On Wed, 2004-10-27 at 16:37, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2004 at 04:29:34PM +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote:
> > If you are running a DHCP server on a network and have a block of IP
> > addresses which you make available, how can you stop a (reasonably)
> > knowledgeable luser from explicitly grabbing an address from that block
> > by explicitly configuring their box with that address, thus preventing
> > that IP address from being recorded in the leases, and hence you not
> > immediately knowing that that box has been attached to the network.
> 
> Remove the network card from their computer, or if it's onboard, filling the
> RJ-45 connector with epoxy.  Especially effective for lapdogs.

Mmmm... Break out the LARTs boys...

> 
> Practically speaking, there is no way to stop them if they have physical
> access to the network and/or administrative access to the machine, unless
> you have an intelligent switch which is capable of being told "only let DHCP
> traffic through by default", then getting the DHCP server to change the ACL
> on the port for the requestor MAC address after successful DHCP lease
> assignment.
> 
> Yes, those sorts of switches are expensive.  You can buy a lot of Araldite
> for that.
> 
> The problem is that your average dumb switch doesn't do any sort of
> restriction at the LAN level, and that's as high as you need to get to cause
> problems with conflicting IP addresses.
> 
> Useful tools for tracking down and killing this type of luser are things
> like arpwatch, which notify you if they see a MAC address they haven't seen
> before, and I presume you could extend the tool (or someone's probably
> already done it) to be able to cross-check leases with what they see, and
> notify you in the event of a mismatch.  That still leaves you with the job
> of manually tracking them down and beating their computer to a pulp, but at
> least the tricky part of the job (diagnosing the problem) can be automated.
> 
> I'm thankful I don't administer that sort of environment any more...
> 
> - Matt
> 
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-- 
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates;
Your Linux people <http://www.lannetlinux.com>
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