ICMP unreachable question

From: Steve Culligan (stephen_culliganat_private)
Date: Fri Oct 26 2001 - 03:05:24 PDT

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    I'm interested in a particular ICMP packet which seems to change the client 
    / servers MTU size.
    The scenario is like this
    client----------->Router-vpn-vpn-vpn-vpn-vpn-Router --------------->Firewall 
    ------------->Server
    - Client initiates a connection with the server and starts to transmit data.
    - Router places its ESP header on the packets coming from the server which 
    brings the MTU over the maximum size
    - Router sends the following packet back to the server
    	icmp: 172.*.*.*  unreachable - need to frag (mtu 1454)
    - ICMP packet from the router gets blocked by the firewall and the 
    connection is eventually lost as the router cannot handle this MTU size.
    
    but
    
    If the Firewall permits the ICMP packet from the router through to the 
    server, the server will lower its MTU and continue the connection.
    
    So my question is , Can this be used as a denial of service attack to 
    continually send these ICMP packets to a server to confuse it or bring it 
    down.
    Anybody had any experience with this or know any tools which can generate 
    these ICMP reachable packets ?
    
    Regards,
    
    Steve Culligan
    
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