ICMP port 8

When performing a scan it seems that all the ports of my gateway server are stealthed except 8 (the port used for 'ping') Is this a vulnerability / security risk?

It is used by a protocol that basicly lets people check wether your computer is online or not. If that classifies as a security-risk to you, it is. If not, not.

It may be vulnerable to some DoS attacks.

thanks, I did knew the use of ping to see if a computer is present or not and the risk of a DoS, I was just wondering if there are other much higher risks to be worried about with that port open...

If your personal firewall allows, set it to notify you whenever you recieve a ping, and better still, set it to ask you whether or not to respond to that ping.

Usually it isn't a problem. I would say to leave it unblocked unless you find you are having problems with people trying to ping you a lot. If you block it up, however, don't be surprised if some applications start to do weird things, such as online games. (Some of them use their own timing scheme over UDP, etc, but you never know.)

Short version: Shouldn't be a problem. The worst they can probably do is just slow down your connection/comp, in which case you just pull the phone-wire out and block the port and return.

Thankz

I will leave the port open for some progs and games, but keep an eye on the ping requests on that gateway.

For most multiplayer games, they don't require a 'positive ping' to initiate a connection from either the server or other computers, only an open port through to the other side. Ping is something I configured through ipchains (and I'll post my configs for this) so that I can ping out, but nobody else can ping me. This keeps my machine "off the net" according to most programs.

thnx Vorlin, others and especially Terr for your contributions

I have succesfully closed the port with some other rules in my Firewall settings.
The port seems to be invisible for the public and I still have full internet access (progs, games,...).

Vorlin you could still post your configs for IPchains to view how YOU did it. (so I can compare functionality)