ts3init Linux netfilter module

A Linux netfilter module to help filter ts3init floods on TeamSpeak 3 servers

TeamSpeak 3 servers are a popular (D)Dos target. They are harder to protect than other servers because the TeamSpeak 3 protocol is based on UDP. A popular method, that is hard to combat by hosters are called init floods. This is where the attacker sends many connection request to the server, usually spoofing the source address to make it harder to block them. The TeamSpeak 3 protocol has an anti spoof check as the first stage of the connection, but the server program can not keep up with the flood of packets.

This set of plugins is designed to let the Linux kernel, or rather netfilter, handle the anti spoofing stages of a new TeamSpeak 3 connection.

How to install

make
sudo make install
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe xt_ts3init

Protocol background and module description

When a TeamSpeak 3 client attempts to connect to a TeamSpeak 3 server, it sends out a get cookie packet. The server then replies with a set cookie packet. This packet has some secret information about the connection details. The client then response with a get puzzle packet. This packet includes the cookie that it got previously. The server now validates this cookie and if its correct continues with the rest of the connection packets.

This software packages comes with two netfilter match extensions, and three netfilter target extensions which we will discuss next. Combined these extensions and some other netfilter modules, can handle the initial connection phase for a TeamSpeak 3 server. This prevents that any packet, with a spoofed source ip address, to reach the TeamSpeak 3 server.

Match extensions

ts3init_get_cookie

Matches if the packet in question is a valid TeamSpeak 3 get cookie packet from the client. There are additional parameters that can be set:

$ iptables -m ts3init_get_cookie -h
<..>
ts3init_get_cookie match options:
  --min-client n                The client needs to be at least version n.
  --check-time sec              Check packet send time request.
                                May be off by sec seconds.

• min-client checks that the client version in the packet is at least the version specified.
• check-time compares the UTC timestamp in the client packet to the UTC time on the server. If they differ too much, the packet is not matched.

ts3init_get_puzzle

Matches if the packet in question is a valid TeamSpeak 3 get puzzle packet from the client. There are additional parameters that can be set:

$ iptables -m ts3init_get_puzzle -h
<..>
ts3init_get_puzzle match options:
  --min-client n               The sending client needs to be at least version.
  --check-cookie               Check that the cookie was generated by same seed.
  --random-seed <seed>         Seed is a 60 byte hex number.
                               A source could be /dev/random.
  --random-seed-file <file>    Read the seed from a file.

• min-client checks that the client version in the packet is at least the version specified.
• check-cookie matches if it matches the cookie that was generated in the netfilter target extension TS3INIT_SET_COOKIE. To match the seed needs to be exactly the same of course. It is possible to check cookies that were generated on a different machine, provided that those machines have the same date and time, and the same seed specified. In other words: The cookie is created in a deterministic way, depending only on the current time and the seed. If check-cookie is specified, either random-seed or random-seed-file need to be specified too.

Target extensions

TS3INIT_RESET

This target drops the packet and sends a reset packet back to the sender. The sender should always be the TeamSpeak 3 client. Starting with the TeamSpeak 3.1 client, the client will react to the reset packet by resending the get cookie to the server. Older clients do not handle this packet. It takes no parameters.

How to use

The idea for which these extensions were developed was to create a few iptables rules that do the anti spoofing phase for a TeamSpeak server. This can be done as follows:

• [recommended] Disable connection tracking with the help of raw table
• Create ipset: ts3_authorized with a timeout of 30 seconds
• If a source ip address is in the ipset ts3_authorized, renew the entry in the set to update the timeout then accept the packet.
• Use ts3init_get_cookie matches to get connection requests and reply with TS3INIT_SET_COOKIE.
• Use ts3init_get_puzzle matches to get the cookie replies from the client. If they match, add the source ip address to the ts3_authorizing ipset and then reply with TS3INIT_RESET
• Drop all other packets

It is even possible to make a more detailed firewall. Perhaps connection tracking could be used instead of ipset.

Example iptables setup