FW: Worms versus Bots

Tue May 4 16:35:13 UTC 2004

Daniel I agree a nat/firewall/router with acl's ... will all help
prevent windows compromises.
I believe security in depth is an essential element of any good security
system.

The goal of this document is help new XP users survive long enough to do
their updates.
Many of them cant/wont put up acls/nat/firewalls ... but if they follow
the steps listed they have a better chance of
successfully downloading and updating their new machine then they will
have with OUT these steps.
It is not meant as a complete XP hardening document. There are lots of
documents that discuss in detail how to harden
windows (xp,nt,2k...). 

Donald.Smith at qwest.com GCIA
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xAF00EDCC
pgpFingerPrint:9CE4 227B B9B3 601F B500  D076 43F1 0767 AF00 EDCC
kill -13 111.2 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu] On 
> Behalf Of Daniel Senie
> Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 9:39 AM
> To: Sean Donelan
> Cc: nanog at merit.edu
> Subject: RE: FW: Worms versus Bots
> 
> 
> 
> At 10:54 AM 5/4/2004, Sean Donelan wrote:
> 
> >On Tue, 4 May 2004, Smith, Donald wrote:
> > > If you follow these steps outlined by SANS you should be able to 
> > > successfully update and NOT get infected. This is short, 
> easy, fully 
> > > documented (with pictures :)
> > > http://www.sans.org/rr/papers/index.php?id=1298
> >
> >The risk is smaller, but still exists if you follow these directions 
> >for XP pre-SP2.  See the Microsoft release notes for XP SP2 
> for details 
> >about the fix.
> >
> >If you do not have XP SP2, you need to disconnect your computer from 
> >the network prior to every boot cycle until it is fully patched.
> 
> A much simpler mechanism than that described by SANS is to 
> have a small, 
> cheap NAT box in your bag (e.g. D-Link DI-604 or similar). 
> Worth the $50 
> cost to have one available. Put the little router between the 
> new machine 
> to be brought up and whatever network you have access to. Now 
> you can bring 
> up the new machine and update it without having it get 
> instantly infected. 
> (Use some common sense... don't set up email until the 
> machine is patched, 
> or use any other sort of mechanism to pull in potential 
> viruses before 
> patching is done).
> 
> (To deflect the inevitable "NAT is not a firewall" 
> complaints, the box is a 
> stateful inspection firewall -- as all NAT boxes actually are). 
> 
> 