Re: Sony: No firewall and no patches

[Michael Krymson <krymson () gmail com>]

I can't speak for everyone, but I certainly find this discussion far more
interesting and useful to security than quite a few others on here. So feel
free to keep it public.

I'm not about to wade in too deeply, but I thought I'd summarize and add a
few notes.

----------------------------------------------------------
STATEFUL (session-based filter)
Pros
- can provide other filtering services during inspection (depends on device
feature set)
- won't have to constantly fight battles (against admins, vendors, clients,
auditors, managers, outsiders) to explain why you don't have a "firewall"
- handles ephemeral ports, dynamic connections, and matches returning
traffic well

Cons
- more DDoS susceptible
- another piece of hardware so another point of failure
- won't add much when you're already accepting * into IP x on port n

----------------------------------------------------------
ACLs (packet-based filter)
Pros
- with pure ACLs, will always be faster
- as such it can scale with traffic better
- excellent when you're just blanket stopping all traffic except * to x on
port n

Cons
- poor filter for ephermeral port needs, or dynamic connections
- susceptible to protocol anamolies used in attacks (includes covert
channels)

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