Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Strange logs on pfSense - most probably somebody has found a way to hack partially the box

    General pfSense Questions
    8
    22
    1.6k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • M
      michmoor LAYER 8 Rebel Alliance @stephenw10
      last edited by

      @stephenw10 Dont know how/where this pfsense is placed in the path but clearly there is a port open for management.
      Its not hacking if the port is open for the Internet.

      Firewall: NetGate,Palo Alto-VM,Juniper SRX
      Routing: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
      Switching: Juniper, Arista, Cisco
      Wireless: Unifi, Aruba IAP
      JNCIP,CCNP Enterprise

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        That looks like a remote IP so the webgui is open via some unintentional rule.

        It's probably just a config error though rather than some attack. Those logs show generic access attempts.

        Steve

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • A
          albgen
          last edited by

          That is for sure a security problem.
          The client IP is not known. There is no rule that allows traffic from wan to the pfsense.

          Let me ask a different question. From the lan side, how can i trigger a log that?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M
            mvikman
            last edited by

            https://www.showmyip.com/ip-whois-lookup/?fields=66846719&ip=62.204.41.186

            Looks like it's an Russian IP address, so if you're not in Russia...

            pfSense Plus 24.11-RELEASE (amd64)
            Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF
            Core i5-6500, 8GB RAM, 2x 240GB SSD (ZFS Mirror)
            HPE 561T (X540-AT2), 2-port 10Gb RJ45
            HPE 562SFP+ (X710-DA2), 2-port 10Gb SFP+

            A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • A
              albgen @mvikman
              last edited by

              @mvikman said in Strange logs on pfSense - most probably somebody has found a way to hack partially the box:

              https://www.showmyip.com/ip-whois-lookup/?fields=66846719&ip=62.204.41.186

              Looks like it's an Russian IP address, so if you're not in Russia...

              of course i'm not in Russia and i have nothing to do with a Russian IP.
              My Server is in Finland, Helsinki
              https://www.showmyip.com/ip-whois-lookup/?fields=66846719&ip=65.109.35.164

              provelsP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • provelsP
                provels @albgen
                last edited by provels

                @albgen I can web to 65.109.35.164 8989 from lovely Illinois, USA. If you need to manage your FW remotely, setup VPN or just manage it locally from the LAN side.

                Peder

                MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
                BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

                A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • A
                  albgen @provels
                  last edited by

                  @provels said in Strange logs on pfSense - most probably somebody has found a way to hack partially the box:

                  65.109.35.164 8989

                  No idea why is accessible. there is no such rule that allows it...
                  could it be because i have the config like this:
                  internet---A>Server-B>VMpfSense->LAN

                  The public IP address is at point A and B is a private IP Address

                  but in any case, those logs are strange. I cannot trigger them

                  provelsP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • PippinP
                    Pippin
                    last edited by

                    Still no rules posted.....
                    ....

                    I gloomily came to the ironic conclusion that if you take a highly intelligent person and give them the best possible, elite education, then you will most likely wind up with an academic who is completely impervious to reality.
                    Halton Arp

                    A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • A
                      albgen @Pippin
                      last edited by

                      @pippin said in Strange logs on pfSense - most probably somebody has found a way to hack partially the box:

                      Still no rules posted.....

                      d1008ebd-e962-4373-93b5-a8231495cf64-image.png
                      cee2372a-3772-4a6d-aa2f-8779d5c220e0-image.png
                      89a27690-38fb-4f89-a4b1-1c67d1fe0487-image.png

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • provelsP
                        provels @albgen
                        last edited by

                        @albgen Not exactly sure what Server B is, but Internet should go to WAN side of pfSense, then pfSense to LAN. LAN would include the host the PFSense VM is runnng on.

                        Peder

                        MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
                        BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

                        A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • A
                          albgen @provels
                          last edited by

                          @provels said in Strange logs on pfSense - most probably somebody has found a way to hack partially the box:

                          Not exactly sure what Server B is, but Internet should go to WAN side of pfSense, then pfSense to LAN. LAN would include the host the PFSense VM is runnng on.

                          A and B are just point i have inserted to make you understand what kind of IP Addresses are setup...

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            You have a rule allowing all TCP traffic on WAN. That's passing it.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • C
                              Cylosoft
                              last edited by Cylosoft

                              Looks like you have an allow all rule. Lots of traffic on it also. 5 GB.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • A
                                albgen
                                last edited by

                                yes, correct. the allow all rule was actually allowing everything :)

                                but the question remains: how have they triggered those kind of logs?

                                C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • C
                                  Cylosoft @albgen
                                  last edited by

                                  @albgen said in Strange logs on pfSense - most probably somebody has found a way to hack partially the box:

                                  yes, correct. the allow all rule was actually allowing everything :)

                                  but the question remains: how have they triggered those kind of logs?

                                  Bots or hackers just checking what you have going on. Given time they'd try a lot more things.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Because the webgui on the WAN interface was open to the internet.

                                    You can see the requests they were making were all failing because the pages don't exist in pfSense. And even if they guessed an existing page they would not have been able to access it without logging in. But you should never open the webgui to public access.

                                    A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • A
                                      albgen @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10 said in Strange logs on pfSense - most probably somebody has found a way to hack partially the box:

                                      Because the webgui on the WAN interface was open to the internet.

                                      You can see the requests they were making were all failing because the pages don't exist in pfSense. And even if they guessed an existing page they would not have been able to access it without logging in. But you should never open the webgui to public access.

                                      Sure, it was unintentional. Most probably testing something and the rule was enabled.

                                      The point is the message logged. I have seen those kind of messages only on bugged wordpress php plugins so that's why i openend this discussion.

                                      No idea what kind of requests they have made to trigger it. Tomorrow will check the config of nginx on pfsense if i can see better what is logged.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • stephenw10S
                                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                        last edited by stephenw10

                                        Those logs are expected if you open the webgui to random connection attempts. It's not an indication of any sort of compromise.

                                        You can test it yourself, just try to access some page before you login and you will see those logs:

                                        Apr 5 22:02:16 	nginx 		2023/04/05 22:02:16 [error] 47504#100318: *72304 open() "/usr/local/www/somenonexistentpage.htm" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 172.21.16.8, server: , request: "GET /somenonexistentpage.htm HTTP/2.0", host: "4100.stevew.lan" 
                                        
                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                        • First post
                                          Last post
                                        Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.