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How do I close UDP Port 500?

I am failing a PCI scan because UDP Port 500 is showing as open|filtered on Nmap scans.  I see that this is the ISAKMP service.  However I do not have any IPsec connections defined, I have Cisco VPN disabled, and I even went so far as to create a Deny/Drop firewall rule for everything incoming hitting port 500, put it at the top, and that still doesn't work.

How do I find out what service on the XG has this port open and then close it?



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  • One thing to attempt is to stop the related daemon on the XG which is enabled by default.

    From the advanced shell option on the XG run the following:

    # service strongswan:stop -ds nosync

     

  • Please post the ramifications of disabling this.  What functionality is lost? 

  • Hi John,

    "strongswan" service is responsible for establishing IPsec-based VPN connections.

    Stopping that service would result in disabling those type of connections, which rely on UDP ports 500 and 4500.

    If there is no business need and you wish to tighten security further, then you may consider the actions/suggestions highlighted. 

     

    NOTE: if the XG was to restart, then that service would be started automatically, so Bill Roland's suggestion is better suited.

  • That's what I thought. 

    And if we need the IPSec VPN between sites, and UDP 500 is showing as open and failing a PCI Compliance scan - how do we secure it?

    I have created a WAN-WAN rule for UDP500 that only accepts connection from specified FQDN hosts.  This is fine if I know my remote IP/FQDN, but would be a problem if the remote side is dynamic and we're using Aggressive mode.

    What is Sophos solution?

  • This is still failing.

    How can Sophos put out a so-called business class product that doesn't pass PCI compliance? (which really isn't very strict)

  • I took a quick google search for this. At the moment, nearly every vendor is struggling with those "ports". 

    I cannot test it right know, but as far as i know, UDP500 should be closed in case of not using IPsec for any. 

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  • Well, part of the issue I believe is that you can't even use the firewall to restrict where UDP500 can connect from.

    I had restricted my IPSec VPN to specific FQDN and it was open to the world.  This means it's not REALLY isolated.  It only means it won't successfully connect.  That's not the same.

    It should pass through the firewall FIRST, then connect to an internal service for the IPSec VPN

  • You can. Simply use the DNAT process and send this to nowhere. 

    But - As far as i know, if you build up a site to site connection and tell the appliance explicit the peer via IP, is port500 still open? 

    Because i have many customers, which could pass the PCI Test without any issue. 

    Do you use remote access IPsec? 

    Do you use Respond only on XG? 

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Reply
  • You can. Simply use the DNAT process and send this to nowhere. 

    But - As far as i know, if you build up a site to site connection and tell the appliance explicit the peer via IP, is port500 still open? 

    Because i have many customers, which could pass the PCI Test without any issue. 

    Do you use remote access IPsec? 

    Do you use Respond only on XG? 

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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