Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 6 Jun 2001 17:29:47 -0700
From:      "Philip J. Koenig" <pjklist@ekahuna.com>
To:        questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: "Unknown hardware address format"
Message-ID:  <3B1E688B.26258.D842CF@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <17c59317ef57.17ef5717c593@bowdoin.edu>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Very interesting.. well take a look at these archived messages.  I'd 
love to capture the packets too but they happen so rarely here I 
might have to capture tons of stuff: 

http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=1844097+0+archive/2000/freebsd-questions/20000806.freebsd-questions 
http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=1866032+0+archive/2000/freebsd-questions/20000806.freebsd-questions 

(it's a pity I could only find those messages with an external search 
engine, the www.freebsd.org archive didn't find them) 

Phil 


On 6 Jun 2001, at 17:09, Matthew K. Cowger boldly uttered: 


> Philip, et. al.
> 
> I get these as well, somedays alot of them, some days not.  I am 
> running in a mixed environment (5+ DEC Alphas, 20+ COmpaq NT Boxes, 
> Dell Linux Boxes, and a couple macs), And these Unknown Hardware 
> Address fromat messages endup in my logs on my BSD box all day long 
> (old Compaq 266 w/ Intel EtherExpress PRo 10/100).  I'll be happy to 
> sent any log output...it would be nice to get rid of these, or find out 
> what machine is sending them.
> 
> .matt
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Philip J. Koenig" <pjklist@ekahuna.com>
> Date: Wednesday, June 6, 2001 5:04 pm
> Subject: "Unknown hardware address format"
> 
> > I posted a similiar question to this list and the Security list on 
> > 5/28 and didn't get any definitive replies.
> > 
> > Today I am seeing the same message, out of the blue, in my syslog 
> > and 
> > echoed to console (4.3-STABLE):
> > 
> >        io /kernel: arp: unknown hardware address format (0x0800)
> > 
> > I searched the mailing list archives to no avail, but ran across 
> > some 
> > stuff on altavista, apparently 0800 matches both IP and arp 
> > protocol 
> > numbers, here is apparently some kernel code that generates this 
> > message (if_ether.c), from the URL below:
> > 
> >        http://minnie.tuhs.org/FreeBSD-
> > srctree/newsrc/netinet/if_ether.c.html
> > ----------------- Begin code snippet --------------------
> > if (ntohs(ar->ar_hrd) != ARPHRD_ETHER
> >    && ntohs(ar->ar_hrd) != ARPHRD_IEEE802) {
> > log(LOG_ERR,
> >    "arp: unknown hardware address format (0x%2D)\n",
> >    (unsigned char *)&ar->ar_hrd, "");
> > m_freem(m);
> > continue;
> > }
> > --------------------- End code snippet ------------------
> > 
> > 
> > I keep worrying it may be a security breach or something, or maybe 
> > a 
> > piece of failing network hardware.  I'd rather not join one of the 
> > kernel lists just to ask this question, so if anyone is a 
> > kernel/net 
> > hacker or would like to forward it to one, i'd appreciate it..



--
Philip J. Koenig                                       pjklist@ekahuna.com
Electric Kahuna Systems -- Computers & Communications for the New Millenium


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3B1E688B.26258.D842CF>