Network Security Firewall

User Manual
NetDefendOS

Security
Security
Ver. 11.04.01
Network Security Solution http://www.dlink.com
 User Manual
DFL-260E/860E/870/1660/2560/2560G

NetDefendOS Version 11.04.01

D-Link Corporation
No. 289, Sinhu 3rd Rd, Neihu District, Taipei City 114, Taiwan R.O.C.
http://www.DLink.com

Published 2016-10-03
Copyright © 2016
User Manual
DFL-260E/860E/870/1660/2560/2560G

NetDefendOS Version 11.04.01

Published 2016-10-03

Copyright © 2016

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 ............................................................................................................... 17
1. NetDefendOS Overview ..................................................................................... 20
1.1. Features ............................................................................................... 20
1.2. NetDefendOS Architecture ...................................................................... 24
1.2.1. State-based Architecture .............................................................. 24
1.2.2. NetDefendOS Building Blocks ........................................................ 24
1.2.3. Basic Packet Flow ......................................................................... 25
1.3. NetDefendOS State Engine Packet Flow ..................................................... 28
2. Management and Maintenance .......................................................................... 33
2.1. Managing NetDefendOS ......................................................................... 33
2.1.1. Overview .................................................................................... 33
2.1.2. Configuring Management Access ................................................... 34
2.1.3. Administrator Account ................................................................. 40
2.1.4. The Web Interface ........................................................................ 41
2.1.5. The CLI ....................................................................................... 46
2.1.6. CLI Scripts ................................................................................... 58
2.1.7. Secure Copy ................................................................................ 64
2.1.8. The Console Boot Menu ................................................................ 66
2.1.9. RADIUS Management Authentication ............................................. 67
2.1.10. Management Advanced Settings .................................................. 70
2.1.11. Working with Configurations ....................................................... 71
2.2. System Date and Time ............................................................................ 78
2.2.1. Overview .................................................................................... 78
2.2.2. Setting Date and Time Manually ..................................................... 78
2.2.3. Daylight Saving Time ................................................................... 79
2.2.4. Using External Time Servers ........................................................... 82
2.2.5. Settings Summary for Date and Time .............................................. 85
2.3. Events and Logging ................................................................................ 87
2.3.1. Overview .................................................................................... 87
2.3.2. Log Messages ............................................................................. 87
2.3.3. Log Receiver Types ...................................................................... 88
2.3.4. The Memory Log Receiver (Memlog) ............................................... 89
2.3.5. The Syslog Log Receiver ................................................................ 89
2.3.6. Mail Alerting ............................................................................... 92
2.3.7. Severity Filter and Message Exceptions ........................................... 96
2.3.8. SNMP Traps ................................................................................ 97
2.3.9. Advanced Log Settings ................................................................. 98
2.3.10. Logsnoop ................................................................................. 99
2.4. Monitoring .......................................................................................... 103
2.4.1. Real-time Monitor Alerts ............................................................. 103
2.4.2. The Link Monitor ....................................................................... 103
2.4.3. Hardware Monitoring ................................................................. 107
2.4.4. Memory Monitoring Settings ....................................................... 109
2.5. SNMP ................................................................................................. 111
2.5.1. Management with SNMP ............................................................ 111
2.5.2. Persistent SNMP Interface Indexes ................................................ 115
2.5.3. SNMP Advanced Settings ............................................................ 116
2.6. Diagnostic Tools .................................................................................. 118
2.6.1. Overview .................................................................................. 118
2.6.2. The ping Command .................................................................... 118
2.6.3. The stats Command ................................................................... 122
2.6.4. The connections Command ......................................................... 123
2.6.5. The dconsole Command .............................................................. 125
2.6.6. The pcapdump Command ........................................................... 126
2.6.7. The traceroute Command ............................................................ 128
2.6.8. The frags Command ................................................................... 131

4
 User Manual

2.6.9. The selftest Command ................................................................ 133

2.7. Maintenance ....................................................................................... 135
2.7.1. Version Update Alerts ................................................................. 135
2.7.2. Auto-Update Mechanism ............................................................ 136
2.7.3. Backing Up Configurations .......................................................... 136
2.7.4. Restore to Factory Defaults .......................................................... 139
2.8. Languages .......................................................................................... 141
2.9. Diagnostics and Improvements .............................................................. 142
3. Fundamentals ................................................................................................ 145
3.1. The Address Book ................................................................................ 145
3.1.1. Overview .................................................................................. 145
3.1.2. IP Addresses ............................................................................. 146
3.1.3. Ethernet Addresses .................................................................... 148
3.1.4. Address Groups ......................................................................... 148
3.1.5. Auto-Generated Address Objects ................................................. 149
3.1.6. Address Book Folders ................................................................. 150
3.1.7. FQDN Address Objects ............................................................... 150
3.2. IPv6 Support ....................................................................................... 156
3.3. Services .............................................................................................. 165
3.3.1. Overview .................................................................................. 165
3.3.2. Creating Custom Services ............................................................ 167
3.3.3. ICMP Services ............................................................................ 171
3.3.4. Custom IP Protocol Services ........................................................ 172
3.3.5. Service Groups .......................................................................... 173
3.3.6. Custom Service Timeouts ............................................................ 174
3.3.7. Path MTU Discovery ................................................................... 174
3.4. Interfaces ............................................................................................ 178
3.4.1. Overview .................................................................................. 178
3.4.2. Ethernet Interfaces ..................................................................... 180
3.4.3. Link Aggregation ....................................................................... 191
3.4.4. VLAN ....................................................................................... 195
3.4.5. Service VLAN ............................................................................. 199
3.4.6. PPPoE ...................................................................................... 202
3.4.7. GRE Tunnels .............................................................................. 205
3.4.8. 6in4 Tunnels ............................................................................. 209
3.4.9. Loopback Interfaces ................................................................... 213
3.4.10. Interface Groups ...................................................................... 218
3.4.11. Layer 2 Pass Through ................................................................ 219
3.5. ARP .................................................................................................... 221
3.5.1. Overview .................................................................................. 221
3.5.2. The ARP Cache .......................................................................... 221
3.5.3. ARP Publish .............................................................................. 223
3.5.4. Using ARP Advanced Settings ...................................................... 226
3.6. IP Rules and IP Policies .......................................................................... 228
3.6.1. Security Policies ......................................................................... 228
3.6.2. IP Rule Set Evaluation ................................................................. 232
3.6.3. IP Rule ...................................................................................... 233
3.6.4. Multiple IP Rule Sets ................................................................... 235
3.6.5. IP Rule Set Folders ..................................................................... 240
3.6.6. Configuration Object Groups ....................................................... 241
3.6.7. IP Policy ................................................................................... 245
3.6.8. Stateless Policy .......................................................................... 251
3.7. Application Control .............................................................................. 253
3.8. Schedules ........................................................................................... 265
3.9. Certificates .......................................................................................... 268
3.9.1. Overview .................................................................................. 268
3.9.2. Uploading and Using Certificates ................................................. 273
3.9.3. CRL Distribution Point Lists ......................................................... 275
3.9.4. CA Server Access ....................................................................... 277
3.9.5. Creating Windows CA Server Requests .......................................... 279
3.10. DNS .................................................................................................. 281

5
 User Manual

4. Routing ......................................................................................................... 285

4.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 285
4.2. Static Routing ...................................................................................... 286
4.2.1. The Principles of Routing ............................................................ 286
4.2.2. Static Routing ........................................................................... 290
4.2.3. Route Failover ........................................................................... 296
4.2.4. Host Monitoring for Route Failover ............................................... 299
4.2.5. Advanced Settings for Route Failover ............................................ 301
4.2.6. Proxy ARP ................................................................................. 302
4.2.7. Broadcast Packet Forwarding ...................................................... 304
4.3. Policy-based Routing ............................................................................ 308
4.4. Route Load Balancing ........................................................................... 316
4.5. Virtual Routing .................................................................................... 323
4.5.1. Overview .................................................................................. 323
4.5.2. A Simple Scenario ...................................................................... 323
4.5.3. The Disadvantage of Routing Rules ............................................... 325
4.5.4. IP Rule Sets with Virtual Routing ................................................... 328
4.5.5. Multiple IP rule sets .................................................................... 329
4.5.6. Trouble Shooting ....................................................................... 329
4.6. OSPF .................................................................................................. 331
4.6.1. Dynamic Routing ....................................................................... 331
4.6.2. OSPF Concepts .......................................................................... 334
4.6.3. OSPF Components ..................................................................... 339
4.6.4. Dynamic Routing Rules ............................................................... 345
4.6.5. Setting Up OSPF ........................................................................ 348
4.6.6. An OSPF Example ...................................................................... 352
4.6.7. OSPF Troubleshooting ................................................................ 357
4.7. Multicast Routing ................................................................................. 361
4.7.1. Overview .................................................................................. 361
4.7.2. Multicast Forwarding with SAT Multiplex Rules ............................... 362
4.7.3. IGMP Configuration ................................................................... 368
4.7.4. Advanced IGMP Settings ............................................................. 374
4.7.5. Tunneling Multicast using GRE ..................................................... 376
4.8. Transparent Mode ................................................................................ 379
4.8.1. Overview .................................................................................. 379
4.8.2. Enabling Internet Access ............................................................. 384
4.8.3. A Transparent Mode Use Case ...................................................... 386
4.8.4. Spanning Tree BPDU Support ...................................................... 388
4.8.5. MPLS Pass Through .................................................................... 389
4.8.6. Advanced Settings for Transparent Mode ...................................... 390
5. DHCP Services ................................................................................................ 393
5.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 393
5.2. IPv4 DHCP Client .................................................................................. 395
5.3. IPv4 DHCP Server ................................................................................. 397
5.3.1. Static IPv4 DHCP Hosts ............................................................... 401
5.3.2. Custom IPv4 Options .................................................................. 402
5.4. IPv4 DHCP Relay .................................................................................. 404
5.5. IP Pools .............................................................................................. 408
5.6. DHCPv6 .............................................................................................. 411
5.6.1. DHCPv6 Client ........................................................................... 411
5.6.2. DHCPv6 Server .......................................................................... 414
6. Security Mechanisms ...................................................................................... 421
6.1. Access Rules ........................................................................................ 421
6.1.1. Overview .................................................................................. 421
6.1.2. IP Spoofing ............................................................................... 422
6.1.3. Access Rule Settings ................................................................... 422
6.2. ALGs .................................................................................................. 425
6.2.1. Overview .................................................................................. 425
6.2.2. The HTTP ALG ........................................................................... 427
6.2.3. The Light Weight HTTP ALG ......................................................... 432
6.2.4. The FTP ALG ............................................................................. 435

6
 User Manual

6.2.5. The TFTP ALG ............................................................................ 447

6.2.6. The SMTP ALG ........................................................................... 448
6.2.7. The POP3 ALG ........................................................................... 457
6.2.8. The PPTP ALG ............................................................................ 461
6.2.9. The SIP ALG .............................................................................. 463
6.2.10. The H.323 ALG ......................................................................... 479
6.2.11. The TLS ALG ............................................................................ 500
6.3. Web Content Filtering ........................................................................... 503
6.3.1. Overview .................................................................................. 503
6.3.2. Active Content Handling ............................................................. 503
6.3.3. Static Content Filtering ............................................................... 504
6.3.4. Dynamic Web Content Filtering ................................................... 507
6.4. Email Filtering and Anti-Spam ................................................................ 526
6.4.1. IP Policy Based Email Filtering ...................................................... 526
6.4.2. ALG Based Email Filtering ............................................................ 534
6.4.3. DNSBL Databases ...................................................................... 539
6.5. Anti-Virus Scanning .............................................................................. 541
6.5.1. Overview .................................................................................. 541
6.5.2. Implementation ........................................................................ 542
6.5.3. Anti-Virus Options ..................................................................... 545
6.5.4. Activating Anti-Virus Scanning ..................................................... 546
6.5.5. The Anti-Virus Cache .................................................................. 550
6.6. Intrusion Detection and Prevention ........................................................ 552
6.6.1. Overview .................................................................................. 552
6.6.2. IDP Subscriptions ....................................................................... 553
6.6.3. IDP Rules .................................................................................. 554
6.6.4. Insertion/Evasion Attack Prevention ............................................. 556
6.6.5. IDP Pattern Matching ................................................................. 557
6.6.6. IDP Signature Groups ................................................................. 558
6.6.7. Setting Up IDP ........................................................................... 559
6.6.8. SMTP Log Receiver for IDP Events ................................................. 562
6.6.9. Best Practice Deployment ........................................................... 564
6.7. Denial-of-Service Attacks ....................................................................... 566
6.7.1. Overview .................................................................................. 566
6.7.2. DoS Attack Mechanisms .............................................................. 566
6.7.3. Ping of Death Attacks .................................................................. 566
6.7.4. Fragmentation Overlap Attacks .................................................... 567
6.7.5. The Land and LaTierra Attacks ...................................................... 567
6.7.6. The WinNuke attack .................................................................... 567
6.7.7. Amplification Attacks ................................................................. 568
6.7.8. TCP SYN Flood Attacks ................................................................ 569
6.7.9. The Jolt2 Attack ......................................................................... 569
6.7.10. Distributed DoS Attacks ............................................................ 570
6.8. Blacklisting Hosts and Networks ............................................................. 571
7. Address Translation ........................................................................................ 574
7.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 574
7.2. NAT ................................................................................................... 576
7.3. NAT Pools ........................................................................................... 584
7.4. SAT .................................................................................................... 588
7.4.1. Introduction ............................................................................. 588
7.4.2. One-to-One IP Translation ........................................................... 590
7.4.3. Many-to-Many IP Translation ....................................................... 593
7.4.4. All-to-One IP Translation ............................................................. 596
7.4.5. Port Translation ......................................................................... 599
7.4.6. SAT with FwdFast Rules ............................................................... 600
7.4.7. Using an IP Policy for SAT ............................................................ 601
7.4.8. Protocols Handled by SAT ........................................................... 602
7.4.9. SAT with NAT ............................................................................ 603
8. User Authentication ........................................................................................ 608
8.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 608
8.2. Authentication Setup ............................................................................ 610

7
 User Manual

8.2.1. Setup Summary ......................................................................... 610

8.2.2. Local User Databases .................................................................. 610
8.2.3. External RADIUS Servers ............................................................. 614
8.2.4. External LDAP Servers ................................................................ 616
8.2.5. Authentication Rules .................................................................. 624
8.2.6. Authentication Processing .......................................................... 626
8.2.7. HTTP Authentication .................................................................. 627
8.2.8. Brute Force Protection ................................................................ 630
8.3. ARP Authentication .............................................................................. 633
8.4. Customizing Authentication HTML ......................................................... 635
8.5. Policies Requiring Authentication ........................................................... 639
8.6. User Identity Awareness ........................................................................ 641
8.7. Multi Factor Authentication ................................................................... 650
8.8. Radius Relay ........................................................................................ 652
8.9. RADIUS Accounting .............................................................................. 659
8.9.1. Overview .................................................................................. 659
8.9.2. RADIUS Accounting Messages ..................................................... 659
8.9.3. Interim Accounting Messages ...................................................... 661
8.9.4. Configuring RADIUS Accounting .................................................. 661
8.9.5. RADIUS Accounting Security ....................................................... 663
8.9.6. RADIUS Accounting and High Availability ...................................... 663
8.9.7. Handling Unresponsive RADIUS Servers ........................................ 663
8.9.8. Accounting and System Shutdowns ............................................. 664
8.9.9. Limitations with NAT .................................................................. 664
8.9.10. Advanced RADIUS Settings ........................................................ 664
9. VPN .............................................................................................................. 667
9.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 667
9.1.1. VPN Usage ................................................................................ 667
9.1.2. VPN Encryption ......................................................................... 668
9.1.3. VPN Planning ............................................................................ 669
9.1.4. Key Distribution ......................................................................... 669
9.1.5. The TLS Alternative for VPN ......................................................... 670
9.2. VPN Quick Start .................................................................................... 671
9.2.1. IPsec LAN-to-LAN with Pre-shared Keys ......................................... 672
9.2.2. IPsec LAN-to-LAN with Certificates ............................................... 673
9.2.3. IPsec Roaming Clients with Pre-shared Keys ................................... 674
9.2.4. IPsec Roaming Clients with Certificates ......................................... 677
9.2.5. L2TP/IPsec Roaming Clients with Pre-Shared Keys ........................... 678
9.2.6. L2TP/IPsec Roaming Clients with Certificates ................................. 680
9.2.7. PPTP Roaming Clients ................................................................. 680
9.2.8. iOS Setup ................................................................................. 681
9.3. IPsec Components ............................................................................... 683
9.3.1. Overview .................................................................................. 683
9.3.2. Internet Key Exchange (IKE) ......................................................... 683
9.3.3. IKE Authentication ..................................................................... 690
9.3.4. IPsec Protocols (ESP/AH) ............................................................. 691
9.3.5. NAT Traversal ............................................................................ 693
9.3.6. Algorithm Proposal Lists ............................................................. 694
9.3.7. Pre-shared Keys ......................................................................... 696
9.3.8. Using ID Lists with Certificates ..................................................... 697
9.3.9. DiffServ with IPsec ..................................................................... 699
9.4. IPsec Tunnels ....................................................................................... 701
9.4.1. Overview .................................................................................. 701
9.4.2. LAN-to-LAN Tunnels with Pre-shared Keys ..................................... 704
9.4.3. Roaming Clients ........................................................................ 708
9.4.4. IKEv2 Support ........................................................................... 713
9.4.5. IKEv2 Client Setup ...................................................................... 714
9.4.6. Fetching CRLs from an alternate LDAP server ................................. 719
9.4.7. The IPsec Tunnel Selection Process ............................................... 720
9.4.8. IPsec Tunnel Monitoring ............................................................. 721
9.4.9. IPsec Advanced Settings ............................................................. 723

8
 User Manual

9.5. PPTP/L2TP .......................................................................................... 729

9.5.1. PPTP Servers ............................................................................. 729
9.5.2. L2TP Servers ............................................................................. 730
9.5.3. L2TP/PPTP Server Advanced Settings ............................................ 736
9.5.4. PPTP/L2TP Clients ...................................................................... 737
9.5.5. The l2tp and pptp Commands ..................................................... 739
9.6. L2TP Version 3 ..................................................................................... 741
9.6.1. L2TPv3 Server ........................................................................... 741
9.6.2. L2TPv3 Client ............................................................................ 748
9.7. SSL VPN .............................................................................................. 752
9.7.1. Overview .................................................................................. 752
9.7.2. Configuring SSL VPN in NetDefendOS ........................................... 753
9.7.3. Installing the SSL VPN Client ........................................................ 755
9.7.4. SSL VPN Setup Example .............................................................. 759
9.8. VPN Troubleshooting ............................................................................ 762
9.8.1. General Troubleshooting ............................................................ 762
9.8.2. Troubleshooting Certificates ....................................................... 763
9.8.3. The ike -stat Command ............................................................... 763
9.8.4. The ike -snoop Command ............................................................ 764
9.8.5. Management Interface Failure with VPN ........................................ 771
9.8.6. Specific Error Messages ............................................................... 771
9.8.7. Specific Symptoms ..................................................................... 774
10. Traffic Management ...................................................................................... 776
10.1. Traffic Shaping ................................................................................... 776
10.1.1. Overview ................................................................................ 776
10.1.2. Traffic Shaping in NetDefendOS ................................................. 777
10.1.3. Simple Bandwidth Limiting ....................................................... 780
10.1.4. Limiting Bandwidth in Both Directions ........................................ 781
10.1.5. Creating Differentiated Limits Using Chains ................................. 783
10.1.6. Precedences ............................................................................ 784
10.1.7. Pipe Groups ............................................................................ 788
10.1.8. Traffic Shaping Recommendations ............................................. 791
10.1.9. A Summary of Traffic Shaping .................................................... 793
10.1.10. More Pipe Examples ............................................................... 793
10.2. IDP Traffic Shaping ............................................................................. 798
10.2.1. Overview ................................................................................ 798
10.2.2. Setting Up IDP Traffic Shaping ................................................... 798
10.2.3. Processing Flow ....................................................................... 799
10.2.4. The Importance of Specifying a Network ...................................... 799
10.2.5. A P2P Scenario ......................................................................... 800
10.2.6. Viewing Traffic Shaping Objects ................................................. 801
10.2.7. Guaranteeing Instead of Limiting Bandwidth ................................ 802
10.2.8. Logging .................................................................................. 802
10.3. Threshold Rules .................................................................................. 803
10.4. Server Load Balancing ......................................................................... 807
10.4.1. Overview ................................................................................ 807
10.4.2. SLB Distribution Algorithms ....................................................... 809
10.4.3. Selecting Stickiness .................................................................. 809
10.4.4. SLB Algorithms and Stickiness .................................................... 811
10.4.5. Server Health Monitoring .......................................................... 812
10.4.6. Setting Up SLB_SAT Rules .......................................................... 812
10.4.7. SLB Policy ............................................................................... 816
11. High Availability ........................................................................................... 820
11.1. Overview .......................................................................................... 820
11.2. HA Mechanisms ................................................................................. 823
11.3. Setting Up HA .................................................................................... 827
11.3.1. Hardware Setup ....................................................................... 827
11.3.2. Wizard HA Setup ...................................................................... 829
11.3.3. Manual HA Setup ..................................................................... 831
11.3.4. Verifying that the Cluster Functions Correctly ............................... 832
11.3.5. Unique Shared Mac Addresses ................................................... 833

9
 User Manual

11.4. HA Issues .......................................................................................... 834

11.5. Upgrading an HA Cluster ..................................................................... 837
11.6. Link Monitoring and HA ...................................................................... 839
11.7. HA Advanced Settings ......................................................................... 840
12. ZoneDefense ............................................................................................... 843
13. Advanced Settings ........................................................................................ 849
13.1. IP Level Settings ................................................................................. 849
13.2. TCP Level Settings .............................................................................. 853
13.3. ICMP Level Settings ............................................................................ 859
13.4. State Settings .................................................................................... 860
13.5. Connection Timeout Settings ............................................................... 862
13.6. Length Limit Settings .......................................................................... 864
13.7. Fragmentation Settings ....................................................................... 867
13.8. Local Fragment Reassembly Settings ..................................................... 871
13.9. SSL/TLS Settings ................................................................................. 872
13.10. Miscellaneous Settings ...................................................................... 875
A. Subscribing to Updates ................................................................................... 880
B. IDP Signature Groups ...................................................................................... 884
C. Verified MIME filetypes .................................................................................... 888
D. The OSI Framework ........................................................................................ 892
E. DFL-260E/860E Port Based VLAN ....................................................................... 893
F. Third Party Software Licenses ........................................................................... 895
Alphabetical Index ............................................................................................. 901

10
List of Figures
1.1. Packet Flow Schematic Part I ............................................................................ 28
1.2. Packet Flow Schematic Part II ........................................................................... 29
1.3. Packet Flow Schematic Part III .......................................................................... 30
1.4. Expanded Apply Rules Logic ............................................................................. 31
2.1. Management Workstation Connection .............................................................. 42
3.1. Path MTU Discovery Processing ...................................................................... 175
3.2. Link Aggregation ......................................................................................... 192
3.3. VLAN Connections ....................................................................................... 197
3.4. A Service VLAN Use Case ............................................................................... 200
3.5. An Example of GRE Usage .............................................................................. 207
3.6. IP6in4 Tunnel Usage ..................................................................................... 210
3.7. Acting as a 6in4 Tunnel Server ........................................................................ 212
3.8. A Use Case for Loopback Interfaces ................................................................. 215
3.9. Setting Up Loopback Interfaces with Routing Tables .......................................... 216
3.10. Components of Loopback Interface Setup ...................................................... 217
3.11. An ARP Publish Ethernet Frame .................................................................... 225
3.12. Simplified NetDefendOS Traffic Flow ............................................................. 231
3.13. Certificate Validation Components ................................................................ 278
4.1. A Typical Routing Scenario ............................................................................ 287
4.2. Using Local IP Address with an Unbound Network .............................................. 289
4.3. A Route Failover Scenario for ISP Access .......................................................... 296
4.4. A Proxy ARP Example .................................................................................... 303
4.5. The RLB Round Robin Algorithm ..................................................................... 317
4.6. The RLB Spillover Algorithm ........................................................................... 318
4.7. A Route Load Balancing Scenario .................................................................... 320
4.8. Virtual Routing ............................................................................................ 324
4.9. The Disadvantage of Routing Rules ................................................................. 325
4.10. The Advantage of Virtual Routing ................................................................. 326
4.11. A Simple OSPF Scenario ............................................................................... 332
4.12. OSPF Providing Route Redundancy ............................................................... 333
4.13. Virtual Links Connecting Areas ..................................................................... 337
4.14. Virtual Links with Partitioned Backbone ......................................................... 338
4.15. NetDefendOS OSPF Objects ......................................................................... 339
4.16. Dynamic Routing Rule Objects ..................................................................... 347
4.17. An OSPF Example ....................................................................................... 353
4.18. Multicast Forwarding - No Address Translation ................................................ 363
4.19. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation .................................................... 367
4.20. Multicast Snoop Mode ................................................................................ 369
4.21. Multicast Proxy Mode .................................................................................. 369
4.22. Tunneling Multicast using GRE ..................................................................... 377
4.23. Non-transparent Mode Internet Access .......................................................... 384
4.24. Transparent Mode Internet Access ................................................................ 385
4.25. Transparent Mode Use Case ......................................................................... 386
4.26. An Example BPDU Relaying Scenario ............................................................. 389
5.1. DHCP Server Objects .................................................................................... 401
5.2. DHCP Relay with Proxy ARP ........................................................................... 405
6.1. Deploying an ALG ........................................................................................ 426
6.2. HTTP ALG Processing Order ........................................................................... 431
6.3. FTP ALG Hybrid Mode ................................................................................... 437
6.4. SMTP ALG Usage .......................................................................................... 449
6.5. SMTP ALG Processing Order ........................................................................... 452
6.6. POP3 ALG Usage .......................................................................................... 458
6.7. PPTP ALG Usage ........................................................................................... 462
6.8. TLS Termination ........................................................................................... 501
6.9. Web Content Filtering Flow ........................................................................... 509
6.10. Anti-Spam Filtering ..................................................................................... 540

11
 User Manual

6.11. Anti-Virus Malicious File Message .................................................................. 543

6.12. Anti-Virus Malicious URL Message ................................................................. 543
6.13. IDP Database Updating ............................................................................... 553
6.14. IDP Signature Selection ............................................................................... 555
7.1. NAT IP Address Translation ............................................................................ 576
7.2. A NAT Example ............................................................................................ 578
7.3. Automatic Address Translation ....................................................................... 581
7.4. Anonymizing with NAT ................................................................................. 583
7.5. SAT Address Translation ................................................................................ 593
7.6. SAT with NAT .............................................................................................. 603
8.1. Normal LDAP Authentication ......................................................................... 623
8.2. LDAP for PPP with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2 ......................................... 624
8.3. User Identity Awareness ................................................................................ 641
8.4. The General Tab in the IDA Interface ................................................................ 646
8.5. The Event Monitoring Tab in the IDA Interface ................................................... 646
8.6. The Security Tab in the IDA Interface ................................................................ 647
8.7. The Excluded Users Tab in the IDA Interface ...................................................... 648
9.1. The AH protocol ........................................................................................... 692
9.2. The ESP protocol .......................................................................................... 693
9.3. PPTP Client Usage ........................................................................................ 739
9.4. An L2TPv3 Example ...................................................................................... 742
9.5. SSL VPN Browser Connection Choices ............................................................. 756
9.6. The SSL VPN Client Login ............................................................................... 757
9.7. The SSL VPN Client Statistics .......................................................................... 758
10.1. Pipe Rules Determine Pipe Usage .................................................................. 779
10.2. FwdFast Rules Bypass Traffic Shaping ............................................................. 780
10.3. Differentiated Limits Using Chains ................................................................ 783
10.4. The Eight Pipe Precedences ......................................................................... 784
10.5. Minimum and Maximum Pipe Precedence ...................................................... 786
10.6. Traffic Grouped By IP Address ....................................................................... 790
10.7. A Basic Traffic Shaping Scenario .................................................................... 794
10.8. IDP Traffic Shaping P2P Scenario ................................................................... 801
10.9. A Server Load Balancing Configuration .......................................................... 808
10.10. Connections from Three Clients .................................................................. 811
10.11. Stickiness and Round-Robin ....................................................................... 811
10.12. Stickiness and Connection-rate ................................................................... 812
D.1. The 7 Layers of the OSI Model ........................................................................ 892

12
List of Examples
1. Example Notation ............................................................................................. 17
2.1. Changing the Management Validation Timeout .................................................. 37
2.2. Changing the Management Interface IP Address ................................................. 38
2.3. Changing a Remote Management Object .......................................................... 38
2.4. Changing the HA Management IP Address ......................................................... 39
2.5. Adding Remote Management via HTTPS ............................................................ 40
2.6. Remote Management via HTTPS with CA Signed Certificates ................................. 46
2.7. Enabling SSH Remote Access ........................................................................... 52
2.8. Enabling SSH Authentication Using SSH Keys ..................................................... 53
2.9. Running a CLI Script from the Web Interface ....................................................... 63
2.10. Enabling RADIUS Management Authentication ................................................. 70
2.11. Listing Configuration Objects ......................................................................... 72
2.12. Displaying a Configuration Object ................................................................... 73
2.13. Editing a Configuration Object ....................................................................... 73
2.14. Adding a Configuration Object ....................................................................... 74
2.15. Deleting a Configuration Object ..................................................................... 75
2.16. Undeleting a Configuration Object .................................................................. 75
2.17. Listing Modified Configuration Objects ............................................................ 76
2.18. Activating and Committing a Configuration ..................................................... 76
2.19. Setting the Current Date and Time .................................................................. 78
2.20. Setting the Time Zone ................................................................................... 79
2.21. Enabling DST with the tz Database .................................................................. 80
2.22. Enabling DST Manually .................................................................................. 81
2.23. Using the D-Link Time Server ......................................................................... 83
2.24. Configuring Custom Time Servers ................................................................... 83
2.25. Manually Triggering a Time Synchronization .................................................... 84
2.26. Modifying the Maximum Adjustment Value ...................................................... 84
2.27. Forcing Time Synchronization ........................................................................ 85
2.28. Enable Logging to a Syslog Host ..................................................................... 90
2.29. Enabling Syslog RFC 5424 Compliance with Hostname ....................................... 91
2.30. Setting up a Mail Alerting Object .................................................................... 95
2.31. Sending SNMP Traps to an SNMP Trap Receiver ................................................. 98
2.32. Link Monitor Setup ..................................................................................... 106
2.33. Enabling SNMP Versions 1 and 2c Monitoring ................................................. 113
2.34. Enabling SNMP Version 3 Monitoring ............................................................ 114
2.35. Enabling SNMP Index Persistence ................................................................. 116
2.36. Disabling NetDefendOS Release Notifications ................................................. 135
2.37. Performing a Complete System Backup ......................................................... 138
2.38. Complete Hardware Reset to Factory Defaults ................................................ 139
2.39. Disabling Diagnostics and Quality Improvements Messaging ............................ 143
3.1. Adding an IP Host Address ............................................................................. 146
3.2. Adding an IP Network ................................................................................... 147
3.3. Adding an IP Range ...................................................................................... 147
3.4. Deleting an Address Object ........................................................................... 147
3.5. Adding an Ethernet Address .......................................................................... 148
3.6. Adding an FQDN Address Object .................................................................... 153
3.7. Setting the DNS Minimum TTL and Minimum Lifetime ....................................... 153
3.8. Using FQDN Objects with an IP Policy .............................................................. 154
3.9. Enabling IPv6 Globally .................................................................................. 156
3.10. Enabling IPv6 on an Interface ....................................................................... 157
3.11. Manually Adding IPv6 Interface Addresses ..................................................... 158
3.12. Enabling IPv6 Advertisements ...................................................................... 160
3.13. Adding an IPv6 Route and Enabling Proxy ND ................................................. 161
3.14. Listing the Available Services ........................................................................ 166
3.15. Viewing a Specific Service ............................................................................ 167
3.16. Creating a Custom TCP/UDP Service .............................................................. 170

13
 User Manual

3.17. Adding an IP Protocol Service ....................................................................... 172

3.18. Creating a Service ....................................................................................... 173
3.19. Enabling Path MTU Discovery ....................................................................... 176
3.20. Link Aggregation ........................................................................................ 195
3.21. Defining a VLAN ......................................................................................... 198
3.22. Defining a Service VLAN .............................................................................. 200
3.23. Configuring a PPPoE Client .......................................................................... 204
3.24. 6in4 Tunnel Configuration ........................................................................... 211
3.25. Creating a Loopback Interface Pair ................................................................ 217
3.26. Creating an Interface Group ......................................................................... 218
3.27. Enabling Layer 2 Pass Through ..................................................................... 219
3.28. Displaying the ARP Cache ............................................................................ 222
3.29. Flushing the ARP Cache ............................................................................... 222
3.30. Defining an ARP/Neighbor Discovery Object ................................................... 225
3.31. Creating an IP Rule Set ................................................................................ 235
3.32. Adding a Goto Rule ..................................................................................... 238
3.33. Adding a Return Rule .................................................................................. 239
3.34. Adding an Allow IP Rule ............................................................................... 240
3.35. Setting up a Policy to Allow Connections to a DMZ .......................................... 247
3.36. Setting up a SAT Policy to an Internal Web Server ............................................ 248
3.37. Setting up a Geolocation Filter ..................................................................... 249
3.38. Creating a Stateless Policy ........................................................................... 251
3.39. Specifying an Application Control Policy ........................................................ 253
3.40. Using an Application Control Rule Set ............................................................ 255
3.41. Application Content Control ........................................................................ 259
3.42. Application Content Control with Logging ..................................................... 260
3.43. Setting up a Time-Scheduled Security Policy ................................................... 266
3.44. Uploading a Certificate with the Web Interface ............................................... 274
3.45. Associating Certificates with IPsec Tunnels ..................................................... 275
3.46. CRL Distribution Point List ........................................................................... 275
3.47. Configuring DNS Servers ............................................................................. 281
4.1. Displaying the main Routing Table .................................................................. 292
4.2. Adding a Route to the main Table ................................................................... 294
4.3. Displaying the Core Routes ............................................................................ 295
4.4. Enabling Broadcast Forwarding on a Route ...................................................... 306
4.5. Creating a Routing Table ............................................................................... 309
4.6. Adding Routes ............................................................................................. 310
4.7. Creating a Routing Rule ................................................................................. 310
4.8. Policy-based Routing with Multiple ISPs ........................................................... 313
4.9. Setting Up RLB ............................................................................................. 321
4.10. Creating an OSPF Router Process .................................................................... 353
4.11. Add an OSPF Area ....................................................................................... 354
4.12. Add OSPF Interface Objects .......................................................................... 354
4.13. Import Routes from an OSPF AS into the Main Routing Table ............................. 355
4.14. Exporting the Routes into an OSPF AS ............................................................ 356
4.15. Enabling OSPF Debug Log Events ................................................................. 358
4.16. Forwarding Multicast Traffic with a SAT Multiplex IP Rule .................................. 363
4.17. Forwarding Multicast Traffic with a Multicast Policy ......................................... 365
4.18. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation .................................................... 367
4.19. IGMP - No Address Translation ...................................................................... 370
4.20. if1 Configuration ........................................................................................ 371
4.21. if2 Configuration - Group Translation ............................................................. 372
4.22. A Transparent Mode Use Case ...................................................................... 386
5.1. Enabling an Ethernet Interface as a DHCP Client ................................................ 395
5.2. Setting up an IPv4 DHCP server ...................................................................... 399
5.3. Static IPv4 DHCP Host Assignment .................................................................. 401
5.4. Setting up a DHCP Relayer ............................................................................. 405
5.5. Creating an IP Pool ....................................................................................... 410
5.6. DHCPv6 Client Setup .................................................................................... 413
5.7. DHCPv6 Server Setup .................................................................................... 416
5.8. Static DHCPv6 Host Assignment ..................................................................... 418

14
 User Manual

6.1. Setting up an Access Rule .............................................................................. 423

6.2. Using the Light Weight HTTP ALG ................................................................... 433
6.3. Protecting an FTP Server with an ALG .............................................................. 440
6.4. Protecting FTP Clients ................................................................................... 444
6.5. SMTP ALG Setup .......................................................................................... 453
6.6. POP3 ALG Setup .......................................................................................... 459
6.7. SIP with Local Clients/Internet Proxy Using IP Rules ........................................... 470
6.8. SIP with Local Clients/Internet Proxy Using IP Policies ........................................ 471
6.9. Protecting Internal H.323 Phones Using IP Rules ................................................ 482
6.10. Protecting Internal H.323 Phones Using IP Policy Objects .................................. 483
6.11. H.323 with a Private Address Using IP Rules .................................................... 485
6.12. 2 Phones Behind Different NetDefend Firewalls Using IP Rules .......................... 487
6.13. Using Private IPv4 Addresses ........................................................................ 489
6.14. H.323 with Gatekeeper ................................................................................ 491
6.15. H.323 with Gatekeeper and two NetDefend Firewalls ....................................... 493
6.16. Using H.323 in an Enterprise Environment ...................................................... 495
6.17. Configuring remote offices for H.323 ............................................................. 498
6.18. Allowing the H.323 Gateway to register with the Gatekeeper ............................ 499
6.19. Stripping ActiveX and Java applets ................................................................ 504
6.20. URL Filtering Using IP Rules .......................................................................... 506
6.21. Enabling Web Content Filtering Using IP Rules ................................................ 511
6.22. Enabling Audit Mode .................................................................................. 513
6.23. Reclassifying a blocked site .......................................................................... 514
6.24. Enabling WCF with IP Policies ....................................................................... 516
6.25. Editing Content Filtering HTTP Banner Files .................................................... 522
6.26. Enabling the WCF Performance Log .............................................................. 525
6.27. Email filtering of IMAP Traffic ........................................................................ 531
6.28. Activating Anti-Virus with an IP Rule .............................................................. 547
6.29. Activating Anti-Virus with an IP Policy ............................................................ 548
6.30. Changing the Anti-Virus Cache Lifetime ......................................................... 550
6.31. Setting up IDP for a Mail Server ..................................................................... 560
6.32. Configuring an SMTP Log Receiver ................................................................ 563
6.33. Adding a Host to the Whitelist ...................................................................... 572
7.1. Specifying a NAT IP Rule ................................................................................ 578
7.2. Specifying a NAT IP Policy .............................................................................. 579
7.3. Using NAT Pools .......................................................................................... 586
7.4. One-to-One IP Translation ............................................................................. 591
7.5. Many-to-Many IP Translation ......................................................................... 594
7.6. All-to-One IP Translation ............................................................................... 597
7.7. Setting up a SAT IP Policy .............................................................................. 602
8.1. Creating a Local User Database ...................................................................... 610
8.2. Adding a User with Group Membership ........................................................... 611
8.3. Configuring a RADIUS Server ......................................................................... 615
8.4. User Authentication Setup for Web Access ....................................................... 629
8.5. Editing Content Filtering HTTP Banner Files ...................................................... 636
8.6. Policies Requiring Authentication ................................................................... 639
8.7. Enabling User Identity Awareness ................................................................... 642
8.8. Radius Relay ................................................................................................ 655
8.9. RADIUS Accounting Server Setup ................................................................... 662
9.1. Using an Algorithm Proposal List .................................................................... 695
9.2. Using a Pre-Shared key ................................................................................. 696
9.3. Using an ID List ............................................................................................ 698
9.4. PSK Based LAN-to-LAN IPsec Tunnel Setup ....................................................... 705
9.5. PSK Based IPsec Tunnel for Roaming Clients Setup ............................................ 708
9.6. Certificate Based IPsec Tunnels for Roaming Clients ........................................... 710
9.7. Setting Up Config Mode Using a Predefined IP Pool ........................................... 712
9.8. Using Config Mode with IPsec Tunnels ............................................................ 713
9.9. IKEv2 EAP Client Setup .................................................................................. 716
9.10. Setting up an LDAP server ........................................................................... 719
9.11. Enabling IPsec Tunnel Monitoring ................................................................. 722
9.12. Setting up a PPTP server .............................................................................. 730

15
 User Manual

9.13. Setting up an L2TP server ............................................................................ 731

9.14. Setting up an L2TP Tunnel Over IPsec ............................................................ 732
9.15. L2TPv3 Server Setup ................................................................................... 743
9.16. L2TPv3 Server Setup With IPsec .................................................................... 744
9.17. L2TPv3 Server Setup For VLANs .................................................................... 746
9.18. L2TPv3 Client Setup .................................................................................... 749
9.19. L2TPv3 Client Setup With IPsec ..................................................................... 750
9.20. Setting Up an SSL VPN Interface .................................................................... 759
9.21. Setting SSL VPN Interface Client Routes ......................................................... 761
10.1. Applying a Simple Bandwidth Limit ............................................................... 780
10.2. Limiting Bandwidth in Both Directions ........................................................... 782
10.3. Creating a Threshold Rule ............................................................................ 805
10.4. Setting up SLB with IP Rules ......................................................................... 813
10.5. Setting up SLB with an SLB Policy .................................................................. 816
11.1. Enabling Automatic Cluster Synchronization .................................................. 821
12.1. Setting Up ZoneDefense .............................................................................. 846

16
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

17
 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

18
 Preface

Certain names in this publication are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Windows is either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United

States and/or other countries.

Apple, Mac and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Inc. registered in the United States and/or other
countries.

19
Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

This chapter outlines the key features of NetDefendOS.

• Features, page 20

• NetDefendOS Architecture, page 24

• NetDefendOS State Engine Packet Flow, page 28

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,

20
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

NetDefendOS supports features such as Virtual LANs, Route

Monitoring, Proxy ARP and Transparency.

For more information about this, 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 endpoint for connections
by HTTP web-browser clients (this feature is sometimes
called SSL termination).

For detailed information, see Section 6.2.11, “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 3.7, “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 6.5, “Anti-Virus

Scanning”.

Intrusion Detection and To mitigate application-layer attacks towards vulnerabilities

Prevention 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.

21
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

More information about IDP can be found in Section 6.6,

“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 external 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. This is discussed
further in Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

Note
NetDefendOS ZoneDefense is not available on
the D-Link DFL-260E.

22
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

Virtual Routers Using two or more, separate NetDefendOS routing tables, it

is possible to create separate virtual routers in a single
NetDefend Firewall. Although a single version of
NetDefendOS is being run, it is possible to create separate
sets of IP rules and other policies so that different sets of
traffic can be completely separated from each other within
a single NetDefend Firewall.

See Section 4.5, “Virtual Routing” for more information about

this topic.

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”.

In addition to the list above, NetDefendOS includes a number of other features such as RADIUS
Accounting, DHCP services, protection against Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, support for PPPoE,
GRE, dynamic DNS services and much more.

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 and NetDefendOS
configuration object.

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

• The NetDefendOS Application Control Signatures reference which details all the application
control signatures available in NetDefendOS.
Together, these documents form the essential reference material for NetDefendOS operation.

23
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

1.2. NetDefendOS Architecture

This section looks at the overall architecture of the NetDefendOS software product and describes
some of the key concepts that lie behind its design.

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

24
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

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.

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

25
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

interface.

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

26
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

further analyze or transform the traffic.

• 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.

27
 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.

28
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

Figure 1.2. Packet Flow Schematic Part II

The packet flow is continued on the following page.

29
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

Figure 1.3. Packet Flow Schematic Part III

30
 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

31
 Chapter 1: NetDefendOS Overview

32
Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

This chapter describes the management, operations and maintenance related aspects of
NetDefendOS.

• Managing NetDefendOS, page 33

• System Date and Time, page 78

• Events and Logging, page 87

• Monitoring, page 103

• SNMP, page 111

• Diagnostic Tools, page 118

• Maintenance, page 135

• Languages, page 141

• Diagnostics and Improvements, page 142

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 User Interfaces

NetDefendOS provides the following management interfaces:

33
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• 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 using HTTP or HTTPS (by
default, only HTTPS is enabled) and NetDefendOS responds like a web server, allowing web
pages to be used as the management interface.

By default with NetDefendOS, 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 should be used as the default interface).

This feature is described further in Section 2.1.4, “The Web Interface”.

• The CLI

The Command Line Interface (CLI), accessible via the local console port or remotely using the
Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, provides the most fine-grained control over all parameters in
NetDefendOS.

This feature is described further in Section 2.1.5, “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 described further in Section 2.1.7, “Secure Copy”.

• The Console Boot Menu

Before NetDefendOS starts running, a console connected directly to the NetDefend Firewall's
local console 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 described further in Section 2.1.8, “The Console Boot Menu”.

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.

All management access requires that a Remote Management object exists to allow that access.
The predefined Remote Management objects and how to create new ones are described in the
next section.

2.1.2. Configuring Management Access

Management access to NetDefendOS by an administrator depends on two factors:

• The IP address assigned to the default management Ethernet interface. This IP address can be
changed as long as the new IP still belongs to the network that is allowed by the relevant
Remote Management object.

34
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• What kind of access the configuration's set of Remote Management objects allow. These
objects determine the interface on which management access is permitted, what type of
access is allowed via that interface, and which source IP addresses the access can originate
from.

The Default Interface and IP for Management Access

The default management interface chosen by NetDefendOS can be different depending on the
hardware but is usually the first one found by NetDefendOS when the available interfaces are
first scanned on initial startup.

NetDefendOS assigns the default IPv4 address 192.168.10.1 to this management interface and
HTTPS access is allowed from the 192.168.10.0/24 network. The interface and IP address
assignments are summarized in the table below.

Hardware Management Interface Default IP Address

DFL-260E LAN 192.168.10.1
DFL-860E LAN 192.168.10.1
DFL-870 LAN1 192.168.10.1
DFL-1660 LAN1 192.168.10.1
DFL-2560 LAN1 192.168.10.1
DFL-2560G LAN1 192.168.10.1

Remote Management Objects

Remote access over a network to NetDefendOS is controlled by a set of Remote Management

objects and and these objects can be any of the following types:

• HTTP/HTTPS Management

A predefined object of this type called rmgmt_http already exists in the default NetDefendOS
configuration.

• SSH Management

This object type controls access via an SSH client.

• SNMP Management

This object type controls access via an SNMP client. No object of this type exists in the default
NetDefendOS configuration and one must be created to allow this kind of access.

SNMP access is discussed further in Section 2.5, “SNMP”.

As mentioned above, the following Remote Management objects are already predefined in
NetDefendOS:

• rmgmt_http

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

• rmgmt_ssh

35
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

This is a RemoteMgmtSSH object that controls SSH access via the CLI. This is enabled by
default and allows SSH access from the 192.168.1.0/24 network on the default management
interface.

For other types of access, such as SNMP access, additional Remote Management objects must be
created.

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.

• Changes made via the Local 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 to change has the name Validation Timeout in the Web Interface
and NetconBiDirTimeout in the CLI. It is a global setting.

36
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Example 2.1. 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:

• Validation Timeout: 60

3. Click OK

An Alternative Method of Changing the Management Interface

An alternative method of changing the management interface, which avoids the 30 second delay
entirely, is as follows:

1. Login using the existing remote management interface, add a new Remote Management
object, then activate and commit the change.

2. Disconnect and then reconnect using the interface specified by the new Remote
Management object.

3. Delete the old Remote Management object and the 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 object for that interface. If it does not, the object must be changed to allow
the IP.

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.

37
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Example 2.2. 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 or 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:

• IP address: 192.168.1.2

5. Click OK

Changing a Remote Management Object

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 2.3. Changing a Remote Management Object

This example will change the current HTTP/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. Connection with both HTTP and HTTPS connection will be allowed.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtHTTP rmgmt_http

HTTP=Yes
HTTPS=Yes
Network=management_net
Interface=If2

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Remote Management > rmgmt_http

2. Set the following:

• Enable HTTP

38
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• Enable HTTPS

• Interface: If2

• Network: management_net

3. 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 2.4. 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:

• Slave IP Address: 192.168.1.2

4. Click OK

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

Adding Remote Management Objects

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.

39
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Example 2.5. Adding 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:

• User Database: AdminUsers

• Interface: If2

• Network: all-nets

5. Click OK

2.1.3. 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.

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.

Only One Administrator Account Can Be Logged In

40
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 (using different credentials) 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.

However, NetDefendOS does allow the same administrator account (in other words, using the
same administrator credentials) to be logged in more than once at the same time. This means it
is possible, for example, to have a CLI session in progress as an administrator at the same time as
also performing administrator management operations through the Web Interface.

2.1.4. 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 IPv4 address is assigned
automatically by NetDefendOS to the hardware's LAN1 interface (or the LAN interface on
models without multiple LAN interfaces). The IP address assigned to the management interface
is always 192.168.10.1.

Changing the management interface and/or IP address from the default is described in
Section 2.1.2, “Configuring 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 should be assigned the following static IP values:

• IP address: 192.168.10.30

• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

• Default gateway: 192.168.10.1

The diagram below illustrates management workstation connection via a switch.

41
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Figure 2.1. Management Workstation Connection

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 to the following IPv4 address:
192.168.10.1.

Note that the protocol must be https:// when accessing NetDefendOS for the first time (HTTP
can be enabled later. With HTTPS, NetDefendOS will send back its own self-signed certificate for
the encryption and the browser will ask the administrator to confirm that a security exception
should be made.

When 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 credentials are
as follows:

• Username: admin

• Password: admin
If the entered credentials are correct, NetDefendOS will present the main Web Interface page in
the browser.

Note: Password caching is prevented

42
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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, with VPN authentication.

First Time Web Interface Login 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 NetDefendOS Web 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.

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.

The wizard can be terminated and setup up done as a series of separate steps through the Web
Interface if desired or alternatively through the CLI.

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.

43
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

For information about the default user name and password, see Section 2.1.3, “Administrator
Account”.

Note: Security policies control 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 2.1.2, “Configuring 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 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.

C. Main Window 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,

44
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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
screenshot below shows the information displayed when the cursor hovers over the
Primary Retry Interval field text in the RADIUS settings.

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 2.1.2, “Configuring
Management Access”.

Note: Examples in this guide assume activation will be performed

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

45
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 2.6. 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: Do not expose the management interface

The above examples are provided for illustrative purposes only. It is never advisable to
expose any management interface to access from the public Internet.

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.

2.1.5. 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

46
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

configuration. The CLI is available either locally through the local 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 system maintenance
tasks to be performed.

The CLI is case-sensitive. However, the tab-completion feature of the CLI does not require the
correct case to perform completion and will alter the typed case if it is required.

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 normally 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
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

47
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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 DestinationNetwork SourceInterface
DestinationInterface Service 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

48
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 become 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 LogReceiver LogReceiverSyslog example

Address=example_ip
LogSeverity=Emergency,Alert,Critical,Error,Warning,Notice,Info

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=

49
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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:

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

50
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 2.1.6, “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
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.example.com would be specified as
dns:host.example.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.

51
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Local Console CLI Access

The local console port is a connection port on the NetDefend Firewall that allows management
access to the NetDefendOS CLI through a direct connection to a management workstation. The
complete procedure for setting up this connection is described in the relevant D-Link Quick Start
Guide. In summary, setup requires the following:

• A management computer or device with the ability to emulate a terminal console.

Appropriate communications software may need to be installed for console emulation and
this is available from a number of third parties.

• A cable with appropriate connectors to connect the NetDefend Firewall with the computer.

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

1. Set the console communication protocol appropriately if required.

2. Connect one of the connectors of the cable directly to the local console port on the
NetDefend Firewall.

3. Connect the other end of the cable to the computer running the console.

4. Press the enter key on the terminal console. The NetDefendOS login prompt should appear
on the console to indicate successful communication. CLI commands can now be entered.

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.

NetDefendOS supports version 2 of the SSH protocol. SSH access is regulated by the remote
management policy in NetDefendOS, and is disabled by default.

Example 2.7. 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:

• User Database: AdminUsers

52
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• Interface: lan

• Network: lannet

4. Click OK

Automatic Authentication with SSH Keys

By default, SSH access requires a username and password to be entered. An alternative is to

authenticate automatically by using SSH keys. This method of authentication is useful when using
scripts.

Authentication in this way requires that the public key file of a public/private key pair is
uploaded to NetDefendOS and associated with the relevant User object. Both the public and
private key files are installed in the connecting SSH client.

SSH key authentication is enabled with the following steps:

1. Create a suitable set of key files using a third party tool. Key generation can also be done
directly within some SSH clients. The key files will consist of a private key file and a public
key file. By convention, these are often called id_rsa (the private key) and id_rsa.pub (the
public key).

2. Install the key files into the SSH client. This may already have been done if the client was
used to generate the keys.

3. Upload the public key file to NetDefendOS using SCP. The file must be stored in the
NetDefendOS folder called sshclientkeys (SCP and this folder are described further in
Section 2.1.7, “Secure Copy”).

The public key file will usually have an original filetype of .pub but the filename on
NetDefendOS cannot have a period (".") in the name. If the local filename of the certificate's
public key file is id_rsa.pub, this must become something without the period in
NetDefendOS storage. For example, it could get the new name my_public_ssh_key and it
might be uploaded to NetDefendOS with an SCP client command similar to the following:

> scp id_rsa.pub [email protected]:sshclientkeys/my_public_ssh_key

4. In NetDefendOS, set the SSH Keys property of the relevant User object to be the uploaded
public key file. For example, the user admin could be assigned the key file
my_public_ssh_key. This step is described in detail in the example below.

5. Connect to NetDefendOS using SSH with key authentication. Authentication will now occur
automatically and there will be no prompt for credentials to be entered.

Example 2.8. Enabling SSH Authentication Using SSH Keys

This example shows how to enable automatic SSH authentication for the user admin. It is
assumed that an SSH public key file called my_ssh_cert has already been uploaded to
NetDefendOS's sshclientkeys folder using SCP.

Command-Line Interface

53
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Change the CLI context to be the user database containing the user:

gw-world:/> cc LocalUserDatabase AdminUsers

Set the SSHKeys property of the relevant user to be the uploaded SSH key file:

gw-world:/AdminUsers> set User admin SSHKeys=my_public_ssh_key

Change the CLI context back to the default:

gw-world:/AdminUsers> cc
gw-world:/>

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Local User Databases

2. Select the database AdminUsers

3. Select Users

4. Select the user admin

5. Select SSH Public Key

6. Add the my_public_ssh_key to the Selected list

7. Click OK

Logging In to the CLI

When access to the CLI has been established to NetDefendOS through the local console or an
SSH client, the administrator will need to log on 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 login, the CLI command prompt will appear:

gw-world:/>

If a welcome message has been set then it will be displayed directly after the login. 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.
First we must change the current category to be the LocalUserDatabase called AdminUsers (which
exists by default):

54
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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, 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 local 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 2.1.8, “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

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

55
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 2.1.2, “Configuring 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. It includes a reloading of
the configuration (in other words, a reconfiguration operation).

The shutdown command can be followed by an integer between 0 and 60 which is a delay in
seconds before the command is executed. For example:

gw-world:/> shutdown 30

The default value for the delay is 5 seconds.

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.

56
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Checking Configuration Integrity

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:

57
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• Secure Shell (SSH) CLI sessions.

• Any CLI session through the local console interface.

• 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 : 3
Maximum allowed connections : 64
Local idle session timeout : 900
NetCon idle session timeout : 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 Type Mode Access
-------- ---------------- --------- ------- ------- --------
local <empty> 0.0.0.0 local console 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.

2.1.6. 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). There are a number of
third party software products that can provide SCP on various computer platforms. Script
files must be stored in a directory below the root called script. For example, a typical SCP
console command for uploading might be:

> scp my_script.sgs [email protected]:script/

SCP uploading is discussed further in Section 2.1.7, “Secure Copy”.

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

58
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 2.1.5, “The CLI”.

Note: Uploaded scripts are lost after a restart

Uploaded CLI script files are not held in permanent memory and will disappear after
system restarts.

Only Four Commands are Allowed in CLI 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

59
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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"

Escaping Characters

Sometimes, there is a requirement to escape certain characters in a command so they are treated
as ordinary characters when the command is executed. This is particularly true for the dollar-sign
"$" character. Consider the string: "te$t". In order to have the dollar-sign treated as a normal
character, it can be escaped in the normal way by using a backslash "\" character. The string
would become "te\$t" and the dollar-sign is no longer treated as special.

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.

60
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

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 Storage Size (bytes)
-------------- ------------ --------------
my_script.sgs RAM 8
my_script2.sgs Disk 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 IP4Address If1_ip Address=10.6.60.10

add IP4Address If1_net Address=10.6.60.0/24

61
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

add IP4Address If1_br Address=10.6.60.255

add IP4Address 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...

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.

However, note that the following objects will not be included in a script created for the entire
configuration:

i. Added Certificate objects.

ii. Objects marked for deletion.

• 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:

62
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• 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 in 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

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.

Running Scripts from the Web Interface

It is possible to upload and execute a CLI script through the Web Interface. Following execution
of the script, it is not retained in memory.

The script does not need to have a filetype of .sgs for this feature to be used. Any filetype is
acceptable.

Example 2.9. Running a CLI Script from the Web Interface

In this example, a CLI script called my_script.sgs on local disk storage is uploaded and executed
through the Web Interface.

Web Interface

1. Go to: Status > Maintenance > Import Script

2. Select Browse and choose the script file my_script.sgs

63
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

3. Select Upload and Execute

4. A message is displayed indicating successful execution

5. The changed configuration must now be activated and saved

2.1.7. 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 Yes
SSH public keys Yes No
Web auth banner files Yes Yes
Web content filter banner files Yes Yes

NetDefendOS File organization

64
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

NetDefendOS maintains a simple two 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/
sshclientkeys/

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

• HTTPAuthBanners/ - The folder containing the HTML banner files for user authentication.
Uploading these is described further in Section 6.3.4.5, “Customizing WCF HTML Pages”.

• HTTPALGBanners/ - The folder containing HTML banner files for HTML ALG dynamic content
filtering. Uploading these is described further in Section 6.3.4.5, “Customizing WCF HTML
Pages”.

• certificate/ - The folder containing uploaded X.509 digital certificates for VPN.

• script/ - The folder containing all CLI scripts. Scripts are described further in Section 2.1.6, “CLI
Scripts”.

• sshclientkeys/ - The folder containing SSH client public key files that allow automatic
authentication from an SSH client which has the matching private key installed. The filename
should not have a filetype (in other words, there should be no period character in the name).
After upload, the administrator should associate the file with a User object so that user can
have automatic authentication enabled.

SSH authentication with certificates is described further in Section 2.1.5, “The CLI”.

Examples of Uploading and Downloading

In some cases, a file is located in the NetDefendOS root directory. Configuration backup files
(config.bak) and the complete system backup files (full.bak) will be saved to the root directory.

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:

65
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

> scp my_script.sgs [email protected]:script/

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.

2.1.8. 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:

66
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

1. Start firewall

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

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:

• Remove console security so there is no console password.

• Restore default NetDefendOS executables along with the default configuration.

3. 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.

2.1.9. RADIUS Management Authentication

For system management tasks in the default NetDefendOS configuration, the administrator logs

67
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

in to the Web Interface or CLI via SSH using a username and password that are checked against
the credentials stored in a local NetDefendOS database.

An alternative to using a local database is to have NetDefendOS perform authentication of the

entered credentials against an external RADIUS server. This is done by changing the properties of
the Remote Management object mgmt_http for Web Interface access and/or the properties of the
mgmt_ssh object for CLI access via SSH. Configuring either of these objects for RADIUS
authentication consists of the following steps:

• Select the Authentication Source property to be RADIUS.

• Select the Authentication Order property to be one of the following:

i. Local First - The login credentials are first looked up in the local user database. If not
found in the local database, the configured RADIUS servers are queried.

ii. Local Last - The local database is only queried if none of the configured RADIUS servers
responds to an authentication request.

• Select one or more RADIUS servers to use for authentication. If there is more than one, they
will be tried sequentially if one is unavailable. The servers selected must have already been
configured as Radius Server objects in NetDefendOS (see Section 8.2.3, “External RADIUS
Servers” for how to do this).

• Specify the Admin Groups and/or Audit Groups to decide which kind of access will be given
once login credentials are authenticated by a RADIUS server. These group names are
matched by NetDefendOS against the group name returned for the user by the RADIUS
server. Setting either of these properties to the single wildcard character asterisk "*" means
any group will get that access. Leaving either property blank means no user can have that
type of access.

The administrator group names take precedence over the auditor groups. This means if a
user is first authenticated by being a member of the administrator groups, auditor group
membership is ignored. Therefore, specifying the asterisk "*" character for the Admin
Groups property means that auditor group membership will never be checked.

Note that the wildcard "*" character can be used instead of all or part of a group name. For
example, the string sys* means any group name that begins with the three letters sys.

Important: Group membership must be defined on the server

It is important to note that all management users authenticated by a RADIUS server
must have their group membership defined on the RADIUS server. They cannot be
authenticated without group membership which NetDefendOS matches against the
Admin Groups and Audit Groups properties.

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.

The Login Message Changes for a Group Mismatch

68
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Once set up, the login actions taken by the administrator are the same as with non-RADIUS
authentication and there is almost no indication in the Web Interface or in the CLI that RADIUS is
being used for authentication.

However, there is one exception. When the user credentials are correct but the group name
returned by the RADIUS server does not match any group in the Admin Groups or Audit
Groups, then the Web Interface or CLI will display the following message:

You do not have permission to access this device.

Generated Log Event Messages

Log messages indicate a successful or unsuccessful login by the administrator. With RADIUS
management authentication, the log message will show the following field values:

• The usergroups field will show a list of all the group memberships returned by the
authenticating RADIUS server. This is often helps in troubleshooting why a user was unable
to successfully login.

• The access_level indicates the privileges granted for successful authentication.

• The authsource field will have the value RADIUS.

• The userdb field will have the value of the RADIUS server object name used.

• The server_ip is the IP of the NetDefendOS interface the client is connecting to. It is not the
IP of the authenticating RADIUS server.

• The client_ip is the IP of the computer the user is trying to login from.

Below are some typical examples of log event messages:

• Successful RADIUS Authentication

A successful login with the user being part of the system_admins group:

event=admin_login authsystem=HTTP interface=If1 username=jdoe

usergroups=sys_admins access_level=administrator authsource=RADIUS
userdb=radius_auth1 server_ip=192.168.1.1 server_port=80
client_ip=192.168.1.30 client_port=6132

• Insufficient Access Rights

The user entered a correct username and password but the group name returned by the
RADIUS server (sys_admins in the example below) was not found in either the Admin Groups
or Audit Groups lists:

event=admin_authorization_failed action=disallow_admin_access
authsystem=HTTP interface=If1 username=jdoe usergroups=sys_admins
authsource=RADIUS userdb=radius_auth1 server_ip=192.168.1.1
server_port=80 client_ip=192.168.1.30 client_port=6042

• Servers Unreachable

All configured RADIUS servers were unreachable and a timeout condition occurred:

event=admin_authsource_timeout authsystem=HTTP interface=If1 username=jdoe

69
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

authsource=RADIUS server_ip=192.168.1.1 server_port=80

client_ip=192.168.1.30 client_port=5987

The Local Console is a Fallback Option

It is possible that the administrator could be locked out from logging on via the Web Interface or
the CLI over SSH because a RADIUS server will not authenticate the entered credentials and the
local database is not allowed to do it either. In such cases, the local console port on the
NetDefend Firewall can still be used for management access. However, if the password has been
set for the local console then that password must still be given to get CLI management access
(note that the console password is totally separate from other management passwords).

Example 2.10. Enabling RADIUS Management Authentication

This example will change the current default rule for Web Interface management access so that
authentication is performed using two RADIUS servers. It is assumed that the RADIUS server
objects are already defined in the configuration and have the names radius_auth1 and
radius_auth2 where radius_auth2 is the fallback server in case the other fails to respond.

The Authentication Order will be set to Local First which will mean that the local NetDefendOS
database will be consulted first. If the user is not found there then the RADIUS servers will be
queried.

All users who are members of the group sys_admins are allowed full access privileges. All other
authenticated users will have audit privileges only.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtHTTP rmgmt_http

AuthSource=RADIUS
AuthOrder=LocalFirst
RadiusServers=radius_auth1,radius_auth2
AdminGroups=sys_admins

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Remote Management

2. Select the rmgmt_http object so that its properties can be edited

3. Set Authentication Source to RADIUS

4. Set Authentication Order to Local First

5. For RADIUS Server, select radius_auth1 and press Include

6. Repeat the preceding step, selecting radius_auth2

7. Set Admin Groups to be sys_admins

8. Click OK

2.1.10. Management Advanced Settings

70
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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

2.1.11. 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,

71
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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 2.11. 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.

72
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Example 2.12. Displaying a Configuration Object

The simplest operation on a configuration object is to show the values of its 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 Value
----------------- -------
Name: telnet
DestinationPorts: 23
Type: TCP
SourcePorts: 0-65535
SYNRelay: No
PassICMPReturn: No
ALG: <empty>
MaxSessions: 1000
Comments: 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 2.13. 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 Value
----------------- -------

73
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Name: telnet
DestinationPorts: 23
Type: TCP
SourcePorts: 0-65535
SYNRelay: No
PassICMPReturn: No
ALG: <empty>
MaxSessions: 1000
Comments: Modified Comment

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Services

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 2.14. 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 Value
--------------------- -------------
Name: myhost
Address: 192.168.10.10
UserAuthGroups: <empty>
NoDefinedCredentials: No
Comments: <empty>

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Address Book

2. Click on the Add button

74
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

Example 2.15. 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 strikethrough line indicating that the object is marked for
deletion.

Example 2.16. 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

75
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 2.17. Listing Modified Configuration Objects

This example shows how to list configuration objects that have been modified.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> show -changes

Type Object
------------- ------
- IP4Address myhost
* ServiceTCPUDP 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 2.18. Activating and Committing a Configuration

This example shows how to activate and commit a new configuration.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> activate

76
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

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.

77
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.2. System Date and Time

2.2.1. 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.

Methods of Setting the Time

NetDefendOS provides two methods of setting the time:

• Setting Manually

The date and time can be set manually by the administrator. This is described in Section 2.2.2,
“Setting Date and Time Manually”.

• Setting Automatically Using External Time Servers

NetDefendOS supports the use of external time Servers using time synchronization protocols to
automatically adjust the local system clock from the response to queries sent over the public
Internet to these servers. This is described further in Section 2.2.4, “Using External Time
Servers”.

There are two types of time server that NetDefendOS can use:

i. Public Servers - These are servers that can be used by anyone.

ii. D-Link Servers - These are D-Link's own time servers and is the recommended method
of setting the date and time.

2.2.2. Setting Date and Time Manually

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 2.19. 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:

78
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

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 2.20. 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

2.2.3. Daylight Saving Time

79
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Introduction

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. 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 cannot automatically know how to adjust for DST without
some input from the administrator. Adjusting for DST in NetDefendOS can be done in one of the
following ways:

• Specifying a Location Name for tz Database Lookup

NetDefendOS has a local copy of the tz database which is used to map a location name to the
daylight saving rules for that location. The administrator just has to specify the correct
location name so NetDefendOS can perform a lookup in the database to find the DST rules to
apply.

Note that the tz database is also known as the Olson database or the IANA time zone database
or even just tzdata. In this document it will be referred to as the tz database.

• Specifying the DST Offset Manually

This option allows the administrator to specify the DST rule manually by entering an offset
from the time in the specified timezone along with a start and end day for the offset to be
applied.

These options are described next.

Specifying a Location Name for tz Database Lookup

The tz database is a publicly available database for mapping a location name to the daylight
saving rule for a given location. The database is part of the NetDefendOS distribution and is
stored locally.

The location string for database lookup is specified as a hierarchical set of locations. The
following are some examples of location string values.

• America/Costa_Rica
• Asia/Sakhalin
• Antarctica/DumontDUrville
• Europe/Stockholm

To set the correct daylight saving rules, the administrator must assign the relevant location string
value to the Location property of the NetDefendOS DateTime object. The exact string name is not
needed beforehand because the NetDefendOS Web Interface will provide the complete location
list for selection and the CLI will provide the complete list with tab completion.

Example 2.21. Enabling DST with the tz Database

This example shows how the NetDefendOS system time is set for the correct daylight saving
rules for Stockholm, Sweden.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set DateTime DSTEnabled=Yes

DSTMode=Automatic
Location=Europe/Stockholm

80
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2. Check Enable daylight saving time

3. Enable Automatic

4. For Location select Europe/Stockholm

5. Click OK

Specifying the DST Offset Manually

When setting DST manually, the Time Zone needs to be specified as GMT plus or minus a number
of hours and then the following properties need to be set:

• Offset - This is the offset in minutes for the DST change in the specified time zone.

• Start Date - The offset is applied at the beginning of this day.

• End Date - The offset is no longer applied at the beginning of this day.

Example 2.22. Enabling DST Manually

In this example, a DST rule for Stockholm Sweden will be applied. This is an offset of plus 60
minutes that is applied at the beginning of March 29th and no longer applied at the beginning
of October 25th.

It is assumed that the Time zone is already set to the value GMT.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set DateTime DSTEnabled=Yes

DSTMode=Manual
DSTOffset=60
DSTStartMonth=March
DSTStartDay=29
DSTEndMonth=October
DSTEndDay=25

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2. Check Enable daylight saving time

3. Enable Manual

4. For Offset enter 60

5. For Start Date select March

6. For Start Day select 29

81
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

7. For End Date select October

8. For End Day select 25

9. Click OK

2.2.4. Using External Time Servers

NetDefendOS is able to adjust the system time automatically using information received from
one or more external time servers. These time provide a highly accurate time, usually using
atomic clocks. Using time servers is 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 such protocols:

• SNTP

Defined by RFC 2030, The Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) is a lightweight
implementation of NTP (RFC 1305). SNTP is used by NetDefendOS to query time servers. Most
public time servers are described as being NTP servers and are accessible using SNTP.

• UDP/TIME

The UDP/TIME protocol is an older method of providing time synchronization service over the
Internet. The server sends back the time in seconds since midnight on January 1st, 1900.

Methods of Configuring Time Servers

NetDefendOS provides the ability to configure one of the following two types of time server:

• The D-Link Time Server

D-Link operates its own time server which can be used instead of publicly available servers.

• Custom Time Servers

Specific time servers can be specified. There are a number of publicly available time servers
that can be configured.

Configuring these two types of server is described next.

Configuring the D-Link Time Server

A single property exists to switch on or off usage of the D-Link time server. This is the easiest way
of configuring a time server since no other server details need to be specified. NetDefendOS will
find the IP address of the time server by performing a DNS lookup of the time server's FQDN.

Note that at least one external DNS server must be configured in NetDefendOS so that the FQDN
of the D-Link's time server can be resolved.

82
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Example 2.23. Using the D-Link Time Server

To enable the use of the D-Link time 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 (preconfigured timesync server)

3. Click OK

Configuring Custom Time Servers

NetDefendOS can be configured to query multiple external time servers. 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 find
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
that time server URLs can be resolved (see Section 3.10, “DNS”). This is not needed if
using IP addresses for the servers but is always needed if using the option of D-Link's
own time servers.

Example 2.24. Configuring Custom Time Servers

In this example, time synchronization is set up to use the SNTP protocol to communicate with
the time servers at the Swedish National Laboratory for Time and Frequency. The time 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

83
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2. Enable Custom under Time synchronization

3. Now enter:

• Time Server Type: SNTP

• Primary Time Server: dns:ntp1.sp.se

• Secondary Time Server: dns:ntp2.sp.se

4. 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.

Example 2.25. Manually Triggering a Time Synchronization

Time synchronization can be manually 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)
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 an 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 2.26. Modifying the Maximum Adjustment Value

In this example, The maximum adjustment value will be set to 40,000 seconds. This is the
maximum time difference 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.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set DateTime TimeSyncMaxAdjust=40000

84
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Date and Time

2. Set Max drift to 40000

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 2.27. 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

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.

2.2.5. Settings Summary for Date and Time

Below, is a summary of the key properties 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.

Default: none

85
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

86
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.3. Events and Logging

2.3.1. 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 troubleshooting.

Log Message Generation

NetDefendOS defines a large number of different log 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.

2.3.2. 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:

87
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• 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 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.

2.3.3. 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.

• Memory Log Receiver

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 2.3.4, “The Memory Log Receiver
(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 2.3.5, “The Syslog Log Receiver”.

• Mail Alerting

The Mail Altering function allows a number of log messages to be grouped together into a
single email which is then sent to a given email address via a designated SMTP server.

88
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

This receiver type is discussed further below in Section 2.3.6, “Mail Alerting”.

2.3.4. The Memory Log Receiver (Memlog)

Overview

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

2.3.5. The Syslog Log Receiver

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:

89
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Feb 5 2000 09:45:23 firewall.example.com

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

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

Subsequent text is dependent on the event that has occurred.

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 2.28. 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 LogReceiver 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

90
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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 2.29. 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 5424 compliance will also be enabled with a
hostname of my_host1 in the Syslog header.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add LogReceiver LogReceiverSyslog my_syslog

IPAddress=192.168.5.1
RFC5424=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

91
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.3.6. Mail Alerting

Overview

By creating a Mail Altering object, NetDefendOS can be configured to send log messages in an
email to a specified email address via a nominated external SMTP server. The Mail Altering object
can be considered to be like other types of log receivers and it is possible to select the type of log
messages that are sent.

The intended purpose of this feature is to provide a means of quickly altering the administrator
of any important NetDefendOS events so the selected level of severity for the events sent in this
way will usually be very high.

Mail Altering Object Properties

Many Mail Alerting object properties are the same as in other types of log receiver object and will
not be listed again in this section. The object properties that are unique are the following:

• SMTP Server

The IP address of an SMTP server that will forward generated emails to the destination email
address. This can also be an FQDN address object or a DNS resolvable FQDN (note that both
require that a DNS server is configured in NetDefendOS).

• Server Port

The port number that the SMTP server listens on. This is set by default to the standard port
number of 25.

• SMTP Recipient

A single destination email address for outgoing mails.

• SMTP Sender

A string which will be the sender name text in emails.

• Subject

A string which will be the subject text in emails.

• Send Test Email

This is not a property but a button in the Web Interface used to test the SMTP properties
entered. It has a CLI equivalent and is explained further later in this section.

Event Trigger Mode

• Single event trigger

A single email is sent for at least each eligible event. The Event count threshold and Event
count period values are not used with this option. However, when a single event is ready for
sending it must wait for the Keep collecting before sending period so other eligible events can
be added to the mail.

• Rate of events trigger

92
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Multiple events are collected together into each email sent. The number of events collected
before email sending is controlled by the values of the Event count threshold and Event count
period properties.

• Event count threshold

An email is only sent if this number of events has occurred over the preceding number of
minutes specified by the Event count period property. The trigger is therefore a given rate of
events and not just an accumulation of events. Events that have already been included in a
sent email are not counted again.

When a Mail Alerting object is first created, this count is zero and is always reset to zero when
NetDefendOS restarts. When an email is sent by the Mail Alerting, object, this count is also
reset to zero.

This property and the property Event count period are not used if Single event trigger is
selected.

• Event count period

This is the number of minutes referred to in the Event count threshold description above and
is the period of recent time in which events are being counted.

• Send report emails

When enabled, an email is always sent at least in the period of time specified by the Report
email interval, even if the sent email has no events in it and even if the email is has no events
in it or even if (in the case of the Rate of events trigger) the Event count threshold value has not
been reached.

This is not used in Single event trigger mode

• Report email interval

This is the maximum length of time in hours that can elapse before an email is sent even
though the email might contain no events. Typically, this value might be set to 24 so that the
Mail Alerting object generates at least one email a day even though it might be empty. This
can inform the administrator that the system is up and highlight any events of interest.

• Report email subject

When a report email is sent, this will be the subject line of the email. This allows the
administrator to easily distinguish if an email is a report email or an email generated by a
trigger.

The property must have a string value and cannot be left empty.

• Keep collecting before sending

If an email is ready to be sent, NetDefendOS will wait this number of minutes before sending
it. Any new events that occur while the email is waiting to be sent are added to the pending
email.

This can be used in either triggering mode. If the mode is Single event trigger, any new events
during the period after the initial triggering event will be added to the email.

NetDefendOS only sends events in one minute intervals so this means that even is this
property is set to zero, there can still be a delay before the email is sent and extra events can
still be added during this delay.

• Minimum time between emails

93
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Consecutive sent emails cannot have less than this amount of elapsed time between them.
The value of this property can prevent emails being sent too often.

If an email is ready to send but cannot because it is within this period of time, any new events
will be added to the email until this period has expired.

Advanced Options

• Identity

This string parameter identifies the SMTP client in the HELO or EHLO command sent to the
SMTP server by NetDefendOS. If this property is not set, NetDefendOS will set this
automatically to the IPv4 address of the NetDefendOS interface that sends to the SMTP
server.

• X-Mailer

This is the name of the software that is communicating with the SMTP server. This is optional
and is left blank by default.

Mail Alerting Processing Flow

To better explain the settings for the event trigger properties, consider the following example: a
Mail Alerting object has been configured in NetDefendOS and the Multiple events trigger option
has been selected with a Event count period value of 2 minutes and an Event count threshold value
of 3 events (in other words 3 events must occur in a 2 minute window for an email to be sent).

Assume that since sending its last email, 6 log events occur that are eligible for mailing and these
occur over a 6 minute period of time. The diagram below divides the 6 minutes into 2 minute
sections for clarity and shows when the events occur.

The processing flow is as follows:

1. NetDefendOS starts counting the events from zero before the 1st event.

2. The 3rd event occurs, reaching the threshold. However, the 1st event is outside the 2 minute
time window and only the 2nd and 3rd events are inside the time period so an email is not
sent.

3. This is also the case for the 4th and 5th events. There are not enough other events in the
previous 2 minutes for either to reach the threshold of 3.

4. Only when the 6th event occurs is the threshold of 3 events reached within the previous 2
minutes and an email is sent (after waiting the Keep collecting before sending number of
minutes during which time any new log events will be added to the email).

5. NetDefendOS drops the 1st, 2nd and 3rd events so these are not included in the email.

94
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

6. The event counter is reset to zero and event counting within the Event count period begins
again.

Sending Test Emails

The mail alerting feature has a Send Test Email function to send a test email to the server. This is
done by pushing the Send test email button in the Web Interface. In the CLI, a test email is sent
with the following command:

gw-world:/> smtp -sendmail -logreceiver=<mail-alerting-object-name>

The body of the test email will contain text which is similar to the following:

This is message #1 sent to test the Mail Alerting object "my_mail_alert"

The number "#1" in the message will increment every time a test mail is sent from this log
receiver.

In the Web Interface, the test button can be pushed even while the Mail Alerting object is being
created and before the configuration change is activated and saved. This is not true with the
equivalent CLI test mail function.

Sending to Multiple Email Addresses

More than one Mail Alerting object can be created so that log messages are sent to multiple
email addresses. However, if the same log message information is being sent to multiple email
addresses then it is not recommended to create multiple Mail Alerting objects for this purpose.
Instead, create a mailing list email address on the SMTP server so that a mail sent to that address
is sent to multiple email recipients.

Mail Size Limit

In order to limit the available memory that NetDefendOS uses for buffering log messages and
building the email body, a limit is set on the email size. This limit is 8 Kbytes. When this limit is
reached but the email had not yet been sent, any new log messages will be dropped. If events
are dropped, the following message added to the email body:

message(s) have been discarded because of because of email body size limit

If the available memory is completely used up while building the email, this message will have a
slightly different text to indicate that. If message are dropped repeatedly, it is an indication that
either the event filter should be made more restrictive or that the emails should be sent more
often.

If more than one Mail Alerting object is created, each will have its own piece of memory allocated
for building emails.

Example 2.30. Setting up a Mail Alerting Object

This example configures an Mail Alerting object called my_smtp_receiver so that all events with a
severity equal to Emergency or Alert are sent out in an email.

It is assumed that the recipient email address is [email protected] and that the SMTP server
address is 203.0.113.10. The default values for the threshold and associated properties are used.

95
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

All other configurable properties will be left at their default value.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add LogReceiver MailAlerting my_mail_alert

IPAddress=203.0.113.10
[email protected]
Sender=device1
Subject="Log message summary"
LogSeverity=Emergency,Alert

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Log and Event Receivers > Add > Mail Alerting

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_mail_alert

• SMTP Server: 203.0.113.10

• SMTP Receiver: [email protected]

• SMTP Sender: device1

• Subject: Log message summary

3. Under SeverityFilter make Emergency and Alert as the selected severities.

4. Click OK

2.3.7. 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

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.

96
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• 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.

2.3.8. 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 2.5, “SNMP”.

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:

• 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.

97
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Note: SNMP Trap standards

NetDefendOS sends SNMP Traps which are based on the SNMPv2c standard as defined
by RFC 1901, RFC 1905 and RFC 1906.

Example 2.31. 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

2.3.9. Advanced Log Settings

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

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

98
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

The delay in seconds between alarms when a continuous alarm is used. As discussed in
Section 2.4.3, “Hardware Monitoring”, the log 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)

2.3.10. Logsnoop
There is a basic ability to monitor and view the log event messages through the Web Interface.
The logsnoop CLI command extends this ability so that log messages can be viewed in any of the
following ways:

• Logsnoop can display log messages on the CLI console as they are generated in real-time and
apply filtering to show only messages of interest to the administrator.

• Logsnoop can look back in time and display the contents of the Memlog buffer which will
contain a given number of the most recently generated log messages. Filtering can also be
applied to this output to show only the messages of interest to the administrator.

• The above two features can be combined so that both the contents of the memlog buffer
and newly generated messages are displayed together.

Switching Real-time Logsnooping On and Off

To switch on snooping, the basic form of the command is:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on

All log messages generated by NetDefendOS will now appear on the CLI console and each
individual message is prefixed by the word "LOG". For example:

LOG: 2014-01-13 13:53:39 SYSTEM prio=Alert id=03200021 rev=1

event=demo_mode action=shutdown_soon shutdown=halt time=7200

The current status of logsnooping can be examined by entering the command with no
parameters:

gw-world:/> logsnoop
Real time log snooping is enabled. Filter: All

To switch off snooping, use the command:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -off

Filtering Log Messages

Simply switching on snooping on a busy system can send an overwhelming number of messages
to the console. It is usually advisable to add extra command parameters, either singly or in
combinations, to filter the messages. The following examples illustrate using some of the many
filtering parameters.

• Filter by severity:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -severity=warning

99
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Note that it is only possible to filter on a single severity level at once.

• Filter by log ID number:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -logid=1500001

All the ID numbers can be found in the separate NetDefendOS Log Reference Guide. Leading
zeros do not need to be specified.

• Filter by Source IP:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -srcip=192.168.1.10

Here, the srcip field must exist in a log message for it to be displayed. For example, if the log
message comes from an IP rule, the srcip field of a displayed message will contain the source
IP for the connection that triggered the rule.

• Filter by Source Interface:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -srcif=If1

Here, the srcif field must exist in a log message for it to be displayed. For example, if the log
message comes from an IP rule, the srcif field of a displayed message will contain the source
interface for the connection that triggered the rule.

• Filter by combining parameters:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -severity=warning -srcip=192.168.1.10 -srcif=If1

Any number of filtering parameters can be used together in a single logsnoop command.

A complete list of command parameters can be found in the entry of logsnoop in the separate
NetDefendOS CLI Reference Guide. Alternatively, the following the CLI command can be used:

gw-world:/> help logsnoop

Filtering Wildcards and Free-text Filtering

When specifying filtering parameters, the following wildcards can be used:

* - An asterisk represents none or many characters.

? - A question mark represents any single character.

For example, to find the text warning followed somewhere by udp, the command would be:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -pattern=*warning*udp*

The -pattern parameter specifies a free-text text filter for log messages. Wildcarding can also be
used with other filtering parameters and is not limited to -pattern.

Limiting Log Message Numbers

Even when using filtering, the numbers of messages appearing at the console may still need to
be reduced. The numbers of messages displayed can be limited in two ways:

• Limit by frequency:

100
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -rate=5

This will limit displayed log messages to a maximum of 5 per second.

• Limit by total number:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -num=100

This will show only the first 100 log messages. After that, logsnoop is switched off.

Examining Memlog History

Memlog is the name of the local memory buffer that NetDefendOS uses to store a given number
of the most recent log messages generated. It is enabled by default. When using logsnoop,
examining memlog is done using the special parameter -source=memlog.

For example, the entire contents of the memlog buffer can be examined using the command:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -source=memlog

Even though the -on parameter must be used, this command does not switch on real-time
logging and a matching command with the -off parameter is therefore not needed later.

Examining Memlog Plus New Log Messages

It is possible to examine the log history in memlog as well as switch on real-time log snooping at
the same time. This is done with the command:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -source=both

This will display the contents of memlog and all subsequently generated messages. It is
recommended to add further filtering parameters to the command.

If -source=both is used, a second command with the -off parameter will be needed later to switch
off real-time logging.

Specifying a Time Range

The displayed log messages can be limited to those generated after a certain time with the
parameter -starttime and/or those generated before a certain time with the -endtime parameter.

The time value itself can be specified in the following formats:

• Using Date and Time

The date and time together takes the format "yyyy-mm-dd hh.mm.ss" where the surrounding
quotes are mandatory. For example: 2014-01-12 18:30:00. To look at log messages from 18:30
on the 12th of January onwards, the command would be:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -starttime="2014-01-12 18:30:00"

Note that the parameter value must be enclosed by quotes when both date and time are
entered.

• Using Date Only

The date may be specified without the time and this takes the format yyyy-mm-dd, this time

101
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

without enclosing quotes. For example: 2014-01-12. The time always defaults to 00:00:00 so
this example is equivalent to 2014-01-12 00:00:00. To look at log messages for the whole of
the 12th of January, the command would be:

gw-world:/> logsnoop -on -starttime=2014-01-12 -endtime=2014-01-13

When not looking at memlog, setting the times will act as a way of turning logsnoop on and off
at specified future times. If the -source=memlog option is used, the start and end times are used
to look at a specific period in the memlog history.

102
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

• NetDefendOS real-time monitor alerts.

• The NetDefendOS link monitor.

• Monitoring through an SNMP client.

• Hardware monitoring for specific hardware models.

2.4.1. Real-time Monitor Alerts

A number of NetDefendOS statistical values can graphically monitored through the Real-time
Monitoring feature. Real-time Monitor Alert thresholds can be specified in NetDefendOS for any of
these monitored values so that they can have a maximum and/or a minimum numerical
threshold.

Should a specified maximum or minimum threshold be crossed, NetDefendOS will automatically

generate a log message which will be sent to all configured log receivers. All such log messages
belong to the REALTIMEMONITOR message category which has the identity number 54.

The log message identity will therefore take the form 054XXXXX where XXXXX represents the
position of the statistic generating the event in the list of alert rules. A log message with identity
05400003, for example, identifies the third rule in the rule list.

Monitor Alert Rules

Each Monitor Alert Rule consists of the following fields:

Name User assigned name for the rule.

Sample time The interval in seconds between checking the statistic.

Low threshold The lower threshold (if specified).

High threshold A higher threshold (if specified).

Continuous This determines if an event is also generated when the threshold is

crossed in the other direction. In other words, the statistic moves back to
within acceptable limits. This field can be Yes or No.

Backoff The minimum number of seconds between consecutive Monitor Threshold

Rule log messages. This value can be useful in preventing a flood of log
messages when a statistic is repeatedly passing a threshold and then
receding from it again.

2.4.2. 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

103
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 not available on the DFL-260E and DFL-860E.

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

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

104
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

(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
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

105
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 2.32. Link Monitor Setup

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:

• Action: HA Failover

106
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• Addresses: my_host

3. Click OK

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 models

The hardware monitoring feature is not available on the DFL-260E and DFL-860E.

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

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 of the 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

107
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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

108
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 2.3.9, “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

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

109
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

110
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.5. SNMP
2.5.1. Management with SNMP
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 perform management tasks. NetDefendOS supports access by SNMP clients
using the following versions of the SNMP protocol:

• Version 1.

• Version 2c.

• Version 3.

However, only query operations are permitted by clients for security reasons. Specifically,
NetDefendOS supports the following SNMP request operations:

• The GET REQUEST operation.

• The GET NEXT REQUEST operation.

• The GET BULK REQUEST operation (SNMP Version 2c and 3 only).

Setting up SNMP Access in NetDefendOS

To allow access by an SNMP client, an SNMP Management object must be created in the
NetDefendOS configuration. This has the following object properties:

• Protocol - Select Version 1 and 2c (the default) or select Version 3.

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

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

The other object properties are for security and depend on the SNMP protocol choice. These are
explained next.

SNMP Security Options

The following are the security options, depending on which protocol is selected:

• Versions 1 and 2c

Authentication for SNMP Versions 1 and 2c uses the Community String property. The
Community String is equivalent to a password and should be difficult to guess. It should be
constructed in the same way as any other password, using combinations of upper and lower
case letters along with digits.

SNMP versions 1 and 2c do not provide any option for encryption and traffic is sent as plain
text. For this reason, SNMP version 3 is often a better choice. If SNMP version 1 or version 2c
must be used, it is possible to send the SNMP connection through a VPN tunnel that is
established between the client computer and the NetDefend Firewall.

111
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• Version 3

If SNMPv3 is selected for the protocol, it is then possible to set the Security Level property. This
can take the following values:

i. noAuthNoPriv - No authentication and no encryption.

ii. authNoPriv - SHA-1 authentication but no encryption.

iii. authPriv - SHA-1 authentication and AES encryption.

If authentication is enabled, a Local User Database object must be selected which contains
the valid username/password pairs that can be used for client access. Often the predefined
AdminUsers database is sufficient if an administrator or auditor username/password
combination will be used as the SNMPv3 credentials.

If encryption is enabled, NetDefendOS will use only AES encryption. NetDefendOS does not
support DES encryption (as specified in the SNMPv3 RFC) as this is generally now considered
to offer inferior security.

The NetDefendOS MIB Files

An important component required by any SNMP client are MIB files. A Management Information
Base (MIB) is a database, usually in the form of a plain text file, that defines the parameters on a
network device that an SNMP client can access.

The MIB files for NetDefendOS are contained with NetDefendOS itself. They are located within a
NetDefendOS folder called SNMP_MIB and have the following names:

• DLINK-DFL-MIB.mib

• DLINK-DFL-TRAPS-MIB.mib

Downloading MIB Files

The files listed above can be downloaded directly from NetDefendOS to a management
computer's local disk, either using the Web Interface or Secure Copy (SCP). To do this with the
Web Interface, go to Status > Maintenance > Resources.

if using an SCP client, a typical command line might be the following:

> pscp -l admin -pw admin 192.168.1.17:SNMP_MIB/DLINK-DFL-MIB.mib .

Once on the disk storage of a management computer, the files can be imported by the SNMP
client software.

MIB Entries

Each entry in the MIB includes a textual explanation of what the value is and a complete list is not
reproduced in this guide. A typical MIB file entry for the total number of packets transmitted by
an interface appears as follows:

clvIfPktsTotCnt OBJECT-TYPE
SYNTAX Counter32
MAX-ACCESS read-only

112
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

STATUS current
DESCRIPTION "Total number of packets transmitted by the interface"
::= { clvIfStatsEntry 10 }

Enabling an IP Rule for SNMP

The advanced setting SNMP Before Rules controls if the IP rule set checks all accesses by SNMP
clients. By default, this is enabled and the recommendation is to always have this setting
enabled.

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.

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 2.33. Enabling SNMP Versions 1 and 2c Monitoring

This example enables SNMP version 1 and 2c access via the 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_v1-2

Interface=lan
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. Now enter:

• Name: my_snmp_v1-2

• SNMP Version: SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c

3. For Access Filter enter:

• Interface: lan

113
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• Network: mgmt-net

4. For Authentication enter:

• Community: Mg1RQqR

5. 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.

Example 2.34. Enabling SNMP Version 3 Monitoring

This example is similar to the SNMP versions 1 and 2c example above, but uses SNMP version 3
instead. It enables SNMPv3 access via the lan interface from the network mgmt-net. Both
SNMPv3 authentication and encryption will be enabled and authentication will be done using
the local database called AdminUsers.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add RemoteManagement RemoteMgmtSNMP my_snmp_v3

Interface=lan
Network=mgmt-net
SNMPversion=SNMPv3
LocalUserDatabase=AdminUsers
Snmp3SecurityLevel=authPriv

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. Now enter:

• Name: my_snmp_v3

• SNMP Version: SNMPv3

• Security Level: authPriv

3. For Access Filter enter:

• Interface: lan

• Network: mgmt-net

4. For Authentication enter:

• Local User Database: AdminUsers

5. Click OK

114
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

2.5.2. Persistent SNMP Interface Indexes

For SNMP access, NetDefendOS maintains an index table which contains a configuration's
interfaces (all types of interfaces) and each interface has an index number which indicates its
position in the table. SNMP client software, including scripts using SNMP, will use these index
numbers to refer to a particular interface.

The Problem is Adding or Subtracting Interfaces

By default, the index table is built every time NetDefendOS restarts but this can mean that a
given interface could get a new index number because new interfaces are added to or
subtracted from the configuration. This can pose a problem to SNMP client software which is
expecting an interface to have the same index number.

The Solution is Enabling Persistence

To make sure that an interface always has the same index number following a restart, the
administrator should enable the SNMP Persist Interface Index setting. This is a global setting
which is enabled for the entire configuration.

Enabling Persistent Interfaces in an HA Cluster

In a NetDefendOS high availability cluster, the interface index table is built in the same way and
the table is mirrored between the cluster nodes. However, if interface persistence is enabled, it
will only function correctly if the HA setting Synchronize Configuration is enabled on both master
and slave. This can be found in the Web Interface by going to System > Device > High
Availability and is enabled by default.

Adding Back a Subtracted Physical Interface

If a physical interface is removed from hardware (this could happen with expansion modules)
then the interface will still exist in the index table since it has probably not been removed from
the configuration. It is only when an interface is completely removed from a configuration that
its entry in the index table disappears.

This means that if the physical interface is later added back to the hardware, it will continue to
have the same index number. This is true even though the interface added may be a different
physical unit.

Compacting the Index Table

When interface persistence is enabled, it works by having every interface keep the same position
in the index table. This can mean that gaps appear in the table (and consequently the interface
index numbering) as interfaces disappear. The administrator can, if they wish, defragment the
table manually during a scheduled maintenance period using the following CLI command:

gw-world:/> ifstat -snmpnewindexes

This must be followed by an Activate and Commit in order for the table to be defragmented.

115
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

There is no other reason to perform defragmentation other than to return the index numbering
to a sequential list of numbers. Extra resources are not consumed because of fragmentation.

Caution: Restoring a backup will renumber interface indexes

If a restore of a NetDefendOS system backup is performed (either full or configuration
only), this will cause the interface index numbers to return to the values of the backup.

Example 2.35. Enabling SNMP Index Persistence

This example shows how to enable SNMP index persistence.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set Settings RemoteMgmtSettings SNMPPersistentIfIndex=Yes

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Remote Management

2. Select Advanced Settings

3. Under SNMP, enable the option Persistent Interface Index

4. Click OK

2.5.3. 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.

116
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Default: N/A

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

Persistent Interface Index

A global setting that determines if interface index persistence is enabled.

Default: No

117
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.6. Diagnostic Tools

2.6.1. Overview
When troubleshooting network problems, NetDefendOS provides an assortment of tools to help
with problem resolution.

The section describes some of the most important troubleshooting tools available to the
administrator. Most of these are used as CLI commands.

2.6.2. The ping Command

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 table "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 can also be used 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.

118
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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
ping-inbound. An example IP rule for ping messages arriving on the wan interface would be the
following:

Action Source Source Destination Destination Service

Interface Network Interface Network
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

119
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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

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 Source Destination Destination Service

Interface Network Interface Network
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.

120
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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. For example:

gw-world:/> ping 2001:DB8::2

Using IPv6 with ping is discussed further in Section 3.2, “IPv6 Support”.

FQDN Resolution

When issuing a ping request from NetDefendOS, it is possible to specify the destination as a fully
qualified domain name (FQDN). This is then resolved by NetDefendOS to a numerical IP address
by using an external DNS server. For example:

gw-world:/> ping server.example.com

121
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Note: At least one DNS server must be configured

For FQDN resolution to function, at least one DNS server must be configured in
NetDefendOS. Configuring DNS servers is described in Section 3.10, “DNS”.

DNS servers might return either an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address or both. These three
possibilities are treated as follows:

• If only an IPv4 address is returned then that will be used by the ping command for the ICMP
message.

• If only an IPv6 address is returned then that will be used by the ping command for the ICMP
message.

• If both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address is available, NetDefendOS will use the IPv4 address by
default. However, NetDefendOS can be forced to use the IPv6 address with the -6 command
option. For example:

gw-world:/> ping www.example.com -6

2.6.3. The stats Command

If a serious NetDefendOS problem is suspected then the first step should be to use the CLI
command:

gw-world:/> stats

The stats command will provide a snapshot of the system and indicate the date and time of the
last system shutdown and can also indicate if there has been a serious error in NetDefendOS
operation. It should be remembered however that the buffer which stats uses is cleared by
certain operations such a reconfigure and the output will not therefore show what occurred prior
to buffer clearance.

Below is a typical example of output from the command:

gw-world:/> stats
Uptime : 7 days, 02:12:38
Last shutdown : 2014-06-17 16:05:00: Activating configuration changes
CPU Load : 4%
Connections : 23 out of 512000
Fragments : 0 out of 16384 (0 lingering)
Buffers allocated : 43280
Buffers memory : 43280 x 2636 = 111412 KB
Fragbufs allocated : 32
Fragbufs memory : 32 x 10040 = 313 KB
Out-of-buffers : 0

At the end of the Last shutdown line is the reason for the shutdown.

stats Command Output with Poll Offloading

When NetDefendOS runs on certain hardware platforms, it can make use of a technique known
as poll offloading to increase performance. With poll offloading, there are two CPU cores that are
active. One CPU core is running most of NetDefendOS's functions and the second is running the
part of NetDefendOS that handles Ethernet interface polling.

When the stats command is used with poll offloading active, the CPU Load line in the command

122
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

output will show two percentages instead of one. The first percentage is the load for the CPU
core that is running most of NetDefendOS. The second percentage shows the load for the CPU
core that is running the interface polling subsystem. An example of this output is shown below:

CPU Load : 12%, 1%

Poll offloading is turned on automatically by NetDefendOS if the hardware platform supports it

and the administrator does not need to enable it.

2.6.4. The connections Command

By using the connections command, the administrator can get a snapshot of all the connections
currently set up in the NetDefendOS state engine. The command can be abbreviated to conn and
some example output is shown below:

gw-world:/> conn
State Proto Source Destination Tmout
-------- ------- --------------------------- ----------------------- ------
TCP_OPEN TCP If1:10.4.4.24:54047 If2:192.168.9.3:338 261772
UDP UDP If2:192.168.109.11:4500 If3:10.152.0.22:450 130
PING ICMP vlan1:192.168.1.1:512 If3:90.152.1.1:512 8
FIN_RCVD TCP If1:10.4.4.121:55679 core:10.4.0.31:444 69
TCP_OPEN TCP If2:192.168.96.77:35217 If3:10.93.2.49:463 70855
UDP UDP vlan1:192.168.100.163:560 vpn-A:10.45.1.2:161 9
UDP UDP vlan1:192.168.100.163:582 vpn-B:10.25.1.2:161 76

Each line in the command's output corresponds to a single connection. The fields shown are:

• State

This indicates the state of the connection and is only really relevant to TCP connections
where different states apply. Some of the possible values are:

i. UDP - A UDP pseudo-connection.

ii. PING - AN ICMP ping connection.

iii. TCP_OPEN - A TCP connection is opening.

iv. SYN_RCVD - A TCP connection has received a SYN packet and is open.

v. FIN_RCVD - A TCP connection has been closed. Connections wait, by default, for 80
seconds before all data is cleaned up by NetDefendOS so that the connection could be
reopened. The 80 second value is controlled by the NetDefendOS setting TCP FIN Idle
Lifetime. The ability to reopen a connection is controlled by the NetDefendOS setting
Allow TCP Reopen which is disabled by default.

vi. RAW IP - Another protocol which is identified in the Protocol column.

• Proto

The protocol used for the connection and can be the same as the State column is some cases.
Some of the possible values are:

i. UDP - A UDP pseudo-connection.

ii. ICMP - AN ICMP ping connection.

iii. TCP - A TCP connection.

iv. ESP - Used for IPsec VPN tunnels.

123
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

v. A number or name indicating the protocol being used. The State column will have the
value RAW IP.

• Source

This consists of:

i. The source interface. This could be the name of any type of NetDefendOS interface
object such as a VLAN or IPsec tunnel. It can also be Core which indicates NetDefendOS
itself is the connection's source.

ii. The source IP address for the connection.

iii. The source port number for the connection.

• Destination

This consists of:

i. The destination interface. This could be the name of any type of NetDefendOS interface
object such as a VLAN or IPsec tunnel. It can also be Core which indicates NetDefendOS
itself is the connection's destination.

ii. The destination IP address for the connection.

iii. The destination port number for the connection.

• Tmout

The number of seconds until the connection times out because no traffic is detected. As soon
as any traffic is detected being sent from either end of the connection, this value is reset to
the default timeout. The defaults are controlled by the followed NetDefendOS settings:

i. TCP Idle Lifetime - For TCP connections. The default value is 262144 seconds.

ii. UDP Idle Lifetime - For UDP connections. The default value is 130 seconds.

iii. Ping Idle Lifetime - For ICMP Ping connections. The default value is 8 seconds.

iv. Other Protocols Idle Lifetime - All other protocols. The default value is 130 seconds.

Filtering Connections

The connections command provides the ability to specify filters for which connections are
display. To display only connections with the protocol TCP the command would be:

gw-world:/> conn -protocol=TCP

To see only connections with the source interface If3:

gw-world:/> conn -srciface=If3

Closing Connections

The connections command gives the administrator the ability to close all or selected connections.
To close all, the command would be:

gw-world:/> conn -close -all

124
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

To close all connections with the source interface If3:

gw-world:/> conn -close -srciface=If3

The -verbose Option

When the -verbose option is used, the connections command adds another line of output for each
connection that is prefixed with ...term:. This line shows the changes, if any, made by
NetDefendOS in the interface or IP or port number as the connection traverses the firewall. For
example, consider this output showing a single connection:

gw-world:/> conn -verbose

State Proto Source Destination Tmout
-------- ------- --------------------------- ----------------------- ------
TCP_OPEN TCP If1:10.4.0.16:60848 If3:192.168.96.82:80 262119
...term: If1:192.168.96.1:39097 If3:192.168.96.82:80 262119

Here, the original connection is subject to a NAT IP rule which transforms If1:10.4.0.16:60848 into
If1:192.168.96.1:39097. The destination remains the same but the source IP and port has been
changed by NetDefendOS. For this example, a private IP address has been used for illustration
but 192.168.96.1 would typically be a public IP address.

A complete list of all options for the connections command can be found in the separate CLI
Reference Guide.

2.6.5. The dconsole Command

The next step is to use the CLI command:

gw-world:/> dconsole

This can be abbreviated to:

gw-world:/> dcon

The dconsole command provides a list of important events that have occurred during
NetDefendOS operation and can help to establish the date, time and nature of events leading up
to a serious problem occurring. The output might look similar like the following:

Showing diagnose entries since 2008-05-22:

2008-06-21 11:54:58 Start (11.04.01-0:131)
2008-06-21 11:56:16 Stop (RECONFIGURE)
2008-06-21 11:56:21 Start (11.04.01-0:131)
2008-06-21 11:57:29 Stop (RECONFIGURE)
2008-06-21 11:59:31 Start (11.04.01-0:131)
2008-06-21 11:59:49 Stop (NORMAL)
"
"

Output from dconsole can include a dump of the system memory in the case of serious runtime
errors. Such a dump will look similar to the following:

'
'
Reason: Exception 'DataAbort' occurred at address 0x7aaea34
Generation date/time: 2008-07-04 14:23:56 List of loaded PE-modules:
fwloader(1.07.04): BA:0x00100000, EP:0x00101028, SS:0x0, IS:0xe7000
fwcore(811.04.01-2336): BA:0x07761038, EP:0x0007c630 Register dump:
----------------------------------------------------
r0 : 0xe1a0003c, r1 : 0x07c685dc, r2 : 0x00000004, r3 : 0x50013700,
r4 : 0x06cb2d04, r5 : 0x0753a740, r6 : 0x050ce1f8, r7 : 0x00000000,
r8 : 0x0753a79c, r9 : 0x050ce1f8, r10: 0x00000000, r11: 0x0775ff34,

125
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

r12: 0x00000004, sp : 0x0775fcec, lr : 0x079de7e4 Stack dump:

5da89306 c33613f4 c330cfc5 04411507 45515a49 86619f8b c0db0a81
4e395861 cb25b796 e3108934 932766c5 4dcff9e9 711c3463 b9cd5d1e
52149961 9324dea3 d340dc25 15458610 63582ded 689a0c54 dfb43131
02c7d971 a0ebb72c bfaae832 db216923 08ba693b 95e4de97 98d121a2
'
'

Although dconsole output may be difficult to interpret by the administrator, it can be emailed to
D-Link support representatives for further investigation.

The dconsole command supersedes the crashdump command found in earlier versions of
NetDefendOS.

Dconsole can also be run in the Web Interface by going to:

Status > Maintenance > Diagnostic Console
Selecting this option runs dconsole automatically and the output is immediately displayed in a
text box. The contents of the text box can be copied and pasted into an email for review by
support personnel. Pressing the Refresh button will run dconsole again and display the new
output in the text box.

2.6.6. 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. Only the
pcapdump CLI command usage is described in this section but its functions are also duplicated in
the Web Interface.

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 CLI command is described in the CLI Reference Guide.

A Simple Example

An example of pcapdump usage is the following sequence:

gw-world:/> pcapdump -size 1024 -start lan

gw-world:/> pcapdump -stop lan
gw-world:/> pcapdump -show
gw-world:/> pcapdump -write lan -filename=cap_lan.cap
gw-world:/> pcapdump -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.

126
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 local 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:

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
a 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 using -proto=, the protocol name alone can be specified and can be
one of -tcp, -udp or -icmp.

127
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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 filename 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 be downloaded to the local workstation
using Secure Copy (SCP) (see Section 2.1.7, “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 the files so cleanup should only be done after file download is
complete.

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.

Using pcap through the Web Interface

All the functions described above are available in the Web Interface by going to Status > Tools >
PCAP. It is also possible to directly download the .cap file to the management workstation. If
Wireshark has been installed and the file association with it set up, the file can be opened directly
in the software.

2.6.7. The traceroute Command

Overview

The NetDefendOS traceroute CLI command provides information about the routes that packets
take as they traverse the routers in the external network and the round-trip transit time to and
from these routers.

Traceroute functions by sending packets with a time-to-live (TTL) value that starts at 1 and is

128
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

progressively incremented for subsequent packets. A router will decrement the time-to-live as a
packet traverses it. If the value becomes zero, the packet is dropped by the router and an ICMP
time-exceeded message is sent back to the source which sends another packet with a time-to-live
of 2 in order to reach the next router. The incrementing of the time-to-live continues until the
intended destination is reached. The ICMP time-exceeded messages sent back by the routers
between the source and destination provide the basis for the traceroute output.

A traceroute command is found on many other systems such as Microsoft Windows™. Like
Windows, NetDefendOS sends its traceroute packets as ICMP ping messages. The basic form of
the CLI command in NetDefendOS is:

gw-world:/> traceroute <destination>

The <destination> can be an IPv4 or IPv6 address, for example:

gw-world:/> traceroute 192.168.4.1

Or it can be a DNS resolvable Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), for example:

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com

When using traceroute with an FQDN then at least one DNS server must have been configured in
NetDefendOS to perform the resolution. Doing this is described in Section 3.10, “DNS”.

Traceroute Output

Below is some typical output from traceroute using the default settings with the destination
specified as an FQDN:

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com

Tracing server.example.com [10.194.40.247], 30 hops max, 32 bytes of data
Hop# RTT RTT RTT Host
1 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 10.4.16.1
2 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 10.4.0.2
3 10 ms 0 ms 10 ms 10.194.40.247
Trace complete.

Here, each line of output corresponds to an attempt by traceroute to reach the next router.

By default, traceroute tries 3 times for each router hop and the Round Trip Time for each attempt
expressed in milliseconds is shown under a corresponding RTT heading. There were two routers
in the path to the target destination in the above output (hop number 1 and hop number 2). The
final hop (number 3) is the destination which was DNS resolved as the IPv4 address
10.194.40.247.

The Route Can Change

Given the dynamic nature of a packet switch network, it is possible for consecutive packets sent
by the traceroute command to pass through different sets of routers. It is difficult to know that
this is occurring and it is not indicated in the traceroute command output.

It is possible that different routers could respond for a given hop value. The address displayed at
the end of lines of traceroute output under the Host column is always the router that dealt with
the last ICMP message sent for that hop.

Traceroute Options

The following are some of the important options for the traceroute command:

129
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• -6

When the destination is specified as an FQDN, NetDefendOS will only request an IPv4 address
from the resolving DNS server and will use that as the destination address. This option must
be used if an IPv6 address is to be requested from the DNS server and used as the destination
address.

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -6

Alternatively, the IPv6 address could be entered directly after the traceroute command.

• -maxhops

This specifies the maximum value for the time-to-live parameter of the packets sent.

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -maxhops=20

The default value is 30.

Maxhops is important because if NetDefendOS gets no response from a router within the set
timeout (the default is 1 second) then it will continue to send ICMP ping messages with an
increasing time-to-live value until the maxhops limit is reached.

• -count

This specifies how many attempts are made for each hop.

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -count=1

The default value is 3.

• -size

This specifies how large the payload is that is sent. The payload is made up of random data.

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -size=128

The default value is 32.

• -nodelay

This specifies that each query is to be sent as fast as possible.

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -nodelay

The default is that this is disabled.

The number of traceroute ICMP messages specified by the -count parameter are first sent
continuously with no delay. Then there is a fixed delay of one second before the next set of
messages are sent with an incremented time-to-live value. By specifying -nodelay, the one
second delay is removed and the sets of messages are sent continuously with no delay
between them. This continuous packet stream can simulate a denial-of service (DOS) attack.

• -starthop

This specifies what time-to-live (TTL) value to start with and therefore at which hop to start.

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -starthop=3

The default value is 1.

• -stop

130
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

This terminates any traceroute that is in progress .

gw-world:/> traceroute -stop

• -timeout

This is the amount of time NetDefendOS will wait for a response from a router or the
destination before it increases the time-to-live and tries again.

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -timeout=2000

Any timeout conditions are indicated in the traceroute output. An example of this is shown
below:

gw-world:/> traceroute example.com

Tracing example.com [10.120.184.11], 30 hops max, 32 bytes of data
Hop# RTT RTT RTT Host
1 0 ms 0 ms 10 ms 10.4.16.1
2 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 10.4.0.2
3 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 10.131.48.2
4 * * * Request timed out

A timeout could occur because any of the following:

i. A router or the destination may not be set up to respond to ICMP ping messages.

ii. The destination host may be offline.

Combining Options

Any of the above options can be combined in a single command. For example:

gw-world:/> traceroute server.example.com -count=2 -starthop=3 -maxhops=4

Hop# RTT RTT Host
3 10 ms 10 ms 10.131.48.2
4 10 ms 10 ms ge1-1-0-617.cty-pe3.una.se.ip.tzc.net [10.88.215.44]
5 10 ms 10 ms te2-1-80.zty-p2.sfl.se.ip.tzc.net [10.131.143.226]
6 120 ms 120 ms 10.82.35.201
Maximum hops reached.

A complete description of all the command options can be found in the separate CLI Reference
Guide.

2.6.8. The frags Command

IP datagram fragmentation results from the breaking down of larger packets into smaller
datagram fragments that can fit within the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) size of the network
equipment they must traverse. When such fragments are received by NetDefendOS, packet
reassembly takes place to reconstruct the entire packet before it is forwarded.

The CLI command frags allows the administrator to examine the current status of the reassembly
process. Using the frags command without any parameters lists the currently active reassemblies
as shown in the example output below.

gw-world:/> frags
RecvIf Num State Source Destination Protocol Next Timeout
------ ---- ------- ------------ ------------- -------- ----- -------
If1 886 Unknown 192.168.1.6 192.168.2.1 ESP 0 593/593

131
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

If2 890 Accept 10.0.1.60 192.168.3.1 UDP 7280 592/591

If3 345 Drop 192.168.0.2 10.1.1.2 UDP 1494 581/101

Each line of output from this command shows the status of an individual reassembly operation
where at least one fragment of a packet has been received as an IP datagram. Each datagram in
the reassembly process is uniquely identified by its source/destination IP address and its protocol
number. A reassembly operation will remain in the output of the command as long as more
fragments might be received.

Reassembly States

The State of reassembly shown by the frags command output can be one of the following:

• Done

Reassembly is complete but reassembly is kept alive for a short period in case there are any
duplicate fragments.

• Drop

NetDefendOS has determined that the reassembled packet is to be dropped based on the
configured rules. This is the opposite of the Accept state and all matching fragments
received will be dropped.

• Unknown

This indicates that it has not yet been determined if the packet is to be dropped or accepted.

• Accept

This state indicates it has been determined to not drop the packet based on the configured
rules. This is the opposite of Drop and matching fragments received are accepted.

• Free

This indicates a reassembly slot that is available for starting a new reassembly.

Options for the frags Command

To see only the reassembly slots that are in the Free state, use the -free option:

gw-world:/> frags -free

To see reassembly operations that are complete use the -done option:

gw-world:/> frags -done

Maximum Length Settings

NetDefendOS allows the following settings to be used to control the maximum size of incoming
packets for different protocols so that packets exceeding these sizes are dropped:

• Max UDP Length - Maximum size of UDP packets (default: 60,000 bytes).

• Max GRE Length - Maximum size of GRE packets (default: 2000 bytes).

• Max ESP Length - Maximum size of IPsec ESP packets (default: 2000 bytes).

132
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

• Max TCP Length - Maximum size of a TCP packet (default: 1480 bytes).

However, the MTU value of the individual NetDefendOS interfaces determines how the packet
size is split. For example, the maximum UDP length could be set to 60,000 but the interface MTU
size might be 1500 so packets would be split into 41 fragments (60,000/1500).

Keeping these maximum settings to the lowest possible value is beneficial since unreasonably
large packets can be used as a form of attack and they are immediately rejected by NetDefendOS
when they exceed the set maximum.

TCP Length

With TCP, all normally configured TCP stacks will limit the size of TCP packets to the negotiated
Maximum Segment Size (MSS) value. This MSS value will normally be the MTU value minus the IP
header size of 20 bytes. With an MTU value of 1500 bytes, the MSS will be 1480 bytes and this will
normally never need to be fragmented.

2.6.9. The selftest Command

It may be the case that operational problems are caused by a problem with the hardware
platform and not NetDefendOS. For this reason, the CLI command selftest is provided to perform
tests on various aspects of hardware functioning.

Warning: Do NOT conduct tests with live traffic!

It is important to remember that the selftest command should not be used on a system
that is carrying live traffic. The command can cause connections and associated data to
be lost and the test results themselves will be unreliable.

Preparing Hardware

To ensure the complete reliability of any selftest, it is recommended to take a complete backup
of the current configuration and reset the hardware unit to the base configuration as well as
having the unit disconnected from any networks.

This is also true for units in an HA cluster. The cluster should be broken up into two separated
hardware units and they should each be reset to the base configuration.

Resetting to the base configuration can be done through the CLI or Web Interface. Using the CLI,
the command is:

gw-world:/> reset -configuration

A Simple Example

A simple use of selftest is to test the system memory:

gw-world:/> selftest -memory

This writes a one megabyte block of data to memory and reads it back. The number of
megabytes written can be varied using the -num= option. By default, the memory test is
repeated once but could, for example, be repeated 10 times with the command:

gw-world:/> selftest -memory -num=10

133
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Throughput Testing

The following command options test traffic throughput:

• -throughout

This generates the maximum achievable traffic flow through all specified interfaces using the
maximum packet size. This option does not validate the received packets.

• -traffic

This test generates traffic of mixed packet sizes between 60 and 1,518 bytes and verifies the
content of each received frame. Received packets are verified.

For either the -throughput or the -traffic option, the test should be run so that interfaces are
connected together and the output from one interface is received by another. This can be
achieved in one of two ways:

• Connection Through a Switch

All the interfaces are connected to the same switch which is itself disconnected from any
other networks. This is only satisfactory if the hardware has the same maximum link speed on
all Ethernet interfaces since faster interfaces can overwhelm slower ones.

• Connecting Ethernet Interfaces In Pairs

With hardware that has mixed Ethernet interface speeds, it is necessary to connect interfaces
with similar maximum link speeds together in adjacent pairs. A switch should not be used.
Testing should be done on one pair of interfaces at a time. For example, if the -throughput
option is to be applied between the If1 and If2 interfaces, the command would be:

gw-world:/> selftest -interfaces=If1,If2 -throughput

The -burnin Option

If the -burnin option is used, a set of tests, known as the test subset, is repeated continuously for a
period of time. The default test period is two hours and the default subset is:
• -memory
• -ping
• -throughput
• -traffic
• -cryptoaccel

The duration of the -burnin test can be changed, as can the test subset. For example, a test of the
memory and media that is repeated for 30 minutes would be:

gw-world:/> selftest -burnin -minutes=30 -memory -media

The -burnin option could, for example, be used to detect errors that only occur sporadically or
possibly only occur after some hardware component has reached a certain critical operating
temperature.

The full list of options for selftest CLI command can be found in the CLI Reference Guide along with
more command line examples.

134
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.7. Maintenance
2.7.1. Version Update Alerts

Overview

NetDefendOS can optionally receive information from D-Link servers related to available
upgrades. This information is displayed to the administrator as alerts in the Web Interface. This
informs the administrator that upgrades are available. This feature is enabled by default and
must be disabled manually by the administrator, as shown in the example at the end of this
section.

When enabled, alerts of available upgrades appear only in the Alerts portion of the NetDefendOS
Web Interface toolbar.

Communication with D-Link Servers is Encrypted and Periodic

Communication between NetDefendOS and D-Link servers is encrypted and occurs at the
following times:

• Shortly after system startup.

• Once per day following startup.

Required Prerequisites

This feature will only function if all of the following are true:

• NetDefendOS has access to the public Internet.

• The feature has not been disabled by the administrator.

Log Event Message Generation

A log message is generated when an alert is generated for the administrator that version
upgrades are available. This message has a severity level of Notice and the log event name
new_firmware_available.

Example 2.36. Disabling NetDefendOS Release Notifications

This example shows how to disable the diagnostics and quality improvements feature.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set UpdateCenter CheckForPatchReleases=No

CheckForFeatureReleases=No

Web Interface

135
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

1. Go to: Status > Maintenance > Update Center

2. Disable the setting Maintenance Releases

3. Disable the setting Feature Releases

4. Click OK

2.7.2. 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 6.6, “Intrusion Detection and Prevention”

• Section 6.5, “Anti-Virus Scanning”

• Section 6.3, “Web Content Filtering”

2.7.3. 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.

136
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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

137
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

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 2.37. 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.

138
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.7.4. 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.

Example 2.38. 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.

Resetting to the Base Configuration

An alternative to a complete factory reset is only resetting the firewall to its base configuration.
This means that only the NetDefendOS configuration is reset to its factory default.

Resetting to the base configuration can be done through the CLI or Web Interface. Using the CLI,
the command is:

gw-world:/> reset -configuration

Resetting the DFL-260E, 860E, and 870

To reset the D-Link DFL-260E, 860E, and 870 models, hold down the reset button on the unit for
10-15 seconds while powering up. After that, release the button and the unit will continue to
load and startup with its default factory settings.

Resetting the DFL-1660, 2560 and 2560G

To reset the D-Link DFL-1660, 2560 and 2560G models, press any key on the front 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.

139
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

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.

Interface IP Addresses are Reset

Resetting to defaults will reset the management interface and IP address for management access
to the default.

Apart from the management interface, the operation will also reset the IPv4 address of all other
Ethernet interfaces to be 127.0.x.1 in the network 127.0.x.0/24. The value "x" is a number that
starts with "1" and increases by one for each consecutive interface, skipping the management
interface.

The IPv4 address 127.0.0.1 is not used since this is reserved for the loopback interface.

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.

140
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.8. Languages
The graphical management interface for NetDefendOS is available in a number of different
languages. The language is selected from a dropbox when the interface is opened.

The selected language displayed in the graphical interface is read by NetDefendOS from one of a
set of separate language files which reside in the non-volatile memory of the firewall. These files
can be displayed and managed using the CLI languagefiles command and all of them have the
filetype .RC.

To see all the available language files, use the command with no options:

gw-world:/> languagefiles
Language files
LNG-CH.RC --> "Chinese"

The output shows that only the Chinese language file is present.

To delete a language file, use the -remove option:

gw-world:/> languagefiles -remove=LNG-CH.RC

Removing "LNG-CH.RC" ...OK

If there are no language files present, the following output is seen:

gw-world:/> languagefiles
Language files
No language files found

The default language of English is hard-coded into NetDefendOS and does not appear as a file in
the list.

141
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

2.9. Diagnostics and Improvements

Overview

To help D-Link improve NetDefendOS and related services, NetDefendOS provides a feature
known as Diagnostics and Improvements. This consists of the optional ability of NetDefendOS to
automatically send informational messages back to D-Link servers about the NetDefendOS
installation.

This feature is enabled by default but can be disabled manually by the administrator, as shown in
the example at the end of this section.

Communication is Encrypted and Periodic

Communication between NetDefendOS and D-Link servers is encrypted and occurs at the
following times:

• Shortly after system startup.

• Once per day following startup.

The exception to the above are crash reports which are only sent once, after an anomalous event
occurs.

Information Sent to D-Link

If the diagnostics and improvements feature is enabled, the information returned to D-Link by
NetDefendOS can be of the following types:

• Anonymous diagnostic reporting

This information relates to the static parameters of NetDefendOS and includes the
NetDefendOS version number and the version number of any installed databases such as the
anti-virus or IDP database.

• Anonymous diagnostic reporting plus usage statistics

This is enabled by default. The usage statistics provide a higher level of detail on system
operation and includes parameters such as:

• System uptime.

• Installed RAM memory size.

• CPU load.

• RAM memory usage.

• Web content filtering statistics (if enabled).

• Crash reports

This is enabled by default and will send encrypted and anonymous information to D-Link if
an anomalous system event occurs. A crash report is only sent once after such an event and it
can help D-Link support engineers determine where in NetDefendOS a problem occurred
and why.

142
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

Note: Log event messages are not generated

No log messages are generated when diagnostics and improvement information is sent
by NetDefendOS back to D-Link.

Example 2.39. Disabling Diagnostics and Quality Improvements Messaging

This example shows how to disable the diagnostics and quality improvements feature.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set Settings DiagnosticSettings EnableDiagnostics=No

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Advanced Settings > Diagnostic Settings

2. Disable the setting Anonymous Diagnostics Reporting

3. Click OK

143
 Chapter 2: Management and Maintenance

144
Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 145

• IPv6 Support, page 156

• Services, page 165

• Interfaces, page 178

• ARP, page 221

• IP Rules and IP Policies, page 228

• Application Control, page 253

• Schedules, page 265

• Certificates, page 268

• DNS, page 281

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. Ethernet
MAC addresses can also be defined in the address book.

Using address book objects has a number of important benefits:

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

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

145
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• 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

146
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

147
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

148
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

Note: IP and MAC Addresses

Address book objects can never contain both IP addresses and Ethernet MAC addresses
since these are entirely different in their usage. MAC address book objects are primarily
used with the NetDefendOS Proxy ARP feature.

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

149
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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
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.

3.1.7. FQDN Address Objects

Overview

Instead of specifying an address object to be an IP address, it can instead be specified as an

FQDN (for example: server1.example.com) in an FQDN Address object. NetDefendOS will then
automatically resolve the FQDN to an IP address when the object is referenced by other
configuration objects.

FQDN Address Object Properties

150
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

An FQDN Address object has the following properties:

• Name - The logical name of the object. This is specified by the administrator.

• Address - The FQDN of the object. This is specified by the administrator.

• Active Address - If the FQDN has been resolved then this will be the FQDN's IP address.
Otherwise, this property has no value assigned to. This property can only be set by
NetDefendOS.

Only Certain NetDefendOS Objects Can Use FQDN Address Objects

Currently, only IP Policy objects or Mail Altering objects can contain a reference to an FQDN
Address object.

For an IP Address object, either the Source Network property or the Destination Network property
can refer to an FQDN Address object. FQDN Address objects cannot be used with IP Rule objects.

FQDN Resolution Requires a Configured DNS Server

For FQDN Address objects to function correctly, at least one external DNS server must be
configured in NetDefendOS by creating at least one DNS Server object in the NetDefendOS
configuration. For a description of configuring DNS servers in NetDefendOS, see Section 3.10,
“DNS”

The DNS Lookup Should Be Consistent

The administrator should ensure that the DNS lookup used for FQDN Address objects referenced
by IP Policy objects returns the same results as the DNS lookup used by hosts that are affected by
those policies. The best way to do this is to ensure that NetDefendOS is using the same DNS
server as the hosts it is protecting.

FQDN Address Object Usage Triggers FQDN Resolution

NetDefendOS will try to perform the DNS resolution only when a new configuration is deployed
and that configuration makes use of an FQDN Address object. In other words, an FQDN Address
object might already be in the current NetDefendOS configuration but the DNS lookup will only
be performed when the configuration is changed so that the address object is referred to by, for
example, an IP Policy object.

If no DNS server is configured, NetDefendOS will generate an error when attempting to deploy a
configuration that makes use of an FQDN Address object in, for example, an IP Policy object.

FQDN Address Objects Can Store Multiple IPs

Depending on the FQDN, the DNS lookup can return both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and there can
be multiple IPs of each type. NetDefendOS can store up to 128 IPv4 addresses and/or 128 IPv6
addresses for each FQDN Address object. Any IP address sent by the DNS server in excess of the
128 limit for either type will be dropped.

FQDN Address Caching

NetDefendOS uses an internal FQDN Address Cache to ensure that the same FQDN Address object
does not need to be resolved every time it is referenced. The current cache contents can be
examined using the following CLI command:

151
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

gw-world:/> dns -cache

An example of output from this command is shown below:

gw-world:/> dns -cache

Name Status IP Cnt Address
---------------------------------- ---------- ------ --------------------
my_fqdn_address1 Resolved 1 server1.example.com
my_fqdn_address2 Unused 0

The status of a particular FQDN in the cache can be examined with the following command:

gw-world:/> dns -cache <FQDN>

Where <FQDN> is the logical configuration name of the address object in the address book.
Below is a example of output from this command:

gw-world:/> dns -cache my_fqdn_address1

Address : my_fqdn_address1
Status : Resolved
IP address LifeTime
-------------------------------------------------- --------
203.0.113.3 299

This information about the DNS cache can also be accessed in the Web Interface by going to
Status > Run-time Information > DNS Cache.

The Cache is Automatically Updated

When the DNS server returns IP addresses for an FQDN Address object, it also returns a Time To
Live (TTL) value. This value is stored with the entry for the FQDN Address object in the DNS cache.
When the TTL expires, NetDefendOS will refresh the cache entry by issuing a new DNS query.

The TTL returned from the DNS server could be very low or even zero. For this reason,
NetDefendOS provides a global DNS setting called Minimum TTL. If the TTL returned from a DNS
server is less than the value of Minimum TTL, the TTL is reset to be the Minimum TTL value.

There is also a second global DNS setting called Minimum Cache Time. This value becomes the
TTL if it greater than the TTL from the DNS server. However, the TTL value from the DNS server is
used if it is greater than the Minimum Cache Time setting.

Associated Log Messages

NetDefendOS can generate the following log messages associated with FQDN Address objects:

• ipv4_max_addresses - The 128 IPv4 address limit is exceeded and addresses from the DNS
server have been dropped.

• ipv6_max_addresses - The 128 IPv6 address limit is exceeded and addresses from the DNS
server have been dropped.

• dns_no_record - The DNS server does not have a record for the FQDN and it cannot be
resolved.

• dns_timeout - The DNS server has timed out during the FQDN lookup.

• dns_error - An unspecified error occurred during DNS lookup.

152
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• ip6_address_added - An FQDN's IPv6 address has been resolved and added to the cache.

• ip6_address_removed - An FQDN IPv6 address lifetime has expired and it has been
removed from the cache.

• ip4_address_added - An FQDN's IPv4 address has been resolved and added to the cache.

• ip4_address_removed - An FQDN IPv4 address lifetime has expired and it has been
removed from the cache.

Example 3.6. Adding an FQDN Address Object

This example shows how an FQDN Address object called my_fqdn_address1 is added to the
NetDefendOS address book.

The FQDN Address object will contain the address for the FQDN server.example.com. It is assumed
that a least one DNS server is already configured in NetDefendOS so the FQDN can be resolved to
an IP address.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Address FQDNAddress my_fqdn_address1

Address=server.example.com

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > FQDN Address

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_fqdn_address1

• Address: server.example.com

3. Click OK

Example 3.7. Setting the DNS Minimum TTL and Minimum Lifetime

This example sets the Minimum TTL value to 10 seconds and the Minimum Cache Time to 1000
seconds.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set DNS MinTTL=10 MinCacheTime=1000

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > DNS

2. Select Advanced Settings

153
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

3. Now enter:

• Minimum TTL: 10

• Minimum Cache Time: 1000

4. Click OK

Example 3.8. Using FQDN Objects with an IP Policy

In this example, connections from internal clients on the lannet network to the web site
www.example.com will not be allowed.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create the FQDN object for www.example.com:

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Address FQDNAddress example_website Address=www.example.com

B. Drop connections to the site:

gw-world:/> add IPPolicy SourceInterface=lan

SourceNetwork=lan_net
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=example_website
Service=all_services
Name=deny_lan_to_example
Action=Deny

Web Interface

A. Create the FQDN object for www.example.com:

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > FQDN Address

2. Now enter:

• Name: example_website

• Address: www.example.com

3. Click OK

B. Drop connections to the site:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

154
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Name: deny_lan_to_example

• Action: Deny

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: example_website

• Service: all_services

3. Select OK

155
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

This section discusses how IPv6 usage is enabled, how IPv6 objects are created, how stateless
auto-configuration by clients is enabled and how to create IP rules and routes that use IPv6
address objects.

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

As described in RFC 3849, 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.

NetDefendOS Configuration Objects Supporting IPv6

The following objects of NetDefendOS provide IPv6 support:

• The address book.

• Routing tables (except switch routes).

• Routing rules.

• IP rules and IP policies (excluding some actions).

• The HTTP and LW-HTTP ALGs when used with IP rules or IP policies.

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 following
two ways:

A. Enable IPv6 globally.

B. Enable IPv6 on an Ethernet interface.

These two methods 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 3.9. 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.

156
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

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 3.10. 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:

• IP Address: wan_ip6

• Network: wan_net6

4. 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.

157
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

The route is added provided the automatic route creation for the interface is enabled (it is
enabled by default).

Alternative Methods of Creating Interface Address Objects

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) is already predefined in the NetDefendOS address
book. This means that the IPv6 address and network objects associated with interfaces must be
created. This can be done in one of the following ways:

• By manually adding the address objects to the address book and then assigning these
objects to the associated interface. This is shown in the previous example.

• For Ethernet, VLAN and Link Aggregation interfaces, the DHCPv6 client function can be
enabled on an individual interface and the IPv6 address objects will be created as needed
when a client lease is received from an external DHCP server. The DHCPv6 client function is
discussed further in Section 5.6.1, “DHCPv6 Client”.

• For Ethernet, VLAN and Link Aggregation interfaces, by enabling the Autoconfigure property
on the interface. This option is explained next.

The Auto Configure Option

If the DHCP client option is not enabled on an interface then there is an alternative method for
automatically allocating IPv6 addresses to the interface. By enabling the Auto Configure IP Address
property on an interface, NetDefendOS will calculate an IPv6 address using the Extended Unique
Identifier (EUI-64) algorithm.

The EUI-64 algorithm requires a /64 (64 bit) IPv6 network from which to choose the IP address.
This /64 network can come from one of the following two sources:

• It can be statically defined as the IPv6 Network property for the interface.

• The Router Discovery option can be enabled so that NetDefendOS gets it from an external
router which is accessible from the interface and is found through the neighbor discovery
mechanism.

Example 3.11. Manually Adding IPv6 Interface Addresses

Assume that an IPv6 address and network have to be associated with the wan Ethernet 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

158
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

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

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 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.

159
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Example 3.12. Enabling IPv6 Advertisements

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

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.

IPv6 Neighbor Discovery

IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND) is the IPv6 equivalent of the IPv4 ARP protocol.

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”.

160
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 3.13. 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:/>

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.

161
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 Source Destination Destination Service

Interface Network Interface Network
Allow wan all-nets6 core wan_ip6 ping6-inbound

The above rule assumes that IPv6 has been enabled on the wan interface.

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

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 with the following:

i. VPN.

ii. IDP.

iii. Traffic shaping (pipes and pipe rules).

iv. Most ALGs. The HTTP and LW-HTTP ALGs do support IPv6.

IPv6 and High Availability

NetDefendOS High Availability (HA) fully supports IPv6 and any IPv6 configuration objects will be
mirrored on both the HA master and slave units.

The address book object IP6 HA Address is the IPv6 equivalent of the IP4 HA Address object. This
allows both shared and private IPv6 addresses to be assigned to interface pairs in an HA cluster.

162
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Private interface IPv6 addresses cannot be used for management access or as the source address
for logging but they can be used for responding to ICMP ping messages when a cluster is active
or for sending such messages when the cluster is inactive.

See Section 11.3, “Setting Up HA” for further discussion of using IP6 HA Address objects with an HA
cluster.

IPv6 and Transparent Mode

Transparent Mode in NetDefendOS does not directly support IPv6 since Switched Routes cannot
be defined for IPv6 networks (see Section 4.8, “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.

Tunneling IPv6 Across IPv4 Networks

NetDefendOS allows the tunneling of IPv6 traffic across networks that only support IPv4. This is
done using an IP6in4 Tunnel object. This is described further in Section 3.4.8, “6in4 Tunnels”.

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
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:

163
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• 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 found in the ARPNDSettings object and
include the following properties:

• 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:

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.

164
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 or IP Policy 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 either IP rules or policies 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 IP rules, the service is how an ALG becomes associated with an IP rule. 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”.

For IP policies, there is no reason to use an ALG at all since all the ALG options become available
when the service is associated with the IP policy provided the Protocol property of the service
has been set.

Predefined Services

A large number of service objects are predefined in NetDefendOS. These include common
services such as http and ftp.

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 is discussed in detail later in Section 3.3.2, “Creating Custom Services”.

Changes to Predefined Services in Version 11.01 and Later

With NetDefendOS version 11.01 and later, changes were made to the predefined Service objects.
In 11.01 and later the following predefined services and the associated predefined ALGs were
removed from a new NetDefendOS installation:

• http (ALG only removed)

• http-outbound (Service and ALG removed)
• ftp-inbound (Service and ALG removed)
• ftp-outbound (Service and ALG removed)
• ftp-internal (Service and ALG removed)

165
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• ftp-passthrough (Service and ALG removed)

If a pre-11.01 configuration is upgraded to 11.01 or later, these predefined objects will continue
to exist as before and can be used just as before so there will be no change.

In a new NetDefendOS 11.01 or later, these removed services and ALGs can be recreated as
custom services and ALGs if desired but a better option is to use an IP Policy object instead of an
IP Rule. For example, the predefined http service can be used with an IP policy and all of the
settings that were previously available through the ALG are now available directly on the policy.

In a new installation of 11.01 or later, any of the following Service objects can be used directly
with an IP Policy object in this way, removing the need to use a separate ALG:

• http
• https
• smtp
• imap
• pop3
• ftp
• tftp

With all of the above services, the settings of their corresponding ALG will become available on
an IP Policy object they are associated with.

In the case of an upgrade from a NetDefendOS version prior to 11.01, the administrator can
create these new versions of services by simply setting the Protocol property of the Service object
to the correct value. The service can then then be used with an IP policy as though it was a new
installation of NetDefendOS.

This topic is is also discussed in Section 6.2, “ALGs”.

Example 3.14. Listing the Available Services

To example shows how to produce a listing of all currently available services in NetDefendOS:

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 Comments
------------ --------------------------------------------------
all_services All ICMP, TCP and UDP services
all_tcpudp All TCP and UDP services
ipsec-suite The IPsec+IKE suite
l2tp-ipsec L2TP using IPsec for encryption and authentication
l2tp-raw L2TP control and transport, unencrypted
pptp-suite PPTP control and transport
ServiceICMP
Name Comments
------------ --------------------------------------------------
all_icmp All ICMP services
"
"

166
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Services

Example 3.15. Viewing a Specific Service

This example shows how to view the properties of the echo system:

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> show Service ServiceTCPUDP echo

The output will look similar to the following listing:

Property Value
----------------- ----------------
Name: echo
DestinationPorts: 7
Type: TCPUDP (TCP/UDP)
SourcePorts: 0-65535
PassICMPReturn: No
ALG: <empty>
MaxSessions: 1000
Comments: 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:

• 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”.

167
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• 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.

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

168
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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:

• Forward 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 Allow ICMP errors for active connections property 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.

• Enable IPv4 Path MTU Discovery

This can be enabled only if the Allow ICMP Errors property is enabled and permits the relaying
of path MTU discovery ICMP messages. This feature is discussed further in Section 3.3.7, “Path
MTU Discovery”.

• 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 6.7.8, “TCP SYN Flood Attacks”.

• 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.

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

• Max Sessions

169
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 3.16. 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

Web Interface

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

170
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

2. Specify a suitable name for the service, for example MySQL

3. Now enter:

• Type: TCP

• Source: 0-65535

• Destination: 3306

4. 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

• Code 1: Host Unreachable

• Code 2: Protocol Unreachable

171
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Code 3: Port Unreachable

• Code 4: Cannot Fragment

• Code 5: Source Route Failed

Redirect 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 3.17. Adding an IP Protocol Service

This example shows how to create an IP Protocol service for the Virtual Router Redundancy
Protocol (VRRP).

Command-Line Interface

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

172
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

Example 3.18. Creating a Service

This example shows how to create a Service Group object called my_service_group which consists
of two existing services called my_first_service and my_second_service.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceGroup my_service_group

Members=my_first_service,my_second_service

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > Service Group

2. For Name enter my_service_group

3. Select my_first_service from Available and press include

173
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

4. Select my_second_service from Available and press include

5. Click OK

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.

• Closing Timeout

The is the time allowed for the connection to be closed.

The administrator must make a judgment 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.

3.3.7. Path MTU Discovery

Overview

Path MTU Discovery (also shortened to just MTU discovery in this section) is a method by which
the MTU size of either IPv4 or IPv6 packets sent across the Internet can be adjusted to meet the
MTU limits of traversed network equipment and thus avoiding the need for fragmentation. When
a packet exceeds a piece of network equipment's next-hop MTU limit and the packet's DF (Don't
Fragment) flag is set, ICMP messages are sent back to the sender of the packet to resend with an
adjusted MTU size. This is defined by RFC 1191 (for IPv4) and RFC 1981 (for IPv6).

Implementation in NetDefendOS

The NetDefendOS path MTU discovery implementation allows both of the following two
functions:

• The ICMP messages involved in MTU discovery between two external pieces of network
equipment can be forwarded.

• NetDefendOS will send MTU discovery ICMP messages back to the sender if the DF (Don't
Fragment) flag is set and the packet size is larger than the MTU set for NetDefendOS's
outgoing interface (the next-hop MTU).

174
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

The NetDefend Firewall cannot act as the end-point in an MTU discovery message exchange.
NetDefendOS will only forward ICMP messages or generate messages indicating the acceptable
MTU of its own outgoing interface.

Path MTU discovery is always enabled by default for IPv6 on all NetDefendOS interfaces and will
not be discussed further in this section. For IPv4, it must be enabled as described next.

Enabling IPv4 MTU Discovery on a Service Object

MTU discovery is not enabled for IPv4 by default. Instead, it must be explicitly enabled on the
Service object associated with the IP Rule or IP Policy object that allows the connection. This is
done by enabling the following two properties of the Service object:

• Forward ICMP Errors

• Enable IPv4 Path MTU Discovery

The second property can only be enabled after the first property is enabled. The IP rule or IP
policy with which the service is used can be of any type except a FwdFast rule.

MTU Discovery Processing

To illustrate a typical path MTU discovery message exchange, consider a client computer trying
to connect to a server via a NetDefend Firewall and the public Internet as well as a router. This is
shown in the diagram below.

Figure 3.1. Path MTU Discovery Processing

Assuming that MTU discovery has been enabled on the relevant NetDefendOS IP rule or IP policy,
the following sequence of events shows how MTU discovery would function:

1. The client tries to open a connection to the server via the firewall using a packet size of 1400
bytes. The packets sent have the DF (Don't Fragment) flag enabled.

2. NetDefendOS looks at the MTU property value for the interface object used for the next
hop. This is 1300 so the client's packet MTU is too high and fragmentation cannot be
performed.

175
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

3. NetDefendOS sends an ICMP message to the client to indicate that fragmentation is needed
and the acceptable MTU for the next hop is 1300 or less.

4. The client now resends the packet with the requested 1300 size and this is forwarded by
NetDefendOS towards the server.

5. The router in front of the server sends back an ICMP message to NetDefendOS to indicate
that the packet size is too big and an MTU size of 1000 or less is acceptable.

6. NetDefendOS forwards this ICMP message to the client.

7. The client now resends again using a packet size of 1000 which is acceptable to both the
firewall and the router so the server is now accessible.

Turning Off the DF Flag

NetDefendOS has a global IP setting called Strip Don't Fragment which can be used to disable
the DF (Don't Fragment) flag in a packet. The Strip Don't Fragment settings takes an integer
value which is the MTU size below which the DF flag is always disabled. By default, this property
has a value of 65535 so the DF flag is always disabled.

Disabling the DF flag means that path MTU discovery will not be used for that packet and it
therefore becomes a possibility that a packet above the acceptable MTU size of network
equipment will be fragmented. In most cases, this will only cause a degradation in performance.

However, explicitly enabling path MTU discovery on a Service object will override the Strip Don't
Fragment setting and so it does not need to be changed for MTU discovery.

Note: Not enabling MTU discovery can cause problems

Disabling path MTU discovery can have unintended side effects. If the forwarding of
ICMP errors is disabled, the packet flow can stop if an upstream device sends an ICMP
error in order to lower the MTU and this is not forwarded to the originator of the traffic.

One way to deal with this potential problem is to use the global Strip Don't Fragment
setting to disable the DF flag so packets that are too long can be fragmented when
needed.

Example 3.19. Enabling Path MTU Discovery

This example shows how to set up path MTU discovery for an IP rule that already exists called
int_to_ext_http. The rule NATs internal clients to the public Internet. The clients are surfing the
Internet so a Service object called my_http_pmd_service will be created which has path MTU
discovery enabled and this will be associated with the IP rule.

Command-Line Interface

First, create a service object:

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP my_http_pmd_service

Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=80,443
PassICMPReturn=Yes
AllowIPv4PathMTUDiscovery=Yes

176
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Next, modify the NAT IP rule to use the new service.

gw-world:/> set IPRule int_to_ext_http Service=my_http_pmd_service

Web Interface

First, create a new service object:

1. Go to: Local Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP service

2. Enter the following:

• Name: my_http_pmd_service

• Type: TCP

• Destination Port: 80,443

• Enable Forward ICMP Errors

• Enable Enable IPv4 Path MTU Discovery

Next, modify the NAT IP rule to use the new service:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules

2. Select the IP rule called int_to_ext_http

3. Go to: Service

4. Select my_http_pmd_service from the Service list

5. Click OK

177
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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, see Section 3.4.4, “VLAN”.

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

about this topic can be found in Section 3.4.6, “PPPoE”.

178
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• 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 3.4.7, “GRE Tunnels”.

• Loopback Interfaces

A loopback interface is a special type of interface that will take all packets sent through it and
pass them on out through the loopback interface configured as the one to loop to. These are
almost exclusively used for Virtual Routing scenarios.

More information about this topic can be found in Section 3.4.9, “Loopback Interfaces”.

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 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.

Important: Remove references before removing interfaces

If a logical interface is to be deleted from a NetDefendOS configuration, it is important
to first remove 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

179
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

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 D-Link hardware model.

180
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.
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

181
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

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.

When a default gateway is specified then, by default, a route to the network all-nets is
automatically created in the NetDefendOS routing table for the interface. This means that any
traffic which does not have a more specific matching route will be sent via that interface to
the default gateway. This behavior can be changed by disabling an interface's advanced
option for creating the default route automatically.

Normally, only one default all-nets route to the default gateway needs to exist in the routing
table.

Note: The all-nets IP address object

The all-nets IP object (IP address: 0.0.0.0/0) includes the multicast IP address range
(224.0.0.0 => 239.255.255.255). For more information about this topic, see
Section 4.7, “Multicast Routing”.

• Receive Multicast Traffic

This option controls the reception of multicast IP packets on that interface. There are three
options:

i. Off - Promiscuous mode is switched off so that multicast packets are silently dropped.
Promiscuous mode will still be automatically switched on with OSPF or high availability.

ii. On - Multicast traffic can always be received by the interface. Promiscuous mode is
always the receive mode of the interface.

iii. Auto - If an IP rule exists in the rule set which applies to a multicast packet's destination
IP address, then the Ethernet interface automatically gets its receive mode set to
promiscuous in order to receive multicast packets. This is the default.

This setting does not affect the automatic usage of promiscuous mode with OSPF or high
availability. For a further discussion of promiscuous mode, see the description below.

• 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 IPv4 address
information from an ISP's DHCP server for public Internet connection.

The information that can be set using DHCP includes the IPv4 address as well as the
broadcast address of the interface, the local network that the interface is attached to, and the
default gateway.

182
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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. In addition, DHCPv6 for IPv6 addresses is available as a separate property of the
interface configuration object and this is also disabled by default (see Section 5.6.1, “DHCPv6
Client”).

Important: DHCP clients are not supported in HA clusters

Both IPv4 DHCP clients and DHCPv6 clients are not supported in a high availability
cluster. If either property is enabled for an interface then this will produce the error
Shared HA IP address not set when trying to commit the configuration.

DNS server addresses received through DHCP on an interface which is 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 (for
example, the address of an ISP) 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.

• Enable Transparent Mode

The recommended way to enable Transparent Mode is to add switch routes, as described in
Section 4.8, “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

183
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

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

184
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 Ïf1
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”.

The Difference Between Logical and Physical Ethernet Interfaces

The difference between logical and physical interfaces can sometimes be confusing. The logical

185
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 Value
--------------------- ------------------------
Name: wan_net
Address: 0.0.0.0/0
UserAuthGroups: <empty>
NoDefinedCredentials: No
Comments: Network on interface wan

To show the current interface assigned to the gateway wan_gw:

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

Property Value
--------------------- ---------------------------------
Name: wan_gw
Address: 0.0.0.0
UserAuthGroups: <empty>
NoDefinedCredentials: No

186
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Comments: 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_gw
InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns1 InterfaceAddresses/wan_ip
InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns2 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/wan_br timesyncsrv1_ip
InterfaceAddresses/aux_ip InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns1
InterfaceAddresses/aux_net InterfaceAddresses/wan_dns2
InterfaceAddresses/dmz_ip InterfaceAddresses/wan_gw
InterfaceAddresses/dmz_net InterfaceAddresses/wan_ip
InterfaceAddresses/lan_ip InterfaceAddresses/wan_net
InterfaceAddresses/lan_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.

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>

187
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Individual interface details can be displayed, for example for the interface If1, with the command:

gw-world:/> show EthernetDevice If1

Property Value
--------------- ----------------------
Name: If1
EthernetDriver: E1000EthernetPCIDriver
PCIBus: 0
PCISlot: 17
PCIPort: 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.

3.4.2.2. Advanced Ethernet Interface Settings

This section details the advanced settings available for NetDefendOS Ethernet interfaces. The
settings are global and affect all physical interfaces.

DHCP Settings

Below, is a list of the advanced DHCP settings for NetDefendOS Ethernet interfaces.

DHCP_AllowGlobalBcast

Allow DHCP server to assign 255.255.255.255 as broadcast. (Non-standard.)

Default: Disabled

188
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

DHCP_DisableArpOnOffer

Disable the ARP check done by NetDefendOS on the offered IP. The check issues an ARP request
to see if the IP address is already in use.

Default: Disabled

DHCP_UseLinkLocalIP

If this is enabled NetDefendOS will use a Link Local IP (169.254.*.*) instead of 0.0.0.0 while
waiting for a lease.

Default: Disabled

DHCP_ValidateBcast

Require that the assigned broadcast address is the highest address in the assigned network.

Default: Enabled

DHCP_MinimumLeaseTime

Minimum lease time (seconds) accepted from the DHCP server.

Default: 60

Hardware Settings

Below, is a list of the advanced hardware settings that are available for NetDefendOS Ethernet
interfaces. These settings are only relevant to NetDefendOS running on non-D-Link hardware.

Ringsize_e1000_rx

Size of the rx buffer on e1000 cards.

Default: 64

Ringsize_e1000_tx

Size of the tx buffer on e1000 cards.

Default: 256

Ringsize_e100_rx

Size of the rx buffer on e100 cards.

Default: 32

Ringsize_e100_tx

Size of the tx buffer on e100 cards.

189
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Default: 128

Ringsize_yukon_rx

Size of Yukon receive ring (per interface).

Default: 256

Ringsize_yukon_tx

Size of Yukon send ring (per interface).

Default: 256

Ringsize_yukonii_rx

Size of Yukon-II receive ring (per interface).

Default: 256

Ringsize_yukonii_tx

Size of Yukon-II send ring (per interface).

Default: 256

Interface Monitor Settings

Below, is a list of the monitor settings that are available for NetDefendOS Ethernet interfaces.

IfaceMon_e1000

Enable interface monitor for e1000 interfaces.

Default: Enabled

IfaceMon_BelowCPULoad

Temporarily disable ifacemon if CPU load goes above this percentage.

Default: 80

IfaceMon_BelowIfaceLoad

Temporarily disable ifacemon on and interface if network load on the interface goes above this
percentage.

Default: 70

IfaceMon_ErrorTime

How long a problem must persist before an interface is reset.

190
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Default: 10

IfaceMon_MinInterval

Minimum interval between two resets of the same interface.

Default: 30

IfaceMon_RxErrorPerc

Percentage of errors in received packets at which to declare a problem.

Default: 20

IfaceMon_TxErrorPerc

Percentage of errors in sent packets at which to declare a problem.

Default: 7

3.4.3. Link Aggregation

Introduction

Where individual physical Ethernet interfaces of a NetDefend Firewall cannot provide the
bandwidth required for a specific stream of traffic, it is possible to use the NetDefendOS Link
Aggregation feature to combine two or more physical interfaces together so they act as one
logical NetDefendOS interface. This feature is sometimes referred to by other security product
vendors using names such as Link Bundling or NIC Teaming.

An Example Use Case

An example use case is where a NetDefend Firewall might only have multiple one Gigabit
Ethernet interfaces but the requirement for a particular traffic flow is bandwidth of three
Gigabits. A logical Link Aggregation object could then be created which combines the capacities
of three physical interfaces. This object can then be used in the NetDefendOS configuration like
any other interface and can be part of the Route and the IPRule or IPPolicy objects that govern the
traffic flow. NetDefendOS will then automatically spread the traffic between the physical
interfaces.

The diagram below shows a typical scenario where three 1Gb networks need to communicate
with a 10Gb network backbone through a firewall which only has 1 Gb interfaces. Three of the
firewall's 1Gb interfaces are connected to an external switch and grouped into a Link Aggregation
configuration object. The switch then provides the 10Gb link to the backbone.

191
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Figure 3.2. Link Aggregation

Note: Switch fabric connected interfaces cannot be used

Where a single logical interface consists of a number of physical interfaces connected
through a switch fabric on a D-Link hardware model, that logical interface cannot be
part of a link aggregation object.

This is the case for the logical lan interface on the NetDefend DFL-260E and DFL-860E
product models.

Physical Interface Requirements

The following are the requirements for the physical Ethernet interfaces associated with a
LinkAggregation configuration object in NetDefendOS:

• A maximum of 16 physical interfaces can be aggregated using one LinkAggregation

configuration object.

• All the physical interfaces must operate at the same link speed.

• All the physical interfaces must be connected to the same external switch

Configuring the Mode

The LinkAggregation object's Mode property and as the external switch are configured in either of
the following modes:

• Static

When the aggregation is static, NetDefendOS cannot know if one of the interfaces in the

192
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

aggregation is not working and will try to send the traffic anyway. There is no negotiation
taking place between NetDefendOS and the switch to which the aggregated interfaces are
connected.

This means that on link failure, a connection can be dropped entirely.

• LACP (Negotiated)

With negotiated aggregation, the switch to which the aggregated interfaces are connected is
configured to use LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol). This means that should a
physical link become inoperative, NetDefendOS will only try to send traffic over the
remaining operating links.

The advantage over the Static setting is that NetDefendOS will try to send a limited number
of packets over the failed connection before it switches to an alternate, working link. This
means that the connection will not be dropped and the connection's external endpoint will
experience only minor packet loss.

Individual Interface References Are Ignored

When an EthernetInterface object becomes part of a LinkAggregation object, it can no longer be

used as a separate object. If a configuration retains this individual interface usage after
aggregation then any references to it in the NetDefendOS configuration will be ignored during
operation although the underlying configuration is not changed.

For example, the following will be true:

• Any IP rules that refer to an aggregated interface will be ignored in rule searches.

• Any routes that refer to an aggregated interface will be ignored in route searches. The
ignored routes will still appear in output from the CLI command show routes but will not
appear in the CLI command routes.

Removing Individual Routing References is Recommended

Whenever configuration changes are committed, NetDefendOS will issue warnings about any
aggregated interface references that will be ignored. For example, such a warning is shown
below for the interface If1 because it is being used in a Route object.

If1 is not a valid routing interface because it's a Link Aggregation member

For configuration clarity, it is recommended that the administrator removes such redundant
interface usage from the NetDefendOS configuration.

Individual Interface Addresses Becomes 0.0.0.0

When an EthernetInterface object becomes part of a LinkAggregation object, its individual IPv4
address becomes 0.0.0.0. This will be seen in the output from the CLI command ifstat.

However, the underlying NetDefendOS configuration is not changed. For example, the
associated address book objects are not changed so that if an interface is no longer part of of a
LinkAggregation object, its IP address will revert back to its original address.

Distribution Methods

193
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

The administrator must make a judgment about the traffic being spread across the aggregated
physical interfaces and choose one of the following criteria for the distribution:

• DestinationMAC
• SourceIP
• DestinationIP
• SourcePort
• DestinationPort
• IP and Ports (the default)

Choosing the Distribution Method

The algorithm that spreads the traffic between the aggregated interfaces uses hashing with the
chosen distribution method as the input. The best distribution method is therefore the one
which varies the most. For example, if the source of traffic is a number of internal clients being
NATed to the Internet via an ISP, the best choice for the distribution method is most likely
SourcePort since this will be chosen randomly as each connection is opened by a client.

An alternative in the above scenario could be SourceIP but only if there is a sufficiently large
number of clients. With just a few clients, SourceIP might end up with only one of the aggregated
interfaces being used.

If aggregation is being done for a protected web server receiving external requests from remote
clients over the public Internet, the DestinationIP would not be suitable since all connections
would have the server's address. Instead, the more variable SourceIP would be a better choice for
the distribution method.

The hashing process to choose the physical Ethernet interface to use takes place each time a new
connection is opened. This means that all packets for a given connection will be sent on the
same physical interface. The chosen interface for the connection would then only subsequently
change if the chosen mode was dynamic and the connection fails.

The Default IP and Ports Distribution Method

The default distribution method is IP and Ports and this takes into account both the source and
destination IP address as well as the source and destination port number. It is designed to be a
general catch-all solution where the traffic type is known to be variable or where the
administrator is uncertain which of the more specific distribution is suitable.

Physical Switch Connections

The physical cable links between the firewall and the external switch can be made either before
or after creating the LinkAggregation object and activating the changed configuration.
NetDefendOS will try to send data on the aggregated interfaces as soon as the configuration
changes become active.

However, it is recommended that the physical cabling is in place before the LinkAggregation
object is activated and saved. This will provide the behavior which is expected from the feature
and is particularly relevant if negotiated aggregation (LACP) is used.

Setup with High Availability

When using link aggregation with HA, the connections from the Ethernet ports on each firewall
in the HA cluster can connect to the same or different switches. However, if using the same
switch, the switch must be configured so that the connections from each firewall are kept
separate by creating two link aggregation groups in the switch.

194
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Setting the MTU Value

It is possible to set a specific MTU property value on a link aggregation interface. However, this
value will not be used on one of the aggregated Ethernet interfaces if the individual Ethernet
interface MTU property is set to a value that is lower than the link aggregation MTU. This is true
regardless if the mode is static or negotiated (LACP).

Example 3.20. Link Aggregation

In this example, the Ethernet interfaces If1 and If2 will become part of a single LinkAggregation
object called la_if1_if2. It is assumed that this new object will have the pre-defined IPv4 address
object la_if1_if2_ip assigned to it and this address belongs to the network la_if1_if2_net.

The switch the link is connecting is capable of a link negotiation.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Interface LinkAggregation la_if1_if2

Mode=LACP
IP=la_if1_if2_ip
Network=la_if1_if2_net
DistributionAlgorithm=DestinationIP

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Link Aggregation > Add > Link Aggregation

2. Enter the following:

• Name: la_if1_if2

• Distribution Algorithm: DestinationIP

• Mode: LACP

• IP address (IPv4): la_if1_if2_ip

• Network (IPv4): la_if1_if2_net

3. Select If1 from Members and press Include

4. Repeat the previous step to add the If2 interface

5. Click OK

3.4.4. 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.

195
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

196
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Figure 3.3. VLAN Connections

With NetDefendOS VLANs, the physical connections are as follows:

• One or 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.

Limitations on the Total Number of VLANs Allowed

197
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

The number of VLAN interfaces that can be defined for a NetDefendOS installation is limited by
the type of NetDefendOS license. 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.

Note: Port Based VLAN

VLANs on the LAN interfaces of the NetDefend DFL-260E and DFL-860E models are
configured differently from standard NetDefendOS VLANs. The setup is described fully in
Appendix E, DFL-260E/860E Port Based VLAN.

The VLAN processing overhead for these LAN interfaces is performed by the switch
fabric that connects these interfaces and not by NetDefendOS. This allows the interfaces
to be divided up into a number of different VLANs. This feature is referred to as Port
Based VLAN.

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 3.21. 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.

198
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Interface VLAN VLAN10

Ethernet=lan
IP=vlan10_ip
Network=all-nets
VLANID=10

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Add > VLAN

2. Now enter:

• Name: Enter a name, for example VLAN10

• Interface: lan

• VLAN ID: 10

• IP Address: vlan10_ip

• Network: all-nets

3. Click OK

3.4.5. Service VLAN

In certain scenarios, it is desirable to wrap traffic from multiple VLANs inside a single parent
VLAN. This is sometimes referred to as a Q-in-Q VLAN or a Stacked VLAN. In NetDefendOS, it is
called a Service VLAN and follows the standard defined by IEEE 802.1ad. It can be said that a
service LAN tunnels other VLANs and provides a convenient method of using a single logical
connection on a single Ethernet interface through which multiple VLANs can flow.

A Service VLAN Use Case

A NetDefend Firewall can act as a terminator for a service VLAN. A typical use case for service
VLAN termination is illustrated in the diagram below.

199
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Figure 3.4. A Service VLAN Use Case

Here, corporate departments A and B each use two VLANs where the VLAN IDs 10 and 20 can be
duplicated. A switch in each department connects it to another central corporate switch using
the unique VLAN IDs 101 and 102. This central switch can now connect to the NetDefend Firewall
using a single service LAN which tunnels the 101 and 102 VLANs.

Defining a Service VLAN

The standard NetDefendOS VLAN object is used to define a service VLAN but the Type property
for the object is set to 0x88a8. This Type property corresponds to the TPID setting in the VLAN tag
and this is explained further at the end of this section.
>

After the service VLAN object is defined, a non-service VLAN object can be placed inside it by
setting its Base Interface property to be the service VLAN object. This is demonstrated in the
example below.

Example 3.22. Defining a Service VLAN

This example defines a service VLAN called svlan_A with a ID of 100 on the physical interface If3.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Interface VLAN svlan_A

Type=0x88a8
BaseInterface=If3
VLANID=100
IP=svlan_A_ip
Network=svlan_A_net

A VLAN object can now be added to this:

200
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

gw-world:/> add Interface VLAN vlan1

BaseInterface=svlan_A
VLANID=1
IP=vlan1_ip
Network=vlan1_net

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Add > VLAN

2. Now enter:

• Name: svlan_A

• Type: 0x88a8

• Base Interface: If3

• VLANID: 100

• IP Address: svlan_A_ip

• Network: svlan_A_net

3. Click OK

A VLAN object can now be added to this:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Add > VLAN

2. Now enter:

• Name: vlan1

• Base Interface: svlan_A

• VLANID: 1

• IP Address: vlan1_ip

• Network: vlan1_net

3. Click OK

Important: Enable jumbo frame support in the network

For optimum performance, it is recommended to enable jumbo frame support in the
external network equipment which handles service VLAN traffic. This is because service
VLAN traffic will use an Ethernet MTU value that exceeds the standard size of 1500 bytes.

The Complete List of Type Values

The complete list of values that can be used for the Type property in a VLAN object is shown
below.

201
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

TPID (Hexadecimal) Decimal Equivalent Description

0x8100 33024 IEEE 802.1Q VLAN (the default)
0x88a8 34984 IEEE diffserv Service VLAN
0x9100 37120 0x9100 VLAN
0x9200 37376 0x9200 VLAN
0x9300 37632 0x9300 VLAN

The Type property specifies the Tag Protocol Identifier (TPID) in the VLAN tag.

Since the VLAN object defaults to a Type of 0x8100 (a standard VLAN), the only Type usually
needed is 0x88a8 to specify a service VLAN. The last three entries in the list may be needed to
provide interoperability with external equipment from some manufacturers.

Service VLANs within Service VLANs

The BaseInterface property of a service VLAN object can be another service VLAN object. In other
words, one service VLAN can contain another service VLAN.

Although unusual beyond a couple of levels, NetDefendOS permits up to 16 levels of nesting,

with a VLAN object at the first level wrapped by a maximum of 15 levels of nested service VLAN
objects.

3.4.6. 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 local 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

202
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

PPP authentication is optional with PPP. Authentication protocols supported are: Password
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

It is possible to run the NetDefendOS PPPoE client over either a physical Ethernet interface or a
VLAN interface.

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 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.

203
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

When the option to force unnumbered PPPoE is selected, the client (that is to say
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 3.23. 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)

204
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Disable the option Enable dial-on-demand

• Under Advanced, if Add route for remote network is enabled then a new route will be
added for the interface

3. Click OK

3.4.7. 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.

205
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

The specified IP address is then used for the following:

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.

• Outgoing Routing Table

This defines the routing table to be used for the tunnel itself and not the traffic that it is
carrying. In other words, the table used to look up the tunnel endpoint.

• 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 Virtual Routing options are used as with any other interface such as an Ethernet interface
(see Section 3.4.2, “Ethernet Interfaces”). The routing tables specified here apply to the traffic
carried by the tunnel and not the tunnel itself. The route lookup for the tunnel itself is specified
in the earlier option Outgoing Routing Table.

The Advanced settings for a GRE interface are:

• Add route dynamically - This option would normally be checked in order that the routing
table is automatically updated. The alternative is to manually create the required route using
the option Add route statically.

• 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.

206
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 of GRE Usage

The diagram below shows a typical GRE scenario, where two NetDefend Firewalls labeled A and
B must communicate with each other through the intervening internal network 172.16.0.0/16.
The setup for the two firewalls are described next.

Figure 3.5. An Example of GRE Usage

Any traffic passing between A and B is tunneled through the intervening network using a GRE
tunnel. Since the network is internal and not passing through the public Internet, there is no
need for encryption.

Part 1. 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. 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

2. 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

207
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• 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

Part 2. 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. 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

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

208
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

3.4.8. 6in4 Tunnels

A 6in4 Tunnel allows the tunneling of IPv6 traffic over networks that only support IPv4 traffic. In
situations where an ISP can only provide an IPv4 public IP address, a host might still need to
connect to the public Internet with an IPv6 address. This is solved by using 6in4 tunnels which
are an implementation of RFC 4213 (Basic Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers). The
6in4 Tunnel configuration object provides this feature in NetDefendOS. It can be said that the
NetDefend Firewall then acts as a 6in4 tunnel encapsulator.

A typical scenario for use of this feature is a protected network behind a firewall on which there
are a number of IPv6 host computers. Each host will require its own unique IPv6 address and this
address will be accessible to other hosts across the public Internet. This IPv6 traffic will be sent
through a single 6in4 tunnel which stretches from the firewall to a Tunnel Server (explained next).
This is the scenario that will be discussed first in this section.

Tunnel Servers and Tunnel Brokers

A Tunnel Server is an external computer accessible through the public Internet using IPv4 that
provides a gateway for IPv6 traffic to the public Internet. Tunnel servers are provided by Tunnel
Brokers which are third party organizations that either charge for server use or provide the
service for free. In some cases, an ISP may also offer this service.

Prerequisite Tunnel Broker Information

Before being able to configure a NetDefendOS 6in4 Tunnel object to an external tunnel server,
the tunnel broker owning the server will provide the following information:

• An IPv6 prefix. This is the address range that can be used by the IPv6 hosts behind the
firewall. Addresses can be statically assigned or assigned dynamically by configuring a
NetDefendOS DHCPv6 server. A tunnel broker will have a large unique IPv6 prefix already
assigned to them from which they make this allocation.

• The IPv4 address of an interface on the tunnel server computer. This is used as the Remote
Endpoint property when configuring a 6in4 tunnel object. Instead of an IPv4 address, a DNS
resolvable address could also be used in which case NetDefendOS will automatically resolve
the address providing a DNS server has been configured.

• Optionally, the IPv6 address of the internal local endpoint of the tunnel at the client side can
be provided by the broker. This is the IP Address property of the 6in4 Tunnel object. It can be
pinged by the tunnel server to check if the tunnel is alive.

The diagram below illustrates a use case for IP6in4 tunnels with a tunnel broker. The LAN
network and DMZ networks behind the NetDefend Firewall require IPv6 access to the public
Internet but only IPv4 access is available to the ISP's router.

209
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Figure 3.6. IP6in4 Tunnel Usage

Configuring a 6in4 Tunnel Object

Apart from the name of the object, there are three key properties which must be assigned values:

• Remote Network

This specifies the network for the route that is added automatically by NetDefendOS when
the tunnel object is defined. For the typical client scenario described here, this will usually be
all-nets6 indicating the IPv6 gateway to the public Internet.

If the option to add a route automatically is disabled, this property has no relevance since the
network is specified in a manually added route.

The interface which is the local endpoint for the tunnel will be derived from a route lookup of
this property. In most cases the default route to the public Internet will be looked up and the
interface will be the Ethernet interface connected to an ISP.

• IP Address

This is the local IPv6 address inside the tunnel. It may be provided by the tunnel broker in
which case it can be pinged to establish if the tunnel is alive. If this is the case then the
appropriate NetDefendOS IP rule or policy needs to be set up so that the ICMP ping is
answered.

If the broker does not require a specific address then this should be set to any IPv6 address
which belongs to the prefix handed out by the broker.

• Remote Endpoint

This is the IPv4 address for the tunnel server so NetDefendOS knows how to contact it across
the public Internet. It is assumed that NetDefendOS has access to the public Internet via an
ISP for IPv4 traffic only.

210
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Example 3.24. 6in4 Tunnel Configuration

In this example, a 6in4 Tunnel object will be configured to connect with a remote tunnel server
across the public Internet.

It is assumed that a number of address objects have already been configured in the
NetDefendOS address book. These have the names local_endpoint_ip6 for the local inner IPv6
endpoint of the tunnel and tunnel_server_ip4 for the IPv4 address of the tunnel server.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Interface IP6in4Tunnel my_6in4_tunnel

IP=local_endpoint_ip6
Network=all-nets6
RemoteEnpoint=tunnel_server_ip4

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > 6in4 > Add > 6in4 Tunnel

2. Enter the following:

• Name: my_6in4_tunnel

• IP Address: local_endpoint_ip6

• Remote Network: all-nets6

• Remote Endpoint: tunnel_server_ip4

3. Click OK

Routing Table Usage with 6in4 Tunnels

By default, the lookup of the IPv4 remote endpoint is done in the NetDefendOS main routing
table. This can be changed to be a specific routing table. The route for the Remote Network
property of the tunnel is also added, by default, to all routing tables including the main table.
This can also be changed so that the addition is made to a specific routing table.

MTU resizing

The MTU used by the protected IPv6 clients should not be too large since this will result in
excessive fragmentation during the tunneling process and thereby introduce unnecessary
overhead. There are two ways that the IPv6 clients behind a firewall can have their MTU value
adjusted:

• If the Pass returned ICMP error messages from destination property is enabled for the
Service objects used by the IP rules or IP policies controlling traffic flow, the IPv6 hosts will
initially take on the default MTU property of the 6in4 Tunnel object. By default this is 1280
which is the minimum value for IPv6. If other downstream network equipment requires a
different MTU, this can also be communicated via ICMP messages.

• A NetDefendOS Router Advertisement object can be configured on the interface connected to

211
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

the IPv6 hosts and this can provide the preferred MTU value. This method provides the
fastest response by the hosts since they do not have to resend after receiving ICMP error
messages because of an unsuitable MTU size.

These options can be used together so that the router advertisement provides the initial MTU
and if that is not acceptable, preferred MTU values are sent to the hosts via ICMP error messages.

NetDefendOS Acting as Tunnel Server

It has been assumed so far that NetDefendOS is acting as the client for an external tunnel server.
However, the NetDefend Firewall itself can be a tunnel server. A typical usage of this is where
clients at the branch offices of a company require IPv6 access. This is illustrated in the diagram
below:

Figure 3.7. Acting as a 6in4 Tunnel Server

The 6in4 tunnel encapsulator in the above diagram can be any piece of network equipment
capable of 6in4 tunneling for the remote network traffic. This could be a router, a server with
appropriate software, or a NetDefend Firewall set up as described previously.

To set up NetDefendOS to provide this tunnel server function, the following configuration
components are required:

• A 6in4 Tunnel object for each tunnel that will connect carrying the IPv6 traffic of remote hosts.

• An all-net6 route for an interface that is connected to an ISP gateway that supports IPv6.
Incoming IPv6 traffic from a tunnel can then be routed out onto the public Internet via the
interface in the route. This interface will usually be the Ethernet interface connected to an ISP
but may be another type of interface.

• At least one IP rule or IP policy that allows traffic coming from the tunnel to exit using the
all-net6 route. This must use a Service object that has its Pass returned ICMP errors
messages from destination property enabled so that MTU sizes can be adjusted when
required.

IP rules or IP policies controlling IPv6 traffic can use the NetDefendOS Application Control
feature to allow or deny specific types of IPv6 traffic. This is discussed further in Section 3.7,
“Application Control”.

212
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Configuring NetDefendOS requires that a 6in4 Tunnel object is set up with the object properties
being used in the following way:

• Remote Network

This is the IPv6 prefix used by the client hosts.

• IP Address

The inner IPv6 address of the endpoint local to this broker firewall. This address should not be
accessible by anything else. NetDefendOS will automatically create a route for it that has core
as the interface (in other words, a core route).

• Remote Endpoint

The IPv4 address of the connecting tunnel's remote Ethernet interface. This can also be a
DNS-resolvable address.

When acting as a server, a single 6in4 Tunnel object can accept a connection from only one
incoming tunnel. Separate tunnel objects must be configured for other incoming tunnels. ICMP
error messages must also be allowed when NetDefendOS acts as a server so that MTU sizes can
be correctly adjusted.

3.4.9. Loopback Interfaces

A Loopback Interface is a logical NetDefendOS interface that will take all traffic sent through it
and send it out through a second configured loopback interface. Loopback interfaces are
consequently always configured in pairs, with each referring to the other.

For example, suppose a pair of Loopback Interface objects are configured called LB1 and LB2 and
each is defined to be paired with the other. When traffic is sent through the LB1 interface, it is
simultaneously received on the LB2 interface with the transfer occurring virtually, entirely within
NetDefendOS. Similarly, when traffic is sent through LB2, it is received on LB1. This is exactly the
same as if the two interfaces were two physical Ethernet interfaces which are connected to each
other.

IPv6 can be used with a Loopback Interface

Loopback interfaces can be used with both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. A Loopback Interface object
must always have an IPv4 address and network assigned to it. By turning on the Enable IPv6
property of a Loopback Interface object, an IPv6 address and network can also be defined, in
addition to the mandatory IPv4 information. The grouping of both IPv4 and IPv6 address
information in a Loopback Interface object does not imply any relationship between them. IPv6
loopback addresses are defined this way for configuration simplicity.

Loopback Interface Usage with Virtual Routing

Loopback interfaces are usually used with NetDefendOS Virtual Routing. In virtual routing, it is
possible to divide up a single NetDefend Firewall's operations so that it behaves as multiple
virtual firewalls. This is done by having multiple routing tables so that each table handles the
routing for one set of interfaces.

In virtual routing, the routing tables and their associated routes can be totally isolated from each
other so that related traffic flows are completely separate. However, if certain traffic needs to
flow between interfaces in separate routing tables, a loopback interface pair must be used (also
see Section 4.5, “Virtual Routing”).

213
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Loopback Interface Parameters

The following are the properties can be specified for a loopback interface:

Name The logical name of the interface for display and reference in NetDefendOS.

Loop To This is the name of the other loopback interface in the pair. The other interface
will have this loopback interface for its Loop to property.

For each pair, the Loop to property must be left blank when the first interface is
created and then filled in later after its partner is created.

IP Address The IPv4 address assigned to the loopback interface. This is the address that
can be "Pinged" and can be used as the source address for dynamically
translated connections. This address can be any IP from the Network assigned
to the interface but must be different from the address assigned to the other
interface in the loopback pair.

Network The network assigned to the loopback interface and to which the above IP
Address belongs. This does not have to be the same network as the other
interface in the loopback pair.

Enable IPv6 If enabled, this option allows an IPv6 address and network to be entered.
Entering some IPv4 address and network is mandatory even if IPv4 is not
going to be used in the loopback setup.

One of two options can then be selected depending on how the loopback interface is to be used
with routing tables:

• Make the interface a member of all routing tables

Traffic arriving on this loopback interface will be routed according to the main routing table.
A route for this loopback interface's IP address will be inserted automatically into all routing
tables.

• Make interface a member of a specific routing table

With this option, a single route for this interface's IP will be inserted automatically into the
specified routing table. Only the specified routing table will then be used for route lookups
for traffic arriving on this interface.

Note: Routing rules can override table section

The above settings for route lookup can be overridden by a Routing Rule that triggers
for the traffic.

Only the Route for the IP Address is Added Automatically

Although routes are inserted automatically into routing tables when loopback interfaces are
created, this is only done for the loopback interface's IP address property. Other routes may have
to be added manually. For example, a route may need to be added manually which associates a
loopback interface with the network all-nets if the interface provides access to the Internet.

Loopback Interface IP Addresses

214
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Loopback interfaces are configured with IP addresses, just as with any other interface type. The
following should be noted for the IPv4 address assigned to the IP Address property assigned to a
Loopback Interface object:

• The IPv4 addresses can be fictitious and the addresses for the an interface pair can be on the
same network, although they must not be the same.

• The IP address assigned to a loopback interface is used as the source address for any address
translation that IP rules or IP policies specify.

• If address translation is not used, it is recommended to set the interface's IP address to an IP

in the range of the standard loopback IPv4 addresses. This is within the 127.0.0.0 to
127.255.255.255. For example, 127.0.1.1.

A Use Case for Loopback Interfaces

For this use case, consider a single NetDefend Firewall like the one below, that has one protected
local network called LAN1. The route to this network is contained in a single routing table called
RT1 which is isolated from all other routing tables with its Ordering parameter set to Only.

Figure 3.8. A Use Case for Loopback Interfaces

The firewall is also connected to the Internet but the all-nets route to the Internet is in a totally
separate and similarly isolated routing table called RT2. In this situation there is no way for clients
on LAN1 to reach the Internet since there is no all-nets route in RT1.

For LAN1 clients to have access to the Internet, loopback interfaces must be used and the setup
process can be summarized into three parts:

• Define a loopback interface pair with membership in different routing tables.

• Define routes which route traffic to the loopback interfaces.

• Define IP rules which allow traffic to flow to and from the loopback interfaces.

The diagram below illustrates this setup.

215
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Figure 3.9. Setting Up Loopback Interfaces with Routing Tables

A more detailed description of these steps is as follows:

1. Create a pair of loopback interfaces called LB1 and LB2, each has the other as its Loop to
parameter. Also define LB1 as a member of routing table RT1 and LB2 as a member of RT2.

2. Two configuration additions are now needed:

i. Define a route in RT1 that routes all-nets traffic (traffic to the Internet) to the loopback
interface LB1.

ii. Define an IP rule which allows Internet traffic to flow from LAN1 to LB1.

3. The Internet traffic that is sent through loopback interface LB1 will automatically arrives at
its partner LB2. Because LB2 is a member of the routing table RT2 that contains the all-nets
route, traffic can be successfully routed to the Internet.

However, two additions are still needed:

i. An IP rule needs to be defined which allows traffic to flow from LB2 to the Internet. This
could be in the same IP rule set as the previous rule and will probably be a NAT rule
which makes use of a single external IP address.

ii. A route needs to be defined which routes LAN1 traffic on the LB2 interface. This is
needed for traffic returning from the Internet.

The relationship of loopback interfaces with the routing tables and networks in this example is
illustrated below.

216
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Figure 3.10. Components of Loopback Interface Setup

Example 3.25. Creating a Loopback Interface Pair

This example shows how to create a loopback interface pair called LB1 belonging to the RT1
routing table and LB2 belonging to the RT2 routing table.

LB1 will have the IPv4 address 127.0.6.1 and network 127.0.6.0/24. LB2 will have the IPv4 address
127.0.5.1/24 and network 127.0.5.0/24.

Traffic routed by the RT1 table into the LB1 interface will now exit on the LB2 interface and be
then routed using the RT2 routing table.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create the first loopback interface:

gw-world:/> add Interface LoopbackInterface LB1

IP=127.0.5.1
Network=127.0.5.0/24
MemberOfRoutingTable=RT1

B. Create the second loopback interface:

gw-world:/> add Interface LoopbackInterface LB2

IP=127.0.6.1
Network=127.0.6.0/24
LoopTo=LB1
MemberOfRoutingTable=RT2

217
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

C. Now, return to the first loopback interface and set the LoopTo property:

gw-world:/> set Interface LoopbackInterface LB1 LoopTo=LB2

3.4.10. 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
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 3.26. 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:

• 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

218
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

interfaces.

• Interfaces: Select the interfaces to be in the group

3. Click OK

3.4.11. Layer 2 Pass Through

On some interface types, NetDefendOS provides the ability to enable layer 2 pass through either
or both DHCP and non-IP protocols. Both are disabled by default but can be enabled on the
following interface configuration types:

• Ethernet
• VLAN
• Link Aggregation
• L2TPv3

In order for these options to functions, transparent mode must also be enabled directly on the
interface (it should not be enabled by manually adding switch routes).

Note: L2TPv3 interfaces do not need transparent mode enabled

L2TPv3 interfaces in a NetDefendOS configuration do not have a property for enabling
transparent mode so this does not need to be enabled first before enabling DHCP or
non-IP protocol passthrough.

As shown in the example below, pass through can be enabled separately or together for the
following:

Example 3.27. Enabling Layer 2 Pass Through

This example enables transparent mode as well as DHCP pass through and non-IP protocol
passthrough on the interface if1.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet if1

AutoSwitchRoute=yes
DHCPPassthrough=Yes
NonIPPassthrough=Yes

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2. Select the interface if1.

3. Enter the following:

• Enable Enable Transparent Mode

219
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Enable DHCP passthrough

• Enable L2 passthrough for non-IP protocols

4. Click OK

220
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

221
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 3.28. 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 = 1000:0000:4009 Expire=196
Dynamic 10.4.0.165 = 0002:a529:1f65 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 3.29. 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.

222
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

ARP publish may be used for a variety of reasons, such as the following:

• 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 the following 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.

223
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

224
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 3.11. 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 3.30. Defining an ARP/Neighbor Discovery Object

This example will create a static mapping between IPv4 address 192.168.10.15 and Ethernet

225
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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:

• Mode: Static

• Interface: lan

3. Enter the following:

• IP Address: 192.168.10.15

• MAC: 4b-86-f6-c5-a2-14

4. 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 complete list of all ARP advanced settings can be found in the separate NetDefendOS CLI
Reference Guide under the object name ARPNDSettings.

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.

226
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

This behavior can be changed by modifying the advanced setting Unsolicited ARP Replies.

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.

227
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 policies
to which IP rule sets belong.

Security Policy Filtering

NetDefendOS security policies are configured by the administrator to regulate which traffic can
flow through the NetDefend Firewall and how traffic is examined and changed as it flows. 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 filtering criteria usually 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.

An important principle to note is that usually all filtering criteria must match a data flow through
NetDefendOS for the rule to be applied. The Service filter is particularly useful since it is possible
with this to target only a certain protocol such as HTTP or SMTP.

The NetDefendOS Security Policy Rule Sets

The principle NetDefendOS rule sets that define NetDefendOS security policies, and which use
the 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 further described

228
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

later in this section.

• IP Policies

The IP Policy object is an alternative to using IP Rule objects. They are designed to simplify the
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.

IP Policy objects come in a number of varieties with different usages. The following are the
available types:

i. IP Policy - This is the generic equivalent to an IP Rule and provides traffic filtering with
the option to apply a range of different actions to that traffic.

ii. SLB Policy - This is specifically for server load balancing and is described in
Section 10.4.7, “SLB Policy”.

iii. Stateless Policy - This is specifically for stateless traffic and can replace an IP Rule object
with an Action of FwdFast. This is described further in Section 3.6.8, “Stateless Policy”.

iv. Multicast Policy - This is specifically for multicast traffic and can replace an IP Rule
object with an Action of Multicast SAT. This is described further in Section 4.7.2.2,
“Multicast Policy”.

• 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 IP rules or IP policies
defined in the main IP rule set and all traffic is therefore dropped. In order to permit any traffic to

229
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 Any Network

When specifying the filtering criteria in any of the policy rule sets, there are several useful
predefined configuration objects that can be used:

• 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 or IP
policy because 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/Policy

Traffic that does not match any Ip rule or IP policy 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 or IP policy is defined that drops traffic for all source/destination
networks/interfaces is placed as the last item in the IP rule set. This is sometimes referred to as a
Drop All rule/policy.

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 IP rule or IP policy for the main rule set should be called
main_drop_all or similar.

The IP Addresses in IP Rules or IP Policies can be IPv4 or IPv6

IP rules and IP policies support either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses as the source and destination
network in the filtering properties.

230
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 or an IP Policy Plus 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.

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 or IP policy 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 bidirectional 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 or IP policy that allows the traffic to leave on
that interface. If a rule does not exist then the traffic is dropped.

Figure 3.12. 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

231
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 bidirectional 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 is scanned from the top to the bottom until an IP rule or IP
policy that matches the parameters of the new connection is found. The first matching rule or
policy'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.

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 IP rule or IP policy.

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 IP rules since these rely on a pairing with a second IP rule to function.
After encountering a matching SAT IP rule, the search will continue on looking for a matching
second IP rule. However, when implementing SAT with IP policies only a single IP Policy object is
required. 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

232
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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
An IP Rule object consists of two parts:

• The filtering criteria which target the traffic that the rule is aimed at.

• The action that the rule will perform on that traffic.

IP Rule Filters

The filtering parameters of an IP rules are as follows:

• Source Interface.

• Source Network.

• Destination Interface.

• Destination Network.

• Service (this identifies the protocol of the traffic).

In addition, geolocation filters can be applied to the source and destination networks so that
certain countries or regions can be targeted by the rule.

The Service in an IP rule can be important because if an Application Layer Gateway object is to be
applied to traffic then it must be associated with a service object (see Section 6.2, “ALGs”).

IP Rule Actions

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.

Instead of using an IP Rule object, the FwdFast functionality can alternatively be configured
using a Stateless Policy object. This is described in Section 3.6.8, “Stateless Policy”.

• 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

233
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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
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.

234
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

3.6.4. Multiple IP Rule Sets

Overview

NetDefendOS allows the administrator to define multiple IP rule sets which can both simplify and
provide greater flexibility when defining security policies. The default IP rule set is known as main
and is always present in NetDefendOS. Additional rule sets can be defined as needed and are
given a name by the administrator.

Multiple IP rule sets offer advantages which include the following:

• The administrator can break a single large IP rule set into multiple, smaller and more
manageable rule sets which can make the configuration easier to understand.

• A single named IP rule set can be associated with a routing table. This makes implementing
Virtual Routing much simpler since each router can have a dedicated IP rule set associated
with it. See Section 4.5, “Virtual Routing” for more information about this topic.

• IP rule lookup speed can be increased for very large rule sets. This is done by breaking down a
large rule set into several smaller ones. A Goto rule can then be used to jump to a new rule set
for a given type of traffic and a Return rule can be used to jump back to the original rule set if
no other rule set entry triggers.

Once a new IP rule set is created, IP rules and/or policies can be added to it in the normal way.

Example 3.31. Creating an IP Rule Set

In this example, a new IP Rule Set will be created and given the name dmz_rules. This rule set will
be used in later examples and will contain all IP rules related to the DMZ.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add IPRuleSet dmz_rules

Web Interface

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Additional IP Rule Sets > Add > IP Rule Set

2. Now enter:

• Name: dmz_rules

3. Select OK

Goto Rules and Return Rules

NetDefendOS provides the following two types of special rules for jumping to and backwards
from different IP rule sets:

• Goto Rules

235
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

A Goto rule can be added to any IP rule set and placed in any position within the rule set. This
rule has the usual filtering properties of Source/Destination Interface/Network plus the
service. If a match is found as the rule set is being scanned, the action of a Goto rule is to
transfer the processing to the beginning of another rule set.

Note: Goto rules can never point to the main rule set
A Goto rule may never use the rule set main as its target.

• Return Rules

When encountered, a Return rule will return IP rule set scanning to the rule set entry
immediately following the last Goto rule executed. It can be made to trigger only on specific
Source/Destination Interface/Network and service values.

Note: The main rule set cannot contain a Return rule

NetDefendOS does not allow a Return rule to be added to the IP rule set main and
this is not possible to configure using the Web Interface or the CLI.

Multiple Rule Set Search Processing

When multiple rule sets are defined, the way they are processed for a new connection is as
follows:

• The primary main IP rule set is always searched first for matches of source/destination
interface/network and the service.

• User-defined rule sets are used in a rule look-up only when the triggering rule or policy in
main is a Goto rule. A Goto rule must have another administrator defined IP rule set
associated with it and if the traffic matches that Goto rule then the rule look-up jumps to the
beginning of the new rule set.

• If the search in the new rule set finds no match then the connection is dropped.

• If a match is found in the new rule set then the matching rule or policy is executed. This
might be another Goto rule in which case the rule scanning jumps to the beginning of
another named rule set.

• If a Return rule is encountered then the scanning jumps back and resumes immediately after
the last Goto rule in the previous rule set. If no Goto rule is encountered and no other entry is
triggered then scanning stops and the connection is dropped.

Loop Avoidance

It is possible that a sequence of Goto rules could result in an infinite loop as scanning jumps
between rule sets. NetDefendOS detects such logic when a new configuration is saved. A new
configuration is rejected if logic is detected that could potentially cause a loop.

The loop avoidance mechanism has to be efficient to enable fast configuration deployment and
for this reason it uses an algorithm that might sometimes find a fault in correct but complex
logic. In this case it may be necessary to simplify the rule logic so the new configuration can be
saved.

236
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

A Simple Multiple Rule Set Example

Below are two simple IP Rule set tables which illustrate how multiple rule sets might be used. The
main rule set contains a first Goto rule which will jump to the named administrator defined table
called ExtraRules.

The administrator defined rule set ExtraRules contains a NAT and SAT rule. If neither are triggered
then the final Return rule will cause the scanning process to go back to the entry in main which
follows the Goto rule. In this case it will be the second entry in main.

The main IP rule set

# Rule Type Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service
1 Goto ExtraRules any all-nets core 172.16.40.0/24 all_services
2 Allow any 192.168.0.0/24 core 172.16.0.0/16 all_services

The ExtraRules IP rule set

# Rule Type Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service
1 SAT any all-nets any 172.16.40.66 all_services
2 NAT If2 176.16.0.0/16 any all-nets all_services
3 RETURN If2 all-nets any all-nets all_services

Increasing IP Rule Set Lookup Speed

When the rule set main contains many thousands of rules, the speed of rule set lookup can
become impaired and this can degrade the overall throughput of the firewall. Typical symptoms
of this can be:

• Consistently high CPU loads in the firewall.

• Unusually long loading times for Web Interface pages (which is a result of high CPU loads).

The solution is to break up a large rule set and move rules into several new rule sets. Typically,
each new rule set will contain entries related to a particular type of traffic. A small number of
Goto rules can then be added to the rule set main and each can point to the rule set that is
related to a particular type of traffic.

For example, the IP rule set main may contain thousands of rules where the Destination Network
might be any one of the networks called dmznet, lannet or wannet. It can be much more efficient
to divide these rules based on the Destination Network and place each group in new rule sets
called dmz_rules, lan_rules and wan_rules.

Three Goto rules are placed in the main rule set to point to these new rule sets:

Goto rule set Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service
dmz_rules any all-nets any dmznet all_services
lan_rules any all-nets any lannet all_services
wan_rules any all-nets any wannet all_services

237
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

When a new connection is opened with dmz_net as the destination, NetDefendOS first performs
a lookup in the main table. The appropriate Goto rule triggers and the rule search continues in
the rule set called dmz_ip_rules. The diagram below illustrates the example.

This example uses the destination network as the method of dividing up the rules but another
factor, such as an interface or service, could have been used instead.

This approach creates a multi-level tree structure, a technique which is used in many situations
for efficient searching of large amounts of data. The optimum size of any rule set can only be
determined on a case by case basis. However, a rule of thumb that can be applied is to not allow
any rule set exceed a thousand entries. Above that number, using Goto rules should be
considered to help in speeding up rule set processing.

Example 3.32. Adding a Goto Rule

In this example, a Goto rule is added to the end of the IP rule set main so that all traffic going to
the network dmz_net uses the rule set dmz rules. It is assumed that the IP rule set dmz_rules has
already been created.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add GotoRule SourceInterface=any

SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=dmz_net
Service=all_services
RuleSet=dmz_rules
Name=goto_dmz

Web Interface

238
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > Goto rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: goto_dmz

• RuleSet: dmz_rules

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: dmz_net

• Service: all_services

3. Select OK

Adding a Return Rule

As noted earlier, a Return rule cannot be added to the rule set main. It can only be added to an
administrator defined IP rule set. Filtering criteria can be added to a Return rule but it is more
usual to not specify any traffic type, as shown in the example below. This means that when it is
encountered, the Return rule will always return rule set scanning to the entry immediately
following the last executed Goto.

Example 3.33. Adding a Return Rule

In this example, a Return rule is added to the end of the administrator defined IP rule set
dmz_rules. It will be applicable to all traffic so if it is encountered, processing will return to the
rule set entry following the last executed Goto rule.

Command-Line Interface

Change the CLI context to be the rule set:

gw-world:/> cc IPRuleSet dmz_rules

Add the return rule to the rule set:

gw-world:/dmz_rules> add ReturnRule SourceInterface=any

SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=all_services
Name=return_dmz_to_main

Return to the default CLI context:

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

239
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Web Interface

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Additional IP Rule Sets

2. Select the rule set called dmz_rules

3. Select Add > Return Rule

4. Now enter:

• Name: return_dmz_to_main

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: all_services

5. Select OK

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 3.34. 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

240
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Configuration changes must be saved by then issuing an activate followed by a commit

command.

Web Interface

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example LAN_HTTP

3. Now enter:

• 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

4. Click OK

3.6.6. Configuration Object Groups

The concept of folders can be used to organize 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.

An alternative to using folders for organizing objects is to use 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.

241
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

242
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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. By right clicking the object that immediately
follows the group, the Join Preceding option can be selected to add it to the preceding group.

243
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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

244
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 cannot 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 Policy
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.

IP Policies Must be Used for Some Features

Certain features are only available with IP Policy objects. These include:

• Geolocation filtering of traffic. One of the traffic filtering options is to specify the location in
the world where the traffic is coming from or going to.

• Using FQDN Address objects for the source or destination network. These are described
further in Section 3.1.7, “FQDN Address Objects”.

IP Policies Can Simplify Configuration

IP policies can be used is to hide the 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.

IP Policies Are Not Configured Using ALGs

Another key advantage of IP policies, is that ALG objects are not needed. By configuring a
particular protocol's Service object on an IP Policy, all the properties usually associated with that
protocol's ALG now become directly configurable on the IP Policy.

When a service is used with IP policies and the Protocol property of the service is correctly set,
the relevant properties previously available in any corresponding ALG, as well as some additional
properties become available in the IP policy. The explanations for many of these properties are
the same as the ALG explanations in this document since the ALG is being used by the IP policy
in the background.

It is up to the administrator to decide if they will use an IP rule or an IP policy when configuring
NetDefendOS. Where there is a choice, using an IP policy is recommended.

245
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

• Geolocation

This filter identifies a specific predefined region or an administrator defined Geolocation Filter
object which identifies a group of specific countries. The default value for geolocation is
Everywhere (no place is excluded).

• 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 or 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.

iii. Web Content Filtering - To enable this, a Web Profile object must be created and
associated with the policy. In addition, a Service object must be used that has the
Protocol property set to HTTP.

A Web Profile object can have one or more URL Filter objects defined as children objects.
Each URL Filter can specify a URL or set of URLs (wildcarding is allowed) that are on a
blacklist or whitelist.

iv. Application Control - Application control is enabled directly on an IP Policy. Any type of
Service object can be used with this.

v. File Control - This can block or allow specific filetypes. Is is enabled by creating a new File
Control Profile object and associating it with the IP Policy object. File control is only
applicable to the HTTP, SMTP, POP3 and FTP protocols and requires using Service object
with the Protocol property correctly set to the targeted protocol.

vi. Advanced Actions - It is possible to specify the Reject action for denied connections (no
acknowledgment is sent to the source host).

Some IP Policy Options Require a Service with Protocol Set

As mentioned above, certain IP policy options can be used only if associated Service object that
has its Protocol property set to the correct profile. This property indicates to NetDefendOS if an
ALG is to be used. Any newly created, custom services must have the protocol set if they are to
be used with those options.

246
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

For example, if Dynamic Web Content Filtering is to be enabled with an IP Policy object then the
associated Service object must have its Protocol property set to HTTP.

Application control is the one IP policy option which does not require the Service object to have
its Protocol property set since application control does not make use of an ALG.

Viewing the IP Rules Created by IP Policies

IP Policy objects are implemented in the background using IP Rule objects. These background IP
rules cannot be viewed through the Web Interface. However, they can be viewed in the output
from the following CLI command:

gw-world:/> rules

Usually, the administrator never needs to be aware of the IP rules that are used to implement an
IP policy.

Example 3.35. Setting up a Policy to Allow Connections to a DMZ

In this 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 SourceInterface=lan

SourceNetwork=lan_net
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=dmz_net
Service=http-all
Name=lan_to_dmz
Action=Allow

Web Interface

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: lan_to_dmz

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lan_net

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: dmz_net

• Service: http-all

3. Select OK

247
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Example 3.36. 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 SourceInterface=wan

SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
Name=http_to_server
Action=Allow
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

• Service: http-all

3. Select Address Translation

4. Select the SAT option

5. Enter the web server's IP address for New IP

Geolocation

An additional traffic filtering option that is only available in NetDefendOS IP Policy objects is
Geolocation. This feature allows filterering of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for the traffic source and/or
destination according to its geographic association. Some IP addresses may not have a known
geographic association but these can also be targeted by this feature.

The geolocation feature can be used in two ways:

• The Geolocation property value can be set in an IP Policy object that allows matching traffic
connections. This will include traffic from the specified areas.

• The Geolocation property value can be set in an IP Policy object that drops matching traffic

248
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

connections. This will exclude traffic from the specified areas.

Selecting a Geographic Area

The area selected in an IP Policy object as a filter can be one of the following two types:

• A predefined region

NetDefendOS provides a predefined list of large world regions. These regions consist of the
following:

• Africa
• Antartica
• Asia
• Europe
• North America
• Oceana
• South America

By default, no filter is selected, which means that all regions are allowed (Anywhere).

• An administrator defined Geolocation Filter object

For finer control of the targeted geographic are, the administrator can create a Geolocation
Filter object which consists of one or more targeted countries. This object can then be used as
a value for the Geolocation property of an IP Policy.

In addition to specifying countries for a Geolocation Filter object, or instead of countries, the
following two additional options can be added to the filter:

i. Match Private Networks - This includes the IP addresses used for private networks. This
includes the IPv4 networks 10.0.0.0/, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16 and the IPv6 network
fd00::/8. Although this option is not directly related to geolocation and could be
implemented through address book, it is provided as a convenience.

ii. Match Unclassified Networks - This will match any IP address that is public but does not
has a known country association.

Tip: A web interface flag icon indicates geolocation is set

In the IP rule set summary which is displayed in the Web Interface, there is no separate
column to indicate that geolocation is set on an IP policy. Instead, a flag icon will appear
to the right of the IP network value in the Src Net and Dest Net columns.

Example 3.37. Setting up a Geolocation Filter

This example will set up an IP Policy object that will drop all Internet traffic coming from the
mythical country of Hackerland. This is done by first creating a Geolocation Filter that includes
only Hackerland. An IP Policy object is then set up which uses this filter as its source.

In addition, the IP Policy will also drop traffic that comes from any IP address that is not known to
be associated with a country.

Note that the country Hackerland does not appear in the predefined list of countries and is only

249
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

used here for the purpose of illustration.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create the GeolocationFilter object:

gw-world:/> add GeolocationFilter hackerland_filter

Countries=Hackerland
MatchUnknown=true

B. Next, create the IP Policy object that uses this filter:

gw-world:/> add IPPolicy SourceInterface=any

SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=all_services
Name=lan_to_dmz
Action=Deny
Drop=Yes
SourceGeoFilter=hackerland_filter

Web Interface

A. Create the GeolocationFilter object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Geolocation Filter > Add > Geolocation Filter

2. Now enter:

• Name: hackerland_filter

• Add the country Hackerland to the Selected list

• Enable Match unclassified networks

3. Click OK

B. Next, create the IP Policy object that uses this filter:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: drop_hackerland

• Action: Deny

• Denied Behavior: Drop

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Source Geolocation: hackerland_filter

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Destination Geolocation: Anywhere

250
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Service: all_services

3. Select OK

3.6.8. Stateless Policy

A Stateless Policy is equivalent to an IP Rule. Both can be used to define a stateless connection,
however, using a Stateless Policy is the recommended method.

A stateless connection means that packets pass through the NetDefend Firewall without a state
for the connection being set up in NetDefendOS's state table. Since the stateful inspection
process is bypassed, this is less secure than a stateful connection. The traffic processing is also
slower since every packet is checked against the entire rule set.

Generally, using a Stateless Policy or IP Rule with a FwdFast action is not recommended because
both will yield slower traffic throughput when compared with a normal stateful connection.
However, some scenarios with certain protocols might require a stateless connection.

Note that the Protocol property of the Service object used with a Stateless Policy does not need to
be set to anything. The Protocol property is ignored with a Stateless Policy.

Note: By default, logging is enabled for a Stateless Policy

Like other types of policy, logging is enabled by default for a Stateless Policy object.
Unfortunately, this means that a log message will be generated for each packet that
triggers the rule. This is usually undesirable so it is better to disable logging on the policy.

Example 3.38. Creating a Stateless Policy

In this example, TCP packets will be sent between the internal network lannet and the dmznet
network. This might be required in a real world situation because of certain traffic types causing
problems.

As with a FwdFast IP rule, two Stateless Policy objects are needed, one for each direction of traffic
flow. Instead of creating a custom Service object, this example will use the predefined object
all_tcp.

Command-Line Interface

Allow stateless TCP flow from lannet to dmznet:

gw-world:/> add StatelessPolicy SourceInterface=lan

SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=dmznet
Service=all_tcp
Name=stateless_lan_to_dmz
Action=Allow

Allow stateless TCP flow from dmznet to lannet:

gw-world:/> add StatelessPolicy SourceInterface=dmz

SourceNetwork=dmznet

251
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

DestinationInterface=lan
DestinationNetwork=dmznet
Service=all_tcp
Name=stateless_dmz_to_lan
Action=Allow

Web Interface

Allow stateless TCP flow from lannet to dmznet:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > Stateless Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: stateless_lan_to_dmz

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: dmznet

• Service: all_tcp

3. Select OK

Allow stateless TCP flow from dmznet to lannet:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > Stateless Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: stateless_dmz_to_lan

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: dmz

• Source Network: dmznet

• Destination Interface: lan

• Destination Network: lannet

• Service: all_tcp

3. Select OK

252
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

3.7. 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.

Application control is a subscription based feature and a subscription must have been purchased
for application control to function. See Appendix A, Subscribing to Updates for more details about
this.

Enabling Application Control

Application Control can be enabled in two ways:

• Specifying applications directly with an IP Rule or IP Policy object.

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 object.

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 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.

Example 3.39. 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

253
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, in this case Allow_Comp

3. Now enter:

• Action: Allow

• Service: all_services

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: all

• Destination Network: all-nets

4. 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.

5. Click OK

Using an Application Rule Set

As described previously, another, recommended way of controlling applications is to create an

Application Rule Set object and associate this with an IP Rule or IP Policy object.

An Application Rule Set object will contain one or more Application Rule objects as children and

254
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

these define an application and what actions are to be taken when the application is recognized
by NetDefendOS.

An application rule set has a Default Action property which has a value of either Allow or Deny. If
the action is set to Allow, everything is allowed unless it is specifically denied by a rule. If set to
Deny, everything is denied unless it is specifically allowed by a rule.

Using application rule sets allows not only data for a certain application to be allowed or denied
but also the following additional controls:

• Authentication Settings

For an Allow application rule, the requesting client is only permitted the connection if they
have already been authenticated by NetDefendOS and are also one of any usernames
specified in that application rule or belong to one of the groups specified in the rule. In
addition, the specified group or username should also be specified for the source network
address object used with the associated IP rule or policy and this is explained further later in
this section.

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 an Application Rule object, 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.

Applying Application Control to Specific Groups or Usernames

Sometimes, application control will need to be applied to a specific group of users or specific
individual users. This can be achieved by doing the following:

• Specify a list of the specific groups and/or usernames for the Authentication Settings property
of the relevant Application Rule object.

• The Source Network property of the associated IP Rule or IP Policymust be set to an address
book IP object for which either of the following is true:

i. The address object has the property No defined credentials enabled.

ii. The address object has the same groups and/or usernames as the Application Rule
defined for its User Auth Groups property.

Example 3.40. Using an Application Control Rule Set

255
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

This example will limit the usage by the user group called rogue_users to 0.25 Megabit of
bandwidth for both uploading and downloading of data using BitTorrent. Assume the following:

• Membership of a user in a group called rogue_users is established by the authentication

process. This might be done by using a RADIUS server or using other means such as
authenticating against an LDAP server. The means of authentication is not discussed further.

• A Pipe object called narrow_025_pipe has already been defined in NetDefendOS that permits
this data flow.

• 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.

• The Source Network property for the lan_to_wan_policy IP policy is already set to an IPv4
address book object called lan_users_net.

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

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_users
ForwardChain=narrow_025_pipe
ReturnChain=narrow_025_pipe

Then, return to the default context:

gw-world:/bt_app_list> cc
gw-world:/>

Associate this ApplicationRuleSet with the IPPolicy:

256
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

gw-world:/> set IPPolicy lan_to_wan_policy

AppControl=Yes
AC_RuleList=bt_app_list

Finally, set the source network address object of lan_to_wan_policy so it has the same group
name as the application rule:

gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address lan_users_net UserAuthGroups=rogue_users

Note that the following would also allow application control to function:

gw-world:/> set Address IP4Address lan_users_net NoDefinedCredentials=Yes

Web Interface

First, define the Application Rule Set:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Rule Sets > 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 an Application Rule as a child.

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Rule Sets > bt_app_list > Add > Application
Rule

2. Select Allow for the Action

3. Enable Application Control and add the signatures bittorrent and utp (both are required for
BitTorrent).

4. Select Authentication Settings and enter the group name rogue_users

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

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:

• Set Enable Application Control to Yes

• Set the Application Rule Set to bt_app_list

257
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Click OK to close the dialog

5. Click OK

Finally, set the source network address object of lan_to_wan_policy so it has the same
authentication group name as the application rule.

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

2. Select lan_to_wan_policy

3. In User Auth Groups enter rogue_users

4. Click OK

Note that enabling No defined credentials in lan_to_wan_policy would also allow application
control to function.

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 both be selected.

The Strict HTTP Setting

Many protocols that application control examines are built on top of the HTTP protocol. In some
cases where HTTP itself is being blocked by application control, a protocol built on HTTP may be
erroneously blocked as well. To try to resolve this problem, the Strict HTTP setting can be
disabled for the relevant Application Rule Set object. This will force application control to evaluate
the entire protocol structure before making a decision on the protocol type.

Changing the Maximum Unclassified Packets

The NetDefendOS application control subsystem processes a connection's data flow until it
decides if a connection is unclassifiable or not. The maximum amount of data processed to make
this decision is specified in NetDefendOS as both a number of packets and a number of bytes. By
default, these two values are:

• Maximum Unclassifiable Packets: 5

• Maximum Unclassifiable Bytes: 7500

When either of these values is reached, the unclassifiable decision is made. If the administrator
needs to increase the maximum amount of data processed because some protocols are being
incorrectly flagged as unclassifiable, then the values can be changed in one of two ways:

• They can be changed globally in the NetDefendOS Advanced Settings.

• The current global settings can be overridden for all rules in a rule set by selecting the Use
Custom Limits option for an Application Rule Set object.

258
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

Application Content Control

So far, application control has been described in terms of targeting specific applications such as
BitTorrent or Facebook™. However, NetDefendOS allows a further level of filtering within
application control where the content of targeted applications decide if the traffic will be
allowed, blocked or just logged. This feature is called Application Content Control.

Note: Application Content Control is not CLI configurable

The ability to configure application content control is not available in the CLI. Only the
Web Interface can be used to configure this feature.

Application content control is configured on application rule objects within an application rule
set. Application content control can be used to target specific content within a targeted
application. Facebook™ provides a good example of how this can be applied. The rule can target
Facebook and then application content can be used to target types of Facebook content such as
specific games, applications, chat or messages.

If there are multiple IP policies in a rule set that are using deep content control, then all policies
may need to perform the same filtering since a higher policy in the rule set might trigger before a
lower one. For example, if only the Chrome browser is being allowed, all IP policies using
application content control should test if the HTTP user-agent is Chrome.

Example 3.41. Application Content Control

This example shows how only the Chrome and Firefox browsers only will be allowed by an
application rule using application content control.

Associating the application rule set created together with an IP policy will not be included in the
example but follows the same steps shown in the previous example.

Web Interface

First, define the Application Rule Set:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Rule Sets > Add > Application Rule Set

2. Specify a suitable name for the list, in this case browser_list

3. Set the Default Action to Allow

4. Click OK

Next, define an Application Rule in this rule set:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Rule Sets > browser_list > Add > Application
Rule

2. Select Allow for the Action

3. Under Application Filter press Select filter.

4. In the Search field enter http

5. Select Matches specific applications

259
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

6. Open the Web node and select http from the list of matching applications

7. Press the Select button to close the filter dialog

Define an Application Content filter:

1. Select the Content Control tab

2. Set User Agent to Allow Selected

3. In the blank text field type firefox followed by enter and the chrome followed by enter.

4. Click OK

Lastly, associate this Application Rule Set with the appropriate IP Policy that triggers on the
relevant traffic as shown in an earlier example.

As explained previously, the policy and therefore this rule set will only trigger if no previous rule
has triggered for the same traffic.

Note: String matches are a subset and case insensitive

When specifying string matches for application content control, the matching function
is case insensitive and always a subset function. In the example above, the string firefox
is specified for the user_agent property and this will trigger on any version of Firefox
since the agent field always contains this string.

Extended Logging

When using application content control, it is possible to enable logging for different content.
This means that special log messages will be generated by NetDefendOS when the rule triggers
on a configured piece of content.

For example, if the user_agent in application content has logging enabled and the Allow Selected
string is set to firefox, this will allow the Firefox browser to be used and also generate a log
message to indicate that Firefox caused the rule to trigger. The string firefox will be included in
the log message.

The log messages generated by extended logging in application control will always be one of
the following events:

• application_content_allowed

• application_content_denied

• application_content
(The action was Ignore but logging is Yes.)

Example 3.42. Application Content Control with Logging

This example shows how access to Facebook™ can be allowed but the Facebook chat function
disallowed using application content control. A log event will also be generated every time a

260
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

user tries to use the chat function.

Associating the application rule set created together with an IP policy will not be included in the
example but follows the same steps shown in the previous example.

Web Interface

First, define the Application Rule Set:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Rule Sets > Add > Application Rule Set

2. Specify a suitable name for the list, in this case facebook_list

3. Set the Default Action to Allow

4. Click OK

Next, define an Application Rule in this rule set:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Application Rule Sets > facebook_list > Add >
Application Rule

2. Select Allow for the Action

3. Under Application Filter press Select filter to open the filter dialog

4. Under Tag select Social Networking

5. Choose Matches specific applications

6. Open the Web node and choose Facebook

7. Press the Select button to close the filter dialog

Define an Application Content filter:

1. Select the Content Control tab

2. For Chat set Action to be Deny and Log to be Log

3. Click OK

Lastly, associate this Application Rule Set with the appropriate IP Policy that triggers on the
relevant traffic as shown in an earlier example.

Data Leakage Can Occur

Application control functions by analyzing sequential streams of packets and a certain number of
packets must be processed using signatures before a determination can be made as to which
application it is.

This means that it is inevitable that not all the packets belonging to a targeted application can be
caught and some data leakage will occur where some blocked traffic will arrive at its destination.
However, when using IP rules or IP policies only, every packet of the triggering connection will
be blocked and there is no data leakage.

261
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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/ file_transfer/ network_management/ thin_client/
application_service/ forum/ network_service/ tunneling/
audio_video/ game/ peer_to_peer/ unclassified/
authentication/ instant_messaging/ printer/ wap/
compression/ mail/ qosmos/ web/
database/ messenger/ routing/ webmail/
encrypted/ microsoft_office/ security_service/
erp/ middleware/ telephony/
file_server/ music_player/ terminal/

These families consist of the individual definitions. For example, to view the two definitions in
the compression family, use the command:

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: Compression
Risk Level: 1 - Very low risk
Tags:
Revision: 0
Enabled: Yes

The Tags and Risk Level add further information to each definition but are not part of the
definition híerarchy. 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

262
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.

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.

Signature Inheritance

The application control signatures have a hierarchical structure and it is important to remember
that permissions are also inherited. An example of this is the http signature. If the administrator
configures application control to block all http traffic they are also blocking all applications that
use http such as facebook and dropbox.

However, if the administrator configures application control to allow the http signature they are
also allowing all applications that use http. For instance, the signature for DropBox is a child of
the http signature so allowing http traffic also allows dropbox traffic. If dropbox is to be blocked
while still allowing http, it must be blocked separately.

263
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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
tunneling 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 Subscription Expiry

As mentioned previously, application control requires a subscription to be purchased for the

feature to function.

If the subscription expires, 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 the application control subscription can be viewed with the Web Interface
by going to Status > Maintenance > License.

264
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

3.8. 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

265
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

policies will be enabled and disabled at the right time. For more information, please see
Section 2.2, “System Date and Time”.

Example 3.43. 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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Enter the following:

• Name: AllowHTTP

3. Select the following from the dropdown lists:

• Action: NAT

• Service: http

• Schedule: OfficeHours

• SourceInterface: lan

266
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• SourceNetwork lannet

• DestinationInterface: any

• DestinationNetwork: all-nets

4. Click OK

267
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

3.9. Certificates
3.9.1. 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.

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.

Certificates in NetDefendOS

A certificate is stored in a NetDefendOS configuration as a Certificate object. There is always one

certificate object already predefined in NetDefendOS which is the self-signed certificate
HTTPSAdminCert and this is sent to the browser when opening a Web Interface session using
HTTPS and is also used with SSL VPN.

A list of installed certificates can be displayed with the Web Interface or CLI. With the CLI, the
command would be:

gw-world:/> show Certificate

Name Type Comments
-------------- ----- --------
HTTPSAdminCert Local <empty>

The HTTPSAdminCert is a pre-installed certificate in NetDefendOS that is used for management

communication using HTTPS. This certificate is "self-signed". To view the properties of this
certificate, use the CLI command:

268
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

gw-world:/> show Certificate HTTPSAdminCert

Property Value Remarks
----------------- -------------- ---------
Name: HTTPSAdminCert
Type: Local
CertificateData: (binary data)
PrivateKey: (binary data)
CRLChecks: Enforced
CRLDistPointList: <empty>
PKAType: RSA Read-only
IsCA: No Read-only
Attribute: <empty>
Comments: <empty>

Note: Certificates objects cannot be added using the CLI

The Add command is not used to create a certificate object in the CLI. Instead, certificate
files are uploaded directly using SCP and the upload creates the object directly.
Alternatively, the files can be uploaded using the Web Interface.

Certificate Object Properties

The key properties of a Certificate object are the following:

• Type

The Type property of a Certificate object can take one of the following values:

i. Local

This is the type for most certificates and means both the public key and the private key
of the certificate is stored on the firewall.

Local certificates can be signed or unsigned. They always consist of two files. A public
key file with the filetype .cer and a private key file with the filetype .key.

ii. Remote

This is the type for remote certificates which have the public key file residing locally in
NetDefendOS and the private key file present on a CA server. Often, the certificate is a
CA signed root certificate used to validate other certificates.

These certificates consist of just a single public key file with a filetype of .cer.

iii. Request

This type is not currently used by NetDefendOS.

• CRL Checks

The CRL Checks property of a Certificate object determines if the CRL for the certificate is to be
checked by NetDefendOS and what happens if the CRL cannot be retrieved to do the
checking. The possible values for this property are the following:

i. Enforced

This is the default and means that the associated CRL must be checked before the
certificate can be used for authentication. If the associated CRL cannot be retrieved,

269
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

perhaps because a CA server is offline, then the certificate will be unusable and
authentication will fail.

If the certificate has no CRL associated with it then enforced checking is ignored. A
self-signed certificate, such as the ones used for NetDefendOS management
connections, do not have an associated CRL but will still have this default option
selected.

ii. Conditional

CRL checking will be performed by NetDefendOS provided any associated CRL is

available. If the CRL cannot be accessed, perhaps because a CA server is offline, then the
certificate will be used anyway.

iii. Disabled

The causes all CRL checking to be disabled. The certificate will be used even if there is a
CRL associated with it.

CRLs are discussed further later in this section.

• CRL Distribution Point List

The CRL Distribution Point List property of a Certificate object can be set to a CRL Distribution
Point List configuration object defined by the administrator. This can provide alternative
means to perform CRL checking if it is enabled. This feature is described further in
Section 3.9.3, “CRL Distribution Point Lists”.

Creating Certificates Objects in NetDefendOS

A Certificate configuration object is used for defining a logical certificate in NetDefendOS. When
such an object is added, it acts as a holder for associated certificate files. Certificate files are
associated with a certificate object in one of two ways:

• Importing External Certificate Files

Certificate files stored on the management workstation's local hard disk are imported into
NetDefendOS.

• Creating a Self-signed Certificate

The Web Interface can be used to get NetDefendOS to create the files for a self-signed
certificate. In the Web Interface, go to Objects > Key Ring > Add > Certificate then choose
the Generate (RSA) from the Source options for the new certificate. This allows the following
properties to be specified for the self-signed certificate:

i. Common Name.

ii. Bit length (default value: 2048).

iii. Certification Authority.

If the Certification Authority is enabled, this means that this self-signed certificate can be used
to sign other certificates and act as a CA.

Certificates with VPN Tunnels

270
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 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.

Root Certificates and Host Certificates

If a certificate is used for authentication, then it can be referred to as a Host Certificate but is
sometimes referred to in NetDefendOS as a Gateway Certificate. The certificate will consist
physically of two files, a .cer file containing the public key and a .key file containing the private
key. Both files must be loaded into NetDefendOS.

If the host certificate is CA signed then the Root Certificate provided by the signing CA will also
need to be loaded into NetDefendOS. This is just a single .cer file containing the public key of the
CA. Self-signed certificates will not have a corresponding root certificate.

Certificate Chains

A CA can also issue certificates to other CAs. This can lead to a chain-like certificate hierarchy.
Each certificate in the chain is signed by the CA of the certificate directly above it in the chain.
The certificates between the root and host certificates are called Intermediate Certificates and
consist physically of a single .cer file containing a public key.

The Certification Path refers to the path of certificates leading from one certificate to another.
When verifying the validity of a host certificate, the entire path from the host certificate up to the
trusted root certificate has to be available. For this reason, all intermediate certificates between
the root certificate and the host certificate must be loaded into NetDefendOS.

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.

271
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 (CRLs)

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 CRL is downloaded from the server and NetDefendOS
performs the validation of the certificate against the list. 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 will usually contain a CRL Distribution Point (CDP) field, which specifies one or more
URLs with which the relevant CRL can be downloaded. In some cases, a certificate may not
contain this field and the location of the CRL has to be configured manually. In NetDefendOS this
is done by specifying a CRL Distribution Point List object and associating this with the certificate in
the configuration. This is explained further in Section 3.9.3, “CRL Distribution Point Lists”.

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.

For NetDefendOS to check the CRL for a given certificate it may need access to an external CA
server. Allowing this access is discussed in detail in Section 3.9.4, “CA Server Access”.

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.

272
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Fetch the CRL for each certificate to verify that none of the certificates have been revoked.

ID Lists

In addition to verifying the signatures of certificates, NetDefendOS can also use an ID list object
when authenticating a connecting IPsec client. An ID list contains all IDs that are allowed access
through a specific IPsec tunnel. An ID is sent by the peer during the IKE negotiation and if a
matching tunnel is found with this remote ID, authentication is then performed by checking to
see if the certificate sent by the client contains that ID.

Using IPsec ID lists with certificates is described further in Section 9.3.8, “Using ID Lists with
Certificates”.

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.example.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.

The CRL distribution point can be contained in the certificate but NetDefendOS provides the
ability to associate alternative CRL distribution points a certificate. This is described further in
Section 3.9.3, “CRL Distribution Point Lists”.

• 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.

• Host certificates have two files associated with them and these have the filetypes .key file and
.cer. 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.

3.9.2. Uploading and Using Certificates

Certificate File Uploading

Certificate files can be uploaded to NetDefendOS in one of two ways:

• Upload using Secure Copy (SCP).

• Upload through the Web Interface.

SCP Uploading

The following command lines show how a typical SCP utility might upload a certificate consisting

273
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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/my_cert

> scp C:\cert-1.key [email protected]:certificate/my_cert

The certificate object name in NetDefendOS is my_cert 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.

Graphical Interface Uploading

This example covers importing certificate files with the Web Interface.

As mentioned earlier, there can be one or two files to upload depending on the certificate type:

• Local Certificates

These certificates consist of both a public key .cer file and a private key file with the filetype
.key.

• Remote Certificates

A Remote Certificate is issued by a CA authority and consists of just a single file with a filetype
of .cer and this is the public key. The private key is kept on the CA server. The NetDefendOS
upload procedure consists of uploading this one file.

Example 3.44. Uploading a Certificate with the Web Interface

In this example, one or more certificate files stored on the management workstation computer's
disk are to be uploaded.

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Certificate

2. Specify a suitable name for the certificate, for example my_cert

3. Select the option Upload (this is the default)

4. Use the Certificate file chooser to select a local public key .cerfile.

5. If the certificate is local, use the Private Key file chooser to select the private key certificate
file.

6. Click OK

Using Uploaded Certificates

Once certificates are uploaded, they are stored in non-volatile NetDefendOS memory. To be used
they must be explicitly associated with a NetDefendOS object. For example, an IPsec tunnel

274
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

object that uses certificates must be assigned a Gateway and Root certificate.

Example 3.45. 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

3.9.3. CRL Distribution Point Lists

NetDefendOS allows the administrator to define one or more NetDefendOS CRL Distribution Point
List (CDPL) objects. Each list is composed of one or more entries, each entry specifying the URL of
a server that can provide a Certificate Revocation List (CRL) to NetDefendOS for validating the
certificate.

To use CDPLs in NetDefendOS, the following steps are used:

• Load certificates into NetDefendOS.

• Define a CRL Distribution Point List.

• Associate the CRL Distribution Point List with a certificate.

Once the association is made between a certificate and a CDPL, all CRL lookups for that
certificate are done using the entries in the associated CDPL. The first entry in the associated list
is tried first and if that fails the second is tried, and so on. It does not matter if the certificate has
its own embedded CDPL or not, the CDPL associated with it in NetDefendOS will always be used.

In the case of a certificate chain, only the certificate at the top of the chain needs to associated
with the CDPL defined in NetDefendOS. This CDPL will then take precedence over any CDPL
embedded in the top level certificate or any certificate at a lower level of the chain.

By forcing certificates to use the CDPL defined by the administrator instead of any CRL
embedded in the certificate, the administrator can ensure access to a functioning and accessible
CA server.

Example 3.46. CRL Distribution Point List

This example creates a CDPL object called my_cdpl and associates it with a certificate called
my_cert with a single URL of http://crls.example.com. It is assumed that my_cert has already been
uploaded into NetDefendOS.

275
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

The CRL checks property for the certificate will be left as the default value of Enforced which
means that a CRL check against the list retrieved from the http://crls.example.com server will
always be done.

Command-Line Interface

A. Configure the distribution point list:

First, add the distribution point list:

gw-world:/> add CRLDistPointList my_cdpl

Next, change the CLI context to be the list:

gw-world:/> cc CRLDistPointList my_cdpl

Then add the distribution point to the list:

gw-world:/my_cdpl> add CRLDistPoint URL=http://crls.example.com

Finally, change the CLI context back to the default:

gw-world:/my_cdpl> cc
gw-world:/>

B. Associate the distribution point list with the certificate:

gw-world:/> set Certificate my_cert CRLDistPointList=my_cdpl

Web Interface

A. Configure the distribution point list:

1. Go to: Objects > CRL Distribution Point Lists

2. Select Add > CRL Distribution Point List

3. For Name enter my_cdpl

4. Select CRL Distribution Points

5. Select Add

6. For URL enter http://crls.example.com

7. Click OK to save the distribution point

8. Click OK to save the distribution point list

B. Associate the distribution point list with the certificate:

1. Go to: Objects > Key Ring

2. Select the certificate my_cert

3. Set the Manual CRL dist. points property to be my_cdpl

4. Click OK

276
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

3.9.4. CA Server Access

Overview

Certificate validation can be done by accessing a separate Certifícation 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 can contain 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.)

If a certificate does not contain a distribution point, this can be defined separately in
NetDefendOS by specifying a CRL Distribution Point List object and associating this with a
certificate in the configuration. This is explained further in Section 3.9.3, “CRL Distribution Point
Lists”.

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.

277
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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.example.com and this will need to be
resolvable by the client to a public external IP address of the NetDefend Firewall
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 3.13. Certificate Validation Components

278
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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
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. However, this 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.

3.9.5. Creating Windows CA Server 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.

The NetDefendOS Web Interface (WebUI) does not 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:

279
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

> 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.

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.

280
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

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 IPv4 and/or IPv6 DNS servers. These are called the Primary Server, the
Secondary Server and the Tertiary Server. For DNS to function, at least the one (the primary) server
must be configured. It is recommended to have at least two servers (a primary and a secondary)
defined so that there is always a backup server available.

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.

• FQDN Address object resolution.

Example 3.47. Configuring DNS Servers

In this example, NetDefendOS will be configured to use one primary and one secondary IPv4
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:

281
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

• Primary Server: 10.0.0.1

• Secondary Server: 10.0.0.2

3. Click OK

Automatic DNS Address Assignment

DNS addresses can also be assigned by enabling DHCP (for IPv6) or DHCPv6 (for IPv6 addresses)
for any interface that is connected to an external DHCP server. This is often used when accessing
the Internet via an ISP and receiving all the required addresses from the ISP's DHCP server.

The DNS addresses that are received through DHCP on any interface will become the system
wide NetDefendOS DNS servers if no static DNS addresses have already been configured.
However, if static DNS addresses have been manually configured then any DNS server addresses
received via DHCP on any interface will be ignored and the existing manually configured DNS
addresses will not be affected.

Using DHCP for configuring DNS addresses is discussed further in Section 5.2, “IPv4 DHCP Client”
and Section 5.6.1, “DHCPv6 Client”.

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 IPsec 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 Auto
Establish property of the IPsec Tunnel object can solve this problem.

Under Network > Network Services 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.

282
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

There is one exception to the default behaviour 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

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 login 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.

283
 Chapter 3: Fundamentals

284
Chapter 4: Routing
This chapter describes how to configure IP routing in NetDefendOS.

• Overview, page 285

• Static Routing, page 286

• Policy-based Routing, page 308

• Route Load Balancing, page 316

• Virtual Routing, page 323

• OSPF, page 331

• Multicast Routing, page 361

• Transparent Mode, page 379

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
failover capability.

285
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.6, “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

286
 Chapter 4: Routing

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:

287
 Chapter 4: Routing

Route # Interface Destination Gateway

1 lan 192.168.0.0/24
2 dmz 10.4.0.0/16
3 wan 195.66.77.0/24
4 wan all-nets 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

288
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 will not then be able to
communicate with the NetDefend Firewall because ARP will not 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

289
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

Extra, user-defined routing tables can be used in two ways:

• Virtual Routing associates interfaces with a particular routing table. This enables a single
NetDefendOS installation to act as multiple virtual systems. Communication between these
systems is achieved with Loopback Interfaces (see Section 4.5, “Virtual Routing” and also
Section 3.4.9, “Loopback Interfaces”).

• Policy Based Routing Rules can be defined which decide which of the routing tables will
deal with 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

290
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
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 Iface Gateway Local IP Metric

----- ------------------ -------- -------------- --------- ------
192.168.0.0/24 lan 20
10.0.0.0/8 wan 1
0.0.0.0/0 wan 192.168.0.1 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:

291
 Chapter 4: Routing

• 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.

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
failover 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
# Interface Network Gateway Local IP
- --------- -------- ------------- --------
1 wan all-nets 213.124.165.1 <empty>
2 lan lannet <empty> <empty>
3 wan 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 Iface Gateway Local IP Metric
----- ------------------ ------- --------------- -------- ------

292
 Chapter 4: Routing

192.168.0.0/24 lan 0
213.124.165.0/24 wan 0
0.0.0.0/0 wan 213.124.165.1 0

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.

293
 Chapter 4: Routing

When this option is selected, the appropriate all-nets route is automatically added to the main
routing table for the interface.

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:

• Interface: wan

• Network: all-nets

• Gateway: isp_gw_ip

3. 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”.

Core Routes

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 NetDefendOS
itself. A good example for such traffic are ICMP ping message sent to an Ethernet interface where
it is NetDefendOS that must handle and respond to the ping request.

294
 Chapter 4: Routing

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:

Route # Interface Destination Gateway

1 core 192.168.0.10
2 core 193.55.66.77

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 Gateway

1 core 224.0.0.0/4

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 Iface Gateway Local IP Metric
----- ------------------ ---------- ------------- -------- ------
127.0.0.1 core (Shared IP) 0
192.168.0.1 core (Iface IP) 0
213.124.165.181 core (Iface IP) 0
127.0.3.1 core (Iface IP) 0
127.0.4.1 core (Iface IP) 0
192.168.0.0/24 lan 0
213.124.165.0/24 wan 0
224.0.0.0/4 core (Iface IP) 0
0.0.0.0/0 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.

295
 Chapter 4: Routing

4.2.3. Route Failover

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.

296
 Chapter 4: Routing

• 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.

• Host Monitoring

The first two options check the accessibility of components local to the NetDefend Firewall.
An alternative is to monitor the accessibility of one or more nominated remote hosts. These
hosts might have known high availability and polling them can indicate if traffic from the
local NetDefend Firewall is reaching them. Host monitoring also provides a way to measure
the network delays in reaching remote hosts and to initiate failover to an alternate route if
delays exceed administrator-specified thresholds.

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.

297
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

1 wan all-nets 195.66.77.1 10 On
2 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.

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

1 wan all-nets 195.66.77.1 10 On
2 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.

However, there are 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

298
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 option should be enabled for the group
so that connections can be moved between interfaces. The interface group is then used as the
destination interface when setting policies. For more information on interface groups, see
Section 3.4.10, “Interface Groups”.

Gratuitous ARP Generation

By default NetDefendOS generates a gratuitous ARP request when a route failover occurs. The
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

Host monitoring can be enabled as a property of a Route object 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 monitoring. This
waiting period allows time for all network links to initialize
once the firewall comes online.

Minimum Number of Hosts This is the minimum number of hosts that must be
Available considered to be accessible before the route is deemed to
have failed. The criteria for host accessibility are described
below.

299
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

• 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.

• Source IP Selection

The source IP for the outgoing monitoring packets can be set to a specific value. By default,
the IP address of the sending interface is used (the Automatic option) but it can be set by
setting this property to Manual and specifying an IP address.

• 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

300
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
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

301
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
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.

302
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

Route # Network Interface Proxy ARP Published

1 net_1 if1 if2
2 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 4.8, “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.

303
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

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.

4.2.7. Broadcast Packet Forwarding

Broadcast packets are those packets which have the highest IP address in their network and will
have an associated MAC address of FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. For example, a broadcast packet for the
network 192.168.1.0/24 will have the IPv4 address 192.168.1.255.

By default, NetDefendOS will drop all such broadcast packets arriving at an interface. In some
situations, particularly when using transparent mode, it is desirable for NetDefendOS to forward
these packets to another interface by doing a route lookup and also applying IP rules/policies to
determine if the traffic should be forwarded.

Enabling Broadcast Packet Forwarding

To enable broadcast packet forwarding, the administrator should perform the following steps:

• Enable the Forward Broadcast Traffic property on a Route object (the BroadcastFwd property
in the CLI). However, this must always be done on the routes for both the packet's source and
destination interface.

• For non-transparent mode traffic only, the global IP setting Direct Broadcast must be enabled
for broadcast forwarding to work. The setting's value is DropLog by default and it must be set
to Ignore or Log for broadcast packets to be forwarded.

Even with broadcast packet forwarding enabled, NetDefendOS will still perform a check on
broadcast packets arriving at an interface to ensure that a broadcast IPv4 address matches with a
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF MAC address. Packets with a mismatch are dropped.

Using Address Translation with Broadcast Forwarding

The following should be noted if address translation is used with broadcast forwarded traffic.

• SAT

304
 Chapter 4: Routing

SAT translation can be used with broadcast packets if appropriate. With SAT translation the
destination address would always be the broadcast address.

• NAT

NAT translation cannot be used with broadcast packets in transparent mode. The packets will
be dropped and a log message will be generated when they encounter the NAT IP
rule/policy.

NAT can be used with broadcast packets in non-transparent mode routing. This might be
appropriate in some unusual networking scenarios.

Transparent Mode Broadcast Forwarding is Always Stateless

It is important to note that broadcast packets are always forwarded statelessly by NetDefendOS
when in transparent mode. In other words, even if an IP rule with an action of Allow permits
transparent mode broadcast packets to flow, they will be forwarded as though the rule had an
action of FwdFast.

The reason for enforcing stateless forwarding is because packets may need to be duplicated and
transmitted on multiple interfaces. For normal, non-transparent routes where broadcast packets
are not duplicated, a normal Allow rule or policy could be used and the traffic will be treated
statefully. A stateful rule/policy has the advantage of using less hardware resources to process
broadcast packets when many are coming from the same source.

Only Triggering an IP Rule/Policy on Broadcast Packets

When creating an IP rule or IP policy which triggers only on broadcast packets, the Destination
Network property should be set to be the broadcast IP address. However, the Source Network
should be the network to which the broadcast address belongs. For example, a broadcast packet
for the IPv4 network 10.0.0.0/8 will have the address 10.255.255.255 (the highest IP address in the
network). So in an IP rule or IP policy targeting these packets, the Source Network property should
be set to 10.0.0.0/8 and the Destination Network property should be set to 10.255.255.255.

Log Messages for Broadcast Packets

Log messages are only generated for broadcast packets that trigger an IP rule or IP policy when
in transparent mode (using switch routes). There are only two messages that can be generated:

• allow_broadcast

This log message is generated each time a broadcast packet triggers an IP rule or IP Policy
with an action of Allow in transparent mode. It indicates that the packet has been forwarded
statelessly as though the rule had an action of FwdFast (or the policy was a Stateless Policy). A
typical log message of this type will look similar to the following:

prio=Notice id=06000016 rev=1 event=allow_broadcast

action=stateless_fwd rule=a recvif=If3 srcip=192.168.100.25
destip=192.168.100.255 ipproto=UDP ipdatalen=58 srcport=137
destport=137 udptotlen=58

It should be noted that this event message will be generated for every interface that the
broadcast packet is sent on. For example, if interfaces if1, if2 and if3 are all defined as being
on the same network using transparent mode, a broadcast packet for the network could
trigger a rule/policy twice, generating two log messages. This is because the broadcast
packet would arrive on one interface and would need transmitting on the other two.

305
 Chapter 4: Routing

All these multiple log messages can be turned off by disabling log messages on the
triggering IP rule/policy.

• broadcast_nat

This is generated when a broadcast packet has triggered a NAT rule/policy in transparent
mode and has been dropped. A typical log message of this type will look similar to the
following:

prio=Notice id=06000014 rev=1 event=broadcast_nat action=drop rule=a

recvif=If3 srcip=192.168.100.25 destip=192.168.100.255 ipproto=UDP
ipdatalen=58 srcport=137 destport=137 udptotlen=58

Broadcast packets triggering a NAT rule can optionally be dropped silently with a log
message being generated. This is controlled by a global setting called
TransparentBroadcastNAT. The default value for this setting is DropLog. This should be set to
Drop if no log messages are to be generated.

Example 4.4. Enabling Broadcast Forwarding on a Route

This example shows how to enable broadcast packet forwarding on an existing route called
my_route which is the third route in the main routing table.

Command-Line Interface

First, enable broadcast forwarding globally for non-transparent mode traffic:

gw-world:/> set Settings IPSettings DirectedBroadcasts=Log

Next, enable broadcasting forwarding on the relevant route. Change the context to be the main
routing table:

gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable main

Add the route:

gw-world:/main> set Route 3 BroadcastFwd=Yes

Return to the default CLI context:

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

Web Interface

First, enable broadcast forwarding globally for non-transparent mode traffic:

1. Go to: System > Advanced Settings > IP Settings

2. Set Directed Broadcasts to Log

3. Click OK

Next, enable broadcasting forwarding on the relevant route:

306
 Chapter 4: Routing

1. Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > main

2. Select the route my_route

3. Enable the option Forward Broadcast Traffic

4. Click OK

307
 Chapter 4: Routing

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. However, an alternate routing
table can also be explicitly assigned as the default table for a given interface without the use
of rules.

308
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

Note: The number of tables is limited by the model

The maximum number of routing tables that can be created is limited by the type of
D-Link hardware model.

Example 4.5. 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

309
 Chapter 4: Routing

Example 4.6. 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.

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:

• 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 failover scenarios)

3. 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 4.7. 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

310
 Chapter 4: Routing

SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=any
DestinationNetwork=my_network
ForwardRoutingTable=MyPBRTable
ReturnRoutingTable=MyPBRTable
Name=my_routing_rule

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

1 If1 If1_net
2 wan1 all-nets isp1_ip

311
 Chapter 4: Routing

The isp2 routing table

Index # Interface Destination Gateway

1 wan2 all-nets isp2_ip

If traffic coming through wan2 is to have access to If1_net then a routing rule needs to
constructed as follows:

Source Source Destination Destination Forward Return

Interface Network Interface Network Routing Table 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.

Explicit Interface/Routing Table Association

If a particular routing table is to be always used for traffic from a given source interface,
regardless of the service, it is possible to associate the source interface explicitly with a particular
table using the Routing Table Membership property of the interface.

The difference with this method of explicit association is that the administrator cannot specify
the service, such as HTTP, for which the lookup will apply. Routing rules allow a more
fine-grained approach to routing table selection by being able to also select a specific service
and interface/network filter.

The Routing Table Selection Process

When a packet corresponding to a new connection first arrives, these are the processing steps
taken to determine which routing table to use:

1. The routing rules are looked up first. To allow this, the packet’s destination interface must be
determined using an initial route lookup that is always performed in the main routing table.
It is therefore important that a match for the destination network is found. To ensure this, it
is recommended to at least have a default all-nets route 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. If no matching routing rule is found, a check is made to see if the receiving interface is a
member of a specific routing table. If the interface is associated with a particular routing
table through its Routing Table Membership property, that routing table will be used. If there
is no membership then the main table will be used.

4. 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.

312
 Chapter 4: Routing

5. At this point, using the routing table selected, the actual route lookup is done to find the
packet's destination interface. Note that the routing table's Ordering property 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 property should be set to the value Only.

6. 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.

7. 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

The default behavior is to first look up the route in the main table. If no matching route is
found, or a default route is found (a route with the destination all-nets), a lookup for a
matching route in the alternate table is performed. 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 is found 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 an all-nets route appears in the main table

A common mistake when setting up policy-based routing is the absence of a default
all-nets route in the main routing table. If there is no matching route in main, the traffic
will be dropped, unless the receiving interface is a member of a specific routing table.
This is explained further under the heading “The Routing Table Selection Process” above.

Example 4.8. Policy-based Routing with Multiple ISPs

313
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
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 lan1
wan1 all-nets 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 Source Destination Destination Selected/ Forward Return

Interface Range Interface Range Service VR table 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.

314
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

315
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

316
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

317
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

318
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

319
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

1 WAN1 all-nets GW1 100
2 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
1 NAT lan lannet WAN1 all-nets all_services
1 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.

320
 Chapter 4: Routing

Example 4.9. 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.

321
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 3.4.7, “GRE Tunnels” for more about this topic.

322
 Chapter 4: Routing

4.5. Virtual Routing

4.5.1. Overview
Virtual Routing is a NetDefendOS feature that allows the creation of multiple, logically separated
virtual systems within NetDefendOS, each with its own routing table. These systems can behave
as physically separated NetDefend Firewalls and almost everything that can be done with
separate firewalls can be done with them, including dynamic routing with OSPF. Virtual systems
are sometimes also referred to as Virtual Routers.

The NetDefendOS components involved in creating virtual routing are:

• Separate routing tables for each virtual system.

• Per-interface policy-based routing table membership to make interface IP addresses

reachable only via a particular routing table. This association can be made explicitly by
linking an interface with a specific routing table.

• Pairs of loopback interfaces can be used for communication between virtual systems if
required (see also Section 3.4.9, “Loopback Interfaces”).

There are two ways of associating a specific routing table with a specific interface:

• Using Routing Rules

Routing Rules can be defined so that all traffic on a particular interface are subject to a
particular routing table.

• Specifying a Routing Table for an Interface

It is possible to associate an interface directly with a specific routing table. This is known as
the interface's routing table membership. This option is part an interface's virtual routing
options.

This is the preferred way of implementing a virtual router. The interface might be physical or
it could be a virtual LAN (VLAN).

To ensure that a routing table does not use any other tables in the route lookup process, the
Ordering parameter of the table should be set to Only. This is discussed further in Section 4.3,
“Policy-based Routing”.

4.5.2. A Simple Scenario

Consider a single NetDefend Firewall connected to two external ISPs, ISP1 and ISP2. ISP1 provides
Internet connection to the internal network for Department A and connects to the NetDefend
Firewall via the physical interface If1.

ISP2 provides Internet connection to the internal network for Department B and connects via the
physical interface If2. For administration purposes it is decided that the NetDefend Firewall is to
be divided into 2 virtual systems, one for each ISP.

This is done by creating two dedicated routing tables. pbr1 is created to handle traffic for ISP1
and Department A. pbr2 is created to handle traffic for ISP2 and Department B. This arrangement is
illustrated in the diagram below.

323
 Chapter 4: Routing

Figure 4.8. Virtual Routing

When the administrator configures this in NetDefendOS, interface If1 is made a member of
routing table pbr1 but not pbr2. In other words, If1 is explicitly associated with pbr1. Conversely,
interface If2 is made a member of pbr2 but not pbr1. It is this interface membership which
determines which routing table is used and this keeps the two sets of traffic totally separated.

Tip: Creating dedicated routing tables is best

In this example, the main routing table could have been used as one of the two routing
tables. However, it is usually better and clearer to instead create new, dedicated routing
tables with appropriate names for each separated portion of data traffic.

Reusing Private IP Addresses

An advantage of using separate routing tables on different interfaces is that internal, private IP
address ranges can be reused on different virtual systems. For example, Department A and
Department B could both use the internal network 192.168.0.0/24.

Since route lookup is done in completely separate routing tables, there are no conflicts.

VPN Tunnels are Interfaces

VPN tunnels are also considered to be interfaces in NetDefendOS and can therefore also be
associated with their own routing tables just as physical interfaces can.

This means that VPN tunnels can be logically separated from each other within NetDefendOS.

Using Loopback Interfaces

In this simple example, loopback interfaces were not used since there is no requirement for

324
 Chapter 4: Routing

communication between the virtual systems. For example, Department A does not need to
communicate with Department B. If communication between them is needed then an
appropriate loopback interface pair would have to be defined to allow this.

After we define a loopback interface, all traffic sent to that interface automatically appears as
being received on another interface.

4.5.3. The Disadvantage of Routing Rules

Using Routing Rules can solve many of the problems that virtual routing can but complex
configurations can become unwieldy for such rules. Consider a single NetDefend Firewall being
used as a firewall for two organizations, both using the same IP span.

In this case, two separate routing tables could be used, one for each organization as shown
below.

Figure 4.9. The Disadvantage of Routing Rules

Two routing tables pbr1 and pbr2 are first defined for this scenario. Their contents are listed
below:

Routing Table pbr1

Route # Interface Network Gateway

1 wan all-nets wan_gw
2 If1 192.168.0.0/24

Routing Table pbr2

Route # Interface Network Gateway

1 wan all-nets wan_gw

325
 Chapter 4: Routing

Route # Interface Network Gateway

2 If2 192.168.0.0/24

Getting traffic from each network to and from the Internet is straightforward. Assuming only
outbound traffic, it requires only two Routing Rule objects. Assuming that each organization has
a public IPv4 address which maps to servers on the respective networks then outbound as well
as inbound traffic can be handled with the following four routing rules:

Route # Name Source If Source Net Dest Net Fwd Table Ret Table
1 org1-in wan all-nets pubip-org1 pbr1 pbr1
2 org1-out If1 all-nets all-nets pbr1 pbr1
3 org2-in wan all-nets pubip-org2 pbr2 pbr2
4 org2-out If2 all-nets all-nets pbr2 pbr2

This works if the two organizations do not need to communicate with each other. If they do, the
following two additional routing rules are also needed and are placed before the four above.

Route # Name Source if Source Net Dest Net Fwd Table Ret Table
1 org1-org2 If11 all-nets pubip-org2 pbr1 pbr2
2 org2-org1 If2 all-nets pubip-org1 pbr2 pbr1

With two organizations, two routing rules are enough to allow them to communicate. However,
with three organizations, six are needed; with four, twelve are needed; with five, twenty are
needed as so on. The numbers continue with an all-to-all mapping of 30, 42, 56 rules and the
administration task soon becomes unmanageable.

The Advantage of Virtual Routing

Virtual routing can eliminate the all-to-all mapping required with routing rules by using interface
routing table membership instead of routing rules. This reduces the complexity by creating 3
virtual systems which are represented by the router symbols in the diagram below.

Figure 4.10. The Advantage of Virtual Routing

326
 Chapter 4: Routing

Here, each organization gets a virtual system of its own. These connect to the main routing table
using pairs of loopback interfaces. The routing tables would have the following entries:

Routing Table main

Route # Interface Network Gateway

1 main-wan all-nets wan_gw
2 main-vs1 pubip-vs1
3 main-vs2 pubip-vs2

Routing Table vs1

Route # Interface Network Gateway

1 vs1-main all-nets
2 vs1-lan 192.168.0.0/24

Routing Table vs2

Route # Interface Network Gateway

1 vs2-main all-nets
2 vs2-lan 192.168.0.0/24

Ethernet Interfaces

Interface # Name IP Address Routing Table

1 main-wan ip_main-wan main
2 vs1-lan 192.168.0.1 vs1
3 vs2-lan 192.168.0.254 vs2

Loopback Interfaces

# Name IP Address Loop to Routing Table

1 main-vs1 ip_main-wan vs1-main main
2 vs1-main pubip-vs1 main-vs1 vs1
3 main-vs2 ip_main-wan vs2-main main
4 vs2-main pubip-vs2 main-vs2 vs2

For each connection between a pair of virtual systems, a pair of loopback interfaces is required,
one for each system. When traffic is sent through main-vs1, it arrives on vs1-main. When traffic is
sent through vs1-main, it is received on main-vs1. This is exactly the same as with two NetDefend
Firewalls and two interfaces, one on each, with a connection between them.

The Routing Table Membership setting means that if a connection arrives on an interface, it will be
routed according to the routing table that the interface is a member of.

327
 Chapter 4: Routing

Also note how the IPv4 addresses of the internal interfaces of the virtual systems differ. If
per-interface routing table membership were not used, the core routes for both IP addresses
would be added in both routing tables, leading to 192.168.0.1 being unusable in vs2 (even
though it should be usable) and 192.168.0.254 being unusable in vs1. With per-interface routing
table membership, interface IP addresses belonging to one virtual system will not interfere with
other virtual systems and loopback interfaces are not needed.

The IPv4 addresses of the main-vs1 and main-vs2 interfaces are the same as the IP address of the
external interface. They could also have been set to something nonsensical, such as 127.0.0.1.
Regular routing would still have worked since loopback interfaces are raw IP interfaces (the ARP
protocol is not used over them). However, their IP addresses will be visible to users doing a
traceroute from the inside, and also the issue exists of traffic originating from the NetDefend
Firewall itself to the internal networks, such as pings or logging. Such traffic is most often routed
according to the main routing table, and will be sourced from the IP address of the nearest
interface in the main routing table.

4.5.4. IP Rule Sets with Virtual Routing

The IP rule sets for different virtual systems can be split into separate rule sets using the
NetDefendOS feature of creating multiple IP rule sets (see Section 3.6.4, “Multiple IP Rule Sets” for
more detail on this feature).

IP rules and IP policies for different virtual systems need not be split up. They can reside together
in a single IP rule set. The benefit of doing this is being able to define "shared" or "global" rules or
policies that span over several virtual systems. For example, for aggressive "worm" attacks, it may
be desirable to drop all communication on ports known to be used by the worm until
counter-measures can be put into place. One single Drop rule or policy placed at the top of the
rule set can take care of this for all the virtual systems. Using the example of the previous section,
this is how the IP rule set might look if IP rules are used:

Interface Groups

# Name Interfaces
1 main-vsifs main-vs1, main-vs2
2 main-ifs main-wan, main-vsifs
3 vs1-ifs vs1-main, vs1-lan
4 vs2-ifs vs2-main, vs2-lan

IP Rules

# Name Action Source If Source Net Dest If Dest Net Service

IP Rules for the "main" virtual system
1 main-allowall Allow main-ifs all-nets Any all-nets all_services
IP Rules for the "vs1" virtual system
2 vs1-http-in SAT vs1-ifs all-nets pubip-vs1 all-nets http SetDest
192.168.0.5
3 vs1-http-in Allow vs1-main all-nets Any pubip-vs1 http
4 vs1-out NAT vs1-int all-nets Any all-nets all_services
IP Rules for the "vs2" virtual system
5 vs2-smtp-in SAT vs2-main all-nets Any pubip-vs2 all_services
6 vs2-smtp-in Allow vs2-main all-nets Any pubip-vs2 smtp
7 vs2-http-out NAT vs2-int 192.168.0.4 vs2-main all-nets http

328
 Chapter 4: Routing

Note that SAT rules do not need to take into account that there are more organizations
connected to the same physical unit. There is no direct connection between them; everything
arrives through the same interface, connected to the main routing table. If this was done without
virtual routing, the Allow rules would have to be preceded by NAT rules for traffic from other
organizations. Care would also have to be taken that such rules were in accordance with the
security policy of each organization. Such problems are eliminated with virtual routing.

The source interface filters are very specific. Any is not used as the source interface anywhere,
since such a rule would trigger regardless. Consider for instance what would happen if the
vs1-http-in rules were to use Any as source interface. They would trigger as soon as packets
destined to pubip-vs1 were received on main-ext. The destination address would be rewritten to
192.168.0.5, and passed on using the main routing table. The main routing table would not know
what to do with 192.168.0.5 and pass it back out to the default gateway outside the NetDefend
Firewall.

If the same naming scheme as shown in this example is used, making sure the source interfaces
are correct can be done quickly. All the rules concerning the main system have source interfaces
beginning with "main-". All those concerning vs1 have source interfaces beginning with "vs1-",
and so on.

The destination interface filters, however, do not need to be as specific as the source interface
filters. The possible destinations are limited by the routing tables used. If the vs1 table only
includes routes through vs1- interfaces, Any filters can only mean "through other interfaces in the
same virtual system". It may however be sound practice to write tighter destination interface
filters in case an error occurs elsewhere in the configuration. In this example, rule 1 might use
main-ifs, rule 4 might use vs1-main. The SAT and corresponding Allow rules however are already
fairly tight in that they only concern one single destination IP address.

4.5.5. Multiple IP rule sets

An alternative approach to having all the IP rules for different virtual systems in one rule set is to
make use of Multiple IP rule sets.

Although all scanning of IP rules begins in the main rule set, it is possible to define a rule in main
whose action is Goto so that scanning continues in a separate, named rule set. These extra rule
sets can be defined as needed and one rule set can be created for each virtual system and its
corresponding routing table.

More details on this subject can be found in Section 3.6.4, “Multiple IP Rule Sets”.

4.5.6. Trouble Shooting

When setting up virtual routing, the following steps can help with troubleshooting any
problems.

• Make sure that the source interface filters are correct

• Double check interface PBR table membership, for all types of interfaces and tunnels.

• Use "ping -p <pbrtable>" to source pings from different virtual systems.

• Use "ping -r <recvif> -s <srcip>" to test the rule set, simulating that the ping was received on
a given interface from a given IP address.

• Use "arpsnoop -v <ifacenames>" to get verbose information about ARP resolution.

• Use "route <pbrtable> -all" to view all route entries in a given table, including "core" routes.

• Use "route -lookup <ipaddr> <pbrtable>" to make sure that a given IP address is routed the

329
 Chapter 4: Routing

way expected in a given virtual system. (Hint: "-lookup" may be shortened to "-l".)

• Use "conn -v" to view verbose information about open connections. Both ends of a
connection will be shown; before and after address translation. Also, the routing tables used
in the forward and return direction will be shown.

• Enable logging and read the logs. In each virtual system, a separate rule decision is made,
and a separate connection is established.

330
 Chapter 4: Routing

4.6. OSPF
The feature called Dynamic Routing is implemented in NetDefendOS using the Open Shortest Path
First (OSPF) architecture.

Note: OSPF is not available on all NetDefend models

The OSPF feature is not available on the DFL-260E.

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.

4.6.1. 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.

331
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

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.

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 4.11. A Simple OSPF Scenario

332
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.12. 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

333
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

4.6.2. 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 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 4.6.3.1, “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
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.

334
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 subnetted 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 4.6.3.2, “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.

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

335
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
bidirectional.

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 4.6.3.5, “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.

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

336
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.13. 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.

337
 Chapter 4: Routing

Figure 4.14. 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 4.6.3.6, “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 set up 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

338
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

4.6.3. 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 4.15. NetDefendOS OSPF Objects

4.6.3.1. 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

339
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.6.7, “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 4.6.5, “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.

340
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

4.6.3.2. 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.

341
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

4.6.3.3. 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

342
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.6.5, “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.

343
 Chapter 4: Routing

InfTrans Delay Specifies the estimated transmit delay for the interface. This value
represents the maximum time it takes to forward a LSA packet
through 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”.

4.6.3.4. 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 4.6.5,
“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.

344
 Chapter 4: Routing

Metric Specifies the metric to this neighbor.

4.6.3.5. 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.

4.6.3.6. 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.

4.6.4. 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.

4.6.4.1. Overview

The Final OSPF Setup Step is Creating Dynamic Routing Rules

345
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

346
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.16. Dynamic Routing Rule Objects

4.6.4.2. 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

347
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

4.6.4.3. 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.

4.6.4.4. 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.

4.6.5. Setting Up OSPF

348
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

349
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

350
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 Iface Gateway Local IP Metric
----- --------------- ----------- --------------- ---------- ------
192.168.1.0/24 lan 0
172.16.0.0/16 wan 0
O 192.168.2.0/24 wan 172.16.2.1 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 neighboring 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.

351
 Chapter 4: Routing

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. The same random internal
IP network for OSPF setup should be used on both A and B.

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.

4.6.6. An OSPF Example

This section goes through the detailed setup steps for the simple OSPF scenario illustrated
below.

352
 Chapter 4: Routing

Figure 4.17. 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 4.10. 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.

353
 Chapter 4: Routing

Example 4.11. 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 ID Comments
---- ------- --------
! area_1 0.0.0.0 <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:

• Enter the area name, in this case area_0

• Specify the Area ID as 0.0.0.0

5. Click OK

Now, repeat this for firewall B, using the same OSPF Area object name of area_0.

Example 4.12. 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

354
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.13. 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

355
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.14. 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

356
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

4.6.7. OSPF Troubleshooting

There are two special ways of troubleshooting OSPF issues:

• Additional OSPF Log Event Messages.

• The OSPF CLI command.

357
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 4.15. 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

358
 Chapter 4: Routing

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Routing > OSPF > my_ospf_proc

2. Select the Debug option

3. Now enter:

• Hello Packets: Low

• Routing Table Manipulation: High

4. 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

359
 Chapter 4: Routing

The ospf command options are fully described in the separate NetDefendOS CLI Reference Guide.

360
 Chapter 4: Routing

4.7. Multicast Routing

4.7.1. 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

361
 Chapter 4: Routing

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”.

4.7.2. 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.

4.7.2.1. 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

362
 Chapter 4: Routing

configuration can be found later in Section 4.7.3.1, “IGMP Rules Configuration - No Address
Translation”.

Figure 4.18. 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 4.16. Forwarding Multicast Traffic with a SAT Multiplex IP Rule

In this example, a multiplex IP Rule object will be created to forward the multicast groups
239.192.10.0/24:1234 to the interfaces if1, if2 and if3. All groups have the same sender at the IP
address 192.168.10.1, which is located somewhere behind the wan interface.

The multicast groups should only be forwarded to the outgoing interfaces if clients behind those
interfaces have requested the groups using IGMP. The following steps are required to configure
forwarding of the multicast traffic.

IGMP is configured separately and this is described in Section 4.7.3.2, “IGMP Rules Configuration -
Address Translation”.

Web Interface

363
 Chapter 4: Routing

A. Create a custom Service object for multicast:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_multicast_service

• Type: UDP

• Destination: 1234

B. Create an IP Rule object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_multicast_rule

• Action: Multiplex SAT

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: 192.168.10.1

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: 239.192.10.0/24

• Service: my_multicast_service

3. Click the Multiplex SAT tab and add one entry each for the output interfaces if1, if2 and if3.
For each interface, leave the IPAddress field blank since no destination address translation
is required.

4. Enable the option:

Multicast traffic must have been requested using IGMP before it is forwarded

5. 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.

364
 Chapter 4: Routing

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;}

Using a Multicast Policy instead of an IP Rule

The above example could have been implemented using a Multicast Policy object instead of an IP
Policy object. This is described next in Section 4.7.2.2, “Multicast Policy”.

4.7.2.2. Multicast Policy

A Multicast Policy is a recommended and alternative method to using an IP Rule object for setting
up multicast traffic flows. The example below duplicates the setup described above in
Example 4.16, “Forwarding Multicast Traffic with a SAT Multiplex IP Rule” but uses a Multicast Policy
object instead of an IP Rule object.

Note that the Protocol property of the Service object used with a Multicast Policy is not used and
therefore does not need to be set.

Example 4.17. Forwarding Multicast Traffic with a Multicast Policy

In a similar scenario to Example 4.16, “Forwarding Multicast Traffic with a SAT Multiplex IP Rule” , a
Multicast Policy object will be created to forward the multicast groups 239.192.10.0/24:1234 to the
interfaces if1, if2 and if3. All groups have the same sender that has the IP address 192.168.10.1,
which is located behind the wan interface.

The multicast groups should only be forwarded to the outgoing interfaces if clients behind those
interfaces have requested the groups using IGMP. The following steps will configure forwarding
of the multicast traffic.

IGMP is configured separately and this is described in Section 4.7.3.2, “IGMP Rules Configuration -
Address Translation”. It is configured in the same way that it is configured when using IP Rule
objects.

Web Interface

A. Create a custom Service object for multicast:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_multicast_service

365
 Chapter 4: Routing

• Type: UDP

• Destination: 1234

B. Create a Multicast Policy object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > Multicast Policy

2. Now enter::

• Name: my_multicast_policy

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: 192.168.10.1

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: 239.192.10.0/24

• Service: my_multicast_service

3. Under Destination Translation add one entry each for the output interfaces if1, if2 and if3
and leave the IP Address fields blank since no destination address translation is required.

4. Enable the option Require IGMP

5. Click OK

The CLI for the above example is not listed since it requires the same considerations as the CLI
described for the earlier Example 4.16, “Forwarding Multicast Traffic with a SAT Multiplex IP Rule” .
Instead of an IPRule object in the CLI, a MulticastPolicy object could be used instead.

4.7.2.3. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation Scenario

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.

The diagram below illustrates this situation.

366
 Chapter 4: Routing

Figure 4.19. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation

No address translation should be made when forwarding through interface if1. The configuration
of the corresponding IGMP rules can be found below in Section 4.7.3.2, “IGMP Rules Configuration
- Address Translation”.

Tip
As previously noted, remember to add an Allow rule matching the SAT Multiplex rule.

Example 4.18. Multicast Forwarding - Address Translation

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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Under General enter.

367
 Chapter 4: Routing

• Name: a name for the rule, for example Multicast_Multiplex

• Action: Multiplex SAT

• Service: multicast_service

3. 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.

4.7.3. IGMP Configuration

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.

368
 Chapter 4: Routing

NetDefendOS supports two IGMP modes of operation:

• Snoop Mode

• Proxy Mode

The operation of these two modes are shown in the following illustrations:

Figure 4.20. Multicast Snoop Mode

Figure 4.21. 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

369
 Chapter 4: Routing

queries. Towards the upstream router, the firewall will be acting as a normal host, subscribing to
multicast groups on behalf of its clients.

4.7.3.1. 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 4.19. 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:

• Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Reports

• Type: Report

• Action: Proxy

• Output: wan (this is the relay interface)

3. 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

4. Click OK

B. Create the second IGMP Rule:

1. Again, go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2. Under General enter:

370
 Chapter 4: Routing

• Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Queries

• Type: Query

• Action: Proxy

• Output: IfGrpClients (this is the relay interface)

3. 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

4. Click OK

4.7.3.2. IGMP Rules Configuration - Address Translation

The following examples illustrates the IGMP rules needed to configure IGMP according to the
Address Translation scenario described above in Section 4.7.2.3, “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 4.20. 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:

• Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Reports_if1

• Type: Report

371
 Chapter 4: Routing

• Action: Proxy

• Output: wan (this is the relay interface)

3. 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

4. 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

• Output: if1 (this is the relay interface)

3. 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

4. Click OK

Example 4.21. 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

372
 Chapter 4: Routing

Web Interface

A. Create the first IGMP Rule:

1. Go to: Network > Routing > IGMP Rules > Add > IGMP Rule

2. Under General enter:

• Name: A suitable name for the rule, for example Reports_if2

• Type: Report

• Action: Proxy

• Output: wan (this is the relay interface)

3. 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

4. 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_if2

• Type: Query

• Action: Proxy

• Output: if2 (this is the relay interface)

3. 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

4. Click OK

373
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

4.7.4. 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

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.

374
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
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

375
 Chapter 4: Routing

The time in milliseconds between repetitions of an initial membership report. Global setting on
interfaces without an overriding IGMP Setting.

Default: 1,000

4.7.5. 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.

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.

376
 Chapter 4: Routing

Figure 4.22. 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
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

377
 Chapter 4: Routing

IP Rules

Action Source Source Destination Destination Service MultiplexSAT

Interface Network Interface Network Interface
MultiplexSAT If2 If2_net core mc_group mc_stream gre_to_clients
Allow If2 If2_net core mc_group mc_stream

IGMP Rules

Type Action Source Source Multicast Multicast Relay

Interface Network Group Source Interface
Query Proxy If2 If2_net mc_group all-nets gre_to_clients
Report Proxy gre_clients all-nets all-nets all-nets If2

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

Services

Name Type Destination Ports

mc_stream udp 1234

IP Rules

Action Source Source Destination Destination Service MultiplexSAT

Interface Network Interface Network Interface
MultiplexSAT gre_to_server server_net core mc_group mc_stream If3
Allow gre_to_server server_net core mc_group mc_stream

IGMP Rules

Type Action Source Source Multicast Multicast Relay

Interface Network Group Source Interface
Report Proxy If3 If3_net mc_group all-nets gre_to_server
Query Proxy gre_to_server all-nets all-nets all-nets If3

378
 Chapter 4: Routing

4.8. Transparent Mode

4.8.1. 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.

Note: HA does not support transparent mode

There is no state synchronization for switch routes and therefore transparent mode in a
NetDefendOS high availability cluster. Loop avoidance will not function at all. For these
reasons, transparent mode should not be configured in an HA cluster.

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.

Broadcast Packet Forwarding

By default, broadcast packets will not be forwarded with transparent mode. Forwarding must be
switched on by enabling the property Forward broadcast packets on switch routes and this must
be done for the routes for both the source and destination interface. This is explained further in
Section 4.2.7, “Broadcast Packet Forwarding”.

Note:IPv6 is not supported in switch routes

Although IPv6 is supported in normal NetDefendOS routes, it is not supported in switch
routes. This means that IPv6 cannot be used with transparent mode.

Usage Scenarios

Two examples of transparent mode usage are:

379
 Chapter 4: Routing

• 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 4.8.2, “Enabling Internet Access”.

Comparison with Routing Mode

The NetDefend Firewall can be regarded as operating in either of two modes:

• 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.

380
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
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

381
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

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.

382
 Chapter 4: Routing

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. Also 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.

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

383
 Chapter 4: Routing

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 clients 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
clients located behind a firewall operating in transparent mode. In this case, NetDefendOS must
be correctly configured as a DHCP relayer to allow the forwarding of DHCP traffic between clients
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 property DHCP Passthrough
must be enabled all the interfaces involved with transparent mode. Doing this is described
further in Section 3.4.11, “Layer 2 Pass Through”

Important: Transparent mode must be enabled on the interface

For DHCP passthrough to function, transparent mode must also be enabled on the
interface so the routes are added automatically. If switch routes are added manually
then DHCP passthrough cannot function.

4.8.2. 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.

384
 Chapter 4: Routing

Figure 4.23. 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 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).

Figure 4.24. 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 Gateway

Switch if1 all-nets
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

385
 Chapter 4: Routing

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.

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.

4.8.3. A Transparent Mode Use Case

In the use case illustrated below, a NetDefend 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. The actual setup steps are listed in the example below.

Figure 4.25. Transparent Mode Use Case

Example 4.22. A Transparent Mode Use Case

Command-Line Interface

386
 Chapter 4: Routing

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

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:

• IP Address: 10.0.0.1

• Network: 10.0.0.0/24

• Default Gateway: 10.0.0.1

• Transparent Mode: Enable

4. Click OK

Configure the lan interface:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2. Select the lan interface

3. Now enter:

• IP Address: 10.0.0.2

• Network: 10.0.0.0/24

• Transparent Mode: Enable

387
 Chapter 4: Routing

4. Click OK

Configure the rules:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: http_allow

• Action: Allow

• Service: http

• Source Interface: lan

• Destination Interface: any

• Source Network: 10.0.0.0/24

• Destination Network: all-nets

3. Click OK

4.8.4. 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.

388
 Chapter 4: Routing

Figure 4.26. 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)

• 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.

4.8.5. MPLS Pass Through

Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a standard that allows the attaching of labels to IP
packets to provide information about the packet's eventual destination. The router that initially
attached the MPLS label is known as the ingress router.

Network nodes that support MPLS can then use this attached information to route packets

389
 Chapter 4: Routing

without needing to perform route lookups and therefore increase processing speed. In addition
to overall faster traffic movement, MPLS also makes it easier to manage Quality of Service (QoS).

MPLS is considered to be "multi-protocol" because it works with the Internet Protocol,

Asynchronous Transport Mode (ATM) and frame relay network. When considered in reference to
the OSI network model, MPLS allows packets to be forwarded at the layer two level rather than at
the layer three level and for this reason it is said to operate at the two and a half level.

NetDefendOS MPLS Support

NetDefendOS supports MPLS Pass Through. This is relevant in transparent mode scenarios where
the MPLS labeled packets are allowed to traverse the NetDefend Firewall. NetDefendOS can
optionally validate the integrity of these MPLS packets and the administrator can change the
advanced setting Relay MPLS to specify the specific action to be taken. The possible values for
this setting are:

• Ignore - Verify packets and allow all verified MPLS labeled packets to pass silently. Packets
that fail verification are logged.

• Log - Verify packets and allow all verified MPLS packets to pass as well as being logged.
Packets that fail verification are also logged.

• Drop - Silently drop all MPLS packets without verification or logging.

• Drop/Log - Drop all MPLS packets without verification and log these drops.

4.8.6. 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.

390
 Chapter 4: Routing

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
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

391
 Chapter 4: Routing

392
Chapter 5: DHCP Services

This chapter describes DHCP services in NetDefendOS.

• Overview, page 393

• IPv4 DHCP Client, page 395

• IPv4 DHCP Server, page 397

• IPv4 DHCP Relay, page 404

• IP Pools, page 408

• DHCPv6, page 411

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. It can perform this function both for
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

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

393
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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.

394
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

5.2. IPv4 DHCP Client

In a NetDefend Firewall, any Ethernet interface or VLAN interface can act as an IPv4 DHCP client
so that the IPv4 address and network for the interface can be assigned by an external DHCP
server. This feature can be enabled or disabled by changing the Enable DHCP property for the
interface object in the NetDefendOS configuration. The default settings are as follows:

• Ethernet interfaces - The default setting for Ethernet interfaces depends on the hardware
platform. For the NetDefendOS product series, consult the relevant hardware guide.

• VLAN interfaces - DHCP is always disabled by default for VLAN interfaces.

Important: IPv4 DHCP clients are not supported in HA clusters

The IPv4 DHCP client is not supported for interfaces in a NetDefendOS high availability
cluster. If it is enabled in a cluster, this will result in the error message Shared HA IP
address not set when trying to commit the configuration.

As soon as DHCP is enabled on an interface and the changed NetDefendOS configuration is

deployed, the following will occur:

• A DHCP lease request is issued on the DHCP enabled interface.

• A listening DHCP server will issue a lease to the interface.

• NetDefendOS will change the IPv4 address and network of the interface to become the
values in the lease.

• The NetDefendOS address book objects associated with the interface will lose their original
values and take on the value 0.0.0.0 for the IPv4 address and 0.0.0.0/0 for the IPv4 network.
The address book objects will not show the DHCP assigned values although these will be
shown when examining the properties of the interface configuration object.

The same process of requesting a lease will also take place if NetDefendOS is restarted. If the
DHCP is subsequently disabled on an interface, the administrator will need to manually assign
the IPv4 address and network.

Note: The IP address icon changes in the Web Interface

When IP addresses are allocated to an interface, the IPv4 address and network icons
change in the Web Interface display of interface properties so they have an asterisk in
the lower left corner.

The examples below shows how the option is enabled for an Ethernet interface. The procedure is
almost identical for a VLAN interface.

Example 5.1. Enabling an Ethernet Interface as a DHCP Client

This example shows how to enable the Ethernet interface If1 as a DHCP client.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet If1 DHCPEnabled=Yes

395
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Ethernet > If1

2. Select Enable DHCP

3. Click OK

396
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

5.3. IPv4 DHCP Server

A NetDefendOS DHCP Server object assigns and manages IP addresses taken from a specified
address pool. These 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.

The DHCPServer object is used for IPv4 addresses and the DHCPv6Server object is used for IPv6
objects. The two are configured in very similar ways although the underlying implementations
are very different. The IPv6 server also provides several options which do not exist for IPv4. DHCP
relay and IP pools cannot currently be used with IPv6 DHCP.

Multiple DHCP Servers

The administrator has the ability to set up one or more logical IPv4 or IPv6 DHCP servers in
NetDefendOS. Filtering of DHCP client requests to different DHCP servers is based on a
combination of the following DHCP Server properties:

• 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.

• Relay Filter

The value of the Relay Filter property is also used to determine which DHCP Server object to
use. The default value of all-nets means that 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.

Setting the Relay Filter Property

As explained above, the DHCP Server object used for a client is selected based on a match of both
the Interface and Relay Filter properties of the object. A DHCP Server object must have a Relay
Filter value specified and the possible values are the following:

• 0.0.0.0/0

The default value is 0.0.0.0/0 (all-nets). 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.

397
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

• 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.

IPv4 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.

Relay Filter A filter for the relay address. The possible values for this and their
meanings are listed earlier in this section.

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 within which users are situated. When a user
types a simple string into a browser instead of a valid URL,
the domain property value can be appended by the
browser to form a URL. For example, if the Domain value is
"example.com", when the user types just the word " wiki",
the browser can try the URL "wiki.example.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

398
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

The policy for saving the lease database to disk. The options are:

i. Never - Never save the database.

ii. ReconfShut - Save the database on a reconfigure or a shutdown.

iii. 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
86400 seconds.

Example 5.2. Setting up an IPv4 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:

• Name: DHCPServer1

• Interface Filter: lan

• IP Address Pool: DHCPRange1

• Netmask: 255.255.255.0

3. 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 Mode

399
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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

10.4.13.240 00-1e-0b-a0-c6-5f ACTIVE(STATIC)
10.4.13.241 00-0c-29-04-f8-3c ACTIVE(STATIC)
10.4.13.242 00-1e-0b-aa-ae-11 ACTIVE(STATIC)
10.4.13.243 00-1c-c4-36-6c-c4 INACTIVE(STATIC)
10.4.13.244 00-00-00-00-02-14 INACTIVE(STATIC)
10.4.13.254 00-00-00-00-02-54 INACTIVE(STATIC)
10.4.13.1 00-12-79-3b-dd-45 ACTIVE
10.4.13.2 00-12-79-c4-06-e7 ACTIVE
10.4.13.3 *00-a0-f8-23-45-a3 ACTIVE
10.4.13.4 *00-0e-7f-4b-e2-29 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.

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: The lease database is saved in non-volatile memory

The DHCP lease database is periodically saved to non-volatile memory so that most
leases are remembered by NetDefendOS after a system restart. A DHCP advanced
setting can be adjusted by the administrator to control how often the 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.

400
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

Figure 5.1. DHCP Server Objects

The following sections discuss these two DHCP server options.

5.3.1. Static IPv4 DHCP Hosts

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 5.3. Static IPv4 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

401
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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
# Comments
- -------
+ 1 <empty>

4. An individual static assignment can be shown using its index number:

gw-world:/DHCPServer1> show DHCPServerPoolStaticHost 1

Property Value
----------- -----------------
Index: 1
Host: 192.168.1.1
MACAddress: 00-90-12-13-14-15
Comments: <empty>

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

2. Select Static Hosts

3. Select Add > Static Host Entry

4. Now enter:

• Host: 19.168.1.1

• MAC: 00-90-12-13-14-15

5. Click OK

5.3.2. Custom IPv4 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

402
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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.example.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.

403
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

5.4. IPv4 DHCP Relay

Note
DHCP relay is a feature which is currently only available with IPv4 DHCP.

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.

Adding Dynamic Routes for Relayed DHCP Leases

This DHCP Relay object property should be enabled to add a route automatically for each DHCP
lease that is handed out to a client via the DHCP relay. This property is enabled in the example
described at the end of this section.

This option can add large numbers of routes to the routing table and a better solution is to set up
a single static route in advance which routes the IP range that could be handed out on the
correct interface.

Enabling Proxy ARP

In some scenarios, it is necessary to add a route for each DHCP lease using the property
described above. Consider the layout shown below, where a single DHCP server is handing out
IPs in the same network range via relay by NetDefendOS to two clients on the separate interfaces
If1 and If2.

404
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

Figure 5.2. DHCP Relay with Proxy ARP

In this case, adding a route automatically for each lease is necessary. In addition, the two clients
will get IP addresses from the same network range and can be regarded as being on the same
network. However, to be able to talk to each other, the Proxy ARP Interfaces property of the DHCP
Relay object must be set to the interfaces If1 and If2 so that the IP addresses handed out by the
DHCP server can be found by each client.

Example 5.4. 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

Web Interface

405
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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:

• Name: ipgrp-dhcp

• Interfaces: select vlan1 and vlan2 from the Available list and put them into the
Selected list.

3. 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

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

How many dhcp-packets a client can send to through NetDefendOS to the dhcp-server during
one minute.

406
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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

407
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

5.5. IP Pools
Note
IP pools can currently only be used with IPv4 DHCP.

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 or 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.

408
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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.

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 used 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 judgment 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

409
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

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.

• 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 5.5. 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

410
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

5.6. DHCPv6
NetDefendOS supports DHCPv6, the equivalent of IPv4 DHCP for IPv6. This is described in the two
sections that follow:

• Section 5.6.1, “DHCPv6 Client”

• Section 5.6.2, “DHCPv6 Server”

5.6.1. DHCPv6 Client

Overview

Any interface can be configured to be a DHCPv6 client. This means that whenever NetDefendOS
restarts or when the DHCPv6 enabled configuration is saved and activated, the interface will
automatically try to retrieve an IPv6 lease from a connected DHCPv6 server. Only the following
interface types support the DHCPv6 client function:

• Ethernet interfaces.

• VLAN interfaces.

• Link Aggregation interfaces.

This section will use the generic term interface to mean any of the above types.

Important: DHCPv6 clients are not supported in HA clusters

The DHCPv6 client is not supported for interfaces in a NetDefendOS high availability
cluster. If it is enabled for an interface, this will result in an error message when trying to
commit the configuration.

Addresses Received in a Server Lease

The lease received from a DHCPv6 server will contain the following:

• An IPv6 address for the interface.

• The addresses of up to three IPv6 DNS servers. NetDefendOS will only read the first two. The
third will be discarded.

As explained later in the section, the IPv6 network address and IPv6 gateway address can also be
automatically retrieved if the interface property Router Discovery is enabled.

Address Book Objects Created

The following is a list of the IPv6 address book objects that will be created when the DHCP client
is enabled on, for example, the if1 interface:

• if1_ip6 - The interface address.

• if1_dns6_1 - The first IPv6 DNS address in the DHCP lease.

411
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

• if1_dns6_2 - The second IPv6 DNS address in the DHCP lease.

• if1_net6 - The interface network (requires Router Discovery is enabled).

• if1_gw6 - The gateway (requires Router Discovery is enabled).

The DHCP client mechanism not only creates these objects but also assigns them to the relevant
property in the interface. Using the Router Discovery option is discussed later in this section.

Enabling DHCPv6

Similar to DHCP with IPv4, DHCPv6 is enabled using the Enable DHCPv6 property for a specific
interface. By default, this property is disabled.

In addition, a number of other properties can be optionally specified for an interface:

• Preferred IP

This is a suggestion sent to the DHCPv6 server for what the interface IP should be.

• Preferred Lifetime and Valid Lifetime

These are suggestions sent to the DHCPv6 server for what the lifetimes should be.

• Lease Filter

This a range of acceptable IPv6 addresses that can be assigned to the interface. If the offered
lease does not contain this address, it is rejected.

• Server Filter

This is a range of IPv6 addresses for servers from which NetDefendOS will accept leases.

The Router Discovery Option

An Ethernet configuration object has an additional property called Router Discovery which is
either disabled or enabled.

By default, this option is disabled which means that the DHCPv6 client feature will only set the
IPv6 address for the interface and the IPv6 addresses of DNS servers, while the network address
and the gateway addresses must be set manually by the administrator.

When the Router Discovery option is enabled, a complete set of client addresses will be provided
by the DHCPv6 process including the IPv6 network and the IPv6 gateway address. This is similar
to the standard way that IPv4 functions.

Tip: An ISP will have a correct IPv6 connection method

When connecting to an ISP using IPv6, check with the ISP how NetDefendOS should be
configured. Using the DHCP client with Router Discovery enabled may be required by
the ISP to retrieve the IPv6 address for the ISP's gateway as well as for the IPv6 network.

The Router Discovery option can also be used when automatically configuring the IPv6 address of
the interface, with the DHCP client function disabled. This usage is described in Section 3.2, “IPv6
Support”.

412
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

Assigned DNS Servers

The lease granted by a DHCPv6 server can contain up to three IPv6 addresses of DNSv6 servers.
However, NetDefendOS will only use the first and second of these which are sometimes known
as the Primary, and Secondary servers. If a third server is present in the lease it will be ignored.

The DNSv6 addresses obtained from the DHCP server will be stored in two properties of the
interface configuration object which are called DHCPv6DNS1 and DHCPv6DNS2.

Created DNS Address Objects

For the first DNSv6 server address in a lease, NetDefendOS will automatically create a new IPv6
address book object with the name <interface>_dns6_<num>, where <interface> is the interface
receiving the lease and <num> is the order number of the DNSv6 server in the lease.

For example, if the interface receiving the DHCPv6 lease is the wan interface then the address
book object created for the first lease will be named wan_dns6_1. If the lease contains a second
DNSv6 server address, this will be called wan_dns6_2 and so on.

The DNSv6 server addresses can be configured statically for NetDefendOS. If this is done, these
manually configured addresses take precedence over addresses received in a lease. However,
NetDefendOS will still automatically create the address book objects of the form
<interface>_dns6_<num> for each DHCPv6 server address received in the lease. This precedence
of statically defined DNS addresses is discussed further in Section 3.10, “DNS”.

Behavior on Lease Expiry

When a DHCP lease ends and is not renewed, any address book objects created by the DHCPv6
mechanism will remain in the address book. However, the values of the address book objects
associated with an interface will be affected as follows:

• Network and gateway objects will retain the values that were last allocated by DHCPv6.

• All other objects will be set to the IPv6 unspecified address (::/128).

Example 5.6. DHCPv6 Client Setup

This example shows how to enable DHCPv6 on the wan interface. It is assumed that IPv6 has
already been enabled for the interface.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set Interface Ethernet wan DHCPv6Enabled=Yes

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Ethernet

2. Select the wan interface

3. Select Enable DHCPv6 Client

413
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

4. Click OK

5.6.2. DHCPv6 Server

NetDefendOS provides the ability to set up one or more DHCPv6 servers. Configuring these is
almost identical to configuring an IPv4 DHCP server. However, there are some object properties
which are available with DHCPv6 but not with standard IPv4 DHCP. These are as follows:

• Rapid Commit

By default this is disabled. This option makes sense during server solicitation procedure. If the
client has included a rapid commit option in the solicit message and the rapid commit setting
is enabled then the DHCPv6 server responds to the solicit with a reply. The server commits
the assignment of addresses before sending the reply message. The client can assume it has
been assigned the addresses in the reply message and does not need to send a request
message for those addresses.

If this option is left at the default value of being turned off, the server ignores the rapid
commit option and acts as though no rapid commit option were present in the client's solicit
message.

• Preference Value

A preference value can be either sent or not sent to the client. If sending it is enabled, the
default preference value is zero but this can be manually set to be between 0 and 255.

Setting the preference gives the administrator the ability to prioritize one DHCPv6 server
over another. During the server solicitation procedure the client collects received advertise
messages from available DHCPv6 servers. The client typically will contact the server that sent
the advertise message with the highest server preference value.

A preference value of 255 has the highest priority and once such value is received in an
advertise message, the client will immediately begin a client initiated message exchange
with the DHCPv6 Server originated the message. This value therefore should only be used in
an environment with a single server since other servers will be ignored.

Preferences are often used where the administrator wants one server to be the primary with a
higher preference and assigns a lower preference to other backup servers.

• Send Unicast

By default, in negotiations between client and server, the client uses multicast IPv6 address as
a destination for all messages. This option enables the inclusion of the server unicast option
by a DHCPv6 Server in messages sent to client. Once such an option is received by the client,
it can contact the server directly using the server's IPv6 address (which is carried in the server
unicast option).

This allows reduction of the network load as well as offloading to other DHCPv6 Servers
available on the network.

• Clear Universal Local Bit

When set to a value of Yes, this option will always clear the universal/local bit (u/l bit) in the
IPv6 addresses handed out by the server so that it always has a value of zero. This flags the
address as being a locally created one that should not be used universally. This setting

414
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

applies to /64 networks.

The default value for this setting is No so the bit is not automatically set to zero by
NetDefendOS.

Tip: Speeding up address allocation

If only one DHCPv6 server is configured then the process of IPv6 address allocation can
be significantly speeded up by enabling rapid commit and setting the preference value
of that server to be 255.

With a preference value of 255, message exchange is triggered as soon as soon as the
client receives the solicit message. Rapid commit allows the client to get committed
addresses in the reply message during the solicit-reply message exchange with the
DHCPv6 server. Together, these can significantly increase the speed of address
allocation.

Available Memory Can Limit Lease Allocation

When a DHCPv6 lease is handed out, NetDefendOS stores details of the lease in the firewall's
local memory. There is no memory pre-allocated for this list of leases and the amount of memory
used can expand from nothing up until the point that all free available memory is exhausted.

When no more memory is available, NetDefendOS will cease to assign new leases and will
behave as though there are no free IPs left in the pool. NetDefendOS will signal a general
out-of-memory condition and this will appear on the management console. This condition
would require a very large number of leases to be allocated.

DHCPv6 Server Setup

The steps for setting up a DHCPv6 server in NetDefendOS are as follows:

• Make sure that IPv6 is enabled globally and for the listening interface of the DHCPv6 server
with an IPv6 address assigned to that interface. Doing this is described in Section 3.2, “IPv6
Support”.

• Create a new DHCPv6 Server object. This will listen on the specified interface and get the IPv6
addresses handed out from a specified IPv6 Address Pool object.

• The advanced IP setting Multicast HopLimit Min must be set to a value of 1 (the default is 3).

• If the firewall which acts as the DHCPv6 server is also going to send out router
advertisements for the server, the following must be configured:

i. Add a Router Advertisement object with the same interface specified as the DCHPv6
server.

ii. Disable the Use Global Settings option for this Router Advertisement object and enable
the Managed Flag setting to signal there is a DHCPv6 server on the network. If the
DHCPv6 server is providing information about DNS addresses, also enable the Other
Config Flag setting.

iii. Add a Prefix object to the Router Advertisement object. This is optional but is normally
done. Normally, the prefix specified is the same as the network attached to the DHCPv6
server listening interface.

415
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

iv. If it is undesirable that hosts on the network use the defined prefix for stateless
auto-configuration, disable the Autonomous Flag setting for the Prefix object. This is
probably the case since the DHCPv6 server is being added to the network.

If another device (either a D-Link firewall or third party device) on the network is going to
send the router advertisements for the DHCPv6 server, that device must be similarly
configured with the settings described above.

Example 5.7. DHCPv6 Server Setup

This example shows how to set up an DHCPv6 server called dhcpv6_server1 on the Ethernet
interface lan. Assume that the pool of available IP addresses is already defined by the IPv6
address object dhcpv6_range1.

The server will also use the rapid commit option and will assign itself a preference value of 100. It
is assumed in this example that IPv6 has been enabled globally and also for the listening
interface lan.

Router advertisements will be generated by the same firewall and the prefix used will be
2001:DB8::/64.

Command-Line Interface

Create the server:

gw-world:/> add DHCPv6Server dhcpv6_server1

Interface=lan
IPv6AddressPool=dhcpv6_range1
RapidCommit=Yes
PreferenceConfigured=Yes
PreferenceValue=100

Set the hop limit to 1:

gw-world:/> set Settings IPSettings HopLimitMin=1

Create a router advertisement:

gw-world:/> add RouterAdvertisement Name=my_ra

Interface=lan
UseGlobalRASettings=No
RAManagedFlag=Yes
RAOtherConfigFlag=Yes

Change the context to be the router advertisement:

gw-world:/> cc RouterAdvertisement 1

Add the prefix object:

gw-world:/1(my_ra)> add RA_PrefixInformation Name=my_prefix

Prefix=2001:DB8::/64
RAAutonomousFlag=No

Return to the default context:

416
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

gw-world:/1(my_ra)> cc

Web Interface

Create the server:

1. Go to: Network > Network Services > DHCPv6 Servers >Add > DHCPv6Server

2. Now enter:

• Name: dhcpv6_server1

• Interface Filter: lan

• IP Address Pool: dhcpv6_range1

3. Select the Options tab

4. Enable Handle Rapid Commit Option

5. Enable Send Preference Option

6. Set the Preference value to be 100

7. Click OK

Set the hop limit to 1:

1. Go to: System > Advanced Settings > IP Settings

2. Under IPv6 set Multicast HopLimit Min to 1

3. Click OK

Create a router advertisement:

1. Go to: Network > Routing > Router Advertisements > Add > Router Advertisement

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_ra

• Interface: lan

3. Select the Advanced tab

4. Disable Use Global Settings

5. Enable Managed Flag

6. Enable Other Config Flag

7. Click OK

Still within the router advertisement definition, add the prefix object:

1. Go to: Network > Routing > Router Advertisements > my_ra

417
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

2. Go to: Prefix Information > Add > Prefix Information

3. Now enter:

• Name: my_prefix

• Network Prefix: 2001:DB8::/64

4. Disable the setting Autonomous Flag

5. Click OK to save the prefix

6. Click OK to save the advertisement

Static DHCPv6 Hosts

Where the administrator requires a fixed relationship between a client and the assigned IP
address, NetDefendOS allows the assignment of a given IPv6 address to a specific MAC address
just as it was assigned for IPv4 as described in Section 5.3.1, “Static IPv4 DHCP Hosts”.

Example 5.8. Static DHCPv6 Host Assignment

This example shows how to assign the IPv6 address 2001:DB8::1 to the MAC address
00-90-12-13-14-15. The example assumes that the DHCPv6 server dhcpv6_server1 has already
been defined.

Command-Line Interface

First, change the category to the dhcp_ipv6_server1 context:

gw-world:/> cc DHCPv6Server dhcpv6_server1

Add the static DHCP assignment:

gw-world:/dhcpv6_server1> add DHCPv6ServerPoolStaticHost

Host=2001:DB8::1
MACAddress=00-90-12-13-14-15

Return to the default context:

gw-world:/dhcpv6_server1> cc

gw-world:/>

Web Interface

1. Go to: Network > Network Services > DHCPv6 Servers > dhcpv6_server1

2. Select Static Hosts

3. Select Add > Static Host Entry

4. Now enter:

418
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

• Host: 2001:DB8::1

• MAC: 00-90-12-13-14-15

5. Click OK

419
 Chapter 5: DHCP Services

420
Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

This chapter describes NetDefendOS security features.

• Access Rules, page 421

• ALGs, page 425

• Web Content Filtering, page 503

• Email Filtering and Anti-Spam, page 526

• Anti-Virus Scanning, page 541

• Intrusion Detection and Prevention, page 552

• Denial-of-Service Attacks, page 566

• Blacklisting Hosts and Networks, page 571

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

421
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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
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 6.7, “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:

422
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Interface: The interface that the packet arrives on.

• 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

423
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

2. Now enter:

• Name: lan_Access

• Action: Expect

• Interface: lan

• Network: lannet

3. Click OK

424
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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

Note: IPv6 based traffic is not supported by some ALGs

Only the HTTP (and LW-HTTP) ALGs have support for IPv6 when used with IP rules or IP
policies that reference IPv6 addresses.

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.

425
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.1. Deploying an ALG

ALGs Are Not State Synchronized

No aspect of ALGs are state synchronized in a NetDefendOS high availability cluster.
This means that all traffic handled by ALGs will freeze when a cluster fails over to the
other peer. However, if the cluster fails back over to the original peer within
approximately half a minute, frozen sessions and their associated transfers) should
begin working again. Note that such a failover with almost immediate fallback occurs
each time a new configuration is uploaded.

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

426
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

large number of clients connecting through the NetDefend Firewall and it is therefore
recommended to consider using a higher value in such circumstances.

ALG Changes From NetDefendOS Version 11.01 Onwards

From NetDefendOS version 11.01 onwards, many of the predefined ALG objects have been
removed from a new installation of NetDefendOS. Upgrading from an older NetDefendOS will
not change the predefined ALG objects and a new installation can manually recreate any missing
ALGs if required.

With NetDefendOS version 11.01 and later, it is possible to avoid using most ALG objects directly.
This is achieved by using IP Policy objects in place of IP Rule objects. From 11.01 onwards, most
predefined Service objects can be used directly with an IP policy and all of the properties
previously available in the ALG object will become properties of the IP Policy object.

The only ALGs that cannot be used with IP policies in any version of NetDefendOS are the SIP and
H323 ALGs.

This topic is also discussed in Section 3.3, “Services”.

6.2.2. The HTTP ALG

Overview

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.

The Light Weight HTTP ALG Alternative

This section describes the standard HTTP ALG. In many situations the alternative Light Weight
HTTP ALG (LW-HTTP ALG) can be a better choice since it requires less hardware resources and
can provide higher traffic throughput. Some features, such as Anti-Virus scanning and stripping
static content, are not available with the LW-HTTP ALG.

For more information about the differences between the two ALGs, see Section 6.2.3, “The
Light Weight HTTP ALG”.

Note: The HTTP and LW-HTTP ALGs provide IPv6 Support

The HTTP ALG and LW-HTTP ALGs can be used with IP Rule objects that reference IPv6
addresses and networks. Similarly, IPv6 based IP Policy objects can also make use of the
features of these ALGs (the ALG object is hidden when using an IP Policy).

427
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

HTTP ALG Features

The HTTP ALG provides a set of security features related to HTTP data transfers. The features are
summarized below:

• Active Content Handling

The optional blocking of any of the following is possible:

i. ActiveX objects can be stripped from web pages, including Flash.

ii. Java applets can be stripped from webpages.

iii. Javascript and Visual Basic Scripts can be stripped from webpages.

iv. Website cookies can be blocked.

• 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.

Enforcing SafeSearch is not possible for HTTPS because the URL is encrypted uses SSL. For
this reason, HTTP must also be enforced for SafeSearch enforcement to work. Doing this with
Google is explained in the note below.

Note: Enforcing SafeSearch with Google requires DNS changes

By default, Google searches use HTTPS and so SafeSearch cannot be enforced.
Google searches will be forced to use HTTP if the result of the DNS lookup performed
by the browser is changed. This is done by adding a CNAME record to the local DNS
server that causes www.google.com to become nosslsearch.google.com. This
forces HTTP to be used.

By default, SafeSearch is not forced so this property must be explicitly enabled for the HTTP
ALG configuration object.

• URL Verification

Some attacks can take the form of malformed URLs containing invalid encoding. Enabling
this option will mean that the ALG checks for malformed URLs.

• File Integrity

A number of checks can be made on any files downloaded via HTTP. These are:

i. File Size - A file size limit can be specified for any single download (this option is only
available for HTTP and SMTP ALG downloads).

ii. File Type Policy - It is possible to allow specific file types or to block specific file types.

iii. 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:

428
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

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.

iv. 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.

• Web 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 6.5, “Anti-Virus Scanning”.

• URL Filtering

The administrator can define the blacklisting and whitelisting of specific URLs. This is done by
adding one or more HTTP ALG URL objects as children of a single parent HTTP ALG object.
When doing this with an IP Policy, object, one or more URL Filter objects are added as children
to a Web Profile object that is then assigned to the IP Policy.

i. URL Blacklisting

429
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Specific URLs can be blacklisted so that they are not accessible. Wildcarding can be used
when specifying URLs, as described below.

ii. 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 also not applied to HTTP traffic from a
whitelisted URL.

This feature is described further in Section 6.3.3, “Static Content Filtering”.

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.

To enable file control on an IP Policy object, the following steps are required:

• Create a File Control Profile object which specifies which file control actions to take.

• Assign the File Control Profile object to the File Control property of an IP Policy object that
filters the targeted traffic. Note that Service property of the IP Policy must be set to a service
that has its Protocol property set to the relevant protocol (for example, HTTP).

Allow Unknown Protocols

An IP Policy object has an ALG related property called Allow Unknown Protocols which can be set
when the Service object is set for HTTP or HTTPS. This property is disabled by default which
means that any connection using a protocol that NetDefendOS does not recognize as HTTP or
HTTPS will be dropped. This setting can be enabled to allow these connections with a protocol
that is not recognizable as HTTP.

IP policies are described further in Section 3.6.7, “IP Policy”.

The Ordering for HTTP Filtering

HTTP filtering obeys the following processing order and is similar to the order followed by the
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

430
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

on the blacklist.

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 *.example.com will block all pages whose URLs end with example.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.example.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
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).

431
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.2.3. The Light Weight HTTP ALG

The Light Weight HTTP ALG (LW-HTTP ALG) provides an alternative to the standard HTTP ALG and
it is recommended that it is used unless the functions that it cannot perform are needed (these
are listed later in this section).

The LW-HTTP ALG can provide the following key advantages over the standard HTTP ALG:

• Gives higher throughput performance than the standard HTTP ALG.

• Consumes much less memory than the standard HTTP ALG. This allows NetDefendOS to
support a much greater number of concurrent connections.

• Can perform certain functions that the standard HTTP ALG cannot perform. These are listed
next.

• Can be used with IPv6 based traffic.

Functions that Only the LW-HTTP ALG Can Perform

The following functions are only available in the LW-HTTP and do not exist in the standard HTTP
ALG:

• HTTP Pipeline Support - A client can send multiple HTTP requests over a single TCP
connection without waiting for the corresponding replies. This can result in a significant
improvement in page loading times, particularly over network connections with high latency
times. The standard HTTP ALG does not support pipelining. connections.

• User Agent Filter Support - Specific browsers and/or browser versions can be allowed and
all others blocked.

• Protocol Upgrade Support - The LW-HTTP ALG allows the protocol to be changed. For
example, to the Web Sockets protocol.

Functions the LW-HTTP ALG Cannot Perform

The following functions cannot be provided by the LW-HTTP and can only be provided by the
standard HTTP ALG:

• The LW-HTTP cannot modify a stream of HTTP data as it passes through the firewall. For this
reason, the following static filtering cannot be performed:

i. Stripping active X objects.

ii. Stripping Javascript.

iii. Stripping Java applets.

iv. Blocking cookies.

• Anti-Virus scanning is not supported at this time for file transfers.

• File integrity checking is not supported.

• Enforcing Safe Search is not supported.

432
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• URL verification is not supported.

User Agent Filtering

The User-Agent field of the HTTP protocol identifies the client software that is involved in the
HTTP interaction. For many HTTP interactions this is a web browser. For example, the User-Agent
field generated by the Firefox™ browser might look like the following:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0

The network administrator may want to deny or allow certain web browsers or browser versions
because they pose a security risk or because others are preferable.

The LW-HTTP ALG examine the User-Agent field as the traffic traverses the firewall and then only
allow or deny access to agents which match a specified string. This is configured by attaching
one or more User-Agent Filter objects as children to a parent LW-HTTP ALG object. Each filter
object specifies a single string and the filter will trigger if the string matches a connection's
User-Agent field. The behavior when it triggers is determined by the User-Agent Filter Mode
property of the parent LW-HTTP ALG object and this can have one of two values:

• Deny Selected - Only the agents specified by the filter(s) will be denied. All other agents will
be allowed. This is the default.

• Allow Selected - Only the agents specified by the filter(s) will be allowed. All other agents
will be denied.

As can be seen from the agent example above for Firefox, the entire agent string can be long. It is
therefore better when specifying the agent string in a filter to use wildcards. The following
wildcards can be used:

• The asterisk "*" character represents any string.

• The question mark "?" character represents any single character.

For example, if only Firefox browser was to be allowed, a single filter could be specified with the
following string:

*Firefox/*

When a User-Agent is blocked, NetDefendOS sends a predefined web page to the client's browser
to alert them that this has happened. This page is not editable by the administrator at this time.

Note: Specifying no filters means all agents will be allowed

If no User Agent Filter objects are added to an LW-HTTP ALG object then all
User-Agents will be allowed.

Example 6.2. Using the Light Weight HTTP ALG

This example shows how to set up a Light Weight HTTP (LW-HTTP) ALG for clients that are surfing
the web using HTTP from a protected network to the public Internet. It will be configured to
allow only the Firefox and Chrome browsers (all other browsers will be denied). In addition,
protocol upgrading will be allowed.

433
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

It is assumed that a single NAT IP rule is already configured which allows traffic from the internal
network to the Internet. This rule is called int_to_ext_http

Command-Line Interface

First, create an LW-HTTP ALG object:

gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_LWHTTP my_lw_http_alg

AllowProtocolUpgrade=Yes
UserAgentFilterMode=AllowSelected

Change the CLI context to be the new ALG:

gw-world:/> cc ALG ALG_LWHTTP my_lw_http_alg

Add the User-Agent filter that will allow Firefox:

gw-world:/my_lw_http_alg> add ALG_HTTP_UA UserAgent=*Firefox/*

Add the User-Agent filter that will allow Chrome:

gw-world:/my_lw_http_alg> add ALG_HTTP_UA UserAgent=*Chrome/*

Return to the default CLI context:

gw-world:/my_lw_http_alg> cc
gw-world:/>

Now, create a service object and associate it with this new ALG:

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP my_http_service

Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=80,443
ALG=my_lw_http_alg

Finally, modify the NAT IP rule to use the new service.

gw-world:/> set IPRule int_to_ext_http Service=my_http_service

Web Interface

First, create an LW-HTTP ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > LW-HTTP ALG

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_lw_http_alg

• Allow Protocol Upgrade: Enable

• User-Agent Filter Mode: Allow Selected

3. Click OK

Edit the LW-HTTP ALG just created:

434
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

1. Select: my_lw_http_alg

2. Select User-Agent Filter

3. Select Add and enter the following to allow Firefox:

• User-Agent: *Firefox/*

• Click OK

4. Select Add and enter the following to allow Chrome:

• User-Agent: *Chrome/*

• Click OK

5. Click OK

Now, create a service object and associate it with this new ALG:

1. Go to: Local Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP service

2. Enter the following:

• Name: my_http_service

• Type: TCP

• Destination Port: 80,443

• ALG: my_lw_http_alg

Finally, modify the NAT IP rule to use the new service:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules

2. Select the IP rule called int_to_ext_http

3. Go to: Service

4. Select my_http_service from the Service list

5. Click OK

6.2.4. The FTP ALG

Overview

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.

435
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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
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

436
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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

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.

437
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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 and Services Before NetDefendOS Version 11.01

In older versions of NetDefendOS, four predefined FTP ALG and Service objects were provided,
each with a different combination of client/server mode restrictions. These ALG and Service
objects had the following names:

• 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.

Beginning with NetDefendOS version 11.01, these individual services are removed from a new
NetDefendOS installation. However, they remain in configurations that upgrade to 11.01 or later.
A new installation can recreate them manually but the recommended option is to use the
predefined ftp service with an IP Policy object, in which case all the options previously available
on the ALG are now available directly on the policy.

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
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

438
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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
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 6.5, “Anti-Virus
Scanning”.

FTP ALG with ZoneDefense

ZoneDefense is a feature that allows NetDefendOS to block hosts and networks by sending
management commands to certain types of external network switches. Used together with the
FTP ALG, ZoneDefense can be configured to protect a network from the spread of malware such
as viruses. This is relevant in two scenarios:

439
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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 will not 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 6.3. Protecting an FTP Server with an ALG

An FTP Server is connected to a NetDefend Firewall on a DMZ and has a private IPv4, as
illustrated below. This example shows how to protect the server using an FTP ALG object.

440
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

The FTP ALG restrictions will be set 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.

Assume the private IPv4 address of the FTP server is already defined in the address book and has
the name ftp-internal.

Command-Line Interface

A. Define the ALG:

gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_FTP ftp-inbound

AllowClientActive=Yes
AllowServerPassive=Yes

B. Define the Service:

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP ftp-inbound-service

DestinationPorts=21
Type=TCP
ALG=ftp-inbound

C. Define a SAT rule allowing connections to the public IP on port 21 and forwarded to the
FTP server:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=SAT

Service=ftp-inbound-service
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
SATTranslate=DestinationIP
SATTranslateToIP=ftp-internal
Name=SAT-ftp-inbound

441
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

D. Traffic from an internal interface needs to be NATed through the public IPv4 address:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=NAT

SourceInterface=dmz
SourceNetwork=dmznet
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=ftp-inbound-service
NATAction=UseInterfaceAddress
Name=NAT-ftp

E. Allow incoming connections (SAT requires an associated Allow rule):

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=ftp-inbound-service
Name=Allow-ftp

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

B. Define the Service:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP Service

2. Enter the following:

• 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

3. Click OK

C. Define a SAT rule allowing connections to the public IP on port 21 and forwarded to the
FTP server:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

442
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

2. Now enter:

• Name: SAT-ftp-inbound

• Action: SAT

• Service: ftp-inbound-service

3. 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

6. New Port: 21

7. Click OK

D. Traffic from an internal interface needs to be NATed through the public IPv4 address:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: NAT-ftp

• Action: NAT

• Service: ftp-inbound-service

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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: Allow-ftp

443
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Action: Allow

• Service: ftp-inbound-service

3. For Address Filter enter:

• Source Interface: any

• Destination Interface: core

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Network: wan_ip

4. Click OK

Example 6.4. Protecting FTP Clients

This example shows how to protect an FTP client behind a NetDefend Firewall that is connecting
to FTP servers on the Internet. The diagram below illustrates this scenario.

The FTP ALG restrictions are 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.

Command-Line Interface

A. Define the ALG:

gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_FTP ftp-outbound

AllowClientActive=Yes
AllowServerPassive=Yes

444
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

B. Define the FTP Service:

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP ftp-outbound-service

DestinationPorts=21
Type=TCP
ALG=ftp-outbound

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 placed before this rule.

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=ftp-outbound-service
Name=Allow-ftp-outbound

ii. Using Private IPs:

If the firewall is using private IPs with a single external public IP, the following NAT rule needs to
be added instead of the rule above:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=NAT

SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=ftp-outbound-service
NATAction=UseInterfaceAddress
Name=NAT-ftp-outbound

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:

445
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP Service

2. 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

3. 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 placed before this rule.

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: Allow-ftp-outbound

• Action: Allow

• Service: ftp-outbound-service

3. For Address Filter enter:

• Source Interface: lan

• Destination Interface: wan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Network: all-nets

4. Click OK

ii. Using Private IPs:

If the firewall is using private IPs with a single external public IP, the following NAT rule needs to
be added instead of the rule above:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: NAT-ftp-outbound

• Action: NAT

• Service: ftp-outbound-service

446
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

6.2.5. The TFTP ALG

Overview

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.

447
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Remove Request Option Specifies if options should be removed from request. The
default is False which means "do not remove".

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.

6.2.6. The SMTP ALG

Overview

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a text based protocol used for transferring email between
mail servers over the Internet. Typically, a local mail server will be located on a DMZ so that mail
sent by remote mail servers will traverse the NetDefend Firewall to reach the local server.

Local clients behind the firewall will then use email client software to retrieve email from the
server and to send mail to the server for forwarding out to other mail servers on the public
Internet. Various protocols may be used for communication between clients and a mail server.
Microsoft ActiveSync™ is a common choice. Retrieval may also be done with the POP3 or IMAP
protocol but sending mail to the server may be done using SMTP. These interactions are
illustrated in the diagram below.

448
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.4. SMTP ALG Usage

The SMTP ALG can be used to process both SMTP traffic between mail servers as well as from
clients to servers. A typical mail sending sequence would be the following:

1. A local user sends an email to a mail server. This might be sent using SMTP or Microsoft
Activesync™ or some other protocol.

2. The local mail server performs a DNS lookup of the destination domain name to determine
the IP address of the remote mail server to forward the mail to.

3. The email is forwarded to the remote server using SMTP.

4. The remote user retrieves the email from the remote mail server using POP3 or IMAP or
Activesync or some other protocol.

SMTP ALG Setup

To set up security using the SMTP ALG, perform the following steps:

• Create a new SMTP ALG object with the desired options enabled, such as file blocking and
virus scanning.

• Create a new custom Service object for SMTP with the following properties:

i. Type: TCP

ii. Destination: 25

iii. Enable Syn Flood Protection if traffic is coming from the Internet. Having this disabled
will use less NetDefendOS resources but disable it only where a denial-of-service attack
is unlikely.

This is now a copy of the predefined Service object called smtp-in. If Syn Flood Protection is

449
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

disabled, it is a copy of the predefined Service object called smtp. Predefined Service objects
could be used but this is not recommended.

• Associate the new SMTP ALG object with the newly created Service object.

• Create an IP Rule object that that uses the relevant Service and that has the appropriate
source and destination filters. This could be one of the following options:

i. For mail being uploaded to the server from clients using SMTP, an IP rule is required
where the source will be the clients and the destination will be the mail server.

ii. For mail being sent to the server from the public Internet, an IP rule is required where
the destination is the mail server and the source is the Internet. If the mail server does
not have its own public IP address, this will require a SAT IP rule and an ALLOW IP rule to
translate a public IP address to the private address of the server.

iii. For mail from clients being forwarded out to the public Internet by the mail server, an IP
rule is required where the server is the source and the Internet is the destination.

• Associate the Service object with the IP rule.

The most common use for the SMTP ALG is to examine the email traffic that is flowing to a mail
server from the public Internet and this is described in the example given later. However, it can
be possible for malware to infect either protected clients and/or a mail server in which case an
SMTP ALG can be used to monitor mail traffic that is flowing from clients and/or being relayed by
the mail server out on the public Internet.

SMTP ALG Options

Key options 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 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

450
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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 6.5, “Anti-Virus Scanning”.

The Ordering for SMTP ALG Processing

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
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.

451
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.5. 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 list entry
cover a large number of potential email addresses. The wildcard character "*" is used to represent
any sequence of characters of any length.

For instance, the list entry *@example.com can be used to specify all possible email addresses
related to the domain example.com.

To explicitly allow emails destined for my_department, add the whitelist entry
[email protected] and this will have precedence over the blacklist entry with the
wildcard.

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:

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:

452
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

Example 6.5. SMTP ALG Setup

In this example which is illustrated above, an SMTP ALG is to be used to monitor email traffic that
is flowing to a mail server on a DMZ network from the public Internet. It is assumed that the mail
server has a private IPv4 address which is defined by the address book object mail_server_ip so a
SAT IP rule will be needed to translate the firewall's public IP address to this private address.

It is assumed that the wan interface of the firewall is connected to the public internet and the
public IP address of the interface is defined by the wan_ip address book object.

The SMTP ALG will perform the following actions:

• Block any attached .exe or .msi files.

• Block any attachments where the file extension differs from the file's MIME type.

• Scan any remaining attachments for viruses and do not allow them through if a virus is
detected.

• Tag any mails flagged as SPAM by a DNSBL lookup at zen.spamhaus.org (weighted 5) and
dnsbl.dronebl.org (weighted 3).

• Drop any mails that come from the domain example.com.

453
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Command-Line Interface

A. Create an SMTP ALG object:

gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_SMTP smtp_inbound_alg

VerifySenderEmail=Yes
FileListType=Block
File=exe,msi
VerifyContentMimetype=Yes
Antivirus=Protect
DNSBL=Yes
DNSBlackLists={zen.spamhaus.org;5},{dnsbl.dronebl.org;3}

Also in this ALG, blacklist all mails sent from the example.com domain:

gw-world:/> cc ALG ALG_SMTP smtp_inbound_alg

gw-world:/smtp_inbound_alg> add ALG_SMTP_Email
Action=Blacklist
Type=Sender
Email=*@example.com
gw-world:/smtp_inbound_alg> cc
gw-world:/>

B. Create a new Service object for inbound SMTP traffic:

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP smtp_inbound_service

Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=25
SYNRelay=Yes
ALG=smtp_inbound_alg

C. Create an IP Rule for email traffic from the Internet:

i. Create a SAT IP rule to translate the server address:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=SAT

Service=smtp_inbound_service
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all_nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
SATTranslate=DestinationIP
SATTranslateToIP=mail_server_ip
Name=smtp_inbound_sat

ii. Create a matching ALLOW IP rule to permit the translated traffic:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

Service=smtp_inbound_service
SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all_nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Name=smtp_inbound_allow

Web Interface

454
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

A. Create an SMTP ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > SMTP ALG

2. Under General enter:

• Name: SMTP_inbound_alg

3. Under File Integrity enter:

• Select exe and msi for blocked file types

• Enable the option Block file with extension that does not match MIME type

4. Under Anti-Virus enter:

• Mode: Protect

5. Under Anti-Spam enter:

• Enable DNS Anti-Spam Filter

• Under DNS Blacklists add zen.spamhaus.org with a value of 5 and dnsbl.dronebl.org with
a value of 3.

6. Under Whitelist/Blacklist select Add and enter:

• Action: Blacklist

• Type: Sender

• Email: *[email protected]

7. Click OK

B. Create a new Service object for inbound SMTP:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP Service

2. Now enter:

• Name: smtp_inbound_service

• Type: TCP

• Destination: 110

• Enable SYN Flood Protection

• ALG: smtp_inbound_alg

3. Click OK

C. Create an IP Rule for email traffic to the mail server from the Internet:

i. Create a SAT IP rule to translate the server address:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

455
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Name: smtp_inbound_sat

• Action: SAT

• Service: smtp_inbound_service

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

• SAT Translate: Destination IP

• New IP Address: mail_server_ip

3. Click OK

ii. Create a matching ALLOW IP rule to permit the translated traffic:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: smtp_inbound_allow

• Action: Allow

• Service: smtp_inbound_service

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

3. Click OK

6.2.6.1. ZoneDefense with the SMTP ALG

ZoneDefense is a feature that allows NetDefendOS to block hosts and networks by sending
management commands to certain types of external network switches. 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 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.

456
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

To implement blocking, the administrator configures the ZoneDefense network range to include
all local SMTP clients. The SMTP-server itself should be 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.

Setup Steps

The steps to setting up ZoneDefense with the SMTP ALG are:

• Configure the ZoneDefense switches to be used with ZoneDefense by going to 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.

More information about this topic can be found in Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

6.2.7. The POP3 ALG

POP3 is a mail transfer protocol that is used by an email client running on the recipients to
download emails from a mail server. The principal difference with the IMAP protocol is that the
entire email and any attachments are downloaded to the client before the email can be
examined. The email is then subsequently stored on the client computer and may be deleted
from the mail server.

The diagram below illustrates a typical usage of the NetDefendOS POP3 ALG. A mail server
located on the DMZ network dmz_net receives emails from the public Internet using the SMTP
protocol. A protected client on the lan_net network downloads emails from this server using the
POP3 protocol. The clients initiate the transfer with POP3, sending a request to the mail server for
the download of emails also using POP3.

As the emails traverse the firewall, the NetDefendOS POP3 ALG examines the data and can block
or allow them according to the behavior specified in the ALG configuration object.

457
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.6. POP3 ALG Usage

In this scenario, the SMTP traffic arriving at the mail server on the DMZ also traverses the firewall
and this traffic can be examined using the NetDefendOS SMTP ALG. This is discussed further in
Section 6.2.6, “The SMTP ALG”.

POP3 ALG Setup

To set up security using the POP3 ALG, perform the following steps:

• Create a new POP3 ALG object with the desired options enabled, such as file blocking and
virus scanning.

• Create a new custom Service object for POP3 with the following properties:

i. Type: TCP

ii. Destination: 110

This is now a copy of the predefined Service object called pop3. This predefined object could
be used but this is not recommended.

• Associate the new POP3 ALG object with the newly created Service object.

• Create an IP Rule object that has the mail server as its Destination Network and the email
clients as its Source Network since it is the clients which will initiate connections.

• Associate the Service object with the IP rule.

POP3 ALG Properties

The key properties of the POP3 ALG object are listed below:

458
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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.

• 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 6.5, “Anti-Virus Scanning”.

Virus scanning by the POP3 ALG is redundant is scanning is already performed on mail traffic
before it reaches the mail server. This scanning could be done by the NetDefendOS SMTP
ALG.

Example 6.6. POP3 ALG Setup

This example will assume the network topology illustrated in the diagram at the beginning of
this section. POP3 traffic is to be allowed between a mail server on the dmz_net network and
protected clients on the lan_net network. It is assumed that the mail server has a private IPv4
address which is defined by the address book object mail_server_ip.

The POP3 ALG will perform the following actions:

• Prevent the mail server revealing if the email address exists.

• Deny any email that fails scanning by the ALG.

• Block all attached exe or msifiles.

• Block any attachments where the file extension differs from the file's MIME type.

459
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Scan all allowed attachments for viruses.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create a POP3 ALG object:

gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_POP3 pop3_client_alg

HideUser=Yes
FileListType=Block
File=exe,msi
VerifyContentMimetype=Yes
Antivirus=Protect

B. Create a new Service object for POP3:

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP pop3_client_service

Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=110
ALG=pop3_client_alg

C. Create an IP Rule for email traffic from the mail server:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

Service=pop3_client_service
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lan_net
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=mail_server_ip
Name=pop3_mail

Web Interface

A. Create a POP3 ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > POP3 ALG

2. Under General enter:

• Name: pop3_client_alg

• Enable the option Prevent a user from revealing a user does not exist

3. Under File Integrity enter:

• Select exe and msi for blocked file types

• Enable the option Block file with extension that does not match MIME type

4. Under Anti-Virus enter:

• Mode: Protect

5. Click OK

B. Create a new Service object for POP3:

460
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP Service

2. Now enter:

• Name: pop3_client_service

• Type: TCP

• Destination: 110

• ALG: pop3_client_alg

3. Click OK

C. Create an IP Rule for email traffic from the mail server:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: pop3_mail

• Action: Allow

• Service: pop3_client_service

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lan_net

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: mail_server_ip

3. Click OK

Note that clients initiates the POP3 connection so they are the source for the IP rule.

6.2.8. The PPTP ALG

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.

461
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.7. 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 setup 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 endpoint 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

462
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

6.2.9. The SIP ALG

Overview

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an ASCII (UTF-8) text based signaling 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 session 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 6.2.10, “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
preconfigured by service providers with restricted configuration possibilities.

NAT traversal techniques like STUN also lie outside of RFC 3261 and need to be disabled.

463
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

Note: Virtual routing and route failover cannot be used

The SIP ALG cannot be configured with any other routing table except the main routing
table. This means the Virtual Routing feature cannot be configured with SIP, nor can
policy-based routing (PBR) rules be used with SIP.

Another routing restriction is that the Route Failover feature cannot be used.

Traffic Shaping with SIP

Any traffic connections that trigger a NetDefendOS IP rule (or IP policy) with an associated
service object that uses SIP, cannot also be subject to NetDefendOS traffic shaping.

SIP Components

The following components are the logical building blocks for SIP communication:

User Agents These are the endpoints 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.

464
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

SIP Media-related Protocols

A SIP session makes use of a number of protocols. These are:

SDP Session Description Protocol (RFC 4566) is used for media session initialization.

RTP Real-time Transport Protocol (RFC 3550) is used as the underlying packet format for
delivering audio and video streaming via IP using the UDP protocol.

RTCP Real-time Control Protocol (RFC 3550) is used in conjunction with RTP to provide
out-of-band control flow management.

Either IP Rule or IP Policy Objects Can Be Used

When setting up SIP, either IP Rule or IP Policy objects can be used to control traffic flows.

When using an IP Rule object, a SIP ALG object must be used. When using an IP Policy object, a SIP
ALG object is not used. Instead, a VoIP Profile object is first created and the IP Policy object must
then refer to this.

In NetDefendOS version 11.03 and later, a predefined SIP ALG is not present in the default
configuration and therefore a new SIP ALG object must always be created when using an IP Rule
object with SIP. In older NetDefendOS versions that are upgraded to 11.03 or later, the
predefined SIP ALG object will be retained.

In addition, the predefined service object called sip-udp will have its Protocol property already
correctly set in the default configuration of NetDefendOS version 11.03 and later.

SIP Setup Using IP Rule Objects

When configuring NetDefendOS for SIP sessions with IP Rule objects, the following steps are
required:

• Define a SIP ALG object.

• Define a single Service object for SIP communication and associate it with the ALG.

• Define the appropriate IP Rule or IP Policy objects for SIP communications which uses the
defined Service object.

SIP Setup Using IP Policy Objects

When configuring using IP Policy the following steps are required:

• Define a single Service object for SIP communication. The Protocol property must be set to SIP
if the service is to be used with an IP Policy object.

• Define a VoIP Profile object. The settings that would have been input when using the SIP ALG
are input into this object.

• Define the appropriate IP Rule or IP Policy objects for SIP communications which use the
defined Service object.

• Associate the VoIP Profile object created previously with the IP Policy object.

465
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

In both the cases of using IP Rule objects or IP Policy objects, the predefined Service object called
sip-udp could be used. However, it is recommended to create a new Service object and the
examples in this section do this.

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 TCP data channels

TCP data channels can be used during a SIP session.

• Maximum number of TCP channels per call

If Allow TCP data channels is enabled this option is available to specify the maximum time
number of TCP channels allowed in a SIP session.

• Allow clients to exchange media directly when possible

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 signaling 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 (or IP
policies) must be set up to allow all SIP messages through the NetDefend Firewall, and if the

466
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

source network of the messages is not known then a large number of potentially dangerous
connections must be 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/policies required when the Record-Route option is enabled and disabled can
be seen in the two different sets of IP rules/policies listed below in the detailed description of
Scenario 1
Protecting local clients - Proxy located on the Internet.

IP Rules/Policies 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 Rule objects (or alternatively, IP Policy objects) 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 IP rules or IP policies already in the IP rule set that
disallow or allow 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. The example setups are described using IP Rule objects but
these could easily be IP Policy objects instead.

• 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

467
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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
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 ensure 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 signaling 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

468
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

2. Define a Service object and associate it with the SIP ALG object. The service should have:

• Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signaling port).

• Type set to TCP/UDP.

3. Define two rules/policies 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/policies 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 lan lannet wan ip_proxy
(or NAT)
Allow wan ip_proxy lan lannet
(or core) (or wan_ip)

Without the Record-Route option enabled the IP rules/policies 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 lan lannet wan <All possible IPs>
(or NAT)
Allow wan <All possible IPs> lan lannet
(or core) (or ipwan)

469
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

Note: Tables omit the Service object

In this section, tables which list IP rules/policies like those above, will omit the Service
object associated with the rule. The same, custom Service object is used for all SIP
scenarios.

Example 6.7. SIP with Local Clients/Internet Proxy Using IP Rules

This example shows the exact steps to implement Scenario 1 which is described above. The local
network topology is hidden using NAT. The proxy server lies on the external, unprotected side of
the NetDefend Firewall.

The client is assumed to be on the network if1_net connected to the interface if1. The SIP proxy is
assumed to be on the IP address proxy_ip on the interface ext.

Web Interface

A. Define the following IP objects:

• if1_net: 192.168.1.0/24
(the internal network)

• proxy_ip: 81.100.55.2
(the SIP proxy)

• ip_wan: 81.100.55.1
(the NetDefend Firewall's public IPv4 address)

B. Define an SIP ALG object

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > SIP ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_sip_alg

3. Click OK

C. Define a custom Service object for SIP:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Specify a name for the service, in this case my_sip_service

3. Choose UDP as the Type

4. Choose my_sip_alg as the ALG

5. For the Destination property, enter the port number 5060

6. Click OK

470
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

D. Define the IP rule for outgoing SIP traffic:

1. Go to: Rules > IP Rule Set > main > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: sip_nat

• Action: NAT

• Source Interface: if1

• Source Network: if1_net

• Destination Interface: ext

• Destination Network: proxy_ip

• Service: my_sip_service

• Comment: Allow outgoing SIP calls

3. Click OK

E. Define the IP Rule for incoming SIP traffic:

1. Go to: Rules > IP Rule Set > main > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: sip_allow

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: ext

• Source Network: proxy_ip

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: ip_wan

• Service: my_sip_service

• Comment: Allow incoming SIP traffic

3. Click OK

Example 6.8. SIP with Local Clients/Internet Proxy Using IP Policies

This example is nearly the same as the previous example but uses IP Policy objects instead of IP
Rule objects.

Web Interface

A. Define the required IP objects:

471
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• if1_net: 192.168.1.0/24
(the internal network)

• proxy_ip: 81.100.55.2
(the SIP proxy)

• ip_wan: 81.100.55.1
(the NetDefend Firewall's public IPv4 address)

B. Define a VoIP Profile object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > VoIP > Add > VoIP Profile

2. Specify a name for the profile, in this case my_sip_profile

3. Click OK

C. Define a custom Service object for SIP:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Specify a name for the service, in this case my_sip_service

3. Choose UDP as the Type

4. For the Destination property, enter the port number 5060

5. Set the Protocol property to SIP

6. Click OK

D. Define the IP Policy for outgoing SIP traffic:

1. Go to: Rules > IP Rule Set > main > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: sip_nat

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: if1

• Source Network: if1_net

• Destination Interface: ext

• Destination Network: proxy_ip

• Service: my_sip_service

• Address Translation: NAT

• Address Action: Outgoing interface IP

• Comment: Allow outgoing SIP calls

3. Select the VoIP tab, enable VoIP and select my_sip_profile

472
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

4. Click OK

E. Define the IP Policy for incoming SIP traffic:

1. Go to: Rules > IP Rule Set > main > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: sip_allow

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: ext

• Source Network: proxy_ip

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: ip_wan

• Service: my_sip_service

• Comment: Allow incoming SIP traffic

3. Select the VoIP tab, enable VoIP and select my_sip_profile

4. Click OK

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 signaling 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.

473
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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 and associate it with the SIP ALG object. The service should have:

• Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signaling port)

• Type set to TCP/UDP

3. Define three rules/policies 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.

• 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.

SIP Traffic Type Action Src Interface Src Network Dest Interface Dest Network
OutboundFrom NAT lan lannet wan all-nets
ProxyUsers (ip_proxy)
InboundTo SAT wan all-nets core wan_ip
ProxyAndClients SETDEST
ip_proxy
InboundTo Allow wan all-nets core wan_ip
ProxyAndClients

If Record-Route is enabled then the Source Network for outbound traffic from proxy users can be
further restricted in the above 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/policies are replaced by a single Allow rule.

474
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Action Src Interface Src Network Dest Interface Dest Network

OutboundFrom Allow lan lannet wan all-nets
Proxy&Clients (ip_proxy)
InboundTo Allow wan all-nets lan lannet
Proxy&Clients (ip_proxy)

If Record-Route is enabled then the networks in the above 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.

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. The initial messages exchanges that take place
when a call is setup in this scenario are illustrated below:

475
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

The exchanges illustrated in the above diagram 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:

• 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 and associate it with the SIP ALG object. The service should have:

• Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signaling port)

• Type set to TCP/UDP

3. Define four rules/policies in the IP rule set:

• A NAT rule/policy 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.

476
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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/policy for outbound traffic from the proxy behind the DMZ interface to the
remote clients on the Internet.

• An Allow rule/policy for inbound SIP traffic from the SIP proxy behind the DMZ interface
to the IP address of the NetDefend Firewall. This will have core (in other words,
NetDefendOS itself ) as the destination interface.

The reason for this is because of the NAT rule/policy 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.

• An Allow rule/policy for inbound traffic from, for example the Internet, to the proxy
behind the DMZ.

4. 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/policies are
therefore needed when Record-Route is disabled:

• A NAT rule/policy 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/policy 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/policy 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 SIP ALG.

The IP rules/policies 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/policies 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

477
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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:

• Destination Port set to 5060 (the default SIP signaling port)

• Type set to TCP/UDP

• When using an IP Policy object, the Protocol property must also be set to SIP.

3. Define four rules/policies in the IP rule set:

• An Allow rule/policy for outbound traffic from the clients on the internal network to the
proxy located on the DMZ interface.

• An Allow rule/policy for outbound traffic from the proxy behind the DMZ interface to the
remote clients on the Internet.

• An Allow rule/policy for inbound SIP traffic from the SIP proxy behind the DMZ interface
to the clients located on the local, protected network.

• An Allow rule/policy for inbound SIP traffic from clients and proxies on the Internet to
the proxy behind the DMZ interface.

4. 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/policy for outbound traffic from the clients on the local network to the
external clients and proxies on the Internet.

• An Allow rule/policy for inbound SIP traffic from the Internet to clients on the local
network.

The IP rules/policies with Record-Route enabled are as shown below:

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
InboundToProxy Allow wan all-nets dmz ip_proxy

With Record-Route disabled, the following IP rules/policies 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

478
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.2.10. The H.323 ALG

Overview

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 signaling through itself
to perform functions such as follow-me/find-me, forward
on busy, etc. It is needed when there is more than 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:

H.225 RAS signaling and Call Used for call signaling. It is used to establish a connection
Control (Setup) signaling 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 Provides control of multimedia sessions established

Transport between two H.323 endpoints. Its most important task is to

479
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

H.323 handling by NetDefendOS has the following characteristics:

• NetDefendOS supports version H.323 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, NetDefendOS 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, NetDefendOS 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/policies are supported, allowing clients and gatekeepers to use private
IPv4 addresses on a network behind the NetDefend Firewall.

NetDefendOS H.323 Configuration

In NetDefendOS, the configuration of H.323 can be done in one of two ways:

• Using a H.323 ALG object with an IP Rule object

An H.323 ALG object is associated with a Service object configured for the H.323 protocol. The
service object is then used with the IP Rule objects that control H.323 traffic flow.

In NetDefendOS version 11.03 and later, a predefined H.323 ALG is not present in the default
configuration and therefore a new H.323 ALG object must always be created when using an IP
Rule object with H.323. In older NetDefendOS versions that are upgraded to 11.03 or later, the
predefined H.323 ALG object will be retained.

• Using a VoIP Profile object with an IP Policy object

H.323 can alternatively be configured using IP Policy objects. This is done by creating a VoIP
Profile object and specifying the H.323 options on that instead of an H.323 ALG. The VoIP
Profile object is then associated with the IP Policy object that controls traffic.

A Service object configured for H.323 traffic must also be used with the IP Policy object. This
Service object must have its Protocol property set to H.323.

480
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

The predefined H.323 service objects in the default configuration for NetDefendOS 11.03 and
later already have their Protocol property set to be H.323. This will not be true where
NetDefendOS has been upgraded to version 11.03 or later.

H.323 Settings

Both the H.323 ALG object (for IP Rules) and the VoIP Profile (for IP Policies) objects allow the
following property settings to be configured:

• 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.

• Max TCP Data Channels

The maximum number of TCP data channels can be specified.

• 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.

• Translate Addresses

The default value for address translation is Automatic. If set to Specific, a particular network
and IP address can 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.

• Network and IP Address

This option is available if the Translate Address option is set to Specific. For NATed traffic,
the Network specifies what is allowed to be translated. The IP Address specifies which IPv4
address to NAT with. If Translate Addresses is to Automatic, the external IP address is found
automatically through route lookup.

H.323 Service Object Setup

Presented next are some examples of H.323 setup. For each setup, a Service object is used. The
properties of the Service objects created for H.323 should be as follows:

• H.323 Service - Type: TCP, Destination port: 1720

• H.323 Gatekeeper Service - Type: UDP, Destination port: 1719

There are predefined Service objects in NetDefendOS which are called h323 and h323-gatekeeper
and these could be used instead of the custom Service objects used in the example. However, if
using these objects with an IP Policy, it should be checked that the Protocol property of the
Service is set to H.323. This is automatically true for the default configuration of NetDefendOS
11.03 or later but not true for upgrades from versions prior to 11.03.

481
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Example 6.9. Protecting Internal H.323 Phones Using IP Rules

In this example, an internal H.323 phone is situated on lannet and has a public IP address. 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 IP Rule objects.

Note: Make sure there are no other rules/policies disallowing or allowing the same kind of
ports/traffic before the IP rules in this example.

Web Interface

Create a new H.323 ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > H.323 ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_h323_alg

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for H.323:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_h323_service

• Type: TCP

• ALG: my_h323_alg

• Destination port: 1720

3. Click OK

Create an IP rule for outgoing H.323 traffic:

482
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323AllowOut

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow outgoing H.323 calls.

3. Click OK

Create an IP rule for incoming H.323 traffic:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323AllowIn

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: lan

• Destination Network: lannet

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow incoming H.323 calls.

3. Click OK

Example 6.10. Protecting Internal H.323 Phones Using IP Policy Objects

This example repeats the previous example but uses IP Policy objects instead of IP Rule objects.
This means that an H.323 ALG object cannot be used and a VoIP Profile object is created instead
and this is associated with the IP Policy.

Note that the Service object used must have its Protocol property set to be H.323.

Web Interface

483
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Create a new VoIP Profile object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > VoIP > Add > VoIP Profile

2. Specify a name for the profile, in this case my_h323_profile

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for H.323:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_h323_policy_service

• Type: TCP

• Destination port: 1720

• Protocol: H.323

3. Click OK

Create an IP policy for outgoing H.323 traffic:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323AllowOut

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: my_h323_policy_service

• Comment: Allow outgoing H.323 calls.

3. Select the VoIP tab, enable VoIP and select my_h323_profile

4. Click OK

Create an IP policy for incoming H.323 traffic:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323AllowIn

• Action: Allow

484
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: lan

• Destination Network: lannet

• Service: my_h323_policy_service

• Comment: Allow incoming H.323 calls.

3. Select the VoIP tab, enable VoIP and select my_h323_profile

4. Click OK

Note: Further IP Policy examples will not be given

For brevity, the other setup examples in this section will use only IP Rule objects. The
pattern shown in the last example should be followed to implement the examples using
IP Policy objects instead.

Example 6.11. H.323 with a Private Address Using IP Rules

In this example, an internal H.323 phone is on a network with private IPv4 addresses. To make
make 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 IP rules. The following rules need to be
added to the rule set.

Note: Make sure there are no rules/policies disallowing or allowing the same kind of traffic before
these IP rules.

When 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

Create a new H.323 ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > H.323 ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_h323_alg

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for H.323:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_h323_service

485
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Type: TCP

• ALG: my_h323_alg

• Destination port: 1720

3. Click OK

Create the outgoing IP rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323Out

• Action: NAT

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow outgoing H.323 calls.

3. Click OK

Create the SAT IP rules for incoming H.323 traffic:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323In

• Action: SAT

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow incoming calls to H.323 phones via ip-phone.

3. For SAT enter Translate Destination IP Address: To New IP Address: ip-phone (IP address
of phone)

4. Click OK

486
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323In

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow incoming calls to H.323 phones via ip-phone.

3. 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 6.12. 2 Phones Behind Different NetDefend Firewalls Using IP Rules

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.

Web Interface

Create a new H.323 ALG object:

487
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > H.323 ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_h323_alg

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for H.323:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_h323_service

• Type: TCP

• ALG: my_h323_alg

• Destination port: 1720

3. Click OK

Create the outgoing traffic IP rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323AllowOut

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow outgoing H.323 calls.

3. Click OK

Create the incoming traffic IP rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323AllowIn

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

488
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Destination Interface: lan

• Destination Network: lannet

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow incoming H.323 calls.

3. Click OK

Example 6.13. 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

Create a new H.323 ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > H.323 ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_h323_alg

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for H.323:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_h323_service

• Type: TCP

• ALG: my_h323_alg

• Destination port: 1720

3. Click OK

Create the outgoing traffic NAT IP rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323Out

489
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Action: NAT

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow outgoing H.323 calls.

3. Click OK

Create the incoming traffic SAT IP rules:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323In

• Action: SAT

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

• Service: my_h323_service

• 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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323In

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

490
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Service: my_h323_service

• Comment: Allow incoming calls to H.323 phone at ip-phone.

3. 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 6.14. 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.

Web Interface

Create a new H.323 ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > H.323 ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_h323_alg

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for the H.323 gatekeeper:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

491
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Name: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Type: UDP

• ALG: my_h323_alg

• Destination port: 1719

3. Click OK

Create the SAT IP rules for incoming gatekeeper traffic:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323In

• Action: SAT

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• 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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323In

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip (external IP of the firewall)

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow incoming communication with the gatekeeper.

3. Click OK

492
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Create the IP rule that allows traffic from lannet to the gatekeeper:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323In

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper (IP address of the gatekeeper)

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow incoming communication with the gatekeeper.

3. Click OK

Note: Outgoing calls do not need a specific rule/policy

There is no need to specify a specific rule/policy 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 6.15. 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 firewall with the Gatekeeper connected to the DMZ should
be configured exactly as in scenario 3. The other firewall should be configured as below. The
rules/policies need to be added to the rule listings, and it should be make sure there are no
rules/policies disallowing or allowing the same kind of ports/traffic before these rules/policies.

493
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Web Interface

Create a new H.323 ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > H.323 ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_h323_alg

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for the H.323 gatekeeper:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Type: UDP

• ALG: my_h323_alg

• Destination port: 1719

3. Click OK

Create an IP rule allowing outgoing gatekeeper traffic from lannet to be NATed to the Internet :

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: H323Out

• Action: NAT

494
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: any

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow outgoing communication from the gatekeeper.

3. Click OK

Note: Outgoing calls do not need a specific rule/policy

There is no need to specify a specific rule/policy 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 6.16. Using H.323 in an Enterprise Environment

This is an example of a more complex situation that shows how the H.323 ALG can be deployed
in a enterprise environment. At the head office DMZ is a H.323 gatekeeper that can handle all
H.323 clients in the head, branch and remote offices. This will allow the whole enterprise 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 made over the existing telephone network
using the gateway (ip-gateway) which is connected to the ordinary telephone network.

495
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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

Create a new H.323 ALG object:

1. Go to: Objects > ALG > Add > H.323 ALG

2. Specify a name for the ALG, in this case my_h323_alg

3. Click OK

Create a custom Service object for the H.323 gatekeeper:

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Type: UDP

• ALG: my_h323_alg

• Destination port: 1719

3. Click OK

496
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Create an IP rule for traffic from lannet to gatekeeper:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: LanToGK

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow H.323 entities on lannet to connect to the gatekeeper.

3. Click OK

Create an IP rule for traffic from the gateway to internal phones on lannet:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: GWToLan

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: dmz

• Source Network: ip-gateway

• Destination Interface: lan

• Destination Network: lannet

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow communication from the gateway to H.323 phones on lannet.

3. Click OK

Create an IP rule for traffic from the gateway to internal phones on lannet:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: BranchToGW

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: vpn-branch

497
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Source Network: branch-net

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper, ip-gateway

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow communication with the gatekeeper on DMZ from the branch
network.

3. Click OK

Create an IP rule for traffic from the VPN to the gatekeeper:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: BranchToGW

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: vpn-remote

• Source Network: remote-net

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: ip-gatekeeper

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow communication with the gatekeeper on DMZ from the remote
network.

3. Click OK

Example 6.17. 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:

Here, the interface called vpn-hq is the VPN tunnel to the network hq-net located at
headquarters.

Note: This IP rule/policy should exist in both the branch and remote office NetDefendOS
configurations.

Web Interface

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

498
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

2. Now enter:

• Name: ToGK

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface: vpn-hq

• Destination Network: hq-net

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow communication with the gatekeeper connected to the head office
DMZ.

3. Click OK

Example 6.18. 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 H.323 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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: GWToGK

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: dmz

• Source Network: ip-branchgw

• Destination Interface: vpn-hq

• Destination Network: hq-net

• Service: my_h323_gatekeeper_service

• Comment: Allow the gateway to communicate with the gatekeeper connected to the
head office.

3. Click OK

Note: Outgoing calls do not need a specific rule

499
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

There is no need to specify a specific rule/policy 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.

6.2.11. The TLS ALG

Overview

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that provides secure communications over the public
Internet between two endpoints 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.

NetDefendOS Supports TLS, Not SSL

TLS is a successor to the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) but the differences are slight. For most
purposes, TLS and SSL can be regarded as equivalent. However, NetDefendOS only supports TLS
and any reference to SSL in NetDefendOS documentation should be assumed to be referring to
TLS. The TLS ALG can be said to provide SSL termination since it is acting as an SSL end-point.

Cryptographic Suites and TLS Version Supported by NetDefendOS

NetDefendOS supports a number of cryptographic algorithms for SSL VPN. Only some are
enabled by default and all can be either enabled or disabled. All the supported algorithms are
listed in Section 13.9, “SSL/TLS Settings”. Note that TLS version 1.0 and 1.2 is supported by
NetDefendOS but not version 1.1. Refer to Section 13.9, “SSL/TLS Settings” for how to disable
version 1.2 so only 1.0 can be used.

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

500
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

certificate and continue.

Figure 6.8. 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 is 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

501
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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
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 supports a number of cryptographic algorithms for TLS. These can be enabled or
disabled globally using the advanced settings described in Section 13.9, “SSL/TLS Settings”.

By default, only the four algorithms which are considered the most secure are enabled. It is not
recommended to enable the weaker algorithms and they exist primarily for backwards
compatibility.

TLS Restrictions

The following are restrictions that exist when using the TLS ALG:

• Client authentication is not supported (where NetDefend Firewall authenticates the identity
of the client).

• Renegotiation 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.

• The certificate chain used by NetDefendOS can contain at most 2 certificates.

502
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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 Policy”.

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

503
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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 6.19. 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

URL 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.

504
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Static and Dynamic Filtering Order

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 online
store, dynamic content filtering might be set to prevent access to shopping sites by blocking the
"Shopping" category. By entering the online store's URL into the HTTP Application Layer
Gateway's whitelist, access to that URL is always allowed, taking precedence over Dynamic
Content Filtering.

Note: The hosts and networks blacklist is a separate feature

The URL filtering option described here is a separate concept from Section 6.8,
“Blacklisting Hosts and Networks”.

Using Wildcards

When blacklisting or whitelisting URLs, wildcards can be used. Wildcards can be used the path
following the URL hostname which means that filtering can be controlled to the file and
directory level.

Below are some good and bad blacklisted example URLs that include wildcards:

*.example.com/* Good. This will block all hosts in the example.com domain and all web
pages served by those hosts. This is the only correct form that can be
used with HTTPS.

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 filename extension.

www.example.com Not good. 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/* Not good. This will also cause www.myexample.com to be blocked

since it blocks all sites ending with example.com.

URL Filtering with HTTPS Traffic

The encrypted nature of HTTPS traffic means that only URL filtering and dynamic web content
filtering can be performed. If URL filtering is to be performed on HTTPS traffic using an IP rule, the
following steps should be used:

• Create an HTTP ALG object and set the Allowed Protocol property to HTTPS.

• Add one or more HTTP ALG URL objects as children of the ALG to define URLs that are
whitelisted or blacklisted.

• 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 for HTTPS.

• Use the service object with an IP rule.

505
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Note: Only domains can be targeted with HTTPS

Due to the encrypted nature of HTTPS, it is only possible to whitelist or blacklist at the
domain level. For example, only the form *.example.com/* can be used for blacklisting
or whitelisting with HTTPS. Using the form *.example.com is insufficient.

If *.example.com/server is specified for HTTPS traffic, this will not work and the
matching URLs will not be caught.

URL Filtering using an IP Policy

When enabling URL filtering using an IP Policy object, a different set of steps is used:

• Create a Web Profile object.

• Add one or more URL Filter objects as children of the Web Profile to define URLs that are
whitelisted or blacklisted. Wildcarding can be used when specifying the URLs.

• Create a new Service object for HTTP and/or HTTPS. A predefined object could be used for
this purpose. This Service object must have its Protocol property set to be HTTP. For HTTPS,
the Service must include the port number 443 for HTTPS.

• Use the Service object with an IP policy that filters the relevant traffic.

• Set the Web Profile property of the IP Policy to the profile created earlier.

Example 6.20. URL Filtering Using IP Rules

This example shows the use of static content filtering where certain URLs are to be blacklisted or
white listed.

In this small scenario, a general surfing policy prevents users from downloading .exe files from
any website. However, .exe files downloaded from the www.example.com website are to be an
exception to this rule.

Command-Line Interface

Start by adding an HTTP ALG in order to filter HTTP traffic:

gw-world:/> add ALG ALG_HTTP my_content_filter

Change the CLI context to be the ALG:

gw-world:/> cc ALG ALG_HTTP my_content_filter

Then add an HTTP ALG URL as a child to blacklist a URL:

gw-world:/my_content_filter> add ALG_HTTP_URL

URL=*/*.exe
Action=Blacklist

Make an exception from the blacklist by adding a whitelisted URL:

gw-world:/my_content_filter> add ALG_HTTP_URL

506
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

URL=www.example.com/*.exe
Action=Whitelist

If no more filters are to added, return back to the default CLI context:

gw-world:/my_content_filter> cc
gw-world:/>

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 my_content_filter

3. Click OK

Then create a HTTP ALG URL to set up 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.

6.3.4. Dynamic Web Content Filtering

507
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

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 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: 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.

WCF Processing Flow

When a user of a web browser requests access to a web site, NetDefendOS queries the external
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
particular 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.

508
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.9. 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 WCF 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 those pages of a website that are
not blocked by the filtering policy.

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.

6.3.4.2. Setting Up WCF

509
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

WCF is a Subscription Based Feature

Web content filtering is a feature that is enabled by purchasing a subscription to the service. This
subscription is described further in Appendix A, Subscribing to Updates along with details of WCF
behavior after subscription expiry.

Setup Methods

Once a WCF subscription is purchased, the feature can be configured in NetDefendOS. There are
two ways of configuring WCF:

• With an IP Rule object.

• With an IP Policy object. This is discussed further in Section 6.3.4.3, “WCF Setup with IP Policies”.

Summary of WCF Setup with IP Rules

The following steps are used with IP rules:

• Define an HTTP ALG object with Web Content Filtering enabled.

Alternatively, use the Light Weight HTTP ALG (LW-HTTP ALG). This is preferred as it has less
system overhead and will provide higher traffic throughput. The disadvantage is that certain
features, such as Anti-Virus scanning and stripping static web content, are not supported. The
LW-HTTP ALG is discussed further in Section 6.2.3, “The Light Weight HTTP ALG”.

• The ALG object is then associated with a Service object. It is recommended to create a custom
Service object for this purpose so the predefined Service objects are left unchanged.

• This Service object is then associated with an IP Rule object to determine which traffic should
be subject to filtering. This allows a detailed filtering policy to be defined.

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 3.8, “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 web 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.

510
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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 6.21. Enabling Web Content Filtering Using IP Rules

This example shows how to set up web 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 and a second example is given later which does this.

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

Then, create a service object using the new HTTP ALG:

gw-world:/> add Service 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

511
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

4. Enter 80 as the Destination Port

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. Select http_content_filtering from the Service list

4. Click OK

Web 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.

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.

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 WCF 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 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.

512
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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 6.22. 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

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 online 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

513
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

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 6.23. 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

514
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

Web 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.

Note: Enabling request_url message generation

The request_url event message will only be generated if event message generation has
been enabled in the "parent" IP rule.

6.3.4.3. WCF Setup with IP Policies

WCF can be enabled on an IP Policy object instead of using the HTTP ALG with an IP Rule object.
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.

Summary of WCF Setup with IP Policies

When enabling WCF using an IP Policy object, the following steps are required:

• Create a custom Service object for the protocol targeted. Make sure the Protocol property of
this object is set to HTTP.

• Create a Web Profile object that has the appropriate settings for the type of web content
filtering required.

• Associate these Service and Web Profile objects with an IP Policy object that targets the traffic
to be filtered.

515
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Note: IP Policies always use efficient HTTP processing

When using an IP Policy object, no ALG is explicitly specified but this method of setting
up WCF will always make use in the background of the more efficient Light Weight
HTTP ALG described in Section 6.2.3, “The Light Weight HTTP ALG”.

Predefined HTTP Services

With NetDefendOS version 11.03 or later, the default configuration will contain predefined
Service objects where the Protocol property will already be correctly set. For WCF, this is the
http-outbound service. With a NetDefendOS installation that is upgraded to 11.03 or later, the
Protocol property will need to be explicitly set on services. For clarity, the example in this section
will create a custom Service object and explicitly set the Protocol property.

Example 6.24. Enabling WCF with IP Policies

This example shows how to set up web content filtering for HTTP traffic coming from HTTP
clients on a protected network which is destined for the Internet. It will be configured to block all
shopping sites. It is assumed that an IP Policy object called http_nat_policy already exists and this
implements NAT for the client connections to the Internet.

Command-Line Interface

Create a Service object :

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP http_wcf_service

Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=80
Protocol=HTTP

Create a Web Profile object:

gw-world:/> add Profile WebProfile my_wcf_profile

WCFCategories=SHOPPING

Modify the IP Policy to use the new service, as well as the profile:

gw-world:/> set IPPolicy http_nat_policy

Service=http_wcf_service
WebControl=Yes
Web_Policy=my_wcf_profile

Web Interface

Create a service object for the traffic:

1. Go to: Local Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP service

2. Now enter:

• Name: http_wcf_service

• Type: TCP

516
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Destination port: 80

• Protocol: HTTP

3. Click OK

Create a Web Profile object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Web > Add > Web Profile

2. Specify the Name as my_wcf_profile

3. Enable Web Content Filtering

4. Add Shopping tn the Restricted list

5. Click OK
Modify the IP Policy to use the new service and the profile:

1. Go to: Policies

2. Select http_nat_policy

3. Select http_wcf_service from the Service list

4. Select the Web Control options

5. Enable Web Control

6. Select my_wcf_profile from the Web Profile list

7. Click OK

6.3.4.4. WCF Categories

This section lists all the web content filtering categories used with Web 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).

517
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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,
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 online 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.

518
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

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

519
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

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

520
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

6.3.4.5. 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 in 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 8.4, “Customizing Authentication HTML”.

Available Banner Files

The predefined HTML ALG banner files for WCF are:

• CompressionForbidden
• ContentForbidden
• URLForbidden
• RestrictedSiteNotice
• ReclassifyURL

HTML Page Parameters

521
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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
Default object cannot be edited. The following example goes through the necessary steps.

Example 6.25. 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

522
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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:

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 2.1.7, “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.

6.3.4.6. The WCF Performance Log

NetDefendOS provides an option for looking more closely at what the web content filtering
subsystem is doing and this is called the WCF Performance Log. It is intended to be used by
qualified support technicians but it is useful to know that it exists and how to enable it.

When enabled, this feature takes a snapshot of the status of the WCF subsystem and outputs a

523
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

wcf_performance_notice log event message to all configured log receivers, including Memlog. An
example of this log message is shown below:

2014-10-04 08:47:25 Info ALG 200142 wcf_performance_notice

algmod=http cache_size=88 cache_repl_per_sec=3 trans_per_sec=8 queue_len=7
in_transit=2 rtt=1 queue_delta_per_sec=1 server=10.1.0.10 srv_prec=primary

When enabling the performance log, one of the following frequencies must be chosen for how
often log generation occurs:
• Every 5 seconds.
• Every 10 seconds.
• Every 30 seconds.
• Every 60 seconds.
• Every 300 seconds.
• Every 600 seconds.

Each wcf_performance_notice log message contains the following fields:

• cache_size

The size of the WCF cache which contains the most recent URLs looked up against the
external WCF database server.

• trans_per_sec

The number of database queries being sent per second. URLs are not always sent singly.
NetDefendOS will send batches when there is more than one waiting for processing against
the database.

• queue_len

The length of the queue of URLs awaiting processing by the external WCF database server.

• in_transit

The number of URLs in the queue where a request has been sent to the WCF database server
but a reply has not yet been received.

• rtt

The round-trip time for the last WCF database server lookup.

• queue_delta_per_sec

This is the amount the queue of waiting requests increases or decreases per second.

• server

The IPv4 address of the server performing the database lookup.

• srv_prec

The precedence of the responding server. A server with a higher precedence may not have
responded to the request and the next lower precedence has been selected.

The last snapshot sent as a log message can also be viewed on a management console using the
NetDefendOS CLI command httpalg -wcf. Below is an example of the output from the command
and as shown there is additional information compared with the wcf_performance_notice log
event message.

gw-world:/> httpalg -wcf

524
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Dynamic Web Content Filter Statistics

Counter Value
---------------------- ---------------
Cache Size: 62 URLs
Cache Hit Rate: 0 per second.
Cache Miss Rate: 0 per second.
Request Lookups: 0 per second.
Request Queue Length: 0 URLs.
Requests In Transit: 0 URLs.
RTT per transaction: 40 milliseconds.
Request Queue Delta: 0 URLs per second.
Cache Replacements: 0 URLs per second.
Last Cache Repl. - Hit Rate Idle: N/A.
Last Cache Repl. - Idle TTL Left: N/A.
Last Cache Repl. - Session TTL Left: N/A.
Server: 192.168.1.18
Connection Lifetime: 574 seconds.

Note: This is in techsupport command output

The output from the CLI command httpalf -wcf is included in the output from the
techsupport command.

Enabling the WCF Performance Log

The example below shows how the WCF performance log feature is enabled.

Example 6.26. Enabling the WCF Performance Log

This example enables the WCF performance log feature so that a wcf_performance_notice log
event message is generated every 5 seconds. This log message provides a snapshot of the WCF
subsystem.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set Settings MiscSettings WCFPerfLog=5

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Advanced Settings > Misc. Settings

2. Set WCF Performance Log to Every 5 Seconds

3. Click OK

525
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.4. Email Filtering and Anti-Spam

Email traffic can be a major concern for the system administrator, both because of its volume and
because of the security threats it can carry. Unsolicited email is both a major annoyance as well
as a security issue on the public Internet. Unsolicited email, often referred to as Spam, sent out by
groups known as spammers in massive quantities, can waste resources, transport malware as well
as try to direct the reader to webpages that could exploit vulnerabilities.

NetDefendOS provides two different email filtering subsystems:

• IP Policy based Email Filtering for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP

This is enabled directly on an IP Policy object and includes a fully comprehensive anti-spam
capability. It offers an array of different filtering techniques, many of which are not available
in SMTP ALG based filtering which is listed next. It cannot be configured using IP rules and at
this time it is applicable to POP3, IMAP and SMTP traffic.

This type of email filtering is described in Section 6.4.1, “IP Policy Based Email Filtering”.

• SMTP ALG Based Email Filtering

This provides an email filtering capability which is enabled via the SMTP ALG. It relies
primarily on the use of DNSBL blacklist databases for its anti-spam filtering.

This type of email filtering is described in Section 6.4.2, “ALG Based Email Filtering”.

6.4.1. IP Policy Based Email Filtering

The email filtering features available with IP policies provide a full set of tools. This method of
filtering can be applied to IMAP, POP3 and SMTP traffic. With IMAP and POP3 filtering, emails
cannot be dropped when they fail filtering but only marked as failed. With SMTP, emails can be
dropped or forwarded.

IP policy based email is set up with the following steps:

• Create an Email Control Profile object which defines how email is to be filtered. If anti-spam
filtering is required it must be explicitly enabled in the profile (by default, it is disabled).

• Optionally add one or more Email Filter objects as children to the Email Control Profile object.
Each will specify an email address (or addresses using wildcards) which are to be blacklisted
(automatically rejected before filtering) or whitelisted (never subject to filtering).

• Associate the Email Control Profile object created above with an IP Policy object which triggers
on the email traffic. Only a single profile can be associated with an IP policy.

• The Service property for this IP policy must trigger on the IMAP, POP3 or SMTP protocols so it
must be set to an appropriate Service object. The Service object used must have its Protocol
property set to IMAP, POP3 or SMTP (whichever applies).

The predefined IMAP, POP3 and SMTP services could be used by setting their Protocol
property to be IMAP or POP3 or SMTP. However, it is recommended to instead create a new
custom Service object and this is done in the setup example found at the end of this section.

• Optionally enable anti-virus scanning on the IP policy. This will scan any email attachments
for viruses and will function with the IMAP, POP3 or SMTP protocol. Anti-virus scanning is
discussed further in Section 6.5, “Anti-Virus Scanning”.

526
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Note: A service group cannot be used for email filtering

It is not possible use a custom Service Group object for IP policy based email filtering
which combines any of the IMAP, POP3 or SMTP protocols. Separate IP policies with
separate services for IMAP, POP3 or SMTP must be configured.

General Settings

The following options are available for all types of traffic.

• Anti-Spam

When enabled, anti-spam scoring is applied to emails to determine if it could be spam. The
anti-spam feature is described further later in this section.

By default, this option is disabled.

• Blacklist Subject Tag

This is the text inserted into the subject field of an email if it is found on the blacklist for this
profile.

IMAP Settings

The following options are available for IMAP traffic:

• Hide User

If the wrong credentials are sent to this server, enabling this option prevents the server's error
message being returned to the client. Some servers might send an error message which gives
an indication which of the credentials is incorrect and this could be helpful in a security
attack. Instead, NetDefendOS will send back its own general error message to the client.

By default, this option is disabled.

• Block Plain Text Authentication

When enabled, authentication using credentials sent in plain text will be blocked.

POP3 Settings

The following options are available for POP3 traffic:

• Hide User

This is functions in the same way as described in IMAP above.

By default, this option is disabled.

• Allow Unknown Commands

When enabled, commands that are not part of the standard protocols will be allow. It is

527
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

disabled by default and this is the recommended setting.

• Block USER/PASS Commands

This blocks clients sending their credentials in plain text.

SMTP Options

The following options are available for SMTP traffic only:

• Maximum email rate

This option is available for SMTP only and is the maximum number of emails per second that
will be accepted.

• Maximum email size

This option is available for SMTP only and is the maximum size of an email that is acceptable.

Whitelist/Blacklist

One or more Email Filter objects can be added as children to an Email Control Profile object. Each
filter specifies one address or, using wildcards, a series of addresses that are to be always
dropped (blacklisted) or always allowed (whitelisted).

The wildcard asterisk ("*") character can be used to specify any string. For example, the string
*[email protected] represents any email address from the example.com domain. The question mark
("?") character can also be used to represent any single character.

Whitelisting and blacklisting takes precedence over all other email filtering. Whitelisted emails
will never be subject to anti-spam or anti-virus processing if either of those is enabled.

If an email comes from a blacklisted domain, the mail is not dropped. Instead, the subject line has
a configurable text string inserted at the beginning. By default, this string is:

*** BLACK LISTED ***

However, this text can be set by the user, as previously described.

Anti-Spam and Filter Scoring

The anti-spam feature of email filtering using IP policies must be explicitly enabled in the Email
Control Profile object used with an IP policy. Once enabled, a score is calculated by adding
together the sub-scores of the enabled anti-spam filters. The score is used in the following ways:

• If the total score is equal to or greater than the specified Tagging Threshold (the default
value is 10) then an email is considered to be SPAM and tagged as such.

• For SMTP only, if the total score is equal to or greater than the specified Reject Threshold
(the default value is 20) then an email is dropped.

Each anti-spam filter can be enabled or disabled and they are comprised of the following list:

• Domain Verification

528
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

When enabled, NetDefendOS will perform a DNS MX query, requesting the IP address of a
mail server associated with the email sender's domain. For example, the sender email address
might be [email protected] so NetDefendOS will send an MX query to the configured
DNS server for the mail server at example.com.

If the DNS server recognizes the domain name, NetDefendOS takes no action. If the DNS
server does not recognize the domain, NetDefendOS will add the sub-score for this filtering
option to the overall anti-spam score.

Note that at least one DNS server must be configured in NetDefendOS for this option to work.
If no DNS server is configured, this test will not be performed and its sub-score will not be
added. Configuring DNS servers is described in Section 3.10, “DNS”.

This filtering option is enabled by default.

• Malicious Link Protection

This option neutralizes undesirable or malicious HTML links inside emails. It is enabled by
default and is discussed later in this section in more detail. Finding a single triggering link will
add this option's sub-score (a default value of 10) to the total score.

• DCC

The Distributed Checksum Clearinghouses (DCC) method of filtering involves NetDefendOS

sending anonymous checksums that identify an email to an external Clearing House server.
The server returns a value to indicate how many other email recipients have reported
identical checksums. If the returned value is greater than the DCC Threshold property set by
the administrator, the sub-score for this filter option is added to the total anti-spam score.

DCC filtering is enabled by default and the default sub-score is 10. The administrator does not
need to define any DCC servers because NetDefendOS uses D-Link's own server network for
this function.

Note that the DCC option is a subscription based feature and will only function if an
appropriate subscription has been purchased. Subscriptions, as well as DCC behavior without
a valid subscription, is discussed further in Appendix A, Subscribing to Updates.

• DNS Blacklists

By enabling the DNS Blacklists option, up to 10 different DNS Blacklist (DNBL) servers can be
specified, each with its own sub-score (the default value is 10 per server) that will be added to
the total score if that server flags an email as spam.

If a DNSBL server is not responding then its sub-score is not included in the final score
calculation. How DNSBL functions is explained further in Section 6.4.3, “DNSBL Databases”.

Email Tagging

If an email score exceeds the Tagging Threshold property, it is marked as being SPAM. This is
done in either or both of two ways:

• Tag Subject

This is enabled by default and adds text to the subject line of an email. The default text is "***
SPAM ***" but this can be set to any string.

529
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

An example of this kind of tagging is if the original Subject field is:

Buy this stock today!

If the tag text is defined to be "*** Probably SPAM ***", then the modified email's Subject
field will become:

*** Probably SPAM *** Buy this stock today!

The line above 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.

• Tag Header

This is also enabled by default and it inserts X-Spam information into the bottom of the email
header data which describes the anti-spam processing that has been performed on the email.
When enabled, this indicates if the email is considered spam or not. This information may not
be immediately visible to the recipient but many email clients will provide the option to view
it and many will also allow it to be part of the client's filtering criteria.

The X-Spam fields inserted by NetDefendOS are as follows:

i. X-Spam-Checker-Version - The software that tagged the email.

ii. X-Spam-Status - A list that includes the scoring and the filters applied.

iii. X-Spam-Flag - Included only for emails marked as spam and always Yes.

iv. X-Spam-Report - A detailed list of the results from applied filters.

An example of inserted X-SPAM information for an email that was flagged as spam is the
following:

X-Spam-Checker-Version: D-Link NetDefendOS on Device

X-Spam-Status:
Yes, score=30 required=10 tests=LINK_PROTECTION,DCC,DNS_BLACKLIST_1
X-Spam-Flag: Yes
X-Spam-Report:
* 10 LINK_PROTECTION: Contained undesirable web links
* 10 DCC: Checksum reported >= 16777200 times
* 10 DNS_BLACKLIST_1: Blacklisted source IP address

An example of inserted X-SPAM information for an email that was not flagged as spam is the
following:

X-Spam-Checker-Version: D-Link NetDefendOS on Device

X-Spam-Status: No, score=5 required=10 tests=DNS_BLACKLIST_1

Malicious Link Protection

The Malicious Link Protection filter for anti-spam allows undesirable links in email traffic to be
neutralized as the email passes through NetDefendOS. It is part of anti-spam filtering and can
only be enabled when anti-spam is enabled. Links within emails are evaluated by NetDefendOS
using the Dynamic Web Content Filtering subsystem which is described in Section 6.3.4, “Dynamic
Web Content Filtering”.

The following points should be noted for the link protection:

530
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Link protection will only examine the first 10 links in an email. After that no more link
processing is performed for subsequent links.

• When a link triggers web content filtering, the link will still appear in the mail but will be
disabled so it cannot be clicked.

• If one or more links trigger the specified link protection score (see properties below) will be
added just once for an email to the overall anti-spam score.

The following properties of an Email Control Profile are used to control link protection:

• Link Protection

By default, link protection is enabled if anti-spam is enabled. Disable this property to always
switch it off.

• Link Protection Score

This is the score that is added to the total anti-spam score if just one link is found that triggers
wen content filtering. The default value is 10.

• Link Protection Categories

This is a list of one or more web content filtering categories which are to be disabled. By
default, the is set to only the MALICIOUS category. All available categories are described in
Section 6.3.4, “Dynamic Web Content Filtering”.

Note: A valid web content filtering subscription is required

The malicious link protection filter will only function if NetDefendOS also has a valid
subscription for the web content filtering feature since this is used to evaluate links.

IMAP Clients May Display Incorrect Header Information

Email clients using IMAP to retrieve email details from an email server, can download and display
the headers of emails before they download the email body. This means the user can only
download the body of emails they want to read based on the header information.

Since NetDefendOS may perform some of its spam scoring based on the email body, the initial
header information displayed by the client may not yet correctly show the spam text in the
subject line. When the email body is eventually downloaded, NetDefendOS examines it and the
header information will be updated if the mail is now considered to be spam. However, some
email clients may not update the displayed header information and will continue to display the
original unflagged header information. This is not something that can be controlled by
NetDefendOS.

In all cases, the spam related log messages generated by NetDefendOS and the spam related
statistics it keeps will correctly reflect which emails it has classified as spam.

Example 6.27. Email filtering of IMAP Traffic

This example shows how to set up an IP Policy object which allows internal clients on lan_net to
retrieve email from a mail server located on dmz_net using the IMAP protocol. This retrieval is
illustrated below.

531
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

The additional requirements are as follows:

• Enable the anti-spam function.

• Whitelist all mails from example.com so they are never dropped or marked as spam.

• Assign a sub-score of 5 to both domain verification and link protection

• Change the subject line text so *** Probably SPAM *** is added for spam.

• Use the single DNSBL server at zen.spamhaus.org.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create an EmailControlProfile object for filtering the mail:

gw-world:/> add Policy EmailControlProfile my_email_profile

AntiSpam=Yes
SubjectTag="*** Probably SPAM ***"
DomainVerificationScore=5
LinkProtectionScore=5
DNSBL=Yes
DNSBL1=Yes
DNSBL1Name=zen.spamhaus.org

B. Add an EmailFilter object to the profile for whitelisting:

Change the CLI context to be the profile:

gw-world:/> cc EmailProfile my_email_profile

Add an EmailFilter object as a child:

gw-world:/my_email_profile> add EmailFilter

Action=Whitelist
SrcType=Email
SrcEmail=*@example.com

Return to the default CLI context:

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

532
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

C. Create a custom Service for IMAP:

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Service ServiceTCPUDP my_imap_service

Type=TCP
DestinationPorts=143
Protocol=IMAP

D. Add an IPPolicy to allow IMAP traffic and associate the profile with it:

gw-world:/> add IPPolicy SourceInterface=lan

SourceNetwork=lan_net
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=dmz_net
Service=my_imap_service
Name=lan_to_dmz
Action=Allow
EmailControl=Yes
EC_Policy=my_email_profile

Web Interface

A. Create an EmailProfile object for filtering the mail:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Email Control > Add > Email Control Profile

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_email_profile

• Anti-Spam: Enable

• Domain Verfication Score: 5

• Malicious Link Protection Score: 5

• DNS Blacklists: Enable

• Blacklist 1: zen.spaumhaus.org

• Tag Subject Text: *** Probably SPAM ***

3. Select OK

B. Add an EmailFilter object to the profile for whitelisting:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Email Control

2. Select my_email_profile

3. Select Whitelist/Blacklist

4. Select Add > Email Filter

5. Now enter:

• Action: Whitelist

• Source Type: Email Address

533
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Source Email Address: *@example.com

• Select OK

6. Select OK

C. Create a custom Service for IMAP:

Web Interface

1. Go to: Objects > Services > Add > TCP/UDP Service

2. Now enter:

• Type: TCP

• Destination: 143

• Protocol: IMAP

3. Click OK

D. Add an IP Policy to allow IMAP traffic and associate the profile with it:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: lan_to_dmz

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lan_net

• Destination Interface: dmz

• Destination Network: dmz_net

• Service: my_imap_service

3. Now select Email control and enter:

• Enable Email Control: enable

• Email Control Profile: my_email_profile

4. Select OK

6.4.2. ALG Based Email Filtering

A function of the NetDefendOS SMTP ALG is basic email filtering that provides the ability to filter
mail as it passes to a mail server via the SMTP protocol. Anti-spam filtering can be done based on
the email's origin using external DNS Blacklist servers.

534
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

The ALG 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.

The SMTP ALG offers two approaches when spam is detected:

• Dropping email which has a very high probability of being spam.

• Letting through but flagging email that has a moderate probability of being spam.

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 way DNSBL functions is described in Section 6.4.3, “DNSBL Databases”.

With the SNMP ALG, the administrator assigns a weight greater than zero to each configured
DNSBL server so that a weighted sum can then be calculated based on all responses. The
administrator can then configure one of the following actions based on the weighted sum
calculated:

• 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).

• 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, 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

535
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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

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
prefixed 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 would
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 software that tagged the email.

• X-Spam-Status - This will always be DNSBL.

• X-Spam-Report - A list of the 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

536
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

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 performed by the spam filtering in the ALG:

• 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 DNSBLs 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

537
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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, the SMTP ALG maintains a cache of the most recently looked-up sender
"From" IP addresses in local memory. If the cache becomes full then the oldest entry is written
over first. There are two SMTP ALG properties which can be configured for this 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 address cache is emptied when NetDefendOS restarts or a reconfiguration operation is

performed.

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 subsystem. It is only used in conjunction with SMTP anti-spam.

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

538
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

DNSBL Contexts:
Name Status Spam Drop Accept
------------------------ -------- -------- -------- --------
my_smtp_alg active 156 65 34299
alt_smtp_alg 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 : 20
Spam Threshold : 10
Use TXT records : yes
IP Cache disabled
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 : 56
Number of matches in list : 3
Number of failed checks (times disabled) : 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.

6.4.3. DNSBL Databases

DNSBL servers can be used with both IP policy based anti-spam and also with SMTP ALG based
anti-spam. This section provides a brief overview of the way they function.

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

539
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

Figure 6.10. Anti-Spam Filtering

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.

The TXT record is not used by IP policy based anti-spam. With SMTP ALG anti-spam, the record is
part of the X-SPAM information which is optionally inserted into the body of an email.

540
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.5. Anti-Virus Scanning

6.5.1. Overview
The NetDefendOS anti-virus module protects against malicious code carried in files being
downloaded to clients via a NetDefend Firewall. The following can be scanned for viruses:

• Files downloaded via the firewall. For example, files downloaded using HTTP transfer or FTP
or perhaps or as an attachment to an email.

• Scripts contained within webpages delivered via HTTP.

• URLs 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
anti-virus 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 Using IP Rules or IP Policies

Anti-virus scanning can be enabled using either an IP Rule object or an IP Policy object and this
section includes examples for using both methods.

Anti-Virus with IP Rules

With an IP Rule object, anti-virus scanning is first enabled on the relevant ALG for the targeted
traffic. Then, that ALG is associated with a Service object which is in turn is associated with an IP
rule. Anti-virus scanning can be enabled for file downloads associated with the following ALGs:

• HTTP ALG
• FTP ALG
• POP3 ALG
• SMTP ALG

Note that there is no IMAP ALG but scanning of email attachments in IMAP traffic can be
achieved by enabling anti-virus scanning on IP policies that trigger on that traffic.

Anti-Virus with IP Policies

As shown later in this section, configuring anti-virus scanning 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 when using IP policies. Such an unavailable

541
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

option is the Fail Mode property, which is always set to Deny when using anti-virus scanning
with an IP Policy object. IP Policy objects are discussed further in Section 3.6.7, “IP Policy”.

As mentioned before, anti-virus scanning of email attachments in IMAP traffic can only be done
using IP policies.

Configuring anti-virus scanning with either an IP rule or an IP policy is described further in

Section 6.5.4, “Activating Anti-Virus Scanning”.

6.5.2. 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
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 data file transferred has been compressed, ZIP and GZIP files can be scanned as well as
nested compressed files within them (up to 10 levels of nesting).

• 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 encountered, 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:

542
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.11. Anti-Virus Malicious File Message

For malicious URLs, the message displayed will be similar to the following:

Figure 6.12. 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.

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.

Subscribing to the D-Link Anti-Virus Service

The D-Link anti-virus feature requires the purchase of a renewable subscription in order for it to
function. This includes regular updates of the Kaspersky SafeStream database during the
subscription period with signatures for the latest virus threats.

543
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

Database updating is described further in Appendix A, Subscribing to Updates along with a

description of anti-virus behavior after subscription expiry.

Auto-update Requires the Correct 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 following CLI command will show the current status of the auto-update feature:

gw-world:/> updatecenter -status

This can also be done through the Web Interface.

Database Updates in HA 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.

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

544
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

6.5.3. Anti-Virus Options

When configuring anti-virus scanning in an ALG, the following parameters can be set:

General options

Mode 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.

Fail mode behavior 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 subscription expiring 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.

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

545
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

when the excluded list is checked.

Maximum Compression Ratio

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 slow down 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.

Maximum Archive Depth

NetDefendOS can perform virus scanning on compressed files within other compressed files. The
level of nesting which is allowed is controlled by the Maximum archive depth setting. If this is
set to zero then any compressed file will always cause a fail condition. If set to a value of one,
compressed files will be scanned but any compressed files containing other compressed files will
cause a fail condition. A value of two allows a single nesting level of compressed files within
compressed files, with both levels being scanned.

The Maximum archive depth setting can have a maximum value of 10 but increasing the
setting should be done with caution. A denial-of-service attack might consist of sending a
compressed file with a high level of nesting. If the maximum archive depth specified does not
reject the file, large amounts of firewall resources could be consumed to uncompress and scan
the hierarchy of files.

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.

6.5.4. Activating Anti-Virus Scanning

Anti-virus scanning is activated in one of two ways:

• Via an ALG that is associated with a service used in an IP rule. The ALG must be one that
allows anti-virus scanning.

546
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Directly with an IP policy. The Service object used with the policy must have the Protocol
property set to a protocol that supports anti-virus scanning.

Activating Anti-Virus Scanning with 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 that allows anti-virus scanning 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 set which defines the origin and destination of the traffic to which the
ALG is to be applied.

Example 6.28. Activating Anti-Virus with an IP Rule

This example shows how to set up 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 Service 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

547
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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

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.

Activating Anti-Virus Scanning with IP Policies

Anti-virus scanning can be enabled for 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. When setting up the IP policy, the anti-virus
option can be enabled in one of two ways:

• The anti-virus scanning options can be configured directly as properties of the IP policy.

• An Anti-Virus Profile object can first be created which defines the properties for anti-virus
scanning. This profile can then be used repeatedly with different IP policies.

Note: The service object needs the protocol property defined

Whenever anti-virus is to be used with an IP policy, the service object selected for the IP
policy must have a value assigned to its Protocol property. The protocol assigned must
support anti-virus scanning.

A custom or predefined service could be used with the IP policy. Only some predefined
service objects in NetDefendOS have this property already set. If this property is not set,
the anti-virus controls will be disabled in the Web Interface.

IP policies are described further in Section 3.6.7, “IP Policy”.

Example 6.29. Activating Anti-Virus with an IP Policy

In this example, HTTP connections will be allowed from the internal lan_net network on the lan
interface to the public Internet via the wan interface. HTTP downloads will be scanned for viruses
but only in audit mode so no files will be dropped.

548
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Address translation will use the default automatic setting so that NAT will be automatically
selected and an Anti-Virus Profile object will be used to define the virus scanning.

The Service object http is used in this example. If a configuration was upgraded from a
NetDefendOS version prior to 11.01, then the http service can be used if its protocol property is
set to HTTP but the predefined service http-outbound could also be used instead if it is still
present.

Command-Line Interface

First, set up an Anti-Virus Policy object:

gw-world:/> add Policy AntiVirusPolicy Name=av_audit_profile AuditMode=Yes

Next, define the IP Policy object:

gw-world:/> add IPPolicy SourceInterface=lan

SourceNetwork=lan_net
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=http
Name=lan_to_wan
Action=Allow
AntiVirus=Yes
AV_Policy=av_audit_profile

Web Interface

First, set up an Anti-Virus Profile object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Anti-Virus > Add > Anti-Virus Profile

2. Now enter:

• Name: av_audit_profile

• Enable the setting Audit Mode

3. Select OK

Next, define the IP Policy object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Add > IP Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: lan_to_wan

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lan_net

• Destination Interface: wan

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: http-outbound

549
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

3. Select the Anti-Virus option

4. Enable Anti-Virus

5. Set the Anti-Virus Profile to av_audit_profile

6. Select OK

6.5.5. The Anti-Virus Cache

All anti-virus scans performed with the HTTP ALG use a common anti-virus cache. This cache is an
allocation of volatile memory which contains the URLs of recently scanned files that were
blocked by the anti-virus mechanism.

If a virus has been detected using the cache, the URLForbidden banner file is displayed indicating
that the URL has been blocked. This is the same banner file which is used with Web Content
Filtering (WCF) and can be modified by the administrator (see Section 6.3.4.5, “Customizing WCF
HTML Pages”). Note that the banner file is not displayed when a virus is detected in large files for
the first time.

Use of the Cache and Log Events

There are no additional log messages related to cache operation. The same virus_found log
message will be generated by NetDefendOS if an anti-virus scan has actually been done or if the
file URL was found in the cache. Cache usage is not indicated in the log events generated.

The Lifetime for Cache Entries

By default, an entry stays in the cache for a set period of time which is determined by the global
setting Anti-Virus Cache Lifetime. After the lifetime expires, the entry is removed from the cache
and a fresh anti-virus scan of the file is done by NetDefendOS if a new download is requested.
This means that if the problem with the file is fixed between the URL entering the cache and
being deleted from the cache (by default, the cache lifetime is 20 minutes) then the file will be
successfully downloaded on the next attempt.

The administrator may not have control over the file problem being rectified if it is located on the
public Internet. However, they may be able to fix the issue if the file is located on a local
webserver that might be located in a DMZ.

Example 6.30. Changing the Anti-Virus Cache Lifetime

This example changes the lifetime of an entry in the anti-virus cache to 15 minutes.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set Settings MiscSettings AVCache_Lifetime=15

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Advanced Settings > Misc. Settings

550
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

2. For Anti-Virus Cache Lifetime enter the value 15

3. Click OK

Disabling the Cache

The administrator can disable the cache by setting the lifetime to zero. The CLI command to do
this is:

gw-world:/> set Settings MiscSettings AVCache_Lifetime=0

Disabling the cache is not recommended as it will decrease anti-virus performance and prevent
browser informational pages being displayed for HTTP traffic when downloads are blocked.
However, it may be useful in some scenarios.

Cache Statistics

The CLI avcache command provides a way to examine and manage the cache. To view the size of
the current cache contents, use the command with no parameters:

gw-world:/> avcache
Anti-virus cache size : 5 entries.
Cache hit count : 8 hits.

The values displayed by the command are:

• Anti-virus cache size

This is the total number of unique file URL entries in the cache. Each entry corresponds to a
requested file download that was blocked because it triggered an anti-virus signature.

• Cache hit count

This is the number of successful cache lookups that have been performed. In other words, the
number of times a URL has been found already in the cache. This counter is not incremented
when a URL enters the cache for the first time.

The counter is zeroed after a NetDefendOS restart. It can also be zeroed by disabling the
cache then re-enabling. This is done by changing the value of the setting AVCache_Lfetime to
zero and then back to a positive value.

Clearing the Cache

To clear the cache, the avcache command can be used with the -clear option:

gw-world:/> avcache -clear

Note: The cache is flushed after signature updates

The anti-virus cache is flushed after an update of the local copy of the anti-virus
signature database.

551
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.6. Intrusion Detection and Prevention

6.6.1. 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.

The Terms IDP, IPS and IDS

Note that the terms Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP), Intrusion Prevention System (IDP) and
Intrusion Detection System (IDS) may be used interchangeably in D-Link literature. They all refer to
the same feature, which is known as IDP within NetDefendOS.

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:

• IDP Rules are configured by the administrator to determine what traffic should be scanned.

• Pattern Matching is applied by NetDefendOS IDP to the traffic that matches an IDP Rule as it
streams through the firewall.

• If NetDefendOS IDP detects an intrusion then the Action specified for the triggering IDP Rule
is taken.

552
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.6.2. IDP Subscriptions

The IDP feature must be purchased as an additional subscription, usually for a minimum of one
year. An IDP subscription means that the latest IDP signature database can be downloaded by
NetDefendOS and the database will be regularly updated automatically with the latest threat
signatures.

Figure 6.13. IDP Database Updating

The automatic checking for IDP signature updates by NetDefendOS can be done at a
configurable interval. IDP signature download is done via an HTTP connection to the D-Link
server network. When a new signature database version is available, it is downloaded and the old
database replaced.

Database updating is described further in Appendix A, Subscribing to Updates along with a

description of IDP behavior after subscription expiry.

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 following console command will show the current status of the auto-update feature:

> updatecenter -status

This information can also be viewed using the Web Interface by going to: Status > Maintenance
> Update Center.

553
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Updating in High Availability Clusters

Updating the IDP databases for both the units 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.

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.

6.6.3. 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.

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. The additional option exists to
blacklist the source of the connection or switching on the NetDefendOS ZoneDefense feature
as described below.

Associating IDP Signatures with an IDP Rule

In the Web Interface, associating signatures with an IDP rule is achieved by selecting the Action
for an IDP rule. A screenshot of selecting signatures in the Web Interface is shown below.

554
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Figure 6.14. IDP Signature Selection

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 as follows:

• 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 subsystem. If the packet is part of an existing connection it is passed straight to the

555
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

6.6.4. Insertion/Evasion Attack Prevention

Overview

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 or 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.

556
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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.

6.6.5. 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 subsystem 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 reuse older code. This means their new attacks can
appear in circulation quickly. To counter this, D-Link IDP uses an approach where NetDefendOS
scans for these reusable components, with pattern matching looking for building blocks rather
than a completed program. This means that known threats as well as new, previously unknown
threats, built with the same reusable 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:

557
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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.

6.6.6. 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

558
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

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.

6.6.7. Setting Up IDP

The steps for setting up IDP are as follows:

• Create an IDP Rule object which identifies the traffic to be processed.

• Add one or more IDP RUle Action objects to the rule which specify:

i. The IDP signatures to be used when scanning the traffic targeted by the rule.

ii. The action to take when a signature triggers.

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

559
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

coming from a blacklisted source with be automatically dropped by NetDefendOS. For more
details of how blacklisting functions see Section 6.8, “Blacklisting Hosts and Networks”.

Tip
Any IP address that exists in the NetDefendOS whitelist cannot be blacklisted. For this
reason it is recommended that the IP address of the management workstation and the
NetDefend Firewall itself is added to the whitelist when using IDP.

IDP Can Trigger ZoneDefense

The Protect action includes the option that the particular 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. Note that this feature is only available for switches
manufactured by D-Link.

Example 6.31. 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 object to use is the SMTP
service. The 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. The Destination Network should therefore be set
to the object defining the mail server.

Command-Line Interface

Create an IDP Rule:

gw-world:/> add IDPRule

SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=wannet
DestinationInterface=dmz
DestinationNetwork=ip_mailserver
Service=smtp

560
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

Name=IDPMailSrvRule

Specify the Rule Action:

gw-world:/> cc IDPRule IDPMailSrvRule

gw-world:/IDPMailSrvRule> add IDPRuleAction
Action=Protect
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 now needs to be defined for the rule which specifies what signatures the IDP should
use when scanning data triggering 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 the Action property 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

• Signatures: IPS_MAIL_SMTP

561
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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 a single signature or a list of signatures for an IDP rule. Individual
signatures are identified by their unique number ID and multiple signatures are 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
Signatures=68343

To specify a list which also includes signatures 68345 and 68349:

gw-world:/IDPMailSrvRule> add IDPRuleAction

Action=Protect
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”.

6.6.8. SMTP Log Receiver for IDP Events

In order to receive notifications via email of IDP events, a SMTP Log receiver can be configured.
This email will contain a summary of IDP events that have occurred in a user-configurable period
of time.

When an IDP event occurs, 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

562
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

When specifying an SMTP log receiver, the IP address of the receiver must be specified. A domain
name such as dns:smtp.example.com cannot be used.

Example 6.32. Configuring an SMTP Log Receiver

In this example, a existing IDP Rule object called examplerule 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 already been configured in the address book with the name
smtp-server.

Command-Line Interface

Add an SMTP log receiver:

gw-world:/> add LogReceiver LogReceiverSMTP smt4IDP

IPAddress=smtp-server
[email protected]

Next, change the CLI context to be IDPRule:

gw-world:/> cc IDPRule examplerule

Now, set the property of the first IDPRuleAction:

gw-world:/examplerule> set IDPRuleAction 1 LogEnabled=Yes

Return to the default CLI context:

gw-world:/> cc

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

• Minimum Repeat Delay: 600

563
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• Hold Time: 120

• Log Threshold: 2

• Click OK

IDP Rules:

1. Go to: Policies > Intrusion Prevention > IDP Rules > Add > IDP Rule

2. Select the rule examplerule

3. Enable the Enable logging option

4. Click OK

6.6.9. 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.

• 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

564
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

565
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.7. Denial-of-Service Attacks

6.7.1. 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 paralyzed 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.

6.7.2. 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

6.7.3. 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.

566
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

6.7.4. 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.

6.7.5. 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.

6.7.6. 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.

567
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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.

6.7.7. 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 full force 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.

568
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

• 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.

6.7.8. 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.

6.7.9. 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.

569
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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.

6.7.10. 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.

570
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

6.8. 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 The host or network which is the source of the traffic will
seconds 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 If there are established connections that have the same
connections from Blacklisting 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 affect 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.

571
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

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 6.6.7, “Setting Up IDP” 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 6.33. 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 > Advanced Settings > 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

572
 Chapter 6: Security Mechanisms

573
Chapter 7: Address Translation

This chapter describes NetDefendOS address translation capabilities.

• Overview, page 574

• NAT, page 576

• NAT Pools, page 584

• SAT, page 588

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.

574
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

This section describes and provides examples of configuring NAT and SAT rules.

575
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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

576
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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, it is assumed port 32,789
is chosen. The packet is then sent to its destination.

577
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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

578
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

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

SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=lannet
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Service=http-all
Name=NAT_HTTP
Action=Allow
SourceAction=NAT

579
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Policy

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example NAT_HTTP

3. Now enter:

• Action: Allow

• 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.

Using Automatic Translation with an IP Policy

An IP Policy object provides the option to apply Automatic Address Translation. This is designed to
provide a simple way for the administrator to apply the most common types of NAT address
translation based on if the connections are between private and public IP addresses.

Automatic translation is particularly suitable in one of the most typical scenarios, where external
clients access a protected webserver over the public Internet and internal protected clients need
access to both the public Internet and the protected web server. Normally, external connections
to the webserver are normally translated to a private address using SAT.

The diagram below illustrates this typical scenario. Here, the webserver in the private IP network
A may be accessed by remote clients over the Internet but also by internal clients on the private
IP network B. Connections from the Internet must have a SAT translation applied from the
NetDefend Firewall's public IP address to the private IP address of the webserver. All these
requirements can be met using a single IP policy with automatic translation enabled.

580
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

Figure 7.3. Automatic Address Translation

Automatic translation is enabled by choosing the Auto option for source address translation and
this is selected by default in an IP Policy object. NetDefendOS will then decide which, if any,
translation to perform by applying the rules summarized in the table below.

# Type of Source IP Type of Destination IP Action Taken

1 Public Private or Public Allow with no translation.
2 Private Public NAT using the destination interface's IP.
3 Private Private NAT using the destination interface's IP.
and Destination Translation = SAT
and Source Network contains the SAT IP.
4 Private Private Allow with no translation.
and the previous action didn't trigger.

A more detailed explanation of the automatic translation rules summarized above is as follows:

• If the connection's source IP address is a public address:

NetDefendOS will Allow traffic from the source address to the destination address.

• If the connection's source IP address is a private address:

i. If the destination address is a public IP address, NetDefendOS will NAT the source
address through the IP address of the destination interface.

ii. If the Destination Translation is set to SAT and the Source Network contains the SAT
Destination IP address, NetDefendOS will NAT the private source address through the IP
address of the destination interface. (This allows, for example, a protected webserver to
be accessed by internal clients.)

Or if the above is not the case and the destination address is a private IP address,
NetDefendOS will Allow the traffic from the private source address to the private
destination address.

581
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

The following should be noted about IP policies that make use of automatic translation:

• The Source Network and the Destination Network can consist of a mixture of private and public
IP addresses.

• More than one of the actions described above could be applied by a single IP policy to
different connections. The different actions are applied depending on the source and
destination address of each connection.

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 cannot communicate with the same external server using the
same IP protocol.

Note: Restrictions only apply to IP level protocols

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

582
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

tunnel. This arrangement is illustrated in the diagram below.

Figure 7.4. 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
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”.

583
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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

584
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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 reused 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 5.5, “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.

585
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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=UseNATPool
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

586
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

• 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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Under General enter:

• Name: Enter a suitable name such as nat_pool_rule

• Action: NAT

3. Under Address filter enter:

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lan-net

• Destination Interface: wan

• Destination Network: all-nets

• Service: http-all

4. Select the NAT tab and enter:

• Check the Use NAT Pool option

• Select my_stateful_natpool from the drop-down list

5. Click OK

587
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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

588
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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.

589
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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,

590
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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-all
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-all
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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3. Now enter:

• Action: SAT

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

• SAT Translate: Destination IP

591
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

• New IP Address: 10.10.10.5

4. Click OK

Then create a corresponding Allow rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example Allow_HTTP_To_DMZ

3. Now enter:

• Action: Allow

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

4. 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-all Destination IP: 10.10.10.5
2 Allow wan all-nets core wan_ip http-all

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. Note that only HTTP traffic will be translated since the service must also
match for the SAT rule to trigger.

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.

592
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

Figure 7.5. 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.

# Action Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service SAT Action
1 SAT any all-nets core wan_ip http-all Destination IP: 10.10.10.5
2 Allow wan all-nets core wan_ip http-all
3 NAT lan lan_net any all-nets http-all

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 does not matter but they must be found
after the SAT rule.

If the web server is on the same network as the client, a different approach is required where the
SAT rule is paired with a NAT rule and this is described later in Section 7.4.9, “SAT with NAT” .

7.4.3. Many-to-Many IP Translation

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

593
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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.

• 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

594
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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-all
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-all
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

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:

• Mode: Publish

• Interface: wan

• IP Address: 195.55.66.77

595
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

3. Click OK and repeat for all 5 public IPv4 addresses

Create a SAT rule for the translation:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3. Now enter:

• Action: SAT

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface:any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: wan

• Destination Network: wwwsrv_pub

• SAT Translate: Destination IP

• New IP Address: wwwsrv_priv

4. Click OK

Finally, create a corresponding Allow rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example Allow_HTTP_To_DMZ

3. Now enter:

• Action: Allow

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface:any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: wan

• Destination Network: wwwsrv_pub

4. 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.

596
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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 all-nets wan 194.1.2.16- http-all Destination IP: 192.168.0.50 All-to-One
194.1.2.20,
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:

• 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:

597
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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-all
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-all
SourceInterface=any
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=wwwsrv_pub

Web Interface

Create a SAT IP rule for the translation:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3. Now enter:

• Action: SAT

• Service: http-all

• 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

4. Click OK

Finally, create an associated Allow rule:

598
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example Allow_HTTP_To_DMZ

3. Now enter:

• Action: Allow

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: wan

• Destination Network: wwwsrv_pub

4. 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.

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 Service SAT Action
1 SAT any all-nets wan wwwsrv_pub TCP 80-85 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

599
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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-all Destination IP: wwwsrv
2 SAT lan wwwsrv any all-nets http-all Source IP: wan_ip
3 FwdFast any all-nets core wan_ip http-all
4 FwdFast lan wwwsrv any all-nets http-all

Suppose now, that access to the public Internet by clients on the internal network lan_net 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 SAT Action
5 NAT lan lan_net any all-nets all_services

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:

• 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-all Destination IP: wwwsrv
2 SAT lan wwwsrv any all-nets http-all Source IP: wan_ip
3 NAT lan lan_net any all-nets all_services
4 FwdFast any all-nets core wan_ip http-all
5 FwdFast lan wwwsrv any all-nets http-all

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.

600
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

• 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-all Destination IP: wwwsrv
2 SAT lan wwwsrv any all-nets http-all Source IP: wan_ip
3 FwdFast any all-nets core wan_ip http-all
4 NAT lan lan_net any all-nets all_services
5 FwdFast lan wwwsrv any all-nets http-all

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

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.

601
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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
Service=http-all
Name=SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ
Action=Allow
DestNewIP=10.10.10.5

Web Interface

First, create a SAT rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Policy

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example SAT_HTTP_To_DMZ

3. Now enter:

• Action: Allow

• Source Interface: any

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

• Service: http-all

• SAT Translate: Destination IP

• New IP Address: 10.10.10.5

4. Click OK

7.4.8. Protocols Handled by SAT

602
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

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 logins 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.

7.4.9. SAT with NAT

Sometimes a SAT rule will require an accompanying NAT rule instead of an Allow rule. Consider
the situation shown in the diagram below where a web server is on the same network as an
internal client instead of the server being in a separate DMZ. It is never recommended to do this
but it is a situation which illustrates where a NAT rule might be used with a SAT rule.

Figure 7.6. SAT with NAT

Assume the following IPv4 addresses:

• wan_ip (203.0.113.10): the firewall's public IPv4 address

603
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

• 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 Problem

If a SAT rule is created as before with an Allow rule, the rule set would be as follows:

# Action Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service SAT Action
1 SAT any all-nets core wan_ip http-all Destination IP: wwwsrv_ip Port: 80
2 Allow any all-nets core wan_ip http-all

However, this will not work for clients on the same network as the web server. The reason is that
when such a client receives the reply, the source address will not match the IP address to which
the request was sent. This results in the client ignoring the reply. This is because of the following
sequence of events:

1. The local client performs a public DNS lookup for the web server IP and then sends an HTTP
request to wan_ip to reach the web server.

10.0.0.3:1038 => 203.0.113.10:80

2. 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

3. The server at wwwsrv_ip processes the packet and replies:

10.0.0.2:80 => 10.0.0.3:1038

The reply will be sent directly to the client across the local network, bypassing the firewall.

4. The client expects a reply from 203.0.113.10:80 and not 10.0.0.2:80. so the response is
discarded and the client continues to wait for a response from 203.0.113.10:80, which will
never arrive.

The Solution is Using SAT with NAT

In order that the reply from the web server has the expected source IP address when it arrives at
the client, a NAT rule has to be added as shown below:

# Action Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service SAT Action
1 SAT any all-nets core wan_ip http-all Destination IP: wwwsrv_ip
2 NAT lan lan_net core wan_ip http-all
3 Allow any all-nets core wan_ip http-all

The order of events now becomes:

1. The client sends traffic to wan_ip in order to reach the webserver:

10.0.0.3:1038 => 203.0.113.10:80

2. NetDefendOS translates the connection in accordance with rule 1 to change the destination

604
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

address and in accordance with rule 2 to change the source address:

10.0.0.1:32789 => 10.0.0.2:80

3. The server at wwwsrv_ip processes the traffic and replies:

10.0.0.2:80 => 10.0.0.1:32789

4. The reply is processed by NetDefendOS so that the translation rules are applied in the
reverse order and it arrives at the client with the expected source address:

203.0.113.10:80 => 10.0.0.3:1038

In this way, the reply arrives at the client from the expected address. This is referred to in this
document as SAT with NAT and means that there are two IP address translations being applied.
The NAT rule changes the source address and the SAT rule changes the destination IP address.
The returning traffic then goes through the same translations but in the reverse.

Note: Another solution is direct client/server communication

Another possible solution to the problem is for the internal client to communicate
directly to the web server since they are on the same network. This could be a better
solution since it avoids traversing the firewall. However, this would require an internal
DNS server so that the client could discover the private address of the web server.

Rule Ordering is Important

Reversing the order of the NAT and Allow rules as shown below would not provide the expected
behavior.

# Action Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service SAT Action
1 SAT any all-nets core wan_ip http-all Destination IP: wwwsrv_ip Port: 80
2 Allow any all-nets core wan_ip http-all
3 NAT lan lan_net core wan_ip http-all

In this case, the Allow rule would trigger before the NAT rule and the problem for clients on the
same network as the server will remain. The NAT rule must trigger first so this ordering would be
incorrect.

Adding Public Internet Access

Another NAT rule could also be added which allows internal clients access to also the public
Internet. This is rule 3 in the table below:

# Action Src Iface Src Net Dest Iface Dest Net Service SAT Action
1 SAT any all-nets core wan_ip http-all Destination IP: wwwsrv_ip
2 NAT lan lan_net core wan_ip http-all
3 Allow any all-nets core wan_ip http-all
4 NAT lan lan-net any all-nets http-all

To summarize these IP rules:

• SAT rule 1 performs translation of HTTP traffic arriving at the IPv4 address wan_ip to the

605
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

private IPv4 address of the web server.

• NAT rule 2 performs further translation of HTTP traffic arriving from internal clients so it has
wan_ip as the source before forwarding it to the web server.

• Allow rule 3 allows traffic from the Internet to reach the web server after it has been
translated by the SAT rule. This traffic will not trigger the preceding NAT rule.

• NAT rule 4 performs NAT translation of HTTP traffic flowing from internal clients out onto the
Internet.

606
 Chapter 7: Address Translation

607
Chapter 8: User Authentication

This chapter describes how NetDefendOS implements user authentication.

• Overview, page 608

• Authentication Setup, page 610

• ARP Authentication, page 633

• Customizing Authentication HTML, page 635

• Policies Requiring Authentication, page 639

• User Identity Awareness, page 641

• Multi Factor Authentication, page 650

• Radius Relay, page 652

• RADIUS Accounting, page 659

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.

608
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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
C are therefore sometimes combined, for example in a passcard that requires a password or pin
code 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.

609
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

Example 8.1. Creating a Local User Database

This example shows how to create a new user database called lan_users.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add LocalUserDatabase lan_users

610
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Local User Databases > Add > LocalUserDatabase

2. Now enter:

• Name: lan_users

• Comments: lan auth group

3. Click OK

Group Membership

Each User object added to a local database can optionally be specified to be a member of one or
more authentication groups. This is done by specifying one or more group names for the Group
property of the User object.

Only two groups are already defined in NetDefendOS and they have the group names
administrators and the auditors. The privileges given to these groups are described later in the
section. A new group is not explicitly created as a separate configuration object. Instead, it is
implicitly created when a group name is associated with the user.

Group names created by the administrator have the following constraints:

• Group names are entered as text strings which are case sensitive and can have a maximum
length of 128 characters.

• The only characters that cannot be used in a group name are spaces and commas.

• The only limit on the number of group names is the number of unique combinations that can
be created from 128 characters.

• Where a user is a member in multiple groups, the group names are entered as a comma
delimited list. For example: group1,group2,group3.

Example 8.2. Adding a User with Group Membership

This example shows how to add a new user to the local database called lan_users. The name of
the user will be myusername with the password myuserpassword and with membership in the
two groups lan_group and employees.

Command-Line Interface

Change the CLI context to be the local database:

gw-world:/> cc LocalUserDatabase lan_users

Now, add a user to this database:

gw-world:/lan_users> add User myusername

Password=myuserpassword
Groups=lan_group,employees

611
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

After adding any additional users, change the context back to the default:

gw-world:/lan_users> cc
gw-world:/>

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > Local User Databases

2. Select lan_users

3. Select Users then Add > User

4. Now enter:

• Name: myusername

• Password: myuserpassword

• Confirm Password: myuserpassword

• Groups: lan_group,employees

5. Click OK

Administrators and Auditors Group Membership

When a new user is defined, it can optionally be given membership in one of the following
default 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.
Only one user can be logged in with administrator privileges at once (although that single
administrator can be logged in with more than one simultaneous session).

• The auditors group

This is similar to the administrators group but members are only allowed to view the
configuration data but cannot change it. Any number of audit users can be logged in at once.

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
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

612
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

For an example of setting up user authentication using group membership, see Example 8.4,
“User Authentication Setup for Web Access” which is found later in this section.

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

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.

613
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

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

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

614
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

Automatic IP Address Allocation

With IPsec, L2TP and PPTP tunnels for roaming clients, it is possible for NetDefendOS to
automatically allocate IP addresses as part of the RADIUS authentication process.

Depending on how it is configured, a RADIUS server can optionally return IP address information
to NetDefendOS in its Access-Accept message when it authenticates a client. NetDefendOS will
automatically recognize and use the following parameters in a RADIUS Accept-Access message:

• Framed-IP-Address

This parameter is an IP address allocated for the client which NetDefendOS automatically will
send to the connecting client as a part of the tunnel negotiation.

• Framed-IP-Netmask

In some cases, the client might be a network device, such as another firewall with a network
behind it. The Framed-IP-Netmask parameter requires that the Framed-IP-Address is also
present in the Access-Accept message. The netmask together with the IP address is combined
to form a route which will be sent to the client as a part of the tunnel negotiation as a
definition of the network behind the client.

• Framed-Route

This can be sent by the RADIUS server instead of Framed-IP-Address and Framed-IP-Netmask.
The route will be sent to the client as a part of the tunnel negotiation as a definition of the
network behind the client.

This IP address information will be automatically sent to the client in either of the following ways:

• During the IKE negotiation phase of IPsec tunnel setup.

• Over PPP when setting up an L2TP or PPTP tunnel.

In addition, NetDefendOS will automatically add a route to its configuration if either the
Framed-IP-Address, Framed-Route or the Framed-IP-Address along with Framed-IP-Netmask
parameter is received. The automatic addition of this route can be controlled in the normal way
by setting the relevant property in the tunnel object for the automatic addition of routes.

Example 8.3. Configuring a RADIUS Server

615
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

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:

• Name: rs_users

• IP Address: radius_ip

• Port: 1812

• Retry Timeout: 2

• Shared Secret: mysecretcode

• Confirm Secret: mysecretcode

3. 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.

616
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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:

• 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.

617
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

• 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.

• Source IP Selection

By default (Automatic), the IP address of the firewall's sending interface will be used as the
source address for traffic sent to the LDAP server. If this property is set to Manual, a specific
source IP address can be specified.

If a specific 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”.

The default value is Automatic.

• 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
login 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

618
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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
login.

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 user's
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
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 property
should be set to Do not use and the next property Combined User Name should be enabled.

• Combined User Name

When using the OpenLDAP server, the Use Domain Name property should be set to Do not
use and this property should be enabled. Other non-Microsoft LDAP servers will probably also
require that this option be enabled.

• Optional Attribute

If the Combined User Name property is enabled, it is also possible to use this property to
specify an optional text attribute to be sent to the server. For example, if this property is set

619
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

to:

ou=people

This is inserted between the name and the base objects. For example, the resulting attributes
might now become:

uid=someuser,ou=people,dc=somedomain,dc=com

• 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.
The recommended option is therefore to initially specify the Base Object as the root
of the tree.

The Base Object is specified as a comma 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 the examples above, the Domain Name is myldapserver. The full domain name is a

620
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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
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

621
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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:

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.

622
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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 will not 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.

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.

623
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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
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. ARPCache

This sends the MAC address of the client's interface to a RADIUS server for
authentication and is applicable to any type of traffic.

This option is explained further in Section 8.3, “ARP Authentication”.

ii. HTTP

624
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

ARP authentication can also be done using this option and this is explained further in
Section 8.3, “ARP Authentication”.

iii. 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.

iv. 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.

v. 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
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

625
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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:

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

626
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• 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.

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:

627
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

iii. MAC authentication - Authentication is performed for HTTP and HTTPS clients without a
login screen. Instead, the MAC address of the connecting client is used as the username.
The password is the MAC address or a specified string.

MAC authentication is explained further in Section 8.3, “ARP Authentication”.

• 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
1 Allow lan lannet core lan_ip http-all
2 NAT lan trusted_users wan all-nets http-all
3 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.

Forcing Users to a Login Page

628
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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
1 Allow lan lannet core lan_ip http-all
2 NAT lan trusted_users wan all-nets http-all
3 NAT lan lannet wan all-nets dns-all
4 SAT lan lannet wan all-nets http-all
all-to-one
127.0.0.1
5 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 8.4. 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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: http_auth

• Action: Allow

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lannet

• Destination Interface core

• Destination Network lan_ip

3. Click OK

B. Set up an Authentication Rule

1. Go to: Policies > User Authentication > Authentication Rules > Add > User
Authentication Rule

629
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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 > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: allow_http_auth

• Action: NAT

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lan_users_net

• Destination Interface any

• Destination Network all-nets

3. Click OK

8.2.8. Brute Force Protection

Overview

By default, NetDefendOS applies brute force protection to any authentication which involves the
validation of username/password credentials against a local user database (a database defined
within NetDefendOS and not an external database). This means that a management login via the
Web Interface or SSH is also protected by this feature.

This feature cannot be turned off by the administrator, nor are there any properties which can be
adjusted for this mechanism. However, the administrator does have methods available to
monitor the activity of the feature and that can allow them to see if such attacks are taking place
or have taken place

Protecting Against Brute Force Attacks

630
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

A brute force attack is characterized by an external computer connecting to an authenticating

device over a network and then repeatedly trying different username/password pairs in rapid
succession. This type of attack relies on being able to try many combinations in a short period of
time and NetDefendOS neutralizes this approach by forcing progressively longer waiting time
between successive sets of attempts.

If the first few username/password validation attempts fail, there is a small wait before the next
attempt can be made. If the next few attempts also fail, there is a longer wait imposed before the
next attempt can be made and so on. The increasing wait times make it impractical to try enough
credential combinations in order to find a valid one. However, a valid user who simply mistyped
their credentials more than once should still be able to be authenticated within a reasonable
amount of time.

The Blocked User List

When a certain number of initial username/password validation attempts fail, NetDefendOS will
add the user to a "blocked user list" and they will remain on the list until a NetDefendOS
reconfigure or restart. A user on this list has an integer property called Blocked remaining which is
a decrementing number of seconds. While Blocked remaining is greater than zero, NetDefendOS
will not try to authenticate new validation attempts. This number will be reset to a new positive
value after another failed authentication attempt.

If the Blocked remaining value reaches zero, the user will not be removed from the list for 24
hours, and this allows the administrator to see such blocked users later. However, a Blocked
remaining value of zero means that the user can try to make another authentication attempt
which NetDefendOS will not ignore.

How the User Experiences Brute Force Protection

Even when a user is on the blocked list, they will be allowed to make further validation attempts
as though nothing had changed. In other words, even if their credentials are correct,
NetDefendOS will treat those attempts as failed until the Blocked remaining value reaches zero.
There will be no indication to the user that they are on the blocked list or how long they must
wait. Likewise, a malicious attacker will also get no feedback from NetDefendOS about why
attempts are failing.

Monitoring the Blocked List

NetDefendOS provides the following methods for examining the users who have been placed on
the blocked user list:

• CLI

The userauth CLI command can be used to provide information about blocked users:

userauth -list -verbose -blocked

Blocked users:
User Local Database Blocked since Blocked remaining
-------------- --------------- -------------------- --------------------
clavu sslvpn 2016-06-10 12:09:18 17s

Note that the blocked remaining message indicates how long that user must wait before their
credentials will be accepted.

• Web Interface

The information shown above from the CLI is also available in the NetDefendOS Web

631
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Interface by going to Status > Run-time Information > User Authentication Status.

• Log Event Messages

NetDefendOS generates a log event messages whenever the brute force protection
mechananism places a username on the block list. The following is a typical message:

SYSTEM prio=Notice id=03200802 rev=1

event=user_blocked database=AdminUsers username=admin
blockedremaining=10s blockedsince="2016-06-10 09:42:12"

Multi Factor Authentication Provides Additional Security

Another approach which can neutralize brute force attacks is to use multi factor authentication,
where an additional code needs to be entered in addition to standard credentials. This is
described further in Section 8.7, “Multi Factor Authentication”.

632
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

8.3. ARP Authentication

ARP authentication (sometimes referred to as MAC authentication) is authentication based on the
MAC address of a connecting client's Ethernet interface. This is useful if the administrator wants
to ensure that access is simple for a particular device and the user will not be required to type in
their credentials. NetDefendOS sends the MAC address of the connecting client to a RADIUS or
LDAP server which looks the address up in its database and tells NetDefendOS if the client is
authenticated or not. (Using a local database with ARP authentication is not supported.)

ARP authentication can be configured in one of two ways:

• For HTTP or HTTPS traffic only

In an authentication rule with the Authentication agent set to HTTP or HTTPS, set the Login
type under Agent Options to be MAC authentication.

• For any type of traffic using ARP Cache

Set the User Agent of the authentication rule to be ARPCache and set the Authentication
Source to be RADIUS or LDAP.

Unlike the previous method, this can be used for any traffic but has the disadvantage of
requiring further steps which are explained next.

Note that if the Authentication Source is set to Allow, all users will be automatically
authenticated without reference to a database. The only advantage to doing this is that the
administrator can easily see a list of logged in users by going to: Status > Run-time
Information > User Authentication in the Web Interface.

Other Steps with the ARP Cache Method

When using the ARP Cache method, there are some other configuration steps that the
administrator must take so that the NetDefendOS ARP cache contains the data needed for
successful authentication:

• There must be a second IP rule below the Allow or NAT IP rule that has action of Reject. This
ensures that clients that are not yet authenticated will still have their MAC addresses placed
into the ARP cache. If the second rule is not present, authentication will not work.

• The time between ARP cache refreshes should be adjusted downwards so that should a
connection be broken, for instance by an idle timeout, the cache is updated within a
reasonable time. This is done by reducing the ARP advanced setting ARP expire.

If a connection idle timeout occurs then the affected client will not be able to login again
until the cache is updated. An acceptable value for the ARP expire setting needs to be
determined based on the size of the network. A large network may need a higher value. The
ARP expire setting must be lower than the connection timeout setting.

Sending the MAC Address to a Server

In both the above methods of ARP authentication, NetDefendOS will use a RADIUS or LDAP
server to authenticate the client. NetDefendOS will always send the MAC address itself as the
username when communicating with the server.

By default, the password sent to the server is also the client's MAC address. However, this can be
changed to a specific password by setting the MAC Auth Secret property of the authentication
rule object.

633
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Specifying the MAC Address on a Server

The MAC address is entered as a text string in the database of the authenticating server. This text
string must follow the format sent by NetDefendOS and this is a series of six hexadecimal two
character lower-case values separated by a hyphen ("-") character. For example:

00-0c-19-f9-14-6f

Dealing with Duplicate MAC Addresses

If there is a router between the firewall and connecting clients, NetDefendOS will receive the
same MAC address from the router instead of the original client MAC address. This causes
problems because NetDefendOS is set up by default to not allow clients to duplicate MAC
addresses.

The problem is solved by enabling the property Allow clients behind router to connect for the
relevant authentication rule.

634
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

8.4. Customizing Authentication HTML

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 6.3.4.5, “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.

635
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

HTML Page Parameters

The HTML pages for WebAuth can contain a number of parameters which are used as needed.
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.

• %REDIRURL% - 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 (also referred to as MAC 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: 00-0c-19-f9-14-6f
REDIRHOST: 10.234.56.71
REDIRURL: /testing?user=user&pass=pass
REDIRURLENC: %2ftesting%3fuser%3duser%26pass%3dpass
IPADDR: 10.1.6.1
DEVICENAME: 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 8.5. Editing Content Filtering HTTP Banner Files

This example shows how to modify the contents of the URL forbidden HTML page.

Web Interface

636
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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 2.1.7, “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:

637
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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.

638
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

8.5. Policies Requiring Authentication

Once a user is authenticated to NetDefendOS, it is then possible to create security policies in the
form of IP rules or IP policies which demand that a user is authenticated before they can access
certain resources.

Furthermore, it is possible to specify one of the following:

1. The user has a specific username.

2. The user belongs to a specific user group.

3. The user is only authenticated and the username or group are not relevant.

Configuring any of these options requires the following:

1. Create an IP address object which includes the IP address of the connecting user.

2. Set the authentication property for this IP address object so it requires a specific user or
group or just that the user is authenticated.

3. Create an IP rule or IP policy that will allow access to resources by clients and use the IP
address object created above for the Source Network or Destination Network property of the
IP rule or IP policy. The source and destination are used in the following ways:

• The Source Network property would typically be set to only allow access by
authenticated clients to certain resources such as servers.

• The Destination Network property would typically be set to only allow access to
authenticated servers by clients. Authentication of a server is achieved by opening a
single connection once to NetDefendOS as though the server were a client.

Example 8.6. Policies Requiring Authentication

This example shows how an IP rule is created that allows clients connecting through the If1
interface to have access to networks on the If2 interface only if they are members of a group
called client_group.

Command-Line Interface

Create the IP4Address object that specifies the IP range of connecting clients with the
authentication group client_group:

gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address client_net

Address=192.168.10.10-192.168.10.255
UserAuthGroups=client_group

Create the IP Rule object that grants access to the networks on the interface If2 using the address
object created above as the source network:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

Service=all_services
SourceInterface=If1
SourceNetwork=client_net
DestinationInterface=If2
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Name=client_access_rule

639
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Web Interface

Create the IP4Address object that specifies the IP range of connecting clients with the
authentication group client_group:

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

2. Now enter:

• Name: client_net

• IP Address: 192.168.10.10-192.168.10.255

• User Authentication: client_group

3. Click OK

Create the IP Rule object that grants access to the networks on the interface If2 using the address
object created above as the source network:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example LAN_HTTP

3. Now enter:

• Name: client_access_rule

• Action: Allow

• Service: all_services

• Source Interface: If1

• Source Network: client_net

• Destination Interface: If2

• Destination Network: all-nets

4. Click OK

Note: Authentication address objects have only one use

IP address objects that are used for authentication with the authentication property set
can only be used as the source network or destination network of an IP rule or IP policy.
They cannot be used for other purposes. This will be reflected in the IP address lists
presented by the Web Interface and the tab completion choices provided by the CLI.

640
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

8.6. 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 Windows domain
servers.

There are two separate components involved in the identity awareness feature:

• The Identity Awareness Agent (IDA), which is a separate piece of D-Link software, runs on one
or more Windows domain servers in the active directory, sending authenticated client
information to NetDefendOS. The IDA can run on either a domain controller or domain
member. Installation of the IDA software on multiple servers will provide redundancy.

• The authentication process taking place in NetDefendOS as clients try to access resources
through the firewall. This process 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.

• The D-Link Identity Awareness Agent (IDA) is running on at least one server in the domain. This
software listens for successful client authentications. When a client is authenticated, the
agent sends the following to the configured NetDefend Firewall:

i. The user name.

ii. The user's group.

641
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

iii. The user's IP.

• 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 (IDA) software on one or more domain
servers. The servers can be either a domain controller or a domain member. The IDA software
is described in more detail at the end of this section. Installation on a single server is sufficient
but installation on multiple servers will provide redundancy.

• 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 servers. A separate Authentication Agent object should be created for each server in
the domain which has the IDA software installed.

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, the default key is the same across all NetDefendOS systems and
should be used for testing purposes only.

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, [email protected]. If this format with the @
symbol is not used and a simple string is used, for example myusername, then this will be
treated as a group.

• 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 8.7. Enabling User Identity Awareness

This example assumes that there are external clients on a network client_net connected to the If1

642
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

interface. These clients will want HTTP access to hosts on a network server_net on the If2
interface.

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 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 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

SourceInterface=If1
SourceNetwork=client_net
DestinationInterface=If2
DestinationNetwork=server_net
Service=http-all
Name=client_to_server
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:

• Name: my_auth_agent

• IP Address: aa_server_ip

• Pre-shared key: aa_server_key

3. 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

643
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

3. In the username box enter: user1@mydomain,user2@mydomain

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:

• Name: client_to_server

• Action: Allow

• Source Network: client_net

• Source Interface: If1

• Destination Network: server_net

• Destination Interface: If2

• Service: http-all

3. Click OK

Note that in this example, individual usernames are used in the address object to specify which
users can be authenticated. As discussed earlier in this section, a group name could have been
used instead or in addition.

Note: An IP policy can be used instead of an IP rule

The example above 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.

Note: Use administrator privileges when installing the IDA

When installing the IDA software, the user must have administrator privileges.

When the IDA software is installed on a server that is not an Active Directory Domain
Controller, it must be installed using an account that has Domain Controller
administrator privileges and not a local system account.

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 any of the following Windows server products:

644
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• Windows 2003
• Windows 2008
• Windows 2008R2
• Windows 2012

Important: The Windows Server event IDs must be correct

The D-Link IDA software will only listen for certain event IDs so the Windows Server
should be configured so that the correct IDs are generated. The IDs that the IDA listens
for are as follows:

i. For Windows Server 2003, the IDA listens for the following events:
• 636 - A user has been added to a local domain group.
• 637 - A user has been removed from a local domain group.
• 673 - A user has logged in.

ii. For Windows Server 2008 and later, the IDA listens for the following events:
• 103 - An RDP user has logged in and has been assigned a virtual IP.
• 104 - An RDP user has logged out and the user’s IP has been released.
• 4732 - A user has been added to a local domain group.
• 4733 - A user has been removed from a local domain group.
• 4768 - A user has logged in.

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 and
this interface has three tabs which are described next.

• The General tab

This tab consists of the following settings:

i. Listening IP - This is the IPv4 address and port number which the IDA will listen on for
connections to NetDefendOS. By default, the IDA will listen on port 9999 of 0.0.0.0/0,
which means any IPv4 address. Multiple IP values can be entered for this setting and
must include the IP configured for the NetDefendOS Authentication Agent object of the
connecting firewall.

ii. Remote Desktop IP Virtualization - This allows IDA to be used with a Windows Terminal
Server™. This feature is described in detail later in this section.

iii. User Timeout - This is the time within which NetDefendOS must authenticate the user
after they are authenticated by the Windows server.

645
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Figure 8.4. The General Tab in the IDA Interface

• The Event Monitoring tab

This tab consists of the following settings:

i. Monitor the local event log - When enabled, this IDA installation will monitor the server
on which it is installed for authentication events. Usually, this will be enabled since
normally the agent will monitor events on its own server.

ii. Remote monitoring - This specifies the IP address of other domain servers which are to
be monitored by this IDA installation. More than one IDP installation can monitor the
same domain server and more than one IDP installation can send the same
authentication event to NetDefendOS (duplicate received IDA events are recognized by
NetDefendOS and ignored).

If the Monitor the local event log option is not enabled and no other server IP addresses are
specified, the agent will send nothing back to NetDefendOS.

Figure 8.5. The Event Monitoring Tab in the IDA Interface

646
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• The Security tab

This tab consists of the following settings:

i. Encryption key - This is the key used to encrypt communication with NetDefendOS. By
default, this value will be the same as the default value of the Pre-Shared Key property of
the corresponding NetDefendOS Authentication Agent object. For improved security, it is
recommended that this key is changed by the administrator, both for the IDA and the
corresponding NetDefendOS Authentication Agent object.

ii. Allowed IPs/networks - This specifies the source IPv4 addresses from which the IDA will
accept NetDefendOS connections. The default value of 0.0.0.0/0 means all IPv4 addresses
are acceptable. The administrator can improve security by narrowing this to a specific
network or IP address where the connecting NetDefend Firewall is located.

Figure 8.6. The Security Tab in the IDA Interface

• The Excluded Users tab

In this tab, it is possible to set up an exclusion list for the IDA so that users on the list will not
have their authentication status sent back to NetDefendOS by the IDA service. The full User
Principal Name (UPN) must be used to specify excluded users, for example:

[email protected]

Often, it is appropriate to include the administrator's own account on this exclusion list. The
excluded users feature exists only in version 1.01.00 or later of the IDA software.

647
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Figure 8.7. The Excluded Users Tab in the IDA Interface

Note: The IDA service is not aware of NetDefendOS

authentication
The purpose of the IDA service is to send details of authentication events 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.

An Example of IDA Redundancy

To illustrate how IDA redundancy could be implemented, consider a domain that has 4 servers
called A, B, C and D. To implement minimal redundancy, the steps would be as follows:

1. Install the IDA on server A and server B.

2. Enable the Event Monitoring for both installations so they are monitoring local server
authentication events.

3. For server A, configure the Remote monitoring option with the IP addresses of servers B, C
and D so that they are monitored too.

4. For server B, configure the Remote monitoring option with the IP addresses of servers A, C
and D so that they are monitored too.

Now, if either server A or B should fail, authentication events will still be sent back to
NetDefendOS. NetDefendOS will recognize any duplicate events sent by both server A and server
B.

Using IDA with a Windows Terminal Server

In some environments, a Terminal Server may be used as well as a domain server. If this is the
case, the IDA service is installed as before but the option Remote Desktop IP Virtualization should
be enabled.

The terminal server itself must have the following attributes:

• At least Windows Server 2008™ R2.

• The role Remote Desktop Session Host must be installed.

648
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• 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 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.

649
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

8.7. Multi Factor Authentication

When access to resources located behind a NetDefend Firewall is based on credentials, the
security can be further strengthened by using Multi Factor Authentication. This is sometimes
referred to as 2-factor authentication or 2-step authentication. The first factor is usually a
username/password combination. A second factor is typically a one-time code which might be
sent to the user at the time of the login via SMS or e-mail, or might be generated in some way by
the user themselves (for example with a code-box).

Multi Factor Support is Automatic

By default, NetDefendOS provides support for multi 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.

Mobile VPN IPsec clients are also supported by multi-factor authentication when using the
following authentication methods:

• IKEv1 with XAuth.

• IKEv2 with EAP.

Multi Factor Processing Sequence

The sequence of processing for multi 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 multi factor authentication.

3. A user tries to access resources through the NetDefend Firewall. They are presented with a
standard NetDefendOS login challenge page and they enter their credentials.

4. NetDefendOS now sends these credentials to the RADIUS server for authentication in a
RADIUS Access-Request message.

5. In multi factor authentication, the RADIUS server will do two things:

i. It informs NetDefendOS that multi factor authentication must be used by sending back
a RADIUS Access-Challenge message.

ii. Depending on the type of the additional challenge, the server might also cause a
one-time code to be sent to the user. For example, this might be in an SMS message to
a mobile device. Alternatively, the code might be generated by the user themselves
using, for example, a code box.

6. The user enters the code they receive or generate and NetDefendOS relays the entered
code to the RADIUS server in another Access-Request message.

7. The RADIUS server verifies the code. If the user is authenticated then an Access-Accept is sent
back to NetDefendOS and the client is given access to protected resources. If it is not
verfied, the server sends back an Access-Reject message to NetDefendOS and access is
denied.

Notes on Multi Factor Authentciation

650
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Some points to note about setting up multi factor authentication with NetDefendOS are the
following:

• 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, if the banner file

LoginChallenge is used in the challenge process, it may need to be edited to display the
appropriate text. This is discussed further in Section 8.4, “Customizing Authentication HTML”.

• The administrator must configure the RADIUS server appropriately and the server's
documentation should be consulted on how to do this.

• If the RADIUS server causes a code to be sent to the user, this is independent of
NetDefendOS. Various third party solutions are available to generate this code.

651
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

8.8. Radius Relay

Overview

The NetDefendOS feature RADIUS Relay is designed for telecom scenarios, such as Mobile Data
Offloading (MDO), where User Equipment (UE), such as a smartphone, switches from an operator's
wireless network to communicating using WiFi via an Access Point (AP). The AP connects the UE
to resources, such as the public Internet, via a NetDefend Firewall with the firewall controlling
this access.

To gain access to the resources behind the NetDefend Firewall, the UE must authenticate itself
via the AP using a RADIUS server. A RADIUS authentication request is sent to NetDefendOS by
the AP which relays it to a RADIUS server. The server's reply is relayed back to the AP and
authenticated users are entered into the NetDefendOS user list so that they can then be granted
access to resources based on NetDefendOS security policies.

Event Sequence During RADIUS Relay Authentication

The following sequence of events occurs with radius relay:

• The UE requests network access from an AP.

• The AP sends a RADIUS Access-Request to NetDefendOS. Providing the NetDefendOS radius

relay feature has been set up, this request is forwarded to the configured RADIUS server.

• The RADIUS server either authenticates or does not authenticate the UE by sending a RADIUS
Access-Accept or Access-Reject message back to NetDefendOS. The content of these messages
is examined by NetDefendOS as they are relayed back to the AP.

• If it is authenticated by the RADIUS server, the UE issues a DHCP request and a DHCP IP lease
from the configured NetDefendOS DHCP server is sent back to the UE.

The DHCP server must be configured so that leases are only be distríbuted to authenticated
clients (the LeasesRequireAuth option is enabled).

• Successful authentication also means that NetDefendOS includes the UE's username in its list
of logged in users (visible with the CLI userauth command and through the Web Interface)
and this allows the UE access to resources determined by predefined NetDefendOS security
policies.

Using Group Membership

NetDefendOS security policies can be based on group membership where the UE's membership
in a group determines if access is allowed. If this is the case, the RADIUS server must be specially
configured to send back the group name of the user during authentication. In addition, RADIUS
servers communicating with NetDefendOS must have the Vendor ID set correctly. Doing this is
described further at the end of this section.

It is also important that that IP rule or IP policy that allows access by the UE must use an IP
address object for its Source Network which has its Authentication property (the UserAuthGroups
property in the CLI) set to the same group name sent back by the RADIUS server. Doing this is
described further in Section 8.5, “Policies Requiring Authentication”.

If validation with group membership is not required then the No Defined Credentials property of
the IP address object used for the Source Network should be enabled.

A symptom that the group name has not been specified for the Source Network address object is

652
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

that the connection will be dropped after the Idle Timeout period of the RADIUS Relay object has
elapsed, even through traffic has been flowing during that time.

Important: Enable the DHCP server LeasesRequireAuth option

If RADIUS relay is being used in a NetDefendOS configuration, all DHCP servers must be
configured to only distribute leases to configured clients. This is done by enabling the
LeasesRequireAuth property in the CLI and in the Web Interface, enabling the option
Distribute leases only to RADIUS relay authenticated clients.

If this is not done on all DHCP servers, irrespective of whether they are used with RADIUS
relay or not, it could possibly create a security vulnerability and allow an
unauthenticated client access to protected resources.

Radius Relay Object Properties

The important properties of a Radius Relay object are as follows:

• Name

A descriptive name for the object which will be used throughout the configuration.

• DHCP Server

The DHCP server that will be used to hand out IP address leases once the UE is authenticated.

• Source Interface

This is the NetDefendOS interface on which NetDefendOS will listen for AP requests. This can
be any of the following:

i. An Ethernet interface.

ii. A VLAN interface.

iii. An Interface Group.

If the property Override User Data Interface is set, this interface will only listen for the intial
connection from the AP and carry authentication traffic. The interface assigned to Override
User Data Interface will carry the data traffic. This explained further below.

• Client IP Filter

This specifies the source IP range that the AP belongs to. This will typically be a network
range and it is recommended it is specified as a NetDefendOS address book object.

• Listening IP

This is the IP address that the AP will connect to on the Source Interface. If the listening
interface is an Ethernet interface or VLAN it is optional and will default to the IP address of the
interface if not specified.

If the Source Interface is an interface group, the listening IP must be specified.

• Listening Port

This is the listening port number for the listening interface and is 1812 by default.

• Override User Data Interface

653
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

By default, a user is authenticated using the same interface that is used for forwarding data
traffic and that is the value set for the Source Interface property above. This can pose a
security risk and it is recommended to use different interfaces for these two functions. The
Override User Data Interface property is set to the interface used only for data. Usually Source
Interface and Override User Data Interface will be two different VLANs running over the
physical interface connected to the AP. This is discussed further below.

• Routing Table

When the UE is authenticated and it receives an IP address, a route to its IP will be

automatically added to this routing table. Usually, the default main routing table is used.

• Remote Server IP

This is the IP address of the RADIUS server that will perform UE authentication.

• Remote Server Port

This is the port number of the RADIUS server that will perform UE authentication. The default
value is 1812 which is the standard for RADIUS.

• Sending IP

This optional IP address will be used as the sending IP of the request sent to the RADIUS
server. If not set, the IP address of the sending interface will be used. The sending interface is
determined by a route lookup of the RADIUS server's IP address.

• Idle Timeout

After this amount of seconds without traffic from the authenticated user, the user will be
automatically logged out.

• Session Timeout

This is the absolute allowed length of a authenticated used session in seconds. This is
normally set to zero, meaning a session of infinite length.

• Use Timeouts Received from Authentication Server

If this property is enabled and the RADIUS server is correctly configured, the Idle Timeout and
Session Timeout properties will take values sent by the RADIUS server.

Separate Authentication and Data Traffic

It is strongly recommended to set the property Override User Data Interface to the interface
used only for the data traffic so that it is different from the interface assigned to the Source
Interface property for the authentication traffic. Typically, they will be set to two different VLAN
interfaces which will run over the same physical Ethernet interface and which is connected to the
AP. This will fully separate the authentication data going to the RADIUS server from the data
flowing to the backbone network. Not doing this will pose a security risk.

The following should be noted when using the Override User Data Interface property:

• The administrator must ensure the AP sends authentication and data traffic are sent over the
correct VLANs.

• The interface used for the DHCP server object which hands out IP addresses will be the
interface used for the data (the Override User Data Interface) and not the interface used for
authentication (the Source Interface).

654
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• No extra IP rule is required for either DNS traffic or authentication traffic. The IP rule that
allows data to flow from the client to the backbone is the only one required.

Example 8.8. Radius Relay

This example shows how to configure a Radius Relay object for the scenario illustrated below.
Here, client devices (UE) must access data services through a backbone network via an Access
Point (AP). First, they must be authenticated against a RADIUS server and then allocated an IP
address. The AP is connected to the physical If1 Ethernet interface of a NetDefend Firewall and
the backbone network is connected to the If2 interface.

The following assumptions are made:

• Two VLANs are already configured and these NetDefendOS objects are called vlan_auth for
client authentication traffic and vlan_data for data traffic flowing to the backbone.

• Both these VLANs are already set up to run over the physical Ethernet interface If1 and that
the AP has also been correctly configured to use the appropriate VLAN for authentication and
data.

• Authenticated users must belong to the group called ue_group.

• A Radius Relay object called r_relay1 will be created which will listen for authentication
requests on the vlan_auth interface and relay them to a RADIUS server with the IPv4 address
radius_ip. The scenario is illustrated in the diagram below.

• After successful authentication, IP address leases will be handed out by a DHCP server object
called rr_dhcp_server. It is assumed the UEs will be allocated addresses belonging to the
network 192.168.10.10-192.168.10.255 that will be defined in an IPv4 address object called
client_net.

• After successful authentication, UEs will be granted access to a backbone network on the If2
interface using an IP rule called client_access_rule.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create the IP4Address object that defines the range of client IP addresses for the UEs and
assign it the authentication group called ue_group:

655
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address client_net

Address=192.168.10.10-192.168.10.255
UserAuthGroups=ue_group

B. Create the IP4Address object that defines the IP address pool for the DHCP server. This must be
a different object although it uses the same IP range:

gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address client_ip_range

Address=192.168.10.10-192.168.10.255

C. Create the DHCPServer object that hands out these addresses:

gw-world:/> add DHCPServer rr_dhcp_server

Interface=vlan_data
IPAddressPool=client_ip_range
Netmask=255.255.255.0
LeasesRequireAuth=Yes

D. Create the IPRule object that grants access for client data flowing to the backbone network
which is connected to the interface If2:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

Service=all_services
SourceInterface=vlan_data
SourceNetwork=client_net
DestinationInterface=If2
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
Name=client_access_rule

E. Create the RadiusRelay object:

gw-world:/> add RadiusRelay r_relay1

SourceInterface=vlan_auth
ClientIPFilter=client_ip_range
RemoteServerIP=radius_ip
DHCPServer=rr_dhcp_server
OverrideUserDataInterface=vlan_data

Web Interface

A. Create the IP4Address object that defines the range of client IP addresses for the UEs and
assign it the authentication group called ue_group:

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

2. Now enter:

• Name: client_net

• IP Address: 192.168.10.0/24

• User Authentication: ue_group

3. Click OK

B. Create the IP4Address object that defines the IP address pool for the DHCP server. This must be
a different object although it uses almost the same IP range:

656
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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

2. Now enter:

• Name: client_ip_range

• IP Address: 192.168.10.10-192.168.10.255

3. Click OK

C. Create the DHCPServer object that hands out these addresses:

1. Go to: Network > Network Services > DHCP Servers > Add > DHCPServer

2. Now enter:

• Name: rr_dhcp_server

• Interface: vlan_data

• Interface Filter: client_ip_range

• Netmask: 255.255.255.0

3. Select the Options tab and enable the option:

Distribute leases only to RADIUS relay authenticated clients

4. Click OK

D. Create the IPRule object that grants access for client data flowing to the backbone network
which is connected to the interface If2:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Specify a suitable name for the rule, for example LAN_HTTP

3. Now enter:

• Name: client_access_rule

• Action: Allow

• Service: all_services

• Source Interface: vlan_data

• Source Network: client_net

• Destination Interface: If2

• Destination Network: all-nets

4. Click OK

E. Create the RadiusRelay object:

1. Go to: Network > Network Services > RADIUS Relays > add > RADIUS Relay

2. Now enter:

657
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• Name: r_relay1

• DHCP Server: rr_dhcp_server

• Source Interface: vlan_auth

• Client IP Filter: client_ip_range

• Remote Server IP: radius_ip

• Override User Data Interface: vlan_data

3. Click OK

Note: Configuring the RADIUS server to send the group name

In the above example, it is assumed the group name ue_group will be sent back by the
RADIUS server during authentication. The RADIUS server must be configured to do this.

When configuring the external RADIUS server to provide group information for the
logged in user to NetDefendOS, it is necessary to use the user group vendor specific
attribute. The NetDefendOS Vendor ID is 5089 and the user group is defined as
vendor-type 1 with a string value type.

658
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

8.9. RADIUS Accounting

8.9.1. 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”.

8.9.2. 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

659
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Parameters included in START messages sent by NetDefendOS are:

• Type - Marks this AccountingRequest as signaling 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 acknowledgment 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 signaling 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.

660
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• 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.

8.9.3. 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.

8.9.4. 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.

661
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• The external RADIUS server itself must be correctly configured.

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”.

Further RADIUS Considerations

Some important points should be noted about RADIUS 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 8.9. 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 > Accounting > RADIUS > Add > RADIUS Server

2. Now enter:

• Name: my-accounting

• IP Address: 192.168.3.1

• Port: 1813

• Retry Timeout: 2

662
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

• Shared Secret: 231562514098273

• Confirm Secret: 231562514098273

• Routing Table: main

3. Click OK

8.9.5. 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.

8.9.6. 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.

8.9.7. 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

663
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

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
have already been authenticated.

8.9.8. 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.

8.9.9. 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.

8.9.10. 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 shut down 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.

664
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

Default: Enabled

Maximum Radius Contexts

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

Default: 1024

665
 Chapter 8: User Authentication

666
Chapter 9: VPN

This chapter describes the Virtual Private Network (VPN) functionality in NetDefendOS.

• Overview, page 667

• VPN Quick Start, page 671

• IPsec Components, page 683

• IPsec Tunnels, page 701

• PPTP/L2TP, page 729

• L2TP Version 3, page 741

• SSL VPN, page 752

• VPN Troubleshooting, page 762

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.

667
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

668
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 or tablets. However, the client equipment 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:

669
 Chapter 9: VPN

• 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 6.2.11,
“The TLS ALG”.

670
 Chapter 9: VPN

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/Ipsec Roaming Clients with Pre-Shared Keys

• L2TP/IPsec 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.

671
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 such as the public Internet.

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 endpoint. 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:

• 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.

4. 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.

672
 Chapter 9: VPN

• 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:

• 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 object used in these rules is all_services but it could be any predefined or custom
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>

For a LAN-to-LAN example showing the actual configuration steps, go to Example 9.4, “PSK Based
LAN-to-LAN IPsec Tunnel Setup”.

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, upload the Root Certificate and Gateway Certificate into NetDefendOS. The
root certificate needs just a single certificate file for the public key. The gateway certificate
needs to 2 parts: a certificate file for the public key as well as a private key file. Any
intermediate certificates required for a certificate chain between the root and gateway
certificate should also have the certificate files for their public key uploaded.

673
 Chapter 9: VPN

Note that the Gateway Certificate is sometimes referred to as the Host Certificate.

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:

a. Enable the X.509 Certificate option.

b. Select the Root Certificate to use. If there is a certificate chain to the gateway
certificate, all the intermediate certificates must also be added as root certificates.

c. Select the Gateway Certificate.

4. 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.

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 3.9.4, “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

674
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

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.

675
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 Add route dynamically should be enabled
for the tunnel object. If all-nets is the destination network, the option Add route
statically should be disabled.

Note
The option to dynamically add routes should not be enabled in LAN-to-LAN
tunnel scenarios.

• 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.

3. 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. 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.

676
 Chapter 9: VPN

• Enable the IKE Config Mode Pool option in the IPsec Tunnel object ipsec_tunnel.

2. 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.

For a roaming clients example showing the actual configuration steps, go to Example 9.5, “PSK
Based IPsec Tunnel for Roaming Clients Setup”.

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. Upload a Root Certificate and a Gateway Certificate into NetDefendOS. The gateway
certificate needs to have 2 parts added: a certificate file (usually with filetype .cer or .crt) and
a private key file (with filetype .key). The root 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:

a. Enable the X.509 Certificate option.

b. Select the Gateway Certificate.

c. Add the Root Certificate to use.

3. The IPsec client software will need to be appropriately configured with the certificates and

677
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 3.9.4, “CA Server Access”, which describes important considerations for
certificate validation.

9.2.5. L2TP/IPsec 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:

• 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.

2. 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).

• 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:

• Set Encapsulation Mode to Transport.

• Set Local Endpoint to wan_ip (specify all-nets instead if NetDefendOS is behind a

NATing device).

• Set Remote Endpoint to all-nets.

• For Authentication select the Pre-shared Key object defined in the first step.

• Select the IKE and IPsec algorithm proposal lists to be used.

678
 Chapter 9: VPN

• When all-nets is the destination network, as is the case here, the advanced setting option
Add route statically must also be disabled. This setting is enabled by default.

5. 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.

• Set the Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption setting to None only. Since IPsec
encryption is already used, 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.

• Under the Virtual Routing tab, make this interface a member of a specific routing table so
that routes are automatically added to that table. Normally the main table should be
selected.

6. 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:

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

679
 Chapter 9: VPN

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/IPsec 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 3.9.4, “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
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. 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).

2. Define a PPTP/L2TP object (let's call it pptp_tunnel) with the following parameters:

• Set Inner IP Address to ip_net.

680
 Chapter 9: VPN

• 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.

3. 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.

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

681
 Chapter 9: VPN

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)

iii. Originator IP: all-nets

iv. Local User DB: The local user database

8. 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.

682
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

683
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 sections below.

The flow of events can be summarized as follows:

IKE Phase-1
• Negotiate how IKE should be protected

IKE Phase-2
• 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 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.

684
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

IPsec Tunnel Properties

Below, is a summary of the key properties required of an IPsec tunnel object. Understanding
what these properties do before attempting to configure the tunnel is strongly recommended,
since it is of great importance that both tunnel endpoints can agree.

With two NetDefend Firewalls as IPsec 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.

• 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.

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.

• Local ID and Remote ID

The local and remote IDs are values sent by each side of the tunnel during the IKE negotiation
and both can be used with either a pre-shared key or certificate based tunnel.

685
 Chapter 9: VPN

i. Local ID - this property of an IPsec Tunnel object represents the identity of the local VPN
tunnel endpoint and this is the value presented to the remote peer during the IKE
negotiation.

The property is set to only a single value but can be left blank when using certificates
since the ID will be contained within the host certificate sent. If the certificate sent
contains multiple IDs, this property can be set to specify which ID in the certificate to
use.

The Enforce Local ID property can be enabled so that when NetDefendOS is acting as
responder, the ID proposed by the initiator must match the Local ID value. The default
behavior is to ignore the proposed ID.

ii. Remote ID - This property can be used to specify an ID list object. An ID list object
contains one or more IDs. When using certificates, the certificate sent sent by a remote
peer must contain an ID which matches one of the IDs in the list in order for the peer to
be authenticated. Using the Remote ID property with certificates is explained further in
Section 9.3.8, “Using ID Lists with Certificates”.

NetDefendOS applies sanity checks on all remote IDs to ensure they are acceptable.
Usually malformed IDs have a problem in the DN name. For example, a faulty remote ID
name might be the following:

DN=D-Link, OU=One,Two,Three, DC=SE

If specified by the administrator, there will be an error message when the NetDefendOS
configuration is committed. The corrected remote ID form is the following:

DN=D-Link, OU=One\,Two\,Three, DC=SE

• Encapsulation Mode

IPsec can be used in one two modes:

• Tunnel Mode

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.

• Transport Mode

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. With IKv2, only Tunnel
should be used.

• 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.

686
 Chapter 9: VPN

The remote endpoint can be specified as a URL string such as vpn.example.com. If this is done,
the prefix dns: must be used. The string above should therefore be specified as
dns:vpn.example.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 means 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.

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

687
 Chapter 9: VPN

This specifies the authentication algorithms used in the IKE negotiation phase.

The algorithms supported by NetDefendOS IPsec are:

• MD5

• SHA1

• SHA256

• SHA512

• AES-XCBC (IKEv2 only)

• IKE DH Group

This specifies the Diffie-Hellman group to use for the IKE exchange. The available DH groups
are discussed below in the section titled Diffie-Hellman Groups. Raising the group number
from the default should be done with caution as more computing resources will be used for
higher group numbers and could lead to unacceptable tunnel setup times on slower
hardware platforms.

• 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.

• 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 in the section titled Diffie-Hellman Groups. Raising the group number from
the default should be done with caution as more computing resources will be used for higher
group numbers and could lead to unacceptable tunnel setup times on slower hardware
platforms.

• 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. Raising the group
number from the default should be done with caution as more computing resources will be

688
 Chapter 9: VPN

used for higher group numbers and could lead to unacceptable tunnel setup times on slower
hardware platforms.

• 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 encryption algorithms supported by NetDefendOS are as follows:

i. AES

ii. Blowfish

iii. Twofish

iv. Cast128

v. 3DES

vi. DES

• IPsec Authentication

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 authentication algorithms supported by NetDefendOS are as follows:

i. MD5

ii. SHA1

iii. SHA256

iv. SHA512

v. AES-XCBC (IKEv2 only)

• IPsec Lifetime

This is the lifetime of the VPN connection. It is specified in both time (seconds) and data
amount (in Kbytes). Whenever 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, the Diffie-Hellman technique makes it extremely
difficult for the third party to determine what the agreed shared secret key is and decrypt data
that is encrypted using that key.

689
 Chapter 9: VPN

As mentioned previously, Diffie-Hellman is used to establish the shared secret keys for IKE, IPsec
and PFS in NetDefendOS. The administrator configured Diffie-Hellman group number indicates to
NetDefendOS the level of security that is to be used for DH exchanges. The higher the group
number, the greater the security, but this will also increase the hardware processing resources
required.

The DH groups supported by NetDefendOS are as follows:

• DH group 1 (768-bit).
• DH group 2 (1024-bit - the default setting).
• DH group 5 (1536-bit).
• DH group 14 (2048-bit).
• DH group 15 (3072-bit).
• DH group 16 (4096-bit).
• DH group 17 (6144-bit).
• DH group 18 (8192-bit).

Caution: Higher DH group numbers will consume more resources

Most hardware platforms will be able to provide sufficient processing resources for the
default DH group 2. Higher group numbers will consume progressively more resources
and this can mean that tunnel setup for the highest groups can be unacceptably long
(tens of seconds) on a slower hardware platform. It could also result in 100% processor
utilization from the tunnel setup process and a possible temporary halt of all traffic
throughput.

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

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.

690
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

9.3.4. IPsec Protocols (ESP/AH)

The IPsec protocols are the protocols used to protect the actual traffic being passed through the

691
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

692
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 function with NAT and because of this, the 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 RFC 3947 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 RFC 3947 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.

693
 Chapter 9: VPN

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. NAT 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 property of an IPsec Tunnel object is unique for every tunnel and takes one of the
following values:

i. Auto - The local ID becomes the IP address of the outgoing interface. This is the
recommended setting unless the two firewalls have the same external IP address.

ii. IP - A IP address can be manually entered.

iii. DNS - A DNS address can be manually entered.

iv. 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 endpoint 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 the following, shorter list of algorithms that provide higher security:

• AES
• SHA256
• SHA512

694
 Chapter 9: VPN

• AES-XCBC

• Medium

This consists of the following, longer list of algorithms that provide less security but greater
compatibility with older endpoint devices:

• 3DES
• AES
• Twofish
• SHA1
• SHA256
• SHA512
• AES-XCBC

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. The 3DES and AES will be proposed as encryption algorithms. The hash functions SHA256
and SHA512 will be proposed for checking 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

DES3Enabled=Yes
AESEnabled=Yes
SHA256Enabled=Yes
SHA512Enabled=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:

• 3DES

• AES

• SHA256

• SHA512

4. Click OK

695
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

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:

696
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

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. Using ID Lists with Certificates

When certificates are used as the authentication method for IPsec tunnels, NetDefendOS will
accept all remote peers that are capable of presenting a CA signed certificate. This can be a
potential problem, especially when using roaming clients.

A Typical Scenario

Consider the scenario of traveling employees being given access to the internal corporate
networks using IPsec with certificates. 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 might access servers running the order system, while technical engineers would
access technical databases.

The Problem

Since the IP addresses of the traveling employees VPN clients cannot be known beforehand, the
incoming IPsec connections from clients cannot be differentiated. This means that the firewall is
unable to correctly administer access to different parts of the internal networks using only the
client's IP address.

The ID List Solution

Identification lists (ID lists) provide a solution to this problem. A NetDefendOS ID List object
contains one or more ID objects as children. An IPsec Tunnel object can then have its Remote ID
property set to an ID list object. For a particular tunnel to be used by a particular client, the

697
 Chapter 9: VPN

following must be true:

• The ID sent by the remote client must match one of the IDs in the ID list for the tunnel.

• The ID sent by the client must also exist as one of the IDs in the certificate the client sends.

When the client connects, NetDefendOS chooses the IPsec Tunnel object to use as follows:

• The connecting client sends its ID to NetDefendOS in the IKE negotiation.

• NetDefendOS scans its list of IPsec Tunnel objects looking for a match for the client. The
normal matching process is described in Section 9.4.7, “The IPsec Tunnel Selection Process”.

• As an additional part of the matching process, NetDefendOS also checks the ID the client
sends against the ID List of the tunnel. If it does not find an ID match, it continues searching
through the IPsec Tunnel list.

Any malformed IDs will be ignored and will also generate log message warnings.

• Once the matching tunnel is found, NetDefendOS then checks that the certificate the client
sends also contains this same ID. If the certificate does, authentication is complete and the
tunnel can be established. If the ID is not in the certificate, NetDefendOS flags that there is an
authentication failure and the client connection is dropped.

This means that a particular IPsec Tunnel is only used by a particular client. The NetDefendOS
configuration's IP rules and IP policies can then be designed to control which traffic can flow
through which tunnel (the tunnel being an interface in the rule or policy)

Example 9.3. Using an ID List

This example shows how to create and use an Identification List object with an IPsec tunnel. This
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 my_id_list

Then, create an ID:

gw-world:/> cc IDList my_id_list

gw-world:/my_id_list> add ID JohnDoe

Type=DistinguishedName
CommonName="John Doe"
OrganizationName=D-Link
OrganizationalUnit=Support
Country=Sweden
[email protected]

gw-world:/my_id_list> cc

Finally, apply the Identification List to the IPsec tunnel:

gw-world:/> set Interface IPsecTunnel MyIPsecTunnel

AuthMethod=Certificate
RemoteID=my_id_list

698
 Chapter 9: VPN

RootCertificates=my_root_cert
GatewayCertificate=my_gateway_cert

Web Interface

First create an ID List:

1. Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > IKE ID Lists > Add > ID List

2. Enter a name for the list, for example my_id_list

3. Click OK

Then, add an ID list to this ID list:

1. Go to: Objects > VPN Objects > IKE ID Lists > Add > ID List

2. Select my_id_list

3. Enter a name for the ID, for example JohnDoe

4. Select Distinguished name in the Type control

5. Now enter:

• Common Name: John Doe

• Organization Name: D-Link

• Organizational Unit: Support

• Country: Sweden

• Email Address: [email protected]

6. Click OK

Finally, apply the Identification List to the IPsec tunnel:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec

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 - For a certificate chain, all intermediate certificates must be loaded as root
certificates.

5. Select my_id_list in the Identification List

6. Click OK

9.3.9. DiffServ with IPsec

The Differentiated Services (diffserv) field in a packet can be used by network equipment to

699
 Chapter 9: VPN

prioritize data traffic. The 8 bit diffserv field consists of two parts: a 6 bit Differentiated Services
Code Point (DSCP) and a 2 bit Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN). NetDefendOS IPsec treats
these as a whole and does not divide the 8 bit field.

For IPsec, the DiffServ values related to a tunnel can be split into three types:

• The DiffServ value of the packets involved in the IKE exchange for tunnel setup.

• The DiffServ value of the outer tunnel IPsec packets.

• The DiffServ value of the packets being transported inside the tunnel.

The administrator can alter the DiffServ value in the following ways:

• For tunnel setup, the DiffServ value of IKE packets can have a specified fixed value.

• The DiffServ of the outer tunnel packets can be set to a fixed value or they can have the value
copied from the DiffServ field of the packets inside the tunnel.

Setting up the above two options is described next.

Specifying the DiffServ Field for IKE Traffic

By default, all IKE packets sent by NetDefendOS during tunnel setup have their DiffServ value set
to zero. This can be changed to a fixed value for a tunnel by setting the IKEDSField property of the
IPsecTunnel object. For example:

gw-world:/> set Interface IPsecTunnel my_tunnel IKEDSField=1

Setting the DiffServ Field in the Outer Tunnel

By default, all IPsec outer tunnel packets sent by NetDefendOS have their DiffServ field value
copied from the packets inside the tunnel. The DiffServ field can be set to a fixed value by setting
the property IPsecDSField for the IPsecTunnel object. For example:

gw-world:/> set Interface IPsecTunnel my_tunnel IPsecDSField=1

700
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

An IPsec Tunnel object's Originator IP property is a means to set the source IPv4 address that flows
inside the tunnel when the originator is NetDefendOS itself.

This IP will be needed in such cases as when log messages or ICMP ping messages are sent by
NetDefendOS. Also, when NATing an IPsec tunnel's local network to the remote network, the
originator IP will be the IP address that will be used as the NAT address. This address may need to
be set manually if the automatic choice described below is not suitable.

There are two possible settings for this property:

• LocalInterface

This is the default setting. In the Web Interface, this corresponds to enabling the option:
Automatically pick the address of a local interface that corresponds to the local net.
NetDefendOS automatically selects the source IP address in the following way:

i. NetDefendOS looks at the IP address of all non-IPsec interfaces and uses the first IP
address it finds that is within the range of the tunnel's local network.

With an HA cluster, this means the shared and private IP can be different.

ii. If no suitable address is found in the first step, use the second IP address from the
tunnel's local network. This potentially be an IP address that is already used by a host in
the network and if this is the case the IP address will need to be set manually as
described below.

701
 Chapter 9: VPN

With an HA cluster, this means the shared and private IP will be the same.

• Manual

This option allows the administrator to choose a specific IP. It is possible to choose two IPs:

i. The non-HA IP address. This is the IPv4 address that will be used except for cluster
situations.

ii. The HA IP address. This address will be used in HA clusters as the shared and private IP.

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 have to be assigned manually.

Also note that a core route is automatically added to all routing tables so that the originator IP
address is routed 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
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

702
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

Auto Establish

By default, LAN-to-LAN IPsec tunnels are established only at the time that traffic tries to flow
through them. By enabling the IPsec tunnel property Auto Establish, LAN-to-LAN tunnels are
established without any traffic flowing. This is useful in the following situations:

• With LAN-to_LAN tunnels only (IKEv1 or IKEv2). It cannot be used with roaming clients.

• With route failover, a tunnel for the alternate route is always established.

• After a reconfigure operation is performed on NetDefendOS, the tunnels are immediately

reestablished without waiting for any traffic to flow.

Assuming two IPsec tunnel endpoint A and B, it is recommended that auto establish is enabled
on B only when both of the following criteria are true:

• A cannot initiate an IKE negotiation to B. The reasons why it cannot be the initiator might be
any of the following:

• B is behind a NATing device.

• A is using DNS to get the IP address of B.

• B receives its IP address via DHCP.

• The administrator decides that A must be able to initiate UDP/TCP connections through the
tunnel without B having sent any packets. For example, there might be a server located
behind B which clients located behind A need to reach.

Monitoring Tunnel Health

The following methods are available with both IKEv1 and IKEv2 for monitoring IPsec tunnel
health and re-establishing the tunnel if a problem is detected:

• Dead Peer Detection

Dead Peer Detection (DPD) is used to monitor IPsec tunnel health. It can optionally be enabled
for a tunnel and it is recommended to always have it enabled (the default) unless the external
IPsec peer does not support it. With roaming IPsec clients, DPD is the only option for
monitoring tunnel health.

DPD monitors the aliveness of the tunnel by looking for traffic coming from the external peer
at the other end of the tunnel. If no message is seen within a specified length of time

703
 Chapter 9: VPN

(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.

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
closed. NetDefendOS will then automatically try to re-establish the tunnel after a period of
time (specified by the advanced setting DPD Keep Time).

The advanced settings for DPD are described further in Section 9.4.9, “IPsec Advanced Settings”.
Although DPD is enabled by default, disabling it does not disable NetDefendOS responding
to DPD-R-U-THERE messages from a peer, since the IPsec standard requires this. However,
disabling DPD means that NetDefendOS will not send out its own DPD-R-U-THERE messages.

Note
Both Auto Establish and DPD could be used at the same time.

• Tunnel Monitoring

NetDefendOS provides tunnel monitoring as an addition to DPD for monitoring the health of
an IPsec tunnel. Tunnel monitoring requires that an external host is available that is reachable
through the tunnel with ICMP ping messages. This feature is described further in Section 9.4.8,
“IPsec Tunnel Monitoring”.

IPsec Tunnel Quick Start Sections

A quick start checklist of setup steps for these protocols in typical scenarios can be found in the
following sections in this document:

• 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
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.

704
 Chapter 9: VPN

• Set up the IP Rule objects to allow traffic flow in either direction.

• Set up the Route in the main routing table (or another table if an alternate is being used).

• Set up the peer at the other end of the tunnel in a similar way. The local and remote networks
are reversed.

Example 9.4. PSK Based LAN-to-LAN IPsec Tunnel Setup

This example describes how to configure an IPsec tunnel across the public Internet to connect
the head office network 172.16.1.0/24 on the lan interface with a branch office network
192.168.11.0/24. Assume that the branch office firewall Ethernet interface connected to the
Internet has the public IP address 203.0.113.1.

It is assumed the default IKE and IPsec proposal list are used at either end of the tunnel.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create a pre-shared key for IPsec authentication:

gw-world:/> add PSK my_scecret_key Type=ASCII PSKascii=somesecretasciikey

B. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

gw-world:/> add Interface IPsecTunnel ipsec_hq_to_branch

LocalNetwork=172.16.1.0/24
RemoteNetwork=192.168.11.0/24
RemoteEndpoint=203.0.113.1
PSK=my_secret_key

C. Configure 2 IP rules to allow traffic flow both ways in the tunnel:

i. Add an IP rule to allow traffic to flow from local to remote network:

705
 Chapter 9: VPN

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

Service=all_services
SourceInterface=lan
SourceNetwork=172.16.1.0/24
DestinationInterface=ipsec_hq_to_branch
DestinationNetwork=192.168.11.0/24
Name=hq_to_branch

ii. Add an IP rule to allow traffic to flow from remote to local network:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

Service=all_services
SourceInterface=ipsec_hq_to_branch
SourceNetwork=192.168.11.0/24
DestinationInterface=lan
DestinationNetwork=172.16.1.0/24
Name=branch_to_hq

D. Add a route that routes the remote network on the tunnel:

Change the context to be the routing table:

gw-world:/> cc RoutingTable main

Add the route:

gw-world:/main> add Route

Interface=ipsec_hq_to_branch
Network=192.168.11.0/24

Return to the default CLI context:

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

Web Interface

A. Create a pre-shared key for IPsec authentication:

1. Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Pre-Shared Key

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_secret_key

• Shared Secret: Enter a secret passphrase

• Confirm Secret: Enter the secret passphrase again

3. Click OK

B. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2. Now enter:

• Name: ipsec_hq_to_branch

706
 Chapter 9: VPN

• Local Network: 172.16.1.0/24 (This is the local network that the roaming users will
connect to)

• Remote Network: 192.168.11.0/24

• Remote Endpoint: 203.0.113.1

3. Under Authentication enter Pre-Shared Key: my_secret_key

4. Click OK

C. Configure 2 IP rules to allow traffic flow both ways in the tunnel:

i. Add an IP rule to allow traffic to flow from local to remote network:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: hq_to_branch

• Action: Allow

• Service: all_services

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: 172.16.1.0/24

• Destination Interface: ipsec_hq_to_branch

• Destination Network: 192.168.11.0/24

3. Click OK

ii. Add an IP rule to allow traffic to flow from remote to local network:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: branch_to_hq

• Action: Allow

• Service: all_services

• Source Interface: ipsec_hq_to_branch

• Source Network: 192.168.11.0/24

• Destination Interface: lan

• Destination Network: 172.16.1.0/24

3. Click OK

D. Add a route that routes the remote network on the tunnel:

707
 Chapter 9: VPN

1. Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > main > Add > Route

2. Now enter:

• Interface: ipsec_hq_to_branch

• Network: 192.168.11.0/24

3. Click OK

Now, configure the branch office firewall in a similar fashion. The local and remote gateway
networks are reversed and the head office public IP now becomes the Remote Endpoint value.
Note that the same PSK value must be used on both sides. Also, the proposal lists for IKE and
IPsec should either be the same or at least have some overlap so cryptographic methods
acceptable to both sides can be found during the IKE negotiation to set up the tunnel.

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 beforehand 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 preconfigured in NetDefendOS.

PSK Based IPsec Tunnels for Roaming Clients

The following example shows how a PSK based tunnel can be set up.

Example 9.5. PSK Based IPsec Tunnel for Roaming Clients Setup

This example describes how to configure an IPsec tunnel at the head office firewall for roaming
clients that connect to it to gain remote access to the protected network 172.16.1.0/24 which is
on the lan interface.

It is assumed the default NetDefendOS IKE and IPsec proposal list are used on the firewall and
that the clients will use proposal lists that will result in an acceptable match during the IKE
negotiation phase of tunnel setup.

Command-Line Interface

708
 Chapter 9: VPN

A. Create a pre-shared key for IPsec authentication:

gw-world:/> add PSK my_scecret_key Type=ASCII PSKascii=somesecretasciikey

B. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

gw-world:/> add Interface IPsecTunnel ipsec_roaming

LocalNetwork=172.16.1.0/24
RemoteNetwork=all-nets
PSK=my_secret_key

C. Create an IP rule to allow traffic from clients:

gw-world:/> add IPRule Action=Allow

Service=all_services
SourceInterface=ipsec_roaming
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=lan
DestinationNetwork=172.16.1.0/24
Name=roaming_clients_to_hq

Web Interface

A. Create a pre-shared key object for IPsec authentication:

1. Go to: Objects > Key Ring > Add > Pre-Shared Key

2. Now enter:

• Name: Enter a name for the key, for example my_secret_key

• Shared Secret: Enter a secret passphrase

• Confirm Secret: Enter the secret passphrase again

3. Click OK

B. Configure the IPsec tunnel object:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2. Now enter:

• Name: ipsec_roaming

• Local Network: 172.16.1.0/24

• Remote Network: all-nets

3. Under Authentication enter Pre-Shared Key: my_secret_key

4. Click OK

C. Create an IP rule to allow traffic from clients:

709
 Chapter 9: VPN

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: client_to_lan

• Action: Allow

• Service: all_services

• Source Interface: ipsec_roaming

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: lan

• Destination Network: 172.16.1.0/24

3. Click OK

Certificate Based IPsec Tunnels for Roaming Clients

Setting up client tunnels using a CA signed 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 CA signed 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 3.9, “Certificates”.

Example 9.6. Certificate Based IPsec 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 203.0.113.0/24 network with external firewall IP wan_ip.

Web Interface

A. Upload the required certificates to NetDefendOS and for each certificate:

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. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2. Now enter:

710
 Chapter 9: VPN

• Name: RoamingIPsecTunnel

• Local Network: 203.0.113.0/24 (This is the local network that the roaming users will
connect to)

• Remote Network: all-nets

• Remote Endpoint: (None)

3. For Authentication enter:

• Choose X.509 Certificates as the authentication method

• Root Certificate(s): Select the relevant CA server root and add it to the Selected list

• Gateway Certificate: Choose the relevant firewall certificate

4. Click OK

C. Finally, configure IP rules to allow the traffic to flow inside the tunnel.

Using Self-signed Certificates

IPsec tunnels in NetDefendOS can be based on self-signed certificates instead of CA signed

certificates. This is configured by having a pair of different self-signed certificates which are both
present on the firewall (or other network device) on either side of the tunnel but have their roles
as root and gateway certificate reversed at either side.

Suppose the self-signed certificate pair are called cert_A which is uploaded to or created on
firewall gateway_A and cert_B which is created on or uploaded to gateway_B. On gateway_A,
cert_A is the gateway certificate and cert_B is the root certificate for the tunnel. On gateway_B,
the situation is reversed: cert_B is the gateway certificate and cert_A is the root certificate for the
tunnel.

Note that if cert_A was created on gateway_A, it should not need to be uploaded and its private
key is already available in the key store of gateway_A. When cert_B is loaded onto gateway_A, it is
stored as a root certificate without a private key file. The situation will be the reverse on
gateway_B.

Certificate Chains

Where there is a certificate chain between the root certificate and the gateway certificate for the
IPsec tunnel, all the intermediate certificates in the chain must be uploaded and then configured
as root certificates for the tunnel.

Using IKE Config Mode

IKE Configuration Mode (Config Mode) is an extension to IKE that allows NetDefendOS to provide
configuration information to remote IPsec 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. This feature in NetDefendOS only hands out IPv4 addresses.

NetDefendOS contains only a single unnamed Config Mode Pool object that hands out IPv4
addresses. It already exists in the Web Interface but must be added when using the CLI. The way
that this object obtains those addresses is determined by setting its IP Pool Type property to one

711
 Chapter 9: VPN

of the two following settings:

• Predefined

The IPv4 addresses to be handed out are derived from a separate, specified IP Pool object in
the NetDefendOS configuration. See Section 5.5, “IP Pools” for information about configuring
these objects.

• Static

The IPv4 addresses to be handed out are derived from the Config Mode Pool object itself. In
this case, the range of IP addresses must be specified as it be would if using a separate IP Pool
object.

Defining the Config Mode Pool Object

The properties associated with a Config Mode Pool object 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 Using a Predefined IP Pool

In this example, the Config Mode Pool object is enabled by associating it with an already
configured IP Pool object called ip_pool1.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add ConfigModePool

IPPoolType=PreDefined
IPPool=my_ip_pool

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 my_ip_pool from the IP Pool object list

5. Click OK

712
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 exists, 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.

The Client's Inner and Outer IPs Should Be Different

With IKEv1, NetDefendOS requires that a roaming client's inner and outer IP addresses for the
tunnel should be different. If they are the same, connections will be dropped by NetDefendOS
and a ruleset_drop_packet log message will be generated with rule=Default_Access_Rule.

If the IP addresses must be the same, the situation can be corrected by using separate routing
tables for the tunnel itself and the traffic the tunnel carries. Alternatively, NetDefendOS can
allocate a unique IP address to clients from an IP pool using Config Mode.

9.4.4. IKEv2 Support

713
 Chapter 9: VPN

NetDefendOS supports IPsec using both the IKEv1 and IKEv2 protocols. This section describes the
specific considerations that are needed when IKEv2 is used.

The IKE Version Property

The IKE Version property of an IPsec Tunnel object determines the IKE version used when the
tunnel is set up. This property can have one of the following values:

• IKEv1 - NetDefendOS will use IKEv1 for tunnel setup. This is the default value.

• IKEv2 - NetDefendOS will use IKEv2 for tunnel setup.

• Auto - NetDefendOS will first attempt to use IKEv2 for tunnel setup and revert back to IKEv1 if
unsuccessful.

Configuring IKEv2 based IPsec tunnels is almost exactly the same as for IKEv1 but the following
differences should be noted:

• IKE Mode can only be used with IKEv1 tunnels.

• Authentication using XAuth is only possible with IKEv1. Authentication with IKEv2 must use
EAP.

• The AES-XCBC authentication algorithm is supported by IKEv2 only. If AES-XCBC is used in a

proposal list with IKEv1, it will be skipped. If AES-XCBC is the only algorithm in the proposal
list with IKEv1, tunnel setup will fail.

• The Encapsulation Mode property of an IKEv2 tunnel can only be set to Tunnel. This means
that IKEv2 should not be used with L2TP (see Section 9.5.2, “L2TP Servers”).

EAP Authentication Settings

Authentication with IKEv2 is done using EAP. The following IPsec Tunnel object properties are
used with IKv2 EAP:

• Require EAP for Inbound Tunnels

This property is disabled by default. It must be enabled if clients which initiate a connection
will be authenticated using EAP.

• Request EAP ID

This property is enabled by default and allows different EAP credentials to be used during the
IKE and IPsec phases of the tunnel. This should always be enabled when the inbuilt Microsoft
WIndows IPsec client connects. The administrator may disable this property for other types of
clients.

Global Advanced Settings for IKEv2

All the global settings that are specific to IKEv2 are listed under the IKEv2 header in Section 9.4.9,
“IPsec Advanced Settings”.

9.4.5. IKEv2 Client Setup

This section goes though the steps needed for setting up NetDefendOS to communicate with

714
 Chapter 9: VPN

roaming clients that will connect using IKEv2 with EAP authentication and using a RADIUS server
as the AAA source.

There are three parts to the setup:

• Correct installation of certificates in the client and NetDefendOS.

• Correct configuration of NetDefendOS.

• Correct configuration of the RADIUS server used for authentication.

These three parts will be discussed in the separate sections below

Installation of Certificates in the Client and NetDefendOS

EAP requires authentication using certificates and the requirements for the installed certificates
should be as follows:

• The client should have the appropriate CA root certificate installed.

With Windows, the certificate must be installed in specific location. NetDefendOS only
supports a Windows client running Windows 7 or later. The Windows installation steps are
described in detail below and must be to a specific location for IKEv2 to function correctly.

The certificate setup with other client platforms, such as Apple iOS or Android, should be
straightforward and will not described in detail.

• The same CA root certificate used by the client should also be installed in NetDefendOS.

• In addition, NetDefendOS should also have a host certificate (also known as the gateway
certificate) installed which is signed by the root CA. This host certificate must have the
following properties:

i. Either the Common Name (CN) or the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) must contain either
the IP address of the IPsec tunnels local endpoint (the IP address the client connects to)
or an FQDN that resolves to that IP address.

ii. The serverAuth property should be set.

CA Root Certificate Installation for Windows Clients

The following is a description of certificate installation for a Windows 7 client. This will be similar
for later Windows versions (earlier versions are not supported).

1. Start the Microsoft Management Console (mmc) and add the Certificates snap-In.

2. Select the Computer account option.

3. Open the folder Certificates (Local Computer) > Trusted Root Certification Authorities >
Certificates.

4. Select the Import option to start the Certificate Import Wizard.

5. Select the CA root certificate file to be imported and install it in the Trusted Root Certification
Authorities store.

Note that the certificate file should never be double-clicked. If it is, the content will end up
in the Current User instead of the Local Computer section of the Windows registry and it will

715
 Chapter 9: VPN

not be available to the IPsec client.

6. The Windows VPN client can now be configured as normal except that IPv6 must be
disabled for the connection because this is not supported.

Configuration of NetDefendOS

For the NetDefendOS configuration, the setup steps are as follows:

1. In NetDefendOS configure a Config Mode Pool object that will provide the IP addresses to
the connecting clients.

2. Add the same CA root certificate to the NetDefendOS along with a host certificate signed by
the root certificate.

3. Configure an IPsec Tunnel object that will be used for client connection.

4. Configure a RADIUS Server object in NetDefendOS that will be used for EAP authentication. It
is recommended to use an EAP method of MSCHAPv2

5. Configure an Authentication Rule object that will trigger on the connecting clients. The rule
should try to match the targeted traffic as closely as possible and should specify the Agent
property as EAP.

The details for the above NetDefendOS configuration steps can be found in the NetDefendOS
setup example found below.

RADIUS Server Setup

The following setup notes apply to a Microsoft Network Policy Server (NPS) and should be
adapted if another type of RADIUS server is being used. With an NPS, the following steps should
be performed:

1. Under NPS > Policies > Connection Request Policies, add a Connection Request Policy.

2. The Type of network access server should be set to Unspecified.

3. The Conditions part of the policy specifies any restrictions.

4. Under NPS > Policies > Network Policies, add a Network Policy with no restrictions.

5. Under Constraints, select Authentication methods and then choose an EAP method. All EAP
options are supported but EAP-MSCHAP v2 is recommended.

6. Select the NAS Port Type section of Constraints and disable all options.

7. Under RADIUS Clients, add the clients that will connect.

Example 9.9. IKEv2 EAP Client Setup

This example describes how to configure NetDefendOS to allow the setup of an IKEv2 IPsec
tunnel from a roaming client using EAP authentication. The default IKE and IPsec proposal lists
will be used.

The example assumed that the relevant certificates have been installed correctly in NetDefendOS

716
 Chapter 9: VPN

and on the client, as described previously. It also assumes that the RADIUS server used for
authentication is also correctly configured.

Note that the authentication rule in this example uses all-nets and any as its traffic filtering
parameters. In practice, it would better to narrow these properties.

Command-Line Interface

A. Create a config mode IP pool for client IPs:

gw-world:/> add ConfigModePool

IPPoolType=Static
IPPoolAddress=192.168.189.30-192.168.189.50
IPPoolNetmask=255.255.255.0
DNS=192.168.28.4

B. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

gw-world:/> add Interface IPsecTunnel my_ikev2_client_tunnel

LocalNetwork=lannet
RemoteNetwork=all-nets
AuthMethod=Certificate
GatewayCertificate=my_host_cert
RootCertificates=my_root_cert
AddRouteToRemoteNet=Yes
AutoInterfaceNetworkRoute=No
IKEVersion=2
RemoteEndpoint=all-nets
EAP=Yes
RequestEAPID=Yes
IKEConfigModePool=ConfigModePool

C. Configure the RADIUS server for authentication:

gw-world:/> add RadiusServer my_radius_server

IPAddress=203.0.113.20
SharedSecret=MYSHAREDRADIUSSECRETSTRING

D. Configure the authentication rule for the tunnel:

gw-world:/> add UserAuthRule

Agent=EAP
AuthSource=RADIUS
Interface=any
Name=my_ikev2_auth_rule
OriginatorIP=all-nets
RadiusServers=my_radius_server

Web Interface

A. Create a config mode IP pool for client IPs:

1. Go to: Objects > IKE Config Mode Pool > Add >

2. Enable the Use a Static IP pool option

3. Now enter:

717
 Chapter 9: VPN

• IP Pool : 192.168.189.30-192.168.189.50

• Netmask : 255.255.255.0

• DNS : 192.168.28.4

4. Click OK

B. Configure the IPsec tunnel:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec > Add > IPsec Tunnel

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_ikev2_client_tunnel

• Local Network: lannet

• Remote Network: all-nets

• Remote Endpoint: all-nets

• IKE Config Mode Pool: Static

3. Select IKE Settings and enter:

• Set the IKE Version to IKEv2

4. Select Authentication and enter:

• Enable the X.509 Certificate option

• For Gateway Certificate select my_host_cert

• For Root Certificate(s) add my_root_cert

• Enable the Require EAP for inbound IPsec tunnels option

• Enable the Request EAP ID option

5. Select Advanced and enter:

• Enable the Add route dynamically option

• Disable the Add route statically option

6. Click OK

C. Configure a RADIUS server for authentication:

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

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_radius_server

• IP Address: 203.0.113.20

• Shared Secret: MYSHAREDRADIUSSECRETSTRING

718
 Chapter 9: VPN

3. Click OK

D. Configure the authentication rule for the tunnel:

1. Go to: Policies > User Authentication > Authentication Rules > Add > Authentication
Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_ikev2_auth_rule

• Authentication agent: EAP

• Authentication source: RADIUS

• Interface: any

• Originator IP: all-nets

3. Select Authentication Options

4. Under RADIUS servers, add my_radius_server

5. Click OK

9.4.6. 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.

Example 9.10. 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:

719
 Chapter 9: VPN

• IP Address: 192.168.101.146

• Username: myusername

• Password: mypassword

• Confirm Password: mypassword

• Port: 389

3. Click OK

9.4.7. The IPsec Tunnel Selection Process

When an external network device initiates the setting up of an IPsec tunnel, NetDefendOS must
decide which IPsec Tunnel object in the configuration will be used when responding to the
request.

With many different IPsec Tunnel objects in a configuration, it can be useful that the
administrator understands how NetDefendOS decides which tunnel to use. The selection
decision is performed in a three stage process:

Stage 1 - IKE SA Setup

The first stage involves trying to set up an IKE SA which is the basis for a secure control channel
between the local and remote peer. The configuration properties used are:

i. Local Endpoint.

ii. Remote Endpoint.

iii. Source Interface.

iv. DH Group

Stage 2 - Authentication

In the second stage the peers authenticate themselves to each other. The matching criteria are:

i. Authentication Method

ii. Local ID - If specified, this must be acceptable to the remote peer. If not specified, and
certificates are used, a local ID specified in the tunnels host certificate must be acceptable to
the remote peer.

iii. Remote ID - If specified, the remote peer's ID must match one entry in the ID List assigned to
this property. This is explained further in Section 9.3.8, “Using ID Lists with Certificates”.

Stage 3 - IPsec SA Setup

In the final stage, the IPsec SA is negotiated. This is an addition to stage 2.

i. Local Network.

720
 Chapter 9: VPN

ii. Remote Network.

iii. IPsec Algorithms.

iv. Encapsulation Mode.

v. PFS/DH Group.

vi. Setup SA Per.

9.4.8. IPsec Tunnel Monitoring

Overview

An IPsec Tunnel object has some additional properties which, together, provide a feature called
tunnel monitoring. This is used for checking the health of a tunnel and re-establishing it should a
problem be detected. When tunnel monitoring is enabled, the following happens:

• A single external IPv4 address is specified in setting up the monitor and ICMP ping messages
are then sent once per second through the IPsec tunnel to this IP address. This happens
during the entire time the tunnel is established.

• The source IP of these ICMP messages will be the value set for the Originator IP property of
the tunnel.

• If a specified number of replies to consecutive ICMP ping messages are not received back, the
tunnel is assumed to be no longer operational and a new IPsec tunnel connection will be
automatically negotiated.

The tunnel monitor feature has similarities to the host monitoring described in Section 4.2.3,
“Route Failover” and shares the same underlying mechanism.

Tunnel Health Monitoring Alternatives

Tunnel monitoring is an efficient way of monitoring IPsec tunnel health but requires an external
host. However, it is preferable to using the Auto Establish option. Auto establish has the
disadvantage that it works at the IKE level and does not monitor the traffic flowing inside the
tunnel. There is no reason to use both tunnel monitoring and auto establish at the same time
and this should be avoided.

Dead peer detection (DPD) should not be disabled because tunnel monitoring is being used
(unless the external IPsec peer does not support DPD). DPD can work as a compliment to tunnel
monitoring if both are enabled.

Setting Up IPsec Tunnel Monitoring

The following steps are needed to set up monitoring for an IPsec Tunnel object:

• Enable monitoring on the IPsec tunnel.

• Specify a single IPv4 address as the host that should be accessible through the tunnel. The IP
address must always be part of the tunnel's remote network so no route needs to be added
for it. The host itself should be configured to respond to ICMP ping requests.

• Optionally set the number of consecutive replies that are not received before the tunnel is

721
 Chapter 9: VPN

renegotiated. This default to a value of 10 if not specified.

Viewing Tunnel Monitor Status

The status of an IPsec tunnel monitor can be viewed by using the hostmon command. Below is
an example showing messages sent for two tunnels using two different IPv4 addresses.

gw-world:/> hostmon
Monitor sessions:
Session #1:
Failed Latency ms
Reachable Proto Host Port Interval Sample (act / max) (act / max)
--------- ----- -------------- ---- -------- ------ ----------- -----------
YES ICMP 192.168.1.1 1000 5 0 / 4 20 / 3000
YES ICMP 192.168.3.1 1000 5 0 / 4 10 / 3000

If, instead, the hostmon -verbose command is used, the source IP of the ICMP messages can also
be seen.

Logging

A log event message is generated by NetDefendOS in the following instances:

• When a host is determined to be reachable, the following log message is generated:

IPSEC prio=Info id=01803600 rev=1 event=monitored_host_reachable

action=none ip=192.168.1.2 tunnel=PSK-NAT

• When a host is determined to be unreachable, the following log message is generated:

IPSEC prio=Error id=01803600 rev=1 event=monitored_host_unreachable

action=sas_deleted ip=192.168.1.2 tunnel=PSK-NAT

Example 9.11. Enabling IPsec Tunnel Monitoring

This example will enable tunnel monitoring on an existing IPsec Tunnel object called
my_ipsec_tunnel1. The host used for monitoring has the IPv4 address 203.0.11.5 and it is
acceptable to not get up to 5 replies to the ICMP messages sent.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> Set Interface IPsecTunnel my_ipsec_tunnel1

TunnelMonitor=Yes
MonitoredIP=203.0.11.5
MaxLoss=5

Web Interface

722
 Chapter 9: VPN

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > IPsec

2. Select the tunnel my_ipsec_tunnel1

3. Enter the following under Tunnel Monitor:

• Enable the Tunnel Monitor option

• Monitored IP: 203.0.11.5

• Max Loss: 5

4. Click OK

9.4.9. IPsec Advanced Settings

The following NetDefendOS advanced settings are global settings that will apply to all IPsec
tunnels. They can be found in the Web Interface by going to: Network > Interfaces and VPN >
IPsec > Advanced Settings.

General Settings (IKEv1 and IKEv2)

IPsec DS Field

The IPsec DS Field This setting is specified on a per tunnel value. The value specified is copied
into the Differentiated Service Field in the outer IP header of ESP packets sent by NetDefendOS as
part of the IPsec tunnel. In other words, no matter what the DS field value of the inner ESP
packets being carried by the tunnel, this value will replace it.

If no value is specified (the default) then the DSF value of the tunnel's inner packets will be
copied into the outer header of the tunnel's outbound ESP packets.

The DS field value is part of the DiffServ architecture and specifies a Quality of Service (QoS)
requirement for the traffic as it passes through other devices such as routers. Diffserv is discussed
further in Section 10.1, “Traffic Shaping”.

IPsec Max Rules

This specifies the total number of IP rules that can be connected to IPsec tunnels. By reducing the
number of rules, memory requirements can be reduced but making this change is not
recommended.

Default: Depends on the hardware model

IPsec Max Tunnels

Specifies the total number of IPsec tunnels allowed. 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 limit of the hardware model.

A warning log message is generated automatically when 90% of this setting's value is reached.

723
 Chapter 9: VPN

Default: Depends on the hardware model

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

724
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

General Settings (IKEv2 only)

Enable Accounting

When enabled, NetDefendOS will generate a RADIUS START accounting message for clients
which successfully authenticate using EAP. When the connection is taken down, a RADIUS STOP
message is sent.

Default: Disabled

Include Framed IP

When enabled, NetDefendOS will include the client's IP address within the RADIUS accounting
messages generated.

Note that when an EAP authenticating client is behind a NAT device that changes the client's
apparent IP address, it will not be possible to send the true IP address to the RADIUS server.

Default: Disabled

XCBC Fallback

When enabled, NetDefendOS will fallback to using XCBC (RFC 3664) if XCBC (RFC 4344) fails
during EAP authentication.

AES-XCBC-MAC is a method of generating the message authentication code (MAC) used in IKEv2
negotiations. RFC 3664 states that only key lengths of 128 bits are supported for AES-XCBC-MAC.
This is a problem with EAP since EAP authentication uses session keys of at least 512 bits. To
solve this, using only the first 128 bits of a 512 bits EAP key has become a de-facto standard for
RFC 3664.

RFC 4434 supersedes RFC 3664 and specifies a different method of adapting keys longer than
128 bits. Although RFC 4434 should theoretically be backward compatible with RFC 3664, these
different methods of adapting the key to 128 bits are not compatible in practice. This advanced
setting provides a way to fallback to using the older RFC 3664 method should authentication
using RFC 4434 fail.

If the setting is disabled then only the newer method of RFC 4434 is used and if that method fails
then authentication will fail. The disadvantage of having this setting enabled is the greater
amount of computing time needed to try both the RFC 4434 and RFC 3664 method.

725
 Chapter 9: VPN

Default: Disabled

IPsec SA Keep Time

The length of time in seconds that an SA will linger after a client initiated delete.

Default: Disabled

Require Cookie

This forces the requirement for cookies and is used for testing purposes only.

Default: Disabled

Use Client's Attribute

When enabled, use the client requested subnet attributes when allocating IP addresses using
config mode.

Default: Disabled

IPsec IP Address Validation

When enabled, the IPsec tunnel is deleted if decrypted source IP addresses do not match the
remote network.

Default: Disabled

Disable Callstation ID

If disabled, NetDefendOS sends the additional attributes Calling-Station-ID and Called-Station-ID

in the RADIUS accounting messages it sends as part of EAP authentication.

Called-Station-ID is always set by NetDefendOS to the value of the responder identity sent during
the IKEv2 negotiation. If no identity is available then the default value of "1234567891234321" is
used.

Default: Disabled

Allow Port Change

When a NAT device has been detected between the client and the NetDefend Firewall, IKEv2
negotiation will switch from port 500 to 4500 and all ESP traffic will be encapsulated in UDP
packets. Normally this port change is only done when there is a NAT device involved but some
clients may prefer port 4500 instead of 500 even when there is no NAT. If this is the case,
NetDefendOS can accept the IKEv2 connection but when the client sends IKE data, it is sent as
raw ESP packets and without this setting enabled, NetDefendOS will drop the packets since they
will be expected to be encapsulated in UDP.

When enabled, this setting allows the IKE port change even though there is no NAT.

Default: Disabled

Log Key Material

726
 Chapter 9: VPN

This setting enables logging of session keys for each new IPsec SA established. Both the
encryption key and authentication keys are logged as hexadecimal strings. Note that having
access to these keys makes it possible to decrypt captured packets offline.

Default: Disabled

Caution: Enable Key Logging for testing only

As encryption keys are highly sensitive pieces of information, this feature should be
enabled for debugging purposes only.

Dead Peer Detection Settings

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

727
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

This setting is used with IKEv1 only.

Default: 15 seconds

728
 Chapter 9: VPN

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/IPsec Roaming Clients with Pre-Shared Keys”.

• Section 9.2.6, “L2TP/IPsec 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.

729
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 9.12. Setting up a PPTP server

This example shows how to set up 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=wan_ip
Interface=any
IP=lan_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

730
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

The Outer Interface Filter can be specified to be an IPsec tunnel object. If this is done then the
tunnel should not have the Dynamically add route to remote network option enabled since
this can cause problems.

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 9.13. Setting up an L2TP server

This example shows how to set up 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=wan_ip
Interface=any
IP=ip_l2tp
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:

• Inner IP Address: ip_l2tp

• Tunnel Protocol: L2TP

• Outer Interface Filter: any

731
 Chapter 9: VPN

• Outer Server IP: wan_ip

4. Under the PPP Parameters tab, select L2TP_Pool in the IP Pool control.

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 9.14. Setting up an L2TP Tunnel Over IPsec

This example shows how to set up 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:

• Username: testuser

• Password: mypassword

• Confirm Password: mypassword

5. Click OK

732
 Chapter 9: VPN

Now, we will setup the IPsec Tunnel which will later be used with L2TP. 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. In
addition, the IPsec tunnel needs to be configured so that routes are not defined statically or add
dynamically when the tunnel is established.

B. Continue setting up the IPsec Tunnel:

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> add Interface IPsecTunnel l2tp_ipsec

LocalNetwork=wan_ip
RemoteNetwork=all-nets
PSK=MyPSK
IKEAlgorithms=Medium
IPsecAlgorithms=esp-l2tptunnel
EncapsulationMode=Transport
AutoInterfaceNetworkRoute=No
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 for IPsec Life Time seconds

5. Enter 250000 for IPsec Life Time kilobytes

6. Under the Authentication tab, select Pre-shared Key

7. Select MyPSK as the Pre-shared Key

8. Under the Advanced tab, deselect Add route statically

The option Add route statically should also be deselected.

9. Click OK

Next, set up 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:

733
 Chapter 9: VPN

Command-Line Interface

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:

734
 Chapter 9: VPN

• Agent: PPP

• 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=lan
DestinationNetwork=lannet
name=AllowL2TP

gw-world:/main> add IPRule action=NAT

Service=all_services
SourceInterface=l2tp_tunnel
SourceNetwork=l2tp_pool
DestinationInterface=wan
DestinationNetwork=all-nets
name=NATL2TP

Web Interface

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

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: lan

• Destination Network: lannet

4. Click OK

735
 Chapter 9: VPN

5. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

6. Enter a name for the rule, for example NATL2TP

7. Now enter:

• Action: NAT

• Service: all_services

• Source Interface: l2tp_tunnel

• Source Network: l2tp_pool

• Destination Interface: wan

• Destination Network: all-nets

8. Click OK

IPsec Tunnels with Transport Mode

The encapsulation mode of the IPsec tunnel in the example above is set to Transport for L2TP
and this is the recommended setting. Windows™ clients will only function with transport mode.

With transport mode, the following should be noted:

• IKEv2 only works when using Tunnel Mode for IPsec encapsulation. Therefore, IKEv1 must be
used with L2TP.

• When using transport mode with IKEv1, only the Local Endpoint and Remote Endpoint
properties of the IPsec Tunnel object are used by NetDefendOS for tunnel setup. The Local
Network and Remote Network properties are ignored.

• The Add route statically setting should be disabled. It should be enabled only if the
administrator has an in-depth understanding of how this setting functions with transport
mode.

• If Add route statically is enabled with transport mode and the OutgoingRoutingTable is
set to the same routing table as the RoutingTable, NetDefendOS will give a warning
message and disable Add route statically automatically.

The reason for this is that if it is allowed, IKE/ESP traffic will be routed into its own tunnel after
tunnel establishment. This means that a traffic loop will be created so that no ESP/IKE packets
will get sent to the tunnel's remote endpoint.

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.

736
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

The PPTP and L2TP client configuration object and share a common set of properties:

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 for the tunnel connection. This is
the IP address of the remote interface on which the remote PPTP/L2TP server will be listening
for connections. Where the remote endpoint is specified as an FQDN, the prefix dns: must be
precede it. For example: dns:server.example.com.

• Remote Network - The remote network which will be connected to inside the tunnel. Traffic
will flow between the client and this network.

• Originator IP Type - This specifies how the IP address is obtained for the local endpoint for
the outside of the tunnel. This is not the source address of traffic flowing from the client to
the server inside the tunnel. This setting can take one of two values:

i. Local interface - The local endpoint IP will be the IP address of the local interface. This is
the default.

ii. Manually specified address - The IP address is manually specified using the Originator IP
property which is described next.

• Originator IP - If the Manually specified address option is selected for the previous property,
this is the IP address that will be used as the tunnel's outer source IP. Depending on the
network topology, this address may need to be ARP published on Ethernet interfaces.

Authentication

• Username - Specifies the username to use for this PPTP/L2TP interface.

737
 Chapter 9: VPN

• 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 6.2.8, “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.

738
 Chapter 9: VPN

Figure 9.3. PPTP Client Usage

9.5.5. The l2tp and pptp Commands

NetDefendOS provides two CLI commands for monitoring the status of L2TP and PPP:

• The l2tp CLI Command

NetDefendOS provides the CLI command l2tp to show information about both L2TP clients
and servers. To list the current state of all L2TP servers and clients, the command would be
the following:

gw-world:/> l2tp -state=all

To view all the sessions for a specific L2TP server, the syntax would be:

gw-world:/> l2tp -l2tpserver=<L2TP-server-object-name>

Below is an example of some output where an L2TP tunnel object called my_l2tp_tunnel1
which has been established but has no connected clients so it is only listening.

gw-world:/> l2tp -state=all

Active and listening sessions
L2TP Tunnel Remote GW State Tunnel IDs
------------------ ------------------ --------------- ----------------
my_l2tp_tunnel1 Listening 0 44555

If there are now two servers, one without clients (listening) and one with at least one client
(established), the output might look like the following:

739
 Chapter 9: VPN

gw-world:/> l2tp -state=all

Active and listening sessions
L2TP Tunnel Remote GW State Tunnel IDs
------------------ ------------------ --------------- ----------------
my_l2tp_tunnel1 Listening 0 44555
my_l2tp_tunnel2 Listening 0 30859
my_l2tp_tunnel2 203.0.113.1 Established 32008 39949

It is also possible to examine the child sessions open in a tunnel using the -child option. An
example of this is shown below where a single session (#1) is active:

gw-world:/> l2tp -state=active -child

Active sessions
L2TP Tunnel Remote GW State Tunnel IDs
------------------ ------------------ --------------- ----------------
my_l2tp_tunnel1 203.0.113.1 Established 32008 39949
#1 - Established 1 1

• The pptp CLI Command

NetDefendOS provides the CLI command pptp to show information about both PPTP clients
and servers. The pptp command syntax and output closely follows that of the l2tp command
described above. For example, to list the current state of all PPTP servers and clients, the
command would be the following:

gw-world:/> pptp -state=all

Active and listening sessions
PPTP Tunnel Remote GW State
------------------ ------------------ ------------------
my_pptp_tunnel1 Listening
my_pptp_tunnel1 203.0.113.6 Established

Both these commands and their options are fully described in the separate NetDefendOS CLI
Reference Guide. Neither of these commands currently have an equivalent function in the Web
Interface.

740
 Chapter 9: VPN

9.6. 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.

• 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.

Note: HA clusters do not support L2TPv3

NetDefendOS high availability clusters do not support L2TPv3. It should not be
configured in an HA cluster.

9.6.1. 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.

741
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

Figure 9.4. An L2TPv3 Example

Setting up the above scenario is covered in the example below.

742
 Chapter 9: VPN

Example 9.15. 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:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > L2TPv3 Servers > Add > L2TPv3 Server

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_l2tpv3_if

• Inner IP Address: If3_ip

• Local Network: If3_net

• Outer Interface Filter: If2

• Server IP: If2_ip

3. 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

The Protocol Property

The L2TPv3 Server configuration object has a Protocol property which defines the transport
method for L2TPv3 communication at a lower protocol level. There are two options available:

743
 Chapter 9: VPN

• UDP

Using UDP as the lower level transport protocol is the default setting for this property and is
recommended. It ensures that communication is able to traverse most network equipment
and particularly if NAT is being employed in the path through network.

• IP

Using IP as the transport protocol allows packet processing to be optimized and therefore
provides a means to transport data using less processing resources. However, some network
equipment may not allow traversal and problems can occur where NAT is employed in the
path through the network. Such problems can be solved by using UDP instead.

Using IPsec for Encryption

As with standard L2TP (L2TPv2), L2TPv3 does not provide encryption. To make communication
secure, L2TPv3 should be therefore set up in conjunction with an IPsec Tunnel object and the
listening interface then becomes the tunnel.

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 9.16. 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:

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:

• Name: my_l2tpv3_if

• Inner IP Address: If3_ip

744
 Chapter 9: VPN

• Local Network: If3_net

• Outer Interface Filter: my_ipsec_tunnel

• Server IP: If2_ip

3. 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, a pair of 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. In addition, a new routing table must be defined for each pair
and each VLAN in the pair is made a member of that table.

Here is a summary of the setup steps for VLAN:

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.

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.

745
 Chapter 9: VPN

v. Transparent mode for this VLAN is enabled.

D. Define a new RoutingTable object for the pair.

E. Make each VLAN a member of this new routing table.

Example 9.17. 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

D. Define a new RoutingTable object for this VLAN pair:

gw-world:/> add RoutingTable my_vlan_rt

E. Make each VLAN in the pair a member of this new routing table:

gw-world:/> set Interface VLAN my_vlan_local

MemberOfRoutingTable=Specific
RoutingTable=my_vlan_rt

gw-world:/> set Interface VLAN my_vlan_l2tpv3

MemberOfRoutingTable=Specific
RoutingTable=my_vlan_rt

746
 Chapter 9: VPN

Web Interface

A. First, define a L2TPv3 Server object:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > L2TPv3 Servers > Add > L2TPv3 Server

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_l2tpv3_if

• Inner IP Address: If3_ip

• Local Network: If3_net

• Outer Interface Filter: If2

• Server IP: If2_ip

3. 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. 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

747
 Chapter 9: VPN

4. Select the option Enable transparent mode

5. Click OK

D. Define a new RoutingTable object for this VLAN pair:

1. Go to: Network > Routing > Routing Tables > Add > Routing Table

2. For Name enter my_vlan_rt

3. Click OK

E. Make each VLAN in the pair a member of this new routing table:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN

2. Select my_vlan_local and edit the object:

• Go to Virtual Routing

• Select Make interface a member of a specific routing table

• For the Routing Table select my_vlan_rt

• Click OK

3. Select my_vlan_l2tpv3 and edit the object:

• Go to Virtual Routing

• Select Make interface a member of a specific routing table

• For the Routing Table select my_vlan_rt

• Click OK

9.6.2. 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.

748
 Chapter 9: VPN

B. Enable transparent mode on the inner interface where the protected network is located.

Example 9.18. 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

• Inner IP Address: inner_client_ip

• Local Network: If1_net

• Pseudowire Type: Ethernet

• Protocol: UDP

• Remote Endpoint: l2tpv3_server_ip

3. 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

749
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 9.19. 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 9.14, “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

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

• Inner IP Address: inner_client_ip

• Local Network: If1_net

• Pseudowire Type: Ethernet

• Protocol: UDP

• Remote Endpoint: l2tpv3_server_ip

• IPsecInterface: l2tpv3_ipsec_tunnel

3. Click OK

B. Next, enable transparent mode on the protected interface If1:

750
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 fully described in Section 9.6.1, “L2TPv3
Server”.

When setting up the L2TPv3 client object, the PseudowireType property must be set to the value
VLAN.

751
 Chapter 9: VPN

9.7. SSL VPN

9.7.1. 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.

Cryptographic Suites and TLS Version Supported by NetDefendOS

NetDefendOS supports a number of cryptographic algorithms for SSL VPN. Only some are
enabled by default and all can be either enabled or disabled. All the supported algorithms are
listed in Section 13.9, “SSL/TLS Settings”. Note that TLS version 1.0 and 1.2 is supported by
NetDefendOS but not version 1.1. Refer to Section 13.9, “SSL/TLS Settings” for how to disable
version 1.2 so only 1.0 can be used.

By default, only the four algorithms which are considered the most secure are enabled. It is not
recommended to enable the weaker algorithms and they exist primarily for backwards
compatibility.

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

752
 Chapter 9: VPN

Terminator IP must be set to the external IP address of the firewall's listening interface.

The PPP Agent Options should be set to PAP.

Agent options are 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.
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 3.4.6, “PPPoE”.

9.7.2. 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

753
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

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.example.com. When a client connects to

754
 Chapter 9: VPN

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
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.

9.7.3. 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

755
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

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 2.1.4, “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.

756
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

757
 Chapter 9: VPN

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

758
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

9.7.4. SSL VPN Setup Example

Example 9.20. 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:

759
 Chapter 9: VPN

• 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

760
 Chapter 9: VPN

address.

Example 9.21. 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

761
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 either 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.example.com,
this should be specified as dns:vpn.example.com.

762
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 3.9.4, “CA Server Access”.

9.8.3. The ike -stat Command

The ipsec CLI command can be used to show that IPsec tunnels have correctly established. A
representative example of output is:

gw-world:/> ipsec
--- IPsec SAs:
Displaying one line per SA-bundle
IPsec Tunnel Local Net Remote Net Remote GW
------------ -------------- ------------ -------------
L2TP_IPSec 214.237.225.43 84.13.193.179 84.13.193.179
IPsec_Tun1 192.168.0.0/24 172.16.1.0/24 82.242.91.203

To examine the first IKE negotiation phase of tunnel setup use the ike command:

gw-world:/> ike

However, to get complete details of tunnel setup use:

gw-world:/> ipsec -show -verbose -usage

Warning: Be careful using the -num=all option

If there are large numbers of tunnels then avoid using the -num=all option since this
will generate correspondingly large amounts of output.

For example, with a large number of tunnels avoid using:

gw-world:/> ipsec -show -num=all

Another example of what to avoid with many tunnels is:

763
 Chapter 9: VPN

gw-world:/> ike -tunnels -num=all

In these circumstances, using the option with a small number, for example -num=10, is
recommended.

9.8.4. The ike -snoop Command

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 ike -snoop 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 ike -snoop

The ike -snoop command can be entered via a CLI console connected via a network connection
or directly via the local console.

To begin monitoring the full command is:

gw-world:/> ike -snoop

This means that the 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:/> ike -snoop 10.1.1.10

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:/> ike -snoop -off

By default, ike -snoop always creates the most verbose output. It is possible to reduce this output
volume by using the -brief option. However, this may not provide sufficient detail to identify
problems. All the ike command options can be found in the separate CLI Reference Guide.

The output from ike -snoop can be troublesome to interpret by an administrator seeing it for the
first time. Presented below, is some typical ike -snoop 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.

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

764
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

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
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 3b
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 d0
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 cd

765
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 cc
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 48
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 1f
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 56
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-03

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
proposal chosen" message will be seen, tunnel setup will fail and the ike -snoop command
output will stop at this point.

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

766
 Chapter 9: VPN

Vendor ID : 8f 9c c9 4e 01 24 8e cd f1 47 59 4c 28 4b 21 3b
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 d0
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 cd
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 cc
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 48
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 1f
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 56
Description : draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-03

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.

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
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 4. Server Sends Key Exchange Data

The Server now sends key exchange data back to the client.

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)

767
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

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

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.

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

768
 Chapter 9: VPN

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.

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
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)

769
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 ike -snoop command output will stop here.

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)
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.

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

770
 Chapter 9: VPN

Payloads:
HASH (Hash)
Payload data length : 16 bytes

9.8.5. 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.

9.8.6. Specific Error Messages

This section will deal with specific error messages that can appear in log event messages with
VPN and what they 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.
6. ruleset_drop_packet.

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 ike -snoop -verbose CLI command and have
initiation of the tunnel by the remote peer. 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 local IPsec proposal list
matches that of the remote peer. The same method described above of using ike -snoop can
be used when the remote side initiates the tunnel, comparing 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.

771
 Chapter 9: VPN

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:

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 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

772
 Chapter 9: VPN

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 ike -snoop output with normal log messages as ike -snoop
does not give 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.

• 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.

6. ruleset_drop_packet

If this appears in a log message with IKEv1 roaming clients where tunnel mode is used, it may be
caused by the client's local inner IP address being the same as the client's local outer IP address
for the tunnel. If this is the case, the log message will also have rule=Default_Access_Rule. The
problem is fixed by using config mode to allocate the client IP or using separate routing tables
for the tunnel and the data it carries. This issue is also discussed in Section 9.4.3, “Roaming Clients”.

773
 Chapter 9: VPN

9.8.7. 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 theike -snoop 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.

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 ike -snoop 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.

774
 Chapter 9: VPN

775
Chapter 10: Traffic Management

This chapter describes how NetDefendOS can manage network traffic.

• Traffic Shaping, page 776

• IDP Traffic Shaping, page 798

• Threshold Rules, page 803

• Server Load Balancing, page 807

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 in the following ways:

• NetDefendOS forwards the 6 bits which make up the DiffServ Differentiated Services Code
Point (DSCP).

• 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.

776
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

The Traffic Shaping Solution

However, architectures like DiffServ 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

777
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 both the source
and destination for the interface and 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.

778
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

779
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 3.7, “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

780
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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?

781
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

782
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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

783
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

784
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

• 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.

785
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 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

786
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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

787
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

788
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

789
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 100 Kbps. 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

790
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

791
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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:

792
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

793
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 0 0 7 PerDestIP 24 1000 Kbps
out-pipe 0 0 7 PerSrcIP 24 1000 Kbps

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 Forward Return Source Source Destination Destination Selected

Name Pipes Pipes Interface Network Interface Network 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:

794
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

• Priority 6 - VoIP (500 Kbps)

• Priority 4 - Citrix (250 Kbps)

• 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 Forward Return Source Source Dest Dest Selected Prece

Name Pipes Pipes Interface Network Interface Network Service dence
web_surf out-pipe in-pipe lan lannet wan all-nets http-all 0
voip out-pipe in-pipe lan lannet wan all-nets H323 6
citrix out-pipe in-pipe lan lannet wan all-nets citrix 4
other out-pipe in-pipe lan lannet wan all-nets all_services 2

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 Forward Return Source Source Dest Dest Selected Prece

Name Pipes Pipes Interface Network Interface Network Service dence
other out-other in-other lan lannet wan all-nets all_services 2
out-pipe in-pipe

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.

795
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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, a 2/2 Mbps symmetric
link is assumed.

The pipes required will be:

• vpn-in

• Priority 6: VoIP 500 Kbps

• Priority 0: Best effort

Total: 1700

• vpn-out

• Priority 6: VoIP 500 Kbps

• Priority 0: Best effort

Total: 1700

• in-pipe

• Priority 6: VoIP 500 Kbps

Total: 2000

• out-pipe

• Priority 6: VoIP 500 Kbps

Total: 2000

The following pipe rules are then needed to force traffic into the correct pipes and precedence
levels:

Rule Forward Return Src Source Dest Destination Selected Prece

Name Pipes Pipes Int Network Int Network Service dence
vpn_voip_out vpn-out vpn-in lan lannet vpn vpn_remote_net H323 6
out-pipe in-pipe
vpn_out vpn-out vpn-in lan lannet vpn vpn_remote_net all_services 0
out-pipe in-pipe
vpn_voip_in vpn-in vpn-out vpn vpn_remote_net lan lannet H323 6
in-pipe out-pipe
vpn_in vpn-in vpn-out vpn vpn_remote_net lan lannet all_services 0
in-pipe out-pipe
out out-pipe in-pipe lan lannet wan all-nets all_services 0

796
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

Rule Forward Return Src Source Dest Destination Selected Prece

Name Pipes Pipes Int Network Int Network Service dence
in in-pipe out-pipe wan all-nets lan lannet all_services 0

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 Forward Return Source Source Dest Dest Selected Prece

Name Pipes Pipes Interface Network Interface Network Service 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.

797
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 6.6, “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.

798
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

799
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

800
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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

801
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

802
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 rules feature is not available on the DFL-260E.

Threshold Policies

A threshold rule is like other policy based rules found in NetDefendOS. A filtering combination of
source/destination network/interface can be specified as well as a service such as HTTP. Each rule
can have one or more Threshold Action objects added to it as children and these specify how to
handle different threshold conditions.

A Threshold Action object has the following key properties:

• 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

A rule can be specified to either limit the number of connections per second or limit the total
number of concurrent connections.

Connection rate Limiting allows an administrator to put a limit on the number of new
connections being opened per second.

Total connection limiting allows the administrator to put a limit on the total number of
connections opened. This function is extremely useful when NAT pools are used since
peer-to-peer applications can require large numbers of connections.

The Group By Setting

The two groupings allowed for this property are the following:

• Host Based

803
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 is 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 attempts from internal hosts. More information on this feature can be found in
Chapter 12, ZoneDefense.

Threshold Rule Blacklisting

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

804
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

Example 10.3. Creating a Threshold Rule

This example will create a Threshold Rule object will drop connections that exceed more than 100
connections per second from a single source IP address. The rule will be applied to HTTP
connections from the Internet arriving on the wan interface.

In addition, when the threshold is exceeded, all HTTP traffic from the source IP will be blacklisted
for 5 minutes (300 seconds) and any existing connections from that IP will be dropped when the
theshold rule is triggered.

Here, the expectation is that a SAT rule would translate the destination address to the IP address
of a protected webserver.

Command-Line Interface

First create the threshold rule:

gw-world:/> add ThresholdRule

SourceInterface=wan
SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
Name=limit_dmz

Next, change the context to be the new rule and add a threshold action to it:

gw-world:/> cc ThresholdRule limit_dmz

gw-world:/1(limit_dmz)> add ThresholdAction
Threshold=100
ThresholdUnit=Conns
Action=Protect
GroupBy=SourceIP
BlackList=Yes
BlackListBlockOnlyService=Yes
BlackListTimeToBlock=300
BlackListIgnoreEstablished=No

Web Interface

First create the threshold rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Traffic Management > Threshold Rules > Add > Threshold Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: limit_dmz

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: all_nets

805
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

Next, add the threshold action to the rule:

3. Select Threshold Action

4. Select Add > Threshold Action

5. Now enter:

• Action: Protect

• Group by: Host based

• Enable Blacklist

• Time to block: 300

• Enable Block only service

• Disable Ignore Established

6. Click OK

806
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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 using either an IP Rule with an Action of SLB_SAT or using an
SLB Policy object. This section describes both methods.

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 NetDefend models

The SLB feature is not available on the DFL-260E.

The illustration below shows a typical SLB scenario, with Internet access to internal server
applications by external clients being managed by a NetDefend Firewall.

807
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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.

808
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

• 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 or TLS 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 options for stickiness 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

809
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

coming from the same client. If this is the case then stickiness is required.

• 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.

810
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

The default value for this setting is a network size of 24.

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 server, 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.

811
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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

812
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

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
web_slb_allow Allow wan all-nets core wan_ip http-all

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
web_slb_allow Allow wan all-nets core wan_ip http-all

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.

Tip: SLB Policy objects simplify setup

In the following example, multiple IP Rule objects are used to implement SLB. These can
be replaced instead by a single IP Policy object. Doing this is described in
Section 10.4.7, “SLB Policy”.

Example 10.4. Setting up SLB with IP Rules

In this example, server load balancing is performed between two HTTP web servers situated
behind the NetDefend Firewall. These web servers have the private IPv4 addresses 192.168.1.10
and 192.168.1.11. Access by external clients 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. Note that this example is replicated, but

813
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

using a single IP Policy object, in Example 10.4, “Setting up SLB with IP Rules”.

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

gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address server2 Address=192.168.1.11

B. Create an IP4Group which contains the 2 web server addresses:

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

814
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

5. Repeat the above to create an object called server2 for the 192.168.1.11 IP address

B. Create an IP4Group which contains the 2 web server addresses:

1. Go to: Objects > Address Book > Add > IP4 Group

2. Enter a suitable name, for example server_group

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. Now 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 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. Now enter:

• Name: web_slb_nat

• Action: NAT

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: lan

• Source Network: lan_net

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

3. Click OK

815
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

E. Specify an Allow IP rule for the external clients:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > IP Rule

2. Now enter:

• Name: web_slb_allow

• Action: Allow

• Service: http-all

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

3. Click OK

10.4.7. SLB Policy

A Server Load Balancing Policy (SLB Policy) is a recommended and alternative method to using IP
Rule objects for setting up server load balancing. The following example is a duplicate of
Example 10.4, “Setting up SLB with IP Rules” but uses a single SLB Policy object instead of multiple
IP Rule objects.

Example 10.5. Setting up SLB with an SLB Policy

In this example, server load balancing is performed between two HTTP web servers situated
behind the NetDefend Firewall. These web servers have the private IPv4 addresses 192.168.1.10
and 192.168.1.11. Access by external clients is via the wan interface which has the IPv4 address
wan_ip.

The default SLB values for monitoring, distribution method and stickiness are used.

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

gw-world:/> add Address IP4Address server2 Address=192.168.1.11

B. Specify the SLB Policy object:

gw-world:/> add SLBPolicy SourceInterface=wan

SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
Name=my_web_slb_policy
SLBAddresses=server1,server2

816
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

The above will only allow access by external clients on the Internet. To also allow internal clients
on lannet access, the IP Policy must be rewritten using an Interface Group object which combines
both the wan and lan interfaces.

A-2: First, create the InterfaceGroup:

add Interface InterfaceGroup my_if_group Members=wan,lan

B-2: Now, create an SLBPolicy object:

gw-world:/> add SLBPolicy SourceInterface=my_if_group

SourceNetwork=all-nets
DestinationInterface=core
DestinationNetwork=wan_ip
Service=http-all
Name=my_web_slb_policy
SLBAddresses=my_server_group

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, in this 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. Specify the SLB_SAT IP rule:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > SLB Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_web_slb_policy

• Source Interface: wan

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

• Service: http-all

3. Add server1 and server2 to Selected

4. Click OK

The above will only allow access by external clients on the Internet. To also allow internal clients
on lannet access, the IP Policy must be rewritten using an Interface Group object which combines
both the wan and lan interfaces.

817
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

A-2: First, create an InterfaceGroup:

1. Go to: Network > Interfaces and VPN > Interface Groups > Add > Interface Group

2. Enter:

• Name: my_if_group

• Selected: wan and lan

3. Add server1 and server2 to Selected

4. Click OK

B-2. Now, create the SLBPolicy object:

1. Go to: Policies > Firewalling > Main IP Rules > Add > SLB Policy

2. Now enter:

• Name: my_web_slb_policy

• Source Interface: my_if_group

• Source Network: all-nets

• Destination Interface: core

• Destination Network: wan_ip

• Service: http-all

• Selected: server1 and server2

3. Click OK

818
 Chapter 10: Traffic Management

819
Chapter 11: High Availability

This chapter describes the high availability fault-tolerance feature in NetDefend Firewalls.

• Overview, page 820

• HA Mechanisms, page 823

• Setting Up HA, page 827

• HA Issues, page 834

• Upgrading an HA Cluster, page 837

• Link Monitoring and HA, page 839

• HA Advanced Settings, page 840

11.1. Overview
HA Clusters

NetDefendOS High Availability (HA) provides a fault tolerant capability for 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 by a synchronization link and make up a
logical HA Cluster. One of the units in a cluster will be active while the other unit will be 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 not available on all NetDefend models

The HA feature is not available on the DFL-260E and DFL-860E.

820
 Chapter 11: High Availability

HA Requires Similar Hardware

The master and slave in an HA cluster will normally have identical D-Link hardware
configurations and D-Link does not support clusters that use dissimilar hardware. An HA cluster
made up of two dissimilar hardware models is not supported by D-Link.

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 cluster through the Web Interface or CLI, the configuration on one cluster
unit can be changed and this will then be automatically copied to the other unit, provided that
automatic synchronization is enabled for both cluster units (by default, it is). Turning off
automatic synchronization and changing the cluster units separately is not recommended.

Automatic synchronization involves a process of one unit failing over to the other when a
configuration change is saved. For example, if a change is made to the inactive unit and saved,
the inactive unit will become the active unit so the other cluster unit can be updated. It does not
matter if the changes are made to the active or inactive unit although it is usual practice to
change the inactive unit.

When the active unit is changed, two failovers occur. The active unit first goes inactive so it can
update, then becomes active again as the other unit updates. This method leaves the active unit
as still the active unit and this can be desirable in some circumstances. For example,where a
feature does not support HA, such as L2TP, connections will not be lost

Example 11.1. Enabling Automatic Cluster Synchronization

This example enables automatic cluster synchronization on a NetDefend Firewall which is

already part of an HA cluster. This setting is enabled by default when HA is enabled but this
example is provided for completeness. This setting should always be set to the same value on

821
 Chapter 11: High Availability

both cluster units.

Command-Line Interface

gw-world:/> set HighAvailability Sync=Yes

Web Interface

1. Go to: System > Device > High Availability

2. Enable the option: Synchronize Configuration

3. Click OK

Load Sharing

D-Link HA clusters do not provide a load sharing capability 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.

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.

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 2.4.2, “The Link Monitor”.

822
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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.

823
 Chapter 11: High Availability

• 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

824
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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

825
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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.

826
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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:

• Physical setup of the HA cluster and decisions about IP addresses is first discussed in
Section 11.3.1, “Hardware Setup”.

• Configuration of NetDefendOS is then discussed and this is divided into:

i. Using the Web Interface wizard is discussed in Section 11.3.2, “Wizard HA Setup”.

ii. Performing NetDefendOS setup without the wizard is discussed in Section 11.3.3,
“Manual HA Setup”.

• Lastly, verifying HA operation is discussed in Section 11.3.4, “Verifying that the Cluster Functions
Correctly”.

11.3.1. Hardware Setup

The steps for the setup of hardware in an HA cluster are as follows:

1. Start with two identical NetDefend Firewalls of the same model and with the same set of
available Ethernet interfaces. Both may be newly purchased or an existing hardware 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:

• 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.

• Select one unique interface on the master and slave which is to be used by the units for
monitoring each other. This will be the sync interface. It is recommended that the same
interface is used on both master and slave, assuming they are similar systems.

Caution: The sync interface must be unique

With some hardware, an interface may be part of a switch fabric which joins a
set of interfaces together.

If such an interface is used as the HA sync interface then the other interfaces
connected to the same switch fabric cannot be used for other purposes.

Also keep in mind that there should be no NetDefendOS IP rules configured that include
the sync interface.

• Connect together the sync interfaces. This can be done directly with a suitable cable or
through a separate switch (or broadcast domain).

4. 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:

827
 Chapter 11: High Availability

• 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.
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 2.1.2, “Configuring 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.

828
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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
interfaces of each unit. Alternatively, the connection could be via a switch or broadcast
domain.

Wizard and Manual Software Setup

The software setup procedures are now divided into the two sections that follow:

• Section 11.3.2, “Wizard HA Setup” for fast, simple setup.

• Section 11.3.3, “Manual HA Setup” for step by step manual setup, without the wizard.

11.3.2. Wizard HA Setup

NetDefendOS provides a wizard to automate the HA setup procedure. The wizard needs to be

829
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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
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:

830
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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, without the wizard, 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.

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.

831
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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. When using the Web
Interface or CLI for management the configurations of the two units will be automatically
synchronized, provided automatic synchronization is enabled. To change something in a cluster
configuration, log on to either the master or the slave unit as an administrator, make the change,
then save and activate. The change is automatically made to both units. Automatic
synchronization is discussed in more depth in Section 11.1, “Overview”.

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

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

832
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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 (found in System > Advanced Settings >
Misc. Settings in the Web Interface) 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 13.10, “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.

833
 Chapter 11: High Availability

11.4. HA Issues
The following points should be kept in mind when configuring and managing an HA Cluster.

ALGs are Not State Synchronized

No aspect of ALGs are state synchronized in a NetDefendOS high availability cluster. This means
that all traffic handled by ALGs will freeze when a cluster fails over to the other peer. However, if
the cluster fails back over to the original peer within approximately half a minute, frozen sessions
and their associated transfers should begin working again.

Transparent Mode

There is no loop avoidance with HA so this should not be configured with HA. Switch routes and
therefore transparent mode do not have state synchronization.

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 HA support for the following:

• PPTP
• 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. The timeout for this varies
depending on the client and is typically within the range of a few seconds to a few minutes.

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. If either type of client is configured on
an interface, this will result in the error message Shared HA IP address not set when trying to
commit the configuration.

Real-time Monitoring

The Real-time Monitor will not automatically track the active NetDefend Firewall. If a Real-time
Monitor graph shows nothing but the connection count moving, then the cluster has probably
failed over to the other unit.

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

834
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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.

Logging

Log data will be coming from both master and slave. This means that the log receiver will have to
be configured to receive logs from both. It also means that all log queries will likely have to
include both master and slave as sources which will give all the log data in one result view.
Normally, the inactive unit will not be sending log entries about live traffic so the output should
look similar to that from one NetDefend Firewall.

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
alive" heartbeats to the inactive unit through any of its interfaces, even though one or more
interfaces may be inoperative.

However, by utilizing the NetDefendOS link monitoring feature, NetDefendOS can be configured
to trigger immediate HA failover on interface failure. This is discussed further in Section 11.6, “Link
Monitoring and HA”.

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

835
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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.

836
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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 affect 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

837
 Chapter 11: High Availability

C. Cause a failover to occur

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.

838
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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 2.4.2, “The Link Monitor”.

839
 Chapter 11: High Availability

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

HA Failover Time

840
 Chapter 11: High Availability

Number of milliseconds that the active unit in the cluster has been unresponsive before a
failover is initiated by the inactive unit.

Default: 750

841
 Chapter 11: High Availability

842
Chapter 12: ZoneDefense

ZoneDefense Blocks Hosts or Networks Using Switches

ZoneDefense is a feature that can be used as a counter-measure to stop a threat-infected

computer in a local network from infecting other computers.

When hosts or clients in a network become infected with a virus or another form of threat, this
can often show its presence through anomalous behavior, such as large numbers of new
connections being opened to outside hosts. With the ZoneDefense feature, NetDefendOS can
automatically instruct a D-Link switch to block access to a host or network when such unusual
behavior is detected.

The ZoneDefense feature will only function with switches manufactured by D-Link and a list of
the supported switches is given later in this section.

Note: ZoneDefense is not available on all NetDefend models

The ZoneDefense feature is not available on the DFL-260E.

ZoneDefense Makes Use of 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.

For ZoneDefense, NetDefendOS uses SNMP to control switch behavior. Management privileges
to a switch are gained by NetDefendOS using the configured SNMP Community String for write
access. The appropriate Management Information Base (MIB) file is then used by NetDefendOS to
determine how commands should be sent to a switch.

All relevant MIB files are already loaded into NetDefendOS but when configuring ZoneDefense,
NetDefendOS needs to be told which MIB to use. For older D-Link switches this is done by
specifying the exact switch product name. However, newer D-Link switches use a common
Universal MIB so the exact switch type need not to be specified.

Threshold Rules Can Trigger ZoneDefense

By setting up a NetDefendOS Threshold Rule, hosts or networks that are exceeding a defined
connection threshold can be dynamically blocked using the ZoneDefense feature. Thresholds are

843
 Chapter 12: ZoneDefense

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). These rules are discussed further in Section 10.3, “Threshold Rules”.

Blocking Uses ACL Uploads

When NetDefendOS detects that a host or a network has reached the specified threshold limit, it
uploads Access Control List (ACL) rules to the relevant switch 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.

Supported D-Link Switches

Every switch that is to be controlled by NetDefend Firewall has to be manually specified in the
NetDefendOS configuration.

The information that must be specified in the configuration setup in order to control a switch
includes:

• The IP address of the management interface of the switch.

• The switch model type (or Universal MIB for newer switches).

• The SNMP community string for write access to the switch.

ZoneDefense supports all newer D-Link switches which use the Universal MIB. In addition, the
following older D-Link switches are also supported.

• 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)

844
 Chapter 12: ZoneDefense

• 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

It is advisable when using ZoneDefense to make sure that all switches have the latest
firmware version installed.

Using Threshold Rules

A threshold rule will trigger ZoneDefense to block out a specific host or a network if the
connection limit specified in the threshold rule is exceeded. The triggering 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 object has the following properties:

• 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 detailed discussion of how to specify threshold rules, see Section 10.3, “Threshold Rules”.

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

845
 Chapter 12: ZoneDefense

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. Setting Up ZoneDefense

This example illustrates ZoneDefense setup where a host on a switch is blocked because a
threshold rule for HTTP traffic triggers. It is assumed that all interfaces on the NetDefend Firewall
have already been configured as shown below.

An HTTP threshold of 10 connections/second is to be applied to traffic. If the connection rate

exceeds this, NetDefendOS will instruct the switch to block the host (within the network range
192.168.2.0/24).

A D-Link switch of model type DES-3226S is assumed, with a management interface address of
192.168.1.250 and it is connected to a firewall interface with address 192.168.1.1. This interface
will be added into the exclude list to prevent the firewall itself from being accidentally blocked
by the switch.

Web Interface

Add a new switch into ZoneDefense section:

1. Go to: Policies > Intrusion Prevention > ZoneDefense > Switches

2. Select Add > ZoneDefense Switch

3. Now enter:

• Name: switch1

• Switch model: DES-3226S

• IP Address: 192.168.1.250

4. For the SNMP Community field enter the Write Community String value configured for the

846
 Chapter 12: ZoneDefense

switch.

5. Click Check Switch to verify that the firewall can communicate with the switch and the
community string is correct.

6. Click OK

Add the firewall's management interface into the exclude list:

1. Go to: Policies > Intrusion Prevention > 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:

• Name: HTTP-Threshold

• Service: http

3. For Address Filter enter:

• Source Interface: Enter the firewall's management interface

• Destination Interface: any

• Source Network: 192.168.2.0/24 (or the address object name)

• Destination Network: all-nets

4. Click OK

Specify the threshold, the threshold type and the action to take if exceeded:

1. Go to: Add > Threshold Action

2. Configure the Threshold 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

847
 Chapter 12: ZoneDefense

ZoneDefense with Anti-Virus Scanning

ZoneDefense can also be used in conjunction 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 can be activated via 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.

Anti-virus scanning is described further in Section 6.5, “Anti-Virus Scanning” and in the sections
covering the individual ALGs.

ZoneDefense Limitations

There are some differences in ZoneDefense operation depending on the switch model:

• The first difference is the latency between the triggering of a blocking rule to the moment
when a switch 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 performing the
ZoneDefense setup.

848
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 849

• TCP Level Settings, page 853

• ICMP Level Settings, page 859

• State Settings, page 860

• Connection Timeout Settings, page 862

• Length Limit Settings, page 864

• Fragmentation Settings, page 867

• Local Fragment Reassembly Settings, page 871

• SSL/TLS Settings, page 872

• Miscellaneous Settings, page 875

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

849
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

attack to be based on illegal checksums.

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

850
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

Multicast TTL on Low

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

851
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

IP router alert option

How to handle IP packets with contained route alert.

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

852
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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.

853
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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 acknowledgment 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

854
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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.

Note that this TCP option is obsoleted by RFC 6247 and only some network equipment will make
use of it.

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.

Note that this TCP option is obsoleted by RFC 6247 and only some network equipment will make
use of it.

Default: StripLog

TCP Option CC

Determines how NetDefendOS will handle connection count options.

Note that this TCP option is obsoleted by RFC 6247 and only some network equipment will make
use of it.

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.

855
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

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.

856
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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.

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.

857
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

Allow TCP Reopen

Allow clients to re-open TCP connections that are in the closed state.

Default: Disabled

858
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

859
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

860
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

• 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

861
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

862
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

863
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

864
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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.

865
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

Default: Enabled

866
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

867
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

868
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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,

869
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

870
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

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

871
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

13.9. SSL/TLS Settings

These global settings affect the operation of both SSL VPN and the TLS ALG (see Section 9.7, “SSL
VPN” and Section 6.2.11, “The TLS ALG”).

Min SSL Version

This selects the version of SSL that NetDefendOS will support. The options are the following:

• TLSv1.0 - Either TLS version 1.0 or 1.2 is acceptable.

• TLSv1.2- Only TLS version 1.2 is acceptable.

NetDefendOS provides support for TLS version 1.2 as defined by RFC 5246. TLS version 1.1 is not
supported.

Default: TLSv1.2

SSL Processing Priority

The maximum amount of CPU resources that SSL processing is allowed to use for opening new
SSL connections. This setting affects all NetDefendOS subsystems that make use of SSL
processing.

If the proportion of CPU time allocated is not sufficient then some SSL connection setups may fail
under a heavy SSL load and the following log message will be seen:

SSL Handshake: Disallow ClientKeyExchange. Closing down SSL connection

The solution to the problem is to increase the maximum CPU resources available from the
default setting of Normal (about 17%) up to either High (about 25%) or Very High (about 50%).
However, a higher CPU allocation may adversely effect the responsiveness of other NetDefendOS
subsystems.

Lowering the priority is not normally needed unless there is a reason to reduce the CPU time
allocated to SSL connection setup.

Default: Normal (about 17%)

Recommended SSL/TLS Cipher Suites

The following cipher-suites are the recommended suites to use because of their security.

TLS RSA WITH AES 256 CBC SHA256

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256.

Default: Enabled

TLS RSA WITH AES 256 CBC SHA1

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA1.

Default: Enabled

872
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

TLS RSA WITH AES 128 CBC SHA256

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256.

Default: Enabled

TLS RSA WITH AES 128 CBC SHA1

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA1.

Default: Enabled

TLS RSA 3DES 168 SHA1

Enable cipher RSA_WITH_3DES_168_SHA1.

Default: Enabled

Deprecated SSL/TLS Cipher Suites

The following cipher-suites are deprecated because of poor security and disabled by default but
can be enabled if required although this is not recommended.

TLS RSA RC4 128 SHA1

Enable cipher RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA1.

Default: Disabled

TLS RSA RC4 128 MD5

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5.

Default: Disabled

TLS RSA EXPORT 1024 RC4 56 SHA1

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_56_SHA1.

Default: Disabled

TLS RSA EXPORT 1024 RC4 40 MD5

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_40_MD5.

Default: Disabled

TLS RSA EXPORT 1024 RC2 40 MD5

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC2_40_MD5.

873
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

Default: Disabled

TLS RSA EXPORT NULL SHA1

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_NULL_SHA1 (no encryption, just message validation).

Default: Disabled

TLS RSA EXPORT NULL MD5

Enable cipher TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_NULL_MD5 (no encryption, just message validation).

Default: Disabled

Important: AES and 3DES algorithms are recommended

By default, all symmetric encryption algorithms except AES and 3DES are disabled. It is
not recommended that this is changed. The algorithms disabled by default are
considered to be insecure at the time this document was written.

If the administrator does enable any of the weaker algorithms, NetDefendOS will issue a
warning when the configuration is committed and will continue to display a warning in
the system summary page of the Web Interface.

874
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

13.10. 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

Dynamic High Buffers

This setting decides if NetDefendOS will automatically specify the High Buffers value. The default
value is 3% of total available memory, with a lower limit of 1024
Note that in addition to this there is always an extra 512 Kbytes allocated for buffers.

This setting requires a NetDefendOS restart for a new value to take effect. A reconfiguration is
not sufficient.

Default: Enabled

High Buffers

If Dynamic High Buffers is not enabled then this number of buffers will be allocated in RAM
above the 1 MByte limit. When troubleshooting problems, raising this value can sometimes
provide a solution.

This setting requires a NetDefendOS restart, for example using the shutdown command, for a
new value to take effect. A reconfiguration is not sufficient.

Default: 1024

Important: Setting high buffers is not recommended

Enabling the setting Dynamic High Buffers is recommended for most configurations.
Rarely, NetDefendOS support personnel might recommend disabling it and specifying a

875
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

fixed value for some specific issues.

If NetDefendOS is upgraded, Dynamic High Buffers should be enabled since the

memory requirements of a new version may change and NetDefendOS should be
allowed to allocate the required memory automatically. Support personnel might still
recommend using a fixed value after the upgrade.

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
be allocated, regardless of this setting. For more information about pipes and pipe users, see
Section 10.1, “Traffic Shaping”.

Default: 512

Application Control Memory Optimization Level

This specifies the percentage of total fee NetDefendOS memory when application control will
optimize memory by freeing up space. This feature is disabled if the setting has a value of zero.

Only in unusual circumstances will application control use up a high level of total system
memory. This setting puts a maximum limit of how much memory can be used. When this
maximum is reached, the application control subsystem will restart and clear all its memory
usage. When this occurs, no traffic connections will not be dropped but application control will
not be applied during the restart period.

This setting can be raised to a higher value if these restarts are occurring too often. Each restart
will generate a log message with the event name appctl_memory_optimized.

Default: 5

Anti-Virus Cache Lifetime

This specifies the lifetime in minutes of entires in the anti-virus cache. This setting is explained
further in Section 6.5.5, “The Anti-Virus Cache”.

Default: 20

WCF Performance Log

This enables or disables the performance log for dynamic web content filtering. This is described
in detail Section 6.3.4.6, “The WCF Performance Log”.

Default: Disabled

Allow IP Rules

This enables or disables the usage of IP rules in NetDefendOS. When disabled, only IP Policy
objects can be configured in IP rule sets. Existing IP Rule objects will not be affected when this
setting is disabled.

Default: Disabled

876
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

Poll Offloading

Poll offloading is a feature that is available on certain hardware platforms and increases
throughput by distributing interface polling functions to another processing core. It is enabled
by default where available and should only be disabled for debugging purposes.

Default: Enabled

Number of polling cores

This is the number of processing cores used by poll offloading if it is enabled and functioning.
This setting should be left at the default value.

Default: 1

Pseudo Reassembly Settings

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. The minimum value is
1. The maximum value is 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

Screen Saver Settings

Timeout

The time in seconds before NetDefendOS automatically enables its screen saver for a
NetDefendOS Software only installation. The screen saver will automatically adapt its activity to
the current CPU load of the system. During high loads, it will update once per second,
consuming a fraction of a percent of CPU load.

Default: 300 seconds (5 minutes)

877
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

Screen Saver Selection

The type of screen saver used.

Default: Blank

Status Bar Selection

The status bar control.

Default: Auto

878
 Chapter 13: Advanced Settings

879
Appendix A: Subscribing to Updates
Overview

The following NetDefendOS features all require a valid subscription to function:

• Anti-Virus.

• Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP).

• Web Content Filtering.

• DCC (part of the email filtering module).

In addition, the databases related to some of these features are constantly being updated. For
these features to function, and to have access to the latest database 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 that NetDefendOS has access to the public
Internet 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 subscriptions when expiry alerts appear

Renew your subscription well before your current subscription ends! Do not leave it to
the last minute. NetDefendOS will issue an alert in the Web Interface that warns
subscription expiry is approaching. The alert will start appearing between 30 days and
23 days prior to expiry. The expiry check is done by NetDefendOS every 7 days.

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.

880
 Appendix A: Subscribing to Updates

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.

Note: Updating the database causes a pause in processing

Some database updates such as for anti-virus can require a brief processing delay once
an update is downloaded. This can cause the firewall traffic flow to momentarily pause.
It can therefore be best to set the timing of updates to be at times with minimal traffic,
such as in the early hours of the morning. Deleting a database can cause a similar pause
in processing.

Database Console Commands

Database updates can be controlled directly through a number of console commands and these
are listed below:

• Pre-empting Database 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

This command shows the following information for all available servers:

i. Server IP - The IPv4 address of the server.

ii. Response time - The current response time in milliseconds from a test communication
with each server.

iii. Packet loss - The packet loss seen in the test for that server.

iv. Precedence - One server will be designated as Primary and the others Backup. The
Primary will always be the one used for downloads to NetDefendOS. If it becomes
unavailable, one of the backup servers will become the primary.

881
 Appendix A: Subscribing to Updates

• 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:/> updatecenter -removedb=idp

To remove the anti-virus database, use the command:

gw-world:/> updatecenter -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 long periods of
time.

Note: An equals sign or space can be used with updatecenter

In the updatecenter command options, the equals sign between the option and its
value can be a space or an equals sign. For example:

update center -update=antivirus

Can be written as:

update center -update antivirus

Subscription Expiry Behavior

The behavior on subscription expiry varies according to the subsystem. The following occurs:

• Anti-Virus

Subscription expiry results in anti-virus scanning operating normally but the signature
database will not be updated until the subscription is renewed.

• IDP

Subscription expiry results in the same behavior as for anti-virus. IDP scanning will operate
normally but the signature database will not be updated until the subscription is renewed.

• Dynamic Web Content Filtering

Subscription expiry results in the feature being disabled and all web sites being allowed. The
following log message is generated by NetDefendOS if the subscription expires:

content_filtering_disabled no_valid_license

• DCC in Email Filtering

i. The Web Interface will display the following message when displaying the Email Control
Profile definition:

Warning: No valid DCC License exists

882
 Appendix A: Subscribing to Updates

ii. DCC checking will be bypassed.

iii. A log message will be generated for every email not checked with DCC.

• 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.

883
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 6.6, “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

884
 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

885
 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

886
 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

887
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

888
 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

889
 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

890
 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
z Unix compressed file

891
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.

892
Appendix E: DFL-260E/860E Port Based VLAN
VLAN support on the NetDefend DFL-260E and DFL-860E firewalls is divided into two types:

• On Ethernet interfaces other than LAN interfaces, VLANs are created by configuring them in
NetDefendOS in the normal way. It is NetDefendOS that then takes on the task of adding and
recognizing VLAN tags in packets. It is not a hardware function.

Setting up these standard types of VLAN with the DFL-260E and DFL-860E is discussed in
Section 3.4.4, “VLAN”.

• For the LAN interfaces only, VLANs are configured in NetDefendOS in a different way.

All the LAN interfaces are connected together by a common hardware switch fabric and this
fabric also takes care of managing the packet tagging for any VLANs configured on the
interfaces. This allows the ability to configure Port Based VLANs.

This appendix describes configuring port based VLANs for of the LAN interfaces.

The arrangement of VLANs on the LAN interfaces has the following characteristics:

• Each one of the DFL-260E and DFL-860E LAN interfaces has the possibility of being a separate
VLAN or part of a VLAN group.

• The DFL-260E and DFL-860E LAN interfaces can be grouped together onto VLANs with
arbitrary numbers of physical ports in each VLAN. For example, the interfaces could be
divided so that the first 2 interfaces are part of one VLAN, the next 2 interfaces are part of a
second VLAN and the remainder are left in normal operation.

• The LAN interfaces that are not part of a VLAN will continue to operate as a single interface
with the logical interface name LAN.

Configuring VLANs

How to configure port based VLANs will be illustrated with an example. Assume that the
requirement is to divide the LAN interfaces as follows:

• The first LAN interface will continue to operate normally through the switch fabric. This will
therefore be the logical NetDefendOS interface lan.

• The LAN interfaces 2, 3 and 4 will become a single VLAN with the logical name lan_port2-4.

• The remaining LAN interfaces will become a single VLAN with the logical name lan_5_plus.
This will include just the 5th interface on the DFL-260E and the 5th to 8th interfaces on the
DFL-860E.

To configure these VLANs, perform the following steps in the Web Interface:

1. Define the VLAN objects

In the Web Interface, go to Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Add and add 2 new VLAN
objects. Each VLAN should have an arbitrary value assigned for the VLAN ID, IP Address and
Network properties. Only the VLAN ID needs to be unique for the LAN interface. The IP addresses
should not be public IPv4 addresses.

A screenshot of how the resulting VLAN list might look in the Web Interface is shown below.

893
 Appendix E: DFL-260E/860E Port Based
VLAN

2. Associate the VLANs with LAN interfaces

Go to Network > Interfaces and VPN > VLAN > Switch Management, enable port based VLAN
and set each numbered LAN interface to be associated with the relevant VLAN to get the desired
configuration.

For this example, the screenshot below shows how this would look in the Web Interface.

For the DFL-860E, the list above would continue with the following additions.

This last dialog is only available in the Web Interface for those NetDefend firewalls that support
port based VLANs.

Port Based VLAN Issues

There are some issues which the adminstrator should be aware of when setting up port based
VLANs:

• Port based VLANs cannot be mixed with VLAN trunks.

When the port based VLAN feature is used, all of the LAN interfaces act as access ports and
none can be used for 802.1q VLAN trunks.

• MAC addresses are duplicated.

The MAC addresses of all the LAN interfaces are the same. This means that a switch might
have two connections to the firewall that have two different IP addresses but the same MAC
address. For some switches this can be a problem and the situation should be avoided by
using separate switches.

894
Appendix F: 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, DataMaps

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

895
 Appendix F: Third Party Software Licenses

to that copy.

3. 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.

4. 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:

• 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.

v. 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.)

5. 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

896
 Appendix F: 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

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION:

1. Definitions. "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction, and
distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document. "Licensor" shall mean the
copyright owner or entity authorized by the copyright owner that is granting the License.
"Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all other entities that control, are
controlled by, or are under common control with that entity. For the purposes of this
definition, "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the direction or
management of such entity, whether by contract or otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty
percent (50%) or more of the outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.
"You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity exercising permissions granted by
this License. "Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
including but not limited to software source code, documentation source, and
configuration files. "Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
transformation or translation of a Source form, including but not limited to compiled object
code, generated documentation, and conversions to other media types. "Work" shall mean
the work of authorship, whether in Source or Object form, made available under the
License, as indicated by a copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work (an
example is provided in the Appendix below). "Derivative Works" shall mean any work,
whether in Source or Object form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which
the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a
whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes of this License, Derivative Works
shall not include works that remain separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the
interfaces of, the Work and Derivative Works thereof. "Contribution" shall mean any work of
authorship, including the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions to
that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally submitted to Licensor for
inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized
to submit on behalf of the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent to the Licensor or its
representatives, including but not limited to communication on electronic mailing lists,
source code control systems, and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf
of, the Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but excluding
communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise designated in writing by the
copyright owner as "Not a Contribution." "Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any
individual or Legal Entity on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor
and subsequently incorporated within the Work.

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,

897
 Appendix F: Third Party Software Licenses

royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,

publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Work and such Derivative
Works in Source or Object form.

3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each
Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge,
royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies
only to those patent claims licensable by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by
their Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to
which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You institute patent litigation against any
entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a
Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent
infringement, then any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall
terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the Work or Derivative Works
thereof in any medium, with or without modifications, and in Source or Object form,
provided that You meet the following conditions:

i. You must give any other recipients of the Work or Derivative Works a copy of this
License; and

ii. You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that You changed
the files; and

iii. You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works that You distribute, all
copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of the Derivative Works; and

iv. If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its distribution, then any Derivative
Works that You distribute must include a readable copy of the attribution notices
contained within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any
part of the Derivative Works, in at least one of the following places: within a NOTICE
text file distributed as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or, within a display
generated by the Derivative Works, if and wherever such third-party notices normally
appear. The contents of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and do not
modify the License. You may add Your own attribution notices within Derivative Works
that You distribute, alongside or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work,
provided that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed as modifying the
License.

You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and may provide
additional or different license terms and conditions for use, reproduction, or distribution of
Your modifications, or for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with the conditions stated in
this License.

5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise, any Contribution

intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work by You to the Licensor shall be under the
terms and conditions of this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify the terms of any
separate license agreement you may have executed with Licensor regarding such
Contributions.

6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade names, trademarks,
service marks, or product names of the Licensor, except as required for reasonable and
customary use in describing the origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the
NOTICE file.

898
 Appendix F: Third Party Software Licenses

7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, Licensor

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,
without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT,
MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for
determining the appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any risks
associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.

8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including
negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate
and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be liable to You for
damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any
character arising as a result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the Work
(including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure
or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing the Work or Derivative

Works thereof, You may choose to offer, and charge a fee for, acceptance of support,
warranty, indemnity, or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this License.
However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only on Your own behalf and on Your
sole responsibility, not on behalf of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to
indemnify, defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability incurred by, or
claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason of your accepting any such warranty or
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 Landrö

Copyright © 2001-2003 Geir Landrö. 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,

899
 Appendix F: 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.

DataMaps by Mark DiMarco

Customizable SVG map visualizations for the web in a single Javascript file using D3.js. Copyright
© 2012 Mark DiMarco. Released under the MIT license (see above).

Bowser by Dustin Diaz

A browser detector. Copyright © 2015, Dustin Diaz. Released under the MIT license (see above).

one-simple-table-paging

JS code which does simple table pagination. Author Chun Lin. Based on code by Ryan Zielke.
Released under the MIT license (see above).

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-Link’s 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

900
 VLAN, 198
Alarm Repeat Interval setting, 98
Alphabetical Index Alert Level setting, 109
ALG, 425
deploying, 425
Symbols FTP, 435
.sgs file extension, 58 H.323, 479
2-factor authentication (see multi factor authentication) HTTP, 427
6in4 tunnels, 209 IPv6 support, 162, 425
6in4 tunnel encapsulator, 209, 212 Light Weight (LW) HTTP, 432
6in4 tunnel servers/brokers, 209 no HA state synchronization, 426, 834
MTU resizing, 211 not needed with IP policies, 427
NetDefendOS as tunnel server, 212 POP3, 457
routing table usage, 211 PPTP, 461
SIP, 463
SMTP, 448
A TFTP, 447
access rules, 421 TLS, 500
accounting, 659 all-nets6 IP address object, 159
advanced settings, 664 all-nets IP address object, 150, 230
and high availability, 663 Allow IP rule, 233
configuring, 661 Allow IP Rules setting, 876
interim messages, 661 Allow on error (RADIUS) setting, 664
limitations with NAT, 664 Allow Port Change setting, 726
messages, 659 Allow TCP Reopen setting, 857
messages frequency, 661 anonymizing internet traffic, 582
security, 663 anti-spam, 528, 534
setting RADIUS source IP, 662 adding X-Spam information, 530, 536
system shutdowns, 664 DCC subscription, 529
address book, 145 DCC usage, 529
addresses group, 148 logging, 537
Ethernet MAC addresses, 148 tagging, 529, 536
folders, 150 anti-virus
FQDN address objects, 150 cache lifetime setting, 550, 876
IP addresses in, 146 anti-virus scanning, 541
address group, 148 activating, 546
address groups ALG anti-virus messages, 542
excluding addresses, 149 anti-virus profile, 548
address translation, 574 cache management, 550
using automatic translation, 580 database, 543
administrator accounts, 40 database updates, 544
changing password for, 54 database updates with HA, 544
multiple logins, 40 excluding filetypes, 545
advanced settings, 849 fail mode behavior, 545
connection timeout, 862 IMAP email attachments, 541
DHCP relay, 406 in the FTP ALG, 439
DHCP server, 398 in the HTTP ALG, 429
Ethernet, 188 in the POP3 ALG, 459
fragmentation, 867 in the SMTP ALG, 451
fragment reassembly, 871 maximum archive depth, 546
hardware monitoring, 107 maximum compression ratio, 546
high availability, 840 memory requirements, 542
ICMP, 859 relationship with IDP, 543
IP level, 849 setting the service protocol, 548
IPsec, 723 simultaneous scans, 542
IPv6, 157 subscription expiry behavior, 882
L2TP/PPTP, 736 supported ALGs, 541
length limit, 864 URL whitelisting exclusion, 430
logging, 98 webapge script/URL scanning, 542
memory monitoring, 109 with IP policies, 548
RADIUS, 664 with IP rules, 547
remote management, 70 with IP rules or IP policies, 541
routing, 301 with zonedefense, 544
SNMP, 116 application control, 253
SSL/TLS, 872 application content control, 258
state, 860 application rule sets, 254
TCP level, 853 applying to specific groups/users, 255
transparent mode, 390 authentication settings, 255

901
 Alphabetical Index

data leakage, 261 auto-update, 136

direct usage with IP rules, 253
enabling, 253
extended logging, 260 B
license expiry behavior, 264 backing up configurations, 136
managing filters, 263 bandwidth guarantees, 787
maximum unclassified setting, 258 banner files
memory optimization setting, 876 for web authentication, 635
risk guidelines, 263 for web content filtering, 521
selecting all signatures, 263 parameters, 521, 636
selecting BitTorrent with uTP, 258 storage folder, 65
signature inheritance, 263 blacklisting
Strict HTTP setting, 258 hosts and networks, 571
subscription expiry behavior, 883 URLs, 429
the appcontrol command, 261 wildcarding, 505
traffic shaping, 255, 780 with IDP, 559
application layer gateway (see ALG) with threshold rules, 804
ARP, 221 with URL filtering, 504
advanced settings, 226 Block 0000 Src setting, 850
ARP object properties, 224 Block 0 Net setting, 850
cache, 221 Block 127 Net setting, 850
gratuitous, 296 blocking applications with IDP, 552
host monitoring source IP, 300 Block Multicast Src setting, 850
proxy, 302 boot menu, 34, 66
publish, 223 BOOTP, 404
publish LDAP source IP, 618 BPDU relaying, 388
static mode objects, 224 broadcast packet forwarding, 304
xpublish vs publish mode, 224 brute force protection (see authentication)
ARP authentication, 633
ARP Broadcast setting, 226 C
ARP Cache Size setting, 222
ARP Expire setting, 222 CAM Size setting, 390
ARP Expire Unknown setting, 222 CAM To L3 Cache Dest Learning setting, 390
ARP Hash Size setting, 223 CA servers
ARP Hash Size VLAN setting, 223 access, 277
ARP Match Ethernet Sender setting, 227 client access, 278
ARP Multicast setting, 226 disabling validation, 279
ARP poll interval setting, 301 private server placement, 279
ARP Query No Sender setting, 227 certificates, 268
authentication, 608 associating with IPsec tunnels, 274
administrators group, 612 CA authority, 271
agent, 624 certificate chains, 271
ARP authentication, 633 certificate requests, 279
auditors group, 612 certificate revocation list (CRL), 269
brute force protection, 630 chains with IPsec, 711
customizing HTML pages, 635 configuration object creation, 270
databases, 610 CRL distribution point lists, 275
HTTP, 627 graphical interface uploading, 274
identity awareness agent, 644 ID lists, 697
IP allocation using RADIUS, 615 intermediate, 271
local user database, 610 reusing root certificates, 273
MAC address duplicate problem, 634 revocation list (CRL), 272
multi factor (2-factor), 650 SCP uploading, 273
rules, 624 self-signed, 270, 673
setup summary, 610 self-signed with IPsec, 711
source, 625 storage folder, 65
specifying group membership, 611 the certificate cache, 272
SSH client key usage, 613 uploading, 273
user identity awareness, 641 validity, 271
using IP address objects, 612, 639 VPN troubleshooting, 763
using LDAP, 616 with IPsec LAN-to-LAN, 673
using RADIUS, 614 with IPsec roaming clients, 677
with RADIUS for management, 67 chains (in traffic shaping), 777
XAuth, 624 CLI, 34, 46
Auto Add Multicast Route setting, 374 appending property values, 49
autonomous system (see OSPF) case sensitivity, 47
Auto Save Interval (DHCP) setting, 407 changing admin password, 54
Auto Save Policy (DHCP) setting, 407 command history, 48

902
 Alphabetical Index

command structure, 47
commit ends WebUI sessions, 56
indexing, 51 D
multiple property values, 50 date and time, 78
name references, 51 setting daylight saving time, 79
object category, 50 time servers, 82
object context, 50 daylight saving time, 79
object type, 47 setting manually, 81
omitting the object category, 50 with tz (Olson) database, 80
prompt change, 55 dconsole CLI command, 125
reconfiguring NetDefendOS, 56 Deactivate Before Reconf (HA) setting, 840
restarting/rebooting NetDefendOS, 56 dead peer detection, 703
secure shell, 52 Decrement TTL setting, 390
tab completion, 48 default access rule, 290, 421
tab completion of property values, 49 Default TTL setting, 851
using hostnames, 51 demilitarized zone (see DMZ)
CLI scripts, 58 denial of service attacks, 566
automatic creation, 61 amplification attacks, 568
command ordering, 60 distributed attacks, 570
commenting, 63 fragmentation overlap, 567
error handling, 60 from IP spoofing, 422
escaping characters, 60 ping of death attacks, 566
excluded objects, 62 TCP SYN flood attacks, 569
executing, 59 destination RLB algorithm, 316
execution via web interface, 63 DHCP, 393
file naming, 58 client, 182
for the entire configuration, 62 displaying server info, 399
listing, 61 HA synchronization support, 834
omitting the object category, 62 IPv4 client, 395
removing, 61 IPv4 server, 397
saving, 60 leases, 393
script filename length, 62 multiple servers, 397
security gateway script (.sgs), 58 no client support in HA, 183, 395
storage folder, 65 passthrough with transparent mode, 384
uploading with SCP, 65 relay, 404
validation, 60 relay advanced settings, 406
variables, 59 saving lease database to memory, 400
verbose output, 60 server advanced settings, 398
cluster (see high availability) server blacklist, 400
command line interface (see CLI) server relay filter, 397
config mode, 711 static host assignment, 401, 418
configuration object groups, 241 with IPv6, 397
and folders, 245 with transparent mode, 384
and the CLI, 241 DHCP_AllowGlobalBcast setting, 188
editing properties of, 243 DHCP_DisableArpOnOffer setting, 188
configurations, 71 DHCP_MinimumLeaseTime setting, 189
activating changes in the CLI, 55 DHCP_UseLinkLocalIP setting, 189
activating changes in the Web Interface, 45 DHCP_ValidateBcast setting, 189
backup/restore, 136 DHCPv6, 411
backup compatibility, 137 clear universal local bit, 414
checking integrity, 56 client, 411
duplicate naming, 51 HA synchronization support, 834
connection limiting (see threshold rules) no client support in HA, 183, 411
connection rate limiting (see threshold rules) out of memory condition, 415
Connection Replace setting, 860 preference value, 414
connections command, 123 rapid commit, 414
closing connections, 124 router discovery, 412
-verbose option, 125 send unicast, 414
Consecutive fails setting, 302 server, 414
Consecutive success setting, 302 server setup, 415
core interface, 179, 230 DH groups (see diffie-hellman groups)
core routes, 294 diagnostics and improvements, 142
crashdump CLI command, 126 disabling, 143
Critical Level setting, 110 log event messages, 135
CRL, 272 diagnostic tools, 118
distribution point lists, 275 dconsole CLI command, 125
enforcing checking, 269 diagnostic console, 118
frags CLI command, 131

903
 Alphabetical Index

pcapdump, 126 changing IP addresses, 185

ping CLI command, 118 CLI command summary, 186
selftest CLI command, 133 default gateway, 182
stats CLI command, 122 disabling, 188
traceroute CLI command, 128 enabling, 188
WCF performance log, 523 IP address, 181
diffie-hellman groups, 689 logical/physical difference, 185
higher groups consume resources, 690 promiscuous mode, 184
diffserv, 776 with DHCP, 182
IPsec DS Field setting, 723 evasion attack prevention, 556
setting values with IPsec, 699 events (see logging)
Directed Broadcasts setting, 852 log messages, 87
Disable Callstation ID setting, 726 log receiver types, 88
distance vector algorithms, 331
DMZ, 590
DNS, 281 F
assignment via DHCP, 282 Failed Fragment Reassembly setting, 868
dynamic lookup, 282 file control profile, 246
FQDN address objects cache, 151 with IP policies, 430
static vs DHCP assignment, 282 filetype download block/allow
DNSBL, 539 in FTP ALG, 439
documentation, 23 with IP policies, 430
DoS attack (see denial of service attacks) Flood Reboot Time setting, 875
downloading files with SCP, 64 folders
DPD Expire Time (IPsec) setting, 727 with IP rules, 240
DPD Keep Time (IPsec) setting, 727 with the address book, 150
DPD Metric (IPsec) setting, 727 FQDN address objects, 150
drop all IP rule/policy, 230 Fragmented ICMP setting, 869
Drop IP rule, 234 frags CLI command, 131
Dropped Fragments setting, 868 FTP ALG, 435
DSCP, 776 command restrictions, 438
in setting precedence, 784 connection restriction options, 437
with IKE and IPsec, 699 control channel restrictions, 438
DST End Date setting, 85 deprecated ALGs and services, 438
DST Offset setting, 85 filetype checking, 439
DST Start Date setting, 85 hybrid mode, 436
Duplicated Fragment Data setting, 867 server IP setup for passive, 447
Duplicate Fragments setting, 868 virus scanning, 439
dynamic balancing (in pipes), 790 with zonedefense, 439
Dynamic CAM Size setting, 390 FwdFast IP rule, 233, 251
dynamic content filtering (see web content filtering) exclusion from traffic shaping, 779
Dynamic High Buffers setting, 875 with multiplex rules, 363
enabling after upgrades, 875
with high availability, 833 G
Dynamic L3C Size setting, 391
Dynamic Max Connections setting, 861 Generic Router Encapsulation (see GRE)
dynamic routing rules, 345, 347 geolocation in IP policies, 248
OSPF action, 348 geolocation filter, 249
routing action, 348 indicator icon in WebUI, 249
DynDNS service, 282 predefined regions, 249
Grace time setting, 301
gratuitous ARP generation, 299
E Gratuitous ARP on fail setting, 299, 302
email filtering, 526 GRE, 205
adding X-Spam information, 530, 536 additional checksum, 205
anti-spam, 528, 534 and IP rules, 206
DNSBL usage, 529, 539 setting up, 205
header verification, 537 tunneling multicast, 376
incorrect imap client display, 531 tunnel IP address advantages, 205
malicious link protection, 530 Grouping interval setting, 86
maximum email rate, 528 groups
maximum email size, 528 administration and auditors, 612
Enable Accounting setting, 725 configuration objects, 241
Enable Sensors setting, 107 in authentication, 611
end of life procedures, 140 in pipes, 788
ESMTP extensions, 452
Ethernet interface, 180 H
advanced settings, 188

904
 Alphabetical Index

H.323 ALG, 479

using IP policies, 480
with VoIP profile, 480 I
HA (see high availability) ICMP ping (see ping CLI command)
HA Failover Time setting, 840 ICMP Sends Per Sec Limit setting, 859
hardware ICMP Unreachable message, 234
fault troubleshooting, 133 IDENT and IP rules, 234
monitoring, 107 identity awareness agent (IDA), 644
monitoring message frequency, 98, 109 event IDs listened for, 645
heartbeats (see high availability) ID lists, 273, 686, 697
high availability, 820 IDP, 552
advanced settings, 840 associating signatures with rules, 554
ALG support, 426, 834 best practice deployment, 564
and accounting, 663 blacklisting, 559
and high buffers setting, 833 HTTP URI normalization, 555
automatic synchronization, 821, 832 insertion/evasion attacks, 556
both units going active, 823, 836 rules, 554
changing HA management IPs, 39 signature group list, 884
cluster ID, 835 signature groups, 558
cluster interconnections, 821 signatures, 557
disabling heartbeat sending, 823 signature wildcarding, 559
forcing resynchronization, 825 SMTP log receivers, 562
hardware setup, 827 subscription expiry behavior, 882
heartbeats, 823 subscriptions, 553
IP4 HA Address objects, 827, 830, 831 traffic shaping, 562, 798
IP6 HA Address objects, 162, 831 using individual signatures, 562
issues, 834 with ZoneDefense, 554, 560
L2TPv3 not supported, 741 IfaceMon_BelowCPULoad setting, 190
link monitor usage, 839 IfaceMon_BelowIfaceLoad setting, 190
making OSPF work, 835 IfaceMon_e1000 setting, 190
manual setup, 831 IfaceMon_ErrorTime setting, 190
mechanisms, 823 IfaceMon_MinInterval setting, 191
promiscuous mode, 184, 824 IfaceMon_RxErrorPerc setting, 191
setting up, 827 IfaceMon_TxErrorPerc setting, 191
set unique management IPs, 828 Iface poll interval setting, 301
slave becomes master, 831 IGMP, 361
swapping out the master, 830 advanced settings, 374
sync interface failure, 825 configuration, 368
transparent mode unsupported, 834 rules configuration, 371
transparent not unsupported, 379 IGMP Before Rules setting, 374
unique shared MAC, 833 IGMP Idle Lifetime setting, 862
unused interface problem, 823, 836 IGMP Last Member Query Interval setting, 374
upgrading NetDefendOS, 837 IGMP Lowest Compatible Version setting, 374
VPN tunnel synchronization, 834 IGMP Max Interface Requests setting, 375
with IDP and anti-virus, 824 IGMP Max Total Requests setting, 375
with IPv6, 162 IGMP Query Interval setting, 375
with link monitoring, 105 IGMP Query Response Interval setting, 375
with transparent mode, 384 IGMP React To Own Queries setting, 374
wizard setup, 829 IGMP Robustness Variable setting, 375
High Buffers setting, 875 IGMP Router Version setting, 374
checking after upgrades, 875 IGMP Startup Query Count setting, 375
with high availability, 833 IGMP Startup Query Interval setting, 375
host monitoring, 297 IGMP Unsolicitated Report Interval setting, 375
for route failover, 299 IKE, 683
setting source IP, 300 algorithm proposals, 684
HTML pages Enabling IKEv1/IKEv2, 713
content filtering customizing, 521 encapsulation mode with IKEv2, 736
web auth customizing, 635 lifetimes, 684
HTTP negotiation, 684
ALG, 427 IKE CRL Validity Time setting, 724
allow unknown protocols, 430 IKE Max CA Path setting, 724
authentication, 627 IKE Send CRLs setting, 724
SafeSearch enforcement, 428 IKE Send Initial Contact setting, 724
URL verification, 428 ike -snoop CLI command, 764
whitelist precedence, 430 Illegal Fragments setting, 867
HTTP poster, 282 Include Framed IP setting, 725
HTTPS Certificate setting, 71 Initial Silence (HA) setting, 840
HTTP URI normalization in IDP, 555 insertion attack prevention, 556

905
 Alphabetical Index

Interface Alias (SNMP) setting, 117 enforce local ID, 686

Interface Description (SNMP) setting, 117 HA synchronization support, 834
interfaces, 178 health monitoring options, 721
aggregation, 191 ID lists, 273, 686
core, 179 ike -snoop CLI command, 764
disabling, 180 IKEv2 client setup, 714
groups, 218 invalid IKE payload/cookie error, 772
loopback, 179, 213 ipsec CLI command, 763
physical, 178 IPsec DS Field setting, 723
tunnel, 178 IP validation, 713
internet key exchange (see IKE) LAN-to-LAN setup, 672
Interval between synchronization setting, 86 local endpoint property, 701
intrusion, detection and prevention (see IDP) local gateway, 713
invalid checksum local ID, 686
in cluster heartbeats, 835 NAT traversal, 693
IP6in4 tunnels (see 6in4 tunnels) originator IP property, 701
IP address objects, 149 overview, 683
with user authentication, 639 payload malformed error, 772
IP Option Sizes setting, 851 quick start guide, 671
IP Options Other setting, 852 remote ID, 686
IP Option Source/Return setting, 851 roaming clients, 674, 708
IP Options Timestamps setting, 851 self-signed certificate usage, 711
IP policy, 245 source interface property, 701
equivalent IP rules, 247 troubleshooting, 762
file control profile, 430 tunnel establishment, 702
geolocation property, 248 tunnel monitoring, 704, 721
logging, 234 tunnel properties, 685
NAT example, 579 tunnels, 701
SAT example, 248 tunnel selection process, 720
using automatic translation, 580 using transport mode, 736
web profile, 515 Windows IKv2 client setup, 715
with NAT, 579 IPsec Before Rules setting, 724
with SAT, 601 usage, 703
IP pools, 408 IPsec Certificate Cache Max setting, 724
with config mode, 711 ipsec CLI command, 763
IP Reserved Flag setting, 852 IPsec DS Field setting, 723
IP router alert option setting, 851 IPsec Gateway Name Cache Time setting, 725
IP rules, 228 IPsec IP Address Validation setting, 726
actions, 233 IPsec Max Rules setting, 723
Allow IP Rules setting, 876 IPsec Max Tunnels setting, 723
application control, 253 IPsec SA Keep Time setting, 726
bi-directional connections, 234 IPv6, 156
drop all rules, 230 6in4 tunnels, 209
evaluation order, 232 ALG support, 162, 425
goto and return rules, 235 all-nets6 address object, 159
increasing lookup speed with goto, 237 and management access, 162
IPv6 usage, 230 and transparent mode, 163, 379
logging, 234 auto configure interface option, 158
loop avoidance, 236 creating address objects, 158
multiple rule sets, 235 enabling globally, 156
rule set folders, 240 enabling on an interface, 157
rule sets, 229 enabling pass ICMP errors, 160
TCP sequence number alteration, 234 enabling router advertisement, 159
IPsec, 683 grouping with IPv4, 159
advanced settings, 723 high availability support, 162
algorithm proposal lists, 694 HTTP/LW-HTTP ALG support, 427, 432
and IP rules, 702 ICMP error pass through, 160
Apple iOS setup, 681 ICMP ping, 162
auto establish, 703 in IP rules, 230
certificate chains, 711 in routing rules, 311
clients, 677 interface address objects, 158
config mode, 711 neighbor discovery, 160
dead peer detection, 703 ping command usage, 161
diffserv, 699 proxy neighbor discovery, 160
duplicate inner/outer client IP issue, 713, 773 router discovery, 412
EAP settings, 714 tunneling over IPv4, 209
Enabling IKEv1/IKEv2, 713 with high availability, 162
encapsulation mode, 686 with loopback interfaces, 213

906
 Alphabetical Index

memlog, 89
message exceptions, 96
L severity filter, 96
L2TP, 729 SNMP traps, 97
advanced settings, 736 syslog, 89
client, 737 time stamping, 88
DHCP client IP issue, 731 login authentication, 624
l2tp CLI command, 739 log messages, 87
no HA state synchronization, 834 Log non IPv4/IPv6 setting, 850
quick start guide, 678 Log Open Fails setting, 860
server, 730 Logout at shutdown (RADIUS) setting, 664, 664
using IPsec transport model, 736 logout from CLI, 57
L2TP Before Rules setting, 736 Log Oversized Packets setting, 865
L2TPv3, 741 Log Received TTL 0 setting, 850
client setup, 748 Log Reverse Opens setting, 860
client setup with VLANs, 751 logsnoop, 99
not supported in HA clusters, 741, 834 displaying memlog history, 101
server setup, 741 free-text filtering, 100
server setup with VLANs, 745 limiting the display rate, 100
UDP or IP protocol option, 743 limiting total number displayed, 101
L3 Cache Size setting, 391 specifying a time range, 101
languages, 141 wildcards, 100
LAN-to-LAN tunnels, 704 Log State Violations setting, 860
quick start guide, 672, 673 loopback interfaces, 179, 213
Large Buffers (reassembly) setting, 871 automatically added routes, 214
layer 2 pass through, 219 IPv6, 213
Layer Size Consistency setting, 851 properties, 213
LDAP setting up, 215
ARP authentication, 633 with virtual routing, 323
attributes, 617 Low Broadcast TTL Action setting, 852
authentication, 616
authentication with PPP, 622
MS Active Directory, 617 M
primary group restriction, 617 MAC address, 221
servers, 719 in the address book, 148
setting source IP, 618 with ARP, 221
with non-Microsoft servers, 619 with ARP publish, 223
with OpenLDAP server, 619 MAC authentication (see ARP authentication)
light weight HTTP ALG, 432 mail alerting, 92
user agent filtering, 433 sending test emails, 95
link aggregation, 191 management access
distribution methods, 193 administrator accounts, 40
interfaces that cannot be used, 192 changing a remote access rule, 38
IP and Ports algorithm, 194 changing HA management IPs, 39
LACP (negotiated), 193 changing the interface IP, 37
static, 192 changing validation timeout, 36
with HA, 194 configuring, 34
link monitor, 103 default IP address, 35
HA cluster IPsec tunnels, 105 HTTP/HTTPS access, 35
initializing NICs, 104 remote management objects, 35
monitoring multiple hosts, 104 SNMP access, 35
Reconf Failover Time, 105 SSH access, 35
with high availability, 839 user interfaces, 33
link state algorithms, 332 using RADIUS authentication, 67
local console, 51 VPN routing problem, 46
boot menu, 66 management interfaces
enabling password, 66 advanced settings, 70
Local Console Timeout setting, 71 and IPv6, 162
local IP address in routes, 288 configuring remote access, 57
Log Checksum Errors setting, 849 managing NetDefendOS, 33
Log Connections setting, 860 Max AH Length setting, 864
Log Connection Usage setting, 861 Max Auto Routes (DHCP) setting, 407
logging, 87 Max Concurrent (reassembly) setting, 871
advanced settings, 98 Max Connections (reassembly) setting, 877
disabling memlog, 89 Max Connections setting, 861
event severity, 87 Max ESP Length setting, 864
event types, 87 Max GRE Length setting, 864
mail alerting, 92 Max Hops (DHCP) setting, 407

907
 Alphabetical Index

Max ICMP Length setting, 864 neighbor discovery, 160

Max IPIP/FWZ Length setting, 865 advanced settings, 163
Max IPsec IPComp Length setting, 865 cache, 163
Max L2TP Length setting, 865 timing settings, 164
Max lease Time (DHCP) setting, 407 NetDefendOS
Max Memory (reassembly) setting, 877 overview, 20
Max OSPF Length setting, 865 packet flow description, 28
Max Other Length setting, 865 system date and time, 78
Max Pipe Users setting, 876 network address translation (see NAT)
Max PPM (DHCP) setting, 406 NIC teaming (see link aggregation)
Max PPP Resends setting, 737 Number of polling cores setting, 877
Max Radius Contexts setting, 665
Max Reassembly Time Limit setting, 869
max sessions O
services parameter, 169 open shortest path first (see OSPF)
Max Size (reassembly) setting, 871 open source code requests, 900
Max SKIP Length setting, 865 OSPF, 331
Max TCP Length setting, 864 aggregates, 336, 344
Max time drift setting, 86 areas, 335, 341
Max Transactions (DHCP) setting, 406 autonomous system, 334
Max UDP Length setting, 864 checking deployment, 350
memlog (see logging) command, 351
Memory Log Repetition setting, 109 concepts, 334
memory monitoring settings, 109 dynamic routing rules, 345
Memory Poll Interval setting, 109 interface, 342
Memory Use Percent setting, 109 logging options, 358
MIB, 112 neighbors, 345
downloading files, 112 ospf CLI command, 359
for traps, 97 promiscuous mode, 184, 344
MIME filetype verification router process, 339
in FTP ALG, 439 setting up, 348
in POP3 ALG, 459 troubleshooting, 357
in SMTP ALG, 451 virtual links, 336, 345
list of filetypes, 888 ospf
Min Broadcast TTL setting, 852 CLI command, 359
Minimum Fragment Length setting, 869 Other Idle Lifetimes setting, 863
Min SSL Version setting, 872 overriding content filtering, 513
MPLS, 389
pass through, 389 P
multicast, 361, 365
address translation, 366 packet flow
forwarding, 362 description, 28
IGMP, 368 simplified, 231
promiscuous mode, 184, 361 packet reassembly, 131
Receive Multicast Traffic setting, 182, 362 password length, 54
reverse path forwarding, 361 path MTU discovery, 174
tunneling using GRE, 376 DF (don't fragment) flag, 176
Multicast Mismatch setting, 852 enabling on a service object, 175
multicast policy, 365 problems if not enabled, 176
Multicast TTL on Low setting, 850 processing flow, 175
multi factor authentication, 650 pcap, 126
with RSA SecureID™, 651 downloading output files, 127
multiple IP rule sets, 235 output file naming, 128
multiple login authentication, 624 through the Web Interface, 128
multiplex rules, 362 with Wireshark, 128
creating with CLI, 364 Persistent Interface Index (SNMP) setting, 117
multi-protocol label switching (see MPLS) phishing (see content filtering)
ping CLI command, 118
packet simulation with -srcif, 120
N setting the source IP, 120
NAT, 576 source interface selection, 118
anonymizing with, 582 testing TCP/UDP connectivity, 119
IP rules, 233, 578 with FQDN resolution, 121
pools, 584 with IPv6, 161
stateful pools, 584 with server load balancing, 812
traversal, 693 Ping Idle Lifetime setting, 862
using automatic translation, 580 Ping poll interval setting, 301
with an IP Policy, 579 pipe rules, 778

908
 Alphabetical Index

pipes, 777 Reassembly Illegal Limit setting, 870

policies, 228 Reassembly Timeout setting, 869
IP policy, 245 Receive Multicast Traffic setting, 182, 362
with user authentication, 639 reconf CLI command, 56
Poll Interval setting, 107 Reconf Failover Time (HA) setting, 105, 840
poll offloading, 122 Reject IP rule, 234
Poll Offloading setting, 876 Relay MPLS setting, 390, 391
POP3 ALG, 457 Relay Spanning-tree BPDUs setting, 389, 391
Port 0 setting, 875 Require Cookie setting, 726
port address translation (see SAT) reset
port forwarding (see SAT) interface IP addresses, 140
port mirroring (see pcapdump) to base configuration, 133, 139
PPP to factory defaults, 139
authentication with LDAP, 622 restarting NetDefendOS
PPPoE, 202 with the CLI, 56
client configuration, 203 restoring backups, 136
client VLAN support, 203 reverse path forwarding (see multicast)
unnumbered support, 203 reverse route lookup, 231, 290, 421
with HA, 204 Ringsize_e100_rx setting, 189
with SSL VPN, 753 Ringsize_e100_tx setting, 189
PPTP, 729 Ringsize_e1000_rx setting, 189
advanced settings, 736 Ringsize_e1000_tx setting, 189
ALG, 461 Ringsize_yukon_rx setting, 190
client, 737 Ringsize_yukon_tx setting, 190
no HA state synchronization, 834 Ringsize_yukonii_rx setting, 190
pptp CLI command, 740 Ringsize_yukonii_tx setting, 190
problem with NAT, 738 roundrobin RLB algorithm, 316
quick start guide, 680 route failover, 296
server, 729 host monitoring, 299
PPTP Before Rules setting, 737 route load balancing, 316
precedences algorithm choice with ALG, 316
in pipes, 784 algorithms, 316
pre-shared keys, 672, 696 and VPN, 321
non-ascii character problem, 696 between ISPs, 319
Primary Time Server setting, 86 routing, 285
promiscuous mode, 184 adding routes, 294
with high availability, 824 advanced settings, 301
with multicast, 361 broadcast packet forwarding, 304
with OSPF, 344 core routes, 294
proposal lists, 694 default gateway route, 182, 293
proxy ARP, 302 dynamic, 331
setting up, 302 interface table membership, 312
Pseudo Reass Max Concurrent setting, 867 IPv6 usage, 294
local IP address, 288
metric for default routes, 293
Q metrics, 286, 333
Q-in-Q VLAN, 199 monitoring, 296
QoS (see quality of service) narrowest matching principle, 288
quality of service, 776 notation, 291
ordering parameter, 313
R policy-based, 308
principles, 286
RADIUS routes added at startup, 293
accounting, 659 rules, 310
advanced settings, 664 service-based, 308
allow on error setting, 663 source-based, 308
ARP authentication, 633 static, 286, 290
authentication, 614 tables, 309
automatic IP address allocation, 615 the all-nets route, 293
for management authentication, 67 user-based, 308
primary retry interval, 614
relay, 652
setting source IP, 614, 662 S
setting the vendor ID, 68, 615, 658 SA (see security association)
unresponsive servers, 663 SafeSearch enforcement, 428
real-time alerts, 103 SafeStream™ anti-virus database, 543
rule contents, 103 SAT, 588
Reassembly Done Limit setting, 869 all-to-one IP translation, 596

909
 Alphabetical Index

client and server on same network, 603 predefined SIP ALG object, 465
IP rules, 233 record-route, 466
many-to-many IP translation, 593 supported scenarios, 463
multiplex rule, 362 using IP policies, 465
one-to-one IP translation, 590 with route failover, 464
paired with NAT, 603 with virtual routing, 464
port forwarding, 588 with VoIP profile, 465
port translation, 599 SLB (see server load balancing)
protocols handled, 602 SLB policy, 816
translating source and destination, 589 SMTP ALG, 448
untranslated IP in second rule, 588 ESMTP extensions, 452
using an IP policy, 601 whitelist precedence, 451
with FwdFast rules, 600 with zonedefense, 456
schedules, 265 SMTP log receiver
SCP, 34, 64 with IDP, 562
allowable operations, 64 SNMP, 111
backup/restore usage, 138 advanced settings, 116
command format, 64 community string, 111
uploading certificates, 273 interface index persistence, 115
Screen Saver Selection setting, 877 MIB file download, 112
scripting (see CLI scripts) MIB files, 112
Secondary Time Server setting, 86 MIB for traps, 97
secure copy (see SCP) permitted operations, 111
SecuRemoteUDP Compatibility setting, 851 preventing overload, 113
secure shell (see SSH) security options, 111
security/transport enabled option, 218 supported versions, 111
security association, 683 traps, 97
selftest CLI command, 133 version 3 security, 112
-burnin option, 134 with IP rules, 113
-throughput option, 133 SNMP Before Rules setting, 116
-traffic option, 133 SNMP Request Limit setting, 113, 116
Send Limit setting, 98 spam (see email filtering)
server load balancing, 807 spam WCF category, 521
connection-rate algorithm, 809 spanning tree relaying, 388
idle timeout setting, 810 spillover RLB algorithm, 316
max slots setting, 810 spoofing of IPs, 422
net size setting, 810 SSH, 52
round-robin algorithm, 809 authentication using keys, 53
with an SLB policy, 816 certificate storage folder, 65
with FwdFast rules, 813 SSH Before Rules setting, 71
services, 165 SSH client keys, 613
allow ICMP errors, 169 SSL/TLS acceleration, 501
and ALGs, 169 SSL Processing Priority setting, 872
creating custom, 167 SSL VPN, 752
custom IP protocol, 172 client cleanup, 758
custom timeouts, 174 client operation, 758
group, 173 configuring, 753
ICMP, 171 cryptographic suites, 872
instead of ALG on IP policies, 165 custom server connection, 757
max sessions, 169 installing the client, 755
path MTU discovery, 169, 174 IP rules for traffic, 758
specifying all services, 170 no HA state synchronization, 834
specifying port number, 168 outer interface types, 754
SYN flood protection, 169, 169, 569 pinging the inner IP, 754
service VLAN, 199 proxy ARP, 755
jumbo packet recommendation, 201 renegotiation, 500
nesting, 202 running the client, 756
TPID type values, 201 setting client routes, 761
usage example, 199 specifying client default gateway, 759
sessionmanager CLI command, 57 supported cryptographic suites, 752
setting, 36, 726 supported TLS version, 752
shutdown CLI command, 56 using CA signed certificates, 756
Silently Drop State ICMPErrors setting, 859 with LDAP, 621
simple network management protocol (see SNMP) with PPPoE, 753
SIP ALG, 463 state-engine, 24
and traffic shaping, 464 packet flow, 28
equipment incompatibility, 463 stateful inspection (see state-engine)
NAT traversal, 463 stateful NAT pools (see NAT)

910
 Alphabetical Index

stateless policy, 251 TLS RSA 3DES 168 SHA1 setting, 873
Static address translation (see SAT) TLS RSA EXPORT 1024 RC2 40 MD5 setting, 873
Static ARP Changes setting, 227 TLS RSA EXPORT 1024 RC4 40 MD5 setting, 873
stats CLI command, 122 TLS RSA EXPORT 1024 RC4 56 SHA1 setting, 873
Status Bar setting, 878 TLS RSA EXPORT NULL MD5 setting, 874
Strip DontFragment setting, 852 TLS RSA EXPORT NULL SHA1 setting, 874
subscriptions TLS RSA RC4 128 MD5 setting, 873
expiry behavior, 882 TLS RSA RC4 128 SHA1 setting, 873
switch routes, 379 TLS RSA WITH AES 128 CBC SHA1 setting, 873
Sync Buffer Size (HA) setting, 840 TLS RSA WITH AES 128 CBC SHA256 setting, 872
Sync Pkt Max Burst (HA) setting, 840 TLS RSA WITH AES 256 CBC SHA1 setting, 872
SYN flood protection, 169, 569 TLS RSA WITH AES 256 CBC SHA256 setting, 872
syslog (see logging) traceroute CLI command, 128
RFC 5424 compliance, 91 traceroute command
setting the hostname, 91 options, 129
system backup/restore, 136 output, 129
System Contact (SNMP) setting, 116 traffic shaping, 776
System Location (SNMP) setting, 117 bandwidth guarantees, 787
System Name (SNMP)setting, 117 bandwidth limiting, 780
for VPNs, 791
FwdFast IP rule exclusion, 779
T objectives, 777
tab completion (see CLI) pipe groups, 788
TCP Auto Clamping setting, 854 precedences, 784
TCP ECN setting, 856 recommendations, 791
TCP FIN/URG setting, 856 summary, 793
TCP FIN Idle Lifetime setting, 862 with application control, 255, 780
TCP Idle Lifetime setting, 862 with IDP, 798
TCP MSS Log Level setting, 853 Transaction Timeout (DHCP) setting, 406
TCP MSS Max setting, 853 transparent mode, 379
TCP MSS Min setting, 853 advanced settings, 390
TCP MSS On High setting, 853 and internet access, 384
TCP MSS on Low setting, 853 and NAT, 386
TCP MSS VPN Max setting, 853 broadcast packet forwarding, 304
TCP NULL setting, 857 grouping IP addresses, 386
TCP Option ALTCHKDATA setting, 855 implementation, 380
TCP Option ALTCHKREQ setting, 854 IPv6 not supported, 163, 379
TCP Option CC setting, 855 not supported in HA clusters, 379, 834
TCP Option Other setting, 855 single host routes, 381
TCP Option SACK setting, 854 switch routes, 379, 381
TCP Option Sizes setting, 853 versus routing mode, 380
TCP Option TSOPT setting, 854 with DHCP passthrough, 384
TCP Option WSOPT setting, 854 with high availability, 384
TCP Reserved Field setting, 856 with VLANs, 383
TCP Sequence Numbers setting, 857 TTL Min setting, 850
TCP SYN/FIN setting, 856 TTL on Low setting, 850
TCP SYN/PSH setting, 855 tunnel monitoring (see IPsec)
TCP SYN/RST setting, 856 tunnels, 178
TCP SYN/URG setting, 855
TCP SYN Idle Lifetime setting, 862
TCP URG setting, 856 U
TCP Zero Unused ACK setting, 854 UDP Bidirectional Keep-alive setting, 862
TCP Zero Unused URG setting, 854 UDP Idle Lifetime setting, 862
Tertiary Time Server setting, 86 UDP Source Port 0 setting, 875
TFTP ALG, 447 Unknown VLAN Tags setting, 198
third party software licenses, 895 unnumbered PPPoE, 203
threshold rules, 803, 845 Unsolicited ARP Replies setting, 227
in zonedefense, 845 updatecenter CLI command, 881
Timeout setting, 877 upgrading NetDefendOS
time servers, 82 release notification alerts, 135
Time Sync Server Type setting, 86 with an HA cluster, 837
Time Zone setting, 85 uploading files with SCP, 64
TLS ALG, 500 URL filtering, 504
advantages, 501 with HTTP, 506
cryptographic suites, 502, 872 with HTTPS, 505
supported cryptographic suites, 500 with IP policies, 506
supported TLS version, 500 Use Client's Attribute setting, 726
usage instead of SSL, 500 user agent filtering, 433

911
 Alphabetical Index

user authentication (see authentication) with IP rules or IP policies, 503

user identity awareness, 641 with whitelisting, 509
IDA excluded users list, 647 web interface, 34, 41
identity awareness agent (IDA), 644 access with CA signed certificates, 45
monitoring, 649 activating configuration changes, 45
with a terminal server, 648 cursor hover help, 45
Use Unique Shared Mac (HA) setting, 833, 840 default connection interface, 41
object cloning, 45
password caching prevention, 42
V recommended browsers, 41
Validation Timeout setting, 36, 71 setting workstation IP, 41
virtual LAN (see VLAN) web profile, 246, 515
virtual private networks (see VPN) WebUI (see web interface)
virtual routers (see virtual routing) WebUI Before Rules setting, 71
virtual routing, 323 WebUI HTTP port setting, 71
multiple IP rule sets, 329 WebUI HTTPS port setting, 71
troubleshooting, 329 whitelisting
virtual systems, 328 (see virtual routing) hosts and networks, 571
VLAN, 195 URLs, 430
advanced settings, 198 wildcarding, 505
number of VLANs limitation, 197 with URL filtering, 504
port based, 196 wildcarding
port based VLAN, 198, 893 in blacklists and whitelists, 452, 505
port based VLAN issues, 894 in IDP rules, 559
service VLAN, 199 in static content filtering, 431
TPID, 201 Windows CA certificate requests, 279
trunk, 196 wireshark (see pcap)
voice over IP with virtual routing, 213
with H.323, 479
with SIP, 463
VoIP profile, 465, 480 X
VPN, 667 X.509 certificates, 268
encryption, 668 XAuth (see authentication)
IPsec, 683 XCBC Fallback setting, 725
key distribution, 669
planning, 669
quick start guide, 671 Z
SSL VPN, 752 zonedefense, 843
troubleshooting, 762 availability by product, 843
usage, 667 exclude list, 845
limitations, 848
manual blocking, 845
W switches, 844
Warning Level setting, 110 with anti-virus, 544, 847
Watchdog Time setting, 875 with FTP ALG, 439
WCF (see web content filtering) with IDP, 554, 560
webauth, 627 with SMTP ALG, 456
web content filtering, 503
active content handling, 503
allowing TCP port 9998 access, 508
audit mode, 512
categories, 517
customizing HTML pages, 521
dynamic content filtering, 507
enabling performance logging, 876
fail mode, 510
order of static and dynamic, 504
overriding, 513
phishing, 519
setting up WCF, 509
site reclassification, 514
spam, 521
static, 504
subscription expiry behavior, 882
URL whitelisting exclusion, 430
WCF performance log, 523
with HTTPS, 512
with IP policies, 515

912