Blocking ICMP Ping requests. Pros an cons?

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Aaroona

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#146655 25-May-2014 12:07

I was having a think about port scanning and security around firewalls and other appliances the other day (probably spurred on by my reading of No Place To Hide).

I have blocked ICMP Ping requests on my WAN for a number of years now, with no adverse affects, but I was wanting to know....

What are the pros and cons of blocking/allowing ping on your WAN?

nathan

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#1052741 25-May-2014 12:18

internet does rely on ICMP to function optimally

have a read on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Control_Message_Protocol

your firewall should be able to disable just certain parts of ICMP

sbiddle

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#1052820 25-May-2014 14:52

What do you see as the benefits?

Aaroona

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#1052821 25-May-2014 14:53

sbiddle: What do you see as the benefits?

If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be posting here asking :)

It's blocked by default on dd-wrt.