Bugtraq mailing list archives

Re: udp packet storms


From: perry () imsi com (Perry E. Metzger)
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 08:13:54 -0500


Peter Wemm says:
Darren Reed writes:
Sorry, I missed out on the reason why we should disable discard.
Would you mind explaining it ?  I thought it was like it's name sake -
a sink hole (blackhole if you like) for packets.  Sort of like /dev/null.

tcp discard allows a "hostile" remote site to pump in a large amount
of traffic into your net, possibly congesting your link to the
internet.

That can be done without having discard around, you know. I can simply
spray you with UDP datagrams on any port whether you accept them or
not -- routers are not psychic, you know. They pass on the traffic
regardless unless they are rigged to filter -- and usually they aren't.

Perry



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