Are You Really Hacking Naked?

A penetration tester recounts troubleshooting MASSCAN performance issues caused by connection state tracking on a Linux router and ISP equipment, which led to high CPU and packet drops. By implementing an iptables raw table NOTRACK rule for DMZ outbound traffic to the Internet, the author bypassed nf_conntrack, stabilized the network, and achieved high-speed scanning without overloading the firewall.