802.11g Wireless 4-port Router User's Guide

ZyAIR G-2000 Plus User’s Guide
187 Chapter 14 Firewalls
Below is a brief technical description of how these connections are tracked. Connections may
either be defined by the upper protocols (for instance, TCP), or by the ZyAIR itself (as with
the "virtual connections" created for UDP and ICMP).
14.5.3 TCP Security
The ZyAIR uses state information embedded in TCP packets. The first packet of any new
connection has its SYN flag set and its ACK flag cleared; these are "initiation" packets. All
packets that do not have this flag structure are called "subsequent" packets, since they
represent data that occurs later in the TCP stream.
If an initiation packet originates on the WAN, this means that someone is trying to make a
connection from the Internet into the LAN. Except in a few special cases (see "Upper Layer
Protocols" shown next), these packets are dropped and logged.
If an initiation packet originates on the LAN, this means that someone is trying to make a
connection from the LAN to the Internet. Assuming that this is an acceptable part of the
security policy (as is the case with the default policy), the connection will be allowed. A cache
entry is added which includes connection information such as IP addresses, TCP ports,
sequence numbers, etc.
When the ZyAIR receives any subsequent packet (from the Internet or from the LAN), its
connection information is extracted and checked against the cache. A packet is only allowed to
pass through if it corresponds to a valid connection (that is, if it is a response to a connection
which originated on the LAN).
14.5.4 UDP/ICMP Security
UDP and ICMP do not themselves contain any connection information (such as sequence
numbers). However, at the very minimum, they contain an IP address pair (source and
destination). UDP also contains port pairs, and ICMP has type and code information. All of
this data can be analyzed in order to build "virtual connections" in the cache.
For instance, any UDP packet that originates on the LAN will create a cache entry. Its IP
address and port pairs will be stored. For a short period of time, UDP packets from the WAN
that have matching IP and UDP information will be allowed back in through the firewall.
A similar situation exists for ICMP, except that the ZyAIR is even more restrictive.
Specifically, only outgoing echoes will allow incoming echo replies, outgoing address mask
requests will allow incoming address mask replies, and outgoing timestamp requests will
allow incoming timestamp replies. No other ICMP packets are allowed in through the firewall,
simply because they are too dangerous and contain too little tracking information. For
instance, ICMP redirect packets are never allowed in, since they could be used to reroute
traffic through attacking machines.