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NAT overlaps with ports

DISCUSSION Kapetanakis Giannis 2 participants 4 messages Sep 23, 2009

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#0 lore raw

Hi,

I have the following setup
kernel: 2.6.30.5-43.fc11
iptables-1.4.3.1-1.fc11

192.168.1.0/24 is my public IP range (eth0)
10.0.0.0/24 is my private IP range (eth1)
192.168.1.1 public IP of server
10.0.0.1 private IP of server

I'd like to add the following rules in the nat table:

[1] -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -d 192.168.1.1 -p tcp --dport 8080 -j DNAT --to-destination 10.0.0.1:8080
[2] -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.1 -p tcp --sport 8080 -j SNAT --to-source 192.168.1.1:8080
[3] -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 --to-source 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.10

According to http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/HOWTO/NAT-HOWTO-6.html
iptables is clever enough to avoid overlaps and clashes.
Are we sure that there isn't any chance to map a random packet (not from the server) to 192.168.1.1:8080 in rule [3]?

I mean, does rule [2] reserve port 8080 of 192.168.1.1 ?

best regards,

Giannis

#1 lore raw

Hello,

Quoted 2 lines · Kapetanakis Giannis

192.168.1.0/24 is my public IP range (eth0)

This IP range is private, not public.
If you made it up, please use the 192.0.2.0/24 range reserved for examples and documentation instead.

Quoted 4 lines

10.0.0.0/24 is my private IP range (eth1)
192.168.1.1 public IP of server
10.0.0.1 private IP of server

Quoted 8 lines

I'd like to add the following rules in the nat table:

[1] -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -d 192.168.1.1 -p tcp --dport 8080 -j DNAT --to-destination 10.0.0.1:8080
[2] -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.1 -p tcp --sport 8080 -j SNAT --to-source 192.168.1.1:8080
[3] -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 --to-source 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.10

Rule [2] is pointless. Packets with source port 8080 are obviously replies, and Netfilter NAT implicitly takes care of reply packets packets. Actually, the 'nat' chains don't even see reply packets.

Quoted 5 lines

According to http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/HOWTO/NAT-HOWTO-6.html
iptables is clever enough to avoid overlaps and clashes.
Are we sure that there isn't any chance to map a random packet (not from the server)
to 192.168.1.1:8080 in rule [3]?

No. That could happen as long as it does not create a collision with an existing mapping. Why do you worry about it ?
The important point is that netfilter avoids collisions between existing NAT mappings. Rules do not create mappings by themselves, a mapping is created only for each new connection created by a packet.

Quoted 1 line

I mean, does rule [2] reserve port 8080 of 192.168.1.1 ?

No. NAT rules do not reserve anything.

#2 lore raw
Quoted 4 lines · Pascal Hambourg

This IP range is private, not public.
If you made it up, please use the 192.0.2.0/24 range reserved for examples and documentation instead.

Yes I made it up.

Quoted 13 lines
Quoted 4 lines

10.0.0.0/24 is my private IP range (eth1)
192.168.1.1 public IP of server
10.0.0.1 private IP of server

Quoted 9 lines

I'd like to add the following rules in the nat table:

[1] -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -d 192.168.1.1 -p tcp --dport 8080 -j DNAT --to-destination 10.0.0.1:8080
[2] -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.1 -p tcp --sport 8080 -j SNAT --to-source 192.168.1.1:8080
[3] -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -s 10.0.0.0/24 --to-source 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.10

Quoted 4 lines

Rule [2] is pointless. Packets with source port 8080 are obviously replies, and Netfilter NAT implicitly takes care of reply packets packets. Actually, the 'nat' chains don't even see reply packets.

You're right, I will remove it.

Quoted 6 lines
Quoted 6 lines

According to http://www.netfilter.org/documentation/HOWTO/NAT-HOWTO-6.html
iptables is clever enough to avoid overlaps and clashes.
Are we sure that there isn't any chance to map a random packet (not from the server)
to 192.168.1.1:8080 in rule [3]?

Quoted 6 lines

No. That could happen as long as it does not create a collision with an existing mapping. Why do you worry about it ?
The important point is that netfilter avoids collisions between existing NAT mappings. Rules do not create mappings by themselves, a mapping is created only for each new connection created by a packet.

What I'm worried of is than a random connection could be created which uses the mapping of port 8080 of 192.168.1.1 and then the internal server would not be available. But I guess this is not a problem since a connection has 4 parameters src/dst ip/port.

thanks for answering

Giannis

#3 lore raw
Quoted 6 lines · Kapetanakis Giannis

What I'm worried of is than a random connection could be created which uses the mapping of port 8080 of 192.168.1.1 and then the internal server would not be available.
But I guess this is not a problem since a connection has 4 parameters src/dst ip/port.

Indeed, if some random outgoing connection to a remote host is mapped on source port 8080 it is very unlikely to disrupt access to the internal server, and it would only affect access from that remote host during a short delay after the connection has been terminated (until the mapping is deleted).