RE: Patching a Firewall

["Thomas F. Szabo" <tszabo () diamondtech net>]

IMHO, it's a HUGE security risk.  First of all you would be putting an
awful lot of faith in the fact that the firewall is configured properly.
Second if an attacker manages to get around the firewall rule set one
way or another you are now effectively screwed.  Aside from staying up
to date with patches you should also properly lock down the OS running
the firewall.  Windows NT for example will probably be running services
by default that are not necessary for any firewall software to work
properly.  No need to take unnecessary chances, right?

Tom Szabo

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Mezzone [mailto:Robert.Mezzone () PJSolomon Com] 
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 8:16 AM
To: 'security-basics () securityfocus com'
Subject: Patching a Firewall

I want to start off by saying my Firewall is fully patched. That being
said
my question is...

Is it a big security risk if the OS (say Windows) running the firewall
box,
is not fully patched? My reasoning that it isn't is because the firewall
should be configured to drop any connections to itself. Or being the
firewall has to at least initially accept the packet in order to inspect
it,
enough to exploit a vulnerability.

Robert

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captus Networks
Are you prepared for the next Sobig & Blaster?
 - Instantly Stop DoS/DDoS Attacks, Worms & Port Scans
 - Precisely Define and Implement Network Security
 - Automatically Control P2P, IM and Spam Traffic
FIND OUT NOW -  FREE Vulnerability Assessment Toolkit
http://www.captusnetworks.com/ads/42.htm
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