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Date:      Thu, 20 Jan 2000 23:32:42 -0700
From:      Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>
To:        Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        Darren Reed <avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au>, Warner Losh <imp@village.org>, jamiE rishaw - master e*tard <jamiE@arpa.com>, Tom <tom@uniserve.com>, Mike Tancsa <mike@sentex.net>, freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, security-officer@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: bugtraq posts: stream.c - new FreeBSD exploit?
Message-ID:  <3887FD8A.379E9B91@softweyr.com>
References:  <4.2.2.20000120174826.01882ad0@localhost> <4.2.2.20000120180821.0188d5c0@localhost>

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Brett Glass wrote:
> 
> At 06:03 PM 1/20/2000 , Darren Reed wrote:
> 
> >If you're using "flags S keep state" or "flags S/SA keep state",
> >then as far as I'm aware, having read the code, you are safe.
> 
> This might be a workaround. What rule(s) would have to follow it
> to block the ACK?
> 
> >I'm intrigued to know what the bug is.  Reading the code, it is
> >hard to see how you could make a box fall over using it, unless
> >there were some serious problems in how random TCP ACK's were
> >handled.
> 
> My guess is that there's a long code path, or other inefficiency,
> in the way the ACK is handled. Perhaps a linear search for the
> right socket instead of one that's more clevery implemented
> (e.g. search by port, then address, etc.).

I don't think so.  The handling for bare TCP ACKs isn't all that bad, so
I'm not seeing the bug.  Maybe tomorrow, after I've slept a bit.  Tonight
it's just escaping me.

From the report, it's obviously a resource usage problem, where the ACKs
are being queued up or something, but I can't see it tonight.

-- 
            "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"

Wes Peters                                                         Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com                                           http://softweyr.com/


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