that was created earlier.
First, remove the 96 Kbps limit from the std-in pipe, then create two new pipes: ssh-in and
telnet-in. Set the default precedence for both pipes to 2, and the precedence 2 limits to 32 and
64 Kbps, respectively.
Then, split the previously defined rule covering ports 22 through 23 into two rules, covering 22

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and 23, respectively:

Keep the forward chain of both rules as std-out only. Again, to simplify this example, we
concentrate only on inbound traffic, which is the direction that is the most likely to be the first
one to fill up in client-oriented setups.
Set the return chain of the port 22 rule to ssh-in followed by std-in.
Set the return chain of the port 23 rule to telnet-in followed by std-in.
Set the priority assignment for both rules to Use defaults from first pipe; the default
precedence of both the ssh-in and telnet-in pipes is 2.
Using this approach rather than hard-coding precedence 2 in the rule set, it is easy to change the
precedence of all SSH and Telnet traffic by changing the default precedence of the ssh-in and
telnet-in pipes.
Notice that we did not set a total limit for the ssh-in and telnet-in pipes. We do not need to since
the total limit will be enforced by the std-in pipe at the end of the respective chains.
The ssh-in and telnet-in pipes act as a "priority filter": they make sure that no more than the
reserved amount, 64 and 32 Kbps, respectively, of precedence 2 traffic will reach std-in. SSH and
Telnet traffic exceeding their guarantees will reach std-in as precedence 0, the best-effort
precedence of the std-in and ssh-in pipes.

Note: The return chain ordering is important

Here, the ordering of the pipes in the return chain is important. Should std-in appear
before ssh-in and telnet-in, then traffic will reach std-in at the lowest precedence only
and hence compete for the 250 Kbps of available bandwidth with other traffic.

10.1.7. Pipe Groups

NetDefendOS provides a further level of control within pipes through the ability to split pipe
bandwidth into individual resource users within a group and to apply a limit and guarantee to
each user.
Individual users can be distinguished according to one of the following:

Source IP

Destination IP

Source Network

Destination Network

Source Port (includes the IP)

Destination Port (includes the IP)

Source Interface

Destination Interface

This feature is enabled by enabling the Grouping option in a pipe. The individual users of a group
can then have a limit and/or guarantee specified for them in the pipe. For example, if grouping is
done by source IP then each user corresponds to each unique source IP address.

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A Port Grouping Includes the IP Address

If a grouping by port is selected then this implicitly also includes the IP address. For example,
port 1024 of host computer A is not the same as port 1024 of host computer B. It is the
combination of port and IP address that identifies a unique user in a group.

Grouping by Networks Requires the Size

If the grouping is by source or destination network then the network size must also be specified
In other words the netmask for the network must be specified for NetDefendOS.

Specifying Group Limits

Once the way the method of grouping is selected, the next step is to specify the Group Limits.
These limits can consist of one or both of the following:

Group Limit Total

This value specifies a limit for each user within the grouping. For example, if the grouping is
by source IP address and the total specified is 100 Kbps then this is saying that no one IP
address can take more than 100 Kbps of bandwidth.

Group Precedence Guarantees

In addition to, or as an alternative to the total group limit, individual precedences can have
values specified. These values are, in fact, guarantees (not limits) for each user in a group. For
example, precedence 3 might have the value 50 Kbps and this is saying that an individual
user (in other words, each source IP if that is the selected grouping) with that precedence will
be guaranteed 50 Kbps at the expense of lower precedences.
The precedences for each user must be allocated by different pipe rules that trigger on
particular users. For example, if grouping is by source IP then different pipe rules will trigger
on different IPs and send the traffic into the same pipe with the appropriate precedence.
The potential sum of the precedence values could clearly become greater than the capacity
of the pipe in some circumstances so it is important to specify the total pipe limit when using
these guarantees.

Combining the Group Total and Precedences

Use of group precedences and the group total can be combined. This means that:

The users in a group are first separated by pipe rules into precedences.

The users are then subject to the guarantees specified for their precedence.

The combined traffic is subject to the total group limit.

The illustration below shows this flow where the grouping has been selected to be according to
source IP.

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Figure 10.6. Traffic Grouped By IP Address

Another Simple Groups Example

Consider another situation where the total bandwidth limit for a pipe is 400 Kbps. If the aim is to
allocate this bandwidth amongst many destination IP addresses so that no single IP address can
take more than 100 Kbps of bandwidth, the following steps are needed.

Set the pipe limit, as usual, to be 400 Kbps.

Set the Grouping option for the pipe to have the value Destination IP.

Set the total for the pipe's Group Limits to be 100 Kbps.

Bandwidth is now allocated on a "first come, first forwarded" basis but no single destination IP
address can ever take more than 100Kbps. No matter how many connections are involved the
combined total bandwidth can still not exceed the pipe limit of 400 Kbps.

Combining Pipe and Group Limit Precedence Values

Let us suppose that grouping is enabled by one of the options such as source IP and some values
for precedences have been specified under Group Limits. How does these combine with values
specified for the corresponding precedences in Pipe Limits?
In this case, the Group Limits precedence value is a guarantee and the Pipe Limits value for the
same precedence is a limit. For example, if traffic is being grouped by source IP and the Group
Limits precedence 5 value is 5 Kbps and the Pipe Limits precedence 5 value is 20 Kbps, then
after the fourth unique source IP (4 x 5 = 20 Kbps) the precedence limit is reached and the
guarantees may no longer be met.

Dynamic Balancing
Instead of specifying a total for Group Limits, the alternative is to enable the Dynamic Balancing
option. This ensures that the available bandwidth is divided equally between all addresses

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regardless of how many there are. This is done up to the limit of the pipe.
If a total group limit of 100 Kbps is also specified with dynamic balancing, then this still means
that no single user may take more than that amount of bandwidth.

Precedences and Dynamic Balancing

As discussed, in addition to specifying a total limit for a grouping, limits can be specified for each
precedence within a grouping. If we specify a precedence 2 grouping limit of 30 Kbps then this
means that users assigned a precedence of 2 by a pipe rule will be guaranteed 30 Kbps no matter
how many users are using the pipe. Just as with normal pipe precedences, traffic in excess of 30
Kbps for users at precedence 2 is moved down to the best effort precedence.
Continuing with the previous example, we could limit how much guaranteed bandwidth each
inside user gets for inbound SSH traffic. This prevents a single user from using up all available
high-priority bandwidth.
First we group the users of the ssh-in pipe so limits will apply to each user on the internal
network. Since the packets are inbound, we select the grouping for the ssh-in pipe to be
Destination IP.
Now specify per-user limits by setting the precedence 2 limit to 16 Kbps per user. This means
that each user will get no more than a 16 Kbps guarantee for their SSH traffic. If desired, we could
also limit the group total bandwidth for each user to some value, such as 40 Kbps.
There will be a problem if there are more than 5 users utilizing SSH simultaneously: 16 Kbps
times 5 is more than 64 Kbps. The total limit for the pipe will still be in effect, and each user will
have to compete for the available precedence 2 bandwidth the same way they have to compete
for the lowest precedence bandwidth. Some users will still get their 16 Kbps, some will not.
Dynamic balancing can be enabled to improve this situation by making sure all of the 5 users get
the same amount of limited bandwidth. When the 5th user begins to generate SSH traffic,
balancing lowers the limit per user to about 13 Kbps (64 Kbps divided by 5 users).
Dynamic Balancing takes place within each precedence of a pipe individually. This means that if
users are allotted a certain small amount of high priority traffic, and a larger chunk of best-effort
traffic, all users will get their share of the high-precedence traffic as well as their fair share of the
best-effort traffic.

10.1.8. Traffic Shaping Recommendations

The Importance of a Pipe Limit
Traffic shaping only comes into effect when a NetDefendOS pipe is full. That is to say, it is passing
as much traffic as the total limit allows. If a 500 Kbps pipe is carrying 400 Kbps of low priority
traffic and 90 Kbps of high priority traffic then there is 10 Kbps of bandwidth left and there is no
reason to throttle back anything. It is therefore important to specify a total limit for a pipe so that
it knows what its capacity is and the precedence mechanism is totally dependent on this.

VPN Pipe Limits

Traffic shaping measures the traffic inside VPN tunnels. This is the raw unencrypted data without
any protocol overhead so it will be less than the actual VPN traffic. VPN protocols such as IPsec
can add significant overhead to the data and for this reason it is recommended that the limits
specified in the traffic shaping pipes for VPN traffic are set at around 20% below the actual
available bandwidth.

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Relying on the Group Limit

A special case when a total pipe limit is not specified is when a group limit is used instead. The
bandwidth limit is then placed on, for example, each user of a network where the users must
share a fixed bandwidth resource. An ISP might use this approach to limit individual user
bandwidth by specifying a "Per Destination IP" grouping. Knowing when the pipe is full is not
important since the only constraint is on each user. If precedences were used the pipe maximum
would have to be used.

Limits should not be more than the Available Bandwidth

If pipe limits are set higher than the available bandwidth, the pipe will not know when the
physical connection has reached its capacity. If the connection is 500 Kbps but the total pipe
limit is set to 600 Kbps, the pipe will believe that it is not full and it will not throttle lower
precedences.

Limits should be less than Available Bandwidth

Pipe limits should be slightly below the network bandwidth. A recommended value is to make
the pipe limit 95% of the physical limit. The need for this difference becomes less with increasing
bandwidth since 5% represents an increasingly larger piece of the total.
The reason for the lower pipe limit is how NetDefendOS processes traffic. For outbound
connections where packets leave the NetDefend Firewall, there is always the possibility that
NetDefendOS might slightly overload the connection because of the software delays involved in
deciding to send packets and the packets actually being dispatched from buffers.
For inbound connections, there is less control over what is arriving and what has to be processed
by the traffic shaping subsystem and it is therefore more important to set pipe limits slightly
below the real connection limit to account for the time needed for NetDefendOS to adapt to
changing conditions.

Attacks on Bandwidth
Traffic shaping cannot protect against incoming resource exhaustion attacks, such as DoS attacks
or other flooding attacks. NetDefendOS will prevent these extraneous packets from reaching the
hosts behind the NetDefend Firewall, but cannot protect the connection becoming overloaded if
an attack floods it.

Watching for Leaks

When setting out to protect and shape a network bottleneck, make sure that all traffic passing
through that bottleneck passes through the defined NetDefendOS pipes.
If there is traffic going through the Internet connection that the pipes do not know about,
NetDefendOS cannot know when the Internet connection becomes full.
The problems resulting from leaks are exactly the same as in the cases described above. Traffic
"leaking" through without being measured by pipes will have the same effect as bandwidth
consumed by parties outside of administrator control but sharing the same connection.

Troubleshooting
For a better understanding of what is happening in a live setup, the console command:

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gw-world:/> pipe -u <pipename>

can be used to display a list of currently active users in each pipe.

10.1.9. A Summary of Traffic Shaping

NetDefendOS traffic shaping provides a sophisticated set of mechanisms for controlling and
prioritizing network packets. The following points summarize its use:

Select the traffic to manage through Pipe Rules.

Pipe Rules send traffic through Pipes.

A pipe can have a limit which is the maximum amount of traffic allowed.

A pipe can only know when it is full if a total limit for the pipe is specified.

A single pipe should handle traffic in only one direction (although 2 way pipes are allowed).

Pipes can be chained so that one pipe's traffic feeds into another pipe.

Specific traffic types can be given a priority in a pipe.

Priorities can be given a maximum limit which is also a guarantee. Traffic that exceeds this
will be sent at the minimum precedence which is also called the Best Effort precedence.

At the best effort precedence all packets are treated on a "first come, first forwarded" basis.

Within a pipe, traffic can also be separated on a Group basis. For example, by source IP
address. Each user in a group (for example, each source IP address) can be given a maximum
limit and precedences within a group can be given a limit/guarantee.

A pipe limit need not be specified if group members have a maximum limit.

Dynamic Balancing can be used to specify that all users in a group get a fair and equal
amount of bandwidth.

10.1.10. More Pipe Examples

This section looks at some more scenarios and how traffic shaping can be used to solve particular
problems.

A Basic Scenario
The first scenario will examine the configuration shown in the image below, in which incoming
and outgoing traffic is to be limited to 1 megabit per second.

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Figure 10.7. A Basic Traffic Shaping Scenario

The reason for using 2 different pipes in this case, is that these are easier to match to the physical
link capacity. This is especially true with asynchronous links such as ADSL.
First, two pipes called in-pipe and out-pipe need to be created with the following parameters:
Pipe Name

Min Prec

Def Prec

Max Prec

Grouping

Net size

Pipe limit

in-pipe

PerDestIP

24

1000kb

out-pipe

PerSrcIP

24

1000kb

Dynamic Balancing should be enabled for both pipes. Instead of PerDestIP and PerSrcIP we
could have used PerDestNet and PerSrcNet if there were several networks on the inside.
The next step is to create the following Pipe Rule which will force traffic to flow through the
pipes.
Rule
Name

Forward
Pipes

Return
Pipes

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Destination
Interface

Destination
Network

Selected
Service

all_1mbps

out-pipe

in-pipe

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

all_services

The rule will force all traffic to the default precedence level and the pipes will limit total traffic to
their 1 Mbps limit. Having Dynamic Balancing enabled on the pipes means that all users will be
allocated a fair share of this capacity.

Using Several Precedences

We now extend the above example by allocating priorities to different kinds of traffic accessing
the Internet from a headquarters office.
Assume there is a symmetric 2/2 Mbps link to the Internet. Descending priorities and traffic
requirements will be allocated to the following users:

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Priority 6 - VoIP (500 kpbs)

Priority 4 - Citrix (250 kpbs)

Priority 2 - Other traffic (1000 kpbs)

Priority 0 - Web plus remaining from other levels

To implement this scheme, we can use the in-pipe and out-pipe. We first enter the Pipe Limits for
each pipe. These limits correspond to the list above and are:

Priority 6 - 500

Priority 4 - 250

Priority 2 - 1000

Now create the Pipe Rules:

Rule
Name

Forward
Pipes

Return
Pipes

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Dest
Interface

Dest
Network

Selected
Service

Prece
dence

web_surf

out-pipe

in-pipe

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

http-all

voip

out-pipe

in-pipe

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

H323

citrix

out-pipe

in-pipe

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

citrix

other

out-pipe

in-pipe

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

all_services

These rules are processed from top to bottom and force different kinds of traffic into
precedences based on the Service. Customized service objects may need to be first created in
order to identify particular types of traffic. The all service at the end, catches anything that falls
through from earlier rules since it is important that no traffic bypasses the pipe rule set otherwise
using pipes will not work.

Pipe Chaining
Suppose the requirement now is to limit the precedence 2 capacity (other traffic) to 1000 Kbps so
that it does not spill over into precedence 0. This is done with pipe chaining where we create new
pipes called in-other and out-other both with a Pipe Limit of 1000. The other pipe rule is then
modified to use these:
Rule
Name

Forward
Pipes

Return
Pipes

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Dest
Interface

Dest
Network

Selected
Service

Prece
dence

other

out-other
out-pipe

in-other
in-pipe

lan

lannet

wan

all-nets

all_services 2

Note that in-other and out-other are first in the pipe chain in both directions. This is because we
want to limit the traffic immediately, before it enters the in-pipe and out-pipe and competes with
VoIP, Citrix and Web-surfing traffic.

A VPN Scenario
In the cases discussed so far, all traffic shaping is occurring inside a single NetDefend Firewall.
VPN is typically used for communication between a headquarters and branch offices in which
case pipes can control traffic flow in both directions. With VPN it is the tunnel which is the source
and destination interface for the pipe rules.

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An important consideration which has been discussed previously, is allowance in the Pipe Total
values for the overhead used by VPN protocols. As a rule of thumb, a pipe total of 1700 bps is
reasonable for a VPN tunnel where the underlying physical connection capacity is 2 Mbps.
It is also important to remember to insert into the pipe all non-VPN traffic using the same
physical link.
The pipe chaining can be used as a solution to the problem of VPN overhead. A limit which allows
for this overhead is placed on the VPN tunnel traffic and non-VPN traffic is inserted into a pipe
that matches the speed of the physical link.
To do this we first create separate pipes for the outgoing traffic and the incoming traffic. VoIP
traffic will be sent over a VPN tunnel that will have a high priority. All other traffic will be sent at
the best effort priority (see above for an explanation of this term). Again, we will assume a 2/2
Mbps symmetric link.
The pipes required will be:

vpn-in

Priority 6: VoIP 500 kpbs

Priority 0: Best effort

Total: 1700

vpn-out

Priority 6: VoIP 500 kpbs

Priority 0: Best effort

Total: 1700

in-pipe

Priority 6: VoIP 500 kpbs

Total: 2000

out-pipe

Priority 6: VoIP 500 kpbs

Total: 2000
The following pipe rules are then needed to force traffic into the correct pipes and precedence
levels:
Rule
Name

Forward Return
Pipes
Pipes

Src
Int

Source
Network

Dest Destination
Int
Network

Selected
Service

Prece
dence

vpn_voip_out

vpn-out
out-pipe

vpn-in
in-pipe

lan

lannet

vpn

vpn_remote_net

H323

vpn_out

vpn-out
out-pipe

vpn-in
in-pipe

lan

lannet

vpn

vpn_remote_net

all_services 0

vpn_voip_in

vpn-in
in-pipe

vpn-out
out-pipe

vpn

vpn_remote_net

lan

lannet

H323

vpn_in

vpn-in
in-pipe

vpn-out
out-pipe

vpn

vpn_remote_net

lan

lannet

all_services 0

out

out-pipe

in-pipe

lan

lannet

wan all-nets

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Rule
Name

Forward Return
Pipes
Pipes

Src
Int

in

in-pipe

wan all-nets

out-pipe

Source
Network

Dest Destination
Int
Network

Selected
Service

lan

all_services 0

lannet

Prece
dence

With this setup, all VPN traffic is limited to 1700 Kbps, the total traffic is limited to 2000 Kbps and
VoIP to the remote site is guaranteed 500 Kbps of capacity before it is forced to best effort.

SAT with Pipes

If SAT is being used, for example with a web server or ftp server, that traffic also needs to be
forced into pipes or it will escape traffic shaping and ruin the planned quality of service. In
addition, server traffic is initiated from the outside so the order of pipes needs to be reversed: the
forward pipe is the in-pipe and the return pipe is the out-pipe.
A simple solution is to put a "catch-all-inbound" rule at the bottom of the pipe rule. However, the
external interface (wan) should be the source interface to avoid putting into pipes traffic that is
coming from the inside and going to the external IP address. This last rule will therefore be:
Rule
Name

Forward
Pipes

Return
Pipes

Source
Interface

Source
Network

Dest
Interface

Dest
Network

Selected
Service

Prece
dence

all-in

in-pipe

out-pipe

wan

all-nets

core

all-nets

all_services 0

Note: SAT and ARPed IP Addresses

If the SAT is from an ARPed IP address, the wan interface needs to be the destination.

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10.2. IDP Traffic Shaping

10.2.1. Overview
The IDP Traffic Shaping feature is traffic shaping that is performed based on information coming
from the NetDefendOS Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) subsystem (for more information
on IDP see Section 6.5, Intrusion Detection and Prevention).

Application Related Bandwidth Usage

A typical problem that can be solved with IDP Traffic Shaping is dealing with the traffic
management issues caused by bandwidth hungry applications. A typical example of this is traffic
related to peer-to-peer (P2P) data transfer applications which include such things as Bit Torrent
and Direct Connect.
The high traffic loads created by P2P transfers can often have a negative impact on the quality of
service for other network users as bandwidth is quickly absorbed by such applications. An ISP or
a corporate network administrator may therefore need to identify and control the bandwidth
consumed by these applications and IDP Traffic Shaping can provide this ability.

Combining IDP and Traffic Shaping

One of the issues with controlling a traffic type such as P2P is to be able to distinguish it from
other traffic. The signature database of NetDefendOS IDP already provides a highly effective
means to perform this recognition and as an extension to this, NetDefendOS also provides the
ability to apply throttling through the NetDefendOS traffic shaping subsystem when the
targeted traffic is recognized.
IDP Traffic Shaping is a combination of these two features, where traffic flows identified by the
IDP subsystem automatically trigger the setting up of traffic shaping pipes to control those flows.

10.2.2. Setting Up IDP Traffic Shaping

The steps for IDP Traffic Shaping setup are as follows:
1.

Define an IDP rule that triggers on targeted traffic.

The IDP signature chosen determines which traffic is to be targeted and the signature
usually has the word "POLICY" in its name which indicates it relates to specific applications
types.

2.

Select the rule's action to be the Pipe option.

This specifies that IDP Traffic Shaping is to be performed on the connection that triggers the
rule and on subsequent, related connections.

3.

Select a Bandwidth value for the rule.

This is the total bandwidth that will be allowed for the targeted traffic. The traffic measured
is the combination of the flow over the triggering connection plus the flow from any
associated connections, regardless of flow direction.
Connections opened before IDP triggered will not be subject to any restriction.

4.

Optionally enter a Time Window in seconds.

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This will be the period of time after rule triggering during which traffic shaping is applied to
any associated connections that are opened.
Typically, a P2P transfer starts with an initial connection to allow transfer of control
information followed by a number of data transfer connections to other hosts.
It is the initial connection that IDP detects and the Time Window specifies the expected
period afterwards when other connections will be opened and subject to traffic shaping.
Connections opened after the Time Window has expired will no longer be subject to traffic
shaping.
A Time Window value of 0 means that only traffic flowing over the initial triggering
connection will be subject to traffic shaping. Any associated connections that do not trigger
an IDP rule will not be subject to traffic shaping.
5.

Optionally specify a Network

If the Time Window value is greater than zero, a Network can be specified. This IP address
range allows the administrator to further refine the subsequent connections associated with
IDP rule triggering that will be subject to traffic shaping. At least one side of associated
connection has to be in the IP range specified for it to be included in traffic shaping.

10.2.3. Processing Flow

To better understand how IDP Traffic Shaping is applied, the following are the processing steps
that occur:
1.

A new connection is opened by one host to another through the NetDefend Firewall and
traffic begins to flow. The source and destination IP address of the connection is noted by
NetDefendOS.

2.

The traffic flowing on the connection triggers an IDP rule. The IDP rule has Pipe as action so
the traffic on the connection is now subject to the pipe traffic shaping bandwidth specified
in the IDP rule.

3.

A new connection is then established that does not trigger an IDP rule but has a source or
destination IP that is the same as the connection that did trigger a rule. If the source or
destination is also a member of the IP range specified as the Network, then the connection's
traffic is included in the pipe performing traffic shaping for the original triggering
connection.
If no Network is specified then this new connection is also included in the triggering
connection's pipe traffic if source or destination match.

10.2.4. The Importance of Specifying a Network

Either Side Can Trigger IDP
After reading through the processing flow description above, it can be better understood why
specifying a Network is important. The IDP subsystem cannot know which side of a connection is
causing a rule to trigger. Sometimes it is the initiating client side and sometimes the responding
server. If traffic flow on both sides becomes restricted, this may have the unintended
consequence of traffic shaping connections that should not be traffic shaped.

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Unintended Consequences
To explain this unintended traffic shaping, consider a client A that connects to host X with P2P
traffic and triggers an IDP rule with the Pipe action so the connection becomes subject to traffic
shaping. Now, if another client B also connects to host X but this time with web surfing traffic, an
IDP rule is not triggered but the connection should not be traffic shaped along with client A's
connection just because host X is involved.

Excluding Hosts
To avoid these unintended consequences, we specify the IPv4 addresses of client A and client B
in the Network range but not host X. This tells NetDefendOS that host X is not relevant in making
a decision about including new non-IDP-triggering connections in traffic shaping.
It may seem counter-intuitive that client B is also included in the Network range but this is done
on the assumption that client B is a user whose traffic might also have to be traffic shaped if they
become involved in a P2P transfer.
If Network is not specified then any connection involving either client A or host X will be subject
to traffic shaping and this is probably not desirable.

10.2.5. A P2P Scenario

The schematic below illustrates a typical scenario involving P2P data transfer. The sequence of
events is:

The client with IP address 192.168.1.15 initiates a P2P file transfer through a connection (1) to
the tracking server at 81.150.0.10.

This connection triggers an IDP rule in NetDefendOS which is set up with an IDP signature
that targets the P2P application.

The Pipe action in the rule sets up a traffic shaping pipe with a specified capacity and the
connection is added to it.

A subsequent connection (2) to the file host at 92.92.92.92 occurs within the IDP rule's Time
Window and its traffic is therefore added to the pipe and is subject to shaping.

The client network to which 192.168.1.15 belongs, should ideally be included in the Network
address range for the IDP rule.

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Figure 10.8. IDP Traffic Shaping P2P Scenario

10.2.6. Viewing Traffic Shaping Objects

Viewing Hosts
IDP traffic shaping has a special CLI command associated with it called idppipes and this can
examine and manipulate the hosts which are currently subject to traffic shaping.
To display all hosts being traffic shaped by IDP Traffic Shaping, the command would be:
gw-world:/> idppipes -show
Host
kbps Tmout
----------- ---- ---192.168.1.1 100 58

A host, in this case with IP address 192.168.1.1, can be removed from traffic shaping using the
command:
gw-world:/> idppipes -unpipe -host=192.168.1.1

A full description of the idppipes command can be found in the separate CLI Reference Guide.

Viewing Pipes
IDP Traffic Shaping makes use of normal NetDefendOS pipe objects which are created
automatically. These pipes are always allocated the highest priority and use the Group feature to
throttle traffic.
The created pipes are, however, hidden from the administrator when examining the currently
defined traffic shaping objects with the Web Interface, but they can be examined and
manipulated using the normal CLI pipes command. For example, to show all currently defined

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pipes, the CLI command is:

gw-world:/> pipes -show

The IDP Traffic Shaping pipes can be recognized by their distinctive naming convention which is
explained next.

Pipe Naming
NetDefendOS names the pipes it automatically creates in IDP Traffic Shaping using the pattern
IDPPipe_<bandwidth> for pipes with upstream (forward) flowing traffic and
IDPPipe_<bandwidth>R for pipes with downstream (return) flowing traffic. A number suffix is
appended if name duplication occurs.
For example, the first pipes created with a limit of 1000 Kbps will be called IDPPipe_1000 for
upstream traffic and IDPPipe_1000R for downstream traffic. Duplicates with the same limit would
get the names IDPPipe_1000_(2) and IDPPipe_1000R_(2). If another set of duplicates occur, the
suffix (3) is used.

Pipes are Shared

There is not a 1 to 1 relationship between a configured IDP action and the pipes created. Two
pipes are created per configured bandwidth value, one for upstream (forward) traffic and one for
downstream (return) traffic. Multiple hosts use the same pipe for each direction with traffic in the
upstream pipe grouped using the "Per Source IP" feature and traffic in the downstream pipe
grouped using the "Per Destination IP" feature.

10.2.7. Guaranteeing Instead of Limiting Bandwidth

If desired, IDP Traffic Shaping can be used to do the opposite of limiting bandwidth for certain
applications.
If the administrator wants to guarantee a bandwidth level, say 10 Megabits, for an application
then an IDP rule can be set up to trigger for that application with the Pipe action specifying the
bandwidth required. The traffic shaping pipes that are then automatically created get the
highest priority by default and are therefore guaranteed that bandwidth.

10.2.8. Logging
IDP Traffic Shaping generates log messages on the following events:

When an IDP rule with the Pipe option has triggered and either host or client is present in the
Network range.

When the subsystem adds a host that will have future connections blocked.

When a timer for piping news connections expires, a log message is generated indicating
that new connections to or from the host are no longer piped.

There are also some other log messages which indicate less common conditions. All log
messages are documented in the Log Reference Guide.

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10.3. Threshold Rules

Overview
The objective of a Threshold Rule is to have a means of detecting abnormal connection activity as
well as reacting to it. An example of a cause for such abnormal activity might be an internal host
becoming infected with a virus that is making repeated connections to external IP addresses. It
might alternatively be some external source trying to open excessive numbers of connections. (A
"connection" in this context refers to all types of connections, such as TCP, UDP or ICMP, tracked
by the NetDefendOS state-engine).

Note: Threshold Rules are not available on all NetDefend models

The Threshold Roles feature is only available on the D-Link NetDefend DFL-860E, 1660,
2560 and 2560G.

Threshold Policies
A Threshold Rule is like other policy based rules found in NetDefendOS, a combination of
source/destination network/interface can be specified for a rule and a type of service such as
HTTP can be associated with it. Each rule can have one or more Actions associated with it and
these specify how to handle different threshold conditions.
A Threshold Rule has the following parameters associated with it:

Action
This is the response of the rule when the limit is exceeded. Either the option Audit or Protect
can be selected. These options are explained in more detail below.

Group By
The rule can be either Host or Network based. These options are explained below.

Threshold
This is the numerical limit which must be exceeded for the action to be triggered.

Threshold Type
The rule can be specified to either limit the number of connections per second or limit the
total number of concurrent connections.

Limiting the Connection Rate

Connection Rate Limiting allows an administrator to put a limit on the number of new
connections being opened to the NetDefend Firewall per second.

Limiting the Total Connections

Total Connection Limiting allows the administrator to put a limit on the total number of
connections opened to the NetDefend Firewall.
This function is extremely useful when NAT pools are required due to the large number of
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connections generated by P2P users.

The Group By Setting

The two groupings allowed are as follows:

Host Based
The threshold is applied separately to connections from different IP addresses.

Network Based
The threshold is applied to all connections matching the rules as a group.

Rule Actions
When a Threshold Rule is triggered one of two responses are possible:

Audit
Leave the connection intact but log the event.

Protect
Drop the triggering connection.

Logging would be the preferred option if the appropriate triggering value cannot be determined
beforehand. Multiple actions for a given rule might consist of Audit for a given threshold while
the action might become Protect for a higher threshold.

Multiple Triggered Actions

When a rule is triggered then NetDefendOS will perform the associated rule actions that match
the condition that has occurred. If more than one action matches the condition then those
matching actions are applied in the order they appear in the user interface.
If several actions that have the same combination of Type and Grouping (see above for the
definition of these terms) are triggered at the same time, only the action with the highest
threshold value will be logged.

Exempted Connections
It should be noted that some advanced settings, known as Before Rules settings, can exempt
certain types of connections for remote management from examination by the NetDefendOS IP
rule set if they are enabled. These Before Rules settings will also exempt the connections from
Threshold Rules if they are enabled.

Threshold Rules and ZoneDefense

Threshold Rules are used in the D-Link ZoneDefense feature to block the source of excessive
connection attmepts from internal hosts. More information on this feature can be found in
Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

Threshold Rule Blacklisting

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If the Protect option is used, Threshold Rules can be configured so that the source that triggered
the rule, is added automatically to a Blacklist of IP addresses or networks. If several Protect actions
with blacklisting enabled are triggered at the same time, only the first triggered blacklisting
action will be executed by NetDefendOS.
A host based action with blacklisting enabled will blacklist a single host when triggered. A
network based action with blacklisting enabled will blacklist the source network associated with
the rule. If the Threshold Rule is linked to a service then it is possible to block only that service.
When blacklisting is selected, the administrator can choose to leave pre-existing connections
from the triggering source unaffected, or can alternatively choose to have the connections
dropped by NetDefendOS.
The length of time, in seconds, for which the source is blacklisted can also be set.
This feature is discussed further in Section 6.7, Blacklisting Hosts and Networks.

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10.4. Server Load Balancing

10.4.1. Overview
The Server Load Balancing (SLB) feature allows the administrator to spread client application
requests over a number of servers through the use of IP rules with an Action of SLB_SAT.
SLB is a powerful tool that can improve the following aspects of network applications:

Performance

Scalability

Reliability

Ease of administration

The principle SLB benefit of sharing the load across multiple servers can improve not just the
performance of applications but also scalability by facilitating the implementation of a cluster of
servers (sometimes referred to as a server farm) that can handle many more requests than a
single server.

Note: SLB is not available on all D-Link NetDefend models

The SLB feature is only available on the D-Link NetDefend DFL-860E, 1660, 2560 and
2560G.

The illustration below shows a typical SLB scenario, with Internet access to internal server
applications by external clients being managed by a NetDefend Firewall.

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Figure 10.9. A Server Load Balancing Configuration

Additional Benefits of SLB

Besides improving performance and scalability, SLB provides other benefits:

SLB increases the reliability of network applications by actively monitoring the servers
sharing the load. NetDefendOS SLB can detect when a server fails or becomes congested and
will not direct any further requests to that server until it recovers or has less load.

SLB can allow network administrators to perform maintenance tasks on servers or

applications without disrupting services. Individual servers can be restarted, upgraded,
removed, or replaced, and new servers and applications can be added or moved without
affecting the rest of a server farm, or taking down applications.

The combination of network monitoring and distributed load sharing also provides an extra
level of protection against Denial Of Service (DoS) attacks.

SLB Deployment Considerations

The following issues should be considered when deploying SLB:

Across which servers is the load is to be balanced.

Which SLB algorithm will be used.

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Will "stickiness" be used.

Which monitoring method will be used.

Each of these topics is discussed further in the sections that follow.

Identifying the Servers

An important first step in SLB deployment is to identify the servers across which the load is to be
balanced. This might be a server farm which is a cluster of servers set up to work as a single
"virtual server". The servers that are to be treated as a single virtual server by SLB must be
specified.

10.4.2. SLB Distribution Algorithms

There are several ways to determine how a load is shared across a set of servers. NetDefendOS
SLB supports the following two algorithms for load distribution:
Round-robin

The algorithm distributes new incoming connections to a list of servers

on a rotating basis. For the first connection, the algorithm picks a server
randomly, and assigns the connection to it. For subsequent connections,
the algorithm cycles through the server list and redirects the load to
servers in order. Regardless of each server's capability and other aspects,
for instance, the number of existing connections on a server or its
response time, all the available servers take turns in being assigned the
next connection.
This algorithm ensures that all servers receive an equal number of
requests, therefore it is most suited to server farms where all servers
have an equal capacity and the processing loads of all requests are likely
to be similar.

Connection-rate

This algorithm considers the number of requests that each server has
been receiving over a certain time period. This time period is known as
the Window Time. SLB sends the next request to the server that has
received the least number of connections during the last Window Time
number of seconds.
The Window Time is a setting that the administrator can change. The
default value is 10 seconds.

10.4.3. Selecting Stickiness

In some scenarios, such as with SSL connections, it is important that the same server is used for a
series of connections from the same client. This is achieved by selecting the appropriate
stickiness option and this can be used with either the round-robin or connection-rate algorithms.
The stickiness options are as follows:
Per-state Distribution

This mode is the default and means that no stickiness is

applied. Every new connection is considered to be
independent from other connections even if they come from
the same IP address or network. Consecutive connections from
the same client may therefore be passed to different servers.
This may not be acceptable if the same server must be used for
a series of connections coming from the same client. If this is
the case then stickiness is required.

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IP Address Stickiness

In this mode, a series of connections from a specific client will

be handled by the same server. This is particularly important
for TLS or SSL based services such as HTTPS, which require a
repeated connection to the same host.

Network Stickiness

This mode is similar to IP stickiness except that the stickiness

can be associated with a network instead of a single IP
address. The network is specified by stating its size as a
parameter.
For example, if the network size is specified as 24 (the default)
then an IP address 10.01.01.02 will be assumed to belong to
the network 10.01.01.00/24 and this will be the network for
which stickiness is applied.

Stickiness Parameters
If either IP stickiness or network stickiness is enabled then the following stickiness parameters
can be adjusted:

Idle Timeout
When a connection is made, the source IP address for the connection is remembered in a
table. Each table entry is referred to as a slot. After it is create, the entry is only considered
valid for the number of seconds specified by the Idle Timeout. When new connection is made,
the table is searched for the same source IP, providing that the table entry has not exceeded
its timeout. When a match is found, then stickiness ensures that the new connection goes to
the same server as previous connections from the same source IP.
The default value for this setting is 10 seconds.

Max Slots
This parameter specifies how many slots exist in the stickiness table. When the table fills up
then the oldest entry is discarded to make way for a new entry even though it may be still
valid (the Idle Timeout has not been exceeded).
The consequence of a full table can be that stickiness will be lost for any discarded source IP
addresses. The administrator should therefore try to ensure that the Max Slots parameter is
set to a value that can accommodate the expected number of connections that require
stickiness.
The default value for this setting is 2048 slots in the table.

Net Size
The processing and memory resources required to match individual IP addresses when
implementing stickiness can be significant. By selecting the Network Stickiness option these
resource demands can be reduced.
When the Network Stickiness option is selected, the Net Size parameter specifies the size of the
network which should be associated with the source IP of new connections. A stickiness table
lookup does not then compare individual IP addresses but instead compares if the source IP
address belongs to the same network as a previous connection already in the table. If they
belong to the same network then stickiness to the same server will result.
The default value for this setting is a network size of 24.

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10.4.4. SLB Algorithms and Stickiness

This section discusses further how stickiness functions with the different SLB algorithms.
An example scenario is illustrated in the figure below. In this example, the NetDefend Firewall is
responsible for balancing connections from 3 clients with different addresses to 2 servers.
Stickiness is enabled.

Figure 10.10. Connections from Three Clients

When the round-robin algorithm is used, the first arriving requests R1 and R2 from Client 1 are
both assigned to one sever, say Server 1, according to stickiness. The next request R3 from Client 2
is then routed to Server 2. When R4 from Client 3 arrives, Server 1 gets back its turn again and will
be assigned with R4.

Figure 10.11. Stickiness and Round-Robin

If the connection-rate algorithm is applied instead, R1 and R2 will be sent to the same server
because of stickiness, but the subsequent requests R3 and R4 will be routed to another server
since the number of new connections on each server within the Window Time span is counted in
for the distribution.

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Figure 10.12. Stickiness and Connection-rate

Regardless which algorithm is chosen, if a server goes down, traffic will be sent to other servers.
And when the server comes back online, it can automatically be placed back into the server farm
and start getting requests again.

10.4.5. Server Health Monitoring

SLB uses Server Health Monitoring to continuously check the condition of the servers in an SLB
configuration. SLB can monitor different OSI layers to check the condition of each server.
Regardless of the algorithms used, if a server is deemed to have failed, SLB will not open any
more connections to it until the server is restored to full functionality.
D-Link Server Load Balancing provides the following monitoring modes:
ICMP Ping

This works at OSI layer 3. SLB will ping the IP address of each individual
server in the server farm. This will detect any failed servers.

TCP Connection

This works at OSI layer 4. SLB attempts to connect to a specified port on

each server. For example, if a server is specified as running web services
on port 80, the SLB will send a TCP SYN request to that port. If SLB does
not receive a TCP SYN/ACK back, it will mark port 80 on that server as
down. SLB recognizes the conditions no response, normal response or
closed port response from servers.

10.4.6. Setting Up SLB_SAT Rules

The key component in setting up SLB are IP rules that have SLB_SAT as the action. The steps that
should be followed for setting up such rules are:
1.

Define an IP address object for each server for which SLB is to be enabled.

2.

Define an IP address group object which includes all these individual objects.

3.

Define an SLB_SAT rule in the IP rule set which refers to this IP address group and where all
other SLB parameters are defined.

4.

Define a further rule that duplicates the source/destination interface/network of the

SLB_SAT rule that permits the traffic through. This could be one rule or a combination of
rules using the actions:

Allow

NAT

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Note: FwdFast rules should not be used with SLB

In order to function, SLB requires that the NetDefendOS state engine keeps track of
connections. FwdFast IP rules should not be used with SLB since packets that are
forwarded by these rules are under state engine control.

The table below shows the rules that would be defined for a typical scenario of a set of web
servers behind the NetDefend Firewall for which the load is being balanced. Access across the
internet is via the wan interface which has the IP address wan_ip. The rules allow external clients
to access the web servers. The service is not listed.
Rule Name

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface Dest Network

Service

web_slb

SLB_SAT

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http-all

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http-all

web_slb_allow Allow

The SLB_SAT rule has any as the source interface in case any internal clients want to access the
server (an interface group could be used to precisely specify the allowed source interfaces). If the
accessing clients are on the same network as the web servers then an NAT rule for those clients
would also be needed as shown below:
Rule Name

Action

Src Interface

Src Network

Dest Interface Dest Network

Service

web_slb

SLB_SAT

any

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http-all

web_slb_nat

NAT

lan

lan_net

core

wan_ip

http-all

wan

all-nets

core

wan_ip

http-all

web_slb_allow Allow

It is assumed here that internal clients also open connections to wan_ip in order to access the
web servers and so their connections are automatically routed to core.
In the IP rules, the destination interface is always specified as core, meaning NetDefendOS itself
deals with the connection. The key advantage of having a separate Allow rule is that the web
servers can log the exact IP address that is generating external requests. Using only a NAT rule,
which is possible, means that web servers would see only the IP address of the NetDefend
Firewall.
Example 10.3. Setting up SLB
In this example server load balancing is to be done between two HTTP web servers which are
situated behind the NetDefend Firewall. The web servers have the private IPv4 addresses
192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.11. Access by external client is via the wan interface which has the
IPv4 address wan_ip.
The default SLB values for monitoring, distribution method and stickiness are used. A NAT rule is
used in conjunction with the SLB_SAT rule so that clients behind the firewall can access the web
servers.
An Allow rule is used to allow access by external clients.
Command-Line Interface
A. Create an address object for each of the web servers:
gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address server1 Address=192.168.1.10

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gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address server2 Address=192.168.1.11

B. Create a Group which contains the 2 web server objects:

gw-world:/> add Address IP4Group server_group Members=server1,server2

C. Specify the SLB_SAT IP rule:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=SLB_SAT
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
SLBAddresses=server_group
Name=web_slb

D. Specify a NAT rule for internal clients access to the servers:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=NAT
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lan-net
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
NATAction=UseInterfaceAddress
Name=web_slb_nat

E. Specify an Allow IP rule for the external clients:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
NATAction=UseInterfaceAddress
Name=web_slb_allow

Web Interface
A. Create an Object for each of the web servers:
1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Address

2.

Enter a suitable name, for example server1

3.

Enter the IP Address as 192.168.1.10

4.

Click OK

5.

Repeat the above to create an object called server2 for the 192.168.1.11 IP address

B. Create a Group which contains the 2 web server objects:

1.

Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Group

2.

Enter a suitable name, for example server_group

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3.

Add server1 and server2 to the group

4.

Click OK

C. Specify the SLB_SAT IP rule:

1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2.

Enter:

Name: web_slb

Action: SLB_SAT

Service: HTTP

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: wan_ip

3.

Select tab SAT SLB

4.

Under Server Addresses add server_group to Selected

5.

Click OK

D. Specify a NAT rule for internal clients access to the servers:

1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2.

Enter:

3.

Name: web_slb_nat

Action: NAT

Service: http-all

Source Interface: lan

Source Network: lan_net

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: wan_ip

Click OK

E. Specify an Allow IP rule for the external clients:

1.

Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2.

Enter:

Name: web_slb_allow

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3.

Action: Allow

Service: http-all

Source Interface: wan

Source Network: all-nets

Destination Interface: core

Destination Network: wan_ip

Click OK

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This chapter describes the high availability fault-tolerance feature in NetDefend Firewalls.
Overview, page 626
HA Mechanisms, page 629
Setting Up HA, page 633
HA Issues, page 640
Upgrading an HA Cluster, page 642
Link Monitoring and HA, page 644
HA Advanced Settings, page 645

11.1. Overview
HA Clusters
NetDefendOS High Availability (HA) provides a fault tolerant capability to NetDefend Firewall
installations. HA works by adding a back-up slave NetDefend Firewall to an existing master
firewall. The master and slave are connected together and make up a logical HA Cluster. One of
the units in a cluster will be active when the other unit is inactive and on standby.
Initially, the cluster slave will be inactive and will only monitor the activity of the master. If the
slave detects that the master has become inoperative, an HA failover takes place and the slave
becomes active, assuming processing responsibility for all traffic. If the master later becomes
operative again, the slave will continue to be active but the master will now monitor the slave
with failover only taking place if the slave fails. This is sometimes known as an active-passive
implementation of fault tolerance.

Note: HA is only available on some NetDefend models

The HA feature is only available on the D-Link NetDefend DFL-1660, 2560 and 2560G.

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The Master and Active Units

When reading this section on HA, it should be kept in mind that the master unit in a cluster is not
always the same as the active unit in a cluster.
The active unit is the NetDefend Firewall that is actually processing all traffic at a given point in
time. This could be the slave unit if a failover has occurred because the master is no longer
operational.

Interconnection of Cluster Units

In a cluster, the master and slave units must be directly connected to each other by a
synchronization connection which is known to NetDefendOS as the sync interface. One of the
normal interfaces on the master and the slave are dedicated for this purpose and are connected
together with a crossover cable.
Special packets, known as heartbeats, are continually sent by NetDefendOS from one cluster unit
to the other across Ethernet interfaces which have been configured as sync interfaces. These are
also sent on all other Ethernet interfaces unless an interface is explicitly configured not to send
them. These special packets allow the health of both units to be monitored. Heartbeat packets
are sent in both directions so that the passive unit knows about the health of the active unit and
the active unit knows about the health of the passive.
The heartbeat mechanism is discussed below with more detail in Section 11.2, HA Mechanisms.

Cluster Management
When managing the individual hardware units in a cluster, they must be administered separately
using the Web Interface or the CLI. Configuration changes are not automatically duplicated
between the cluster peers.

Load-sharing
D-Link HA clusters do not provide load-sharing since only one unit will be active while the other
is inactive and only two NetDefend Firewalls, the master and the slave, can exist in a single
cluster. The only processing role that the inactive unit plays is to replicate the state of the active
unit and to take over all traffic processing if it detects the active unit is not responding.

Hardware Duplication
D-Link HA will only operate between two NetDefend Firewalls. As the internal operation of
different firewall manufacturer's software is completely dissimilar, there is no common method
available to communicating state information to a dissimilar device.
It is also strongly recommended that the NetDefend Firewalls used in cluster have identical
configurations. They must also have identical licenses which allow identical capabilities including
the ability to run in an HA cluster.

Extending Redundancy
Implementing an HA Cluster will eliminate one of the points of failure in a network. Routers,
switches and Internet connections can remain as potential points of failure and redundancy for
these should also be considered.

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Protecting Against Network Failures Using HA and Link Monitor

The NetDefendOS Link Monitor feature can be used to check connection with a host so that when
it is no longer reachable an HA failover is initiated to a peer which has a different connection to
the host. This technique is a useful extension to normal HA usage which provides protection
against network failures between a single NetDefend Firewall and hosts. This technique is
described further in Section 2.4.1, The Link Monitor.

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11.2. HA Mechanisms
This section discusses in more depth the mechanisms NetDefendOS uses to implement the high
availability feature.

Basic Principles
D-Link HA provides a redundant, state-synchronized hardware configuration. The state of the
active unit, such as the connection table and other vital information, is continuously copied to
the inactive unit via the sync interface. When cluster failover occurs, the inactive unit knows
which connections are active, and traffic can continue to flow after the failover with negligible
disruption.
The inactive system detects that the active system is no longer operational when it no longer
detects sufficient Cluster Heartbeats. Heartbeats are sent over the sync interface as well as all
other interfaces.

Heartbeat Frequency
NetDefendOS sends 5 heartbeats per second from the active system and when three heartbeats
are missed (that is to say, after 0.6 seconds) a failover will be initiated. By sending heartbeats over
all interfaces, the inactive unit gets an overall view of the active unit's health. Even if sync is
deliberately disconnected, failover may not result if the inactive unit receives enough heartbeats
from other interfaces via a shared switch, however the sync interface sends twice as many
heartbeats as any of the normal interfaces.
Heartbeats are not sent at smaller intervals because such delays may occur during normal
operation. An operation, for example opening a file, could result in delays long enough to cause
the inactive system to go active, even though the other is still active.

Important: Disabling sending heartbeats on interfaces

The administrator can manually disable heartbeat sending on any interface if that is
desired. This is a property of the Ethernet interface configuration object. This is not
recommended since the fewer interfaces that send heartbeats, the higher the risk that
not enough heartbeats are received to correctly determine system health.
The exception to this recommendation is if an Ethernet interface is not used at all. It is
recommended to disable heartbeat sending on unused interfaces. The reason for
this is that sending heartbeats on unused interfaces contributes to a false picture of
system health since those heartbeats are always lost. A "false" failover could therefore be
the result or possibly even both units becoming the active unit.

Heartbeat Characteristics
Cluster heartbeats have the following characteristics:

The source IP is the interface address of the sending firewall.

The destination IP is the broadcast address on the sending interface.

The IP TTL is always 255. If NetDefendOS receives a cluster heartbeat with any other TTL, it is
assumed that the packet has traversed a router and therefore cannot be trusted.

It is a UDP packet, sent from port 999, to port 999.

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The destination MAC address is the Ethernet multicast address corresponding to the shared
hardware address and this has the form:
11-00-00-00-nn-mm

Where nn is a bit mask made up of the interface bus, slot and port on the master and mm
represents the cluster ID,
Link layer multicasts are used over normal unicast packets for security. Using unicast packets
would mean that a local attacker could fool switches to route heartbeats somewhere else so
the inactive system never receives them.

Failover Time
The time for failover is typically about one second which means that clients may experience a
failover as a slight burst of packet loss. In the case of TCP, the failover time is well within the
range of normal retransmit timeouts so TCP will retransmit the lost packets within a very short
space of time, and continue communication. UDP does not allow retransmission since it is
inherently an unreliable protocol.

Shared IP Addresses and ARP

Both master and slave know about the shared IP address. ARP queries for the shared IP address,
or any other IP address published via the ARP configuration section or through Proxy ARP, are
answered by the active system.
The hardware address of the shared IP address and other published addresses are not related to
the actual hardware addresses of the interfaces. Instead the MAC address is constructed by
NetDefendOS from the Cluster ID in the form 11-00-00-C1-4A-nn where nn is derived by
combining the configured Cluster ID with the hardware bus/slot/port of the interface. The
Cluster ID must be unique for each NetDefendOS cluster in a network.
As the shared IP address always has the same hardware address, there will be no latency time in
updating ARP caches of units attached to the same LAN as the cluster when failover occurs.
When a cluster member discovers that its peer is not operational, it broadcasts gratuitous ARP
queries on all interfaces using the shared hardware address as the sender address. This allows
switches to re-learn within milliseconds where to send packets destined for the shared address.
The only delay in failover therefore, is detecting that the active unit is down.
ARP queries are also broadcast periodically to ensure that switches do not forget where to send
packets destined for the shared hardware address.

Promiscuous Mode
The Ethernet interfaces in an HA cluster must operate in promiscuous mode for HA to function.
This mode means that traffic with a destination MAC address that does not match the Ethernet
interface's MAC address will be sent to NetDefendOS and not discarded by the interface.
Promiscuous mode is enabled automatically by NetDefendOS and the administrator does not
need to worry about doing this.
If the administrator enters a CLI command ifstat <ifname>, the Receive Mode status line will show
the value Promiscuous next to it instead of Normal to indicate the mode has changed. This is
discussed further in Section 3.4.2, Ethernet Interfaces.

HA with Anti-Virus and IDP

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If a NetDefendOS cluster has the Anti-Virus or IDP subsystems enabled then updates to the
Anti-Virus signature database or IDP pattern database will routinely occur. These updates involve
downloads from the external D-Link databases and they require NetDefendOS reconfiguration to
occur for the new database contents to become active.
A database update causes the following sequence of events to occur in an HA cluster:
1.

The active (master) unit downloads the new database files from the D-Link servers. The
download is done via the shared IP address of the cluster.

2.

The active (master) node sends the new database files to the inactive peer.

3.

The inactive (slave) unit reconfigures to activate the new database files.

4.

The active (master) unit now reconfigures to activate the new database files causing a
failover to the slave unit. The slave is now the active unit.

5.

After reconfiguration of the master is complete, failover occurs again so that the master
once again becomes the active unit.

Dealing with Sync Failure

An unusual situation that can occur in an HA cluster is if the sync connection between the master
and slave experiences a failure with the result that heartbeats and state updates are no longer
received by the inactive unit.
Should such a failure occur then the consequence is that both units will continue to function but
they will lose their synchronization with each other. In other words, the inactive unit will no
longer have a correct copy of the state of the active unit. A failover will not occur in this situation
since the inactive unit will realize that synchronization has been lost.
Failure of the sync interface results in the generation of hasync_connection_failed_timeout log
messages by the active unit. However, it should be noted that this log message is also generated
whenever the inactive unit appears to be not working, such as during a software upgrade.
Failure of the sync interface can be confirmed by comparing the output from certain CLI
commands for each unit. The number of connections could be compared with the stats
command. If IPsec tunnels are heavily used, the ipsecglobalstat -verbose command could be used
instead and significant differences in the numbers of IPsec SAs, IKE SAs, active users and IP pool
statistics would indicate a failure to synchronize.
Once the broken sync interface is fixed, perhaps by replacing the connecting cable,
resynchronization of the two units will take place automatically. If the sync interface is now
functioning correctly, there may still be some small differences in the statistics from each cluster
unit but these will be minor compared with the differences seen in the case of failure.
In unusual circumstances, synchronization between the active and inactive unit will not take
place automatically. In this case, it may be necessary to manually restart the unsynchronized
inactive unit in order to force resynchronization. This can be achieved using the CLI command:
gw-world:/> shutdown

A restart of the inactive unit will cause the following to take place:

During startup, the inactive unit sends a message to the active unit to flag that its state has
been initialized and it requires the entire state of the active unit to be sent.

The active unit then sends a copy of its entire state to the inactive unit.

The inactive unit then becomes synchronized after which a failover can take place
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successfully if there is a system failure.

A restart of the inactive unit is the only time when the entire state of the active unit is sent to the
inactive unit.

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11.3. Setting Up HA
This section provides a step-by-step guide for setting up an HA Cluster. Setup is explained in the
following subsections:

11.3.1. Hardware Setup

The steps for the setup of hardware in an HA cluster are as follows:
1.

Start with two physically identical NetDefend Firewalls. Both may be newly purchased or an
existing unit may have a new unit added to it to create the cluster.

2.

Both master and slave units must be running the same version of NetDefendOS.

3.

Make the physical connections:

4.

Connect the matching interfaces of master and slave through separate switches or
separate broadcast domains. It is important to keep the traffic on each interface pair
separated from other pairs.

Connect together the sync interfaces. This can be done directly with a crossover cable or
through a separate switch (or broadcast domain).

Decide on a shared IP address for each interface in the cluster. Some interfaces could have
shared addresses only while others could also have unique, individual IP addresses for each
interface specified in an IP4 HA Address object. The shared and individual addresses are used
as follows:

The individual addresses specified for an interface in an IP4 HA Address object allow
remote management through that interface. These addresses can also be "pinged" using
ICMP provided that IP rules are defined to permit this (by default, ICMP queries are
dropped by the rule set).
If either unit is inoperative, its individual IP addresses will also be unreachable. These IP
addresses are usually private but must be public if management access across the public
Internet is required.
If an interface is not assigned an individual address through an IP4 HA Address object
then it must be assigned the default address localhost (the loopback address) which is
an IP address from the sub-network 127.0.0.0/8. The localhost object behaves as two
addresses and uses 127.0.0.1 for the master and 127.0.0.2 for the slave.
ARP queries for the individual IP addresses specified in IP4 HA Address objects are
answered by the firewall that owns the address, using the normal hardware address, just
as with normal IP units.

One single shared IP address is used for routing and it is also the address used by
dynamic address translation, unless the configuration explicitly specifies another
address.

Note: Master and slave management IPs must be different

The shared IP address cannot be used for remote management or monitoring
purposes. For example, when using SSH for remote management of the NetDefend
Firewalls in an HA Cluster, the individual IP addresses of each firewall's interfaces
must be used and these are specified in IP4 HA Address objects as discussed above.
For this reason the management IP addresses of the cluster units must be different.

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It is recommended to change the management IP address of the slave unit so it is

different from the master. Changing the management IP is described in
Section 2.1.8, Changing Management Access.

Typical HA Cluster Network Connections

The illustration below shows the arrangement of typical HA Cluster connections in a network. All
interfaces on the master unit would normally also have corresponding interfaces on the slave
unit and these would be connected to the same networks. This is achieved by connecting the
same interfaces on both master and slave via a separate switch (or broadcast domain) to other
network portions.

In the scenario shown above, the lan interface on the master and the lan interface on the slave
would be connected to the same switch which then connects to an internal network. Similarly
the wan interface on the master and the wan interface would connect to a switch which in turn
connects to the external Internet.

Note: The illustration shows a crossover cable sync connection

The illustration above shows a direct crossover cable connection between the sync

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interfaces of each unit. Alternatively, the connection could be via a switch or broadcast
domain.

11.3.2. Wizard HA Setup

NetDefendOS provides a wizard to automate the HA setup procedure. The wizard needs to be
run twice: once when connected to the master unit in the HA cluster, and a second time when
connected to the slave unit in the cluster. The procedure for doing this with each unit is as
follows:
1.

Connect to the NetDefend Firewall through the Web Interface.

2.

Go to: Objects > Address Book and create an IP4 HA Address object for each interface pair
in the cluster. Each object will contain the master and slave IP addresses for the interface
pair. Inclusion in an IP4 HA Address object is mandatory for any interface that will be used for
remote management but optional for other interfaces. The private address must be
different in the IP4 HA Address object for the management interface of the master and
slave unit.

3.

Save and activate the new configuration before continuing to the next step.

4.

Go to System > Device > High Availability in the web interface and press the Start Wizard
button. Running the wizard for the master and slave units is described in A and B below.

5.

Save and activate the new configuration.

A. Running the Wizard for Master Setup

1.

Specify the NodeType, ClusterID and Interface that will be used for synchronization.

2.

If the two hardware models used in the cluster are different, this should also be indicated
(see Section 11.3.5, Unique Shared Mac Addresses below for an explanation of this option).

3.

Select the shared IP address and, if desired, the individual IP4 HA Address objects created
earlier. Make sure the management interface IPs are different for master and slave.

4.

The wizard will confirm that master setup is complete.

B. Running the Wizard for Slave Setup

1.

Specify the NodeType, ClusterID and Interface that will be used for synchronization.

2.

If the two hardware models used in the cluster are different, this should also be indicated
(see Section 11.3.5, Unique Shared Mac Addresses below for an explanation of this option).

3.

The wizard will acknowledge that it will synchronize with the master unit.

4.

Select the desired interface mapping.

5.

The wizard will confirm that slave setup and synchronization is complete.

Installing a New Master Unit

It should be noted in the above process that the HA wizard synchronizes the slave from the
master unit and not the other way around. This means that if the slave unit is swapped with a
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new unit, perhaps because of an equipment failure, the wizard can be used to perform the initial
setup since it will copy over the configuration from the master.
But what if it is the slave unit that contains the configuration that is to be used and it is the
master unit that is to be synchronized with it? This would be the case if the master unit suffered a
fault and had to be swapped with a brand new unit.
There are two methods to resolve this:
Method A. Copying the slave configuration to the new master
The easiest and quickest way to configure a new master unit is as follows:
1.

Use the normal configuration backup function to make a backup of the configuration that
exists on the existing slave unit.

2.

Restore the backup from the slave to the new master unit.

3.

Through the management interface, change the new master unit's HA designation to be
Master and rename the device so both do not have the same name.

Method B. Turning the slave into the master

A second, slightly more involved approach, is to turn the slave unit into a master and then use
the wizard as normal to copy the configuration across.
Changing the slave to the master is done through the management interface by changing the
unit's HA designation to be Master. However, a remaining issue will be that the ARP caches of
connected switches will not now be valid. To force an update of these caches either the switches
should be restarted or the CLI command arp -notify could be issued from the new master (which
was previously the slave).
This process of changing a slave to a master must be done quickly since there will be a reversion
to the old configuration within the Validation Timeout period, which, by default, is 30 seconds.
Within that time, the ARP cache problem must also be addressed. To solve this issue we can
either commit the new configuration manually before dealing with the ARP issue, or lengthen
the time available by increasing the advanced setting Validation Timeout .

11.3.3. Manual HA Setup

To set up an HA cluster manually, the steps are as follows:
1.

Connect to the master unit with the Web Interface.

2.

Go to: System > Device > High Availability.

3.

Check the Enable High Availability checkbox.

4.

Set the Cluster ID. This must be unique for each cluster.

5.

Choose the Sync Interface.

6.

Select the node type to be Master.

7.

Go to: Objects > Address Book and create an IP4 HA Address object for each interface
pair. Each must contain the master and slave interface IP addresses for the pair.
Creating an object is mandatory for an interface pair used for remote management, but
optional for other interfaces (in which case the default loopback address localhost must be
used and this is an IP address from the 127.0.0.0/8 sub-network). The IPv4 address for the
management interfaces of the master and slave units must be different.

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8.

Optionally create an IP6 HA Address object for any relevant interface pairs. Management
access or logging is not possible using an IPv6 address. However, a private IPv6 address
could be pinged by incoming ICMP messages when the HA cluster is active or used as the
source IP for outgoing ICMP ping messages when HA is not active.

9.

Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet and go through each interface in the list,
entering the shared IP address for that interface in the IP Address field.
Also select the Advanced tab for each interface and set the High Availability, Private IP
Address field to be the name of the IP4 HA Address object created previously for the
interface (NetDefendOS will automatically select the appropriate address from the master
and slave addresses defined in the object).

Note: IP addresses could be public IPv4 addresses

The term "private IPv4 address" is not strictly correct when used here. Either
address used in an IP4 HA Address object may be public if management access
across the public Internet is required.

10. Save and activate the new configuration.

11. Repeat the above steps for the other NetDefend Firewall but this time select the node type
to be Slave.

Making Cluster Configuration Changes

The configuration on both NetDefend Firewalls needs to be the same. The configurations of the
two units will be automatically synchronized. To change something in a cluster configuration,
log on to either the master or the slave, make the change, then save and activate. The change is
automatically made to both units.

11.3.4. Verifying that the Cluster Functions Correctly

Important: Perform shutdown on both master and slave
After the cluster has been configured, it is highly recommended to perform a shutdown
operation on both cluster units so they restart at approximately the same time. This is
done separately for each unit through the Web Interface or using the CLI command:
gw-world:/> shutdown

This will ensure both units will try to correctly synchronize with each other.
This step can be skipped but may be necessary later if synchronization does not succeed
or other problems occur.

To verify that the cluster is performing correctly, first use the ha command on each unit. The
output will look similar to the following for the master:
gw-world:/> ha
This device is an HA MASTER
This device is currently ACTIVE (will forward traffic)
HA cluster peer is ALIVE

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Then use the stat command to verify that both the master and slave have about the same
number of connections. The output from the command should contain a line similar to the
following:
Connections 2726 out of 128000

The lower number on the left in this output is the current number of connections and the higher
number on the right is the maximum number of connections allowed by the license.
The following points are also relevant to cluster setup:

If this is not the first cluster in a network then the Cluster ID must be changed for the cluster
so that it is unique (the default value is 0). The Cluster ID determines that the MAC address for
the cluster is unique.

Enabling the advanced setting Use Unique Share MAC is recommended so that each interface
has its own MAC address. If this is not enabled, interfaces share a MAC address and this can
confuse some third party switches.

Make sure that the advanced setting High Buffers is set to be automatic for both units in the
cluster. This setting determines how memory is allocated by NetDefendOS for handling
increasing numbers of connections. A NetDefendOS restart is required for a change in this
setting to take effect and this can be achieved with the CLI command:
gw-world:/> shutdown

Where a cluster has a very high number (for example, tens of thousands) of simultaneous
connections then it may be necessary to set a high value for this instead of enabling the
Dynamic High Buffers option. A very high value for High Buffers can suit situations with large
numbers of connections but can have the disadvantage of increasing throughput.
See Section 13.9, Miscellaneous Settings for a full explanation of these settings.

11.3.5. Unique Shared Mac Addresses

For HA setup, NetDefendOS provides the advanced option Use Unique Shared MAC Address. By
default, this is enabled and in most configurations it should not need to be disabled.

Enabling a Unique Shared MAC Address

The effect of enabling this setting is that a single, unique MAC address will be used for each pair
of matching hardware interfaces so that, for example, the lan1 interface on the master unit will
appear to have the same MAC address as the lan1 interface on the slave unit.

Problem Diagnosis
An HA cluster will function if this setting is disabled but can cause problems with a limited
number of switch types where the switch uses a shared ARP table. Such problems can be hard to
diagnose which is why it is best to always have the setting enabled.

With Dissimilar Hardware Units

In one situation, this setting should be disabled and that is when an HA cluster is set up using
non-matching hardware. In order to function correctly, unique shared MAC addresses should not

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be used.

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11.4. HA Issues
The following points should be kept in mind when managing and configuring an HA Cluster.

VPN Tunnel Synchronization

NetDefendOS provides complete synchronization for IPsec tunnels in an HA cluster. In the event
of a failover occurring, incoming clients should not need to re-establish their tunnels.
However, NetDefendOS does not provide synchronization support for the following:

PPP
L2TP
L2TPv3
SSL VPN

In the event of a failover occurring for these types of tunnel, incoming clients must re-establish
their tunnels after the original tunnels are deemed non-functional. This timeout for this can vary
according to the scenario but can be as long as 30 seconds.

DHCP
Servers for IPv4 DHCP as well as DHCPv6 have full HA synchronization support. However, the
clients for both IPv4 DHCP and DHCPv6 are not supported.

All Cluster Interfaces Need IP Addresses

All interfaces on both HA cluster units should have a valid private IP4 address object assigned to
them. The predefined IP object local host could be assigned for this purpose. The need to assign
an address is true even if an interface has been disabled.

SNMP
SNMP statistics are not shared between master and slave. SNMP managers have no failover
capabilities. Therefore both firewalls in a cluster need to be polled separately.

Using Individual IP Addresses

The unique individual IP addresses of the master and slave cannot safely be used for anything
but management. Using them for anything else, such as for source IPs in dynamically NATed
connections or publishing services on them, will inevitably cause problems since unique IPs will
disappear when the firewall they belong to does.

The Shared IP Must Not Be 0.0.0.0

Assigning the IPv4 address 0.0.0.0 as the shared IP address must be avoided. This is not valid for
this purpose and will cause NetDefendOS to enter Lockdown Mode.

Failed Interfaces
Failed interfaces will not be detected unless they fail to the point where NetDefendOS cannot
continue to function. This means that failover will not occur if the active unit can still send "I am

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alive" heartbeats to the inactive unit through any of its interfaces, even though one or more
interfaces may be inoperative.

Changing the Cluster ID

Changing the cluster ID in a live environment is not recommended for two reasons. Firstly this
will change the hardware address of the shared IPs and will cause problems for all devices
attached to the local network, as they will keep the old hardware address in their ARP caches
until it times out. Such units would have to have their ARP caches flushed.
Secondly, this breaks the connection between the firewalls in the cluster for as long as they are
using different configurations. This will cause both firewalls to go active at the same time.

Invalid Checksums in Heartbeat Packets

Cluster Heartbeats packets are deliberately created with invalid checksums. This is done so that
they will not be routed. Some routers may flag this invalid checksum in their log messages.

Making OSPF work

If OSPF is being used to determine routing metrics then a cluster cannot be used as the
designated router.
If OSPF is to work then there must be another designated router available in the same OSPF area
as the cluster. Ideally, there will also be a second, backup designated router to provide OSPF
metrics if the main designated router should fail.

PPPoE Tunnels and DHCP Clients

For reasons connected with the shared IP addresses of an HA cluster, PPPoE tunnels and DHCP
clients should not be configured in an HA cluster.

Disabling Heartbeats on Unused Interfaces

It is recommended to disable heartbeats on Ethernet interfaces that are not being used. If this is
not done there is a risk that this could cause repeated failovers or even both units going active
because the HA mechanism will see the unused interface as a failed interface. The higher the
proportion of unused interfaces there are in a cluster, the more pronounced the effect of sending
heartbeats on unused interfaces becomes.

Both Units Going Active

In the case of a misconfiguration of an HA cluster, a worst case scenario could arise where both
the master and slave think the other unit has failed and both can go active at the same time
resulting in the failure of correct traffic flow.
This is usually identified by examining the log messages generated by both units. An
active-active situation might be caused by unused interfaces not having heartbeats turned off
(as discussed previously) or possibly a connection problem such as the sync interfaces not being
able to communicate.

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11.5. Upgrading an HA Cluster

The NetDefendOS software versions running on the master and slave in an HA cluster should be
the same. When a new NetDefendOS version becomes available and is to be installed on both
units, the upgrade is done one unit at a time.
The central principal in the upgrade process for a cluster is that upgrading the inactive unit will
not effect the operation of the cluster and only momentarily make the inactive unit unavailable.
The overall sequence of steps to follow is:
i.

Identify which unit is inactive and upgrade that first.

ii.

When the inactive unit is once again synchronized with the active unit, cause a failover to
occur so that the inactive becomes the active unit.

iii.

Now upgrade the inactive unit. Both units will then resynchronize and have the new
NetDefendOS version.

These three steps will now be broken down into a more detailed description:
A. Establish which is the inactive unit in the cluster
The currently inactive unit will be upgraded first so it is necessary to identify this. To do this,
connect with a CLI console to one of the cluster units and issue the ha command. The typical
output if the unit is active is shown below.
gw-world:/> ha
This device is a HA SLAVE
This device is currently ACTIVE (will forward traffic)
This device has been active: 430697 sec
HA cluster peer is ALIVE

This unit (the slave) is the currently active unit, so the other one (the master) is the inactive unit.
B. Upgrade the inactive unit
Once the inactive unit is identified, upgrade this unit with the new NetDefendOS version. This is
done exactly as though the unit were not in a cluster. For example, the Web Interface can be
used to do the upgrade.

Important: Make sure the inactive unit is ALIVE

Before going to the next step make sure the inactive unit is fully operational and
synchronized with the active unit after the software upgrade completes.
To do this, issue the CLI ha command on the inactive unit. The output from the
command should indicate that the status is ALIVE.
gw-world:/> ha
This device is a HA SLAVE
This device is currently INACTIVE (won't forward traffic)
This device has been inactive: 2 sec
HA cluster peer is ALIVE

C. Cause a failover to occur

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Now, connect to the active unit (which is still running the old NetDefendOS version) with a CLI
console and issue the ha -deactivate command. This will cause the active unit to become inactive,
and the inactive to become active.
gw-world:/> ha -deactivate
HA Was: ACTIVE
HA going INACTIVE...

To check that the failover has completed successfully, an ha command can be issued again and
the text "INACTIVE" and "is ALIVE" should appear in the output.
D. Upgrade the newly inactive unit
When the failover is complete, upgrade the newly inactive unit with the new NetDefendOS
version. Just like step B, this is done in the normal way as though the unit were not part of a
cluster.
E. Wait for resynchronization
Once the second software upgrade is complete, two units will automatically resynchronize and
the cluster will continue operation. The roles of active and inactive unit will have been reversed.
If it is desirable to make the active unit inactive, and the inactive unit active, the CLI command ha
-active can be used.

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11.6. Link Monitoring and HA

Redundant Network Paths
When using an HA configuration, it can be important to use redundant paths to vital resources
such as the Internet. The paths through the network from the master device in an HA
configuration may fail in which case it may be desirable to have this failure trigger a failover to
the slave unit which has a different path to the resource.

Monitoring Paths
Monitoring the availability of specific network paths can be done with the NetDefendOS Link
Monitor. The Link Monitor allows the administrator to specify particular hosts whose reachability
is monitored using ICMP "Ping" requests and therefore link status. If these hosts become
unreachable then the link is considered failed and a failover to a slave can be initiated. Provided
that the slave is using a different network link and also monitoring the reachability of different
hosts, traffic can continue to flow.

Using the Shared IP Address

When this property of the Link Monitor object is enabled, it allows the link monitor pings to be
sent from the shared IP address instead of sending using the individual IPs of each unit. This is
useful if public IPv4 addresses are not available for the sending interface.

Further Link Monitor Reading

Using link monitoring is described further in Section 2.4.1, The Link Monitor.

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11.7. HA Advanced Settings

The following NetDefendOS advanced settings are available for High Availability:

Sync Buffer Size

How much sync data, in Kbytes, to buffer while waiting for acknowledgments from the cluster
peer.
Default: 1024

Sync Packet Max Burst

The maximum number of state sync packets to send in a burst.
Default: 20

Initial Silence
The time in seconds to stay silent on startup or after reconfiguration. When the active unit in an
HA cluster believes the inactive unit is no longer reachable, it continues to send synchronization
traffic normally for a period of one minute in the expectation that the inactive unit will again
become reachable. In order not to flood the network unnecessarily, after one minute has
elapsed, the synchronization traffic is then only sent after repeated periods of silence. The length
of this silence is taken from this setting.
Default: 5

Use Unique Shared Mac

Use a unique shared MAC address for each interface. For further explanation of this setting see
Section 11.3.5, Unique Shared Mac Addresses.
Default: Enabled

Deactivate Before Reconf

If enabled, this setting will make an active node failover to the inactive node before a reconfigure
takes place instead of relying on the inactive node detecting that the active node is not
operating normally and then taking over on its own initiative. Enabling this setting shortens the
time where no node is active during configuration deployments.
Default: Enabled

Reconf Failover Time

Number of non-responsive seconds before failover at HA reconfiguration. The default value of
zero means immediate reconfiguration.
Default: 0

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Chapter 12: ZoneDefense

This chapter describes the D-Link ZoneDefense feature.
Overview, page 647
ZoneDefense Switches, page 649
ZoneDefense Operation, page 650

12.1. Overview
ZoneDefense Controls Switches
ZoneDefense allows a NetDefend Firewall to control locally attached switches. It can be used as a
counter-measure to stop a virus-infected computer in a local network from infecting other
computers.
When hosts or clients on a network become infected with viruses or another form of malicious
code, this can often show its presence through anomalous behavior, often by large numbers of
new connections being opened to outside hosts.

Using Thresholds
By setting up Threshold Rules, hosts or networks that are exceeding a defined connection
threshold can be dynamically blocked using the ZoneDefense feature. Thresholds are based on
either the number of new connections made per second, or on the total number of connections
being made.
These connections may be made by either a single host or all hosts within a specified CIDR
network range (an IP address range specified by a combination of an IP address and its
associated network mask).

ACL Upload
When NetDefendOS detects that a host or a network has reached the specified limit, it uploads
Access Control List (ACL) rules to the relevant switches and this blocks all traffic for the host or
network displaying the unusual behavior. Blocked hosts and networks remain blocked until the
system administrator manually unblocks them using the Web or Command Line interface.

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Note: ZoneDefense is not available on all NetDefend models

The ZoneDefense feature is only available on the D-Link NetDefend DFL-860E, 1660,
2560 and 2560G.

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12.2. ZoneDefense Switches

Switch information regarding every switch that is to be controlled by the firewall has to be
manually specified in the firewall configuration. The information needed in order to control a
switch includes:

The IP address of the management interface of the switch

The switch model type

The SNMP community string (write access)

The ZoneDefense feature currently supports the following switches:

DES-3226S (Version R4.02-B26 or later)

DES-3250TG (Version R3.00-B09 or later)

DES-3326S (Version R4.01-B39 or later)

DES-3350SR (Version R3.02-B12 or later)

DES-3526 R3.x (Version R3.06-B20 only)

DES-3526 R4.x (Version R4.01-B19 or later)

DES-3550 R3.x (Version R3.05-B38 only)

DES-3550 R4.x (Version R4.01-B19 or later)

DES-3800 Series (Version R2.00-B13 or later)

DGS-3200 Series (Version R1.10-B06 or later)

DGS-3324SR/SRi (Version R4.30-B11 or later)

DGS-3400 Series R1.x (Version R1.00-B35 only)

DGS-3400 Series R2.x (Version R2.00-B52 or later)

DGS-3600 Series (Version R2.20-B35 or later)

DXS-3326GSR (Version R4.30-B11 or later)

DXS-3350SR (Version R4.30-B11 or later)

DHS-3618 (Version R1.00-B03 or later)

DHS-3626 (Version R1.00-B03 or later)

Tip: Switch firmware versions should be the latest

Make sure that the switches have the minimum required firmware versions before
activating ZoneDefense.

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12.3. ZoneDefense Operation

12.3.1. SNMP
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application layer protocol for complex
network management. SNMP allows the managers and managed devices in a network to
communicate with each other.

SNMP Managers
A typical managing device, such as a NetDefend Firewall, uses the SNMP protocol to monitor and
control network devices in the managed environment. The manager can query stored statistics
from the controlled devices by using the SNMP Community String. This is similar to a userid or
password which allows access to the device's state information. If the community string type is
write, the manager will be allowed to modify the device's state.

Managed devices
The managed devices must be SNMP compliant, as are D-Link switches. They store state data in
databases known as the Management Information Base (MIB) and provide the information to the
manager upon receiving an SNMP query.

12.3.2. Threshold Rules

A threshold rule will trigger ZoneDefense to block out a specific host or a network if the
connection limit specified in the rule is exceeded. The limit can be one of two types:

Connection Rate Limit - This can be triggered if the rate of new connections per second to
the firewall exceeds a specified threshold.

Total Connections Limit - This can be triggered if the total number of connections to the
firewall exceeds a specified threshold.

Threshold rules have parameters which are similar to those for IP Rules. These parameters specify
what type of traffic a threshold rule applies to.
A single threshold rule has the parameters:

Source interface and source network

Destination interface and destination network

Service

Type of threshold: Host and/or network based

Traffic that matches the above criteria and causes the host/network threshold to be exceeded
will trigger the ZoneDefense feature. This will prevent the host/networks from accessing the
switch(es). All blocking in response to threshold violations will be based on the IP address of the
host or network on the switch(es). When a network-based threshold has been exceeded, the
source network will be blocked out instead of just the offending host.
For a general description of how Threshold Rules are specified and function, please see
Section 10.3, Threshold Rules.

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12.3.3. Manual Blocking and Exclude Lists

As a complement to threshold rules, it is also possible to manually define hosts and networks
that are to be statically blocked or excluded. Manually blocked hosts and networks can be
blocked by default or based on a schedule. It is also possible to specify which protocols and
protocol port numbers are to be blocked.
Exclude Lists can be created and used to exclude hosts from being blocked when a threshold rule
limit is reached. Good practice includes adding to the list the firewall's interface IP or MAC
address connecting towards the ZoneDefense switch. This prevents the firewall from being
accidentally blocked out.
Example 12.1. A simple ZoneDefense scenario
The following simple example illustrates the steps needed to set up ZoneDefense. It is assumed
that all interfaces on the firewall have already been configured.
An HTTP threshold of 10 connections/second is applied. If the connection rate exceeds this
limitation, the firewall will block the specific host (in network range 192.168.2.0/24 for example)
from accessing the switch completely.

A D-Link switch model DES-3226S is used in this case, with a management interface address
192.168.1.250 connecting to the firewall's interface address 192.168.1.1. This firewall interface is
added into the exclude list to prevent the firewall from being accidentally locked out from
accessing the switch.
Web Interface
Add a new switch into ZoneDefense section:
1.

Go to: ZoneDefense > Switches > Add > ZoneDefense switch

2.

Now enter:

Name: switch1

Switch model: DES-3226S

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IP Address: 192.168.1.250

3.

For SNMP Community enter the Write Community String configured for the switch

4.

Press Check Switch to verify the firewall can communicate with the switch and the
community string is correct.

5.

Click OK

Add the firewall's management interface into the exclude list:

1.

Go to: ZoneDefense > Exclude list

2.

For Addresses choose the object name of the firewall's interface address 192.168.1.1 from
the Available list and put it into the Selected list.

3.

Click OK

Configure an HTTP threshold of 10 connections/second:

1.

Go to: Policies > Traffic Management > Threshold Rules > Add > Threshold Rule

2.

For the Threshold Rule enter:

3.

4.

Name: HTTP-Threshold

Service: http

For Address Filter enter:

Source Interface: The firewall's management interface

Destination Interface: any

Source Network: 192.168.2.0/24 (or the object name)

Destination Network: all-nets

Click OK

Specify the threshold, the threshold type and the action to take if exceeded:
1.

Go to: Add > Threshold Action

2.

Configure the Theshold Action as follows:

Action: Protect

Group By: Host-based

Threshold: 10

Set the units for the threshold value to be Connections/Second

Tick the Use ZoneDefense checkbox

Click OK

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12.3.4. ZoneDefense with Anti-Virus Scanning

ZoneDefense can be used in conjuction with the NetDefendOS Anti-Virus scanning feature.
NetDefendOS can first identify a virus source through antivirus scanning and then block the
source by communicating with switches configured to work with ZoneDefense. This feature is
activated through the following ALGs:

HTTP - ZoneDefense can block an HTTP server that is a virus source.

FTP - ZoneDefense can block a local FTP client that is uploading viruses.

SMTP - ZoneDefense can block a local SMTP client that is sending viruses with emails.

This feature is described further in Section 6.4, Anti-Virus Scanning and in the sections covering
the individual ALGs.

12.3.5. Limitations
There are some differences in ZoneDefense operation depending on switch model. The first
difference is the latency between the triggering of a blocking rule to the moment when
switch(es) actually starts blocking out the traffic matched by the rule. All switch models require a
short period of latency time to implement blocking once the rule is triggered. Some models can
activate blocking in less than a second while some models may require a minute or more.
A second difference is the maximum number of rules supported by different switches. Some
switches support a maximum of 50 rules while others support up to 800 (usually, in order to
block a host or network, one rule per switch port is needed). When this limit has been reached no
more hosts or networks will be blocked out.

Important: Clearing the ACL rule set on the switch

ZoneDefense uses a range in the ACL rule set on the switch. To avoid potential conflicts
in these rules and guarantee the firewall's access control, it is strongly recommended
that the administrator clear the entire ACL rule set on the switch before executing the
ZoneDefense setup.

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Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

This chapter describes the additional configurable advanced settings for NetDefendOS that are
not already described in the manual. In the Web Interface these settings are found under System
> Advanced Settings.
The settings are divided up into the following categories:

Note: Activating setting changes

After any advanced setting is changed, the new NetDefendOS configuration must be
activated in order for the new value to take effect.

IP Level Settings, page 655

TCP Level Settings, page 659
ICMP Level Settings, page 664
State Settings, page 665
Connection Timeout Settings, page 667
Length Limit Settings, page 669
Fragmentation Settings, page 672
Local Fragment Reassembly Settings, page 676
Miscellaneous Settings, page 677

13.1. IP Level Settings

Log Checksum Errors
Logs occurrences of IP packets containing erroneous checksums. Normally, this is the result of
the packet being damaged during network transport. All network units, both routers and
workstations, drop IP packets that contain checksum errors. However, it is highly unlikely for an
attack to be based on illegal checksums.

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Default: Enabled

Log non IPv4/IPv6

Logs occurrences of IP packets that are not IPv4 or IPv6.
Default: Enabled

Log Received TTL 0

Logs occurrences of IP packets received with the "Time To Live" (TTL) value set to zero. Under no
circumstances should any network unit send packets with a TTL of 0.
Default: Enabled

Block 0000 Src

Block 0.0.0.0 as source address.
Default: Drop

Block 0 Net
Block 0.* as source addresses.
Default: DropLog

Block 127 Net

Block 127.* as source addresses.
Default: DropLog

Block Multicast Src

Block multicast both source addresses (224.0.0.0 - 255.255.255.255).
Default: DropLog

TTL Min
The minimum TTL value accepted on receipt.
Default: 3

TTL on Low
Determines the action taken on packets whose TTL falls below the stipulated TTLMin value.
Default: DropLog

Multicast TTL on Low

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What action to take on too low multicast TTL values.

Default: DropLog

Default TTL
Indicates which TTL NetDefendOS is to use when originating a packet. These values are usually
between 64 and 255.
Default: 255

Layer Size Consistency

Verifies that the size information contained in each "layer" (Ethernet, IP, TCP, UDP, ICMP) is
consistent with that of other layers.
Default: ValidateLogBad

SecuRemoteUDP Compatibility
Allow IP data to contain eight bytes more than the UDP total length field specifies. Checkpoint
SecuRemote violates NAT-T drafts.
Default: Disabled

IP Option Sizes
Verifies the size of "IP options". These options are small blocks of information that may be added
to the end of each IP header. This function checks the size of well-known option types and
ensures that no option exceeds the size limit stipulated by the IP header itself.
Default: ValidateLogBad

IP Option Source/Return
Indicates whether source routing options are to be permitted. These options allow the sender of
the packet to control how the packet is to be routed through each router and firewall. These
constitute an enormous security risk. NetDefendOS never obeys the source routes specified by
these options, regardless of this setting.
Default: DropLog

IP Options Timestamps
Time stamp options instruct each router and firewall on the packet's route to indicate at what
time the packet was forwarded along the route. These options do not occur in normal traffic.
Time stamps may also be used to "record" the route a packet has taken from sender to final
destination. NetDefendOS never enters information into these options, regardless of this setting.
Default: DropLog

IP router alert option

How to handle IP packets with contained route alert.

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Default: ValidateLogBad

IP Options Other
All options other than those specified above.
Default: DropLog

Directed Broadcasts
Indicates whether NetDefendOS will forward packets which are directed to the broadcast
address of its directly connected networks. It is possible to achieve this functionality by adding
lines to the Rules section, but it is also included here for simplicity's sake. This form of validation
is faster than entries in the Rules section since it is more specialized.
Default: DropLog

IP Reserved Flag
Indicates what NetDefendOS will do if there is data in the "reserved" fields of IP headers. In
normal circumstances, these fields should read 0. Used by OS Fingerprinting.
Default: DropLog

Strip DontFragment
Strip the Don't Fragment flag for packets equal to or smaller than the size specified by this
setting.
Default: 65535 bytes

Multicast Mismatch option

What action to take when Ethernet and IP multicast addresses does not match.
Default: DropLog

Min Broadcast TTL option

The shortest IP broadcast Time-To-Live value accepted on receipt.
Default: 1

Low Broadcast TTL Action option

What action to take on too low broadcast TTL values.
Default: DropLog

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13.2. TCP Level Settings

TCP Option Sizes
Verifies the size of TCP options. This function acts in the same way as IPOptionSizes described
above.
Default: ValidateLogBad

TCP MSS Min

Determines the minimum permissible size of the TCP MSS. Packets containing maximum
segment sizes below this limit are handled according to the next setting.
Default: 100 bytes

TCP MSS on Low

Determines the action taken on packets whose TCP MSS option falls below the stipulated
TCPMSSMin value. Values that are too low could cause problems in poorly written TCP stacks.
Default: DropLog

TCP MSS Max

Determines the maximum permissible TCP MSS size. Packets containing maximum segment sizes
exceeding this limit are handled according to the next setting.
Default: 1460 bytes

TCP MSS VPN Max

As is the case with TCPMSSMax, this is the highest Maximum Segment Size allowed. However,
this setting only controls MSS in VPN connections. This way, NetDefendOS can reduce the
effective segment size used by TCP in all VPN connections. This reduces TCP fragmentation in the
VPN connection even if hosts do not know how to perform MTU discovery.
This setting must be less than the maximum IPsec MTU size and the maximum IPsec MTU size
must be less than the maximum packet size handled by the physical interface.
Default: 1400 bytes

TCP MSS On High

Determines the action taken on packets whose TCP MSS option exceeds the stipulated
TCPMSSMax value. Values that are too high could cause problems in poorly written TCP stacks or
give rise to large quantities of fragmented packets, which will adversely affect performance.
Default: Adjust

TCP MSS Log Level

Determines when to log regarding too high TCP MSS, if not logged by TCPMSSOnHigh.

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Default: 7000 bytes

TCP Auto Clamping

Automatically clamp TCP MSS according to MTU of involved interfaces, in addition to
TCPMSSMax.
Default: Enabled

TCP Zero Unused ACK

Determines whether NetDefendOS should set the ACK sequence number field in TCP packets to
zero if it is not used. Some operating systems reveal sequence number information this way,
which can make it easier for intruders wanting to hijack established connections.
Default: Enabled

TCP Zero Unused URG

Strips the URG pointers from all packets.
Default: Enabled

TCP Option WSOPT

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle window-scaling options. These are used to increase
the size of the window used by TCP; that is to say, the amount of information that can be sent
before the sender expects ACK. They are also used by OS Fingerprinting. WSOPT is a common
occurrence in modern networks.
Default: ValidateLogBad

TCP Option SACK

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle selective acknowledgement options. These options
are used to ACK individual packets instead of entire series, which can increase the performance
of connections experiencing extensive packet loss. They are also used by OS Fingerprinting.
SACK is a common occurrence in modern networks.
Default: ValidateLogBad

TCP Option TSOPT

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle time stamp options. As stipulated by the PAWS
(Protect Against Wrapped Sequence numbers) method, TSOPT is used to prevent the sequence
numbers (a 32-bit figure) from "exceeding" their upper limit without the recipient being aware of
it.
This is not normally a problem. Using TSOPT, some TCP stacks optimize their connection by
measuring the time it takes for a packet to travel to and from its destination. This information can
then be used to generate resends faster than is usually the case. It is also used by OS
Fingerprinting. TSOPT is a common occurrence in modern networks.
Default: ValidateLogBad

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TCP Option ALTCHKREQ

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle alternate checksum request options. These options
were initially intended to be used in negotiating for the use of better checksums in TCP.
However, these are not understood by any today's standard systems. As NetDefendOS cannot
understand checksum algorithms other than the standard algorithm, these options can never be
accepted. The ALTCHKREQ option is normally never seen on modern networks.
Default: StripLog

TCP Option ALTCHKDATA

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle alternate checksum data options. These options are
used to transport alternate checksums where permitted by ALTCHKREQ above. Normally never
seen on modern networks.
Default: StripLog

TCP Option Con Timeout

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle connection count options.
Default: StripLogBad

TCP Option Other

Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with TCP options not covered by the above settings. These
options usually never appear on modern networks.
Default: StripLog

TCP SYN/URG
Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with TCP packets with SYN (synchronize) flags and URG
(urgent data) flags both turned on. The presence of a SYN flag indicates that a new connection is
in the process of being opened, and an URG flag means that the packet contains data requiring
urgent attention. These two flags should not be turned on in a single packet as they are used
exclusively to crash computers with poorly implemented TCP stacks.
Default: DropLog

TCP SYN/PSH
Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with TCP packets with SYN and PSH (push) flags both
turned on. The PSH flag means that the recipient stack should immediately send the information
in the packet to the destination application in the computer.
These two flags should not be turned on at the same time as it could pose a crash risk for poorly
implemented TCP stacks. However, some Apple MAC systems implement TCP in a non-standard
way, meaning that they always send out SYN packets with the PSH flag turned on. This is why
NetDefendOS normally removes the PSH flag and allows the packet through despite the fact that
such packets would be dropped if standards were strictly followed.
Default: StripSilent

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TCP SYN/RST
The TCP RST flag together with SYN; normally invalid (strip=strip RST).
Default: DropLog

TCP SYN/FIN
The TCP FIN flag together with SYN; normally invalid (strip=strip FIN).
Default: DropLog

TCP FIN/URG
Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with TCP packets with both FIN (Finish, close connection)
and URG flags turned on. This should normally never occur, as it is not usually attempted to close
a connection at the same time as sending "important" data. This flag combination could be used
to crash poorly implemented TCP stacks and is also used by OS Fingerprinting.
Default: DropLog

TCP URG
Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with TCP packets with the URG flag turned on, regardless of
any other flags. Many TCP stacks and applications deal with Urgent flags in the wrong way and
can, in the worst case scenario, cease working. Note however that some programs, such as FTP
and MS SQL Server, nearly always use the URG flag.
Default: StripLog

TCPE ECN
Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with TCP packets with either the Xmas or Ymas flag turned
on. These flags are currently mostly used by OS Fingerprinting.
It should be noted that a developing standard called Explicit Congestion Notification also makes
use of these TCP flags, but as long as there are only a few operating systems supporting this
standard, the flags should be stripped.
Default: StripLog

TCP Reserved Field

Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with information present in the "reserved field" in the TCP
header, which should normally be 0. This field is not the same as the Xmas and Ymas flags. Used
by OS Fingerprinting.
Default: DropLog

TCP NULL
Specifies how NetDefendOS will deal with TCP packets that do not have any of the SYN, ACK, FIN
or RST flags turned on. According to the TCP standard, such packets are illegal and are used by
both OS Fingerprinting and stealth port scanners, as some firewalls are unable to detect them.

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Default: DropLog

TCP Sequence Numbers

Determines if the sequence number range occupied by a TCP segment will be compared to the
receive window announced by the receiving peer before the segment is forwarded.
TCP sequence number validation is only possible on connections tracked by the state-engine
(not on packets forwarded using a FwdFast rule).
Possible values are:
Ignore - Do not validate. Means that sequence number validation is completely turned off.
ValidateSilent - Validate and pass on.
ValidateLogBad - Validate and pass on, log if bad.
ValidateReopen - Validate reopen attempt like normal traffic; validate and pass on.
ValidateReopenLog - Validate reopen attempts like normal traffic; validate, log if bad.
ReopenValidate - Do not validate reopen attempts at all; validate and pass on.
ReopenValidLog - Do not validate reopen attempts at all; validate, log if bad.
Default: ValidateLogBad
Notes on the TCPSequenceNumbers setting
The default ValidateLogBad (or the alternative ValidateSilent) will allow the de-facto behavior of
TCP re-open attempts, meaning that they will reject re-open attempts with a previously used
sequence number.
ValidateReopen and ValidReopenLog are special settings giving the default behavior found in
older NetDefendOS versions where only re-open attempts using a sequence number falling
inside the current (or last used) TCP window will be allowed. This is more restrictive than
ValidateLogBad/ValidateSilent, and will block some valid TCP re-open attempts. The most
significant impact of this will be that common web-surfing traffic (short but complete
transactions requested from a relatively small set of clients, randomly occurring with an interval
of a few seconds) will slow down considerably, while most "normal" TCP traffic will continue to
work as usual.
Using either ValidateReopen or ValidateReopenLog is, however, not recommended since the same
effect can be achieved by disallowing TCP re-open attempts altogether. These settings exist
mostly for backwards compatibility.
ReopenValidate and ReopenValidLog are less restrictive variants than ValidateLogBad or
ValidateSilent. Certain clients and/or operating systems might attempt to use a randomized
sequence number when re-opening an old TCP connection (usually out of a concern for security)
and this may not work well with these settings. Again, web-surfing traffic is most likely to be
affected, although the impact is likely to occur randomly. Using these values instead of the
default setting will completely disable sequence number validation for TCP re-open attempts.
Once the connection has been established, normal TCP sequence number validation will be
resumed.

Allow TCP Reopen

Allow clients to re-open TCP connections that are in the closed state.
Default: Disabled

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13.3. ICMP Level Settings

ICMP Sends Per Sec Limit
Specifies the maximum number of ICMP messages NetDefendOS may generate per second. This
includes ping replies, destination unreachable messages and also TCP RST packets. In other
words, this setting limits how many Rejects per second may be generated by the Reject rules in
the Rules section.
Default: 500

Silently Drop State ICMPErrors

Specifies if NetDefendOS should silently drop ICMP errors pertaining to statefully tracked open
connections. If these errors are not dropped by this setting, they are passed to the rule set for
evaluation just like any other packet.
Default: Enabled

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13.4. State Settings

Connection Replace
Allows new additions to the NetDefendOS connection list to replace the oldest connections if
there is no available space.
Default: ReplaceLog

Log Open Fails

In some instances where the Rules section determines that a packet should be allowed through,
the stateful inspection mechanism may subsequently decide that the packet cannot open a new
connection. One example of this is a TCP packet that, although allowed by the Rules section and
not being part of an established connection, has its SYN flag off. Such packets can never open
new connections. In addition, new connections can never be opened by ICMP messages other
than ICMP ECHO (Ping). This setting determines if NetDefendOS is to log the occurrence of such
packets.
Default: Enabled

Log Reverse Opens

Determines if NetDefendOS logs packets that attempt to open a new connection back through
one that is already open. This only applies to TCP packets with the SYN flag turned on and to
ICMP ECHO packets. In the case of other protocols such as UDP, there is no way of determining
whether the remote peer is attempting to open a new connection.
Default: Enabled

Log State Violations

Determines if NetDefendOS logs packets that violate the expected state switching diagram of a
connection, for example, getting TCP FIN packets in response to TCP SYN packets.
Default: Enabled

Log Connections
Specifies how NetDefendOS, will log connections:

NoLog Does not log any connections; consequently, it will not matter if logging is enabled
for either Allow or NAT rules in the IP rule set; they will not be logged. However, FwdFast, Drop
and Reject rules will be logged as stipulated by the settings in the Rules section.

Log Logs connections in short form; gives a short description of the connection, which rule
allowed it to be made and any SAT rules that apply. Connections will also be logged when
they are closed.

LogOC As for Log, but includes the two packets that cause the connection to be opened
and closed. If a connection is closed as the result of a timeout, no ending packet will be
logged

LogOCAll Logs all packets involved in opening and closing the connection. In the case of
TCP, this covers all packets with SYN, FIN or RST flags turned on

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LogAll Logs all packets in the connection.

Default: Log

Log Connection Usage

This generates a log message for every packet that passes through a connection that is set up in
the NetDefendOS state-engine. Traffic whose destination is the NetDefend Firewall itself, for
example NetDefendOS management traffic, is not subject to this setting.
The log message includes port, service, source/destination IP address and interface. This setting
should only be enabled for diagnostic and testing purposes since it generates unwieldy volumes
of log messages and can also significantly impair throughput performance.
Default: Disabled

Dynamic Max Connections

Allocate the Max Connection value dynamically.
Default: Enabled

Max Connections
This setting applies if Dynamic Max Connections above is disabled. Specifies how many
connections NetDefendOS may keep open at any one time. Each connection consumes
approximately 150 bytes RAM. When this setting is dynamic, NetDefendOS will try to use as
many connections as is allowed by product.
Default: 8192

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13.5. Connection Timeout Settings

The settings in this section specify how long a connection can remain idle, that is to say with no
data being sent through it, before it is automatically closed. Please note that each connection
has two timeout values: one for each direction. A connection is closed if either of the two values
reaches 0.

TCP SYN Idle Lifetime

Specifies in seconds how long a TCP connection, that is not yet fully established, is allowed to
idle before being closed.
Default: 60

TCP Idle Lifetime

Specifies in seconds how long a fully established TCP connection may idle before being closed.
Connections become fully established once packets with their SYN flags off have travelled in
both directions.
Default: 262144

TCP FIN Idle Lifetime

Specifies in seconds how long a TCP connection about to close may idle before finally being
closed. Connections reach this state when a packet with its FIN flag on has passed in any
direction.
Default: 80

UDP Idle Lifetime

Specifies in seconds how long UDP connections may idle before being closed. This timeout value
is usually low, as UDP has no way of signaling when the connection is about to close.
Default: 130

UDP Bidirectional Keep-alive

This allows both sides to keep a UDP connection alive. The default is for NetDefendOS to mark a
connection as alive (not idle) every time data is sent from the side that opened the connection.
Connections that do not receive any data from the opening side within the UDP lifetime will
therefore be closed even if the other side continues to transmit data.
Default: Disabled

Ping Idle Lifetime

Specifies in seconds how long a Ping (ICMP ECHO) connection can remain idle before it is closed.
Default: 8

IGMP Idle Lifetime

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Connection lifetime for IGMP in seconds.

Default: 12

Other Idle Lifetime

Specifies in seconds how long connections using an unknown protocol can remain idle before it
is closed.
Default: 130

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13.6. Length Limit Settings

This section contains information about the size limits imposed on the protocols directly under IP
level, such as TCP, UDP and ICMP.
The values specified here concern the IP data contained in packets. In the case of Ethernet, a
single packet can contain up to 1480 bytes of IP data without fragmentation. In addition to that,
there is a further 20 bytes of IP header and 14 bytes of Ethernet header, corresponding to the
maximum media transmission unit on Ethernet networks of 1514 bytes.

Max TCP Length

Specifies the maximum size of a TCP packet including the header. This value usually correlates
with the amount of IP data that can be accommodated in an unfragmented packet, since TCP
usually adapts the segments it sends to fit the maximum packet size. However, this value may
need to be increased by 20-50 bytes on some less common VPN systems.
Default: 1480

Max UDP Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of a UDP packet including the header. This value may well
need to be quite high, since many real-time applications use large, fragmented UDP packets. If
no such protocols are used, the size limit imposed on UDP packets can probably be lowered to
1480 bytes.
Default: 60000

Max ICMP Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of an ICMP packet. ICMP error messages should never
exceed 600 bytes, although Ping packets can be larger if so requested. This value may be
lowered to 1000 bytes if using large Ping packets is not desirable.
Default: 10000

Max GRE Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of a GRE packet. GRE, Generic Routing Encapsulation, has
various uses, including the transportation of PPTP, Point to Point Tunneling Protocol, data. This
value should be set at the size of the largest packet allowed to pass through the VPN
connections, regardless of its original protocol, plus approx. 50 bytes.
Default: 2000

Max ESP Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of an ESP packet. ESP, Encapsulation Security Payload, is
used by IPsec where encryption is applied. This value should be set at the size of the largest
packet allowed to pass through the VPN connections, regardless of its original protocol, plus
approx. 50 bytes.
Default: 2000

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Max AH Length
Specifies in bytes the maximum size of an AH packet. AH, Authentication Header, is used by IPsec
where only authentication is applied. This value should be set at the size of the largest packet
allowed to pass through the VPN connections, regardless of its original protocol, plus approx. 50
bytes.
Default: 2000

Max SKIP Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of a SKIP packet.
Default: 2000

Max OSPF Length

Specifies the maximum size of an OSPF packet. OSPF is a routing protocol mainly used in larger
LANs.
Default: 1480

Max IPIP/FWZ Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of an IP-in-IP packet. IP-in-IP is used by Checkpoint
Firewall-1 VPN connections when IPsec is not used. This value should be set at the size of the
largest packet allowed to pass through the VPN connections, regardless of its original protocol,
plus approx. 50 bytes.
Default: 2000

Max IPsec IPComp Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of an IPComp packet.
Default: 2000

Max L2TP Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol packet.
Default: 2000

Max Other Length

Specifies in bytes the maximum size of packets belonging to protocols that are not specified
above.
Default: 1480

Log Oversized Packets

Specifies if NetDefendOS will log occurrences of oversized packets.

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Default: Enabled

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13.7. Fragmentation Settings

IP is able to transport up to 65536 bytes of data. However, most media, such as Ethernet, cannot
carry such huge packets. To compensate, the IP stack fragments the data to be sent into separate
packets, each one given their own IP header and information that will help the recipient
reassemble the original packet correctly.
Many IP stacks, however, are unable to handle incorrectly fragmented packets, a fact that can be
exploited by intruders to crash such systems. NetDefendOS provides protection against
fragmentation attacks in a number of ways.

Pseudo Reass Max Concurrent

Maximum number of concurrent fragment reassemblies. To drop all fragmented packets, set
PseudoReass_MaxConcurrent to 0.
Default: 1024

Illegal Fragments
Determines how NetDefendOS will handle incorrectly constructed fragments. The term
"incorrectly constructed" refers to overlapping fragments, duplicate fragments with different
data, incorrect fragment sizes, etc. Possible settings include:

Drop Discards the illegal fragment without logging it. Also remembers that the packet that
is being reassembled is "suspect", which can be used for logging further down the track.

DropLog Discards and logs the illegal fragment. Also remembers that the packet that is
being reassembled is "suspect", which can be used for logging further down the track.

DropPacket Discards the illegal fragment and all previously stored fragments. Will not allow
further fragments of this packet to pass through during ReassIllegalLinger seconds.

DropLogPacket As DropPacket, but also logs the event.

DropLogAll As DropLogPacket, but also logs further fragments belonging to this packet that
arrive during ReassIllegalLinger seconds.

The choice of whether to discard individual fragments or disallow the entire packet is governed
by two factors:

It is safer to discard the whole packet.

If, as the result of receiving an illegal fragment, it is chosen to discard the whole packet,
attackers will be able to disrupt communication by sending illegal fragments during a
reassembly, and in this way block almost all communication.

Default: DropLog discards individual fragments and remembers that the reassembly attempt is
"suspect".

Duplicated Fragment Data

If the same fragment arrives more than once, this can mean either that it has been duplicated at
some point on its journey to the recipient or that an attacker is trying to disrupt the reassembly
of the packet. In order to determine which is more likely, NetDefendOS compares the data
components of the fragment. The comparison can be made in 2 to 512 random locations in the
fragment, four bytes of each location being sampled. If the comparison is made in a larger
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number of samples, it is more likely to find mismatching duplicates. However, more comparisons
result in higher CPU load.
Default: Check8 compare 8 random locations, a total of 32 bytes

Failed Fragment Reassembly

Reassemblies may fail due to one of the following causes:

Some of the fragments did not arrive within the time stipulated by the ReassTimeout or
ReassTimeLimit settings. This may mean that one or more fragments were lost on their way
across the Internet, which is a quite common occurrence.

NetDefendOS was forced to interrupt the reassembly procedure due to new fragmented
packets arriving and the system temporarily running out of resources. In situations such as
these, old reassembly attempts are either discarded or marked as "failed".

An attacker has attempted to send an incorrectly fragmented packet.

Under normal circumstances, it is not desirable to log failures as they occur frequently. However,
it may be useful to log failures involving "suspect" fragments. Such failures may arise if, for
example, the IllegalFrags setting has been set to Drop rather than DropPacket.
The following settings are available for FragReassemblyFail:

NoLog - No logging is done when a reassembly attempt fails.

LogSuspect - Logs failed reassembly attempts only if "suspect" fragments have been involved.

LogSuspectSubseq - As LogSuspect, but also logs subsequent fragments of the packet as and
when they arrive

LogAll - Logs all failed reassembly attempts.

LogAllSubseq - As LogAll, but also logs subsequent fragments of the packet as and when they
arrive.

Default: LogSuspectSubseq

Dropped Fragments
If a packet is denied entry to the system as the result of the settings in the Rules section, it may
also be worth logging individual fragments of that packet. The DroppedFrags setting specifies
how NetDefendOS will act. Possible settings for this rule are as follows:

NoLog No logging is carried out over and above that which is stipulated in the rule set.

LogSuspect - Logs individual dropped fragments of reassembly attempts affected by

"suspect" fragments.

LogAll - Always logs individual dropped fragments.

Default: LogSuspect

Duplicate Fragments
If the same fragment arrives more than once, this can mean either that it has been duplicated at
some point on its journey to the recipient or that an attacker is trying to disrupt the reassembly

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of the packet. DuplicateFrags determines whether such a fragment should be logged. Note that
DuplicateFragData can also cause such fragments to be logged if the data contained in them
does not match up. Possible settings are as follows:

NoLog - No logging is carried out under normal circumstances.

LogSuspect - Logs duplicated fragments if the reassembly procedure has been affected by
"suspect" fragments.

LogAll - Always logs duplicated fragments.

Default: LogSuspect

Fragmented ICMP
Other than ICMP ECHO (Ping), ICMP messages should not normally be fragmented as they
contain so little data that fragmentation should never be necessary. FragmentedICMP
determines the action taken when NetDefendOS receives fragmented ICMP messages that are
not either ICMP ECHO or ECHOREPLY.
Default: DropLog

Minimum Fragment Length

Minimum Fragment Length determines how small all fragments, with the exception of the final
fragment, of a packet can be expressed in bytes.
Although the arrival of too many fragments that are too small may cause problems for IP stacks,
it is usually not possible to set this limit too high. It is rarely the case that senders create very
small fragments. However, a sender may send 1480 byte fragments and a router or VPN tunnel
on the route to the recipient subsequently reduce the effective MTU to 1440 bytes. This would
result in the creation of a number of 1440 byte fragments and an equal number of 40 byte
fragments. Because of potential problems this can cause, the default settings in NetDefendOS
has been designed to allow the smallest possible fragments, 8 bytes, to pass. For internal use,
where all media sizes are known, this value can be raised to 200 bytes or more.
Default: 8

Reassembly Timeout
A reassembly attempt will be interrupted if no further fragments arrive within Reassembly
Timeout seconds of receipt of the previous fragment.
Default: 65

Max Reassembly Time Limit

A reassembly attempt will always be interrupted Reassembly Time Limit seconds after the first
received fragment arrived.
Default: 90

Reassembly Done Limit

Once a packet has been reassembled, NetDefendOS is able to remember reassembly for this
number of seconds in order to prevent further fragments, for example old duplicate fragments,

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of that packet from arriving.

Default: 20

Reassembly Illegal Limit

Once a whole packet has been marked as illegal, NetDefendOS is able to retain this in memory
for this number of seconds in order to prevent further fragments of that packet from arriving.
Default: 60

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13.8. Local Fragment Reassembly Settings

Max Concurrent
Maximum number of concurrent local reassemblies.
Default: 256

Max Size
Maximum size of a locally reassembled packet.
Default: 10000

Large Buffers
Number of large ( over 2K) local reassembly buffers (of the above size).
Default: 32

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13.9. Miscellaneous Settings

UDP Source Port 0
How to treat UDP packets with source port 0.
Default: DropLog

Port 0
How to treat TCP/UDP packets with destination port 0 and TCP packets with source port 0.
Default: DropLog

Watchdog Time
Number of non-responsive seconds before watchdog is triggered (0=disable).
Default: 180

Flood Reboot Time

As a final way out, NetDefendOS automatically reboots if its buffers have been flooded for a long
time. This setting specifies the amount of time the buffers are flooded before the reboot occurs.
Default: 3600

Max Connections
Packet re-assembly collects IP fragments into complete IP datagrams and, for TCP, reorders
segments so that they are processed in the correct order and also to keep track of potential
segment overlaps and to inform other subsystems of such overlaps. The associated settings limit
memory used by the re-assembly subsystem.
This setting specifies how many connections can use the re-assembly system at the same time. It
is expressed as a percentage of the total number of allowed connections. Minimum 1, Maximum
100.
Default: 80

Max Memory
This setting specifies how much memory that the re-assembly system can allocate to process
packets. It is expressed as a percentage of the total memory available. Minimum 1, Maximum
100.
Default: 3

Max Pipe Users

The maximum number of pipe users to allocate. As pipe users are only tracked for a 20th of a
second, this number usually does not need to be anywhere near the number of actual users, or
the number of statefully tracked connections. If there are no configured pipes, no pipe users will

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be allocated, regardless of this setting. For more information about pipes and pipe users, see
Section 10.1, Traffic Shaping.
Default: 512

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Appendix A: Subscribing to Updates

Overview
The NetDefendOS Anti-Virus (AV) module, the Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) module,
Web Content Filtering module and Application Control module all require subscriptions to
function. External D-Link databases contain details of the latest viruses, security threats, URL
categorization and application signatures. These databases are constantly being updated and to
get access to the latest updates, a valid D-Link Security Update Subscription must exist. This is
done with the following steps:

Purchase a subscription from a local D-Link reseller.

On purchase, customers receive a unique activation code to identify them as a user of the
service.

Go to: Status > Maintenance > License in the Web Interface of your NetDefend Firewall
system and enter this activation code. NetDefendOS will indicate the code is accepted and
the update service will be activated. Make sure access to the public Internet is possible when
doing this.

Tip: A registration guide can be downloaded

A step-by-step "Registration manual" which explains registration and update service
procedures in more detail is available for download from the D-Link website.

Subscription renewal
In the Web Interface, go to Status > Maintenance > License to check which update services are
activated and when your subscription is ends.

Important: Renew in good time

Renew your subscription well before your current subscription ends! Do not leave it to
the last minute.

Monitoring database updates

In the Web-interface go to Status > Maintenance > Update to configure the automatic
database updating. The administrator can also check when the last update was attempted and
what the status was for that attempt.
In the same area of the Web-interface it is also possible to manually initiate updating by selecting
Update now to download the latest signatures to the database.

Database Console Commands

IDP and Anti-Virus (AV) databases can be controlled directly through a number of console
commands.

Pre-empting Database Updates

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Appendix A: Subscribing to Updates

An IDP database update can be forced at any time by using the command:
gw-world:/> updatecenter -update IDP

An Anti-Virus update can similarly be initiated with the command:

gw-world:/> updatecenter -update Antivirus

Querying Update Status

To get the status of IDP updates use the command:
gw-world:/> updatecenter -status IDP

To get the status of AV updates:

gw-world:/> updatecenter -status Antivirus

Querying Server Status

To get the status of the D-Link network servers use the command:
gw-world:/> updatecenter -servers

Deleting Local Databases

Some technical problem in the operation of either IDP or the Anti-Virus modules may be
resolved by deleting the database and reloading. For IDP this is done with the command:
gw-world:/> removedb IDP

To remove the Anti-Virus database, use the command:

gw-world:/> removedb Antivirus

Once removed, NetDefendOS should be restarted and a database update initiated. Removing
the database is also recommended if either IDP or Anti-Virus is not used for longer periods of
time.

Note: Updating the database causes a pause in processing

Anti-Virus database updates require a couple of seconds to be optimized once an
update is downloaded. This will cause the firewall to momentarily pause in its operation.
It can therefore be best to set the timing of updates to be at times of low traffic, such as
in the early hours of the morning. Deleting a database can cause a similar pause in
operation.

Subscription Expiry Behavior

The behavior on subscription expiry varies according to the subsystem. The following occurs:

Anti-Virus

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Appendix A: Subscribing to Updates

Subscription expiry results in following the action specified by the Fail Mode property of the
ALG. By default, this is Deny and the affected traffic will therefore be dropped. The default of
Deny is always used when this feature is configured IP Policy objects.
A message appears under in the Web Interface to indicate that the subscription has expired.
In addition, a no_valid_license av_scanning_aborted log message is generated.

IDP
Subscription expiry results in IDP scanning being disabled. No traffic will be dropped because
of this.
When the administrator tries to add a new IDP rule or examine existing rules in the Web
Interface, they will get a warning message that no valid license exists for IDP.

Dynamic Web Content Filtering

Subscription expiry results in following the action specified by the Fail Mode property of the
ALG. By default, this is Deny and the affected traffic will therefore be dropped. The default of
Deny is always used when this feature is configured using IP Policy objects.
In addition, a content_filtering_disabled no_valid_license log message is generated.

Application Control
Subscription expiry results in all applications being tagged as unknown. Traffic will be
allowed or dropped depending on how the administrator has configured application control
to behave with the unknown tag.
In addition, a warning expiry message is shown on the CLI console and log messages are
generated indicating that traffic is being tagged unknown because of subscription expiry.

For all these features, the current status of the relevant subscription along with the expiry date
can be viewed in the Web Interface by going to Status > Maintenance > License.

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Appendix B: IDP Signature Groups

For IDP scanning, the following signature groups are available for selection. These groups are
only available for the D-Link Advanced IDP Service. There is a version of each group under the
three Types of IDS, IPS and Policy. For further information see Section 6.5, Intrusion Detection
and Prevention.
Group Name

Intrusion Type

APP_AMANDA

Amanda, a popular backup software

APP_ETHEREAL

Ethereal

APP_ITUNES

Apple iTunes player

APP_REALPLAYER

Media player from RealNetworks

APP_REALSERVER

RealNetworks RealServer player

APP_WINAMP

WinAMP

APP_WMP

MS Windows Media Player

AUTHENTICATION_GENERAL

Authenticantion

AUTHENTICATION_KERBEROS

Kerberos

AUTHENTICATION_XTACACS

XTACACS

BACKUP_ARKEIA

Network backup solution

BACKUP_BRIGHTSTOR

Backup solutions from CA

BACKUP_GENERAL

General backup solutions

BACKUP_NETVAULT

NetVault Backup solution

BACKUP_VERITAS

Backup solutions

BOT_GENERAL

Activities related to bots, including those controlled by IRC channels

BROWSER_FIREFOX

Mozilla Firefox

BROWSER_GENERAL

General attacks targeting web browsers/clients

BROWSER_IE

Microsoft IE

BROWSER_MOZILLA

Mozilla Browser

COMPONENT_ENCODER

Encoders, as part of an attack.

COMPONENT_INFECTION

Infection, as part of an attack

COMPONENT_SHELLCODE

Shell code, as part of the attacks

DB_GENERAL

Database systems

DB_MSSQL

MS SQL Server

DB_MYSQL

MySQL DBMS

DB_ORACLE

Oracle DBMS

DB_SYBASE

Sybase server

DCOM_GENERAL

MS DCOM

DHCP_CLIENT

DHCP Client related activities

DHCP_GENERAL

DHCP protocol

DHCP_SERVER

DHCP Server related activities

DNS_EXPLOIT

DNS attacks

DNS_GENERAL

Domain Name Systems

DNS_OVERFLOW

DNS overflow attack

DNS_QUERY

Query related attacks

ECHO_GENERAL

Echo protocol and implementations

ECHO_OVERFLOW

Echo buffer overflow

FINGER_BACKDOOR

Finger backdoor

FINGER_GENERAL

Finger protocol and implementation

FINGER_OVERFLOW

Overflow for Finger protocol/implementation

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Appendix B: IDP Signature Groups

Group Name

Intrusion Type

FS_AFS

Andrew File System

FTP_DIRNAME

Directory name attack

FTP_FORMATSTRING

Format string attack

FTP_GENERAL

FTP protocol and implementation

FTP_LOGIN

Login attacks

FTP_OVERFLOW

FTP buffer overflow

GAME_BOMBERCLONE

Bomberclone game

GAME_GENERAL

Generic game servers/clients

GAME_UNREAL

UnReal Game server

HTTP_APACHE

Apache httpd

HTTP_BADBLUE

Badblue web server

HTTP_CGI

HTTP CGI

HTTP_CISCO

Cisco Embedded Web Server

HTTP_GENERAL

General HTTP activities

HTTP_MICROSOFTIIS

HTTP Attacks specific to MS IIS web server

HTTP_OVERFLOWS

Buffer overflow for HTTP servers

HTTP_TOMCAT

Tomcat JSP

ICMP_GENERAL

ICMP protocol and implementation

IGMP_GENERAL

IGMP

IMAP_GENERAL

IMAP protocol/implementation

IM_AOL

AOL IM

IM_GENERAL

Instant Messenger implementations

IM_MSN

MSN Messenger

IM_YAHOO

Yahoo Messenger

IP_GENERAL

IP protocol and implementation

IP_OVERFLOW

Overflow of IP protocol/implementation

IRC_GENERAL

Internet Relay Chat

LDAP_GENERAL

General LDAP clients/servers

LDAP_OPENLDAP

Open LDAP

LICENSE_CA-LICENSE

License management for CA software

LICENSE_GENERAL

General License Manager

MALWARE_GENERAL

Malware attack

METASPLOIT_FRAME

Metasploit frame attack

METASPLOIT_GENERAL

Metasploit general attack

MISC_GENERAL

General attack

MSDTC_GENERAL

MS DTC

MSHELP_GENERAL

Microsoft Windows Help

NETWARE_GENERAL

NetWare Core Protocol

NFS_FORMAT

Format

NFS_GENERAL

NFS protocol/implementation

NNTP_GENERAL

NNTP implementation/protocol

OS_SPECIFIC-AIX

AIX specific

OS_SPECIFIC-GENERAL

OS general

OS_SPECIFIC-HPUX

HP-UX related

OS_SPECIFIC-LINUX

Linux specific

OS_SPECIFIC-SCO

SCO specific

OS_SPECIFIC-SOLARIS

Solaris specific

OS_SPECIFIC-WINDOWS

Windows specific

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Appendix B: IDP Signature Groups

Group Name

Intrusion Type

P2P_EMULE

eMule P2P tool

P2P_GENERAL

General P2P tools

P2P_GNUTELLA

Gnutella P2P tool

PACKINGTOOLS_GENERAL

General packing tools attack

PBX_GENERAL

PBX

POP3_DOS

Denial of Service for POP

POP3_GENERAL

Post Office Protocol v3

POP3_LOGIN-ATTACKS

Password guessing and related login attack

POP3_OVERFLOW

POP3 server overflow

POP3_REQUEST-ERRORS

Request Error

PORTMAPPER_GENERAL

PortMapper

PRINT_GENERAL

LP printing server: LPR LPD

PRINT_OVERFLOW

Overflow of LPR/LPD protocol/implementation

REMOTEACCESS_GOTOMYPC

Goto MY PC

REMOTEACCESS_PCANYWHERE

PcAnywhere

REMOTEACCESS_RADMIN

Remote Administrator (radmin)

REMOTEACCESS_VNC-CLIENT

Attacks targeting at VNC Clients

REMOTEACCESS_VNC-SERVER

Attack targeting at VNC servers

REMOTEACCESS_WIN-TERMINAL

Windows terminal/Remote Desktop

RLOGIN_GENERAL

RLogin protocol and implementation

RLOGIN_LOGIN-ATTACK

Login attacks

ROUTER_CISCO

Cisco router attack

ROUTER_GENERAL

General router attack

ROUTING_BGP

BGP router protocol

RPC_GENERAL

RFC protocol and implementation

RPC_JAVA-RMI

Java RMI

RSYNC_GENERAL

Rsync

SCANNER_GENERAL

Generic scanners

SCANNER_NESSUS

Nessus Scanner

SECURITY_GENERAL

Anti-virus solutions

SECURITY_ISS

Internet Security Systems software

SECURITY_MCAFEE

McAfee

SECURITY_NAV

Symantec AV solution

SMB_ERROR

SMB Error

SMB_EXPLOIT

SMB Exploit

SMB_GENERAL

SMB attacks

SMB_NETBIOS

NetBIOS attacks

SMB_WORMS

SMB worms

SMTP_COMMAND-ATTACK

SMTP command attack

SMTP_DOS

Denial of Service for SMTP

SMTP_GENERAL

SMTP protocol and implementation

SMTP_OVERFLOW

SMTP Overflow

SMTP_SPAM

SPAM

SNMP_ENCODING

SNMP encoding

SNMP_GENERAL

SNMP protocol/implementation

SOCKS_GENERAL

SOCKS protocol and implementation

SSH_GENERAL

SSH protocol and implementation

SSH_LOGIN-ATTACK

Password guess and related login attacks

685

Appendix B: IDP Signature Groups

Group Name

Intrusion Type

SSH_OPENSSH

OpenSSH Server

SSL_GENERAL

SSL protocol and implementation

TCP_GENERAL

TCP protocol and implementation

TCP_PPTP

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol

TELNET_GENERAL

Telnet protocol and implementation

TELNET_OVERFLOW

Telnet buffer overflow attack

TFTP_DIR_NAME

Directory Name attack

TFTP_GENERAL

TFTP protocol and implementation

TFTP_OPERATION

Operation Attack

TFTP_OVERFLOW

TFTP buffer overflow attack

TFTP_REPLY

TFTP Reply attack

TFTP_REQUEST

TFTP request attack

TROJAN_GENERAL

Trojan

UDP_GENERAL

General UDP

UDP_POPUP

Pop-up window for MS Windows

UPNP_GENERAL

UPNP

VERSION_CVS

CVS

VERSION_SVN

Subversion

VIRUS_GENERAL

Virus

VOIP_GENERAL

VoIP protocol and implementation

VOIP_SIP

SIP protocol and implementation

WEB_CF-FILE-INCLUSION

Coldfusion file inclusion

WEB_FILE-INCLUSION

File inclusion

WEB_GENERAL

Web application attacks

WEB_JSP-FILE-INCLUSION

JSP file inclusion

WEB_PACKAGES

Popular web application packages

WEB_PHP-XML-RPC

PHP XML RPC

WEB_SQL-INJECTION

SQL Injection

WEB_XSS

Cross-Site-Scripting

WINS_GENERAL

MS WINS Service

WORM_GENERAL

Worms

X_GENERAL

Generic X applications

686

Appendix C: Verified MIME filetypes

Some NetDefendOS Application Layer Gateways (ALGs) have the optional ability to verify that
the contents of a downloaded file matches the type that the filetype in the filename indicates.
The filetypes for which MIME verification can be done are listed in this appendix and the ALGs to
which this applies are:

The HTTP ALG

The FTP ALG

The POP3 ALG

The SMTP ALG

The ALGs listed above also offer the option to explicitly allow or block certain filetypes as
downloads from a list of types. That list is the same one found in this appendix.
For a more detailed description of MIME verification and the filetype block/allow feature, see
Section 6.2.2, The HTTP ALG.
Filetype extension

Application

3ds

3d Studio files

3gp

3GPP multimedia file

aac

MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding File

ab

Applix Builder

ace

ACE archive

ad3

Dec systems compressed Voice File

ag

Applix Graphic file

aiff, aif

Audio Interchange file

am

Applix SHELF Macro

arc

Archive file

alz

ALZip compressed file

avi

Audio Video Interleave file

arj

Compressed archive

ark

QuArk compressed file archive

arq

Compressed archive

as

Applix Spreadsheet file

asf

Advanced Streaming Format file

avr

Audio Visual Research Sound

aw

Applix Word file

bh

Blackhole archive format file

bmp

Windows Bitmap Graphics

box

VBOX voice message file

bsa

BSARC Compressed archive

bz, bz2

Bzip UNIX compressed file

cab

Microsoft Cabinet file

cdr

Corel Vector Graphic Drawing file

cgm

Computer Graphics Metafile

chz

ChArc compressed file archive

class

Java byte code

687

Appendix C: Verified MIME filetypes

Filetype extension

Application

cmf

Creative Music file

core/coredump

Unix core dump

cpl

Windows Control Panel Extension file

dbm

Database file

dcx

Graphics Multipage PCX Bitmap file

deb

Debian Linux Package file

djvu

DjVu file

dll

Windows dynamic link library file

dpa

DPA archive data

dvi

TeX Device Independent Document

eet

EET archive

egg

Allegro datafile

elc

eMacs Lisp Byte-compiled Source Code

emd

ABT EMD Module/Song Format file

esp

ESP archive data

exe

Windows Executable

fgf

Free Graphics Format file

flac

Free Lossless Audio Codec file

flc

FLIC Animated Picture

fli

FLIC Animation

flv

Macromedia Flash Video

gdbm

Database file

gif

Graphic Interchange Format file

gzip, gz, tgz

Gzip compressed archive

hap

HAP archive data

hpk

HPack compressed file archive

hqx

Macintosh BinHex 4 compressed archive

icc

Kodak Color Management System, ICC Profile

icm

Microsoft ICM Color Profile file

ico

Windows Icon file

imf

Imago Orpheus module sound data

inf

Sidplay info file

ipa

iPhone application archive file

it

Impulse Tracker Music Module

java

Java source code

jar

Java JAR archive

jng

JNG Video Format

jpg, jpeg, jpe, jff, jfif, jif

JPEG file

jrc

Jrchive compressed archive

jsw

Just System Word Processor Ichitaro

kdelnk

KDE link file

lha

LHA compressed archive file

lim

Limit compressed archive

lisp

LIM archive data

lzh

LZH compressed archive file

md

MDCD compressed archive file

mdb

Microsoft Access Database

mid,midi

Musical Instrument Digital Interface MIDI-sequence Sound

688

Appendix C: Verified MIME filetypes

Filetype extension

Application

mmf

Yamaha SMAF Synthetic Music Mobile Application Format

mng

Multi-image Network Graphic Animation

mod

Ultratracker module sound data

mp3

MPEG Audio Stream, Layer III

mp4

MPEG-4 Video file

mpg,mpeg

MPEG 1 System Stream , Video file

mpv

MPEG-1 Video file

Microsoft files

Microsoft office files, and other Microsoft files

msa

Atari MSA archive data

niff, nif

Navy Interchange file Format Bitmap

noa

Nancy Video CODEC

nsf

NES Sound file

obj, o

Windows object file, linux object file

ocx

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Control Extension

ogg

Ogg Vorbis Codec compressed WAV file

out

Linux executable

pac

CrossePAC archive data

pbf

Portable Bitmap Format Image

pbm

Portable Bitmap Graphic

pdf

Acrobat Portable Document Format

pe

Portable Executable file

pfb

PostScript Type 1 Font

pgm

Portable Graymap Graphic

pkg

SysV R4 PKG Datastreams

pll

PAKLeo archive data

pma

PMarc archive data

png

Portable (Public) Network Graphic

ppm

PBM Portable Pixelmap Graphic

ps

PostScript file

psa

PSA archive data

psd

Photoshop Format file

qt, mov, moov

QuickTime Movie file

qxd

QuarkXpress Document

ra, ram

RealMedia Streaming Media

rar

WinRAR compressed archive

rbs

ReBirth Song file

riff, rif

Microsoft Audio file

rm

RealMedia Streaming Media

rpm

RedHat Package Manager

rtf, wri

Rich Text Format file

sar

Streamline compressed archive

sbi

SoundBlaster instrument data

sc

SC spreadsheet

sgi

Silicon Graphics IRIS Graphic file

sid

Commodore64 (C64) Music file (SID file)

sit

StuffIt archives

sky

SKY compressed archive

snd, au

Sun/NeXT audio file

689

Appendix C: Verified MIME filetypes

Filetype extension

Application

so

UNIX Shared Library file

sof

ReSOF archive

sqw

SQWEZ archive data

sqz

Squeeze It archive data

stm

Scream Tracker v2 Module

svg

Scalable Vector Graphics file

svr4

SysV R4 PKG Datastreams

swf

Macromedia Flash Format file

tar

Tape archive file

tfm

TeX font metric data

tiff, tif

Tagged Image Format file

tnef

Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format

torrent

BitTorrent Metainfo file

ttf

TrueType Font

txw

Yamaha TX Wave audio files

ufa

UFA archive data

vcf

Vcard file

viv

VivoActive Player Streaming Video file

wav

Waveform Audio

wk

Lotus 1-2-3 document

wmv

Windows Media file

wrl, vrml

Plain Text VRML file

xcf

GIMP Image file

xm

Fast Tracker 2 Extended Module , audio file

xml

XML file

xmcd

xmcd database file for kscd

xpm

BMC Software Patrol UNIX Icon file

yc

YAC compressed archive

zif

ZIF image

zip

Zip compressed archive file

zoo

ZOO compressed archive file

zpk

ZPack archive data

Unix compressed file

690

Appendix D: The OSI Framework

Overview
The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model defines a framework for inter-computer
communications. It categorizes different protocols for a great variety of network applications
into seven smaller, more manageable layers. The model describes how data from an application
in one computer can be transferred through a network medium to an application on another
computer.
Control of data traffic is passed from one layer to the next, starting at the application layer in one
computer, proceeding to the bottom layer, traversing over the medium to another computer
and then delivering up to the top of the hierarchy. Each layer handles a certain set of protocols,
so that the tasks for achieving an application can be distributed to different layers and be
implemented independently. The model is relevant to understanding the operation of many
NetDefendOS features such as ARP, Services and ALGs.
Layer number

Layer purpose

Layer 7

Application

Layer 6

Presentation

Layer 5

Session

Layer 4

Transport

Layer 3

Network

Layer 2

Data-Link

Layer 1

Physical

Figure D.1. The 7 Layers of the OSI Model

Layer Functions
The different layers perform the following functions:
Layer 7 - Application Layer

Defines the user interface that supports applications

directly. Protocols: HTTP, FTP, TFTP. DNS, SMTP, Telnet,
SNMP and similar. The ALGs operate at this level.

Layer 6 - Presentation Layer

Translates the various applications to uniform network

formats that the rest of the layers can understand.

Layer 5 - Session Layer

Establishes, maintains and terminates sessions across the

network. Protocols: NetBIOS, RPC and similar.

Layer 4 - Transport Layer

Controls data flow and provides error-handling. Protocols:

TCP, UDP and similar.

Layer 3 - Network Layer

Performs addressing and routing. Protocols: IP, OSPF, ICMP,

IGMP and similar.

Layer 2 - Data-Link Layer

Creates frames of data for transmission over the physical

layer and includes error checking/correction. Protocols:
Ethernet, PPP and similar. ARP operates at this level.

Layer 1 - Physical Layer

Defines the physical hardware connection.

691

Appendix E: Third Party Software Licenses

The NetDefendOS product makes use of a number of third party software modules which are
subject to the following licensing agreements:

MIT License for iBox, jQuery, jQueryUI, SlickGrid

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and
associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute,
sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or
substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO
EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) for JSColor

Copyright 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute
verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. This version of the GNU
Lesser General Public License incorporates the terms and conditions of version 3 of the GNU
General Public License, supplemented by the additional permissions listed below.
Additional definitions: As used herein, "this License" refers to version 3 of the GNU Lesser General
Public License, and the "GNU GPL" refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License. "The
Library" refers to a covered work governed by this License, other than an Application or a
Combined Work as defined below. An "Application" is any work that makes use of an interface
provided by the Library, but which is not otherwise based on the Library. Defining a subclass of a
class defined by the Library is deemed a mode of using an interface provided by the Library. A
"Combined Work" is a work produced by combining or linking an Application with the Library.
The particular version of the Library with which the Combined Work was made is also called the
"Linked Version". The "Minimal Corresponding Source" for a Combined Work means the
Corresponding Source for the Combined Work, excluding any source code for portions of the
Combined Work that, considered in isolation, are based on the Application, and not on the
Linked Version. The "Corresponding Application Code" for a Combined Work means the object
code and/or source code for the Application, including any data and utility programs needed for
reproducing the Combined Work from the Application, but excluding the System Libraries of the
Combined Work.
1.

Exception to Section 3 of the GNU GPL. You may convey a covered work under sections 3
and 4 of this License without being bound by section 3 of the GNU GPL.

2.

If you modify a copy of the Library, and, in your modifications, a facility refers to a function
or data to be supplied by an Application that uses the facility (other than as an argument
passed when the facility is invoked), then you may convey a copy of the modified version:
i.

Under this License, provided that you make a good faith effort to ensure that, in the
event an Application does not supply the function or data, the facility still operates, and
performs whatever part of its purpose remains meaningful, or

ii.

Under the GNU GPL, with none of the additional permissions of this License applicable

692

Appendix E: Third Party Software Licenses

to that copy.
3.

4.

Object Code Incorporating Material from Library Header Files. The object code form of an
Application may incorporate material from a header file that is part of the Library. You may
convey such object code under terms of your choice, provided that, if the incorporated
material is not limited to numerical parameters, data structure layouts and accessors, or
small macros, inline functions and templates (ten or fewer lines in length), you do both of
the following:
i.

Give prominent notice with each copy of the object code that the Library is used in it
and that the Library and its use are covered by this License.

ii.

Accompany the object code with a copy of the GNU GPL and this license document.

Combined Works. You may convey a Combined Work under terms of your choice that, taken
together, effectively do not restrict modification of the portions of the Library contained in
the Combined Work and reverse engineering for debugging such modifications, if you also
do each of the following:
i.

Give prominent notice with each copy of the Combined Work that the Library is used in
it and that the Library and its use are covered by this License.

ii.

Accompany the Combined Work with a copy of the GNU GPL and this license
document.

iii.

For a Combined Work that displays copyright notices during execution, include the
copyright notice for the Library among these notices, as well as a reference directing
the user to the copies of the GNU GPL and this license document.

iv.

Do one of the following:

v.

5.

Convey the Minimal Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, and the
Corresponding Application Code in a form suitable for, and under terms that
permit, the user to recombine or relink the Application with a modified version of
the Linked Version to produce a modified Combined Work, in the manner specified
by section 6 of the GNU GPL for conveying Corresponding Source.

Use a suitable shared library mechanism for linking with the Library. A suitable
mechanism is one that (a) uses at run time a copy of the Library already present on
the user's computer system, and (b) will operate properly with a modified version of
the Library that is interface-compatible with the Linked Version.

Provide Installation Information, but only if you would otherwise be required to

provide such information under section 6 of the GNU GPL, and only to the extent that
such information is necessary to install and execute a modified version of the
Combined Work produced by recombining or relinking the Application with a modified
version of the Linked Version. (If you use option 4d0, the Installation Information must
accompany the Minimal Corresponding Source and Corresponding Application Code. If
you use option 4d1, you must provide the Installation Information in the manner
specified by section 6 of the GNU GPL for conveying Corresponding Source.)

You may place library facilities that are a work based on the Library side by side in a single
library together with other library facilities that are not Applications and are not covered by
this License, and convey such a combined library under terms of your choice, if you do both
of the following:
i.

Accompany the combined library with a copy of the same work based on the Library,
uncombined with any other library facilities, conveyed under the terms of this License.

ii.

Give prominent notice with the combined library that part of it is a work based on the
Library, and explaining where to find the accompanying uncombined form of the same
693

Appendix E: Third Party Software Licenses

work.
6.

6. Revised Versions of the GNU Lesser General Public License. The Free Software Foundation
may publish revised and/or new versions of the GNU Lesser General Public License from
time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ
in detail to address new problems or concerns. Each version is given a distinguishing version
number. If the Library as you received it specifies that a certain numbered version of the
GNU Lesser General Public License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that published version or of any later version
published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Library as you received it does not specify
a version number of the GNU Lesser General Public License, you may choose any version of
the GNU Lesser General Public License ever published by the Free Software Foundation. If
the Library as you received it specifies that a proxy can decide whether future versions of
the GNU Lesser General Public License shall apply, that proxy's public statement of
acceptance of any version is permanent authorization for you to choose that version for the
Library.

Apache License, Version 2.0 for ExplorerCanvas

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Definitions. "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction, and
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"You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity exercising permissions granted by
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the work of authorship, whether in Source or Object form, made available under the
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example is provided in the Appendix below). "Derivative Works" shall mean any work,
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the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a
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shall not include works that remain separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the
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2.

Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each
Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge,
694

Appendix E: Third Party Software Licenses

royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,

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separate license agreement you may have executed with Licensor regarding such
Contributions.

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NOTICE file.

695

Appendix E: Third Party Software Licenses

7.

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provides the Work (and each Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied, including,
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MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for
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negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate
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additional liability.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in
writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the
specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Javascript Tree by Geir Landr

Copyright 2001-2003 Geir Landr. This script can be used freely as long as all copyright
messages are intact.

jQuery Timepicker Add On by Trent Richardson

Copyright 2011 Trent Richardson. Dual licensed under the MIT (see above) and GPL licenses.

jQuery Resize Event by Ben Alman

Copyright 2010 "Cowboy" Ben Alman. Dual licensed under the MIT (see above) and GPL
licenses.

excanvas by Google
Copyright 2006 Google Inc. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (see above). You
may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

jquery.dynatree.js by Martin Wendt

Dynamic tree view control, with support for lazy loading of branches. Copyright 2008-2011,
696

Appendix E: Third Party Software Licenses

Martin Wendt. Dual licensed under the MIT (see above) or GPL Version 2 licenses.

flot by MIT
Javascript plotting library for jQuery. Released under the MIT license (see above) by IOLA,
December 2007.

Open Source Code Requests

Upon request, D-Link will provide a CD with a copy of the source code for the open source
components used in D-Links products that are released under General Public License (GPL) or
similar licenses mandating code availability. To obtain such a copy, send a written request along
with a certified check or money order for 35 US Dollars, made out to D-Link Systems Inc., to the
following address:
NetDefendOS GPL Source Request
D-Link Systems Inc.
17595 Mt. Herrmann Street
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
U.S.A

697

Alphabetical Index
A
access rules, 316
accounting, 77
advanced settings, 82
and high availability, 81
configuring, 79
interim messages, 79
limitations with NAT, 82
messages, 77
messages frequency, 79
security, 81
system shutdowns, 82
address book, 103
addresses group, 106
Ethernet MAC addresses, 106
folders, 108
IP addresses in, 104
address group, 106
address groups
excluding addresses, 107
address translation, 427
admin account, 32
changing password for, 44
multiple logins, 33
advanced settings, 655
ARP, 154
connection timeout, 667
DHCP relay, 310
DHCP server, 304
fragmentation, 672
fragment reassembly, 676
hardware monitoring, 90
high availability, 645
ICMP, 664
IP level, 655
IPsec, 541
IPv6, 110
L2TP/PPTP, 552
length limit, 669
logging, 75
memory monitoring, 92
RADIUS, 82
remote management, 61
routing, 220
SNMP, 89
state, 665
TCP level, 659
transparent mode, 299
VLAN, 139
Alarm Repeat Interval setting, 76
Alert Level setting, 93
ALG, 320
deploying, 320
FTP, 325
H.323, 359
HTTP, 321
POP3, 345
PPTP, 346
SIP, 348
SMTP, 336
TFTP, 335
TLS, 375

all-nets6 IP address object, 112

all-nets IP address object, 108, 159
Allow IP rule, 162
Allow on error (RADIUS) setting, 82
Allow TCP Reopen setting, 663
anonymizing internet traffic, 434
anti-spam filtering (see spam filtering)
anti-virus scanning, 398
activating, 400
ALG anti-virus messages, 399
database, 400
database updates, 400
fail mode behavior, 402
in the FTP ALG, 329
in the HTTP ALG, 322
in the POP3 ALG, 345
in the SMTP ALG, 336
memory requirements, 398
relationship with IDP, 400
simultaneous scans, 398
subscription expiry behavior, 681
webapge script/URL scanning, 399
with IP policies, 401
with IP rules, 400
with zonedefense, 404
application control, 172
application rule sets, 173
authentication settings, 174
direct usage with IP rules, 172
enabling, 172
licensing, 178
managing filters, 177
risk guidelines, 178
selecting all signatures, 178
selecting BitTorrent with uTP, 176
subscription expiry behavior, 682
the appcontrol command, 176
traffic shaping, 174, 589
application layer gateway (see ALG)
ARP, 148
advanced settings, 153, 154
ARP object properties, 151
cache, 148
gratuitous, 214
proxy, 221
publish, 150
static mode objects, 151
xpublish vs publish mode, 151
ARP Broadcast setting, 156
ARP Cache Size setting, 149, 156
ARP Changes setting, 155
ARP Expire setting, 149, 155
ARP Expire Unknown setting, 149, 156
ARP Hash Size setting, 150, 156
ARP Hash Size VLAN setting, 150, 156
ARP IP Collision setting, 156
ARP Match Ethernet Sender setting, 154
ARP Multicast setting, 156
ARP poll interval setting, 220
ARP Query No Sender setting, 154
ARP Requests setting, 155
ARP Sender IP setting, 155
authentication, 458
2 factor, 489
administrators group, 461
agent, 473
auditors group, 461
customizing HTML pages, 479

698

Alphabetical Index

databases, 460
HTTP, 475
identity awareness agent, 486
local user database, 460
rules, 472
setup summary, 460
source, 473
SSH client key usage, 462
user identity awareness, 483
using IP address objects, 460
using LDAP, 465
using RADIUS, 463
XAuth, 473
Auto Add Multicast Route setting, 279
autonomous system (see OSPF)
Auto Save Interval (DHCP) setting, 311
Auto Save Policy (DHCP) setting, 311
auto-update, 97

B
backing up configurations, 97
bandwidth guarantees, 596
banner files
for web authentication, 479
for web content filtering, 395
parameters, 395, 480
SCP access, 54
blacklisting
hosts and networks, 424
URLs, 380
wildcarding, 380
with IDP, 413
with threshold rules, 613
Block 0000 Src setting, 656
Block 0 Net setting, 656
Block 127 Net setting, 656
blocking applications with IDP, 405
Block Multicast Src setting, 656
boot menu (see console boot menu)
BOOTP, 309
BPDU relaying, 298

C
CAM Size setting, 299
CAM To L3 Cache Dest Learning setting, 299
CA servers
access, 574
client access, 575
disabling validation, 576
private server placement, 576
certificates, 183
CA authority, 183
certificate chains, 184
certificate requests, 187
identification lists, 521
intermediate, 184
revocation list, 184
self-signed, 498, 528
the certificate cache, 184
uploading, 186
validity, 184
with IPsec, 502
VPN troubleshooting, 578
chains (in traffic shaping), 586
CLI, 31, 38
appending property values, 41

changing admin password, 44

command history, 39
command structure, 38
commit ends WebUI sessions, 46
indexing, 42
multiple property values, 42
name references, 42
object category, 41
object context, 41
object type, 38
omitting the object category, 41
prompt change, 45
reconfiguring NetDefendOS, 46
restarting/rebooting NetDefendOS, 46
secure shell, 43
tab completion, 39
tab completion of property values, 40
using hostnames, 43
CLI scripts, 48
automatic creation, 51
command ordering, 49
commenting, 52
error handling, 50
excluded objects, 52
executing, 49
file naming, 48
for the entire configuration, 52
listing, 50
omitting the object category, 51
removing, 50
saving, 50
script filename length, 52
security gateway script (.sgs), 48
uploading with SCP, 54
validation, 49
variables, 49
verbose output, 50
cluster (see high availability)
command line interface (see CLI)
config mode, 532
configuration object groups, 165
and folders, 169
and the CLI, 165
editing properties of, 167
configurations, 62
activating changes in the CLI, 45
backup/restore, 97
backup compatibility, 97
checking integrity, 46
duplicate naming, 42
connection limiting (see threshold rules)
connection rate limiting (see threshold rules)
Connection Replace setting, 665
Consecutive fails setting, 220
Consecutive success setting, 220
console
boot menu, 55
enabling password, 55
content filtering
categories, 391
order of static and dynamic, 380
phishing, 393
spam, 394
static, 380
content filtering HTML
customizing, 395
core interface, 128, 159
core routes, 213

699

Alphabetical Index

Critical Level setting, 93

D
date and time, 189
Deactivate Before Reconf (HA) setting, 645
dead peer detection, 525
Decrement TTL setting, 299
default access rule, 209, 316
Default TTL setting, 657
demilitarized zone (see DMZ)
denial of service attacks, 419
amplification attacks, 421
distributed attacks, 423
fragmentation overlap, 420
from IP spoofing, 317
ping of death attacks, 419
TCP SYN flood attacks, 422
destination RLB algorithm, 231
DHCP, 302
displaying server info, 305
HA synchronization support, 640
leases, 302
multiple servers, 303
over Ethernet, 131
relay advanced settings, 310
relaying, 309
relay with transparent mode, 289
server advanced settings, 304
server blacklist, 306
servers, 303
static host assignment, 306
with transparent mode, 289
DHCPv6
HA synchronization support, 640
DH groups, 514
diagnostic tools
pcapdump, 94
diffie-hellman (see DH Groups)
diffserv, 585
Directed Broadcasts setting, 658
distance vector algorithms, 238
DMZ, 442
DNS, 196
dynamic lookup, 197
DNS black lists for Spam filtering, 340
documentation, 21
DoS attack (see denial of service attacks)
downloading files with SCP, 53
DPD Expire Time (IPsec) setting, 543
DPD Keep Time (IPsec) setting, 543
DPD Metric (IPsec) setting, 543
drop all IP rule, 160
Drop IP rule, 162
Dropped Fragments setting, 673
DSCP, 585
in setting precedence, 593
DST End Date setting, 195
DST Offset setting, 194
DST Start Date setting, 194
Duplicated Fragment Data setting, 672
Duplicate Fragments setting, 673
dynamic balancing (in pipes), 599
Dynamic CAM Size setting, 299
dynamic content filtering (see web content filtering)
dynamic DNS, 197
Dynamic High Buffers setting
with high availability, 638

Dynamic L3C Size setting, 299

Dynamic Max Connections setting, 666
dynamic routing rules, 252, 254
OSPF action, 255
routing action, 255
DynDNS service, 197

E
Enable Sensors setting, 90
end of life procedures, 100
ESMTP extensions, 338
Ethernet interface, 129
changing IP addresses, 133
CLI command summary, 134
default gateway, 130
disabling, 136
enabling, 136
IP address, 130
logical/physical difference, 133
promiscuous mode, 133
with DHCP, 131
evasion attack prevention, 409
events (see logging)
log messages, 69
log receiver types, 70

F
Failed Fragment Reassembly setting, 673
filetype download block/allow
in FTP ALG, 328
in HTTP ALG, 322
with IP policies, 323
Flood Reboot Time setting, 677
folders
with IP rules, 164
with the address book, 108
Fragmented ICMP setting, 674
FTP ALG, 325
command restrictions, 327
connection restriction options, 327
control channel restrictions, 328
filetype checking, 328
hybrid mode, 326
server IP setup for passive, 335
virus scanning, 329
FwdFast IP rule, 162
exclusion from traffic shaping, 588
with multiplex rules, 270

G
Generic Router Encapsulation (see GRE)
Grace time setting, 220
gratuitous ARP generation, 217
Gratuitous ARP on fail setting, 217, 221
GRE, 143
additional checksum, 143
and IP rules, 144
setting up, 143
tunneling multicast, 281
tunnel IP address advantages, 143
Grouping interval setting, 195
groups
configuration objects, 165
in authentication, 460
in pipes, 597

700

Alphabetical Index

H
H.323 ALG, 359
HA (see high availability)
hardware
monitoring, 90
monitoring message frequency, 76, 92
heartbeats (see high availability)
high availability, 626
advanced settings, 645
and accounting, 81
and high buffers setting, 638
both units going active, 629, 641
changing HA management IPs, 60
cluster ID, 641
cluster interconnections, 627
disabling heartbeat sending, 629
forcing resynchronization, 631
hardware setup, 633
heartbeats, 629
IP4 HA Address objects, 633, 635, 636
IP6 HA Address objects, 637
issues, 640
link monitor usage, 644
making OSPF work, 641
manual setup, 636
mechanisms, 629
promiscuous mode, 133, 630
setting up, 633
set unique management IPs, 633
slave becomes master, 636
swapping out the master, 635
sync interface failure, 631
unique shared MAC, 638
unused interface problem, 629, 641
upgrading NetDefendOS, 642
with IDP and anti-virus, 630
with IPv6, 115
with link monitoring, 85
with transparent mode, 289
wizard setup, 635
VPN tunnel synchronization, 640
High Buffers setting
with high availability, 638
host monitoring
for route failover, 218
HTML pages
content filtering customizing, 395
web auth customizing, 479
HTTP
ALG, 321
authentication, 475
enforcing SafeSearch, 323
whitelist precedence, 323
HTTP poster, 197
HTTPS Certificate setting, 62
HTTP URI normalization in IDP, 409

I
ICMP ping (see ping)
ICMP Sends Per Sec Limit setting, 664
ICMP Unreachable message, 163
IDENT and IP rules, 162
identification lists, 521
identity awareness agent, 486
IDP, 405

best practice deployment, 417

blacklisting, 413
HTTP URI normalization, 409
signature groups, 412
signatures, 411
signature wildcarding, 412
SMTP log receivers, 413
subscription expiry behavior, 682
traffic shaping, 417, 607
using individual signatures, 417
Iface poll interval setting, 220
IGMP, 268
advanced settings, 279
configuration, 273
rules configuration, 276
IGMP Before Rules setting, 279
IGMP Idle Lifetime setting, 667
IGMP Last Member Query Interval setting, 280
IGMP Lowest Compatible Version setting, 280
IGMP Max Interface Requests setting, 280
IGMP Max Total Requests setting, 280
IGMP Query Interval setting, 280
IGMP Query Response Interval setting, 280
IGMP React To Own Queries setting, 279
IGMP Robustness Variable setting, 281
IGMP Router Version setting, 280
IGMP Startup Query Count setting, 281
IGMP Startup Query Interval setting, 281
IGMP Unsolicitated Report Interval setting, 281
IKE, 508
algorithm proposals, 509
lifetimes, 509
negotiation, 509
parameters, 510
IKE CRL Validity Time setting, 542
IKE Max CA Path setting, 542
IKE Send CRLs setting, 542
IKE Send Initial Contact setting, 542
ikesnoop VPN troubleshooting, 534, 579
Illegal Fragments setting, 672
Initial Silence (HA) setting, 645
insertion attack prevention, 409
Interface Alias (SNMP) setting, 90
Interface Description (SNMP) setting, 90
interfaces, 127
disabling, 128
groups, 146
loopback, 127, 128
physical, 127
internet key exchange (see IKE)
Interval between synchronization setting, 195
intrusion, detection and prevention (see IDP)
intrusion detection rule, 408
invalid checksum
in cluster heartbeats, 641
IP address objects, 107
IP Option Sizes setting, 657
IP Options Other setting, 658
IP Option Source/Return setting, 657
IP Options Timestamps setting, 657
IP policy, 169
corresponding IP rules, 170
logging, 163
NAT example, 432
SAT example, 171
with NAT, 432
with SAT, 454
IP pools, 312

701

Alphabetical Index

with config mode, 532

IP Reserved Flag setting, 658
IP router alert option setting, 657
IP rules, 158
actions, 162
application control, 172
bi-directional connections, 163
drop all rules, 160
evaluation order, 161
IPv6 usage, 160
logging, 163
rule set folders, 164
rule sets, 159
TCP sequence number alteration, 163
IPsec, 508
advanced settings, 541
algorithm proposal lists, 518
and IP rules, 525
Apple iOS setup, 506
clients, 501
config mode, 532
dead peer detection, 525
HA synchronization support, 640
IP validation, 533
keep-alive, 526
LAN to LAN setup, 497
local endpoint property, 524
local gateway, 533
NAT traversal, 517
originator IP property, 524
overview, 508
quick start guide, 496
roaming clients, 527
roaming clients setup, 499
source interface property, 524
troubleshooting, 577
tunnel establishment, 524
tunnels, 524
IPsec Before Rules setting, 542
usage, 525
IPsec Certificate Cache Max setting, 542
IPsec Gateway Name Cache Time setting, 543
IPsec Max Rules setting, 541
IPsec Max Tunnels setting, 541
IPv6, 109
adding an address, 109
all-nets6 address object, 112
and management access, 114
and transparent mode, 115
enabling globally, 110
enabling on an interface, 110
enabling pass ICMP errors, 112
enabling router advertisement, 111
grouping with IPv4, 112
ICMP ping, 114
in IP rules, 160
in routing rules, 227
MTU size, 112
neighbor discovery, 112
ping command usage, 114
proxy neighbor discovery, 113
with high availability, 115

L
L2TP, 545
advanced settings, 552
client, 552

DHCP client IP issue, 547

HA synchronization support, 640
quick start guide, 502
server, 546
L2TP Before Rules setting, 552
L2TPv3, 554
client setup, 561
client setup with VLANs, 563
HA synchronization support, 640
server setup, 555
server setup with VLANs, 558
L3 Cache Size setting, 299
LAN to LAN tunnels, 526
quick start guide, 497, 498
Large Buffers (reassembly) setting, 676
Layer Size Consistency setting, 657
LDAP
attributes, 466
authentication, 465
authentication with PPP, 471
MS Active Directory, 466
primary group restriction, 466
servers, 533
with non-Microsoft servers, 468
with OpenLDAP server, 468
link monitor, 84
HA cluster IPsec tunnels, 85
initializing NICs, 84
monitoring multiple hosts, 84
Reconf Failover Time, 85
with high availability, 644
link state algorithms, 238
Local Console Timeout setting, 62
local IP address in routes, 207
Log ARP Resolve Failure setting, 155
Log Checksum Errors setting, 655
Log Connections setting, 665
Log Connection Usage setting, 666
logging, 69
advanced settings, 75
disabling memlog, 71
event severity, 69
event types, 69
memlog, 70
message exceptions, 73
severity filter, 73
SNMP traps, 74
syslog, 71
time stamping, 70
login authentication, 472
log messages, 69
Log non IPv4/IPv6 setting, 656
Log Open Fails setting, 665
Logout at shutdown (RADIUS) setting, 82, 82
logout from CLI, 47
Log Oversized Packets setting, 670
Log Received TTL 0 setting, 656
Log Reverse Opens setting, 665
Log State Violations setting, 665
loopback interfaces, 127, 128
Low Broadcast TTL Action setting, 658

M
MAC address, 148
in the address book, 106
with ARP, 148
with ARP publish, 150

702

Alphabetical Index

management access
changing access rule/IP address, 56
changing a remote access rule, 59
changing HA management IPs, 60
changing the interface IP, 58
changing validation timeout, 58
default IP address, 56
VPN routing problem, 38
management interfaces, 31
advanced settings, 61
and IPv6, 114
configuring remote access, 47
managing NetDefendOS, 31
Max AH Length setting, 669
Max Auto Routes (DHCP) setting, 311
Max Concurrent (reassembly) setting, 676
Max Connections (reassembly) setting, 677
Max Connections setting, 666
Max ESP Length setting, 669
Max GRE Length setting, 669
Max Hops (DHCP) setting, 311
Max ICMP Length setting, 669
Max IPIP/FWZ Length setting, 670
Max IPsec IPComp Length setting, 670
Max L2TP Length setting, 670
Max lease Time (DHCP) setting, 311
Max Memory (reassembly) setting, 677
Max OSPF Length setting, 670
Max Other Length setting, 670
Max Pipe Users setting, 677
Max PPM (DHCP) setting, 310
Max PPP Resends setting, 552
Max Radius Contexts setting, 82
Max Reassembly Time Limit setting, 674
max sessions
services parameter, 122
Max Size (reassembly) setting, 676
Max SKIP Length setting, 670
Max TCP Length setting, 669
Max time drift setting, 195
Max Transactions (DHCP) setting, 310
Max UDP Length setting, 669
memlog (see logging)
Memory Log Repetition setting, 93
memory monitoring settings, 92
Memory Poll Interval setting, 92
Memory Use Percent setting, 92
MIB
for traps, 74
MIME filetype verification
in FTP ALG, 328
in HTTP ALG, 322
in POP3 ALG, 345
in SMTP ALG, 336
list of filetypes, 687
Min Broadcast TTL setting, 658
Minimum Fragment Length setting, 674
multicast, 268
address translation, 272
forwarding, 269
IGMP, 273
promiscuous mode, 133, 268
Receive Multicast Traffic setting, 269
reverse path forwarding, 268
tunneling using GRE, 281
Multicast Mismatch setting, 658
Multicast TTL on Low setting, 656
multiple login authentication, 472

multiplex rules, 269

creating with CLI, 271

N
NAT, 429
anonymizing with, 434
IP rules, 162, 431
pools, 436
stateful pools, 436
traversal, 517
with an IP Policy, 432
neighbor discovery, 112
advanced settings, 115
cache, 115
timing settings, 116
network address translation (see NAT)
NTP (see time synchronization)

O
open shortest path first (see OSPF)
open source code requests, 697
OSPF, 238
aggregates, 243, 251
areas, 242, 248
autonomous system, 241
checking deployment, 257
CLI command, 266
command, 258
concepts, 241
dynamic routing rules, 252
interface, 249
logging options, 265
neighbors, 252
promiscuous mode, 133, 251
router process, 246
setting up, 255
troubleshooting, 264
virtual links, 243, 252
Other Idle Lifetimes setting, 668
overriding content filtering, 389

P
packet flow
description, 26
simplified, 161
password length, 44
pcapdump, 94
downloading output files, 95
output file cleanup, 95
output file naming, 95
pcap file format (see pcapdump)
phishing (see content filtering)
ping, 199
packet simulation with -srcif, 201
setting the source IP, 201
source interface selection, 199
testing TCP/UDP connectivity, 200
with IPv6, 114
Ping Idle Lifetime setting, 667
Ping poll interval setting, 220
pipe rules, 587
pipes, 586
policies, 158
IP policy, 169
Poll Interval setting, 90

703

Alphabetical Index

POP3 ALG, 345

Port 0 setting, 677
port address translation (see SAT)
port forwarding (see SAT)
port mirroring (see pcapdump)
PPP
authentication with LDAP, 471
HA synchronization support, 640
PPPoE, 140
client configuration, 141
unnumbered support, 141
with HA, 142
with SSL VPN, 565
PPTP, 545
advanced settings, 552
ALG, 346
client, 552
problem with NAT, 553
quick start guide, 504
server, 545
PPTP Before Rules setting, 552
precedences
in pipes, 593
pre-shared keys, 497, 519
non-ascii character problem, 520
Primary Time Server setting, 195
product overview, 18
promiscuous mode, 133
with high availability, 630
with multicast, 268
with OSPF, 251
proposal lists, 518
proxy ARP, 221
setting up, 221
Pseudo Reass Max Concurrent setting, 672

Q
QoS (see quality of service)
quality of service, 585

R
RADIUS
accounting, 77
advanced settings, 82
allow on error setting, 81
authentication, 463
primary retry interval, 464
setting source IP, 464
setting the vendor ID, 464
unresponsive servers, 81
vendor ID, 80
Reassembly Done Limit setting, 674
Reassembly Illegal Limit setting, 675
Reassembly Timeout setting, 674
Receive Multicast Traffic setting, 269
reconf CLI command, 46
Reconf Failover Time (HA) setting, 85, 645
Reject IP rule, 162
Relay MPLS setting, 300
Relay Spanning-tree BPDUs setting, 299, 300
restarting NetDefendOS
with the CLI, 46
restore to factory defaults, 99
restoring backups, 97
reverse path forwarding (see multicast)
reverse route lookup, 161, 209, 316

roundrobin RLB algorithm, 231

route failover, 214
host monitoring, 218
route load balancing, 231
algorithm choice with ALG, 231
algorithms, 231
and VPN, 236
between ISPs, 234
routing, 204
adding routes, 213
advanced settings, 220
core routes, 213
default gateway route, 130, 212
dynamic, 238
IPv6 usage, 213
local IP address, 207
metric for default routes, 212
metrics, 205, 240
monitoring, 214
narrowest matching principle, 207
notation, 210
ordering parameter, 228
policy-based, 224
principles, 205
routes added at startup, 212
rules, 226
service-based, 224
source-based, 224
static, 205, 209
tables, 225
the all-nets route, 212
user-based, 224

S
SA (see security association)
SafeSearch enforcement, 323
SafeStream anti-virus database, 400
SAT, 440
all-to-one IP translation, 450
IP rules, 162
many-to-many IP translation, 446
multiplex rule, 269
one-to-one IP translation, 442
port forwarding, 440
port translation, 452
translating source and destination, 441
untranslated IP in second rule, 440
using an IP policy, 454
with FwdFast rules, 453
schedules, 180
SCP, 53
allowable operations, 53
backup/restore usage, 98
command format, 53
uploading certificates, 186
scripting (see CLI scripts)
Secondary Time Server setting, 195
secure copy (see SCP)
SecuRemoteUDP Compatibility setting, 657
secure shell (see SSH)
security/transport enabled option, 147
security association, 508
Send Limit setting, 75
serial console (see console)
serial console port, 43
server load balancing, 615
connection-rate algorithm, 617

704

Alphabetical Index

idle timeout setting, 618

max slots setting, 618
net size setting, 618
round-robin algorithm, 617
with FwdFast rules, 621
services, 118
and ALGs, 121
creating custom, 119
custom IP protocol, 124
custom timeouts, 125
group, 125
ICMP, 123
max sessions, 122
pass ICMP errors, 121
specifying all services, 122
specifying port number, 120
SYN flood protection, 121
sessionmanager CLI command, 47
setting, 58
sgs file extension, 48
shutdown CLI command, 46
Silently Drop State ICMPErrors setting, 664
simple network management protocol (see SNMP)
SIP ALG, 348
and traffic shaping, 349
equipment incompatibility, 348
NAT traversal, 348
record-route, 350
supported scenarios, 348
SLB (see server load balancing)
SMTP
ALG, 336
ESMTP extensions, 338
header verification, 342
log receiver with IDP, 413
whitelist precedence, 337
SNMP, 87
advanced settings, 89
community string, 88
MIB, 87
MIB for traps, 74
traps, 74
with IP rules, 88
SNMP Before Rules setting, 89
SNMP Request Limit setting, 88, 89
spam filtering, 339
caching, 343
logging, 343
tagging, 341
spam WCF category, 394
spanning tree relaying, 298
spillover RLB algorithm, 231
spoofing of IPs, 317
SSH, 43
SSH Before Rules setting, 61
SSH client keys, 462
SSL acceleration, 376
SSL VPN, 564
client cleanup, 570
client operation, 570
configuring, 565
custom server connection, 569
HA synchronization support, 640
installing the client, 567
IP rules for traffic, 570
outer interface types, 566
pinging the inner IP, 566
proxy ARP, 567

renegotiation, 375
running the client, 568
setting client routes, 573
specifying client default gateway, 571
using CA signed certificates, 568
with LDAP, 469
with PPPoE, 565
state-engine, 22
packet flow, 26
stateful inspection (see state-engine)
stateful NAT pools (see NAT)
Static address translation (see SAT)
Static ARP Changes setting, 155
Strip DontFragment setting, 658
subscriptions
expiry behavior, 681
switch routes (see transparent mode)
Sync Buffer Size (HA) setting, 645
Sync Pkt Max Burst (HA) setting, 645
SYN flood protection, 121, 422
syslog (see logging)
RFC5224 compliance, 72
setting the hostname, 73
system backup/restore, 97
System Contact (SNMP) setting, 89
System Location (SNMP) setting, 90
System Name (SNMP)setting, 89

T
tab completion (see CLI)
TCP Auto Clamping setting, 660
TCP ECN setting, 662
TCP FIN/URG setting, 662
TCP FIN Idle Lifetime setting, 667
TCP Idle Lifetime setting, 667
TCP MSS Log Level setting, 659
TCP MSS Max setting, 659
TCP MSS Min setting, 659
TCP MSS On High setting, 659
TCP MSS on Low setting, 659
TCP MSS VPN Max setting, 659
TCP NULL setting, 662
TCP Option ALTCHKDATA setting, 661
TCP Option ALTCHKREQ setting, 660
TCP Option Con Timeout setting, 661
TCP Option Other setting, 661
TCP Option SACK setting, 660
TCP Option Sizes setting, 659
TCP Option TSOPT setting, 660
TCP Option WSOPT setting, 660
TCP Reserved Field setting, 662
TCP Sequence Numbers setting, 663
TCP SYN/FIN setting, 662
TCP SYN/PSH setting, 661
TCP SYN/RST setting, 661
TCP SYN/URG setting, 661
TCP SYN Idle Lifetime setting, 667
TCP URG setting, 662
TCP Zero Unused ACK setting, 660
TCP Zero Unused URG setting, 660
Tertiary Time Server setting, 195
TFTP ALG, 335
third party software licenses, 692
threshold rules, 612, 650
in zonedefense, 650
time synchronization, 191
Time Sync Server Type setting, 195

705

Alphabetical Index

Time Zone setting, 194

TLS ALG, 375
advantages, 376
cryptographic suites, 377
supported standards, 375
traffic shaping, 585
bandwidth guarantees, 596
bandwidth limiting, 589
for VPNs, 600
FwdFast IP rule exclusion, 588
objectives, 586
pipe groups, 597
precedences, 593
recommendations, 600
summary, 602
with application control, 174, 589
with IDP, 607
Transaction Timeout (DHCP) setting, 310
transparent mode, 285
advanced settings, 299
and internet access, 290
and IPv6, 115
and NAT, 291
grouping IP addresses, 291
implementation, 286
single host routes, 287
switch routes, 285, 287
with DHCP relay, 289
with high availability, 289
with VLANs, 288
vs routing mode, 285
TTL Min setting, 656
TTL on Low setting, 656
tunnels, 127
two factor authentication, 489
with RSA SecureID, 489

U
UDP Bidirectional Keep-alive setting, 667
UDP Idle Lifetime setting, 667
UDP Source Port 0 setting, 677
Unknown VLAN Tags setting, 139
unnumbered PPPoE, 141
Unsolicited ARP Replies setting, 155
upgrading NetDefendOS
with an HA cluster, 642
uploading files with SCP, 53
URL filtering
with HTTPS, 383
with URL filter objects, 382
user authentication (see authentication)
user identity awareness, 483
identity awareness agent, 486
monitoring, 488
with a terminal server, 487
Use Unique Shared Mac (HA) setting, 638, 645

V
Validation Timeout setting, 58, 62
virtual LAN (see VLAN)
virtual private networks (see VPN)
VLAN, 136
advanced settings, 139
license limitations, 139
port based, 137
trunk, 137

voice over IP
with H.323, 359
with SIP, 348
VoIP (see voice over IP)
VPN, 492
encryption, 493
IPsec, 508
key distribution, 494
planning, 494
quick start guide, 496
SSL VPN, 564
troubleshooting, 577
usage, 492

W
Warning Level setting, 93
Watchdog Time setting, 677
WCF (see web content filtering)
webauth, 475
web content filtering, 379
active content handling, 379
allowing TCP port 9998 access, 384
dynamic content filtering, 383
dynamic WCF and HTTPS, 388
dynamic WCF audit mode, 388
dynamic WCF fail mode, 386
dynamic WCF override, 389
dynamic WCF whitelisting, 385
setting up dynamic WCF, 386
site reclassification, 389
static content filtering, 380
subscription expiry behavior, 682
with IP policies, 390
with IP rules or IP policies, 379
web interface, 31, 33
access with CA signed certificates, 37
activating configuration changes, 37
cursor hover help, 36
default connection interface, 33
object cloning, 36
password caching prevention, 34
recommended browsers, 33
setting workstation IP, 33
WebUI (see web interface)
WebUI Before Rules setting, 61
WebUI HTTP port setting, 62
WebUI HTTPS port setting, 62
whitelisting
hosts and networks, 424
URLs, 380
wildcarding, 380
wildcarding
in blacklists and whitelists, 338, 380
in IDP rules, 412
in static content filtering, 324
Windows CA certificate requests, 187
wireshark with pcapdump, 96

X
X.509 certificates, 183
XAuth (see authentication)

Z
zonedefense, 647
switches, 649

706

Alphabetical Index

with anti-virus, 404

with FTP ALG, 329
with IDP, 413
with SMTP ALG, 339

707