RE: VPN Access for Consultants

["David Gillett" <gillettdavid () fhda edu>]

  There are two kinds of VPN setup:

1.  Tunnel between two LANs.  This is what they've requested.
  This allows any machine on LAN A to talk to any on LAN B,
and vice versa.  It's appropriate for different branch offices
of a single enterprise.  It's not generally appropriate between 
different enterprises, as they've requested.
  (Recent CheckPoint FW-1 versions support an "extranet" VPN
config where you can specify which servers at each end are visible
to clients at the other end.  IF both you and they run such
versions, you might consider this option.)

2.  Remote client.  Allows a client machine on some foreign 
network to tunnel back to a corporate LAN to access network
services as if they were in the office.
  Generally, the client is configured so that, when it is 
active, ALL client network traffic is tunnelled; this prevents
clients from becoming unauthorized gateways between the
networks in question.
  There can be issues if the client is on a network behind NAT;
whether they can be resolved depends on the NAT device and the
VPN product.
  I would have little hesitation about allowing them this level
of access.  The business decision to trust them on the premises
and on your network has already been made.

David Gillett


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jennifer Fountain [mailto:JFountain () rbinc com]
> Sent: November 19, 2003 15:28
> To: security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: VPN Access for Consultants
>
>
> Hi All:
>
> We have several consultants working for my company and they have
> requested that I allow vpn access through our firewall to 
> their company.
> They want to be able to access their network and our network 
> at the same
> time (tunnel).  I told them no, I do not want to create a 
> tunnel between
> my network and theirs but I would allow them to plug their 
> laptops into
> the dmz or outside the firewall so they can access their 
> network.  They
> proceeded to look at me like I had six heads and act like I 
> was the only
> security admin that wouldn't allow this.  What is the general 
> consensus
> on this type of activity?  What policies do you have implemented?  Do
> you allow it if the remote network was confirmed to be secure? 
>
> Thanks for any info
> Jenn
>
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