• Home
  • Line#
  • Scopes#
  • Navigate#
  • Raw
  • Download
1Copyright (c) 2001 Charles Mott <cm@linktel.net>
2All rights reserved.
3
4Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6are met:
71. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
92. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12
13THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
14ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
15IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
16ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
17FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
18DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
19OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
20HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
21LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
22OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
23SUCH DAMAGE.
24
25$FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/ppp/README.nat,v 1.7.40.1 2010/12/21 17:10:29 kensmith Exp $
26
27User PPP NAT (Packet Aliasing)
28
29
30
310. Contents
32    1. Background
33    2. Setup
34    3. New commands in ppp
35    4. Future Work
36    5. Authors / Acknowledgements
37    6. Revision History for Aliasing Code
38
39
40
411. Background
42
43User mode ppp has embedded NAT (Network Address Translation) code.
44Enabling this, either by the "-nat" command line option or the
45"nat enable yes" command in a ppp.conf file, makes the ppp host
46automatically NAT IP packets forwarded from a local network, making
47them appear to come from the ppp host machine.  Incoming packets
48from the outside world are then appropriately de-NAT'd.
49
50The process of NAT'ing involves both the IP address and the TCP or UDP
51port numbers. ICMP echo and timestamp packets are natted by their id
52numbers.  ICMP error messages can be properly directed by examining the
53fragment of the offending packet which is contained in the body of the
54message.
55
56This software was specifically meant to support users who have
57unregistered, private address IP networks (e.g. 192.168.0.x or 10.0.0.x
58addresses).  The ppp host can act as a gateway for these networks, and
59computers on the local area net will have some degree of Internet access
60without the need for a registered IP address.  Additionally, there will
61be no need for an Internet service provider to maintain routing tables
62for the local area network.
63
64A disadvantage of NAT is that machines on the local network,
65behind the ppp host, are not visible from the outside world.  They can
66establish TCP connections and make UDP inquiries (such as domain name
67service requests) but the connections seem to come from the ppp host
68itself.  There is, in effect, a partial firewall.  Of course, if this is
69what you want, the disadvantage becomes an advantage.
70
71A second disadvantage is that "IP encoding" protocols, which send IP
72address or port information within the data stream, are not supported
73for the cases where exception code exists.  This implementation has
74workarounds for FTP and IRC DCC, the most well known of the IP encoding
75protocols.  This frees users from depending on using the ftp passive
76mode and avoiding IRC DCC sends, as is sometimes the case with other
77masquerading solutions.
78
79The implementation supports all standard, non-encoding TCP and UDP protocols.
80Examples of these protocols are http, gopher and telnet. The standard UDP
81mode of Real-Audio is not presently supported, but the TCP mode does work
82correctly.
83
84The NAT code also handles many ICMP messages.  In particular,
85ping and traceroute are supported.
86
87
88
892. Packet Aliasing Setup
90
91It is recommended that users first verify correct ppp operation without
92NAT enabled.  This will confirm that the ppp.conf file is
93properly set up and that there are no ppp problems. Then start ppp with
94the "-nat" option on the command line.  The user should verify that
95the ppp host can correctly connect to the Internet in NAT
96mode.  Finally, check that machines on the private network can access
97the Internet.
98
99The NAT software handles all packets, whether they come from
100the host or another computer on the local area network.  Thus, a correctly
101operating ppp host indicates that the software should work properly for
102other computers on the private network.
103
104If the ppp host can access the Internet, but other computers on the local
105network cannot, check that IP forwarding is enabled on the ppp host. Also,
106verify that the other computers use this machine as a gateway.  Of course,
107you should also verify that machines within the local area network
108communicate properly.  A common error is inconsistent subnet addresses
109and masks.
110
111
112
1133. New commands in ppp
114
115In order to control NAT behaviour in a simple manner (no need for
116recompilation), a new command has been added to ppp: nat.  This
117is in addition to the -nat command line option.  System managers and
118more experienced users may prefer to use the ppp command syntax
119within the ppp.conf file.  The nat command also allows NAT
120behaviour to be more precisely specified.
121
122The decision to add a command instead of extending 'set' or 'option' was
123to make obvious that these options only work when NAT is enabled.
124
125The syntax for 'nat' is
126
127    ppp>  nat option [yes|no]
128
129where option is given by one of the following templates.
130
131
132 - nat enable [yes|no]  (default no)
133
134Enable NAT functionality.  If disabled, no other NAT
135options will have any effect.  You should usually enable NAT
136before routing any packets over the link; good points are in the
137initial script or right before adding a route.  If you do not always
138want NAT, consider using the -nat option to ppp instead of this
139command.
140
141
142 - nat deny_incoming [yes|no] (default yes)
143
144Set to "yes" to disable all incoming connections.  This just drops
145connections to, for example, ftp, telnet or web servers.  The NAT
146mechanism prevents these connections. Technically, this option denies
147all incoming TCP and UDP requests, making the NAT software a
148fairly efficient one-way firewall.  The default is no, which will allow
149all incoming connections to telnetd, ftpd, etc.
150
151
152 - nat log [yes|no]
153
154Controls logging of NAT link creation to "/var/log/alias.log" - this
155is usually only useful if debugging a setup, to see if the bug is in
156the PPP NATing.  The debugging information is fairly limited, listing
157the number of NAT links open for different protocols.
158
159
160 - nat same_ports [yes|no] (default yes)
161
162When a connection is being established going through the NAT
163routines, it will normally have its port number changed to allow the
164NAT code to track it.  If same_ports is enabled, the NAT
165software attempts to keep the connection's source port unchanged.
166This will allow rsh, RPC and other specialised protocols to work
167_most of the time_, at least on the host machine.  Please, do not
168report this being unstable as a bug - it is a result of the way
169NAT has to work. TCP/IP was intended to have one IP address
170per machine.
171
172
173 - nat use_sockets [yes|no] (default yes)
174
175This is a fairly obscure option.  For the most part, the NAT
176software does not have to allocate system sockets when it chooses a
177NAT port number.  Under very specific circumstances, FTP data
178connections (which don't know the remote port number, though it is
179usually 20) and IRC DCC send (which doesn't know either the address or
180the port from which the connection will come), there can potentially be
181some interference with an open server socket having the same port number
182on the ppp host machine.  This possibility for interference only exists
183until the TCP connection has been acknowledged on both sides.  The safe
184option is yes, though fewer system resources are consumed by specifying
185no.
186
187
188 - nat unregistered_only [yes|no] (default no)
189
190NAT normally remaps all packets coming from the local area
191network to the ppp host machine address.  Set this option to only map
192addresses from the following standard ranges for private, unregistered
193addresses:
194
195                10.0.0.0     ->   10.255.255.255
196                172.16.0.0   ->   172.31.255.255
197                192.168.0.0  ->   192.168.255.255  */
198
199In the instance that there is a subnet of public addresses and another
200subnet of private addresses being routed by the ppp host, then only the
201packets on the private subnet will be NAT'd.
202
203
204- nat port <proto> <local addr>:<port>  <nat port>
205
206This command allows incoming traffic to <nat port> on the host
207machine to be redirected to a specific machine and port on the
208local area network.  One example of this would be:
209
210    nat port tcp 192.168.0.4:telnet  8066
211
212All traffic to port 8066 of the ppp host would then be sent to
213the telnet port (23) of machine 192.168.0.4.  Port numbers
214can either be designated numerically or by symbolic names
215listed in /etc/services.  Similarly, addresses can be either
216in dotted quad notation or in /etc/hosts.
217
218
219- nat addr <local addr> <public addr>
220
221This command allows traffic for a public IP address to be
222redirected to a machine on the local network.  This function
223is known as "static NAT".  An address assignment of 0 refers
224to the default address of the ppp host.  Normally static
225NAT is useful if your ISP has allocated a small block of
226IP addresses to the user, but it can even be used in the
227case of a single, dynamically allocated IP address:
228
229    nat addr 10.0.0.8 0
230
231The above command would redirect all incoming traffic to
232machine 10.0.0.8.
233
234If several address NATs specify the same public address
235as follows
236
237    nat addr 192.168.0.2  public_addr
238    nat addr 192.168.0.3  public_addr
239    nat addr 192.168.0.4  public_addr
240
241then incoming traffic will be directed to the last
242translated local address (192.168.0.4), but outgoing
243traffic to the first two addresses will still be NAT'd
244to the specified public address.
245
246
247
2484. Future Work
249
250What is called NAT here has been variously called masquerading, packet
251aliasing and transparent proxying by others.  It is an extremely useful
252function to many users, but it is also necessarily imperfect.  The
253occasional IP-encoding protocols always need workarounds (hacks).
254Users who are interested in supporting new IP-encoding protocols
255can follow the examples of alias_ftp.c and alias_irc.c.
256
257ICMP error messages are currently handled only in the incoming direction.
258A handler needs to be added to correctly NAT outgoing error messages.
259
260IRC and FTP exception handling make reasonable, though not strictly correct
261assumptions, about how IP encoded messages will appear in the control
262stream.  Programmers may wish to consider how to make this process more
263robust.
264
265The NAT engine (alias.c, alias_db.c, alias_ftp.c, alias_irc.c
266and alias_util.c) runs in user space, and is intended to be both portable
267and reusable for interfaces other than ppp.  To access the basic engine
268only requires four simple function calls (initialisation, communication of
269host address, outgoing NAT and incoming de-NATing).
270
271
272
2735. Authors / Acknowledgements
274
275Charles Mott (cm@linktel.net)  <versions 1.0 - 1.8, 2.0, 2.1>
276Eivind Eklund (perhaps@yes.no) <versions 1.8b - 1.9, new ppp commands>
277
278Listed below, in chronological order, are individuals who have provided
279valuable comments and/or debugging assistance.
280
281    Gary Roberts
282    Tom Torrance
283    Reto Burkhalter
284    Martin Renters
285    Brian Somers
286    Paul Traina
287    Ari Suutari
288    J. Fortes
289    Andrzej Bialeki
290
291
292
2936. Revision History for Aliasing Code
294
295Version 1.0: August 11, 1996 (cjm)
296
297Version 1.1:  August 20, 1996  (cjm)
298    PPP host accepts incoming connections for ports 0 to 1023.
299
300Version 1.2:  September 7, 1996 (cjm)
301    Fragment handling error in alias_db.c corrected.
302
303Version 1.3: September 15, 1996 (cjm)
304    - Generalised mechanism for handling incoming connections
305      (no more 0 to 1023 restriction).
306    - Increased ICMP support (will handle traceroute now).
307    - Improved TCP close connection logic.
308
309Version 1.4: September 16, 1996
310    Can't remember (this version only lasted a day -- cjm).
311
312Version 1.5: September 17, 1996 (cjm)
313    Corrected error in handling incoming UDP packets
314    with zero checksum.
315
316Version 1.6: September 18, 1996
317    Simplified ICMP data storage.  Will now handle
318    tracert from Win95 as well as FreeBSD traceroute.
319
320Version 1.7: January 9, 1997 (cjm)
321    - Reduced malloc() activity for ICMP echo and
322      timestamp requests.
323    - Added handling for out-of-order IP fragments.
324    - Switched to differential checksum computation
325      for IP headers (TCP, UDP and ICMP checksums
326      were already differential).
327    - Accepts FTP data connections from other than
328      port 20.  This allows one ftp connections
329      from two hosts which are both running packet
330      aliasing.
331
332Version 1.8: January 14, 1997 (cjm)
333    - Fixed data type error in function StartPoint()
334      in alias_db.c (this bug did not exist before v1.7)
335
336Version 1.8b: January 16, 1997 (Eivind Eklund <perhaps@yes.no>)
337    - Upgraded base PPP version to be the source code from
338      FreeBSD 2.1.6, with additional security patches.  This
339      version should still be possible to run on 2.1.5, though -
340      I've run it with a 2.1.5 kernel without problems.
341      (Update done with the permission of cjm)
342
343Version 1.9: February 1, 1997 (Eivind Eklund <perhaps@yes.no>)
344    - Added support for IRC DCC (ee)
345    - Changed the aliasing routines to use ANSI style throughout -
346      minor API changes for integration with other programs than PPP (ee)
347    - Changed the build process, making all options switchable
348      from the Makefile (ee)
349    - Fixed minor security hole in alias_ftp.c for other applications
350      of the aliasing software.  Hole could _not_ manifest in
351      PPP+pktAlias, but could potentially manifest in other
352      applications of the aliasing. (ee)
353    - Connections initiated from packet aliasing host machine will
354      not have their port number aliased unless it conflicts with
355      an aliasing port already being used. (There is an option to
356      disable this for debugging) (cjm)
357    - Sockets will be allocated in cases where there might be
358      port interference with the host machine.  This can be disabled
359      in cases where the ppp host will be acting purely as a
360      masquerading router and not generate any traffic of its own.
361      (cjm)
362
363Version 2.0: March, 1997 (cjm)
364    - Incoming packets which are not recognised by the packet
365      aliasing engine are now completely dropped in ip.c.
366    - Aliasing links are cleared when a host interface address
367      changes (due to re-dial and dynamic address allocation).
368    - PacketAliasPermanentLink() API added.
369    - Option for only aliasing private, unregistered IP addresses
370      added.
371    - Substantial rework to the aliasing lookup engine.
372
373Version 2.1: May, 1997 (cjm)
374    - Continuing rework to the aliasing lookup engine to support
375      multiple incoming addresses and static NAT.
376    - Now supports outgoing as well as incoming ICMP error messages/
377    - PPP commands to support address and port redirection.
378
379