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Re: Domain Centric Administration, RE: draft-ietf-v6ops-natpt-to-historic-00.txt

2007-07-02 16:12:39

 
From: itojun(_at_)itojun(_dot_)org [mailto:itojun(_at_)itojun(_dot_)org]=20

=20
Its not exactly a surprise, folk seem to place a higher premium on=20
shooting NAT than anything else. Meanwhile the vast majority of=20
residential broadband access is behind NAT.

And from a security point I want to see as much NAT as possible.=20
Without NAT we would be in a much worse situation security=20
wise than we=20
are today. NAT is a blunt instrument but it shuts down=20
inbound server=20
connects. And that is such a good thing from the point of view of=20
stopping propagation of network worms.
(snip)
=20
    a few points.  IPv6 technology really needs to be demystified.
=20
    you do not have to rewrite IP address to ensure that there's no
    inbound connections.  you just have to have a packet=20
filter which
    watches/drops TCP SYN or whatever alike.  if you do not=20
have enough
    address space to serve your enterprise, it is a good=20
reason to use
    IPv6 :-)

My point here is that the principal objection being raised to NAT, the =
limitation on network connectivity is precisely the reason why it is =
beneficial.

There is no other device that can provide me with a lightweight firewall =
for $50.
        
        We ask for one.  Don't say "I want NAT" say "I want a
        stateful firewall".  That's what you are really asking for
        and getting a lot of other @#$%%n in the process.

        Every $50 PNAT vendor could deliver you a stateful firewall
        at the same price point.  It's only a matter of removing the
        address translation.
 
      if=20
you have RFC3041
    and other tricky systems, your system will have higher=20
likelyhood of
    having implementation bugs (violation of KISS principle).

Same can be said of IPv6.

We have a lot of really good ways of avoiding issues we don't like: =
complexity, accessibility, limited access in third world countries.=20

Unless the arguments are applied consistently they should not be made at =
all. Otherwise they just become special pleading.


    even if you stop all inbound connections, malicious=20
parties which
    controls HTTP/whatever servers can inject your end node=20
any kind of
    crufted TCP options, which might cause buffer overflow=20
(DoS/privilege
    user hijacking).=20

As I told Bruce Schneier after his silly IPSEC and Certification =
Authority papers, security is risk control, not risk elimination.=20

It is not helpful to criticise a security measure that empirically =
offers a high degree of security for failing to address cases it is not =
designed to deal with. An HTTP server behind a NAT box is no HTTP server =
and thus no threat.

In a full default deny infrastructure I can allow the HTTP server =
external access and deal with issues such as HTTP server corruption by =
requiring the HTTP server to run in an isolated O/S partition so that =
compromise of the server cannot lead to compromise of the host.


    spam, phishing and botnet are independent from=20
presense/absense of NAT.

I can shut down 95% of existing botnets using reverse firewalls. I have =
yet to find a legitimate network use with an access pattern that =
remotely resembles the access patern of a production botnet.

The approach I propose in the dotCrime Manifesto is that by default the =
newtork access point throttles outgoing SYN and DNS requests to some =
large number that is well short of the needs of spammers, DDoS SYN =
flooding etc.

    OSes have to be secured by default, that's all.

Linux is ten million odd lines of code. When you have more than a =
million lines of code you can be certain that at least 50% of the people =
working on it were below average in talent. Vista is ten times bigger.

We simply don't know how to build a secure operating system today.


 heavy use of firewall/
    NAT have propagated "false sense of security" inside enterprise

The 'security through obscurity' argument is bogus.=20

Back in the early 1990s people were arguing AGAINST the use of shaddow =
passwords in UNIX on the grounds that they give a 'false sense of =
security'.

I agree that most enterprises have an exagerated idea of what perimeter =
security can do for them, but that does not mean that the solution is to =
drop all the firewalls. That is not what is being discussed when people =
are talking about deperimeterization.


    network, and therefore, many of end systems within=20
enterprise are very
    vulnerable to attacks.  the most common attack vector=20
these days are
    laptops owned by people like IETFers (goes in and out=20
of enterprise)
    or VPN-connected laptops, which carry worms.  so, many=20
people purchase
    end node firewall systems ("fire suit" in the old=20
terminology), but,
    if your end node operating systems are secure by=20
default, you do not
    need those end node firewall systems and/or keep=20
upgrading signature
    files.

There is no individual security control that cannot be trumped. Host =
based security can be disabled if the host is compromised. We don't yet =
have the trustworthy systems we need to prevent that attack.

There is no individual security control that cannot be trumped, but we =
can deploy combinations of security controls that make it very much =
harder for an attacker to succeed.

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