Lotus Domino DoS solution

From: Radoslav Dejanoviæ (radoslav.dejanovicat_private)
Date: Thu Aug 23 2001 - 00:31:37 PDT

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    > where domain.com is not local to the server in question,
    > the server attempts to bounce the message, and the bounce
    > goes into a loop, constantly being sent back to the same
    > server.
    
    There is "Solution v1.0pl1" for this.
    
    Open Domino Administrator and connect to your Domino server.
    Click on the "Configuration" tab, then on the left pane expand "Messaging"
    submenu, select "Configurations". On the right pane select your server to
    open
    it's configuration panel.
    
    Now, you'll be presented with new window named "Configuration for
    server/DOMAIN"
    There's a row of tabs on the top; select "Router/SMTP". You'll be presented
    with more
    tabs. Select "Restrictions and Controls" tab to get even more tabs. :-)
    
    What you need is "SMTP Inbound Controls". There's a field under the section
    "Inbound Sender Controls"
    named "Deny messages from the following internet address/domains".
    Put the IP in that address, enclosed in brackets - [127.0.0.1]. Note that
    you can put more than
    one IP address there (i.e. your localhost and your real IP), but each must
    be enclosed in it's own brackets.
    
    This is the slight change from my previous post (rejected anyway :-) - I
    made a mistake by selecting "Inbound Connection Controls" instead, which
    doesn't check for senders e-mail (what is really needed here, since From:
    field generates trouble, not the inbound connection; credit for the fix
    goes to pero.vukojevicat_private).
    
    We tested this, and it rejects inbound connection made from address
    user@[127.0.0.1] with the nice message in the log:
    
    > 22.08.2001 17:10:32 SMTP Server: 10.11.8.110 connected
    22.08.2001 17:10:32 SMTP Server [0624:0004-0200] Mail from
    bounce@[127.0.0.1]
    rejected for policy reasons. Sender is denied in your configuration.
    
    This workaround can save you from DoS attacks (I've been told of at least
    one such attack recently on local Domino servers here), you can even use it
    in the middle of an attack to stop it.
    If you're already attacked and the message bounces around, you don't need
    to shut down entire server, just stop mail services, delete the message
    from the queue and start services again.
    
    Note: this workaround is tested just for the reported vulnerability. This
    shouldn't break anything, but be careful implementing this if your Domino
    server is not the main/only mail service at your location. If you encounter
    problem, you can fix it easily by removing the value from the field, but in
    any case Microsoft-like EULA is applied to this message. ;-)
    



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