RE: strange traffic on UDP port 53

From: David Gillett (gillettdavid_at_fhda.edu)
Date: 06/06/03

  • Next message: Dale Fay: "Re: Japanese "IPv6" group allocating for IPv4 spamming?"
    To: "'Mike'" <mike@coenholdings.ie>, "'Ronald Belchez'" <meukone@yahoo.co.uk>, <incidents@securityfocus.com>
    Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 10:35:34 -0700
    
    

      Replies to DNS queries should be coming FROM port 53, not
    (necessarily) addressed TO port 53.

    David Gillett

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Mike [mailto:mike@coenholdings.ie]
    > Sent: June 6, 2003 00:40
    > To: 'Ronald Belchez'; incidents@securityfocus.com
    > Subject: RE: strange traffic on UDP port 53
    >
    >
    > After deploying a new mail server/internet gateway (behind a
    > firewall) I
    > found a similar problem with packets being stopped by our firewall.
    > After performing an nslookup on the "offending" IP address I found it
    > belonged to our ISP. On querying them about this odd behavior the
    > explanation given (and other evidence seems to bear this out) was that
    > our mail server was performing DNS lookups for the delivery
    > of mail and
    > on behalf of our internal network as it was configured as a forwarder
    > because it was behind a firewall. The IP address in question
    > was merely
    > replying to DNS queries which had been forwarded to it by our ISPs'
    > primary DNS server and as the firewall would only allow DNS replies
    > through from certain IP addresses it was stopping any others. The
    > incrementing of the source ports you are seeing is due to the
    > fact that
    > when the DNS reply is not acknowledged by the target system it tries
    > again on the next available port.
    > It is only usually a minor inconvenience (although the other day one
    > server filled my firewall log 4 times and I was alerted to
    > possible port
    > scans a number of times during the day). If it bothers you
    > too much try
    > filtering the logs to remove the offending entries or you can
    > allow all
    > port 53 traffic in (unless like me you suffer from paranoid delusions
    > that everyone on the internet is out to get you).
    >
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Ronald Belchez [mailto:meukone@yahoo.co.uk]
    > Sent: 04 June 2003 22:14
    > To: incidents@securityfocus.com
    > Subject: strange traffic on UDP port 53
    >
    >
    >
    > Hi All,
    >
    > We don't have a firewall and is just relying on Access-list on our
    > border
    >
    > router. After i applied the new access-list I am continously
    > receiving
    >
    > the logs showed below. The destination IP is our mail server (not
    > running
    >
    > any DNS service) while the source IP (unsolicited and using
    > source port
    >
    > with some sort of incremental patterm, the denied packets
    > logs is also
    >
    > continuous now for about 4 days) I am not aware of any trojan or worm
    >
    > using the below. I already tried searching google but cannot find the
    >
    > explanation or something that might help me understand the below....
    >
    > Please advise.
    >
    >
    >
    > --logs starts here---
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(54067) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 1 packet
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(54070) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 1 packet
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(53967) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(53972) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(53979) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(53989) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(54003) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(53982) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 34 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(54009) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(54027) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(54035) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > denied udp XX7.Y3.71.242(54042) -> XX3.Y1.246.66(53), 2 packets
    >
    > --------------------------------------------------------------
    > ----------
    > ----
    > --------------------------------------------------------------
    > ----------
    > ----
    >
    >
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  • Next message: Dale Fay: "Re: Japanese "IPv6" group allocating for IPv4 spamming?"

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