nanog mailing list archives

Re: Filter NTP traffic by packet size?


From: Jimmy Hess <mysidia () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 00:06:44 -0600

On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 11:09 PM, Randy Bush <randy () psg com> wrote:

I only ran the scan once, but had ~130k devices respond.
is there any modern utility in chargen?


Does ne'er-do-wells hitting IRC users with "DCC CHAT" requests  targeted to
trick the victim into connecting to port 19/tcp  count as a modern use?

I  remember,  that was a dirty trick in the late '90s,  that would today be
called a DoS,  since the result was to crash desktop chat software  -----
nonetheless,  it's the only thing I heard of anyone using chargen for until
recently.

Well,  if you  enable chargen on a large number of hostst and directed
broadcasts:  an artificially created chargen storm could be one way to
stres-test a WAN link,  or to help validate QoS prioritization.

Chargen's supposed to be a useful measurement and debugging tool, for
developing a TCP/IP stack.      I think it has little use nowadays, and
there are some more sophisticated tools around today.


I would say chargen may have some utility,  but it should  not be a service
turned on, provided, or offered outside the secure confines of a testing
lab.

In other words:  chargen for testeing in a lab, sure.
Chargen on production devices, when connected to the public internet:  bad
idea

-- 
-JH


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