Question

Difficulty: MediumDHCP Architecture and Relay Services

A network administrator is configuring firewall security rules between a Layer 3 router acting as a DHCP relay agent and a centralized DHCP server located at 10.10.10.25010.10.10.250. Workstations on a remote host VLAN generate broadcast DHCP lease requests that the router receives, but the relay agent fails to deliver the unicast requests to the DHCP server because firewall policies block the traffic. Which transport protocol and destination port combination must be permitted on the firewall for the relay agent to successfully forward client requests to the DHCP server?

  1. UDP port 67Answer
  2. B
    UDP port 68
  3. C
    TCP port 67
  4. D
    TCP port 68

Answer

UDP port 67 must be allowed on the firewall to permit communication from the relay agent to the DHCP server.
DHCP servers receive incoming messages from both direct broadcast clients and unicast DHCP relay agents on UDP port 67. Allowing UDP port 67 on the intermediate firewall enables the relay agent to successfully forward the encapsulated request packets to the centralized server.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the transport protocol used by DHCP services.
DHCP relies entirely on UDP for connectionless message delivery.
DHCP uses UDP to avoid protocol overhead during initial IP configuration.
2
Determine the destination port used by DHCP servers to receive requests.
The DHCP server listens on UDP port 67 for incoming requests from clients and relay agents.
Port 67 is designated for server-side processing, whereas port 68 is used by clients to receive responses.
3
Apply the firewall policy requirement for DHCP relay forwarding.
The firewall rule must permit UDP traffic targeted to destination port 67 on the DHCP server.
The relay agent converts client broadcasts into unicast UDP packets sent to port 67 of the DHCP server.

Key Concept

DHCP Relay Transport Protocol and Port Assignment
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