Malicious port scanning or standard Active Directory/Exchange Server behavior

Nov 26, 2004 5 Replies

A quick search of GOOGLE reveals that many people see UDP Port 36 activity, but that no one knows what is doing it. UDP/36 is not a defined port/service.

Malicious port scanning or standard Active Directory/Exchange Server behavior open original image

From my Windows XP SP2 personal firewall log (source and destination addresses replaced with sss and ddd in this post).



This activity is taking place from within a corporate firewall, though the source machine is not under my control so I am not in any position to check it for security patches or vira.



I have reported the problem, but was told that this is normal AD/DNS/Exchange Server activity and nothing to be concerned about.



We have been having some problems with "sdbot" worm attacks recently, so I am trying to get a second opinion. This is the only machine generating this kind of activity.



The source port is usually anything from 30000 to 65000. Destination port can be 1065, 1071, 1084, 1109, etc.



Anyone here who recognizes this traffic pattern and perhaps can direct me to some resources where I can learn more about this?



TIA,



Joergen Bech


---snip---



2004-11-25 13:25:48 DROP UDP 43207
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:26:49 DROP UDP 43388
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:27:50 DROP UDP 43568
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:28:51 DROP UDP 43773
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:29:52 DROP UDP 43976
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:30:53 DROP UDP 44290
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:31:54 DROP UDP 44552
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:32:55 DROP UDP 44764
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:33:56 DROP UDP 44954
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:34:57 DROP UDP 45170
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:35:58 DROP UDP 45406
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:36:59 DROP UDP 45558
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:38:00 DROP UDP 45741
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:39:01 DROP UDP 45886
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:40:02 DROP UDP 46021
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:41:03 DROP UDP 46201
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:42:04 DROP UDP 46380
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:43:05 DROP UDP 46546
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 13:44:06 DROP UDP 46720
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 14:00:14 DROP UDP 49863
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 14:00:22 DROP UDP 49909
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-25 15:54:42 DROP UDP 5537
1084 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 10:37:20 DROP UDP 15745
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 10:37:39 DROP UDP 15803
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 12:01:32 DROP UDP 32419
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 12:38:08 DROP UDP 40566
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 12:52:05 DROP UDP 42825
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 12:52:52 DROP UDP 42925
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 13:56:39 DROP UDP 53548
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE
2004-11-26 14:05:37 DROP UDP 54933
1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE


right - it quite seems "normal".

to Port 1084 i found this software, which uses it

formatting link
to Port 1109 i found that it is used by Kerberos IV POP3
formatting link
snipped-for-privacy@u.washington.edu/msg01306.html
formatting link
Nothing to fear ;-)

Joergen Bech schrieb:

Sorry, my mistake - to much left over turkey for breakfast.

Um ... ok. But why then would it be one port for several hours, then another one for half a day, etc. rather than seeing them mixed more randomly?

And shouldn't the source port(s) stay the same, rather than going through the 30000-65000 range?

The machine in question is an MS Exchange Server, serving clients in several countries.

TIA,

Joergen Bech

36 is the size of the packet. Not a port.

The XP firewall fields are defined at the top:

---snip--- #Fields: date time action protocol src-ip dst-ip src-port dst-port size tcpflags tcpsyn tcpack tcpwin icmptype icmpcode info path

---snip---

and a line from the log:

2004-11-26 16:06:25 DROP UDP sss.sss.sss.sss ddd.ddd.dd.ddd 11406 1109 36 - - - - - - - RECEIVE

So: src-port = 11406 dst-port = 1109 size = 36

Regards,

Joergen Bech

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