Reverse Path forwarding (ip verify reverse-path interface)

Reverse Path forwarding (ip verify reverse-path interface)

Unicast RPF guards against IP spoofing (a packet uses an incorrect source IP address to obscure its true source) by ensuring that all packets have a source IP address that matches the correct source interface according to the routing table.

Normally, the ASA only looks at the destination address when determining where to forward the packet. Unicast RPF instructs the ASA to also look at the source address; this is why it is called Reverse Path Forwarding. For any traffic that you want to allow through the ASA, the ASA routing table must include a route back to the source address. See RFC 2267 for more information.

For outside traffic, for example, the ASA can use the default route to satisfy Unicast RPF protection. If traffic enters from an outside interface, and the source address is not known to the routing table, the ASA uses the default route to correctly identify the outside interface as the source interface.

If traffic enters the outside interface from an address that is known to the routing table, but is associated with the inside interface, then the ASA drops the packet. Similarly, if traffic enters the inside interface from an unknown source address, the ASA drops the packet because the matching route (the default route) indicates the outside interface.

Unicast RPF is implemented as follows:

• ICMP packets have no session, so each packet is checked.
• UDP and TCP have sessions, so the initial packet requires a reverse route lookup. Subsequent packets arriving during the session are checked using an existing state maintained as part of the session. Non-initial packets are checked to ensure that they arrived on the same interface used by the initial packet.

Examples

The following example enables Unicast RPF on the outside interface:

ciscoasa(config)# ip verify reverse-path interface outside

Related Commands

Command	Description
clear configure ip verify reverse-path	Clears the configuration set using the ip verify reverse-path command.
clear ip verify statistics	Clears the Unicast RPF statistics.
show ip verify statistics	Shows the Unicast RPF statistics.
show running-config ip verify reverse-path	Shows the configuration set using the ip verify reverse-path command.