Cross VLAN ChromeCast Firewalling issues

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pomtom44

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#255881 4-Sep-2019 11:55

Hello everyone.

I have an interesting issue, which I believe is unique to me, or at least I can't find any information online about how to fix it.

I got a chromecast the other day, and since I have a slightly more complicated home network than most (VLANS) I went to put it on my IoT VLAN.

I then went to enable Mdns reflecting on my router (unifi) and hey presto, I could connect my PC to the chromecast across vlans.

I then went to start to lock down the firewalling for it to try achieve two thigns

1) I dont want all mdns queries going to all my vlans (EG I dont want my network printer being sent to my security vlan)

2) I want to control what VLANS certain devices can communicate with, (EG people on my guest network can see the chromecast so they can cast to it), but not see my printer for example

I set a few rules in place to try and restrict this down, and it worked, my laptop could not see the chromecast, but my desktop can (assuming established rules are allowing it though)

however I can't seem to find what ports need forwarding where to allow it though.

Everyone online is asking about cross vlans, but nothing about firewalling / restricting.

Does anyone have any insite on how I can setup my rules to achieve what I want

As a side note: People say online "Just make a new VLAN and put the chrome cast there"
The problem is im out of SSID's on my wifi, and I dont really want a whole nother vlan for just 1 device.

sbiddle

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#2310591 4-Sep-2019 13:19

The Chromecast doesn't use "ports" - it uses broadcast and multicast DNS.

pomtom44

128 posts

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#2310593 4-Sep-2019 13:21

sbiddle:

The Chromecast doesn't use "ports" - it uses broadcast and multicast DNS.

I found an article on what ports is uses for discovery and Mirroring?
I assume they are wrong then?

If so how do I firewall it? Can I put firewall on the dns records? or do something with an internal DNS server?

Im new to Mdns so trying to figure out how it works and how its controllable

sbiddle

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#2310607 4-Sep-2019 13:35

I'll expand on that further - yes it does need a port to probe a device, but the mDNS service itself uses multicast to communicate with every device on the same layer 2 network.

If your devices can't see the Chromecast it's because they're not going to be on the same layer 2 network, and likewise if you have multiple VLAN's then broadcast and mDNS traffic will only stay within that VLAN unless you're running a specific service to bridge layer 2 traffic between those different VLANs

pomtom44

128 posts

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#2310610 4-Sep-2019 13:38

sbiddle:

I'll expand on that further - yes it does need a port to probe a device, but the mDNS service itself uses multicast to communicate with every device on the same layer 2 network.

If your devices can't see the Chromecast it's because they're not going to be on the same layer 2 network, and likewise if you have multiple VLAN's then broadcast and mDNS traffic will only stay within that VLAN unless you're running a specific service to bridge layer 2 traffic between those different VLANs

I understand the limitations around the broadcast and the same vlans, which is why I enabled the MDNS reflector on my router, which bypasses that.
The problem is it then does a broadcast everywhere, even as they say when you enable it, on the WAN interface.

I want to control that rebroadcasting both from a source perspective and a destination vlan

richms

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#2310621 4-Sep-2019 13:52

Im yet to find any decent solution for limiting MDNS stuff and automatically allowing the resulting IP connections between devices. I think its just in the too hard basket for router manufacturers to do anything but a global repeat everything everywhere on the MDNS

Richard rich.ms

cyril7

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#2310623 4-Sep-2019 13:55

The best filter I have seen for mDNS reflector (which is all based on avahi) is on Aerohive, even there its fiddly to setup and there are limits to how many rules you can apply.

Cyril

pomtom44

128 posts

Master Geek

#2310626 4-Sep-2019 13:58

richms:

Im yet to find any decent solution for limiting MDNS stuff and automatically allowing the resulting IP connections between devices. I think its just in the too hard basket for router manufacturers to do anything but a global repeat everything everywhere on the MDNS

I managed to block the MDNS from going though by blocking 5353 (and a few other ones)
I was just hoping I can put a firewall in place to say block these few ports from going into the router, so it doesnt hit the mdns reflector, but I can't find how to do that,

I guess ill just have to re-think my plan.

May do some packet captures on a seperate wifi and see whats actually going on to try understand it myself.