pen-test
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Traceroute question

To: Becky Nelson <ralf.jacober@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Traceroute question
From: Rob Sherwood <capveg@cs.umd.edu>
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 04:40:48 -0500
Cc: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Delivered-to: sp-com-lists@consult.net
Delivered-to: pentest-list2@consult.net
Delivered-to: mailing list pen-test@securityfocus.com
Delivered-to: moderator for pen-test@securityfocus.com
In-reply-to: <95cea9f80612271736o2c581dfck84987790a4ca695d@mail.gmail.com>
List-help: <mailto:pen-test-help@securityfocus.com>
List-id: <pen-test.list-id.securityfocus.com>
List-post: <mailto:pen-test@securityfocus.com>
List-subscribe: <mailto:pen-test-subscribe@securityfocus.com>
List-unsubscribe: <mailto:pen-test-unsubscribe@securityfocus.com>
Mailing-list: contact pen-test-help@securityfocus.com; run by ezmlm
References: <95cea9f80612271735h7dcf6b33p2d29c3477dc3ce08@mail.gmail.com> <95cea9f80612271736o2c581dfck84987790a4ca695d@mail.gmail.com>
Resent-date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:19:41 -0700 (MST)
Resent-from: pen-test-return-1078483334@securityfocus.com
Resent-message-id: <20061229001941.1484623A8CB@outgoing3.securityfocus.com>
Resent-sender: listbounce@securityfocus.com
Sender: listbounce@securityfocus.com
User-agent: Mutt/1.4.1i
On Wed, Dec 27, 2006 at 05:36:58PM -0800, Becky Nelson wrote:
> I am running a traceroute and have two hops that report the same
> address.  Could someone please explain what would cause this?  I
> suspect that this is some type of firewall?

There are a number of things that can cause this, but the most common
is a buggy IP implementation on the first router, which it forwards
packets with a ttl=0.

http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/Topics/54.htm
[snip]
Buggy TCP/IP implementations
    Traceroute depends on a rather obscure feature that often doesn't work
    correctly. Some of the problems people have found: code that fails
    to decrement TTL, code that incorrectly forwards packets with zero
    TTL, code that does not generate ICMP Timeouts, and code that sends
    ICMPs with the same TTL as the original packet. This last problem,
    of course, results in our ICMP Timeouts being sent with zero TTL -
    guaranteed not to make it back to us.

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>