Subject: Re: pf for NetBSD
To: None <tech-net@netbsd.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: tech-net
Date: 11/06/2002 16:42:57
> How does pf handle state from an outgoing connection that is closing?
> Under ipf the state for an outgoing TCP connection appeared to be
> torn down as soon as the local side closed the connection.  [...]  If
> pf handled that state better and kept the TCP-filter state around for
> 2xMSL that would be a vast improvement.

But still not very good.  There is no reason why a TCP connection
cannot be closed in one direction and still keep streaming data in the
other more or less indefinitely.  If ipf - or any such firewalling
package - tears down its state as soon as one direction closes, I would
call that a priority-1 bug.

Of course, the whole purpose of something like ipf is to (selectively)
break interoperability, but this is breaking interoperability for
connections that it has been configured to *not* break.

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B