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    Numerous ET SCAN Potential SSH Scan OUTBOUND alerts. Is Pfsense infected?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved IDS/IPS
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    • L
      lambro690
      last edited by

      @boobletins Thank you for your response.

      I ended up reinstalling after I tried the packet capture as @bmeeks suggested.

      It seems like the firewall was compromised. This is weird because it started happening after the recent update. Not sure if it is related or not.

      After the reinstall, I powered on my servers one by one and no alerts were triggered so I think we are good. I will continue to monitor it and report back if I see anything.

      Thanks again guys!

      Gigabyte J1900N-D3V with on board Celeron - 4gb Ram - 250gb HDD - 1U Rack mount Case

      bmeeksB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • bmeeksB
        bmeeks @lambro690
        last edited by

        @lambro690 said in Numerous ET SCAN Potential SSH Scan OUTBOUND alerts. Is Pfsense infected?:

        @boobletins Thank you for your response.

        I ended up reinstalling after I tried the packet capture as @bmeeks suggested.

        It seems like the firewall was compromised. This is weird because it started happening after the recent update. Not sure if it is related or not.

        After the reinstall, I powered on my servers one by one and no alerts were triggered so I think we are good. I will continue to monitor it and report back if I see anything.

        Thanks again guys!

        A compromised firewall would be of great concern to me! If it were me, I would want to figure out how and what compromised my firewall.

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        • B
          boobletins
          last edited by

          Indeed. Logs, pcaps, or a disk image would have been interesting.

          It would also be interesting to know how you reinstalled (not worried about rootkits? efi/bios resident malware?).

          After re-install, did you put the same config back in and just modify the password?

          All kinds of interesting questions... thread had 10/10 potential :)

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          • L
            lambro690 @boobletins
            last edited by

            @boobletins @bmeeks

            It would have been nice to see but I just wanted my internet back under control :)

            All good questions! Yes same config, new LastPass random password this time.

            I am a Linux admin at work so I know a few things, although not everything :p

            I reinstalled after booting up an Ubuntu instance and running chkrootkit. Not sure how effective it'll be but I made an attempt. I then formatted the drive (it was ZFS) and I have moved back to UFS.

            I installed fresh, restored backup, changed password and then sat there for about 30 mins watching the Suricata alerts just to make sure.

            Then I powered all severs/desktops back up one by one just to be sure it did not spread to them.

            Not 100% trusting just yet.

            Gigabyte J1900N-D3V with on board Celeron - 4gb Ram - 250gb HDD - 1U Rack mount Case

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            • chromefinchC
              chromefinch
              last edited by

              I'm getting the same thing, Seems to be crawling through the IP's. Really worrisome as I host a site for my wife's Co.
              Has the rebuild fixed it? Are you sure you still have the alert enabled?

              Member of the 'emerging scan rules':
              SID 2003068
              https://docs.emergingthreats.net/bin/view/Main/2003068

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              • B
                boobletins
                last edited by

                How many times per minute are you seeing this? You're sure it isn't a result of you attempting to make an ssh connection 5 times in a 2 minute window?

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                • B
                  boobletins
                  last edited by

                  Also, could you paste the output from the command line sockstat | grep ":22"

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                  • chromefinchC
                    chromefinch
                    last edited by

                    0_1546637981852_Screen Shot 2019-01-04 at 4.39.08 PM.png

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                    • chromefinchC
                      chromefinch
                      last edited by

                      @boobletins said in Numerous ET SCAN Potential SSH Scan OUTBOUND alerts. Is Pfsense infected?:

                      sockstat | grep ":22"

                      Thanks for the quick response, here is what the command yielded, what am I looking at?
                      ? ? ? ? tcp4 192.168.2.1:20356 192.168.2.23:22
                      ? ? ? ? tcp4 192.168.1.8:54310 192.168.1.24:22
                      ? ? ? ? tcp4 192.168.1.8:54312 192.168.1.24:22

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                      • B
                        boobletins
                        last edited by boobletins

                        Those question marks are in the original output? And you're running that from the pfSense command line?

                        The command should be showing you which process has open sockets on port 22. We're hoping whatever process is scanning will show up there to try to get an indication of what is going on.

                        chromefinchC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • chromefinchC
                          chromefinch @boobletins
                          last edited by

                          @boobletins 0_1546638255655_Screen Shot 2019-01-04 at 4.44.05 PM.png

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                          • B
                            boobletins
                            last edited by

                            Can you check chat for me? It will be faster.

                            chromefinchC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • B
                              boobletins
                              last edited by

                              chromefinch had previously had ntop-ng installed but only recently re-enabled suricata.

                              sockstat | grep ":22" output from the ui did not generate helpful output.

                              He re-enabled ssh access for himself and sockstat | grep ":22" generated output similar to below:

                              root ntopng 15017 45 tcp4 x.x.x.x:33912 57.151.10.72:22
                              

                              ntop was likely scanning what it thought was an internal network for sshd servers (though I have no experience with ntop on pfsense) -- he's following up in the ntop forums.

                              lambro690 -- I wonder if you had something similar going on?

                              L 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                              • chromefinchC
                                chromefinch @boobletins
                                last edited by

                                @boobletins Thanks for your help!!!! I disabled the ntop wan interface and No more alerts!

                                bmeeksB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • bmeeksB
                                  bmeeks @chromefinch
                                  last edited by

                                  @chromefinch said in Numerous ET SCAN Potential SSH Scan OUTBOUND alerts. Is Pfsense infected?:

                                  @boobletins Thanks for your help!!!! I disabled the ntop wan interface and No more alerts!

                                  So your firewall was infected -- but with ntop instead of a trojan ... ☺ . (Just kidding).

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                                  • L
                                    lambro690 @boobletins
                                    last edited by

                                    @boobletins Yup lol I sure did have ntop installed. Must have been a bug with the package because I haven't gotten anything since the reinstall. Now I will know what to look out for!

                                    Great work guys. That makes me feel a little bit better about my security :p

                                    Gigabyte J1900N-D3V with on board Celeron - 4gb Ram - 250gb HDD - 1U Rack mount Case

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                                    • S
                                      smokers
                                      last edited by

                                      I'm having same issue with ntop .. .. seems to try ip's like 0.106.219.157...
                                      installed, reinstalled several times. ... anyone might know what is the issue?

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                                      • NyarlathotepN
                                        Nyarlathotep
                                        last edited by

                                        This post is deleted!
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                                        • ontzuevanhussenO
                                          ontzuevanhussen @lambro690
                                          last edited by

                                          @lambro690 Same like me, but I prepared to protect my firewall with pivate and public key, and limit access to my firewall with SSHd Key Only > Public Key Only.

                                          2f010b5d-a271-4826-8107-5d2a960adba6-image.png

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                                          • Z
                                            zimnysbrain
                                            last edited by zimnysbrain

                                            I have the same problem and even more dangerous behavior from pF after latest ntop update. Even my avahi demon send mdns externally!
                                            I'm on the latest pF 2.5 btw.

                                            I found this is due ntop bag and resolved by turning off hosts discovery in ntop itself.
                                            If you are affected is easy to check after ntop update by visiting ntop host details page where you will see a lot of errors.

                                            I also added all my local networks under the ntop settings in pF.

                                            This stop pF from crazy behavior with this snort allert, mdns and also fixed host details page in ntop itself.

                                            I think this ntop bug affecting only folks with WAN enabled under ntop setting in pF but didn't check that.

                                            Annoying thing is that after rebooting your pF you need go to ntop setting page in pf and just clink save all settings again.

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