Penetration Testing mailing list archives
unswitched behavior of a switched network...
From: Jon Hart <jhart () spoofed org>
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:32:10 -0700
Greetings, I've got a situation here that I can't quite figure out. It is well known that it is possible to cause a switched network to act like an unswitched network by flooding the CAM table. There are countless tools and documents out there that cover the offensive and defensive measures related to this issue. While this isn't Cisco's official documentation on this issue, http://xrl.us/r8k7 says: "Content-addressable memory (CAM) overflow: A CAM table is used to determine where to direct incoming frames depending on which port the incoming MAC address came from. When the CAM receives a frame with an unknown destination, the proper procedure is to flood frames within the acceptable Layer 2 domain (the proper VLAN). Hardware and software tools are available (some for free), that can flood a switch with MAC addresses. Once the CAM table limit is exceeded, switches behave differently depending on the brand of the switch." My question is, has anyone seen a situation where the same broadcast behavior occurs, but the CAM table itself is not overloaded and there is no good reason for entries to be expiring? Furthermore, even if the entries were expired, has anyone encountered situations (malicious or otherwise), where a given port will receive traffic outside of its own L2? Thanks, -jon ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This List Sponsored by: Cenzic Need to secure your web apps? Cenzic Hailstorm finds vulnerabilities fast. Click the link to buy it, try it or download Hailstorm for FREE. http://www.cenzic.com/products_services/download_hailstorm.php?camp=701600000008bOW ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- unswitched behavior of a switched network... Jon Hart (Oct 13)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Krugger (Oct 16)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Ron (Oct 16)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... David Swafford (Oct 16)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Buz Dale (Oct 16)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Jon Hart (Oct 16)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Tim (Oct 17)
- RE: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Erin Carroll (Oct 17)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... David C. Smith (Oct 18)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Ron (Oct 16)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Krugger (Oct 16)
- Re: unswitched behavior of a switched network... Florian Osses (Oct 16)