Skip to main content

networking - Block ARP requests (or broadcast message, if possible) from A SPECIFIC HOST in a subnet


My ISP provide username-password for authentication and also register the client's MAC address for authentication.


I am concerned about someone misusing my connection while I am not using it. Usernames are easy to guess (clients can't change usernames, only passwords can be changed) and if anyone finds MAC address and password, they can use my connection.


Now, the ISP don't use private VLAN, so MAC addresses are easy to get. A simple ARP broadcast requests from a host within my subnet will reveal my MAC and I am not relying on password because the authentication page doesn't use HTTPS. So, my passwords are sent in plain text.


In this scenario, I want to block/drop/reject ARP request (or any broadcast requests) from any host within my subnet but the gateway.


I have looked this question and this question but the OP tried to block all ARP requests. Of course, this is a bad idea because then I won't get any internet traffic from the gateway. I just want to block ARP request (if possible any broadcast request) from any random host in my subnet, but only allow broadcast/ARP from my gateway.


I am using OpenWrt in my wireless router. So, I think Linux solutions will work and if possible, please also provide Windows solution.



Answer



I have achieved this requirement in 2 ways on Linux devices. I am still looking for ways to achieve this on Windows devices.



  1. By entering a static ARP entry for my gateway and then disabling ARP.

  2. Using arptable


First Method


ip neighbor add 172.xx.xxx.1 lladdr 84:xx:xx:xx:xx:80 nud permanent dev eth0

The above command needs ip-full package on OpenWrt systems. eth0 is my WAN interface. If there is already an entry for the gateway, use:


ip neighbor replace 172.xx.xxx.1 lladdr 84:xx:xx:xx:xx:80 nud permanent dev eth0

Now disable ARP. Use any one of the commands.


ip link set dev eth0 arp off
ifconfig eth0 -arp

To re-enable later, use:


ip link set dev eth0 arp on
ifconfig eth0 arp

Second Method


This one is using arptables package. First, I have allowed my gateway. Then I have also allowed ARP in my LAN (br-lan interface) and finally blocked all other ARP


arptables -A INPUT -s 172.xx.xxx.1 -j ACCEPT
arptables -A INPUT -i br-lan -j ACCEPT
arptables -P INPUT DROP

Comments

Popular Posts

Use Google instead of Bing with Windows 10 search

I want to use Google Chrome and Google search instead of Bing when I search in Windows 10. Google Chrome is launched when I click on web, but it's Bing search. (My default search engine on Google and Edge is http://www.google.com ) I haven't found how to configure that. Someone can help me ? Answer There is no way to change the default in Cortana itself but you can redirect it in Chrome. You said that it opens the results in the Chrome browser but it used Bing search right? There's a Chrome extension now that will redirect Bing to Google, DuckDuckGo, or Yahoo , whichever you prefer. More information on that in the second link.

linux - Using an index to make grep faster?

I find myself grepping the same codebase over and over. While it works great, each command takes about 10 seconds, so I am thinking about ways to make it faster. So can grep use some sort of index? I understand an index probably won't help for complicated regexps, but I use mostly very simple patters. Does an indexer exist for this case? EDIT: I know about ctags and the like, but I would like to do full-text search. Answer what about cscope , does this match your shoes? Allows searching code for: all references to a symbol global definitions functions called by a function functions calling a function text string regular expression pattern a file files including a file

How do I transmit a single hexadecimal value serial data in PuTTY using an Alt code?

I am trying to sent a specific hexadecimal value across a serial COM port using PuTTY. Specifically, I want to send the hex codes 9C, B6, FC, and 8B. I have looked up the Alt codes for these and they are 156, 182, 252, and 139 respectively. However, whenever I input the Alt codes, a preceding hex value of C2 is sent before 9C, B6, and 8B so the values that are sent are C2 9C, C2 B6, and C2 8B. The value for FC is changed to C3 FC. Why are these values being placed before the hex value and why is FC being changed altogether? To me, it seems like there is a problem internally converting the Alt code to hex. Is there a way to directly input hex values without using Alt codes in PuTTY? Answer What you're seeing is just ordinary text character set conversion. As far as PuTTY is concerned, you are typing (and reading) text , not raw binary data, therefore it has to convert the text to bytes in whatever configured character set before sending it over the wire. In other words, when y

networking - Windows 10, can ping other PC but cannot access shared folders! What gives?

I have a computer running Windows 7 that shares a Git repo on drive D. Let's call this PC " win7 ". This repo is the origin of a project that we push to and pull from. The network is a wireless network. One PC on this network is running on Windows 10. Let's call this PC " win10 ". Win10 can ping every other PC on the network including win7 . Win7 can ping win10 . Win7 can access all shared files on win10 . Neither of the PCs have passwords. Problem : Win10 cannot access any shared files on win7 , not from Explorer, nor from Git Bash or any other Git management system (E-Git on Eclipse or Visual Studio). So, win10 cannot pull/push. Every other PC on the network can access win7 shared files and push/pull to/from the shared Git origin. What's wrong with Windows 10? I have tried these: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings\ File sharing is on, Discovery is on, Password protected sharing is off Adapte