Linux: Log Suspicious Martian Packets / Un-routable Source Addresses

1. 10.0.0.0/8
2. 100.64.0.0/10
3. 172.16.0.0/12
4. 192.0.0.0/24
5. 192.168.0.0/16
6. 127.0.0.0/8
7. 224.0.0.0/4
8. 240.0.0.0/4
9. ::/128
10. ::/96
11. ::1/128

See “Reserved IP addresses” for more info.

Linux: Log Suspicious Martian Packets

On the public Internet, such a packet’s (Martian) source address is either spoofed, and it cannot originate as claimed, or the packet cannot be delivered. Both IPv4 and IPv6, martian packets have a source or destination addresses within special-use ranges as per RFC 6890.

What is the usefulness of logging of martians packets

As I said earlier a martian packet is a packet with a source address that cannot be routed over the public Internet. Such a packet is waste of resources on your server. Often martian and unroutable packet used for a dangerous purpose or DoS/DDOS your server. So you must drop bad martian packet earlier and log into your server for further inspection.

How can I log Martian packets on Linux?

You need to use sysctl command command to view or set Linux kernel variables that can logs packets with un-routable source addresses to the kernel log file such as /var/log/messages.

See current settings

Type the following sysctl command with sudo command or run it as root user:
# sysctl -a| grep martians
$ sudo sysctl -a| grep martians
Sample outputs:

Fig. 01: Find out if suspicious packets are logged or not on Linux

Value 0 indicates that the suspicious martian packets are not logged on the system.

How do I log suspicious martian packets on Linux?

You need to set the following variables to 1 in /etc/sysctl.conf file:

• net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians
• net.ipv4.conf.default.log_martians

Edit file /etc/sysctl.conf, enter:
# vi /etc/sysctl.conf
Append/edit as follows:

net.ipv4.conf.all.log_martians=1 
net.ipv4.conf.default.log_martians=1

Save and close the file. To load changes, type:
# sysctl -p

How can I modify active kernel parameters on command line?

Alternatively, you can toggle active kernel parameters using the following bash for loop syntax:

## Grab all Linux kernel vars in $x ##
x=$(sysctl -a| grep martians | awk '{ print $1}')
## Just display it on screen ##
echo "$x"
 
## Alright, toggle all vars to 1 or 0 as per your requirements ##
for i in $x
do
   /sbin/sysctl -w ${i}=1
done
 
## Verify settings ##
sysctl -a| grep martians

Sample outputs:

Fig.02: Bash for loop to log suspicious packets

How can I see logged suspicious martian packets logs on Linux?

Use the grep command as follows:

cd /var/log
grep -i --color martian messages*

Sample outputs:

messages-20120101:Dec 31 09:25:45 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.106.25, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 09:25:53 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.106.25, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 09:26:10 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.106.25, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 14:04:12 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.1.97.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 14:04:14 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.1.97.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 14:04:18 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.1.97.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 14:04:22 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.1.97.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 14:04:26 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.1.97.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 14:04:34 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.1.97.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Dec 31 14:04:50 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.1.97.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:01:59 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:02:00 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:02:02 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:02:06 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:02:10 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:02:14 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:02:22 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1
messages-20120101:Jan  1 00:02:38 nixcraft-router kernel: martian source 74.xx.47.yy from 10.13.105.141, on dev eth1

How do I block martian packets using firewall?

See how to use iptables to block spoofing and bad address attack that tries to fool the server and try to claim that packets had come from local address/network.

Log and drop packets with suspicious source addresses

## eth1 is wan port on server ##
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j LOG --log-prefix "IP DROP SPOOF A: "
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 172.16.0.0/12 -j LOG --log-prefix "IP DROP SPOOF B: "
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 192.168.0.0/16 -j LOG --log-prefix "IP DROP SPOOF C: "
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 224.0.0.0/4 -j LOG --log-prefix "IP DROP MULTICAST D: "
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 240.0.0.0/5 -j LOG --log-prefix "IP DROP SPOOF E: "
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j LOG --log-prefix "IP DROP LOOPBACK: "
 
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 172.16.0.0/12 -j DROP
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 192.168.0.0/16 -j DROP
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 224.0.0.0/4 -j DROP
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -s 240.0.0.0/5 -j DROP
/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth1 -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
 
/sbin/iptables-save > /root/my-iptables.rules

Conclusion

You just learned how to block and log suspicious martian packets on Linux operating systems. For more info see the following pages:

• Linux Kernel /etc/sysctl.conf Security Hardening
• martian – A packet sent on a TCP/IP network with a source address of the test loopback interface [127.0.0.1]. This means that it will come back labeled with a source address that is clearly not of this earth. “The domain server is getting lots of packets from Mars. Does that gateway have a martian filter?”