I suppose being able to reject UDP packets is just allowing you to control access to a service that may be listening on that UDP port. For example blocking the nimba virus by rejecting UDP port 137,138,139. On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 13:00, Skip Morrow wrote: > I am trying to remember my networking class (/me shakes the cobwebs out) > > I think that the original question is a good question. UDP packets > (legitimately) arriving at my computer are not acknowledged. That is, I > don't tell the sender "Yeah, I got that packet. Thanks." Nor, do I tell > the sender "Whoops. I didn't quite get all of that last packet. Could > you send it again?" So, REJECTing a UDP packet doesn't make sense. The > sender isn't looking for any type of OK message or anything for that > matter. In fact, where would the REJECT message go? Does the sender even > have a listen port open? > > But then again, I could be completely wrong. > > Regards, > Skip > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Michael K" <micke@klintan.se> > > To: <netfilter@lists.netfilter.org> > > Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 6:28 PM > > Subject: Rejecting udp > > > > > >> I saw this rule someware on the net. > >> $IPTABLES -A FORWARD -o $EXTERNALIF -p udp --dport 137 -j REJECT > >> > >> Whats the use to use reject on a UDP packet? Isn't udp connection-less > >> A more correct shouldn't that be "-j DROP"? Or am I thinking wrong > >> here? > >> > >> Regards Klintan > >> > > > > First of all: This has little to do with TCP or UDP (or connection-less > > stuff). > > > > Many firewalls have a policy to drop packets coming from the outside > > when nothing on the inside has started communicating to the internet > > (outside). But, port 137 is part of the SMB (filesharing) protocol. It > > starts inside your network, broadcasting that services are available. > > The firewall will see this as legitimate traffic, since it started on > > the inside. > > If you wouldn't block port 137, you'd be broadcasting to the internet > > that you have filesharing enabled on your network, thereby opening up > > port 137 to the internet, as the firewall sees no danger. > > The next step for a cracker would be easy, get into your filesharing > > network, steal passwords or worse... > > Simply: Things that "You Don't Want to Happen" (TM). > > > > Short answer: You do want to filter port 137 (and 138/139). > > > > A good approach is to block all traffic to the firewall/internet from > > the inside, then open op ports (POP, SMTP, HTTP and other services) as > > needed, but no more then what's needed. > > > > HTH, > > Willem > > --
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