Important note about SSL VPN compatibility for 20.0 MR1 with EoL SFOS versions and UTM9 OS. Learn more in the release notes.

Sophos Firewall: How to protect against TearDrop/LAND/WinNuke/Smurf attacks

Disclaimer: This information is provided as-is for the benefit of the Community. Please contact Sophos Professional Services if you require assistance with your specific environment.


Overview

This post addresses the Sophos Firewall concerning listed attack types.

Smurf


ICMP broadcast-based attack (Large number of ICMP packets)

Teardrop


Overlapping IP fragments

  • SFOS is not vulnerable to Teardrop attacks. By default, Linux handles overlapping IP fragments gracefully.
  • SFOS can protect vulnerable systems from Teardrop attacks. SFOS never sends fragmented packets received from one endpoint to another; instead, it joins the received fragments. Then forwards either the whole packet or newly created fragment when required (e.g. handles small MTUs)

LAND and WinNuke


LAND - Uses the same source IP or port as the destination service to cause a loop.
WinNuke - Uses TCP urgent pointer for Windows services (e.g NetBIOS) to cause a DoS.




Edited TAGs
[edited by: Raphael Alganes at 7:50 AM (GMT -7) on 17 Sep 2024]