nanog mailing list archives

RE: Multiple DNS implementations vulnerable to cache poisoning


From: "Eric Davis" <eric () mail rockefeller edu>
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 16:24:54 -0400

Anyone using Infoblox DNSOne?  They claimed to have fixed their BIND version
but I still see issues with source ports staying the same.

Eric Davis
Sr. Network Technician
Rockefeller University IT Dept.
212-327-7508
646-772-4667(cell)

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick W. Gilmore [mailto:patrick () ianai net] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 4:15 PM
To: nanog () merit edu
Subject: Re: Multiple DNS implementations vulnerable to cache poisoning

On Jul 9, 2008, at 4:07 PM, Fernando Gont wrote:
At 12:41 p.m. 09/07/2008, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:

It's worth noting that the basic idea of the attack isn't new.  Paul
Vixie described it in 1995 at the Usenix Security Conference

(http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/security95/vixie.htm
l 
)
-- in a section titled "What We Cannot Fix", he wrote:

       With only 16 bits worth of query ID and 16 bits worth of UDP
       port number, it's hard not to be predictable.  A determined
       attacker can try all the numbers in a very short time and can
       use patterns derived from examination of the freely available
       BIND code. Even if we had a white noise generator to help
       randomize our numbers, it's just too easy to try them all.

We have one IETF ID on port randomization for years:
http://www.gont.com.ar/drafts/port-randomization/index.html

While this does not make the attack impossible, it does make it much  
harder.

The same thing applies to those RST attacks circa 2004.

Most of these blind attacks assume the source port numbers are easy  
to guess. But... why should they?

Because many name servers use one port, or easily guessable sequence  
of ports?

-- 
TTFN,
patrick





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