Unintended Operational Issues With ULA
draft-buraglio-v6ops-ula-01

Network Working Group                                        N. Buraglio
Internet-Draft                                               C. Cummings
Intended status: Informational                   Energy Sciences Network
Expires: 24 October 2022                                        R. White
                                                        Juniper Networks
                                                           22 April 2022

                 Unintended Operational Issues With ULA
                      draft-buraglio-v6ops-ula-01

Abstract

   The behavior of ULA addressing as defined by [RFC6724] is preferred
   below legacy IPv4 addressing, thus rendering ULA IPv6 deployment
   functionally unusable in IPv4 / IPv6 dual-stacked environments.  This
   behavior is counter to the operational behavior of GUA IPv6
   addressing on nearly all modern operating systems that leverage a
   preference model based on [RFC6724] .

Status of This Memo

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

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Defining Well Known Unintended Operational Issues With ULA  .   2
   3.  Operational Implications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   In modern IPv4 / IPv6 dual-stacked environments, ULA addressing and
   GUA IPv6 addressing exhibit opposite behavior, which creates
   difficulties in deployments leveraging ULA addressing.  This
   conflicting behavior carries planning, operational, and security
   implications for environments requiring ULA addressing with IPv4/IPv6
   dual-stack and prioritization of IPv6 traffic by default, as is the
   behavior with IPv6 GUA addressing.

2.  Defining Well Known Unintended Operational Issues With ULA

   The [RFC6724] definition is incorrect for ULA precedence if a host is
   operating in a dual-stack environment.  Expected behavior would be
   that ULA address space would be preferred over legacy IPv4, however
   this is not the case.  This presents an acute issue with any
   environment that will use ULA addressing along side legacy IPv4 that
   is counter to the standard expectations for legacy IPv4 / IPv6 dual-
   stack behavior of preferring IPv6, as is performed with GUA
   addressing.

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3.  Operational Implications

   There are demonstrated uses cases of ULA not being preferred in some
   OS and network equipment over legacy IPv4 that necessitate the
   immediate update to [RFC6724] to better reflect the original intent
   of the RFC.  As with most adjustments to standards, and using
   [RFC6724] itself as a measurment, this update will likely take
   between 8-20 years to become common enough for relatively consistent
   behavior within operating systems.  As a reference, it has been 10
   years since [RFC6724] has been published but we continue to see
   existing commercial and open source operating systems exhibiting
   [RFC3484] behavior.  It is anticipated it will take just as long for
   an update of [RFC6724] to be adopted.  In addition, in the current
   versions of Linux, the priority table (gai.conf) still makes
   reference to [RFC3484] , further demonstrating the long timeframe to
   have updates reflected in a current OS.  Examples of such out-of-date
   behavior can be found in printers, cameras, fixed devices, IoT
   sensors, and longer lifecycle equipment.  It is especially important
   to note this behavior in the long lifecycle equipment that exists in
   industrial control and operational techology environments due to
   their very long mean time to replacement.  The core issue is the
   stated interpretation from gai.conf that has the following default:

  #scopev4  <mask> <value>
  #    Add another rule to the RFC 6724 scope table for IPv4 addresses.
  #    By default the scope IDs described in section 3.2 in RFC 6724 are
  #    used.  Changing these defaults should hardly ever be necessary.
  #    The defaults are equivalent to:
  #
  #scopev4 ::ffff:169.254.0.0/112  2
  #scopev4 ::ffff:127.0.0.0/104    2
  #scopev4 ::ffff:0.0.0.0/96       14

                                 Figure 1

   Notice that they are interpreting the legacy IPv4 address range as
   "scopev4" and the prefix ::ffff:0.0.0.0/96 which has a higher
   precedence (35) in [RFC6724] then the ULA prefix of fc00::/7 (3).
   This results in legacy IPv4 being preferred over IPv6 ULA.

   The operational outcome is the move to dual-stack with ULA is
   inconsistent and imparts unnecessary difficulty for both
   troubleshooting and creating the baseline expected behavior which are
   both requirements for deployments.  This results in operational and
   engineering teams not gaining IPv6 experience as limited traffic is
   actually using IPv6, and security baseline expectations are
   inconsistent at best and haphazard at worst.

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   In practice, [RFC6724] imposes several operational shortcomings
   preventing both consistent and desired behavior.  If we define
   "desired behavior" as IPv6 preference over legacy IPv4 for address
   and protocol selection, then the resulting implemented behavior,
   based on [RFC6724] , will fall short of that intent.  Based on the
   current verbiage, dual-stacked hosts configured with both a legacy
   IPv4 address and an IPv6 ULA address, the resulting behavior will
   manifest as a host choosing IPv4 over ULA IPv6.  This behavior
   deviates from the current goal of a host with legacy IPv4 address and
   also with an IPv6 GUA address preferring IPv6 over IPv4.
   Operationally and strategically, this manifests as an impediment to
   deployment of IPv6 for many non-service provider and mobile networks
   phasing in dual-stacked (both legacy IPv4 and IPv6) networking with
   the expectation of consistent behavior (alway use IPv6 before legacy
   IPv4).

   Other operational considerations are the use of the policy table
   detailed in section 2.1 of [RFC6724] . While conceptually the intent
   was for a configurable, longest-match table to be adjusted as-needed.
   In practice, modifying the prefix policy table remains difficult
   across platforms, and in some cases impossible.  Embedded,
   proprietary, closed source, and IoT devices are especially difficult
   to adjust and are, in many cases, incapable of any adjustment
   whatsoever.  Large scale manipulation of the policy table also
   remains out of the realm of realistic support for small and medium
   scale operators due to lack of ability to manipulate all the hosts
   and systems, or a lack of tooling and access.

   Below is an example of a gai.cnf file from a modern Linux
   installation as of 03 April 2022:

# Configuration for getaddrinfo(3).
#
# So far only configuration for the destination address sorting is needed.
# RFC 3484 governs the sorting.  But the RFC also says that system
# administrators should be able to overwrite the defaults.  This can be
# achieved here.
#
# All lines have an initial identifier specifying the option followed by
# up to two values.  Information specified in this file replaces the
# default information.  Complete absence of data of one kind causes the
# appropriate default information to be used.  The supported commands include:
#
# reload  <yes|no>
#    If set to yes, each getaddrinfo(3) call will check whether this file
#    changed and if necessary reload.  This option should not really be
#    used.  There are possible runtime problems.  The default is no.

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#
# label   <mask>   <value>
#    Add another rule to the RFC 3484 label table.  See section 2.1 in
#    RFC 3484.  The default is:
#
#label ::1/128       0
#label ::/0          1
#label 2002::/16     2
#label ::/96         3
#label ::ffff:0:0/96 4
#label fec0::/10     5
#label fc00::/7      6
#label 2001:0::/32   7
#
#    This default differs from the tables given in RFC 3484 by handling
#    (now obsolete) site-local IPv6 addresses and Unique Local Addresses.
#    The reason for this difference is that these addresses are never
#    NATed while IPv4 site-local addresses most probably are.  Given
#    the precedence of IPv6 over IPv4 (see below) on machines having only
#    site-local IPv4 and IPv6 addresses a lookup for a global address would
#    see the IPv6 be preferred.  The result is a long delay because the
#    site-local IPv6 addresses cannot be used while the IPv4 address is
#    (at least for the foreseeable future) NATed.  We also treat Teredo
#    tunnels special.
#
# precedence  <mask>   <value>
#    Add another rule to the RFC 3484 precedence table.  See section 2.1
#    and 10.3 in RFC 3484.  The default is:
#
#precedence  ::1/128       50
#precedence  ::/0          40
#precedence  2002::/16     30
#precedence ::/96          20
#precedence ::ffff:0:0/96  10
#
#    For sites which prefer IPv4 connections change the last line to
#
#precedence ::ffff:0:0/96  100

#
# scopev4  <mask>  <value>
#    Add another rule to the RFC 6724 scope table for IPv4 addresses.
#    By default the scope IDs described in section 3.2 in RFC 6724 are
#    used.  Changing these defaults should hardly ever be necessary.
#    The defaults are equivalent to:
#
#scopev4 ::ffff:169.254.0.0/112  2
#scopev4 ::ffff:127.0.0.0/104    2

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#scopev4 ::ffff:0.0.0.0/96       14

                               Figure 2

   Several assumptions are made here and are largely based on
   interpretations of [RFC6724] but are not operationally relevant in
   modern networks.

   Here are some example failure modes:

   1.  ULA per [RFC6724] is less preferred (the Precedence value is
       lower) than all legacy IPv4 (represented by ::ffff:0:0/96 in the
       aforementioned table).

   2.  Because of the lower Precedence value of fc00::/7, if a host has
       legacy IPv4 enabled, it will use legacy IPv4 before using ULA.

   3.  A dual-stacked client will source the traffic from the legacy
       IPv4 address, meaning it will require a corresponding legacy IPv4
       destination address.

   Per number 3, even a host choosing a destination with A and AAAA DNS
   records, the host in question will choose the A record to get an
   legacy IPv4 address for the destination, meaning ULA IPv6 is rendered
   completely unused.  It is also notable that Happy Eyeballs ([RFC8305]
   ) will not change the source address selection process on a host.
   Happy Eyeballs will only modify the destination sorting process.

   As a direct result of the described failure modes, and in addition to
   the aforementioned operational implications, use of ULA is not a
   viable option for dual-stack \ networking transition planning, large
   scale network modeling, network lab environments or other modes of
   emulating a large scale networking that runs both IPv4 and IPv6
   concurrently.

4.  IANA Considerations

   None at this time.

5.  Security Considerations

   Such unexpected behavior can result in odd operational outcomes which
   can result in serious security and compliance issues and could, in
   some cases, result in disabling of IPv6 to acheive compliance and
   consistency. .

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6.  Acknowledgements

   The authors acknowledge the work of Brian Carpenter, Bob Hinden, Mark
   Andrews, Vasilenko Eduardand, and Mark Smith for participation in the
   technical discussions leading to this finding and Michael Ackermann,
   Tom Coffeen, Kevin Myers, and Ed Horley for providing further testing
   and operational input.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC3484]  Draves, R., "Default Address Selection for Internet
              Protocol version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 3484,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3484, February 2003,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3484>.

   [RFC6724]  Thaler, D., Ed., Draves, R., Matsumoto, A., and T. Chown,
              "Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol Version 6
              (IPv6)", RFC 6724, DOI 10.17487/RFC6724, September 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6724>.

   [RFC8305]  Schinazi, D. and T. Pauly, "Happy Eyeballs Version 2:
              Better Connectivity Using Concurrency", RFC 8305,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8305, December 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8305>.

7.2.  Informative References

   [RFC1918]  Rekhter, Y., Moskowitz, B., Karrenberg, D., de Groot, G.
              J., and E. Lear, "Address Allocation for Private
              Internets", BCP 5, RFC 1918, DOI 10.17487/RFC1918,
              February 1996, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1918>.

   [RFC4193]  Hinden, R. and B. Haberman, "Unique Local IPv6 Unicast
              Addresses", RFC 4193, DOI 10.17487/RFC4193, October 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4193>.

   [RFC6598]  Weil, J., Kuarsingh, V., Donley, C., Liljenstolpe, C., and
              M. Azinger, "IANA-Reserved IPv4 Prefix for Shared Address
              Space", BCP 153, RFC 6598, DOI 10.17487/RFC6598, April
              2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6598>.

Authors' Addresses

   Nick Buraglio
   Energy Sciences Network
   Email: buraglio@es.net

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   Chris Cummings
   Energy Sciences Network
   Email: chriscummings@es.net

   Russ White
   Juniper Networks
   Email: russ@riw.us

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