On Monday 08 March 2004 9:14 pm, cldavis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > Antony: > > > > > > As I understand it, this means "check the flags FIN and ACK, only match > > > if FIN is set and ACK isn't". This would match packets that only have > > > the FIN flag set, which I am fairly sure are valid. I may need > > > correcting on this issue, however. > > > > You are correct. > > Packets that only have the FIN flag set are valid -- but I believe would be > taken care of by the ESTABLISHED,RELATED rule. Yes, that's a fair point. > The FIN FLAG rule I entered > just in case someone decided to bombard my systems with FIN flag packets > only... Is that an unneeded rule to protect against a DoS attack? I'm not aware of a DoS attack using FIN flags (since no resources get used by a system when it receives a FIN packet), however people certainly do carry out port scans using FIN packets, and therefore I agree with you, it's probably a sensible thing to block. Antony. -- Software development can be quick, high quality, or low cost. The customer gets to pick any two out of three. Please reply to the list; please don't CC me.