ssh working as designed?

From: Christian Karpp (xn@heidelbg.ibm.com)
Date: 04/24/02 

From: Christian Karpp <xn@heidelbg.ibm.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 13:44:26 +0200

ok, here's the situation:

a single-homed ssh client (free ssh win2k client v3.1.0b235, ip-address
10.3.x.x) wants to connect to a multi-homed ssh server (OpenSSH_2.9.9p2,
AIX 4.3.3.0-09) on one of this I/Fs, let's say 10.2.x.x.

the topology is like this:

client -> default gateway -> 10.2.x.x [ server ] 10.3.x.x --+
  ^---------------------------------------------------------+

since the server's second I/F is in the same subnet as the client, the
packets are returned directly to the client (and not via the default
router). fine. plain IP routing.

in such situations, the ssh session is established and one can work for
about 1-3 minutes before the session is closed without any further error
message or notification. neither on the client side, nor on the server
side.

what causes this behavior? a different IP source address of the return
packets from what the original destination was? and why is the session
working for a short period of time at all?

any ideas?

thx, Xn. 

-- 
Christian Karpp _____ Sr. SecurITy Consultant, IBM Heidelberg, Germany
fon: +49-172-735-7707, +49-6221-59-4507 ___ email: xn@heidelbg.ibm.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=  "In God we trust.  The rest we monitor."  =-=-=-=-=-=-=