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Date:	Wed, 1 May 2002 19:42:32 PST7
From:	Sheridan George <s-geo@usa.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: firewall failures

Content Type: text/plain

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Peter Skye wrote:
>

> > Don't give me any sass about a hardware firewall being a
> > software one in reality because software is what makes
> > it go. A 'real' software firewall shares the CPU with
> > the OS and other programs it is trying to protect. That
> > is why they have a special vulnerability.
>
> Okay. What difference does it make whether the firewall is
> running on an independent box or on the application box?

There is no place for the intruder to go in the hardware box, no handles to grab, and no well known OS
or application(s) with unlockable doors. I'm thinking more of a speciality box such as the SMC
instead of a separate PC running only a firewall such as InJoy.

I'm sure the SMC is breakable if an intruder can ascertain that it is an SMC, and the model (the BR
has a different controller than the ABR), the make of the imbedded controller, the OS, and the
language the program is written in. Once that stuff is known there are holes that can be found and
exploited.

Can you give
> an example of an intrusion methodology which succeeds for a common box
> firewall but fails for a separate box firewall?

No. I'm not into cracking computers. I got that info. (knowledge) from Gibson's site (
http://www.grc.com ) and from the talk he gave at NOCCC about two months ago. I do not understand all
I heard or read. Just that software firewalls on a production machine have to be engineered very
correctly to do the job without making matters worse. IIRC that goes for two NIC machines also.

Sheridan

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