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Security Best Practice: Blocking Foxy

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Check Point Reference: SBP-2009-20
Date Published:
Severity:
Source: IPS Research Center
Protection Provided by: Security Gateway
  • R70
Who is Vulnerable?
Foxy users
Vulnerability Description
Foxy is a Traditional Chinese peer to peer file sharing application. It is widely used in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. Unlike other peer to peer software, Foxy is very easy to use and has unlimited download capabilities.
 
The use of Foxy may circumvent the organizational security policy.
Vulnerability Details
Foxy uses distributed topology, which means that the Foxy network relies on no tracker server to store file sharing information, instead the information is distributed among thousands of Foxy peers. This may result in a larger exposure of the shared files comparing to other peer to peer file sharing networks. The distributed topology also makes the revocation of a shared file in the Foxy network technically unfeasible. If some sensitive information has been shared in the Foxy network, it is impossible for the authority to technically stop it from further spreading.

Additionally, peer to peer Internet traffic, such as Foxy, 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 a company’s Internet communication costs and requires them to purchase additional bandwidth.

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

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

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 Foxy 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: Foxy peer to peer application detected on connection