New DNS connection with SYN ACK

From: Jerry Perser (jerry.perserat_private)
Date: Fri Jan 11 2002 - 08:50:59 PST

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     ('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
    Iptables on my firewall just dropped 2204 packets that 
    were new TCP connections but had both the SYN 
    and ACK flags set.  What is interesting about this is 
    what these packets have in common AND what they 
    don’t have in common.
    
    All the packets came from 19 different hosts targeting 
    my firewall.  The TCP source port was high random 
    number, the destination port was always 53 
    (domain).  Having both the SYN and ACK flags set is 
    a response to a TCP connection request (SYN only).  
    But the TCP port numbers are reversed.  My DNS 
    only runs over UDP.  Here is are same of a few 
    packets:
    
    Jan 10 13:30:12 bender kernel: FireWall 
    INPUT_New_not_syn IN=eth0 OUT= 
    MAC=00:e0:29:68:64:e7:00:02:17:e5:08:38:08:00 
    SRC=203.194.166.182 DST=bender LEN=44 
    TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=236 ID=0 
    PROTO=TCP SPT=15700 DPT=53 WINDOW=4128 
    RES=0x00 ACK SYN URGP=0 
    
    Jan 10 13:30:12 bender kernel: FireWall 
    INPUT_New_not_syn IN=eth0 OUT= 
    MAC=00:e0:29:68:64:e7:00:02:17:e5:08:38:08:00 
    SRC=216.220.39.42 DST= bender LEN=44 
    TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=235 ID=0 
    PROTO=TCP SPT=52475 DPT=53 WINDOW=4128 
    RES=0x00 ACK SYN URGP=0 
    
    Jan 10 13:30:12 bender kernel: FireWall 
    INPUT_New_not_syn IN=eth0 OUT= 
    MAC=00:e0:29:68:64:e7:00:02:17:e5:08:38:08:00 
    SRC=194.205.125.26 DST= bender LEN=44 
    TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=0 
    PROTO=TCP SPT=57687 DPT=53 WINDOW=4128 
    RES=0x00 ACK SYN URGP=0
    
    There are 19 unique source IP addresses.  I went to 
    ARIN to see who own the IP addresses.  The 
    addresses have been assign around the world (US, 
    Hong Kong, Germany, Australia).  NSLOOKUP could 
    not find any entries for these addresses.  I can ping 
    each of the addresses (so I know there is a machine 
    there).  I did a quick port scan, and none of the 
    machine had any open sockets.  Here are the 19 ip 
    addresses:
    
    128.121.10.146	128.242.105.34
    	129.250.244.10	193.148.15.128
    194.205.125.26	194.213.64.150
    	202.139.133.129	203.194.166.182
    203.81.45.254	216.220.39.42	216.33.35.214
    	216.34.68.2
    216.35.167.58	62.23.80.2	62.26.119.34
    	64.14.200.154
    64.37.200.46	64.56.174.186	64.78.235.14
    
    What is really weird is the timing of the packets.  
    Over a 4 day period, the packets only arrived at 6 
    unique times lasting a duration of 11 to 12 seconds.  
    It looks like a DDOS attack for 11 seconds.  The time 
    between attacks is not constant, so that would rule 
    out a cron job.  Here are the 6 event times (in Pacific 
    Standard Time):
    
    Jan 8 19:10:35	Jan 8 19:40:15	Jan  8 
    20:38:45
    Jan 8 21:16:15	Jan 9 20:20:29	Jan 10 
    13:30:00
    
    I can’t find any connection between the 19 ip 
    addresses, or the time, or even what the packets 
    were trying to do.  Any ideas?
    
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