topic

Mr Ekshin · Post by **Mr Ekshin** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:55 pm

There's a kind of industrial firewall that we use at our place of bidness. It's called a Sonicwall. We manage them for our customers as well as use one in the shop.

The boss recently decided to implement their content filtering service. He wanted to see just how restrictive it might be for general web browsing.

Of course, it sucks because it's restricted what we can surf in the shop. I can't even check out newgrounds any more, relegating me to having to actually do work around the place.

I can't check out "Ghastly's Ghastly comic" either. It's restricted due to "adult/mature content". I thought that was kinda interresting. You're sorta infamous I guess.

It makes me wonder how they compose such lists.

I mean, do they hire someone to surf for adult content all day long, and keep track of any sites that they discover?

Just thought you would find it amusing. You're on Sonicwall's block list. Did you get a memo from them?

Sadly, there are entire office complexes out there that will never know the fun.

Peas.

ManaUser · Post by **ManaUser** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:08 am

Those lists are mostly computer generated, I expect. They have automated web surfers (much like Google) only these are set to look for "naughty words" and such. Another website I frequent, snopes.com, which is devoted to urban legends, was blacklisted for a while because they had a link on their main page titled sex (for urban legends about sex, of course). They re-titled it "Risqu? Business" and now they're not blocked any more.

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:31 am

I don't know how Sonicwall does it specifically, but Cisco uses automated webspiders to search out specific key words in a websites meta tags, or in the text of the page itself. They also back this up with a human group of 5-8 people who surf the web all day, checking their results.

Now, if you want to get around the Sonicwall, you can do a couple of things.

One, if you have access, create an exception list for your specific IP address.

If you don't have access, get a cheap 4 port hub and place it between the firewall and your outside internet connection. Run a second network connection from the new hub to your main switch. In every computer that you want full internet access, use the actual IP of the internet router as your default gateway, and leave the sonicwall as the default gateway for all the other machines.

Finally,if none of the above work, hunt down a public SOCKS proxy box, or set up a FreeNet node on a PC.

Swordsman3003 · Post by **Swordsman3003** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:45 am

Ah, the practical uses of networking knowledge. Squiddy, did you just come up with that, or know it from experiance?

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:53 am

I'm a network engineer and security specialist Sword, its my job to know how to get around firewalls so that I can prevent other people from doing it.

Swordsman3003 · Post by **Swordsman3003** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:44 am

Everytime I learn more about you, I learn that you are more awesome that I thought. What would you do to stop someone from doing what you just said?

FreedomsPaladin · Post by **FreedomsPaladin** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:27 pm

squidflakes wrote:I'm a network engineer and security specialist Sword, its my job to know how to get around firewalls so that I can prevent other people from doing it.

While teaching people how to do it on your days off... Heh, you rock. Kinda like how I taught a girl I knew in middle school how to get a free yahoo e-mail address so her dad couldn't keep reading all of her e-mail. Except, of course, that your version of thwarting paternalistic security systems is about five thousand times cooler.

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:15 pm

swordsman3003 wrote:Everytime I learn more about you, I learn that you are more awesome that I thought. What would you do to stop someone from doing what you just said?

Well thank you Sword! That made my day.
As to your question...

Break their fucking fingers.

Seriously though, you password protect your firewalls with strong passwords that get changed on a regular basis. You physically secure the area where your networking equipment is stored to prevent reconnection/physical tampering. You also run SNMP sweeps internally agaisnt a previously generated list of known MAC addresses (devices that you know are supposed to be there) and set up alarms if anything new gets added to the network.

Case in point, three weeks ago I found someone had added a small wireless router to my network without my permission. They plugged it in to one of the office network jacks in their office, and were blissfully walking around the office with their laptop and bragging about wireless freedom or some such non-sense. I called the IT director in Chicago and let him know that one of the users had brought illegal equipment in to the office, and I was going to deal with it.

I waited until the user left his office on another brag session, then I walked in, unplugged the router, found the guy trying to demonstrate his wireless connection to a couple of the floor traders, dropped the router at his feet, then beat the shit out of the router with my LART ([L]user Attitude Readjustment Tool). I then picked up the carcass and said something to the effect of "Don't ever plug anything in to my network again." I think I used the word fucking somewhere in that sentence, but I don't remember.

After that, I took a picture of myself with the LART, holding up the carcass and put it on the company intranet with this note:

A Word of Advice From Your Friendly Neighborhood Systems Administrator
Wireless routers are a security risk, kindly leave them at home.
This message brought to you by The Employee Handbook, Section 7, Paragraph 3, Sentence 5.
"No outside computer equipment is to be added to any corporate network without written permission from your supervisor, the local network administrator, and the regional Director of IT."

I'll see if I can post the pic tomorrow. I've got the volume where the picture is stored offline for backup at the moment.

Gengar003 · Post by **Gengar003** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:54 pm

... I hope I grow up to be at least half as cool as half the people on these forums....

HoneyNClover · Post by **HoneyNClover** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:46 pm

Squidflakes, I dare say that last post was more than a bit arousing

HentaiCat · Post by **HentaiCat** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:22 pm

It makes me wonder how they compose such lists.

I mean, do they hire someone to surf for adult content all day long, and keep track of any sites that they discover?

Hell, now THAT would be a nice job! (Not much deferent from what I do now anyways)

Putaro · Post by **Putaro** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:46 pm

Just a word of advice to the impressionable here - following squiddy's recipe may not just get you humiliated by the network admin. In many companies you will find all of your belongings dumped into a box and yourself marched to the door - that is if you're lucky and they don't try to pin some kind of hacking charges on you.

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:54 pm

Yea, I really should have prefaced that with a word of warning. Cracking gets you fired, and you read what I did when I found something out of place on my network. Proceede with caution.

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:55 pm

HoneyNClover wrote:Squidflakes, I dare say that last post was more than a bit arousing

Awww, someone likes geek porn.

Swordsman3003 · Post by **Swordsman3003** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:57 pm

You are the master, mister squidflakes. Are you really allowed to beat the shit out of people's stuff? And do you like calling it "Your" network? And, BTW, I have walked past buildings where companies have wireless routers.

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:24 pm

It is MY network Sword. I built it, I maintain it, I run it. I know it from top to bottom, back to front, side to side. I know every host, server, router, firewall, hub, switch, MAC address, route, ACL, static, SNMP trap, IP, twist, bend, fold, and 538 B. MY NETWORK.

As for beating the shit out of the guys router.. eh, probably not the brightest thing I've ever done, but it got the point across. I bought him a new one with the stipulation that I never see it ever again.

There are several offices in my building with wireless networks. I've had talks with some of their sys admins, but to no avail. Fortunately for them, I don't have the time or energy to act on my baser impulses.

Adam Selene · Post by **Adam Selene** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:36 pm

Fuck...My got fired for bypassing the firewall so he could email me something he needed for an...extremely important research paper once.

Zero-tolerance sucks. Asked first.

Sidenote: You know every MAC address? Now THAT's talent. Good thing you know every static or things could get out of hand!

School is much more fun, I've been banned from touching any HISD computer twice. They installed an every worthless Fortres CleanSlate yesterday, tomorrow I will have great fun finding creative ways to bypass and or disable parts of it.

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:56 pm

Adam Selene wrote:Sidenote: You know every MAC address?

Well, I've got the prefixes for several of the manufacturers memorized, and all the really important devices I've got down. If I don't remember.. I have this handy chart..

Good thing you know every static or things could get out of hand!

static is a command on a PIX firewall that maps an IP/port or both on any one interface to an IP/port or both on any other interface.

Yea, there is no content filtering system that can't be gotten around. Some just take more work than others. The ones HISD uses are a joke.
You still trapped in the ISD of hell?

HoneyNClover · Post by **HoneyNClover** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:01 pm

squidflakes wrote:
HoneyNClover wrote:Squidflakes, I dare say that last post was more than a bit arousing

Awww, someone likes geek porn.

*blush* well..."Don't ever plug anything in to my network again." and router-smashing...it's like reading geek domination porn ^^.

"That's right my little slave, your master wants you to count as he spanks you!"

"01...ahh!...10...ahhh!...11...." etc...

Squidflakes · Post by **Squidflakes** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:06 pm

HoneyNClover wrote: "That's right my little slave, your master wants you to count as he spanks you!"

"01...ahh!...10...ahhh!...11...." etc...

Now do it in hex slave! ;P