Method for protecting a firewall load balancer from a denial of service attack
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving a packet at an outbound firewall load balancer;
determining whether the packet is associated with an open connection such that resources are being consumed as reflected by an entry in an outbound connection database, wherein if the entry is not present in the outbound connection database then a new entry is not recorded for the outbound firewall load balancer; and
forwarding the packet to a selected one of a plurality of firewalls coupled to the outbound firewall load balancer in the case where the entry is present in the outbound connection database, wherein the packet may be received by the selected firewall and then communicated to an inbound firewall load balancer, wherein the inbound firewall load balancer is operable to generate a new entry for the packet once it has received it from the selected firewall, the new entry being provided in an inbound connection database such that resources for the inbound firewall load balancer are then being consumed for an open flow associated with the packet.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for protecting firewall load balancers from a denial of service attack is provided. Packets are received by the firewall load balancer. Each packet has a source and a destination. The firewall load balancer is equipped with a connection database that can contain entries about the packets. Upon receipt of a packet, the connection database is queried to determine whether or not there is an entry for the received packet. If an entry is found in the database, the packet is forwarded to its destination. Otherwise, if the packet was received from a firewall, then a new connection entry for the packet is built and is saved to the connection database and the packet is forwarded on to its destination. If the packet does not have an entry (match) in the connection database and the packet was not received from a firewall, then the packet is forwarded to a firewall.
-
Citations
12 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
receiving a packet at an outbound firewall load balancer; determining whether the packet is associated with an open connection such that resources are being consumed as reflected by an entry in an outbound connection database, wherein if the entry is not present in the outbound connection database then a new entry is not recorded for the outbound firewall load balancer; and forwarding the packet to a selected one of a plurality of firewalls coupled to the outbound firewall load balancer in the case where the entry is present in the outbound connection database, wherein the packet may be received by the selected firewall and then communicated to an inbound firewall load balancer, wherein the inbound firewall load balancer is operable to generate a new entry for the packet once it has received it from the selected firewall, the new entry being provided in an inbound connection database such that resources for the inbound firewall load balancer are then being consumed for an open flow associated with the packet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method comprising:
-
receiving a packet at an inbound firewall load balancer, the packet being generated by a client computer; determining whether the packet is associated with an open connection such that resources are being consumed as reflected by an entry in an inbound connection database, wherein if the entry is not present in the inbound connection database then a new entry is not recorded for the inbound firewall load balancer; and forwarding the packet to a selected one of a plurality of firewalls coupled to the inbound firewall load balancer in the case where the entry is present in the inbound connection database, wherein the packet may be received by the selected firewall and then communicated to an outbound firewall load balancer, wherein the outbound firewall load balancer is operable to generate a new entry for the packet once it has received it from the selected firewall, the new entry being provided in an outbound connection database such that resources for the outbound firewall load balancer are then being consumed for an open flow associated with the packet. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
-
Specification