"broadcast ping" message

[Larry Rosenman]

--On Wednesday, April 16, 2003 11:33:31 -0700 Jamie Bowden 
<ragnar at sysabend.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, Larry Rosenman wrote:
>
>> --On Wednesday, April 16, 2003 10:58:20 -0700 John Polstra
>> <jdp at polstra.com> wrote:
>>
>> > In article <20030416105033.H46401-100000 at moo.sysabend.org>,
>> > Jamie Bowden  <ragnar at sysabend.org> wrote:
>> >> On Wed, 16 Apr 2003, John Polstra wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > To make a FreeBSD system respond to broadcast pings, you have to set
>> >> > the sysctl variable net.inet.icmp.bmcastecho to 1.
>> >>
>> >> Shouldn't the default be to DTRT and respond unless disabled?  Until
>> >> now, the only systems on my network that didn't respond to broadcast
>> >> pings were my windows boxes, but I consider them broken by default.
>> >> Why has the default behavior changed, and isn't this a POLA issue?
>> >
>> > It was changed for security reasons.  Responding to broadcast pings
>> > creates several potential denial of service attacks.
>> It's also against current best practices for ISP's.  Even Cisco changed
>> the routers
>> to NOT respond to directed-broadcast by default.
>>
>> The RFC was NOT written for today's internet.
>
> Then submit a draft for a superceding RFC, don't ignore it just because
> it's inconvenient.  That's a Microsoft attitude.
Take it up with the NSP folks.  I've not written standards stuff, and this 
is now a
Best Current Practices.  I've had my share of DDoS's from broadcast pings.

It's NOT JUST ME, it's the ENTIRE ISP Community.

LER

>
> Jamie Bowden
>
> --
> "It was half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take hold"
> Hunter S Tolkien "Fear and Loathing in Barad Dur"
> Iain Bowen <alaric at alaric.org.uk>
>



-- 
Larry Rosenman                     http://www.lerctr.org/~ler
Phone: +1 972-414-9812                 E-Mail: ler at lerctr.org
US Mail: 1905 Steamboat Springs Drive, Garland, TX 75044-6749