RE: Bypassing website filter in SonicWall

From: Brian J. Gaia (bjgaiaat_private)
Date: Wed Oct 30 2002 - 19:47:56 PST

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    That weakness would exist in any product that filters by domain name,
    because many of them will not perform a reverse DNS lookup. This would be
    the behavior of most home products (such as Cyberpatrol) which allow an
    administrator to specify forbidden domains, but if I wanted to see the site
    bad enough I would just ping/tracert/etc to get the IP address. In most
    cases the filter will not capture the IP address because all the admin knew
    to enter was the domain name.
    
    SonicWall could (and should) resolve this by adding Reverse DNS lookup to
    the Forbidden Domains list. That would possibly slow down Internet traffic
    on the LAN side but the admin could disable it if they wish. Also if the
    reverse DNS fails it could give the admin the option to block the site or
    allow it anyway.
    
    Brian J. Gaia
    Print Shop & Information Systems Assistant
    Webmaster, Pure and Undefiled Religion (PURE)
    Church of the Open Door
    
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Marc Ruef [mailto:marc.ruefat_private]
    Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 2:36 PM
    To: bugtraqat_private; newsat_private
    Subject: Bypassing website filter in SonicWall
    
    
    Hi!
    
    I found a little weakness in SonicWall: I turn on the blocking
    mechanism for websites (e.g. www.google.com). Now I can't reach
    the website using the domainname. But if I choose the IP address of the
    host (e.g. http://216.239.53.101/), I can contact the forbidden
    website. The same issue I've discovered for NetGear FM114P in
    http://online.securityfocus.com/bid/5667
    
    It would make sense if you can do an internal nslookup. Otherwise the
    user can do a workaround and adding always the ip address(es) of the
    blocked websites. But this can cause some problems if there were some
    virtual hostings. A smart attacker can use some dottless-ips to bypass
    the new workaround IP filter. The box will sadly loose performance
    because of the additional filter line(s).
    
    My description was sent on 02/10/15 to infoat_private - No response
    came back. The blocking URL message style and problem reminds my the
    website blocking mechanism by NetGears FM114P. It could be that both
    use the same mechanism (by a 3rd party?). So, if the bug is fixed for
    one box the other will also be fixed - I think so.
    
    Bye, Marc
    
    --
    Computer, Technik und Security
    http://www.computec.ch
    



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