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Server sends tons of SYN ACK packets in answer to a single SYN packet

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Hi. looking at suspicious traffic I found that a lab Windows Domain Controller with DNS enabled was sending, in a single second, over 100 SYN,ACK packets in response to a single SYN packet. The SYN packet was sent by a workstation joined to the server's domain.

The SYN,ACK packet's data part cannot be read in clear text, but It looks like there are only two variations of this packet. A quick inspection shows that variation_1 and variation_2 are being sent in a round-robin fashion. In all SYN,ACK packets the destination port is the same (59092), Seq=0, Ack=1, Win=8192, Len=0. This is not a covert channel, unless using some form of morse code. And I have a hard time believing that a lab DC would DoS a workstation in this fashion.

Any hint would be appreciated.

asked 03 Jan '14, 20:54

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Marcus
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can you provide a trace? If the data is sensitive you could use TraceWrangler to sanitize it before posting it on CloudShark.

(04 Jan '14, 06:35) Jasper ♦♦

"The SYN,ACK packet's data part cannot be read in clear text ... In all SYN,ACK packets the destination port is the same (59092), Seq=0, Ack=1, Win=8192, Len=0 ."

With a len=0 how can there be data with a syn_ack packet? Is the ip.ttl always the same?

(05 Jan '14, 04:55) mrEEde

variation_1 and variation_2 are being sent in a round-robin fashion.

do you mind to tell us the difference between the two variations?

BTW: if you are no longer interested in solving/discussing the problem, we might want to close the question.

(12 Jan '14, 14:58) Kurt Knochner ♦