Check Point Advisories

Null Payload ICMP

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2004-20
Date Published:	1 Feb 2005
Severity:	Low
Last Updated:	Saturday 01 January, 2000
Source:
Protection Provided by:	Security Gateway R71, R70
Who is Vulnerable?
Vulnerability Description	Some worms, such as Sasser, use ICMP echo request packets with null payload to detect potentially vulnerable hosts.

Protection Overview

When this protection is enabled, IPS will identify and drop the null payload ping packets.

In order for the protection to be activated, update your Security Gateway product to the latest IPS update.For information on how to update IPS, go to SBP-2006-05, click on Protection tab and select the version of your choice.

Security Gateway R70 / R71

In the IPS tab, click Protections and find the Null Payload ICMP protection using the Search tool and Edit the protection's settings.
Install policy on all modules.

This protection's log will contain the following information:Note:. This protection may be triggered and as a result generate logs due to the way Windows GPO distributes policies from domain controllers to end hosts. To prevent these logs, follow these instructions:. 1. In the IPS tab, click Protections and find the Null Payload ICMP protection using the Search tool. 2. Double click on the protection's name, select the Network Exceptions tab and click on New. . 3. Under Network Condition, configure your known source and destination IP addresses. 4. Install policy on all modules. . Users will identify the attack by the following SmartView Tracker log entries:.

Attack Name: Null Payload Echo Request.
Attack Information: Null payload ICMP packet. Users of VPN-1 NG with Application Intelligence R55 will identify rule 99501 appearing on the SmartView Tracker.