oddball syslog entries ....

[William A. Mahaffey III]

On 10/08/14 02:22, Arthur Chance wrote:
> On 08/10/2014 04:01, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:
>>
>>
>> Over the last couple of days I am seeing some odd (to me) entries in my
>> messages file:
>>
>>
> [irrelevance snipped]
>> Oct  5 11:30:22 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 276 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  5 11:30:24 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 239 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  5 11:30:25 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 280 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  5 11:30:26 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 319 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 10:41:25 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 276 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 10:41:26 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 239 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 10:41:27 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 280 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 10:41:29 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 319 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 14:59:41 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 253 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 14:59:42 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 233 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 14:59:44 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 265 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 14:59:45 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 295 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 14:59:47 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 324 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 15:03:18 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 253 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 15:03:20 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 233 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 15:03:21 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 265 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 15:03:22 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 295 to 200 packets/sec
>> Oct  7 15:03:24 kabini1 kernel: Limiting closed port RST response from
>> 324 to 200 packets/sec
>>
>> The stuff from Oct 2 is irrelevant, included for completeness/context.
>> The lines about 'Limiting closed port ....' are puzzling to me. Where
>> are they coming from ? Problem or chatter ? Enquiring minds wanna know
>> ;-) .... TIA for any clues ....
>>
>>
>
> I occasionally get this on a machine that sits squarely behind a 
> locked down pfSense firewall. If you want to see what's causing it,
>
>     sysctl net.inet.tcp.log_in_vain=1
>
> (put into your /etc/sysctl.conf if you want it to last over reboots.) 
> This will show you where the packet came from and which port on your 
> machine was the target.
>
> In my case it seemed to be a mix of DNS responses from the outside 
> world that arrived too late and a local long running Firefox 
> occasionally pounding on the indent port (113) for no good reason I 
> ever discovered.
>
> Nothing seems particularly dubious, unless the DNS responses were 
> attempted spoofs, but my ISP is one of the better UK ones and I'd 
> expect them to mitigate such attacks.
>
>

Thanks, that seems quite simple, I'm on it now :-) ....

-- 

	William A. Mahaffey III

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

	"The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war
	 ever devised by man."
                            -- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.