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Security Best Practice: PPTP Protocol Enforcement

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Check Point Reference: SBP-2006-17
Date Published:
Severity:
Source: SmartDefense Research Center
Protection Provided by: Security Gateway
  • R70
VPN-1
  • NGX R65
VSX
  • NGX R65
Who is Vulnerable?
Products that implement the PPTP protocol
Vulnerability Description
The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is a method for implementing virtual private networks. PPTP uses a control channel over TCP and a GRE tunnel operating to encapsulate PPP packets.
Vulnerability Details
PPTP has been the subject of many security analyses and serious security vulnerabilities have been found in the protocol. The known vulnerabilities relate to the underlying PPP authentication protocols used, the design of the MPPE protocol as well as the integration between MPPE and PPP authentication for session key establishment.

Protection Overview
This protection enforces the PPTP protocol. PPTP sessions are forced to comply with the RFC standard including message type, and packet length. In case the PPTP control connection unexpectedly terminates, the GRE tunnel will be terminated automatically. In addition, enabling this protection will allow Hide NAT as well as Static NAT to be performed on PPTP connections.

To configure the defense, select your product from the list below and follow the related protection steps.

Security Gateway R70

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the IPS tab, click Protections > By Protocol > Application Intelligence > VPN Protocols.
2. In the right pane, double-click the Non Compliant PPTP protection.
3. In the Protection Details window, click on Edit. Choose the protection's Action (Override IPS Policy with: Prevent/Detect), and apply Additional Settings.
4. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

Attack Name: Malformed PPTP Message
Attack Information: Malformed PPTP message was detected

VPN-1 NGX R65 & VPN-1 VSX NGX R65

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the SmartDefense tab, click Application Intelligence > VPN Protocols > PPTP Enforcement.
2. In the configuration pane, under Settings > Mode, check Active.
3. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

Attack Name: Malformed PPTP Message
Attack Information: Malformed PPTP message was detected