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TCP RST Diagnostic Paylaod
draft-boucadair-tcpm-rst-diagnostic-payload-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Active".
Author Mohamed Boucadair
Last updated 2022-03-30
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draft-boucadair-tcpm-rst-diagnostic-payload-00
tcpm                                                        M. Boucadair
Internet-Draft                                                    Orange
Intended status: Standards Track                           30 March 2022
Expires: 1 October 2022

                       TCP RST Diagnostic Paylaod
             draft-boucadair-tcpm-rst-diagnostic-payload-00

Abstract

   This document specifies a diagnostic payload format to be returned in
   TCP RST segments.  Such payloads are used to share with the endpoints
   the reasons for which a TCP connection has been reset.  This is meant
   to ease diagnostic and troubleshooting.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 1 October 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  RST Diagnostic Payload  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  New Registry for TCP Failure Causes . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   A TCP connection [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis] can be reset by a peer for
   various reasons, e.g., a received data does not correspond to an
   active connection.  Also, a TCP connection can be reset by an on-path
   service function (e.g., CGN [RFC6888], NAT64 [RFC6146], firewall) for
   various reasons.  Typically, a NAT function can generate an RST
   segment to notify the peers upon the expiry of the lifetime of the
   corresponding mapping entry or because an RST segment was received
   from a peer (Section 2.2 of [RFC7857]).  A TCP connection can also be
   closed by a user or an application at any time.  However, the peer
   that receives an RST segment does not have any hint about the reason
   that led to terminating the connection.  Likewise, the application
   that relies upon such a TCP connection may not easily identify the
   reason for a connection closure.  Troubleshooting such events at the
   terminal side that receives the RST segment may not be trivial.

   This document fills this void by specifying a diagnostic payload that
   is returned in an RST segment.  Returning such data is consistent
   with the provision in Section 3.5.3 of [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis] for
   RST segments.

   This document does not change the conditions under which an RST
   segment is generated (Section 3.5.2 of [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis]).

   The generic procedure for processing an RST segment is specified in
   Section 3.5.3 of [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis].  Only the deviation from
   that procedure to identify and validate an enclosed diagnostic
   payload is provided in Section 3.

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   A peer that receives a diagnostic payload may pass that information
   to the local application in addition to the information (MUST-12)
   described in Section 3.6 of [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis].  That
   information may also be logged locally, unless a local policy
   specifies otherwise.

   The first version of the specification is meant to discuss the format
   and the overall approach to ease maintaining the list of codes while
   allowing for adding new codes as needed in the future.  As such, this
   first version of the specification does not include a comprehensive
   list of error codes.  These codes will be completed in future
   versions (Table 1).

2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119][RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

   This document makes use of the terms defined in Section 4 of
   [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis].

3.  RST Diagnostic Payload

   In order to unambiguously identify an RST diagnostic payload that is
   compliant with the present specification, the payload MUST use the
   I-JSON message format [RFC7493].  The following parameters are
   defined:

   rc:  Stands for "Reason Code".  This parameter takes a value from the
      "TCP Failure Causes" registry (Section 4.1).  This parameter is
      omitted if none of the values maintained by IANA can be used to
      report a reset failure cause.

   rd:  Stands for "Reason Description".  It includes a brief
      description of the reason code.  This parameter SHOULD NOT be
      included if a code that covers this error case is already
      registered in Section 4.1.  This parameter is useful only for
      codes that are not yet registered or application-specific codes.

   At least one of the above parameters MUST be included in an RST
   diagnostic payload that is compliant with the present specification.

   Figure 1 depicts an example of an RST diagnostic payload that is
   generated to inform the peer that the connection is reset because an
   ACK was received while the connection is still in the LISTEN state.

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   {
    "rc": 2
   }

            Figure 1: An RST Diagnostic Payload with Reason Code

   Figure 2 shows an example of an RST diagnostic payload that includes
   a free description to report a case that is not covered yet by the
   table maintained by IANA (Section 4.1).

   {
    "rd": "brief human-readable description"
   }

        Figure 2: An RST Diagnostic Payload with Reason Description

   An RST diagnostic payload may be included by the peer that resets the
   connection or by an on-path service function.  For example, the
   following payload can be returned by a NAT when a mapping entry
   expires (Figure 3).

   {
    "rc": 8
   }

      Figure 3: An RST Diagnostic Payload to Report Connection Timeout

4.  IANA Considerations

4.1.  New Registry for TCP Failure Causes

   This document requests IANA to create a new subregistry entitled "TCP
   Failure Causes" under the "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
   Parameters" registry [IANA-TCP].

   The registry is initially populated with the following values:

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    +=======+============================+===========================+
    | Value | Description                | Specification (if         |
    |       |                            | available)                |
    +=======+============================+===========================+
    | 1     | Data lost.  New data is    | Sections 3.6.1 and        |
    |       | received after CLOSE is    | 3.10.7.1 of               |
    |       | called                     | [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis] |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 2     | Still in LISTEN.  Received | Section 3.10.7.2 of       |
    |       | ACK while the connection   | [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis] |
    |       | still in the LISTEN state  |                           |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 3     | Malformed Message          | N/A                       |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 4     | Not Authorized             | N/A                       |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 5     | Resource Exceeded          | N/A                       |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 6     | Network Failure            | N/A                       |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 7     | Connection Reset received  | N/A                       |
    |       | from the peer              |                           |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 8     | Destination Unreachable    | N/A                       |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 9     | Connection Timeout         | RFCXXX                    |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
    | 10    | description XXX            | URL                       |
    +-------+----------------------------+---------------------------+

                   Table 1: Initial TCP Failure Causes

   The assignment policy for this registry is "Expert Review"
   (Section 4.5 of [RFC8126]).  The designated experts may approve
   registration once they checked that the new requested code is not
   covered by an existing code and if the provided reasoning to register
   the new code is acceptable.  A registration request may supply a
   pointer to a specification where that code is defined.  However, a
   registration may be accepted even if no permanent and readily
   available public specification is available.

5.  Security Considerations

   [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis] discusses TCP-related security
   considerations.  RST-specific attacks and their mitigation are
   discussed in Section 3.10.7.3 of [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis].

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   In addition to these considerations, it is RECOMMENDED to control the
   size of acceptable diagnostic payload and keep it as brief as
   possible.  Also, it is RECOMMENDED to avoid leaking privacy-related
   information as part of the diagnostic payload (e.g., including a
   description such as "user X resets explicitly the connection").

6.  Acknowledgements

   TBC.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis]
              Eddy, W. M., "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
              Specification", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
              ietf-tcpm-rfc793bis-28, 7 March 2022,
              <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-tcpm-
              rfc793bis-28.txt>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC7493]  Bray, T., Ed., "The I-JSON Message Format", RFC 7493,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7493, March 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7493>.

   [RFC8126]  Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
              Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
              RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8126>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

7.2.  Informative References

   [IANA-TCP] IANA YANG, "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
              Parameters",
              <https://www.iana.org/assignments/tcp-parameters/tcp-
              parameters.xhtml>.

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   [RFC6146]  Bagnulo, M., Matthews, P., and I. van Beijnum, "Stateful
              NAT64: Network Address and Protocol Translation from IPv6
              Clients to IPv4 Servers", RFC 6146, DOI 10.17487/RFC6146,
              April 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6146>.

   [RFC6888]  Perreault, S., Ed., Yamagata, I., Miyakawa, S., Nakagawa,
              A., and H. Ashida, "Common Requirements for Carrier-Grade
              NATs (CGNs)", BCP 127, RFC 6888, DOI 10.17487/RFC6888,
              April 2013, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6888>.

   [RFC7857]  Penno, R., Perreault, S., Boucadair, M., Ed., Sivakumar,
              S., and K. Naito, "Updates to Network Address Translation
              (NAT) Behavioral Requirements", BCP 127, RFC 7857,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7857, April 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7857>.

Author's Address

   Mohamed Boucadair
   Orange
   35000 Rennes
   France
   Email: mohamed.boucadair@orange.com

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