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SAV-based Anti-DDoS Architecture
draft-cui-savnet-anti-ddos-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Active".
Authors Yong Cui , Jianping Wu , Linbo Hui , Lei Zhang , Yannan Hu
Last updated 2023-03-13
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draft-cui-savnet-anti-ddos-01
SAVNET Working Group                                              Y. Cui
Internet-Draft                                                     J. Wu
Intended status: Informational                       Tsinghua University
Expires: 14 September 2023                                        L. Hui
                                                                L. Zhang
                                                                   Y. Hu
                                                 Zhongguancun Laboratory
                                                           13 March 2023

                    SAV-based Anti-DDoS Architecture
                     draft-cui-savnet-anti-ddos-01

Abstract

   Existing SAV schemes can not effectively defend against IP Spoofing
   DDoS under incremental deployment.  This document proposes SAV-D, an
   SAV-honeynet based distributed defense architecture to enhance SAV's
   defense.  The main idea of SAV-D is to collect and aggregate more
   threat data from existing SAV devices and then distribute crucial
   knowledge to widespread devices, thus significantly expanding defense
   across the entire network.

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
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 14 September 2023.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2023 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.

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   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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  SAV-D Architecture  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  SAV Controller  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  SAV Device  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.3.  Legacy Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.4.  Victims' Defense  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.5.  Connection Example  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  Workflow  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks have been a persistent
   cyber threat, where IP spoofing DDoS is one of the major
   contributors.  Amplification DDoS typically exploit IP spoofing to
   generate large volumes of traffic with small requests, allowing
   attackers to overwhelm the target's resources while evading
   detection.  Some other DDoS attacks (e.g., TCP SYN Flooding
   [RFC4987]) also forge source IP addresses in order to drain the
   target's resources.

   To eliminate IP spoofing, several Source Address Validation (SAV)
   schemes have been proposed, such as SAVI[RFC7039], uRPF[RFC3704] and
   EFP-uRPF[RFC8704].  However, the defense effectiveness of current SAV
   schemes highly depends on the SAV devices' deployment ratio.  A large
   number of spoofed packets can only be prevented with a significantly
   high deployment ratio, but the incremental deployment process is
   often slow.  According to CAIDA's Spoofer Project[CAIDA], 28.7% of
   IPv4 autonomous systems (excluding NAT), and 34.3% of IPv6 autonomous
   systems are still spoofable by March 2023.  This indicates a limited
   SAV deployment, thus the defense effectiveness.

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   In the above context, this document offers an SAV-based anti-DDoS
   architecture (SAV-D) that incorporates the following advances.

   *  SAV-honeynet based threat data collection.  Each SAV device
      functions as a honeypot that does not directly drop spoofed
      packets but instead records the spoofing characteristics and sends
      them to a centralized control plane.

   *  Collaborative defense with both SAV and non-SAV devices.  The
      control plane detects ongoing attacks and generates filtering
      rules.  These rules are then distributed to both SAV and non-SAV
      devices along the attack paths to manipulate malicious traffic.

   *  Threat information sharing with the victim-end.  The control plane
      shares attack detection information and IP blocklists with victim-
      end defense systems to assist their mitigations.

   Through the mechanisms of honeynet, data aggregation and
   distribution, SV-D can fully leverage the value of SAV devices and
   threat data, resulting in a significant defense improvement.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   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.

2.  Problem Statement

   The effectiveness of existing SAV schemes highly relies on the
   deployment ratio of devices, which is currently limited.  Adversaries
   often actively test their bots for plausibility, packet loss, and
   amplification benefits.  This testing can force the bots to migrate
   from SAV domains to non-SAV domains, resulting in fewer spoofed
   packets being blocked by SAV devices.  Additionally, uRPF and EFP-
   uRPF have issues with filtering accuracy in certain scenarios.  Some
   managers may hesitate to enable SAV due to the probability of
   filtering errors.  Moreover, SAV can prevent spoofed packets from
   being sent out, but it cannot provide protection for the deployers.
   The lack of direct benefits may also impede the deployment process.
   In this context, there is a strong need to improve the defense
   capabilities of current SAV practices.

   To achieve the goal, it is essential to consider the following
   limitations.  Firstly, due to the attack testing, directly dropping
   spoofed packets can reduce the possibility of capturing threat data.

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   Secondly, in amplification DDoS, the reflected packets sent to
   victims have the authentic src-IP, making them unfilterable by SAV
   devices.  Lastly, although today's SAV mechanism can filter spoofed
   packets at local devices, the important threat information they
   provide has yet to be fully utilized.  If victims were made aware of
   the type of spoofing traffic targeting them, they could execute
   faster and more accurate countermeasures.

3.  SAV-D Architecture

   +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
   |                Control Plane (SAV Controller)                   |
   +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
   |  +----------------+   +------------------+   +---------------+  |
   |  | Detecting DDoS |   | Generating Rules |   | Issuing Rules |  |
   |  +----------------+   +------------------+   +---------------+  |
   |                                                                 |
   |  +----------------+   +------------------+                      |
   |  |   Maintain IP  |   |  Sharing Threat  |                      |
   |  |   Blocklists   |   |  Information     |     ...              |
   |  +----------------+   +------------------+                      |
   +---------------/\------------------------------++----------------+
                   ||                              ||
                   ||                              ||
   +---------------++------------------------------\/----------------+
   |  Data Plane (SAV Devices, Legacy Devices, Victims' Defense)     |
   +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
   |  +------------+    +-----------------+    +-------------+       |
   |  | Monitoring |    | Receiving Rules |    |  Filtering  |  ...  |
   |  +------------+    +-----------------+    +-------------+       |
   +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

       Figure 1: The SAV-based Anti-DDoS Architecture

   The proposed SAV-D is shown in Figure 1.  It introduces a centralized
   control plane (i.e., the controller) that connects SAV devices,
   legacy devices, and victims' defense systems.  The controllers can
   collect spoofing characteristics from widespread SAV devices (as
   honeypots) and aggregate them for further analysis.  From a whole
   viewpoint, the controller can detect ongoing attacks and generate
   filtering rules for both SAV and non-SAV devices.  These rules will
   be distributed to corresponding devices to perform filtering.
   Additionally, the controller will share the attack information with
   the victims' defense system to assist in their defense operations.

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3.1.  SAV Controller

   The controller is a logical entity that can be implemented as a
   distributed or centralized cluster system.  The placement of
   controllers may take several factors into consideration, including
   latency, resiliency, and load balancing to connected devices.

   *  To collect spoofing information, the controller will passively
      receive the data sent from the certified SAV devices.  The
      collected spoofing information should include but not limited to
      timestamp, 5-tuple (i.e., src-IP, dst-IP, src-port, dst-port, and
      protocol), TCP flag, packet size, and amounts.  This information
      will be readily stored in a database for further analysis.

   *  To analyze the aggregated statistics, the controller retrieves the
      spoofing information periodically (e.g., every 10 seconds).  The
      spoofed packets are analyzed based on their src-IP to detect
      reflection attacks with certain algorithms.  A large volume of
      spoofed packets using a specific protocol (e.g., NTP, DNS) is a
      clear indication that the src-IP is being targeted by reflection
      attacks.  The detection results include the attack target, type,
      duration, malicious IP lists, etc.

   *  Generating filtering rules based on detection results is a
      straightforward process.  Before the reflection, the filtering
      rules are based on src-IP and ports.  After reflection, the src-IP
      is the server's address, and the dst-IP is the victim's address.
      Considering the reflected packets are often much larger than
      legitimate packets, filtering rules could be generated based on
      dst-IP, ports, and packet size.

   *  Communicating with relevant devices consists of two folds.  One
      fold is distributing filtering rules to SAV and legacy devices and
      receiving feedback from SAV devices.  The other fold is to provide
      the victim's defense system with attack detection information,
      which is essential to efficiently stop the attack traffic.

3.2.  SAV Device

   The SAV devices refer to routers or switches that are capable of
   validating the source IP address, including SAVI, uRPF, etc.
   Compared to simply dropping spoofed packets, SAV devices are required
   to selectively allow spoofed packets through if they do not match the
   filtering rules.  This mechanism can be considered as a SAV-honeynet
   that records threat data related to spoofing.

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   *  The SAV device must register it to the controller when being
      installed, in which a unique identification number and other
      information (e.g., location, management IP address) may needed.
      Whenever a spoofed packet is detected, the SAV device will record
      its timestamp, 5-tuple, TCP flag, packet size, and so on.
      However, only if the spoofed packet matches existing filtering
      rules, will the packet be dropped.  After a certain interval, the
      recorded data will be compressed and sent to the controller.

   *  Modern devices are generally capable of filtering based on packet
      length and counting the number of filtered packets.  Upon
      receiving filtering rules from the controller, the SAV device must
      install them into its data plane.  The SAV device also needs to
      record the number of packets filtered by each rule.  If a rule
      filters no packet during some periods, the rule will be
      automatically removed to save the rule's space.

3.3.  Legacy Device

   The commercial routers that are widely deployed in production are
   considered to be legacy devices.  Access Control List (ACL) is
   universally supported in today's routers for packet filtering.
   Legacy devices can achieve extensive filtering by simply connecting
   their management interface to the controller and receiving the rules.
   Since ACLs may vary across legacy devices, filtering rules must be
   adapted to meet the specific requirements of each device.  The legacy
   routers can join the SAV-D system by registering it to the controller
   with information similar to the SAV router.  Once registered, the
   legacy routers can receive the filtering rules from the controller in
   a safe and trusted channel.  These rules will be installed into the
   data plane.  Similar to SAV devices, if a rule filters no packet
   during some period, the rule will be automatically removed.

3.4.  Victims' Defense

   The SAV deployers can request access to the attack detection
   information related to themselves.  The information includes various
   details such as the attack target, type, duration, and malicious IP
   lists.  These details can serve as auxiliary signals to boost the
   detection time.  In addition, SAV-D can provide real-time updated IP
   blocklists, which can be efficiently used for blocking malicious
   traffic.  In an ideal situation, the defense system could provide an
   interface to directly receive the information and automatically
   perform corresponding filtering policies.  This mechanism could
   improve the effectiveness of DDoS defense and incentivize more SAV
   deployment.

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3.5.  Connection Example

               +-------------------------------+
   +-------+   |  +-------+         +-------+  |  +-------+
   | SR 1  +---+  | SC 1  +----+----+ SC 2  |  +--+ SR 3  |
   +-------+   |  +-------+    |    +-------+  |  +-------+
               |               |               |
   +-------+   |           +---+---+           |  +-------+
   | SR 2  +---+           | SC 3  |           +--+ SR 4  |
   +-------+   |           +-------+           |  +-------+
               +-------------------------------+
   SR: SAV router
   SC: SAV controller

         Figure 2: Connection Example of SAV Devices

   Figure 2 depicts a connection example of SAV-D system.  There are SAV
   routers distributed throughout the network, and they MUST communicate
   with the SAV controller in order to collaborate.  This document
   suggests that each SAV router stores several records of the SAV
   controller for backup.  Each SAV router MUST try to connect to its
   nearest SAV controller at all times.  If the SAV router loses contact
   with the present controller, it MUST seek the next closest
   controller.  Such a mechanism can assist SAV routers in maintaining
   connections to the best of their abilities.

   The SAV controller appears as a single entity to the external.
   Realizing the full functionality of the SAV controller MAY require
   many computing and storage resources.  As a result, the SAV
   controller can be built as clustered or distributed servers, where
   consistency and scalability are the primary concerns.  Each SAV
   controller can communicate with many SAV routers and perform the
   corresponding functions.

4.  Workflow

   The proposed SAV-D architecture can collaboratively defend the IP
   spoofing DDoS in a distributed pattern.  The typical procedures are
   described as follows.

   (i).  The SAV routers validate and record the characteristics of
   spoofed packets, and periodically send this data to the logically
   centralized controller, where the global spoofing information is
   aggregated.

   (ii).  Based on the aggregated statistics, the controller can
   accurately detect whether there are ongoing IP spoofing attacks with
   the help of predefined algorithms.

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   (iii).  Based on the detection results, the controller can generate
   defense policies for both SAV and non-SAV devices.  The policies
   mainly involve filtering rules on 5-tuple and packet size.

   (iv).  For detected attacks, the defense policies will be distributed
   to all SAV and legacy devices.  Moreover, the detection results will
   also be sent to the victim's defense system.

   (v).  The filtering rules will be installed on relevant devices to
   block the malicious packets.  If a rule filters no packet during some
   period, the rule will be automatically removed.

5.  Scalability

   When there are large amounts of devices introduced into the SAV-D,
   the control plane could be implemented with hierarchical structure,
   where multiple sub-level controllers are in charge of the devices
   inside AS domains.  The single top-level controller can exchange
   information (i.e., IP spoofing statistics and filtering rules) with
   these sub-level controllers.  Additionally, a large number of attacks
   and filtering rules could introduce another scalability problem.  One
   possible solution is to prioritize the mitigations of these attacks,
   where severe attacks will be tackled first so that the number of
   filtering rules will be limited to moderate scope.

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document includes no request to IANA.

7.  Security Considerations

   Adversaries may send forged IP spoofing statistics to the control
   plane or send forged filtering rules to SAV and legacy devices, which
   could cause severe harm to legitimate traffic.  To avoid this
   situation, the information transmissions of SAV-D could be encrypted
   with certification.  There could also be attacks directly on the
   SAV-D controllers.  As common systems, security systems (e.g.,
   firewalls) are essential to protect the controllers.  In addition,
   hot-standby controllers can also significantly improve security and
   availability.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC3704]  Baker, F. and P. Savola, "Ingress Filtering for Multihomed
              Networks", BCP 84, RFC 3704, DOI 10.17487/RFC3704, March
              2004, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3704>.

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   [RFC8704]  Sriram, K., Montgomery, D., and J. Haas, "Enhanced
              Feasible-Path Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding", BCP 84,
              RFC 8704, DOI 10.17487/RFC8704, February 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8704>.

   [RFC4987]  Eddy, W., "TCP SYN Flooding Attacks and Common
              Mitigations", RFC 4987, DOI 10.17487/RFC4987, August 2007,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4987>.

   [RFC7039]  Wu, J., Bi, J., Bagnulo, M., Baker, F., and C. Vogt, Ed.,
              "Source Address Validation Improvement (SAVI) Framework",
              RFC 7039, DOI 10.17487/RFC7039, October 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7039>.

   [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/rfc/rfc2119>.

   [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/rfc/rfc8174>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [CAIDA]    "State of IP Spoofing", March 2023,
              <https://spoofer.caida.org/summary.php>.

Acknowledgements

   TBD

Authors' Addresses

   Yong Cui
   Tsinghua University
   Beijing, 100084
   China
   Email: cuiyong@tsinghua.edu.cn
   URI:   http://www.cuiyong.net/

   Jianping Wu
   Tsinghua University
   Beijing, 100084
   China
   Email: jianping@cernet.edu.cn

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   Linbo Hui
   Zhongguancun Laboratory
   Beijing, 100094
   China
   Email: huilb@zgclab.edu.cn

   Lei Zhang
   Zhongguancun Laboratory
   Beijing, 100094
   China
   Email: zhanglei@zgclab.edu.cn

   Yannan Hu
   Zhongguancun Laboratory
   Beijing, 100094
   China
   Email: huyn@zgclab.edu.cn

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