ZyWALL 2 and ZyWALL 2WE

15.3 Attack Alert

Attack alerts are the first defense against DOS attacks. In the Attack Alert screen, shown later, you may choose to generate an alert whenever an attack is detected. For DoS attacks, the ZyWALL uses thresholds to determine when to drop sessions that do not become fully established. These thresholds apply globally to all sessions.

You can use the default threshold values, or you can change them to values more suitable to your security requirements.

15.3.1 Threshold Values

Tune these parameters when something is not working and after you have checked the firewall counters. These default values should work fine for normal small offices with ADSL bandwidth. Factors influencing choices for threshold values are:

1.The maximum number of opened sessions.

2.The minimum capacity of server backlog in your LAN network.

3.The CPU power of servers in your LAN network.

4.Network bandwidth.

5.Type of traffic for certain servers.

If your network is slower than average for any of these factors (especially if you have servers that are slow or handle many tasks and are often busy), then the default values should be reduced.

You should make any changes to the threshold values before you continue configuring firewall rules.

15.3.2 Half-Open Sessions

An unusually high number of half-open sessions (either an absolute number or measured as the arrival rate) could indicate that a Denial of Service attack is occurring. For TCP, "half-open" means that the session has not reached the established state-the TCP three-way handshake has not yet been completed (see Figure 13-2). For UDP, "half-open" means that the firewall has detected no return traffic.

The ZyWALL measures both the total number of existing half-open sessions and the rate of session establishment attempts. Both TCP and UDP half-open sessions are counted in the total number and rate measurements. Measurements are made once a minute.

When the number of existing half-open sessions rises above a threshold (max-incomplete high), the ZyWALL starts deleting half-open sessions as required to accommodate new connection requests. The ZyWALL continues to delete half-open requests as necessary, until the number of existing half-open sessions drops below another threshold (max-incomplete low).

Firewall Configuration

15-3