> -----Original Message----- > From: Ron DuFresne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 9:21 AM > To: Schmehl, Paul L > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [Full-Disclosure] Sidewinder G2 > > > > > > 3) What happens when Sidewinder fails? Does it fail open? > If it does > > (and it should), is their version of sendmail still > protected? Or is > > it sitting on the Internet bare-ass naked, waiting to be 0wn3d? > > it should fail "closed", preventing any traffic from passing, > otherwise you have a door stop.
Maybe your network policy states that, but I would prefer for single point of failure devices to fail open, rather than closed. For us, network availability is a higher priority than protection is. If the firewall fails, I don't want the entire network down while we're waiting for a vendor to fix it. I'd be surprised if most networks aren't that way. Now, if it's something really critical *inside* the network that is protected by a firewall, then you might want it to fail closed, but at the edge? Paul Schmehl ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Adjunct Information Security Officer The University of Texas at Dallas AVIEN Founding Member http://www.utdallas.edu/~pauls/ _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
