Posts filed under Security

Use One SSL Certificate in an ISPConfig3 Configuration

Last year I implemented an ISPConfig3 configuration for personal use. Mainly to host some e-mail domains, and perhaps some basic websites. This setup relatively easy to implement a should have been a breeze to maintain.... Untill I got an email from the provider last Tuesday, mentioning that my Linux VPS was attacking other hosts around the world..... *GASP*.. my VPS had (most likely) been assimilated into a botnet of some sort, and it was flooding a ton of other hosts.

Posted on February 15, 2013 and filed under Software, Tips'n Tricks, Security.

Filter / Block IP Addresses On A Juniper SRX

While exploring the configuration options on the Juniper SRX firewall, I stumbled upon the so-called firewall filters. These filters are not to be mistaken for the firewall policy rules. They are something different, but can be used for achieving similar goals.

In my case, I wanted to see if it was possible to quickly block a list of IP addresses (or subnets) without the hassle of creating addressbook entries (Address Sets). My list of IP addresses consists of known hosts that participate in the criminal ZeuS network. These IP addresses are either Command&Control servers or servers used to transfer (captured) data to. In any case, servers you don't want to communicate with.

The solution on the SRX is to create a firewall filter containing the list with hosts / networks. The filter, in my case, is applied to the outgoing interface (fe-0/0/0).

Posted on January 9, 2013 and filed under Security, Tips'n Tricks, Junos.

Ziggo Internet, Juniper Firewalls and DHCP

At the house I have currently two ISP delivering broadband. Well, broadband isn't the correct word, since the the one of them is only a mere 256kbps (I think). The other is a 'whopping' 20Mbps.
The 20Mb connection is provided by XS4ALL, and the 256kbps is for free (if you have a phone subscription with Ziggo). The 256kbp is the minimum they provide to transport the phone calls, but if you're a masochist you can also browse the internet over that connection.

So, two ISP @ home. Combine that with a Juniper SRX firewall, and a dual ISP setup is born. The theory of that setup is that I connect both ISP's to the firewall, and use the 20Mb line as a default internet connection, but when that one dies, I automatically get switched to the backup line (256kbps).

Posted on August 9, 2012 and filed under Annoying, Hardware, Internet, Security, Tips'n Tricks.

Junos Pulse, Apple iOS, and Split-Tunneling

When you create (SSL)VPN access for you employees, you might enable split-tunneling to save corporate bandwidth. No split-tunneling means that all traffic is forwarded into the VPN tunnel. So if you browse the internet with an active VPN, the traffic goes through the VPN, and accesses the Internet through the corporate Internet connection. This isn't a big problem with a couple of employees, but with hundreds on the road or working from home, this might frustrate the employees in the building.

Posted on June 15, 2012 and filed under Annoying, Apple, Security, Software, Junos.

Changing SSL Certificates in a ISPConfig v3 Configuration

When you install a Perfect Server based on Centos and ISPConfig v3.x, the system / 'installer' creates for the components self-signed certificates. All these certificates will generate different warnings in your browser, mail clients etc. So time to eliminate those warnings.

First I needed to find out where all those certificates are located, and what there formats are. In my case, there are three services that use SSL/TLS in some form;

  1. Postfix SMTP service
  2. Courier IMAP service
  3. http / Apache2 webservice

Checking the configuration files will reveal their locations.

Posted on January 7, 2012 and filed under Linux, Operating Systems, Security, Software, Tips'n Tricks.

Microsoft Internet Explorer and IP Addresses in Certificate SAN

A fairy long title, but it describes exactly what this post is about. Once again a post about a Microsoft product and the way it works (or rather doesn't work) with your average Internet standard.

This week I was busy with RADIUS, 802.1x, PKI and the protection of websites with SSL encryption. For the implementation of 802.1x, I needed a PKI environment, so I used the Microsoft Certificate Services for that purpose. Along the way, I needed an SSL certificate for an internal website, but this particular website needed to work properly based on different FQDN's and or IP addresses without throwing warining or errors regarding the SSL connection.

The way to do this is to add Subject Alternative Names (SAN) to the certificate. This enables you to access the website in different ways, e.g.;

  • Access a webmail host from the internet based on its official FQDN (https://webmail.somedomain.com)
  • Access the same webmail host from the inside of the corporate lan based on its internal name (https://webmail.acme.local)
  • And access the host from legacy DNS-unaware software on its IP address (https://192.168.1.254)

Dissecting SRX RT_FLOW Logs with Splunk

Now that I have a SRX running at home and a syslog server powered by Splunk (free version) it's time to be able to understand the logging. The raw logging is pretty unreadable for the average Joe. Thankfully, Splunk can be used to make more sense of it.

Downside is that I haven't found any add-ons / plugins etc. for Splunk to analyze the logging of a Juniper SRX firewall. There is a post on the Splunk forum which offers two regular expression which can be used to define the RT_FLOW fields.

Posted on March 11, 2011 and filed under Security, Tips'n Tricks.

Usefull Juniper SRX commands

This post contains several useful Junos SRX commands for the CLI. Mainly for myself, because I don't use those command regularly....

This post will be updated over time... Here it goes:

View session information:

root@srx100> show security flow session summary

Clear sessions through the firewall:

root@srx100> clear security flow session all

Switch to other node in a cluster via CLI (over the HA-link):

 root@srx100> request routing-engine login node 1

Posted on March 11, 2011 and filed under Security, Tips'n Tricks, Junos.