RE: ISA Network Elements and System Network Interfaces

  • From: "Young, Gerald G" <Gerald.Young@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "[ISAserver.org Discussion List]" <isalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:29:16 -0600

Feel free to call me Jerry. *8^)  I always look over my shoulder for my
pops when people call me Mr. Young or Gerald. *8^)

 

Like I said, I'm cleaning up other peoples' messes.  I was told that the
uni-homed config was used because they couldn't get the multi-homed
config working (smacks of not understanding routing to me but...).  I've
always been a proponent for moving to a multi-homed config but didn't
have the proper ammunition until I started poking around because they
were experiencing problems they couldn't fix.

 

I just reviewed Chapter 4 in the ISA 2K4 book.  If I read that
correctly, because we're using a uni-homed template, we're not receiving
ANY of the HTTPS stateful filtering ISA is capable of on the HTTPS
connections?  Is that correct or am I interpreting the text to meet my
own nefarious purposes for switching the box to a multi-homed config?
*8^)

Cordially yours, 
Jerry G. Young II 
  MCSE (4.0/W2K) 
Atlanta EES Implementation Team Lead 
HHS Engineering 
Unisys 
  
11493 Sunset Hills Rd. 
Reston, VA 20190 
Office: 703-579-2727 
Cell: 703-625-1468 

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________________________________

From: Geldrop, Paul van [mailto:paul.van.geldrop@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 4:15 PM
To: [ISAserver.org Discussion List]
Subject: RE: [isalist] RE: ISA Network Elements and System Network
Interfaces

 

Tread carefully, Gerald.. Tom tends to get a bit touchy when the subject
of unihomed ISA servers comes up.. ;o)

 

________________________________

From: Thomas W Shinder [mailto:tshinder@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Mon 16-1-2006 21:50
To: [ISAserver.org Discussion List]
Subject: [isalist] RE: ISA Network Elements and System Network
Interfaces

http://www.ISAserver.org

Hi Gerald,

Yes, I go into assiduous detail regarding this topic in the book. I even
mentioned that crip mode (unihomed ISA firewall) sees only one network
"internal".

Tom

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Site: www.isaserver.org
Blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/drisa/
Book: http://tinyurl.com/3xqb7
MVP -- ISA Firewalls
**Who is John Galt?**



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Young, Gerald G [mailto:Gerald.Young@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 2:03 PM
> To: [ISAserver.org Discussion List]
> Subject: [isalist] ISA Network Elements and System Network Interfaces
>
> http://www.ISAserver.org
>
> Tom,
>
> I haven't read your books on ISA Server as of yet but, it is
> on my list
> of things to do.
>
> Having said that, do you go into depth on the differences between the
> network elements in ISA, in which you can define IP networks
> and use as
> a basis for firewall rules, and the network interfaces on a system?
>
> Most of the problems I'm currently dealing with - read: cleaning up
> other peoples' messes *8^) - are caused by a misconfiguration of the
> network elements with relation to the network interfaces they
> "represent".  Usually, an engineer has arbitrarily configured network
> elements in ISA to match their sense of organization/propriety without
> any consideration of what the routing table on the local system looks
> like.
>
> One of the more insidious problems, which ISA server doesn't seem to
> know how to report out on, is when engineers split IP
> networks that are
> bound to the same network interface on the system between two ISA
> network elements.
>
> Case in point:
> ISA Server 2004 Standard Edition
> Single Network Adapter
>
> This box sits in our DMZ (with a firewall in front and behind) and
> services an OWA site over HTTPS that sits in our trusted network.
>
> An OWA Rule and SSL Listener were created and work fine.  The problem
> came when our organization was attempting to monitor the box
> and connect
> from other sources that exist in our trusted networks.
>
> Since there is a single interface on that box, the routing table knows
> only of one route: the default gateway (192.168.0.1).  Any destination
> IP address not of the local IP network (let's say 192.168.0.1/24) will
> have to be reached via the default gateway.
>
> In their enthusiasm for maintaining security on this box, they broke
> apart IP networks from which traffic would be hitting the ISA server
> into two network elements.  They added IP networks from our trusted
> network into the Internal network element and created a new network
> element named Management, into which they added others (IP
> networks from
> which we monitor and manage the box).  The IP networks were split
> between the two network elements along the following lines:
>
> Internal Network Element Addresses
> 192.168.100.1 - 192.168.103.255
> 192.168.150.32 - 192.168.150.63
> 192.168.180.1 - 192.168.180.255
>
> Management Network Element Addresses
> 10.0.1.224 - 10.0.1.255
> 10.0.3.74 - 10.0.3.74
>
> A rule was then created that allowed all traffic between the
> Local Host,
> Internal, and Management network elements, in both directions.
>
> This resulted in network traffic to/from the Internal network element
> being allowed but, network traffic to/from the Management network
> element was not; ISA happily logged the latter traffic as being denied
> without giving any reason whatsoever.
>
> Once I moved the IP networks from the Management network
> element to the
> Internal network element, however, traffic started flowing correctly
> to/from those IP networks.
>
> Now, on ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition, with multiple NICs on the
> system, it at least flags configuration issues like this by
> complaining
> about IP addresses being treated as spoofed addresses in
> Alerts. It even
> flags a denied connection in the Monitor as being denied
> because it was
> treating the traffic as if it came from a spoofed IP address.
>
> Is this a difference of version or is it a difference between
> multi-homed and single-interface systems?
>
> In any case, though, at a very basic level, it appears as if the
> following are good guidelines for configuring network elements:
>
> 1. You only ever want one network element per network interface.
> 2. The IP networks defined in a network element must match
> what's bound
> to the network interface.
>
> In the case of a multi-homed system, number 2 becomes much more
> important as the person configuring ISA really, really,
> really needs to
> understand subnetting and routing tables.  Properly done, a
> multi-homed
> system will have one default gateway and static route(s) for the other
> interface(s).  If you have an IP network defined in a network element
> for a network interface with static routes defined for it but the IP
> network is not part of those static routes, you'll run into problems.
>
> And I'd hate to see what kind of grief you'd run into if you
> configured
> a multi-homed ISA server with more than one default route!
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Cordially yours,
> Jerry G. Young II
>   MCSE (4.0/W2K)
> Atlanta EES Implementation Team Lead
> HHS Engineering
> Unisys
> 
> 11493 Sunset Hills Rd.
> Reston, VA 20190
> Office: 703-579-2727
> Cell: 703-625-1468
>
> THIS COMMUNICATION MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL AND/OR OTHERWISE
> PROPRIETARY
> MATERIAL and is thus for use only by the intended recipient. If you
> received this in error, please contact the sender and delete
> the e-mail
> and its attachments from all computers.
>
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