Check Point Advisories

Security Best Practice: Familiarize Yourself with the Max Ping Size Protection

Check Point Reference:	SBP-2008-27
Date Published:	15 Aug 2008
Severity:	Low
Last Updated:	Tuesday 01 January, 2008
Source:	IPS Research Center
Industry Reference:	CVE-2002-0237 CVE-2001-0754 CVE-2001-0752 CVE-2001-0057 CVE-2000-0418 CVE-1999-0484
Protection Provided by:
Who is Vulnerable?	Computers and Networks
Vulnerability Description	Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network and to measure the round-trip time for packets sent from the local host to a destination computer, including the local host's own interfaces. Ping operates by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets to the target host and waits for an ICMP response. In the process it measures the round-trip time and records any packet loss. The results of the test are printed in form of a statistical summary of the response packets received, including the minimum, maximum, and the mean round-trip times, and sometimes the standard deviation of the mean.
Vulnerability Details	An attacker might echo the client with large data, trying to compromise the security of the client's machine (for example causing a buffer overflow).