1 Copyright (c) 2001 Charles Mott <cm@linktel.net>
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25 $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/ppp/README.nat,v 1.4.4.4 2002/09/01 02:12:22 brian Exp $
26 $DragonFly: src/usr.sbin/ppp/README.nat,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:30:00 dillon Exp $
28 User PPP NAT (Packet Aliasing)
35 3. New commands in ppp
37 5. Authors / Acknowledgements
38 6. Revision History for Aliasing Code
44 User mode ppp has embedded NAT (Network Address Translation) code.
45 Enabling this, either by the "-nat" command line option or the
46 "nat enable yes" command in a ppp.conf file, makes the ppp host
47 automatically NAT IP packets forwarded from a local network, making
48 them appear to come from the ppp host machine. Incoming packets
49 from the outside world are then appropriately de-NAT'd.
51 The process of NAT'ing involves both the IP address and the TCP or UDP
52 port numbers. ICMP echo and timestamp packets are natted by their id
53 numbers. ICMP error messages can be properly directed by examining the
54 fragment of the offending packet which is contained in the body of the
57 This software was specifically meant to support users who have
58 unregistered, private address IP networks (e.g. 192.168.0.x or 10.0.0.x
59 addresses). The ppp host can act as a gateway for these networks, and
60 computers on the local area net will have some degree of Internet access
61 without the need for a registered IP address. Additionally, there will
62 be no need for an Internet service provider to maintain routing tables
63 for the local area network.
65 A disadvantage of NAT is that machines on the local network,
66 behind the ppp host, are not visible from the outside world. They can
67 establish TCP connections and make UDP inquiries (such as domain name
68 service requests) but the connections seem to come from the ppp host
69 itself. There is, in effect, a partial firewall. Of course, if this is
70 what you want, the disadvantage becomes an advantage.
72 A second disadvantage is that "IP encoding" protocols, which send IP
73 address or port information within the data stream, are not supported
74 for the cases where exception code exists. This implementation has
75 workarounds for FTP and IRC DCC, the most well known of the IP encoding
76 protocols. This frees users from depending on using the ftp passive
77 mode and avoiding IRC DCC sends, as is sometimes the case with other
78 masquerading solutions.
80 The implementation supports all standard, non-encoding TCP and UDP protocols.
81 Examples of these protocols are http, gopher and telnet. The standard UDP
82 mode of Real-Audio is not presently supported, but the TCP mode does work
85 The NAT code also handles many ICMP messages. In particular,
86 ping and traceroute are supported.
90 2. Packet Aliasing Setup
92 It is recommended that users first verify correct ppp operation without
93 NAT enabled. This will confirm that the ppp.conf file is
94 properly set up and that there are no ppp problems. Then start ppp with
95 the "-nat" option on the command line. The user should verify that
96 the ppp host can correctly connect to the Internet in NAT
97 mode. Finally, check that machines on the private network can access
100 The NAT software handles all packets, whether they come from
101 the host or another computer on the local area network. Thus, a correctly
102 operating ppp host indicates that the software should work properly for
103 other computers on the private network.
105 If the ppp host can access the Internet, but other computers on the local
106 network cannot, check that IP forwarding is enabled on the ppp host. Also,
107 verify that the other computers use this machine as a gateway. Of course,
108 you should also verify that machines within the local area network
109 communicate properly. A common error is inconsistent subnet addresses
114 3. New commands in ppp
116 In order to control NAT behaviour in a simple manner (no need for
117 recompilation), a new command has been added to ppp: nat. This
118 is in addition to the -nat command line option. System managers and
119 more experienced users may prefer to use the ppp command syntax
120 within the ppp.conf file. The nat command also allows NAT
121 behaviour to be more precisely specified.
123 The decision to add a command instead of extending 'set' or 'option' was
124 to make obvious that these options only work when NAT is enabled.
126 The syntax for 'nat' is
128 ppp> nat option [yes|no]
130 where option is given by one of the following templates.
133 - nat enable [yes|no] (default no)
135 Enable NAT functionality. If disabled, no other NAT
136 options will have any effect. You should usually enable NAT
137 before routing any packets over the link; good points are in the
138 initial script or right before adding a route. If you do not always
139 want NAT, consider using the -nat option to ppp instead of this
143 - nat deny_incoming [yes|no] (default yes)
145 Set to "yes" to disable all incoming connections. This just drops
146 connections to, for example, ftp, telnet or web servers. The NAT
147 mechanism prevents these connections. Technically, this option denies
148 all incoming TCP and UDP requests, making the NAT software a
149 fairly efficient one-way firewall. The default is no, which will allow
150 all incoming connections to telnetd, ftpd, etc.
155 Controls logging of NAT link creation to "/var/log/alias.log" - this
156 is usually only useful if debugging a setup, to see if the bug is in
157 the PPP NATing. The debugging information is fairly limited, listing
158 the number of NAT links open for different protocols.
161 - nat same_ports [yes|no] (default yes)
163 When a connection is being established going through the NAT
164 routines, it will normally have its port number changed to allow the
165 NAT code to track it. If same_ports is enabled, the NAT
166 software attempts to keep the connection's source port unchanged.
167 This will allow rsh, RPC and other specialised protocols to work
168 _most of the time_, at least on the host machine. Please, do not
169 report this being unstable as a bug - it is a result of the way
170 NAT has to work. TCP/IP was intended to have one IP address
174 - nat use_sockets [yes|no] (default yes)
176 This is a fairly obscure option. For the most part, the NAT
177 software does not have to allocate system sockets when it chooses a
178 NAT port number. Under very specific circumstances, FTP data
179 connections (which don't know the remote port number, though it is
180 usually 20) and IRC DCC send (which doesn't know either the address or
181 the port from which the connection will come), there can potentially be
182 some interference with an open server socket having the same port number
183 on the ppp host machine. This possibility for interference only exists
184 until the TCP connection has been acknowledged on both sides. The safe
185 option is yes, though fewer system resources are consumed by specifying
189 - nat unregistered_only [yes|no] (default no)
191 NAT normally remaps all packets coming from the local area
192 network to the ppp host machine address. Set this option to only map
193 addresses from the following standard ranges for private, unregistered
196 10.0.0.0 -> 10.255.255.255
197 172.16.0.0 -> 172.31.255.255
198 192.168.0.0 -> 192.168.255.255 */
200 In the instance that there is a subnet of public addresses and another
201 subnet of private addresses being routed by the ppp host, then only the
202 packets on the private subnet will be NAT'd.
205 - nat port <proto> <local addr>:<port> <nat port>
207 This command allows incoming traffic to <nat port> on the host
208 machine to be redirected to a specific machine and port on the
209 local area network. One example of this would be:
211 nat port tcp 192.168.0.4:telnet 8066
213 All traffic to port 8066 of the ppp host would then be sent to
214 the telnet port (23) of machine 192.168.0.4. Port numbers
215 can either be designated numerically or by symbolic names
216 listed in /etc/services. Similarly, addresses can be either
217 in dotted quad notation or in /etc/hosts.
220 - nat addr <local addr> <public addr>
222 This command allows traffic for a public IP address to be
223 redirected to a machine on the local network. This function
224 is known as "static NAT". An address assignment of 0 refers
225 to the default address of the ppp host. Normally static
226 NAT is useful if your ISP has allocated a small block of
227 IP addresses to the user, but it can even be used in the
228 case of a single, dynamically allocated IP address:
232 The above command would redirect all incoming traffic to
235 If several address NATs specify the same public address
238 nat addr 192.168.0.2 public_addr
239 nat addr 192.168.0.3 public_addr
240 nat addr 192.168.0.4 public_addr
242 then incoming traffic will be directed to the last
243 translated local address (192.168.0.4), but outgoing
244 traffic to the first two addresses will still be NAT'd
245 to the specified public address.
251 What is called NAT here has been variously called masquerading, packet
252 aliasing and transparent proxying by others. It is an extremely useful
253 function to many users, but it is also necessarily imperfect. The
254 occasional IP-encoding protocols always need workarounds (hacks).
255 Users who are interested in supporting new IP-encoding protocols
256 can follow the examples of alias_ftp.c and alias_irc.c.
258 ICMP error messages are currently handled only in the incoming direction.
259 A handler needs to be added to correctly NAT outgoing error messages.
261 IRC and FTP exception handling make reasonable, though not strictly correct
262 assumptions, about how IP encoded messages will appear in the control
263 stream. Programmers may wish to consider how to make this process more
266 The NAT engine (alias.c, alias_db.c, alias_ftp.c, alias_irc.c
267 and alias_util.c) runs in user space, and is intended to be both portable
268 and reusable for interfaces other than ppp. To access the basic engine
269 only requires four simple function calls (initialisation, communication of
270 host address, outgoing NAT and incoming de-NATing).
274 5. Authors / Acknowledgements
276 Charles Mott (cm@linktel.net) <versions 1.0 - 1.8, 2.0, 2.1>
277 Eivind Eklund (perhaps@yes.no) <versions 1.8b - 1.9, new ppp commands>
279 Listed below, in chronological order, are individuals who have provided
280 valuable comments and/or debugging assistance.
294 6. Revision History for Aliasing Code
296 Version 1.0: August 11, 1996 (cjm)
298 Version 1.1: August 20, 1996 (cjm)
299 PPP host accepts incoming connections for ports 0 to 1023.
301 Version 1.2: September 7, 1996 (cjm)
302 Fragment handling error in alias_db.c corrected.
304 Version 1.3: September 15, 1996 (cjm)
305 - Generalised mechanism for handling incoming connections
306 (no more 0 to 1023 restriction).
307 - Increased ICMP support (will handle traceroute now).
308 - Improved TCP close connection logic.
310 Version 1.4: September 16, 1996
311 Can't remember (this version only lasted a day -- cjm).
313 Version 1.5: September 17, 1996 (cjm)
314 Corrected error in handling incoming UDP packets
317 Version 1.6: September 18, 1996
318 Simplified ICMP data storage. Will now handle
319 tracert from Win95 as well as FreeBSD traceroute.
321 Version 1.7: January 9, 1997 (cjm)
322 - Reduced malloc() activity for ICMP echo and
324 - Added handling for out-of-order IP fragments.
325 - Switched to differential checksum computation
326 for IP headers (TCP, UDP and ICMP checksums
327 were already differential).
328 - Accepts FTP data connections from other than
329 port 20. This allows one ftp connections
330 from two hosts which are both running packet
333 Version 1.8: January 14, 1997 (cjm)
334 - Fixed data type error in function StartPoint()
335 in alias_db.c (this bug did not exist before v1.7)
337 Version 1.8b: January 16, 1997 (Eivind Eklund <perhaps@yes.no>)
338 - Upgraded base PPP version to be the source code from
339 FreeBSD 2.1.6, with additional security patches. This
340 version should still be possible to run on 2.1.5, though -
341 I've run it with a 2.1.5 kernel without problems.
342 (Update done with the permission of cjm)
344 Version 1.9: February 1, 1997 (Eivind Eklund <perhaps@yes.no>)
345 - Added support for IRC DCC (ee)
346 - Changed the aliasing routines to use ANSI style throughout -
347 minor API changes for integration with other programs than PPP (ee)
348 - Changed the build process, making all options switchable
349 from the Makefile (ee)
350 - Fixed minor security hole in alias_ftp.c for other applications
351 of the aliasing software. Hole could _not_ manifest in
352 PPP+pktAlias, but could potentially manifest in other
353 applications of the aliasing. (ee)
354 - Connections initiated from packet aliasing host machine will
355 not have their port number aliased unless it conflicts with
356 an aliasing port already being used. (There is an option to
357 disable this for debugging) (cjm)
358 - Sockets will be allocated in cases where there might be
359 port interference with the host machine. This can be disabled
360 in cases where the ppp host will be acting purely as a
361 masquerading router and not generate any traffic of its own.
364 Version 2.0: March, 1997 (cjm)
365 - Incoming packets which are not recognised by the packet
366 aliasing engine are now completely dropped in ip.c.
367 - Aliasing links are cleared when a host interface address
368 changes (due to re-dial and dynamic address allocation).
369 - PacketAliasPermanentLink() API added.
370 - Option for only aliasing private, unregistered IP addresses
372 - Substantial rework to the aliasing lookup engine.
374 Version 2.1: May, 1997 (cjm)
375 - Continuing rework to the aliasing lookup engine to support
376 multiple incoming addresses and static NAT.
377 - Now supports outgoing as well as incoming ICMP error messages/
378 - PPP commands to support address and port redirection.