PING ATTACK!!!!

[Steelhorse]

Hey all!!! I have been learning a lot more here than just Air-brushing!!!! I am running a MAC G5...safari browser. I have firefox, but it is an old version and will be getting the updated version.

Here's the ?....I know that Mac's are not targeted the way that PC's are, but I got protection software anyway....I have my "Net-Barrier" set stronger than recommended, and it does slow me down some, but I can deal with that!! I got PINGED the other day...protection software stopped it and I have the IP stopped in my anti-vandal portion of the barrier. The tracer portion traced it back to an IP in California....kinda cool being able to see all this, but what do I do with the IP info that I got...even though it is forever blocked from attacking me again??? And what was the "PING-ATTACK" try to do besides trying to gain access, if that was the case, to my MAC...???? Dave...Denise..Steven...BlindDog 99, and anyone else that may have info that will educate me!!!! All advice here is and will be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!!!! Steel

[blinddog 99]

Back many years ago, when I stayed up all night and learned a lot of internet stuff, I used to Ping Flood my friends sometimes as a joke, and they did the same. A Ping Flood can't typically access your computer, it just "jams your outgoing and incoming traffic".

Probably just a kid fooling around, but log the IP and see if it happens again. I have gottent the occasional Ping Attack as well, always random, never re-occurred.

Here is the standard defense as offered in Wikipedia:To reduce the effects of a ping flood, a victim can use a firewall to filter the incoming ICMP Echo Request packets. This allows the computer to refuse sending ICMP Echo Reply packets which produces two benefits.
Less bandwidth is wasted by not answering these packets.
It is more difficult for the attacker to measure the effectiveness of the attack.
However, such a filter will also prevent the measuring of latency from legitimate users which may be undesirable. A compromise solution may be to only filter large ICMP Echo Request packets.
Note that one cannot trust the source IP address to be the address of which the packets are originating from since it can be spoofed to make it appear as if it is coming from another address. Each packet can also be spoofed to contain a randomly generated address.

[bigwater]

Most likely it was just a script kiddie lookie for potential targets. A ping in and of itself is not a threat, but if your system responds to a ping, it lets somebodyknow a) that you exist, and b) that you aren't taking precautions to remain invisible on the internet. To them it means that your system may be vulnerable, so at this point you would be on a "short list" for potential victims.

All a ping does is ask your system if it exists. Your system configuration determines whether or not it will even respond to a ping. The term ping comes from sonar technology, where a ship would "ping" the bottom to see how deep the water is or whether there were any objects around.

The fact that you are running a mac makes it highly unlikely that any hacker tools would have any success in taking over your system, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Your IP was probably just one in a string of thousands of IPs that got pinged around the same time. The fact that your security software picked up the ping probably means that it did *not* respond to the ping, so the hacker doesn't even know your IP exists.

As far as what to do with it? Nothing. Keep it blocked if you like, but you can't "report" it, because pinging somebody else is not intrusive and not illegal. It's sort of like a stranger saying hello to you in the Wal-Mart parking lot. You can either say hello back, or ignore him, but you can't have him locked up just for saying hello to you.

[Steelhorse]

Thanks guy's!! I learn something new here everyday!!!

[Shiva]

go here..
http://www.nwtools.com/

and it will tell you some more info..

[Steelhorse]

Thanks Shiva!!!! I will go to it....I love learning!!!!!!!