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From: Darren Reed (avalonCOOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU)
Date: Wed Mar 07 2001 - 02:03:36 CST

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    In some mail from Ben Laurie, sie said:
    >
    > Aleph1 wrote:
    > > A flaw in the standard not on the stack. RFC 1122 "Requirements for
    > > Internet
    > > Hosts -- Communication Layers" covers this issue although without
    > > pointing
    > > out its security consequences.
    >
    > In the case that a host is not routing, it is abundantly clear that the
    > strong model is the only correct one. Similarly, I would argue that in
    > the case that a host is routing, the weak model is clearly correct. In
    > more complex cases, one should use packet filtering to enforce
    > requirements. You'll note that RFC 1122 is completely silent on the
    > difference between routing and non-routing hosts, which makes it so
    > broken it seems almost irrelevant on this issue.

    Let me give you a 'counter example'. Multi-homed server of some kind,
    and a client goes to access it. DNS server gives a reply with all of
    the addresses included. Which one does the client choose ? Should it
    have to check them all for the "best match" ? What if it can't work
    out what is the "best match" ? The client should be able to pick
    "any address" and connect, no ? Afterall, the intention is to provide
    a service to clients. Whether the server listens on one address (as it
    might) or all interface addreses or just "ANY" (all are quite valid
    scenarios), if it is a general service then I generally want everyone
    to access it and what it's bound to should be neither here nor there.
    It should "just work".

    I don't mention if it is a routing or non-routing server because it
    makes no difference to me, as a client - or shouldn't at any rate.

    I've seen a lot of people say "Strong ES model" should be the default,
    but that is only a requirement for particular applications where you
    want that behaviour.

    To answer your question about what the RFC authors meant, maybe they
    were thinking of actually just "using" multi-homed servers rather
    than trying to impose security restrictions.