When to use encapsulated IP traffic filtering

The following are the typical cases that need encapsulated IP traffic filtering:

 

Mobile station IP pools

In a well-designed network, best practices dictate that the mobile station address pool is to be completely separate from the GPRS network infrastructure range of addresses. Encapsulated IP packets originating from a mobile station will not contain source or destination addresses that fall within the address range of GPRS infrastructures. In addition, traffic originating from the users handset will not have destination/source IP addresses that fall within any Network Management System (NMS) or Charging Gateway (CG) networks.

 

Communication between mobile stations

Mobile stations on the same GPRS network are not able to communicate with other mobile stations. Best practices dictate that packets containing both source and destination addresses within the mobile station’s range of addresses are to be dropped.

 

Direct mobile device or internet attacks

It may be possible for attackers to wrap attack traffic in GTP protocols and submit the resulting GTP traffic directly to a GPRS network element from their mobile stations or a node on the Internet. It is possible that the receiving SGSN or GGSN would then strip off the GTP header and attempt to route the underlying attack. This underlying attack could have any destination address and would probably have a source address spoofed as if it were valid from that PLMN.

You cannot add an IE removal policy when you are creating a new profile.

 

Relayed network attacks

Depending on the destination the attack could be directly routed, such as to another node of the PLMN, or rewrapped in GTP for transmission to any destination on the Internet outside the PLMN depending on the routing table of the GSN enlisted as the unwitting relay.

The relayed attack could have any source or destination addresses and could be any of numerous IP network attacks, such as an attack to hijack a PDP context, or a direct attack against a management interface of a GSN or other device within the PLMN. Best practices dictate that any IP traffic originating on the Internet or from an MS with a destination address within the PLMN is to be filtered.

 

Configuring Encapsulated Non-IP End User Address Filtering

Much of the traffic on the GPRS network is in the form of IP traffic. However some parts of the network do not used IP based addressing, so the Carrier-enabled FortiGate unit is unable to perform Encapsulated IP Traffic Filtering.

Depending on the installed environment, it may be beneficial to detect GTP packets that encapsulate non-IP based protocols. You can configure the FortiOS Carrier firewall to permit a list of acceptable protocols, with all other protocols denied.

The encoded protocol is determined in the PDP Type Organization and PDP Type Number fields within the End User Address Information Element. The PDP Type Organization is a 4-bit field that determines if the protocol is part of the ETSI or IETF organizations. Values are zero and one, respectively. The PDP Type field is one byte long. Both GTP specifications only list PPP, with a PDP Type value of one, as a valid ETSI protocol. PDP Types for the IETF values are determined in the “Assigned PPP DLL Protocol Numbers” sections of RFC 1700. The PDP types are compressed, meaning that the most significant byte is skipped, limiting the protocols listed from 0x00 to 0xFF.

To configure the Encapsulated Non-IP End User Address Filtering, go to Security Profiles > Carrier > GTP Profile, and edit a GTP profile. Expand Encapsulated Non-IP End User Address Filtering to configure settings. See Encapsulated non-IP end user traffic filtering options.

 

Configuring the Protocol Anomaly feature in FortiOS Carrier

When anomalies do happen, it is possible for the anomaly to interrupt network traffic or consume network resources — if precautions are not taken. Anomalies can be generated by accident or maliciously, but both methods can have the same results — degrading the performance of the carrier network, or worse.

To configure GTP protocol anomalies, go to Security Profiles > Carrier > GTP Profile, and edit a GTP

profile. Expand the Protocol Anomaly option. SeeProtocol Anomaly prevention options. The following are some examples:

• The GTP header specifies the length of the packet excluding the mandatory GTP header. In GTP version 0 (GSM 09.60), the mandatory GTP header size is 20 bytes, whereas GTP version 1 (GSM 29.060) specifies that the minimum length of the GTP header is 8 bytes. The GTP packet is composed of the header, followed by Information Elements typically presented in a Type-Length-Value format. It is possible for an attacker to create a GTP packet with a GTP header field length that is incompatible with the length of the necessary information elements.
• The same concepts are true for GTP version 2 headers even though there are different fields in them.
• It is similarly possible for an attacker to create a packet with an invalid IE length. Invalid lengths may cause protocol stacks to allocate incorrect amounts of memory, and thereby cause crashes or buffer overflows.

 

By default the FortiOS Carrier firewall detects these problems, as well as other protocol anomalies, and drops the packets. All protocol anomaly options are set to Deny by default. However, you can change the policy to allow them.

 

Configuring Anti-overbilling in FortiOS Carrier

GPRS overbilling attacks can be prevented with a properly configured Carrier-enabled FortiGate unit.

Overbilling can occur when a subscriber returns his IP address to the IP pool. Before the billing server closes it, the subscriber’s session is still open and vulnerable. If an attacker takes control of the subscriber’s IP address, he can send or receive data and the subscriber will be billed for the traffic.

Overbilling can also occur when an available IP address is reassigned to a new mobile station (MS). Subsequent traffic by the previous MS may be forwarded to the new MS. The new MS would then be billed for traffic it did not initiate.