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Security Best Practice: Blocking Gnutella

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Check Point Reference: SBP-2009-26
Date Published:
Severity:
Source: IPS Research Center
Protection Provided by: Security Gateway
  • R70
VPN-1
  • NGX R65
VSX
  • NGX R65
Who is Vulnerable?
Gnutella users
Vulnerability Description
Gnutella is a popular file sharing network, and one of the most popular Peer to Peer protocols, used by applications such as BearShare, Shareaza, Morpheus and iMesh.
File sharing applications are commonly used to exchange MP3 music files, videos, applications, and documents.

The use of Gnutella may circumvent the organizational security policy.
Vulnerability Details

Peer to peer Internet traffic, such as Gnutella, slows critical business applications on corporate networks. It lowers employee productivity as they take time away from their work to download music and videos. This sort of traffic also significantly increases companies Internet communication costs and requires them to purchase additional bandwidth.

Protection Overview
This protection will detect and block the Gnutella peer to peer application. The protection is able to detect peer to peer traffic regardless of the TCP port that is being used to initiate the peer to peer session.

To configure the defense, select your product from the list below and follow the related protection steps.

Security Gateway R70

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the IPS tab, click Protections > By Protocol > Application Intelligence > Peer to Peer.
2. In the right pane, double-click the Gnutella protection.
3. In the Protection Details window, click on Edit. Choose the protection's Action (Override IPS Policy with: Prevent/Detect), and apply Additional Settings.
4. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

Attack Name: Peer to Peer
Attack Information:
peer to peer pattern found, application: Gnutella
Gnutella protocol detected on connection

VPN-1 NGX R65 & VSX NGX R65

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the SmartDefense tab, click Application Intelligence > Peer to Peer > Gnutella.
2. In the configuration pane, under Settings > Mode, check Active.
3. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

Attack Name: Peer to Peer
Attack Information:
peer to peer pattern found, application: Gnutella
Gnutella protocol detected on connection