Security Incidents mailing list archives

Re: Unusual scan pattern


From: OFriedrichs () SECURITY-FOCUS COM (Oliver Friedrichs)
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 14:09:15 -0800


I seem to recall someone mentioning to me once that Windows NT ends
connections with an RST instead of a FIN.  I don't have a sniffer handy
or I would verify, so I don't know if this was true or not.

- Oliver

-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Fulton [mailto:r.fulton () AUCKLAND AC NZ]
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 4:58 PM
To: INCIDENTS () SECURITYFOCUS COM
Subject: Unusual scan pattern


HI folks,
      I have not seen this type of scan before so I am forwarding the
argus logs for others to examine.

Below are logs as recorded by argus on our DMZ outside our packet
filter.

For those of you who are familiar with argus and are wondering why
thing look a bit different, that's because I have patched ra to
display the date in an unambiguous format and I have changed the
status display at the end of the record to include all tcp state
information not just the final state:

s  is SYN sent
S  syn+ack seen
E  established  (i.e. we have seen something that looks like a data
   packet)
R  RST sent or received (look at the <> to see which way it went)
F  FINWait state
C  Close state

i.e a 'normal' tcp session looks like 'sSEFC'.

Here is the log of one session, there were several similar sessions
directed against different machines (or groups of machine). 130.216/16
is our address block, 130.216.1.1 is our primary DNS and 130.216.1.4
is our mail host and backup DNS.

date      time        proto       source
dest          packets           bytes          status

             to     fr      to       fr
09 Jan 00 11:05:43      tcp      133.74.6.1.23    <|
130.216.1.1.23    1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:43      tcp      133.74.6.1.23    <|
130.216.1.4.23    1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.25    <|
130.216.1.4.25    1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.25    <|
130.216.1.1.25    1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.143   <|
130.216.1.1.143   1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.143   <|
130.216.1.4.143   1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.110   <|
130.216.1.4.110   1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.110   <|
130.216.1.1.110   1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.80    <|
130.216.1.1.80    1      1       0         0        ER
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.80    <|
130.216.1.4.80    1      1       0         0        ER

The E flag on these means that argus thought that the
incoming packets were
part of an established tcp stream for which it had not seen
the handshake
packets.  Our hosts respond with a RST.  Note source and
destination ports
are the same -- Is this some form of tcp 'ping' designed to go through
packet filters?

09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16450 <|
130.216.1.1.80    1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16460  ->
130.216.1.1.23    4      3       0         0        sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16461 <|
130.216.1.1.143   1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16462 <|
130.216.1.1.110   1      1       0         0        sR

They now try and get some tcp connections, telnet succeeds
but tcp wrappers
kills the session.

09 Jan 00 11:05:44 s    tcp      133.74.6.1.16463  ->
130.216.1.1.111   2      0       0         0        s

portmapper denied by packet filter

09 Jan 00 11:05:44 s    tcp      133.74.6.1.16464  ->
130.216.1.1.2766  7      0       0         0        s
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16465  ->
130.216.1.1.25    5      5       0         99       sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16466  o>
130.216.1.1.21    4      3       0         0        sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16467  ->
130.216.1.1.22    5      4       0         15       sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16468 <|
130.216.1.1.1114  1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16469 <|
130.216.1.1.1     1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44 s    tcp      133.74.6.1.16470  ->
130.216.1.1.515   7      0       0         0        s
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16472 <|
130.216.1.4.80    1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16473  ->
130.216.1.4.23    4      3       0         0        sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16476 <|
130.216.1.4.143   1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16477 <|
130.216.1.4.110   1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44 s    tcp      133.74.6.1.16478  ->
130.216.1.4.111   2      0       0         0        s
09 Jan 00 11:05:44 s    tcp      133.74.6.1.16479  ->
130.216.1.4.2766  7      0       0         0        s
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16480  o>
130.216.1.4.25    5      4       0         104      sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16481  o>
130.216.1.4.21    4      3       0         0        sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16482  ->
130.216.1.4.22    5      5       0         15       sSEF
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16483 <|
130.216.1.4.1114  1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44      tcp      133.74.6.1.16485 <|
130.216.1.4.1     1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:05:44 s    tcp      133.74.6.1.16486  ->
130.216.1.4.515   7      0       0         0        s

more sessions that were denied either because of filter,
tcpwrappers or
no server.  time stamps suggest that this was done by a single script.

09 Jan 00 11:05:46      tcp      133.74.6.1.17448  ->
130.216.1.1.53    6      5       31        31       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:05:47      tcp      133.74.6.1.17449  ->
130.216.1.4.53    6      6       31        31       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:05:49      tcp     130.216.1.4.39666  ->
133.74.6.1.113   6      5       10        35       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:05:49      tcp     130.216.1.1.40323  ->
133.74.6.1.113   6      5       10        35       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:07:00      tcp      133.74.6.1.26712  ->
130.216.1.1.53    6      5       36        36       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:07:01      tcp      133.74.6.1.26716  ->
130.216.1.4.53    6      6       36        36       sSEFC

some complete dns sessions -- no we don't have logging turned on.

09 Jan 00 11:08:53      tcp      133.74.6.1.29708 <-
130.216.1.1.23    3      3       0         0        sS
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.2      ?>
130.216.1.1.23    1      0       0         0        F
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.2      ?>
130.216.1.4.23    1      0       0         0        F
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.4      |>
130.216.1.1.23    2      1       0         0        FR
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.5      ?>
130.216.1.1.23    1      0       0         0        E
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.4      |>
130.216.1.4.23    2      1       0         0        FR
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.5      ?>
130.216.1.4.23    1      0       0         0        E
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp     130.216.1.1.23     |>
133.74.6.1.1     1      1       0         0        SR
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp     130.216.1.4.23     |>
133.74.6.1.1     1      1       0         0        SR
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.3     <|
130.216.1.1.23    1      1       0         0        FR
09 Jan 00 11:08:57      tcp      133.74.6.1.3     <|
130.216.1.4.23    1      1       0         0        FR
09 Jan 00 11:09:02      tcp      133.74.6.1.30059 <|
130.216.1.4.1     1      1       0         0        sR
09 Jan 00 11:09:02      tcp      133.74.6.1.30064 <|
130.216.1.1.1     1      1       0         0        sR

more weird stuff; F's on their own or with FR suggest lone
FIN packets.

09 Jan 00 11:09:03      tcp      133.74.6.1.995    o>
130.216.1.4.111   1      0       0         0        s
09 Jan 00 11:09:03      tcp      133.74.6.1.994    o>
130.216.1.1.111   1      0       0         0        s
09 Jan 00 11:28:34      tcp      133.74.6.1.11254  ->
130.216.1.4.53    6      5       32        32       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:28:35      tcp      133.74.6.1.11308  ->
130.216.1.1.53    6      5       32        32       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:28:50      tcp      133.74.6.1.12928  ->
130.216.1.4.53    6      6       34        34       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:28:52      tcp      133.74.6.1.12930  ->
130.216.1.1.53    6      6       34        34       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:47:37      tcp      133.74.6.1.8509   ->
130.216.1.1.53    6      5       31        31       sSEFC
09 Jan 00 11:47:38      tcp      133.74.6.1.8558   ->
130.216.1.4.53    6      6       31        31       sSEFC

It is possible that the DNS traffic was an attempt to exploit recent
BIND probles. The two sessions look very similiar but are not
identical.
Our servers have been patched but, so far as I can tell don't
log attemped
abuse.

What interests me is the initial tcp data packets which look as if
they have been crafted to go through firewalls (at least simple packet
filter types) and the artifical source port numbers.

Cheers, Russell.
Russell Fulton, Computer and Network Security Officer
The University of Auckland, New Zealand.



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