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Problem with Cisco VPN concentrator
We have developed
kind of a VPN masquerade feature for our USG (Universal Subscriber
Gateway) product to let ISAKMP and ESP connections passthrough from clients
behind our gateway to respective VPN servers. We have taken tips to do accurate
routing for inbound traffic from the Linux VPN Masquerade patch code. We are
facing a weird problem with the Cisco VPN Concentrator series 3000 ( and maybe
all Cisco VPN servers).
Since we are doing
PAT ( port address translation) multiple subscribers trying to connect to the
same Cisco VPN concentrator are unable to do that since Cisco can see only the
our USG's IP address and the same port number for ISAKMP (UDP/500) traffic from
multiple subscribers. This way Cisco keeps the most recent connection only and
the earlier clients connection gets dropped. Other devices (e.g Nortel
Contivity) do not show such behaviour and can keep simultaneous sessions even
though coming apparently ( USG's IP address) from the same client ( i guess by
differentiating them on the basis of the ISAKMP initiator cookies).
Cisco accepts the
issue with PAT in its release notes and says that it will accept multiple
connection from the same client (apparently - although in our case they are
multiple clients being PATed on the same IP address and same port) only if they
have different source port numbers.
Now the question. We
want to support both Cisco and non-Cisco connection going through are box
without the user seeing any disconnections. Cisco will work with normal PAT (
src ip/src port <---> USG IP/ assigned src port) But others ( e.g Nortel)
don't, which require both destination and source port to be 500. Is there a way
to "probe" the Cisco concentrator that will till us that it is a "Cisco" and so
we should do normal PAT otherwise we should do our normal ISAKMP handling (
keeping track of cookies)?
Anybody has any
other solution/idea for it?
thanks
-Bik
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bik
Singh
818-575-2518 (Off)
Research
Scientist
818-597-1502 (Fax)
Product
Development 31355
Agoura Road
Nomadix
Westlake Village, CA 91361
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