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Padding Policies for Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS(0))
draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-06

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8467.
Author Alexander Mayrhofer
Last updated 2018-10-12 (Latest revision 2018-07-19)
Replaces draft-mayrhofer-dprive-padding-profile
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Intended RFC status Experimental
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Stream WG state Submitted to IESG for Publication
Document shepherd Brian Haberman
Shepherd write-up Show Last changed 2018-02-13
IESG IESG state Became RFC 8467 (Experimental)
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Consensus boilerplate Yes
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD Terry Manderson
Send notices to Brian Haberman <brian@innovationslab.net>, dns-privacy@ietf.org
IANA IANA review state Version Changed - Review Needed
IANA action state No IANA Actions
draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-06
Network Working Group                                       A. Mayrhofer
Internet-Draft                                               nic.at GmbH
Intended status: Experimental                              July 19, 2018
Expires: January 20, 2019

                       Padding Policy for EDNS(0)
                  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-06

Abstract

   RFC 7830 specifies the EDNS(0) 'Padding' option, but does not specify
   the actual padding length for specific applications.  This memo lists
   the possible options ("Padding Policies"), discusses implications of
   each of these options, and provides a recommended (experimental)
   option.

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 January 20, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 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 Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  General Guidance  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Padding Strategies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     4.1.  Block Length Padding - Recommended Strategy . . . . . . .   3
     4.2.  Other Strategies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       4.2.1.  Maximal Length Padding  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       4.2.2.  Random Length Padding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       4.2.3.  Random Block Length Padding . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.1.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-06 . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.2.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-05 . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     8.3.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-04 . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.4.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-03 . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.5.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-02 . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.6.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-01 . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.7.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-00 . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.8.  draft-mayrhofer-dprive-padding-profiles-00  . . . . . . .   8
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix A.  Non-sensible Padding Policies  . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     A.1.  No Padding  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     A.2.  Fixed Length Padding  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   [RFC7830] specifies the Extensions Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS(0))
   "Padding" option, which allows DNS clients and servers to
   artificially increase the size of a DNS message by a variable number
   of bytes, hampering size-based correlation of encrypted DNS messages.

   However, RFC 7830 deliberately does not specify the actual length of
   padding to be used.  This memo discusses options regarding the actual
   size of padding, lists advantages and disadvantages of each of these
   "Padding Strategies", and provides a recommended (experimental)
   strategy.

   Padding DNS messages is useful only when transport is encrypted,
   using protocols such as DNS over Transport Layer Security [RFC7858],
   DNS over Datagram Transport Layer Security [RFC8094] or other
   encrypted DNS transports specified in the future.

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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.

3.  General Guidance

   EDNS(0) options space: The maximum message length as dictated by the
   protocol limits the space for EDNS(0) options.  Since padding will
   reduce the message space available to other EDNS(0) options,
   "Padding" MUST be the last EDNS(0) option applied before a DNS
   message is sent.

   Resource Conservation: Especially in situations where networking and
   processing resources are scarce (e.g. battery powered long-life
   devices, low bandwidth or high cost links), the tradeoff between
   increased size of padded DNS messages and the corresponding gain in
   confidentiality must be carefully considered.

   Transport Protocol Independence: The message size used as input to
   the various padding strategies MUST be calculated excluding the
   potential extra 2-octet length field used in TCP transport.
   Otherwise, the padded (observable) size of the DNS packets could
   significantly change between different transport protocols, and
   reveal an indication of the original (unpadded) length.  For example,
   given a "Block Length" padding strategy with a block length of 32
   octets, and a DNS message with a size of 59 octets, the message would
   be padded to 64 octets when transported over UDP.  If that same
   message was transported over TCP, and the padding strategy would
   consider the extra 2 octets of the length field (61 octets in total),
   the padded message would be 96 octets long (as the minimum length of
   the Padding option is 4 octets).

4.  Padding Strategies

   This section contains a recommended strategy, as well as a non-
   exhaustive list of other sensible strategies in choosing padding
   length.  Note that, for completeness, Appendix A contains two more
   (non-sensible) strategies.

4.1.  Block Length Padding - Recommended Strategy

   Based on empirical research performed by Daniel K.  Gillmor
   [dkg-padding-ndss], EDNS Padding SHOULD be performed following the
   "Block Length Padding" strategy as follows:

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   (1)  Clients SHOULD pad queries to the closest multiple of 128
        octets.

   (2)  If a Server receives a query that includes the EDNS(0) Padding
        Option, it MUST pad the corresponding response (See Section 4 of
        RFC7830) and SHOULD pad the corresponding response to a multiple
        of 468 octets (see below).

   Note that the recommendation above applies only if the DNS transport
   is encrypted (See Section 6 of RFC 7830).

   In Block Length Padding, a sender pads each message so that its
   padded length is a multiple of a chosen block length.  This creates a
   greatly reduced variety of message lengths.  An implementor needs to
   consider that even the zero-length EDNS(0) Padding Option increases
   the length of the packet by 4 octets.

   Options: Block Length - for queries, values between 16 and 128 octets
   were discussed before empiric research was performed.  Responses will
   require larger block sizes (see [dkg-padding-ndss] and above for a
   discussion).

   Very large block lengths will have confidentiality properties similar
   to the "Maximal Length Padding" strategy (Section 4.2.1), since
   almost all messages will fit into a single block.  Such "very large
   block length" values are 288 bytes for the query (the maximum size of
   a one-question query over TCP, without any EDNS(0) options), and the
   EDNS(0) buffer size of the server for the responses.

   Advantages: This policy is reasonably easy to implement, reduces the
   variety of message ("fingerprint") sizes significantly, and does not
   require a source of (pseudo) random numbers, since the padding length
   required can be derived from the actual (unpadded) message.

   Disadvantage: Given an unpadded message and the block size of the
   padding (which is assumed to be public knowledge once a server is
   reachable), the size range of a padded message can be predicted.
   Therefore, the minimum length of the unpadded message can be infered.

   The empirical research cited above performed a simulation of padding,
   based on real-world DNS traffic captured on busy recursive resolvers
   of a research network.  The evaluation of the performance of
   individual padding policies was based on a "cost to attacker" and
   "cost to defender" function, where the "cost to attacker" was defined
   as the percentage of query/response pairs falling into the same size
   bucket, and "cost to defender" as the size factor between padded and
   unpadded messages.  Padding with a block size of 128 bytes on the
   query side, and 468 bytes on the response side was considered the

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   optimum trade-off between defender and attacker cost.  The response
   block size of 468 was chosen so that 3 blocks of 468 octets would
   still comfortably fit into typical Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
   size values.

   The Block Size will interact with the MTU size.  Especially for
   length values that are a large fraction of the MTU, unless the block
   length is chosen so that a multiple just fits into the MTU, Block
   Padding may cause unneccessary fragmentation for UDP based delivery.
   Also, chosing a block length larger than the MTU of course always
   forces to always fragment.

   Note: Once DNSSEC validating clients become more prevalent, observed
   size patterns are expected to change significantly.  In such case,
   the recommended strategy might need to be revisited.

4.2.  Other Strategies

4.2.1.  Maximal Length Padding

   In Maximal Length Padding the sender pads every message to the
   maximum size as allowed by protocol negotiations.

   Advantages: Maximal Length Padding, when combined with encrypted
   transport, provides the highest possible level of message size
   confidentiality.

   Disadvantages: Maximal Length Padding is wasteful, and requires
   resources on the client, all intervening network and equipment, and
   the server.  Depending on the negotiated size, this strategy will
   commonly exceed the MTU, and then result in a consistent number of
   fragments reducing delivery probability when datagram based transport
   (such as UDP) is used.

   Due to resource consumption, Maximal Length Padding is NOT
   RECOMMENDED.

4.2.2.  Random Length Padding

   When using Random Length Padding, a sender pads each message with a
   random amount of padding.  Due to the size of the EDNS(0) Padding
   Option itself, each message size is hence increased by at least 4
   octets.  The upper limit for padding is the maximum message size.
   However, a client or server may choose to impose a lower maximum
   padding length.

   Options: Maximum and minimum padding length.

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   Advantages: Theoretically, this policy should create a natural
   "distribution" of message sizes.

   Disadvantage: Random Length padding allows an attacker who can
   observe a large number of requests to infer the length of the
   original value by observing the distribution of total lengths.

   According to the limited empirical data available, Random Length
   Padding exposes slightly more entropy to an attacker than Block
   Length Padding.  Due to that, and the risk outlined above, Random
   Length Padding is NOT RECOMMENDED.

4.2.3.  Random Block Length Padding

   This policy combines Block Length Padding with a random component.
   Specifically, a sender randomly chooses between a few block length
   values and then applies Block Length Padding based on the chosen
   block length.  The random selection of block length might even be
   reasonably based on a "weak" source of randomness, such as the
   transaction ID of the message.

   Options: Number of and the values for the set of Block Lengths,
   source of "randomness"

   Advantages: Compared to Block Length Padding, this creates more
   variety in the resulting message sizes for a certain individual
   original message length.

   Disadvantage: Requires more implementation effort compared to simple
   Block Length Padding

   Random Block Length Padding (as other combinations of padding
   strategies) requires further empirical study.

5.  Acknowledgements

   Daniel K.  Gillmor performed empirical research out of which the
   "Recommended Strategy" was copied.  Stephane Bortzmeyer and Hugo
   Connery provided text.  Shane Kerr, Sara Dickinson, Paul Hoffman,
   Magnus Westerlund, Charlie Kaufman, Joe Clarke and Meral Shirazipour
   performed reviews or provided substantial comments.

6.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no considerations for IANA.

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7.  Security Considerations

   The choice of the right padding policy (and the right parameters for
   the chosen policy) has a significant impact on the resilience of
   encrypted DNS against size-based correlation attacks.  Therefore, any
   implementor of EDNS(0) Padding must carefully consider which policies
   to implement, the default policy chosen, which parameters to make
   configurable, and the default parameter values.

   No matter how carefully a client selects their Padding policy, this
   effort can be jeopardized if the server chooses to apply an
   ineffective Padding policy to the corresponding response packets.
   Therefore, a client applying Padding may want to choose a DNS server
   which does apply at least an equally effective Padding policy on
   responses.

   Note that even with encryption and padding, it might be trivial to
   identify that the observed traffic is DNS.  Also, padding does not
   prevent information leak via other side channels (particularly timing
   information and number of query/response pairs).  Counter-measures
   against such other side channels could include injecting artificial
   "cover traffic" into the stream of DNS messages, or delaying DNS
   responses by a certain amount of jitter.  Such strategies are out of
   scope of this document.  Additionally, there is neither enough
   theoretic analysis nor experimental data available to recommend any
   such countermeasures.

8.  Changes

   [Note to RFC Editors: This whole section is to be removed before
   publication]

8.1.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-06

   Changes based on IESG evaluation: Removed duplicate paragraph about
   MTU impact, switched Terminology boilerplate to RFC8174, changed text
   regarding Random Padding, changed text regarding very large block
   paddings, some minor edits.

8.2.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-05

   Changes based on outcomes of IETF-wide LC + various reviews: Meral
   Shirazipour (Gen-ART), Charlie Kaufmann (SECDIR), Joe Clarke (OPSDIR
   - changed document flow based on comments),

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8.3.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-04

   Changes based on WGLC: Changed implementor consideration text in
   Security Con section (Sara), moved "No Padding" and "Fixed Length
   Padding" to appendix (Stephane, Paul), Changed TODO in Random Padding
   to info from empirical study (Stephen), Added note to pad only if
   transport encrypted (Stephen), added intro text referencing to
   DNSoTLS and DNSoDTLS (Stephane), added text about timing/jitter to
   security considerations.

8.4.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-03

   Editorial changes in various spots.  Added text about excluding TCP
   length field, more security considerations, addressing Sara's other
   feedback to -02.

8.5.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-02

   Changed Document Status to Experimental, added "maximum length"
   padding policy, reworded "block length" policy, some editorial
   changes.

8.6.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-01

   Some (mostly editorial) changes to text.  Added "Recommendation"
   section based on dkg's research.

8.7.  draft-ietf-dprive-padding-policy-00

   Initial (mostly unmodified) WG version.  Changed "Profile" to
   "Policy" to avoid confusion with the (D)TLS profiles document.

8.8.  draft-mayrhofer-dprive-padding-profiles-00

   Initial version

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [dkg-padding-ndss]
              Gillmor, D., "Empirical DNS Padding Policy", March 2017,
              <https://dns.cmrg.net/
              ndss2017-dprive-empirical-DNS-traffic-size.pdf>.

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   [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>.

   [RFC7830]  Mayrhofer, A., "The EDNS(0) Padding Option", RFC 7830,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7830, May 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7830>.

   [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>.

9.2.  Informative References

   [RFC7858]  Hu, Z., Zhu, L., Heidemann, J., Mankin, A., Wessels, D.,
              and P. Hoffman, "Specification for DNS over Transport
              Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 7858, DOI 10.17487/RFC7858, May
              2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7858>.

   [RFC8094]  Reddy, T., Wing, D., and P. Patil, "DNS over Datagram
              Transport Layer Security (DTLS)", RFC 8094,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8094, February 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8094>.

Appendix A.  Non-sensible Padding Policies

A.1.  No Padding

   In the "No Padding" policy, the EDNS0 Padding option is not used, and
   the size of the final (actually, "non-padded") message obviously
   exactly matches the size of the unpadded message.  Even though this
   "non-policy" seems redundant in this list, its properties must be
   considered for cases where just one of the parties (client or server)
   applies padding.

   Also, this "policy" is required when the remaining message size of
   the unpadded message does not allow for the Padding option to be
   included (less than 4 octets left).

   Advantages: This "policy" requires no additional resources on client,
   server and network side.

   Disadvantages: The original size of the message remains unchanged,
   hence this approach provides no additional confidentiality.

   "No Padding" MUST NOT be used unless message size disallows the use
   of Padding.

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A.2.  Fixed Length Padding

   In fixed length padding, a sender chooses to pad each message with a
   padding of constant length.

   Options: Actual length of padding

   Advantages: Since the padding is constant in length, this policy is
   very easy to implement, and at least ensures that the message length
   diverges from the length of the original packet (even only by a fixed
   value)

   Disadvantage: Obviously, the amount of padding easily discoverable
   from a single unencrypted message, or by observing message patterns.
   When a public DNS server applies this policy, the length of the
   padding hence must be assumed to be public knowledge.  Therefore,
   this policy is (almost) as useless as the "No Padding" option
   described above.

   "Fixed Length Padding" MUST NOT be used except for test applications.

Author's Address

   Alexander Mayrhofer
   nic.at GmbH
   Karlsplatz 1/2/9
   Vienna  1010
   Austria

   Email: alex.mayrhofer.ietf@gmail.com
   URI:   http://edns0-padding.org/

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