Sure, NAT can't prevent users from running with scissors, but sometimes it does block the scissors thrown at the back of their neck whilst they are sleeping :)
On 6/4/07, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu> wrote:
On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:20:38 PDT, Jim Shankland said:
> I can't pass over Valdis's statement that a "good properly configured
> stateful firewall should be doing [this] already" without noting
> that on today's Internet, the gap between "should" and "is" is
> often large.
Let's not forget all the NAT boxes out there that are *perfectly* willing
to let a system make an *outbound* connection. So the user makes a first
outbound connection to visit a web page, gets exploited, and the exploit
then phones home to download more malware.
Yeah, that NAT *should* be providing security, but as you point out, there's
that big gap between should and is... :)