TCP RST Diagnostic Paylaod
draft-boucadair-tcpm-rst-diagnostic-payload-00
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| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (individual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
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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
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Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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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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