Ubuntu DHCP central server - linux

I have very little experience on this so I am asking to see if this is even possible. I have 4 different ADSL connections that each one is connected to one access point so I have 4 total different lans. I provide free hotspot on each access point (same SSID) and the user roaming from one access point to the other as they move into the area. (The area is a long road and the distance beetween each AP is about 100m).
Anyway i saw on the modems the option for dhcp relay so I am asking this.
Can I build a central server (internet accessable) with ubuntu and dhcp server on it and setup the modems to use this as DHCP server? So the user keep the same IP as it moves from one AP to the other. All adsl modems will have the same IP so the gateway will remain same for all networks. I dont know if this is good so I am asking this question just to tell me what is the best way? To build a central server or to leave each modem act as dhcp server
Because my English are not very well I hope you understand my question
Thanks a lot!

This can be done, but I don't know if it will provide any benefit to you:
User comes online from AP1, DHCP discover is received by the modem and relayed to the DHCP server, response is sent back and the user receives and binds to IP.
User crosses the threshold and changes to AP2. Because the media has changed, the user will re-discover and perform the DHCP process again. They will most likely be allocated the same address again (presuming the lease hasn't expired or been administratively removed), but you're still re-binding the IP. Because you are re-binding the IP on the User, any open TCP connections would likely be severed.
I think that this is what you're trying to avoid by allocating the same address across all devices, but please do correct me if I'm wrong.

Related

Routing HTTP through specific network interface

I'm very unfamiliar with Linux so forgive me if this has been answered before, I've read quite a few answers but I'm never sure if they actually relate to my question.
I have a headless raspberry pi that connects to my phone's bluetooth automatically, my phone shares its internet access by tethering. I use this initial and reliable connection to SSH to my raspberry pi, and use the desktop with VNC viewer.
I would like to connect to a WiFi network that uses a captive portal, but the browser always uses the bluetooth connection so it never redirects me to the portal page. The bluetooth connection is just to be able to use the desktop so I can get through the portal, then I would like to either disconnect bluetooth or just not use it, mainly because of the low bandwidth it provides.
I've added wlan0 as a priority interface with ifmetric, but that hasn't worked.
I was thinking that forcing all HTTP connections through the wlan0 interface could solve the problem, but there may be a simpler way, feel free to tell me.
Can you explain in "simple" terms the best way to achieve this ?
Of course, there are multiple solutions. The simplest is making sure that there is only one correct default route.
There are 3 situations:
You are only connected via bluetooth via ssh
You are connected via bluetooth and via wifi, but not yet through the splash
You are through the splash
Each will require a different network configuration.
In 1, your network config will probably be:
some IP address (let's call it IP-bt) and network mask
Default gateway is your phone
With route -n you can verify this.
In 2, the network config will depend a bit on the wifi network, but in general, your network config will be:
you'll still have IP-bt
you will have a new address on the wifi adapter (which we call IP-wifi)
the default gateway should be the gateway on the wifi network.
When you verify this with route -n, you might still see a route with destination 0.0.0.0 towards your phone. You can delete this route. Your phone should be on a directly connected network and your ssh session should therefore not break.
If the default gw is not on the wifi network, you can still remove the route that sets your phone as default gw.
Under 3, the default gw must be on the wifi network, and not on the phone. You will still be able to use your phone, because it is directly connected.
Something to watch out for in this scenario is that your phone will act as a DHCP server. That means once in a while your DHCP lease will refresh, and the bluetooth default route may re-appear. Disconnecting bluetooth will prevent this.
The second solution is to use ifmetric. Instead of making wlan0 a lower metric, make your bluetooth a higher metric. Again verify with route -n that the metrics are as you want them to be. Verify with a traceroute how the packets are moving.
A third, and most complex option would be to install Quagga and configure correct routing.

IGMPv2 flood source detection

In wireshark I can see Membership Query, general IGMPv2 requests coming over and over from 0.0.0.0 source which suggests ( according to RFC ) machine that hasn't received address yet. My question is how in Linux environment I can find such machine. This query triggers many answers and causes significant network communication slowdown.
When a machine is connected to a network for the first time, it will try to find the DHCP servers in order to get an IP address configuration. Untill then, as you already said, it has no IP address and the only identifier it has is it's MAC address, which is used to keep a comunication alive while it negotiates with the DHCP server (during this period it does not have an IP address until the very last).
Answering your question, you'd find the machine you are looking for making use of the MAC address. If you are on a small network, a manual check (ifconfig) will do it but, if you are on a big one, you better check the ARP table of your switch(es) to have a better idea where it could be.

get ip address from bssid

I am doing some penetration testing, and im trying to find out, if i can get the IP address of an router if i got the bssid, or any i can get with the AIR tools?
I use Linux Kali with the Air tools atm.
I would say this is pretty damn bad if its possible. Basicly most peopleĀ“s rounters can be reached through their outside IP. Even companies. :O
So far i tried:
- Passive TCPDUMP
- Active scanning
So basicly, is there a way, if so please give me a hint or the answer :-)
I am 100% refering to some sort of scanning. All kind of cracking, bruteforce, password guessing, access stealing is not what im asking about :-)
You can't do that if target access point is protected with WPA/WPA2.
This is why. Getting WiFi to work involves following steps:
Associate with target access point. If access point is using WPA/WPA2 and you don't know the password, then you cannot proceed to further steps, and certainly cannot know anything about IP address of target access point.
After association, your client (which is typically configured to use DHCP) has no IP address assigned (its IP address is 0.0.0.0). Technically, you can use sniffer at this stage to scan the network and find out IP addressed used, but most sniffers don't like to work with 0.0.0.0 address. To proceed further, your client sends DHCP request, which is served by access point. After getting successful DHCP ack with new IP address, client can proceed to next step.
After getting IP address, client can talk to access point and finally knows its IP address (it was served as default router in DHCP ack) - and that would be the answer to your question (yes, that late in the game!). However, even at that point, full network connectivity cannot be assumed. If access point implements captive portal, then your network access may be restricted until you open up web browser and (depending on wireless provider) either accept usage terms, provide some credentials or pay with credit card.
After passing captive portal, it is possible (but not common) that access point automatically re-associates and gives you completely different IP address (and access point also has different IP address now, from completely different subnet). This would mean that IP address you learned in previous steps was completely useless to you in terms of knowing actual network infrastructure.
You would need a Firewalking tool to get past the 0.0.0.0 you would essentially also need a password cracker that attempts different brute forcing to get the matching wep password for example, if there are not max tries it could work.

Application Security Concerns: How easy is it to fake an IP-Address?

I am dealing with an application that is protected by a firewall and only allows access from certain IP-Addresses (which are application webservers).
Its a bit delicate and it would be much hassle to introduce another authentication/protection layer.
My understanding of networking is not great because its not my subject, but in my Head I made up the following scenario:
Someone knows the IP-Address of one of our application servers and wants to fake it to get access to the other application which he knows the listening socket and protocol of.
So he alters the Header of his IP packets to have the Webserver IP as transmitter.
What happens next?
A: His ISP rejects the packet and says "Hey, that is not the IP address you were assigned from me." - Problema Solved
B: The ISP passes the packet on to the next level (his up-link...)
Lets assume the ISP has been compromised or the packet is passed on without inspection (I don't know whether that's the case)
What happens next?
A: The carrier rejects the Packet and says "Hey, that IP is not in the range of IP we agreed you are operating on!" - Now if my webserver isnt operated by the same ISP that my attacker compromised - Problema solved
B: The ISP doesn't inspect the packet or is compromised and forwards it to his up-link.
Now I am quite sure that IP addresses ARE inspected and filtered when passing a router. Otherwise it would be total anarchy.
So to put this straight: An Attacker that wants to fake my IP-Address needs to compromise the VERY same ISP that is in charge of the IP-Range my Webserver operates in - or this ISP does not do packet inspection.
Is this correct?
Okay now I imagine my server is located in an office and its ISP is a regional cable company.
What would be the steps necessary to send packets from my IP address to another internet IP?
(Of course I am only asking to get aware of the risks and choose proper protection!)
I imagine locating the routing station which is often in some small container at the side of the street that is only protected by a lock. Going in there. Swapping cables or plugging yourself into.
Will this most likely work if you know what you are doing or is there some encrypted handshake with keys stored on the real offices modem that is required to built an authenticated connection?
I am talking about today's standards in cable internet.
Last thought: So if my origin server is not some household ISP that has its stations vulnerable on the street i should be pretty safe, right?
I remember that NFS servers relies on IP authentication ONLY as a default. Because this is pretty common - are there any examples where NFS servers got hacked by faking IP addresses?
I realise that this question is put very very vagly. This is because I am not sure about anything I am saying here. I just wanted to give some input where I think the cave-eats could be, so they can be confirmed or eliminated.
Overall I am grateful for any comment and your personal thoughts about that subject!
Now I am quite sure that IP addresses ARE inspected and filtered when passing a router.
This assumption is incorrect, despite your level of sureness. "Egress filtering", which is the name of this, is generally not done.
The major protection against widespread spoofing of IP addresses is that the attacker would not recieve any response packets - they would all be routed back to the host that is legitmately using the IP address being spoofed. This kind of attack is known as "blind spoofing", because the attacker is working blind.
In order to send data on a TCP connection, you must be able to finish the TCP "three-way handshake". This requires knowing the initial sequence number used by the opposite end - and since TCP initial sequence numbers are chosen reasonably randomly1, this prevents a blind spoofing attack from being able to do this. (Note also that this does not apply to UDP - without some kind of application layer preventative, UDP is at significant risk from blind spoofing).
If the attacker can see the replies coming back (say, because he is sniffing the uplink or the local network of your server), then this also doesn't apply - spoofing TCP connections in this case is not just possible but trivial.
1. These days, anyway - this wasn't always the case.
Inside a LAN it depends on how your routers/switches/hubs are configured. But I think spoofing should be possible quite often.
I don't think the IP address is inspected. Thus you can send UDP packets with forged sender IP. But you won't receive the answer since the server will send it to the real owner of that IP.
This means you can't simply fake an IP in TCP since establishing the connection needs a handshake.
You can forge the IP of somebody if the response will go through your router. So a network admin can fake all IPs inside his LAN, an ISP all IPs inside his net, and a carrier can fake IPs on many international connections, provided they get routed through him.
Finally there is the possibility of abusing BGP to modify the routes for that IP to go through your computer. But not everybody has access to BGP, you probably need to become an ISP to get it. And then the manipulation will probably be detected because BGP route changes are monitored.

How to uniquely identify a network?

Let's say I want to make an application where stored data is encrypted so only my application is able to read it.
But I want the application to be accessed only if the user is on a particular network.
For instance the application is an Android app that deals with medical records in a hospital.
How to be sure that the device is connected to the network of the hospital ? The idea is that outside this network, the app won't work.
The question is not particularly related to wireless networks, wireless devices or Android, this is general to programming and network identification.
Could a certificate do that ? I'm new to this.
Does a network "identifier" could be faked ? For instance I'm pretty sure that a WiFi SSID is easy to fake.
Cheers.
More details:
Let's assume that the point of the local data is not for an "offline mode", but to avoid network latency. In that case, the data needs to remain accessible only if connected to a particular network, in case the device is stolen.
But if there is no way to be sure of the network's identity... What about a server that would answer to the question "Heya am I on the right network ?" and if no response comes out I know that I'm not on the right one ? (Or that the server just does not respond...) But, again, if the app is hacked, that can be faked too.
Interesting problem.
Generally speaking the purpose of storing data locally is so that it can be accessed while "offline".
However, I think there may be some underlying misconceptions here. Presumably the only reason you'd want to do this is to try and prevent a stolen device from giving up it's secrets. Fact of the matter is, you can't. If the device is no longer under your physical control then it's just a matter of time before it can be hacked.
If we are talking about sensitive data, it shouldn't be stored on the devices. Instead the device should retrieve the data it needs from your server when it needs it and delete it locally when no longer necessary.
The fact that you want the device to only work when connected to your local network implies that you can accomplish this goal.
As a side note, this is why things such as "remote wipe" exist. It's also why every time the device connects to your network it needs to test it's authentication and authorization. Point is if someone reports the device lost or stolen then you need to be able to ban it from your network AND, if the device supports this, remotely disable it.
Bearing in mind that it is entirely possible to pull a device from the network and therefore disable a remote wipe from executing.
With that out of the way, there is absolutely no way you can ensure the device is on a given network. All of that can be faked. It's kind of trivial to setup a router of a given name and change it's MAC to masquerade as whatever, and assign it certain IP addresses. For all intents and purposes it could be made to look exactly like an access point you have... And that's just with normal run of the mill wireless routers you can buy at your local computer store.
You could write your program so that the key to decrypt the data is stored on a server on the hospital network. If your program never stores the key, it makes it harder (although not impossible) for someone to access the device's data outside of the network.
As Chris pointed out a remote wipe would definitely be desirable. You could put in logic so that if the device ever attempts to read the data while not connected to the network, it wipes the data (this might lead to unintended wipes). Blacklisting is good too, so that if the device tries to reconnect to the network, you can essentially brick it. One thing that would be really bad is if you have a network outage, and all your devices accidentally get wiped.
Any network can duplicate another's SSID, so that's not reliable. You could start using a combination of SSID and a MAC address of a known router, but MAC addresses can be duplicated (although not on the same network) so that doesn't work either.
Frankly, unless the wireless network in question is using certificates to identify devices you're going to have no reliable way do it it, and even then this supposes you have a way in your application to get the certificate used the wifi network returns during network authentication.
Perhaps you could use IPSec tunnels. Many routers and firewalls support IPSec. What I'm thinking is something like this:
-----------------------------------
/ IPSec tunnel \
+---------+ \
A | IPSec | B Untrusted \
trusted network -------| capable |------- Networks ----------- Your application
| router | Internet, etc.
+---------+
The gateway router/firewall that provides access for the trusted network has an IPSec tunnel configured between itself and your application. On both the router and your application server, the tunnel looks like another network interface. A route on the router directs traffic for your application to the tunnel interface. A filter can be used on the router to ensure traffic is forwarded to the tunnel only if it arrives on interface A (i.e. the trusted network). Traffic arriving on interface B destined to your application can just be dropped by a filter on the router since it's obviously going the wrong way.
If your application binds its listening socket to just the tunnel interface, you'll know you're only accepting connections received over the tunnel.
You can use whatever combination of encryption and authentication mechanisms you want to to ensure the traffic is secure. Most IPSec implementations support just about anything you could want.

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