Can't access 3100 appliance
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Hi @cdsJerry , Internet is functioning otherwise though? On a mailing list I'm on someone posted these two messages several weeks ago:
"Anyone experiencing issues logging into a pfsense router this morning. We had 18 routers start this last night. The only thing that stops working is logging into the console, and openvpn users logging in with local or LDAP accounts. Everything else is working including site to site vpns. After a reboot you can log in for about 15 mins and then the problem returns. We are working with Netgate and are trying something they suggested...."
and
"We found the fix. The router has to be rebooted and you have 15 min to login before the console locks up again, enable SSH and then connect with Putty and run this command: pkg upgrade -f pfSense-repo"We didn't experience this problem on any pfSense I've logged into, in the past few weeks, so I'm not sure what was different about their setup. But if it sounds the same as your issue this may be a fix.
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@teamits Yes, the Internet is working fine otherwise. The only symptom I have now is that I can't connect to the GUI. I did a reboot a couple of time but can't log in even after the update. I tried to do the update from console (which worked earlier) but now that's not working either.
I tried your suggestion. After entering the command it responds with "Updating pfsense-core repository catalog... and then just sits there. I had to throw and interrupt at it to get a prompt back (and then I rebooted again).
However there must be some truth to it. Once it rebooted I've been able to get into the GUI normally. Everything looks good, at least for now. The only thing is, I'm still connecting to the GUI from OUTSIDE of the pfSense protection network. Just as soon as I move inside the pfSense protection... I lose access to the GUI again. It's as if pfSense is blocking its own traffic.
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@cdsJerry said in Can't access 3100 appliance - hacked:
It's as if pfSense is blocking its own traffic.
It can...it will do what it's told. Check System/Advanced, that "Disable webConfigurator anti-lockout rule" is not checked, and/or add firewall rules allowing traffic to pfsense:443 on that interfce.
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@teamits The check box isn't checked. And scrolling down a bit further I see my network IP is also listed on the Whitelist under "Login Protection". The radio button at the top is set to https. Is the system not smart enough to open 443 when that's selected? It shouldn't really matter because 443 is open for access to the servers anyway.
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@cdsJerry ... and lost access again. <sigh> This thing was running for a couple of months with no problem and now it won't run for more than a few min. It's frustrating, especially since we know it didn't stop someone yesterday. Without the GUI up we don't even have a way to monitor it.
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@cdsJerry The anti lockout rule does add firewall rules on LAN to allow access. Disabling it (checking the box) removes them.
From SSH can you restart webConfigurator and/or PHP and gain access? -
The problem description sounds either like it's churning on something badly using all the available cpu cycles. Perhaps a flapping link or something stuck in a loop. Try running
top -aSHat the console.Or it's a bad route or subnet conflict or something similar.
Check the routing tablenetstat -rn4.
Check the system logs for reported IP conflicts or any other errorsclog /var/log/system.log.Steve
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@stephenw10 This morning I can't log into the GUI even from outside. And when I try to connect via SSH it tells me my password is invalid. I did a copy/paste from my password manager software. I'm using the correct password.
top -aSH from the console shows the unit idle 98% of the time. The other items that show up all look correct. I watched it for a while and nothing seemed out of place.
netstat -rn4 showed
default the IP as my gateway IP
The DNS IP
The Network ip/28
The pfSense IP
The local IP
Nothing more (I'm in pass-through mode)The clog command set off a long list and I didn't know how to stop the scroll but when it finished I rolled back up the list. There were a ton of entries telling me I need to read the license file.
There was also a line 12cache0: cannot allocate IRQ not using interrupt
And another line etc/rc.d/hostid Warning unable to figure out a uuid from DMI data, generating new one -
@cdsJerry said in Can't access 3100 appliance - hacked:
This morning I can't log into the GUI even from outside. And when I try to connect via SSH it tells me my password is invalid. I did a copy/paste from my password manager software. I'm using the correct password.
Do you mean by "... can't log into the GUI even from outside." that you have the firewall GUI available on the WAN port? If you do, and you don't have a VPN in place, then almost certainly your system could have been severely compromised.
Take the firewall out of service for a moment, restore to factory defaults and then import your last known good backup. Do all this initially connected with just the serial console cable.
Next, plug a laptop or a local PC directly into the LAN port, give the PC an IP address within the LAN port subnet (if necessary), and see if you can login. Things may be very slow because the GUI will be trying to contact the pfSense update servers to check for the latest firmware. Even still, this will let you verify your passwords are good.
Once in, then connect the WAN connection and see how things go from there.
Your description really sounds like a badly hosed configuration. And are you sure that someone has not put another device on the network that has the IP address of the firewall? That could cause the issues you are seeing.
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@bmeeks said in Can't access 3100 appliance - hacked:
Do all this initially connected with just the serial console cable.
My pfSense is configured in pass-through mode. The GUI has to sit on the public IP as there is no LAN IP in pass through mode. The configuration was done with Netgate support so I'm pretty confident it was configured correctly and that's the backup I've been restoring to. There are multiple WAN IPs that pass through the system on their way to various servers. There is a second firewall between the public IPs and our internal network so this first pfSense unit is just limiting and cleaning traffic that's headed for the servers. Again, I'm pretty confident in it's configuration. I can't explain it's recent behavior unless and update changed something.
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@cdsJerry Do you have antivirus in place to prevent keyloggers and such being installed on your public servers? Connections to the FTP from an inside computer normally not expected I would also find concerning. At one time we found a repository of German DVD rips on our main (inside) file server because of a lousy password policy on some test accounts (not admin/admin, but just as bad) accessed through our Citrix web access. Maybe someone got a phishing email or brought in a compromised flash drive. In my experience I've found the simply baffling problems generally caused by malware. I might first check with your users who have the auth to manage your virtual environment. Sounds like an admin's creds got out.
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@provels We do run antivirus as well as malware and other detection software. I re-ran everything manually and didn't find anything.
Indeed some of the FTP accounts use some pretty lousy passwords but at the same time they're limited to single directories which are usually emptied as we complete jobs. I checked every directory on the server (that took a while) and they are all empty. Actually I went a step further and shut down the FTP server. We find it's not used much any more since there are so many file-share services from Google, Dropbox, etc. and people understand them better than FTP. I think it's been months since someone actually used FTP to send us files, so I shut it down.
I'm always amazed that people have FTP servers out there where a folder had both read and write permissions with public access. They're just waiting to become porn storage.
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@cdsJerry said in Can't access 3100 appliance - hacked:
@bmeeks said in Can't access 3100 appliance - hacked:
Do all this initially connected with just the serial console cable.
My pfSense is configured in pass-through mode. The GUI has to sit on the public IP as there is no LAN IP in pass through mode. The configuration was done with Netgate support so I'm pretty confident it was configured correctly and that's the backup I've been restoring to.
It might be time to pay Netgate Support again and open a case directly with them. Might take some effort to provide them some method of remote access to the firewall appliance itself. Maybe use one of the available Windows remote desktop web platforms to give Netgate Support access to a Windows PC where the SG-3100 is connected to it locally via the console cable.
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@bmeeks I know how to give them direct access, well, when anyone has access, which seems to be for only a while after a reboot. It's all about the money at this point as our business is selling CDs, DVDs, SD cards, and USB drives. The CD/DVD side just isn't the hot ticket it once was so the purse strings are incredibly tight.
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if you have the WAN and LAN bridged and only a public IP on the firewall you will, as you say, have to use that IP to access it but that doesn't mean it needs to be open to the internet. You can still set firewall rules to restrict access to the webgui or ssh to internal clients or known external IPs only.
Steve
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@stephenw10 I agree with the firewall to restrict access to the GUI, and I think my rules are already set for exactly that. But my current problem is that I can't access the GUI myself so I can't get in to even verify that. And if it wasn't set, why would I have access for 15 or so min. after the reboot? I didn't have this issue before the reload so the settings shouldn't have changed.
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15mins is suspiciously like an ARP timeout. Maybe you have some IP conflict and something else is responding to ARP when it times out breaking your connection.
If you are inadvertently connecting to something else that might explain why your password seems to stop working.
The SSH key would be different though, the SSH client should warn you about that when you try to connect.If you restart php and the webgui at the console (menu options 16+11) do you get connectivity back?
Steve
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@stephenw10 I haven't connected since Friday but when I went to it today, it connected just fine. I've been logged on for over 30 min. now. I can move around all the menus and options normally. It loads fast. I can make changes.
However, if I make a change and hit save it stalls out saying it's sending request. But if I then click off to another menu and come back, the change has been saved. And I can't access the Dashboard at all. It just says Waiting for xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx... but never loads. Not sure if this is related to the same issue or if this should be a new thread.
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@stephenw10 I left it trying to load that page and came back later. The page had loaded at some point so I went off of that page to another page then back to the Dashboard. It's still trying to load the Dashboard again.
I also see it loaded a new version about 45 min. ago.
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That sounds more like a general connectivity issue. When you go to the dashboard depending on which widgets you have there, it reaches out to check several things on the internet, the firmware update check for example.
If it cannot connect to those they have to timeout. The dash will be much slower to load in that situation than other pages.
If you have ACB configured then it tries to save a backup everytime you make any chnage to the firewall and that can be a problem if there is no connectivity.
Make sure all your configured DNS servers are responding in Diag > DNS Lookup.
Make sure it can ping out in Diag > Ping.Steve
