Re: Re: Exploit through firewall question

From: bradcausey@gmail.com
Date: Wed Jul 19 2006 - 12:28:36 EDT


('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is) I can see what the Management is thinking. This is something called security through obscurity, and isn't a very well regarded pratice. It also violates defense in depth. You can pretty easily expain this to them. Just imagine the following scenarios:

a) Scenario: The firewall gets compromised.
Result: All DMZ systems are then exposed.

b) Scenario: There is a typo in the ruleset of the firewall.
Result: DMZ systems are then exposed.

c) Scenario: Another system in the DMZ gets compromised.
Result: All DMZ systems are then exposed.

d) An attacker hits the DMZ from the internal network.
Result: All DMZ systems are then exposed.

Its never a good idea to rely on a firewall to make up for insecure systems. There are dozens of firewall bypassing tools out there and probably dozens more we don't even know about. In addition, most risks are probably going to come from the inside. Hope this helps.
-Brad Causey

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