D-Link DFL-260E User Manual for DFL-260E - Page 139

IP Rule Actions, stateful inspection, SAT, all-nets, Actions, Allow,

Page 139 highlights

3.6.3. IP Rule Actions Chapter 3. Fundamentals This approach is known as stateful inspection and is applied not only to stateful protocols such as TCP but also by means of "pseudo-connections" to stateless protocols such as UDP and ICMP. This approach means that evaluation against the IP rule set is only done in the initial opening phase of a connection. The size of the IP rule set consequently has negligible effect on overall throughput. The First Matching Principle If several rules match the same parameters, the first matching rule in a scan from top to bottom is the one that decides how the connection will be handled. The exception to this is SAT rules since these rely on a pairing with a second rule to function. After encountering a matching SAT rule the search will therefore continue on looking for a matching second rule. See Section 7.4, "SAT" for more information about this topic. Non-matching Traffic Incoming packets that do not match any rule in the rule set and that do not have an already opened matching connection in the state table, will automatically be subject to a Drop action. As mentioned above, to be able to log non-matching traffic, it is recommended to create an explicit rule called DropAll as the final rule in the rule set with an action of Drop with Source/Destination Network all-nets and Source/Destination Interface all. This allows logging to be turned on for traffic that matches no IP rule. 3.6.3. IP Rule Actions A rule consists of two parts: the filtering parameters and the action to take if there is a match with those parameters. As described above, the parameters of any NetDefendOS rule, including IP rules are: • Source Interface • Source Network • Destination Interface • Destination Network • Service When an IP rule is triggered by a match then one of the following Actions can occur: Allow The packet is allowed to pass. As the rule is applied to only the opening of a connection, an entry in the "state table" is made to record that a connection is open. The remaining packets related to this connection will pass through the NetDefendOS "stateful engine". FwdFast Let the packet pass through the NetDefend Firewall without setting up a state for it in the state table. This means that the stateful inspection process is bypassed and is therefore less secure than Allow or NAT rules. Packet processing time is also slower than Allow rules since every packet is checked against the entire rule set. NAT This functions like an Allow rule, but with dynamic address translation (NAT) enabled (see Section 7.2, "NAT" in Chapter 7, Address Translation for a detailed description). SAT This tells NetDefendOS to perform static address translation. A SAT rule always requires a matching Allow, NAT or FwdFast IP rule further down the rule set (see Section 7.4, "SAT" in Chapter 7, Address Translation for a detailed description). Drop This tells NetDefendOS to immediately discard the packet. This is an "impolite" 139

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This approach is known as
stateful inspection
and is applied not only to stateful protocols such as
TCP but also by means of "pseudo-connections" to stateless protocols such as UDP and ICMP. This
approach means that evaluation against the IP rule set is only done in the initial opening phase of a
connection. The size of the IP rule set consequently has negligible effect on overall throughput.
The First Matching Principle
If several rules match the same parameters, the first matching rule in a scan from top to bottom is
the one that decides how the connection will be handled.
The exception to this is
SAT
rules since these rely on a pairing with a second rule to function. After
encountering a matching
SAT
rule the search will therefore continue on looking for a matching
second rule. See
Section 7.4, “SAT”
for more information about this topic.
Non-matching Traffic
Incoming packets that do not match any rule in the rule set and that do not have an already opened
matching connection in the state table, will automatically be subject to a
Drop
action. As mentioned
above, to be able to log non-matching traffic, it is recommended to create an explicit rule called
DropAll
as the final rule in the rule set with an action of
Drop
with Source/Destination Network
all-nets
and Source/Destination Interface
all
. This allows logging to be turned on for traffic that
matches no IP rule.
3.6.3. IP Rule Actions
A rule consists of two parts: the filtering parameters and the action to take if there is a match with
those parameters. As described above, the parameters of any NetDefendOS rule, including IP rules
are:
Source Interface
Source Network
Destination Interface
Destination Network
Service
When an IP rule is triggered by a match then one of the following
Actions
can occur:
Allow
The packet is allowed to pass. As the rule is applied to only the opening of a
connection, an entry in the "state table" is made to record that a connection is open.
The remaining packets related to this connection will pass through the NetDefendOS
"stateful engine".
FwdFast
Let the packet pass through the NetDefend Firewall without setting up a state for it in
the state table. This means that the stateful inspection process is bypassed and is
therefore less secure than
Allow
or
NAT
rules. Packet processing time is also slower
than
Allow
rules since every packet is checked against the entire rule set.
NAT
This functions like an
Allow
rule, but with dynamic address translation (NAT) enabled
(see
Section 7.2, “NAT”
in
Chapter 7, Address Translation
for a detailed description).
SAT
This tells NetDefendOS to perform static address translation. A
SAT
rule always
requires a matching
Allow
,
NAT
or
FwdFast
IP rule further down the rule set (see
Section 7.4, “SAT”
in
Chapter 7, Address Translation
for a detailed description).
Drop
This tells NetDefendOS to immediately discard the packet. This is an "impolite"
3.6.3. IP Rule Actions
Chapter 3. Fundamentals
139