It looks like two version of the protocol exist as reported by
Andreas Mahnke. This patch add support for both legacy and standard CIP
protocol according to NetScaler specifications.
When NetScaler application switch is used as L3+ switch, informations
regarding the original IP and TCP headers are lost as a new TCP
connection is created between the NetScaler and the backend server.
NetScaler provides a feature to insert in the TCP data the original data
that can then be consumed by the backend server.
Specifications and documentations from NetScaler:
https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX205670https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/04/25/how-to-enable-client-ip-in-tcpip-option-of-netscaler/
When CIP is enabled on the NetScaler, then a TCP packet is inserted just after
the TCP handshake. This is composed as:
- CIP magic number : 4 bytes
Both sender and receiver have to agree on a magic number so that
they both handle the incoming data as a NetScaler Client IP insertion
packet.
- Header length : 4 bytes
Defines the length on the remaining data.
- IP header : >= 20 bytes if IPv4, 40 bytes if IPv6
Contains the header of the last IP packet sent by the client during TCP
handshake.
- TCP header : >= 20 bytes
Contains the header of the last TCP packet sent by the client during TCP
handshake.
Bertrand Jacquin