Check Point Advisories

Repetitive POP3 Login Failures

Vulnerability
Protection

Check Point Reference:	CPAI-2015-0173
Date Published:	6 Nov 2011
Severity:	Critical
Last Updated:	Monday 26 June, 2017
Source:
Protection Provided by:	Security Gateway R81, R80, R77, R75
Who is Vulnerable?	Mail Servers
Vulnerability Description	An attacker may attempt to gain access to email accounts by repeatedly trying to log in using various passwords, eventually finding the correct one, a technique known as "Brute Force". Successful exploitation may result in an unauthorized access to an email account.

Protection Overview

This protection will detect repeated login attempts, and block the subsequent attempts.Note: This protection is supported from version R75.40VS and above and cannot be enforced by previous IPS gateway versions.

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 R80 / R77 / R75

In the IPS tab, click Protections and find the Repetitive POP3 Login Failures protection using the Search tool and Edit the protection's settings.
Install policy on all Security Gateways.

This protection's log will contain the following information:

Attack Name: POP3 Protocol Violation.
Attack Information: Repetitive POP3 Login Failures