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Security Threats for Simplified Multicast Forwarding (SMF)
draft-ietf-manet-smf-sec-threats-00

The information below is for an old version of the document.
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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7985.
Authors Jiazi Yi , Thomas H. Clausen , Ulrich Herberg
Last updated 2014-08-13
Replaces draft-yi-manet-smf-sec-threats
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draft-ietf-manet-smf-sec-threats-00
Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET)                                   J. Yi
Internet-Draft                                                T. Clausen
Intended status: Informational                  LIX, Ecole Polytechnique
Expires: February 14, 2015                                    U. Herberg
                                         Fujitsu Laboratories of America
                                                         August 13, 2014

       Security Threats for Simplified Multicast Forwarding (SMF)
                  draft-ietf-manet-smf-sec-threats-00

Abstract

   This document analyzes security threats of the Simplified Multicast
   Forwarding (SMF), including the vulnerabilities of duplicate packet
   detection and relay set selection mechanisms.  This document is not
   intended to propose solutions to the threats described.

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 http://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 February 14, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 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
   (http://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
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as

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   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  SMF Threats Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   4.  Threats to Duplicate Packet Detection  . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     4.1.  Threats to Identification-based Duplicate Packet
           Detection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
       4.1.1.  Pre-activation Attacks (Pre-Play)  . . . . . . . . . .  6
       4.1.2.  De-activation Attacks (Sequence Number wrangling)  . .  6
     4.2.  Threats to Hash-based Duplicate Packet Detection . . . . .  7
       4.2.1.  Replay Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
       4.2.2.  Attack on Hash-Assistant Value . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   5.  Threats to Relay Set Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     5.1.  Relay Set Selection Common Threats . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.2.  Threats to E-CDS Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       5.2.1.  Link Spoofing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       5.2.2.  Identity Spoofing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.3.  Threats to S-MPR Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     5.4.  Threats to MPR-CDS Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   7.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   8.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     8.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     8.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

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1.  Introduction

   This document analyzes security threats of the Simplified Multicast
   Forwarding (SMF) mechanism [RFC6621].  SMF aims at providing basic
   Internet Protocol (IP) multicast forwarding, in a way which is
   suitable for limited wireless mesh and Mobile Ad hoc NETworks
   (MANET).  SMF is constituted of two major functional components:
   Duplicate Packet Detection and Relay Set Selection.

   SMF is typically used in decentralized wireless environments, and is
   potentially exposed to different kinds of attacks and
   misconfigurations.  Some of the threats are of particular
   significance as compared to wired networks.  In [RFC6621], SMF does
   not define any explicit security measures for protecting the
   integrity of the protocol.

   This document is based on the assumption that no additional security
   mechanism such as IPsec is used in the IP layer, as not all MANET
   deployments may be suitable to deploy common IP protection mechanisms
   (e.g., because of limited resources of MANET routers to support the
   IPsec stack).  The document analyzes possible attacks on and mis-
   configurations of SMF and outlines the consequences of such attacks/
   mis-configurations to the state maintained by SMF in each router
   (and, thus, made available to protocols using this state).

   This document aims at analyzing and describing the potential
   vulnerabilities of and attack vecors for SMF.  While completeness in
   such an analysis always is a goal, no claims of being complete are
   made.  The goal of this document is to be helpful for when deploying
   SMF in a network and needing to understand the risks thereby incurred
   - as wll as for providing a reference and documented experience with
   SMF as input for possibly future developments of SMF.

   This document is not intended to propose solutions to the threats
   described.  [RFC7182] provides a framework, which can be used with
   SMF, and which - depending on how it is used - may offer some degree
   of protection against the threats described in this document related
   to identity spoofing.

2.  Terminology

   This document uses the terminology and notation defined in [RFC2119],
   [RFC5444], [RFC6621] and [RFC4949].

   Additionally, this document introduces the following terminology:

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   SMF router:  A MANET router, running SMF as specified in [RFC6621].

   Attacker:  A device that is present in the network and intentionally
      seeks to compromise the information bases in SMF routers.

   Compromised SMF router:  An attacker, present in the network and
      which generates syntactically correct SMF control messages.
      Control messages emitted by a compromised SMF router may contain
      additional information, or omit information, as compared to a
      control message generated by a non-compromized SMF router located
      in the same topological position in the network.

   Legitimate SMF router:  An SMF router, which is not a compromised SMF
      Router.

3.  SMF Threats Overview

   SMF requires an external dynamic neighborhood discovery mechanism in
   orde to maintain suitable topological information describing its
   immediate neighborhood, and thereby allowing it to select reduced
   relay sets for forwarding multicast data traffic.  Such an external
   dynamic neighborhood discovery mechanism MAY be provided by lower-
   layer interface information, by a concurrently operating MANET
   routing protocol which already maintains such information such as
   [RFC7181], or by explicitly using MANET Neighborhood Discovery
   Protocol (NHDP) [RFC6130].  If NHDP is used for neighborhood
   discovery by SMF, SMF implicitly inherits the vulnerabilities of
   NHDP, as discussed in [RFC7186].  This document assumes that NHDP is
   used.

   Based on neighborhood discovery mechanisms, SMF specified two major
   functional components: Duplicate Packet Detection (DPD) and Relay Set
   Selection (RSS).

   DPD is required by SMF in order to be able to detect duplicate
   packets and eliminate their redundant forwarding.  An Attacker has
   several ways in which to harm the DPD mechanisms:

   o  It can "deactivate" DPD, so as to make it such that duplicate
      packets are not correctly detected, and that as a consequence they
      are (redundantly) transmitted, increasing the load on the network,
      draing the batteries of the routers involved, etc.

   o  It can "pre-activate" DPD, so as to make DPD detect a later
      arriving (valid) packet as being a duplicate, which therefore
      won't be forwarded"

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   The attacks on DPD are detailed in Section 4.

   RSS produces a reduced relay set forforwarding multicast data packets
   across the MANET.  SMF supports the use of several relay set
   algorithms, including E-CDS (Essential Connected Dominating Set),
   S-MPR (Source-based Multi-point Relay, as known from [RFC3626] and
   [RFC7181]), or MPR-CDS.  An Attacker can disrupt the RSS algorithm,
   by degrading it to classical flooding, or by "masking" certain part
   of the routers from the multicasting domain.  The attacks to RSS
   algorithms are illustrated in Section 5.

4.  Threats to Duplicate Packet Detection

   Duplicate Packet Detection (DPD) is required for packet dissemination
   in MANET because the packets may be transmitted via the same physical
   interface as the one over which they were received.  A router may
   also receive multiple copies of the same packets from different
   neighbors.  DPD is thus used to check if an incoming packet has been
   received or not.

   DPD is achieved by a router maintaining a record of recently
   processed multicast packets, and comparing later received multicast
   herewith.  A duplicate packet detected is silently dropped, and is
   not inserted into the forwarding path of that router, nor is it
   delivered to an application.  DPD, as proposed by SMF, supports both
   IPv4 and IPv6 and for each suggests two duplicate packet detection
   mechanisms: 1) header content identification-based DPD (I-DPD), using
   packet headers, in combination with flow state, to estimate temporal
   uniqueness of a packet, and 2) hash-based DPD (H-DPD), employing
   hashing of selected header fields and payload for the same effect.

   As they are distinct mechanisms, the threats to I-DPD and H-DPD are
   discussed separately.

4.1.  Threats to Identification-based Duplicate Packet Detection

   I-DPD uses a specific DPD identifier in the packet header to identify
   a packet.  By default, such packet identification is not provided by
   the IP packet header (for both IPv4 and IPv6).  Therefore, additional
   identification header, such as the fragment header, a hop-by-hop
   header option, or IPSec sequencing, must be employed in order to
   support I-DPD.  The uniqueness of a packet can then be identified by
   the [source IP address] of the packet originator, and the [sequence
   number] (from the fragment header, hop-by-hop header option, or
   IPsec).  By doing so, each intermediate router can keep a record of
   recently received packet, and determine the coming packet has been
   received or not.

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4.1.1.  Pre-activation Attacks (Pre-Play)

   In a wireless environment, or across any other shared channel, a
   compromised SMF router can perceive the identification tuple [source
   IP, sequence number] of a packet.  If sequence number progression is
   predictable, then it is trivial to generate aand inject invalid
   packets with "future" identification information into the network.
   If these invalid packets arrive before the legitimate packets that
   they're spoofing, the latter will be treated as a duplicates and
   discarded.  This can prevent multicast packets from reaching parts of
   the network.

   Figure 1 gives an example of pre-activation attack.  A, B, and C are
   legitimate SMF routers, and X is the compromised SMF router.  The
   line between the routers presents the packet forwarding.  Router A is
   the source and originates a multicast packet with sequence number n.
   When router X receives the packet, it generates an invalid packet
   with the the source address of A, and sequence number n.  If the
   invalid packet arrives at router C before the forwarding of router B,
   the valid packet will be dropped by C as duplicate packet.  In a
   wireless environment, jitter is commonly used to avoid systematic
   collisions at MAC layer [RFC5148], thus an attacker can increase the
   probability that its invalid packets arrive first by retransmitting
   them without jittering.

                                .---.
                                | X |
                              --'---' __
       packet with seq=n     /          \  invalid packet with seq=n
                            /            \
                        .---.              .---.
                        | A |              | C |
                        '---'              '---'
       packet with seq=n    \    .---.   /
                             \-- | B |__/  valid packet with seq=n
                                 '---'

                                 Figure 1

4.1.2.  De-activation Attacks (Sequence Number wrangling)

   A compromised SMF router can also seek to de-activate DPD, by
   modifying the sequence number in packets that it forwards.  Thus,
   routers will not be able to detect an actual duplicate packet as a
   duplicate - rather, they will treat them as new packets, i.e.,
   process and forward them.  This is similar to DoS attack.  The
   consequence of this attack is an increased channel load, the origin

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   of which appears to be a router other than the compromised SMF
   router.

   Given the topology shown in Figure 1, on receiving packet with seq=n,
   the attacker X can forward the packet with modified sequence number
   n+i.  This has two consequences: firstly, router C will not be able
   to detect the packet forwarded by X is a duplicate packet; secondly,
   the consequent packet with seq=n+i generated by router A probably
   will be treated as duplicate packet, and dropped by router C.

4.2.  Threats to Hash-based Duplicate Packet Detection

   When it is not feasible to have explicit sequence numbers in packet
   headers, hash-based DPD can be used.  A hash of the non-mutable
   fields in the header of and the data payload can be generated, and
   recorded at the intermediate routers.  A packet can thus be uniquely
   identified by the source IP address of the packet, and its hash-
   value.

   The hash algorithm used by SMF is being applied only to provide a
   reduced probability of collision and is not being used for
   cryptographic or authentication purposes.  Consequently, a digest
   collision is still possible.  In case the source router or gateway
   identifies that it recently has generated or injected a packet with
   the same hash-value, it inserts a "Hash-Assist Value (HAV)" IPv6
   header option into the packet, such that calculating the hash also
   over this HAV will render the resulting value unique.

4.2.1.  Replay Attack

   A replay attack implies that control traffic from one region of the
   network is recorded and replayed in a different region at (almost)
   the same time, or in the same region at a different time.

   One possible replay attack is based on the Time-to-Live (TTL, for
   IPv4) or hop limit (for IPv6) field.  As routers only forward packets
   with TTL > 1, a compromised SMF router can forward an otherwise valid
   packet, while drastically reducing the TTL hereof.  This will inhibit
   recipient routers from later forwarding the same multicast packet,
   even if received with a different TTL - essentially a compromised SMF
   router thus can instruct its neighbors to block forwarding of valid
   multicast packets.  As the TTL of a packet is intended to be
   manipulated by intermediaries forwarding it, classic methods such as
   integrity check values (e.g., digital signatures) are typically
   calculated with setting TTL fields to some pre-determined value
   (e.g., 0) - such is for example the case for IPsec Authentication
   Headers - rendering such an attack more difficult to both detect and
   counter.  If the compromised SMF router has access to a "wormhole"

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   through the network (a directional antenna, a tunnel to a
   collaborator or a wired connection, allowing it to bridge parts of a
   network otherwise distant) it can make sure that the packets with
   such an artificially reduced TTL arrive before their unmodified
   counterparts.

4.2.2.  Attack on Hash-Assistant Value

   The HAV header is helpful when a digest collision happens.  However,
   it also introduces a potential vulnerability.  As the HAV option is
   only added when the source or the ingressing SMF router detects that
   the coming packet has digest collision with previously generated
   packets, it actually can be regarded as a "flag" of potential digest
   collision.  A compromised SMF router can discover the HAV header, and
   be able to conclude a hash collision is possible if the HAV header is
   removed.  By doing so, other SMF routers receiving the modified
   packet will be treated as duplicate packet, and be dropped because it
   has the same hash value with precedent packet.

   In the example of Figure Figure 2, Router A and B are legitimate SMF
   routers, X is a compromised SMF router.  A generate two packets P1
   and P2, with the same hash value h(P1)=h(P2)=x.  Based on SMF
   specification, a hash-assistant value (HAV) is added to the latter
   packet P2, so that h(P2+HAV)=x', to avoid digest collision.  When the
   attacker X detects the HAV of P2, it is able to conclude that a
   collision is possible by removing the HAV header.  By doing so,
   packet P2 will be treated as duplicate packet by router B, and be
   dropped.

              P2            P1                P2         P1
   .---.  h(P2+HAV)=x'    h(P1)=x    .---.  h(P2)=x     h(P1)=x    .---.
   | A |---------------------------> | X | ----------------------> | B |
   `---'                             `---'                         `---'

                                 Figure 2

5.  Threats to Relay Set Selection

   A framework for RSS mechanism, rather than a specific RSS algorithm
   is provided by SMF.  It is normally achieved by distributed
   algorithms that can dynamically generate a topological Connected
   Dominating Set based on 1-hop and 2-hop neighborhood information.  In
   this section, the common threats to the RSS framework are first
   discussed.  Then the three commonly used algorithms: Essential

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   Connection Dominating Set (E-CDS) algorithm, Source-based Multipoint
   Relay (S-MPR) and Multipoint Relay Connected Dominating Set (MPR-CDS)
   are analyzed.

5.1.  Relay Set Selection Common Threats

   The common threats to RSS algorithms, including Denial of Service
   attack, eavesdropping, message timing attack and broadcast storm have
   been discussed in [RFC7186].

5.2.  Threats to E-CDS Algorithm

   The "Essential Connected Dominating Set" (E-CDS) algorithm [RFC5614]
   forms a single CDS mesh for the SMF operating region.  It requires
   2-hop neighborhood information (the identify of the neighbors, the
   link to the neighbors and neighbors' priority information) collected
   through NHDP or another process.

   An SMF Router select itself as a relay, if:

   o  The SMF Router has a higher priority than all of its symmetric
      neighbors, or

   o  There does not exist a path from the neighbor with largest
      priority to any other neighbor, via neighbors with greater
      priority.

   A Compromised SMF Router can disrupt the E-CDS algorithm by link
   spoofing or identity spoofing.

5.2.1.  Link Spoofing

   Link spoofing implies that a Compromised SMF Router advertises non-
   existing links to another router (present in the network or not).

   A Compromised SMF Router can declare itself with high route priority,
   and spoofs the links to as many Legitimate SMF Routers as possible to
   declare high connectivity.  By doing so, it can prevent Legitimate
   SMF Routers from self-selecting as relays.  As the "super" relay in
   the network, the Compromised SMF Router can manipulate the traffic
   relayed by it.

5.2.2.  Identity Spoofing

   Identity spoofing implies that a compromised SMF router determines
   and makes use of the identity of other legitimate routers, without
   being authorised to do so.  The identity of other routers can be
   obtained by overhearing the control messages or source/destination

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   address from datagram.  The compromised SMF router can then generate
   control or datagram traffic, pretending to be a legitimate router.

   Because E-CDS self-selection is based on the router priority value, a
   compromised SMF router can spoof the identity of other legitimate
   routers, and declares a different router priority value.  If it
   declares a higher priority of a spoofed router, it can prevent other
   routers from selecting themselves as relays.  On the other hand, if
   the compromised router declares lower priority of a spoofed router,
   it can enforces other routers to selecting themselves as relays, to
   degrade the multicast forwarding to classical flooding.

5.3.  Threats to S-MPR Algorithm

   The source-based multipoint relay (S-MPR) set selection algorithm
   enables individual routers, using 2-hop topology information, to
   select relays from their set of neighboring routers.  MPRs are
   selected so that forwarding to the router's complete 2-hop neighbor
   set is covered.

   An SMF router forwards a multicast packet if and only if:

   o  the packet is not received before, and

   o  the neighbor from which the packet was received has selected the
      router as MPR.

   Because MPR calculation is based on the willingness declared by the
   SMF routers, and the connectivity of the routers, it can be disrupted
   by both link spoofing and identity spoofing.  The threats and its
   impacts have been illustrated in section 5.1 of [RFC7186].

5.4.  Threats to MPR-CDS Algorithm

   MPR-CDS is a derivative from S-MPR.  The main difference between
   S-MPR and MPR-CDS is that while S-MPR forms a different broadcast
   tree for each source in the network, MPR-CDS forms a unique broadcast
   tree for all sources in the network.

   As MPR-CDS combines E-CDS and S-MPR, the vulnerabilities of E-CDS and
   S-MPR that discussed in Section 5.2 and Section 5.3 apply to MPR-CDS
   also.

6.  Security Considerations

   This document does not specify a protocol or a procedure.  The
   document, however, reflects on security considerations for SMF for

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   packet dissemination in MANETs.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document contains no actions for IANA.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC5614]  Ogier, R. and P. Spagnolo, "Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET)
              Extension of OSPF Using Connected Dominating Set (CDS)
              Flooding", RFC 5614, August 2009.

   [RFC6621]  Macker, J., "Simplified Multicast Forwarding", RFC 6621,
              May 2012.

   [RFC7186]  Yi, J., Herberg, U., and T. Clausen, "Security Threats for
              the Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (NHDP)", RFC 7186,
              April 2014.

8.2.  Informative References

   [RFC3626]  Clausen, T. and P. Jacquet, "The Optimized Link State
              Routing Protocol", RFC 3626, October 2003.

   [RFC4949]  Shirey, R., "Internet Security Glossary, Version 2",
              RFC 4949, August 2007.

   [RFC5148]  Clausen, T., Dearlove, C., and B. Adamson, "Jitter
              Considerations in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs)",
              RFC 5148, February 2008.

   [RFC5444]  Clausen, T., Dearlove, C., Dean, J., and C. Adjih,
              "Generalized MANET Packet/Message Format", RFC 5444,
              February 2009.

   [RFC6130]  Clausen, T., Dean, J., and C. Dearlove, "Mobile Ad Hoc
              Network (MANET) Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (NHDP)",
              RFC 6130, April 2011.

   [RFC7181]  Clausen, T., Dearlove, C., Jacquet, P., and U. Herberg,
              "The Optimized Link State Routing Protocol version 2",

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              RFC 7181, April 2014.

   [RFC7182]  Herberg, U., Clausen, T., and C. Dearlove, "Integrity
              Check Value and Timestamp TLV Definitions for Mobile Ad
              Hoc Networks (MANETs)", RFC 7182, April 2014.

Authors' Addresses

   Jiazi Yi
   LIX, Ecole Polytechnique
   91128 Palaiseau Cedex,
   France

   Phone: +33 1 77 57 80 85
   Email: jiazi@jiaziyi.com
   URI:   http://www.jiaziyi.com/

   Thomas Heide Clausen
   LIX, Ecole Polytechnique
   91128 Palaiseau Cedex,
   France

   Phone: +33 6 6058 9349
   Email: T.Clausen@computer.org
   URI:   http://www.thomasclausen.org/

   Ulrich Herberg
   Fujitsu Laboratories of America
   1240 E Arques Ave
   Sunnyvale, CA 94085
   USA

   Email: ulrich@herberg.name
   URI:   http://www.herberg.name/

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