Network Device Suspicious Packet Analysis for NAT Table Management
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Network devices face performance issues and service disruptions due to malicious traffic causing illegitimate communication sessions, which lead to inefficient port allocation and failure to meet service level agreement (SLA) and quality of service (QoS) criteria.
Innovation Solution
A network device that processes incoming packets using various analysis techniques to determine suspicious activity, preventing updates to the NAT table for illegitimate sessions and allowing efficient reuse of ports for legitimate communications by removing entries before timeout.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the NAT table updates entries for all incoming packets to maintain communication sessions, then session establishment is facilitated, but malicious traffic consumes ports and causes performance degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of incoming packets before NAT table updates by examining packet characteristics, connection state, and traffic patterns. This preliminary action identifies suspicious packets that would otherwise consume ports and resources, preventing them from causing performance degradation while allowing legitimate sessions to proceed normally
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary analysis mechanism between packet reception and NAT table updates. This intermediary layer evaluates packets using multiple criteria (connection tracking, rate limiting, suspicious pattern detection) to determine whether to allow or block NAT table updates, thus mediating between session establishment needs and performance protection
2Reliability
If packet analysis techniques are applied to detect suspicious traffic, then malicious traffic is identified, but processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial analysis to all packets and excessive (detailed) analysis only to suspicious packets. Connection tracking is performed on all packets, but full packet analysis with multiple techniques is applied selectively based on initial screening criteria, reducing overall processing overhead while maintaining detection accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The packet analysis process is segmented into multiple stages: initial connection tracking for all packets, intermediate suspicious pattern matching, and detailed analysis only for packets matching suspicious criteria. This segmentation divides the complex analysis task into manageable segments that reduce overall processing overhead
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 1C
AI summary
A network device may be configured to receive one or more packets that are to initiate a communication session. The network device may be configured to process, using a plurality of packet analysis techniques, the one or more packets to determine analysis information associated with the one or more packets. The network device may be configured to determine, based on the analysis information associated with the one or more packets, whether the one or more packets are suspicious. The network device may be configured to cause or prevent inclusion in a NAT table, based on determining whether the one or more packets are suspicious, of at least one entry associated with the one or more packets and the communication session.