David Allen wrote:
On 9/22/08, Matthew Seaman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Also consider the following sysctls:

# Blackhole packets to ports without listeners
net.inet.tcp.blackhole=1
net.inet.udp.blackhole=1

although these will be redundant if your firewalling is effective.

I wonder, though, would using a block-policy setting of return (which
I'm currently using) render the above redundant, or would the above
take precedence?  I'll have to add that to the list of Stuff to Check.

Yes.  If the firewall disposes of the packet via a block rule, then
those sysctls will not have any effect.  The firewall can either drop the 
packet or send an ICMP port unreachable message according to how it is 
configured.

If the firewall passes the packet then either it is dealt with by a
program listening on the appropriate port, or the network stack itself
will generate an ICMP message (by default) or else just drop the packet
if the blackhole sysctls are enabled.

        Cheers,

        Matthew

--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                 Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
                                                 Kent, CT11 9PW

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