Re: Sony: No firewall and no patches

["Dobbins, Roland" <rdobbins () arbor net>]

On May 12, 2011, at 3:49 AM, phocean wrote:

> To go back to my point: an application server (IIS, Apache) cannot sustain as many connections as a firewall (of 
> course in a sane and standard environment).

Sorry, but my operational experience is quite the opposite.  And one generally deploys clusters of servers, in any kind 
of even semi-important site.

> So you cannot tell that a firewall will increase the risk of DoS.

I can and do tell you that.  I further tell you that enforcing network access policies for servers in stateless ACLs 
instantiated in ASIC-based routers and layer-3 switches is the way to go.  I tell you this based upon my direct 
experience working for the largest manufacturer of firewalls in the world, and on my day-to-day operational experience 
with people calling up and screaming that 'the data center is down' and the proximate cause being a stateful firewall 
which gave up the ghost to trivial amounts of traffic.

For example, I've seen 80kpps of SYN-flood take down a stateful firewall rated for 2.5gb/sec.

> From what I have seen so far as arguments, I think the discussion is over.

The folks cited on pp. 41 - 42 of the survey in question have reached a different conclusion:

<http://www.eweek.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=66503&pop=1&hide_ads=1&page=0&hide_js=1&catid=45>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Roland Dobbins <rdobbins () arbor net> // <http://www.arbornetworks.com>

                The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

                          -- Oscar Wilde

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