FireWall-1 FAQ: NAT and Encryption
Please note: This content was from when I was operating my FireWall-1 FAQ site, which I stopped operating in August 2005. For some reason people still have links to this stuff on the Internet that people are still clicking on.
I am making this information available again AS IS. Given how old this information is, it is likely wildly inaccurate. I have no plans to update this information.
If you're still running versions of Check Point VPN-1/FireWall-1 where this information is still relevant to you, do yourself a favor and upgrade to a more recent release. If you happen to be running a current release and the information is useful, it's by happenstance :)
Q:
What sort of thing do I need to look out for on system that use both encryption and address translation? For example, let say I have the following network:
netA --- (le0) firewallA (le1) -- internet --- (le0) firewallB (le1) -- netB netA is illegal: 10.1.1.0 le0: is 10.1.1.1 le1: is 192.91.18.1 netB is legal: 195.8.5.0 le0: 195.8.1.1 le1: 195.8.5.1
on firewallA: address translation
- static: 10.1.1.2 <-> 192.91.18.2
- hide: 10.1.1.3 to 10.1.1.255 -> 192.91.18.3
A:
Encryption Domain
On firewallA, encryption domain for firewallA needs to have both:
- illegal addresses: network 10.1.1.0,
- and legal addresses: network 192.91.18.0
On firewallB, the encryption domain for firewallA needs to have only the the legal address 192.91.18.0.
Encryption Rule
On firewallA, you should have two rules:
10.1.1.0 195.8.5.0 Encrypt Long Gateways 195.8.5.0 192.91.18.0 Encrypt Long Gateways
As with any kind of address translation, the inspection module see the packets as the originator of the connection sees it. So for the first rule takes care of outgoing connection and the second rule takes care of incoming connection.
On firewallB, you also need two rules:
192.91.18.0 195.8.5.0 Encrypt Long Gateways 195.8.5.0 192.91.18.0 Encrypt Long GatewaysNotes that firewallB only knows about legal adresses.
A General Commment
In general, for a connection from A on netA to B on netB:- packets are encrypted by firewallA
- address is translated by firewallA
-
packets are decrypted by firewallB
- returned packets are encrypted by firewallB
- returned packets' address is translated by firewallA
- returned packets are decrypted by firewallA
