Cisco IOS ICMP redirect DoS - Cisco's response

From: Damir Rajnovic (gausat_private)
Date: Tue May 21 2002 - 10:45:40 PDT

  • Next message: COULOMBE, TROY: "Catalyst 4000"

    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
    
    Hello,
    
    We can confirm the finding made by FXat_private This issue
    is assigned Cisco bug ID CSCdx32056. The fix has been developed and
    it is being committed into all affected releases.
    
    The situation in Cisco IOS 12.x code is that the redirect cache will only 
    grow if "ip routing" is disabled. The Cisco IOS 11.x code will populate 
    the redirect cache ignoring the state of the "ip routing". The redirect
    cache is fixed in size and an entry timeout is four hours.
    
    By filling the redirect cache the memory is consumed. If the device 
    is already low on memory that may cause further irregularities in 
    the device's performance. Effects can vary, some of them can be:
    new routes can not be learned, new MAC entries might not be added,
    Telnet session might not be established, new CDP entries might not be
    added. Depending on the exact configuration and circumstances, the
    device may become totally unresponsive. The device should recover by 
    itself after the four hours when the entries will start to timeout.
    
    The workaround for users running Cisco IOS 11.x code is to block all ICMP
    redirect messages that are sent to the router itself. That can be
    accomplished this way:
    
     router(config)#access-list 101 deny icmp any host <device_IP> redirect
     .... (the rest of the access-list 101)
     router(config)#interface eth0
     router(config-if)#ip access-group 101 in
    
    This example will block all ICMP packets, sent to the router itself,
    coming from the eth0 interface. All transit ICMP redirect packets will
    be allowed through.
    
    Although, Cisco IOS 12.x code is less exposed we recommend to block all 
    ICMP redirect packets sent to the device itself.
    
    Gaus 
    
    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
    Version: PGP 6.5.3
    
    iQEVAwUBPOqHtw/VLJ+budTTAQFsvwf/bsR/O6QMhPjxr8sGtQJ58Xr/EC1WkiQn
    H0jIPGsma9wv5F4hWlpjRiZfVX9GfEoLs8yrknBWXQ08cwB+TizzsSdUVnQXkp4z
    6gYzHymdSbvZW/pSJyPa4J0r80MoVN8qOgavD6iCbvlT8GA67lS13YdLHDYos2cP
    3c8B8UwXGiOdCJQAI1UY2gg592owahSjXRaTwStitGiwmRuhKDQE0sqWDN1h0YPw
    B85QJYpds2HrsC31tYO3P0rocToZFvUPA4zd5MaaqZ4gbdlTZDU5p0ktDbnRJZy/
    KAfm/YV9yQIFjJzUzmcy7iZj+09pr/qNocvAvTw24CGcxGPXX+wDow==
    =y3UB
    -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
    ==============
    Damir Rajnovic <psirtat_private>, PSIRT Incident Manager, Cisco Systems
    <http://www.cisco.com/go/psirt>      Telephone: +44 7715 546 033
    200 Longwater Avenue, Green Park, Reading, Berkshire RG2 6GB, GB
    ==============
    There is no insolvable problems. 
    The question is can you accept the solution? 
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue May 21 2002 - 14:06:35 PDT