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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl')
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1 files changed, 150 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl b/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl index 63a53e4..f21a4ff 100644 --- a/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl +++ b/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ </authorgroup> <copyright> - <year>2008-2011</year> + <year>2008-2012</year> <holder>Pablo Neira Ayuso</holder> </copyright> @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ <releaseinfo> This document details how to install and configure the <ulink url="http://conntrack-tools.netfilter.org">conntrack-tools</ulink> - >= 1.0.0. This document will evolve in the future to cover new features + >= 1.4.0. This document will evolve in the future to cover new features and changes.</releaseinfo> </bookinfo> @@ -827,7 +827,154 @@ Sync { </sect2> -<sect2 id="sync-trouble"><title>Troubleshooting</title> +</sect1> + +<sect1 id="helpers"><title>User-space helpers</title> + + <note><title>Check your Linux kernel version first</title> + <para> + The user-space helper infrastructure requires a Linux kernel >= 3.6 + to work appropriately. + </para> + </note> + +<para>Connection tracking helpers allows you to filter multi-flow protocols +that usually separate control and data traffic into different flows. +These protocols usually violate network layering by including layer 3/4 +details, eg. IP address and TCP/UDP ports, in their application protocol +(which resides in layer 7). This is problematic for gateways since they +operate at packet-level, ie. layers 3/4, and therefore they miss this +important information to filter these protocols appropriately.</para> + +<para>Helpers inspect packet content (at layer 7) and create the so-called +expectations. These expectations are added to one internal table +that resides in the gateway. For each new packet arriving to the +gateway, the gateway first looks up for matching expectations. If +there is any, then this flow is accepted since it's been expected. +Note this lookup only occurs for the first packet that is part of one +newly established flow, not for all packets.</para> + +<para>Since 1.4.0, conntrackd provides the infrastructure to develop +helpers in user-space. The main features of the user-space infrastructure +for helpers are:</para> + +<itemizedlist> + +<listitem><para>Rapid connection tracking helper development, as developing code +in user-space is usually faster.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Reliability: A buggy helper does not crash the kernel. If the helper +fails, ie. the conntrackd crashes, Moreover, we can monitor the helper process +and restart it in case of problems.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Security: Avoid complex string matching and mangling in +kernel-space running in privileged mode. Going further, we can even think +about running user-space helper as a non-root process.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>It allows the development of very specific helpers for +proprietary protocols that are not standard. This is the case of the SQL*net +helper. Implementing this in kernel-space may be problematic, since +this may not be accepted for ainline inclusion in the Linux kernel. +As an alternative, we can still distribute this support as separate +patches. However, my personal experience is that, given that the +kernel API/ABI is not stable, changes in the interface lead to the +breakage of the patch. This highly increase the overhead in the +maintainance.</para></listitem> + +</itemizedlist> + +<para>Currently, the infrastructure supports the following user-space helpers: +</para> + +<itemizedlist> +<listitem><para>Oracle*TNS, to support its special <emphasis>Redirect</emphasis> message.</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>NFSv3, mind that version 4 does not require this helper.</para></listitem> +<listitem><para>FTP (this helper is also available in kernel-space).</para></listitem> +</itemizedlist> + +<para>The following steps describe how to enable the RPC portmapper helper for NFSv3 (this is similar for other helpers):</para> + +<orderedlist> +<listitem><para>Register user-space helper: + +<programlisting> +nfct helper add rpc inet udp +nfct helper add rpc inet tcp +</programlisting> + +This registers the portmapper helper for both UDP and TCP (NFSv3 traffic goes both over TCP and UDP). +</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Add iptables rule using the CT target: + +<programlisting> +# iptables -I OUTPUT -t raw -p udp --dport 111 -j CT --helper rpc +# iptables -I OUTPUT -t raw -p tcp --dport 111 -j CT --helper rpc +</programlisting> + +With this, packets matching port TCP/UDP/111 are passed to user-space for +inspection. If there is no instance of conntrackd configured to support +user-space helpers, no inspection happens and packets are not sent to +user-space.</para></listitem> + +<listitem><para>Add configuration to conntrackd.conf: + +<programlisting> +Helper { + Type rpc inet udp { + QueueNum 1 + QueueLen 10240 + Policy rpc { + ExpectMax 1 + ExpectTimeout 300 + } + } + Type rpc inet tcp { + QueueNum 2 + QueueLen 10240 + Policy rpc { + ExpectMax 1 + ExpectTimeout 300 + } + } +} +</programlisting> + +This configures conntrackd to use NFQUEUE queue numbers 1 and 2 to send traffic +for inspection to user-space</para> + + <note><title>If you have some custom libnetfilter_queue application</title> + <para> + Make sure your queue numbers do not collide with those used in your + conntrackd.conf file. + </para> + </note> + +</listitem> + +</orderedlist> + +<para>Now you can test this (assuming you have some working NFSv3 setup) with: + +<programlisting> +mount -t nfs -onfsvers=3 mynfs.server.info:/srv/cvs /mnt/ +</programlisting> + +</para> + +<para>You should see new expectations being added via: + +<programlisting> +# conntrack -E expect + [NEW] 300 proto=17 src=1.2.3.4 dst=1.2.3.4 sport=0 dport=54834 mask-src=255.255.255.255 mask-dst=255.255.255.255 sport=0 dport=65535 master-src=1.2.3.4 master-dst=1.2.3.4 sport=58190 dport=111 PERMANENT class=0 helper=rpc + [NEW] 300 proto=6 src=1.2.3.4 dst=1.2.3.4 sport=0 dport=2049 mask-src=255.255.255.255 mask-dst=255.255.255.255 sport=0 dport=65535 master-src=1.2.3.4 master-dst=1.2.3.4 sport=55450 dport=111 PERMANENT class=0 helper=rpc + [NEW] 300 proto=17 src=1.2.3.4 dst=1.2.3.4 sport=0 dport=58031 mask-src=255.255.255.255 mask-dst=255.255.255.255 sport=0 dport=65535 master-src=1.2.3.4 master-dst=1.2.3.4 sport=56309 dport=111 PERMANENT class=0 helper=rpc +</programlisting> +</para> + +</sect1> + +<sect1 id="sync-trouble"><title>Troubleshooting</title> <para>Problems with <emphasis>conntrackd</emphasis>? The following list of questions should help for troubleshooting:</para> @@ -1033,8 +1180,6 @@ not enough space errors: 0 </qandaset> -</sect2> - </sect1> </chapter> |