Nat & ssh problem

spazio

config:
PFsense is the border router that the modem is hook to.
1 if wan dynamic ip
1 if lan 192.x.x.x
1 hub/switch no vlan on the lan if

I need to ssh one server on the lan side 192.168.0.10
I followed http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/How_can_I_forward_ports_with_pfSense%3F

Firewall: NAT: Port Forward
WAN TCP 22 (SSH) 192.168.0.10 (ext.: any) 22 (SSH) port forward ssh

FIREWALL RULE
TCP * * 192.168.0.10 22 (SSH) *

And since it didn't work when on to

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Port_Forward_Troubleshooting
And tested every point there but still not working
also check and make shure that "Disable NAT Reflection" box is not check

On the lan side i can log in ssh 192.168.0.10 from another pc
Externaly on the wan side I get
server#ssh: connect to host ip.dydns.com port 22: Connection timed out

Here is the log from pfsense firewall log showing that the packet is going tru:

block Mar 16 16:02:06 NG0 91.124.173.106:32511 72.0.201.191:20692 UDP
pass Mar 16 16:02:05 NG0 74.33.67.91:39415 192.168.0.10:22 TCP:S
block Mar 16 16:02:04 NG0 81.67.164.10:63621 72.0.201.191:63490 UDP

After that i capture the packet with ethereal on the lan side. Nothing is showing on the lan side, that packet is nowhere to be found.

So the nat seem to work up until the pfsense router and stops there, I must be doing something wrong, any thoughts?

thanks in advance
spazio

danswartz

Is the LAN subnet 192.168.0.0/24? If not, this is more complicated. If it is, are you sure the ssh server has a default route pointing at the pfsense?

spazio

Yes, the lan config is 192.168.0.1/24

And yes the ssh server has a default route, here is the config:
root@server:~# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default pfsense.box 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 eth0

I also tested it with 2 other ssh server i have on the lan segment and got the same time out from the external.

danswartz

Hmmm, can you post interface info, nat and rules?

spazio

The wan
pppoe with isp and is always connected
FTP Helper disable
Block private networks enable
Block bogon networks enable

The lan
IP configuration
Bridge with none
IP address 192.168.0.1 / 24
FTP Helper enable

NAT:
If Proto Ext. port range NAT IP Int. port range Description
WAN TCP 22 (SSH) 192.168.0.10 ssh server
(ext.: interface ip) 22 (SSH)

Rules:WAN
Proto Source Port Destination Port Gateway Schedule Description
* RFC 1918 networks * * * * * Block private
* Reserved * * * * * Block bogon
TCP * * 192.168.0.10 22 (SSH) * * ssh server

Rules:LAN
Proto Source Port Destination Port Gateway Schedule Description
* LAN net * * * * Default LAN -> any

Everything is pretty much iso. There is nothing special about the network.

danswartz

Odd, looks okay, as far as I can see. Curious, if you change the port number (on the outside) to some non-standard port (a good idea anyway) like 2222, does it work?

spazio

This is weird, just tested with port 2500 and here is the raw firewall log entry:

Mar 17 09:22:52 pf: 586569 rule 71/0(match): block in on ng0: (tos 0x0, ttl 59, id 2421, offset 0, flags [DF], proto TCP (6), length 60) 72.55.39.133.38982 > 74.10.205.142.22: S, cksum 0x5057 (correct), 1651357223:1651357223(0) win 5840 <mss 2="" 3328663370="" 1366,sackok,timestamp="" 0,nop,wscale="">The default deny rule apply and the packet is rejected here it is:
@71 block drop in log quick all label "Default deny rule"</mss>

danswartz

did you change the rule too, or just the nat entry? note that the rule applies to the post-nat, so that would stay port 22.

spazio

First i deleted the nat and rule on port 22 and then created a new nat on port 2500 that created automaticly the rule.

danswartz

it shouldn't have blocked it then :(

thafener

Spazio,

Did you find a solution for this meanwhile as I have the same problem with NAT over here.
I have solved it once in a absolutely strange way. I have delted all FW and NAT rules, made
a backup of the box and made a fresh install. Then I have created the rules manually again.
Then I have made the rules created by NAT the first ones and it worked for some 10 days
but it has stopped working again. :-[

cheers thafener

spazio

Nop, still have the same problem and it gets worst. I took another machine, did a completly new install from dist cd and the same problem occurs. The default deny rule block everything. I can't even get the packet to go tru once in a while like my other network.

Here is my understanding of the problem, the packet are discarded on a first come first served. It like if the default deny rule is the first, the packet is discarted so the other added rule do not apply.

This is weird, nat is usually pretty much strait forward, is there somebody that does technical incident call service?

danswartz

can you post your /tmp/rules.debug?

thafener

hi danswartz

here's mine as a example… renamed it to rules.txt

Thx thafener

rules.txt

danswartz

In a couple of places, you have rules saying {tcp udp} for a tcp service - get rid of the udp it just confuses things. Also, your post refers to 192.168.0.10, but the rules are referencing 192.168.1.2 - is this an error, or did you change the IPs and not post that? Anyway, this all looks correct - the only thing I can see as a possible issue (that might explain the inbound SSH request not getting through and not being blocked by PF) is snort. I have stopped using snort myself, due to false positives that resulted in good hosts being blacklisted. Could that be it?

thafener

Hi danswartz

Sorry I did not mean to confuse you, it was not the logfile of the threat starter but I have
exactly the same problem, I cannot access 192.168.1.2 in the LAN segment and found no lasting
solution so far.
Well I am not using snort but I will check the rest

Thx thafener

danswartz

Oh, sigh. This is confusing. I hadn't noticed I was dealing with two different posters :( So, thafener, when you try to connect to ssh from outside, is it blocked by the default rule or it just goes nowhere?

thafener

Sorry for all that mess danswartz I do not think that the ssh packages are blocked by the default rule as I can see
them pass in the firewall log but I cannot connect to the ssh host which is possible of course from the LAN side.
It is really confusing that I already "solved" this by making the SSH NAT rule the first one and it has been working
fine for a while but unfortunately the problem occured again.
I have a second PFsense system running in a different location and here it is the same with natting FTP.
I cannot access both boxes from here but I'' get back to this with a little more detailed log output tomorrow morning.

cheers thafener

thafener

Ok here's some output and some screenshots of this phenomenon…first of
all a packet capture of the WAN interface on Port 22...

08:09:08.760774 IP 217.71.243.136.1651 > 83.79.5.14.22: tcp 0
08:09:11.726431 IP 217.71.243.136.1651 > 83.79.5.14.22: tcp 0
08:09:17.742044 IP 217.71.243.136.1651 > 83.79.5.14.22: tcp 0

Please find the screenshots of the NAT rule and the Log viewer attached
below…

danswartz

Are you absolutely 100% positive there is no trace of the connection on LAN side? Can you run a capture there too?

thafener

I have made a captore in full detail but could not find packets on port 22 for host 192.168.1.2 :-\

danswartz

Can you capture anything at all on the LAN side involving 192.168.1.2 or port 22 (e.g. two captures.)

thafener

I have scanned but only the capture for 192.168.1.2 produced output, sadly not for Port 22.
There is no traffic on port 22 coming through the box though it should according to the setup…

capture_host.txt

danswartz

If you try a connect (which hangs I assume, waiting for the SYN to be replied to), what shows up in the pfsense state table?

thafener

Yes there is something showing up in the state table, I was have used the host I am connecting from as a filter… see screenshot

danswartz

Hmmm, this is odd. Is it possible to do a capture on the ssh server itself? I am not sure I trust the capture on the pfsense.

thafener

Well I used wireshark on the target host running Ubuntu and there were no SSH packages from the Pfsense box to the target host.

danswartz

okay, thanks. boy, is that weird. question: i assume this doesn't work at all? if correct, does a reboot of the pfsense bring it back? also, do you have sshd enabled on the pfsense? if so, does disabling it "fix" this (i am not recommending that as a fix, just trying to isolate things.)

thafener

Yes man that's weird. Two weeks ago I had exactly the same problem and after doing everything from the book
and the troubleshooting guide I deleted all Firewall and NAT rules, made a backup without package info and reinstalled
the box from the scratch.
Then I reinstalled the packages (squid and lightsquid and the dashboard) and created the NAT rule for SSH first and
all others after and it has been working for a little more that a week.
I just noticed the high number of very similar NAT problems discussed in this Forum….really strange

thafener

Hi @ll

Here we go again, re-installed the whole box from the scratch, re-created the Nat rule as the only
existing one and I have exactly the same problems with the same outputs as before.
Tried NATting VNC (5900) too but no joy…. would any one of you guys give 2.0 a chance or
is there any other possible solution for this ?

Thx thafener

thafener

No clue anyone ? Might this problem be hardware-related ? I am running PF on a
Intel Atom 330 (D945GCLF2) using the onboard NIC (Realtek 8xxxx, might use much
memory but Ok…) and a 3Com 3C905C as the second NIC. Next to this the system
has 2 GByte RAM and a 160 GByte HDD.....

Found nothing problematic about this hardware combination in the compatibility lists
but maybe any one of you knows more....

spazio

Follow up:

It seem that the whole problem happend if captive portal is enable, basically the nat just doesnt work. It looks like the captive portal doesn't undestand or just block the nat.

If anybody found a solution or has details for nat with captive portal enable, please share?
Next step, will try with a dmz.

thafener

Spazio,

Thanks a lot for your reply… the cp is a hint, I did not consider having a look at this
side so far.
Does it mean you disabled the cp and it was working again ? Can you confirm this ?

However if you make a new install from the scratch it works again as it is the same
with a lot of PFSense issues from my side.
Some functions stop working without reason or without prior configuration changes
and it is impossible to find a logical reason.
However it is good for us that the functions of PFSense allow a fast install and restore
which can be done in some 20 minutes...

Thx thafener

spazio

yep, by disabling captive portal everything comes back to normal and nat is working again. Tried it with a new install without cp and it work.

For me the problem came from enabling captive portal.

This is a deal breaker still. There must be a way to have nat and cp enable and working at the same time

Efonnes

Is the system with the SSH server logged into the captive portal or configured in the pass-through MAC or allowed IPs of the captive portal? If not, it needs at least one of those. There is currently no way to selectively let certain traffic through the captive portal block on certain ports.

spazio

The ssh server is allowed in the pass tru mac. I also tried with a port 80 web server and it's the same. I can see the firewall let the packet tru in the log but it stop there.

thafener

Good morning

Exactly the same over here. The SSH server has a entry in the pass-through-list and well it
worked fine for a while until it stoppe working suddenly without prior changes in the
environment.
Like Spazio I can see the packets on Port 22 passing the firewall, but it seems they don't.

cheers thafener

thafener

Hi @ll

Done the following today :

Deleted all FW Rules from the problematic box and made a backup without package info.

Used the backup to set up a box with nearly the same hardware config (Atom 330 and
so on) and just with a Linksys NIC instead of a 3Com.

Re-created the NAT for SSH and it does not work no matter if the CP is enabled or not…

cheers Thafener

scorpii

Hi all,

I have the exact same problem with my psSense. Just thought I'd drop in and say that disabling CP solved the problem with NAT for me as well. Thanks Spazio for that hint.
And I agree that there must be a way to have both NAT and CP working at the same time. But in the end, right now I'd rather have NAT than CP…

My symptoms are the same. NAT seems to be working and the firewall log says that the traffic is let through. Using tcpdump on the WAN interface I can see the packages. Using tcpdump on the LAN interface, nada. Using Wireshark on the SSH-server host, no packages there either. But, disabling CP all is fine.

thafener

Hi @ll

I was able to reproduce this too meanwhile. I agree that both features should be working
at the same time as the CP is a really brilliant feature
Does anybody know if the developers are working on this ?

cheers thafener