Re: Ideas? Port 21 SYNs, slow

From: Buddy Nahay (res0xhvrat_private)
Date: Sun Jul 14 2002 - 23:09:59 PDT

  • Next message: Przemyslaw Frasunek: "OpenBSD rootkit"

    I am also receiving something similar, after reading this thread I noticed
    the following in my system logs.
    
    [**] spp_stream4: STEALTH ACTIVITY (SYN FIN scan) detection [**]
    07/14-12:01:12.488358 61.220.166.204:21 -> 4.62.68.160:21
    TCP TTL:22 TOS:0x0 ID:39426 IpLen:20 DgmLen:40
    ******SF Seq: 0x74CEB8FE  Ack: 0x748CEEB  Win: 0x404  TcpLen: 20
    =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
    
    [**] spp_stream4: STEALTH ACTIVITY (SYN FIN scan) detection [**]
    07/14-13:22:23.606072 61.220.166.204:21 -> 4.62.68.160:21
    TCP TTL:22 TOS:0x0 ID:39426 IpLen:20 DgmLen:40
    ******SF Seq: 0xAEA6C78  Ack: 0x138F638F  Win: 0x404  TcpLen: 20
    =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
    
    [**] spp_stream4: STEALTH ACTIVITY (SYN FIN scan) detection [**]
    07/14-13:35:33.997851 61.220.166.204:21 -> 4.62.68.160:21
    TCP TTL:22 TOS:0x0 ID:39426 IpLen:20 DgmLen:40
    ******SF Seq: 0x3E36EFC3  Ack: 0x13EE38CB  Win: 0x404  TcpLen: 20
    =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
    
    [**] spp_stream4: STEALTH ACTIVITY (SYN FIN scan) detection [**]
    07/14-14:59:56.920424 61.220.166.204:21 -> 4.62.68.160:21
    TCP TTL:22 TOS:0x0 ID:39426 IpLen:20 DgmLen:40
    ******SF Seq: 0x572677AB  Ack: 0x716D6B6D  Win: 0x404  TcpLen: 20
    =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
    
    bash-2.05# nslookup 61.220.166.204
    Server:  vnsc-pri.sys.gtei.net
    Address:  4.2.2.1
    
    Name:    61-220-166-204.HINET-IP.hinet.net
    Address:  61.220.166.204
    
    the only probes from this IP address were to port 21.
    
    Regards,
    Buddy Nahay
    n a h a y DOT b g AT v e r i z o n DOT n e t
    
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Bubsy" <pizzapoweredat_private>
    To: <incidentsat_private>
    Sent: 13 July, 2002 14:57 PM
    Subject: Re: Ideas? Port 21 SYNs, slow
    
    
    > In-Reply-To: <20020712230533.GA4862at_private>
    >
    >      I believe the sender was receiving my responses, I'll explain why I
    > believe that. Just before I was going to route the first one, I pinged and
    > portscanned that IP, there were many services, a webserver, PCAnywhere and
    > some other things. When I stopped returning packets to that IP, services
    > started falling off, and "attacks" started from other IPs in the same net.
    > For the record, I also tracerouted to see how much of their BW they were
    > using, to see if this might have been directed towards many IPs at once,
    > which might have been shown by a drastic change in return trip time from
    > the offending machine to their backbone connection, I had 29 MS to their
    > backbone router, and 30 MS to the offending IP, consistently. Given that
    > and that they seemed to notice quickly when I stopped returning packets, A
    > assume that they weren't doing a widespread "attack", probably some admin
    > sitting around with too much time on his hands.
    >
    >
    >      After I noticed the first IP doing this for 2 full days, I captured a
    > few packets and routed the offending IP to localhost, so I could still
    > watch what they were trying to do. Within a few minutes of my not sending
    > packets back to the supposed source, another IP appeared which was doing
    > the same type of thing, my log was included in my original message to show
    > the pattern. Shortly after that, more IPs popped up, doing the same type
    > of thing, and after I routed those IPs off to local, within a short time,
    > all "attacks" stopped.
    >
    >      I have seen this same type of thing for a while, but they don't
    > usually continue for very long, today's "attacker" is 66.192.45.84, who I
    > routed to local to see how long it takes for them to notice.
    >
    >
    >      If my assumptions are close to being correct, the source IP saw my
    > responses, which makes me think they have a use for the response itself,
    > or are watching for a change in the response. I created a change by
    > stopping the responses, which made them wonder if I firewalled them, which
    > I did :) so they continued from another net. When I blocked them, one by
    > one, they tried sending from many IPs at once, and eventually stopped,
    > which makes me wonder:
    >
    >
    >      This originally went on for days before I stopped it. What use could
    > my acks be to someone? Is this a DOS meant towards an FTP server? Or is it
    > an exploit that I'm not aware of?
    >
    >      I assume this is either a person with even less of a life that I
    > have :) or a new exploit that I'm not aware of yet. Given that I see one
    > or two similar to these on the short term per day, apparently coming from
    > different unique places, I'm more inclined to think that this is a new
    > exploit, and I'm still curious to see what you guys and gals think. TNX
    >
    > >On Thu, Jul 11, 2002 at 06:15:17PM -0400, Jason Giglio wrote:
    > >> You are probably seeing backscatter from a DDoS attack.  Someone is
    > > probably spoofing your address as the source of the attack,
    > > among a lot of others.  That also explains why the server went
    > > down eventually.  Also the controversial political nature of the
    > > site would make it a target of attack.
    > >
    > >> Just my guess.
    > >
    > > Bad guess.  Wrong answer.  Unless the data he's supplying is bogus.
    > >
    > > He is reporting port 21 SYNs.  Now, unless they are SYN-ACKs,
    > >there is no way on God's green earth for them to be backscatter.  Why?
    > >Because there is no TCP request packet that RESULTS in a SYN packet.
    > >A SYN-ACK, yes.  A SYN, no.  Backscatter, by definition, are response
    > >packets.  SYN packets can not be response packets.  Therefore SYN
    > >packets can not be backscatter.
    > >
    > > For the record...  The "darkside" / "blackhole" network I monitor
    > >has received sporatic bursts of both FTP SYN (not SYN ACK) and FTP FIN
    > >(which is probably stealth scanning) from several sites over the last
    > >few days.  Several are in Korea (over half).  Some are not.  I do
    > >monitor for backscatter and, IMNSHO, have some pretty good filters
    > >for discriminating between what is backscatter and what is direct
    > >scanning (it's not that difficult).  Backscatter is running pretty
    > >low (from my view port) at the moment compared to flat out port scanning.
    > >
    > > BTW...  As several of us have noted in the past, some "slow"
    > >scans are, if you were at the source, "balls to the wall", "scan
    > >the planet", scans with the address ordering arranged to minimize
    > >the hits per day a (small) end network experiences.  We've seen several
    > >scans in which the scanner is running as fast as possible but is
    > >incrementing through the address space in "octel reversed order" so
    > >someone on a /24 only sees an occasional hit while someone like me
    > >and others I colaborate with see faster hits on our /16 but the next
    > >higher byte increments faster.  Correlating with some of my "numerical
    > >neighbors", it's rapidly obvious that the octet next up (the second
    > >octet) is incrementing even faster.  I'm sure Dug Song and a few of
    > >the others with the high honor of access to the data from a fossile
    > >/8 can attest to even more interesting patterns of activity.  Correlating
    > >that data with distributed sensor data where I work is consistent with
    > >scans where the bytes are increments in reverse order and what appears
    > >to be a slow scan is really an uncapped scan that is blazing away with
    > >all barrels a blazing.  So, slow or fast is a rather relative term.  :-)
    > >
    > >> On 11 Jul 2002 02:41:08 -0000
    > >> Bubsy <pizzapoweredat_private> wrote:
    > >>
    > >> >
    > >> >
    > >> >      I would like to pick your collective brains
    > >> > regarding what I believe is an attack of some form,
    > >> > even if it is very slow. I noticed a day and a half
    > >> > worth of continuous port 21 SYNs. Because there were
    > >> > never any completed connections, this would not show up
    > >> > in the FTP logs, but I watch all traffic, maybe I need
    > >> > a life :) . I noticed an unusual amount of FTP port
    > >> > SYNs that I was acknowledging, which were being
    > >> > ignored. One or more SYNs would come in at about the
    > >> > same time, to which I would respond with three
    > >> > acknowledgements per SYN and then quit. Many of these
    > >> > incoming SYNs had the same checksum. Strange, maybe
    > >> > forgery?
    >
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