Tag Archives: FTP

Palo Alto Application: First Packets Will Pass!

Design/Policy, Palo Alto Networks, , , , ,

I am using an almost hidden FTP server in my DMZ behind a Palo Alto Networks firewall. FTP is only allowed from a few static IP addresses, hence no brute-force attacks on my server. Furthermore, I have an “allow ping and traceroute from any to DMZ” policy since ping is no security flaw but really helpful while troubleshooting.

Now, here comes the point: My FTP server logfile showed dozens of connections from many different IP addresses from the Internet. WHAT? For the first moment I was really shocked. Have I accidentally exposed my FTP server to the Internet? Here is what happened:

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Network Transfer: 1 Big vs. 100 Small Files

Bandwidth/Delay, Memorandum, , , , , , , , ,

A common mistake when analyzing network speed/bandwidth between different applications and servers is to fully rely on the mere size of the files being transferred. In fact, one big file will transfer much faster than thousands of small files that have the same accumulated size. This depends on the overhead of reading/writing these files, building TCP/IP sessions, scanning them for viruses, etc. Furthermore, it is application dependent.

I built a small lab with an FTP server, switch, firewall, and an FTP client in which I played a bit with different file sizes. In this blog post I am showing the measured transfer times and some Wireshark graphs.

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FTP Proxy Authentication Format “Check Point”

Authentication, Network, Template, , , , ,

Short memo: This is the FTP proxy authentication format of “Check Point” for the FileZilla FTP Client. I needed it for my Cisco WSA (Web Security Appliance) laboratory in the case of an enabled proxy authentication.

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