Re: [PLUG] Random drops and throttling

[Rich Freeman <r-plug@thefreemanclan.net>]

On Fri, Jan 18, 2019 at 11:16 AM Bill East <wm.east@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This isn't actually a problem that I'm having but an option that I didn't know about - the ability to use iptables to randomly drop packets (confuse your friends! enrage your devops!) as well as tc for traffic throttling.
>
> https://etherealmind.com/tools-dropping-and-shaping-packets-with-iptables-and-tc-on-linux/
>

Interesting.  I wonder how big the queues can get.  At work we used to
do testing on applications with a router config that introduced
significant latency in all packets that traversed it, in order to
simulate client/server application performance in distant countries.
These days applications tend to be better-designed or are web-based
(which is also better-designed at least as far as HTTP alone goes).
However, back in the day it was common to see common business
applications grind down to a crawl if you stuck 200ms between client
and server.

Deliberate packet loss for testing purposes seems like a useful thing
to be able to utilize.  I'd think it could also be used for some kinds
of fuzzing attacks.

I also wonder if it might be something that could be used to try to
defeat some kinds of side-channel attacks.

-- 
Rich
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