Inaccessible Port 80 - Pentest

["arvind doraiswamy" <arvind.doraiswamy () gmail com>]

Hey Guys,
Very recently we did a PenTest for a client where we came across a
strange(atleast to me) situation. Had an IP block which on scanning
revealed only port 80 open which sounded ok. Any kind of requests
though from the external world - I tried from multiple IP's and even
through TOR were blocked by a firewall which kept displaying its
custom "Access denied" page. So obviously there was some kind of IP
based restriction in  place which said -- Only these IP's can connect
to whatever is running on port 80. No problems till here.

My question is: Why would anyone want to  have a live server on the
Internet, open one port on it and then block it from public use?
Obvious answers that sprung to mind were:
a) Maybe its an internal server running a web app to be accessed only internally
           ----- So why is it public , in the DMZ then? Shouldnt it be
on the internal network?
b) Maybe some hosts/apps on the internal network needed to connect to
port 80 of a DMZ server before going out?
          ------ Then again why is it public. These servers could be
placed on an internal segment and the traffic could be NATTEd before
it goes out like all other Internet destined traffic. And Secondly I
am not able to think of a situation like this --- What traffic apart
from a proxy could behave this way --- where I have -- Internal IP
-------> DMZIP:80 ---------> Internet ? And mind you this wasnt just 1
IP - there were many, so I'm quite sure I've missed something.

What are your thoughts?

Thnx
Arvind

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