From 414fedd879fdc3cd0a910acd2fd9262251a6bfe7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Pablo Neira Ayuso Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 18:40:48 +0100 Subject: doc: update conntrack-tools manual to detail expectation support This patch updates the user manual on how to enable the expectation support for conntrackd. Signed-off-by: Pablo Neira Ayuso --- doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl | 161 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 159 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) (limited to 'doc') diff --git a/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl b/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl index 7ffb5ae..4936a76 100644 --- a/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl +++ b/doc/manual/conntrack-tools.tmpl @@ -657,6 +657,164 @@ Sync { +Synchronization of expectations + + The connection tracking system provides helpers that allows you to + filter multi-flow application protocols like FTP, H.323 and SIP among many + others. These protocols usually split the control and data traffic in + different flows. Moreover, the control flow usually announces layer 3 and + 4 information to let the other peer know where the data flows will be + open. This sort of protocols require that the firewall inspects the + content of the packet, otherwise filtering by layer 3 and 4 selectors + like addresses and ports become a real nightmare. Netfilter already + provides the so-called helpers that track this + protocol aspects to allow deploying appropriate filtering. These + helpers create expectation entries that + represent expected traffic that will arrive to the firewall according + to the inspected packets. + + In case that you have enabled tracking of these protocols, you + may want to enable the state-synchronization of expectation as well. + Thus, established flows for this specific protocols will not suffer + any disruption. + + To enable the expectation support in the configuration file, you + have to use the following option: + + +Sync { + ... + Options { + ExpectationSync { + ftp + sip + h323 + } + } +} + + The example above enables the synchronization of the expectations + for the FTP, SIP and H.323 helpers. + + In my testbed, there are two firewalls in a primary-backup + configuration running keepalived. They use a couple of floating cluster + IP address (192.168.0.100 and 192.168.1.100) that are used by the client. + These firewalls protect one FTP server (192.168.1.2) that will be accessed + by one client. + + In ASCII art, it looks like this: + + + 192.168.0.100 192.168.1.100 + eth1 eth2 + fw-1 + / \ FTP + client ------ ------ server + 192.168.0.2 \ / 192.168.1.2 + fw-2 + + + This is the rule-set for the firewalls: + + + -A FORWARD -m state --state RELATED -j ACCEPT + -A FORWARD -i eth2 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT + -A FORWARD -i eth1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 21 --tcp-flags FIN,SYN,RST,ACK SYN -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT + -A FORWARD -i eth1 -p tcp -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT + -A FORWARD -m state --state INVALID -j LOG --log-prefix "invalid: " + + Before going ahead, make sure nf_conntrack_ftp is + loaded. + + The following steps detail how to check that the expectation support + works fine with FTP traffic: + + + + Switch to the client. Start one FTP control connection to one + server that is protected by the firewalls, enter passive mode: + + + (term-1) user@client$ nc 192.168.1.2 21 + 220 dummy FTP server + USER anonymous + 331 Please specify the password. + PASS nothing + 230 Login successful. + PASV + 227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,2,163,11). + + This means that port 163*256+11=41739 will be used for the data + traffic. I suggest you to read djb's FTP protocol description in case that you + don't understand how this calculation is done. + + + + Switch to fw-1 (primary) to check that the expectation is in the + internal cache. + + + root@fw1# conntrackd -i exp + proto=6 src=192.168.0.2 dst=192.168.1.2 sport=0 dport=41739 mask-src=255.255.255.255 mask-dst=255.255.255.255 sport=0 dport=65535 master-src=192.168.0.2 master-dst=192.168.1.2 sport=36390 dport=21 helper=ftp [active since 5s] + + + + + Switch to fw-2 (backup) to check that the expectation has been + successfully replicated. + + + root@fw2# conntrackd -e exp + proto=6 src=192.168.0.2 dst=192.168.1.2 sport=0 dport=41739 mask-src=255.255.255.255 mask-dst=255.255.255.255 sport=0 dport=65535 master-src=192.168.0.2 master-dst=192.168.1.2 sport=36390 dport=21 [active since 8s] + + + + + Make the primary firewall fw-1 fail. Now fw-2 becomes primary. + + + + Switch to fw-2 (primary) to commit the external cache into the + kernel. The logs should display that the commit was successful: + + + root@fw2# tail -100f /var/log/conntrackd.log + [Wed Dec 7 22:16:31 2011] (pid=19195) [notice] committing external cache: expectations + [Wed Dec 7 22:16:31 2011] (pid=19195) [notice] Committed 1 new entries + [Wed Dec 7 22:16:31 2011] (pid=19195) [notice] commit has taken 0.000366 seconds + + + + Switch to the client. Open a new terminal and connect to the port that + has been announced by the server: + + + (term-2) user@client$ nc -vvv 192.168.1.2 41739 + (UNKNOWN) [192.168.1.2] 41739 (?) open + + + + Switch to term-1 and ask for the file listing: + + + [...] + 227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,2,163,11). + LIST + + + + Switch to term-2, it should display the listing. That means + everything has worked fine. + + + + + You may want to try disabling the expectation support and + repeating the steps to check that it does not work + without the state-synchronization. + + + Troubleshooting @@ -739,8 +897,7 @@ Sync { - No. This is not implemented yet, sorry. If you are interested in - sponsoring this support, please contact me. + Yes, conntrackd includes expectation support since version 1.2.0. -- cgit v1.2.3