A Profile for Mapping Origin Authorizations (MOAs)
draft-ietf-sidrops-moa-profile-03
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (sidrops WG) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Chongfeng Xie , Guozhen Dong , Xing Li , Geoff Huston , Di Ma | ||
| Last updated | 2026-01-11 | ||
| Replaces | draft-xie-sidrops-moa-profile | ||
| RFC stream | Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
| Intended RFC status | (None) | ||
| Formats | |||
| Additional resources | Mailing list discussion | ||
| Stream | WG state | WG Document | |
| On agenda | sidrops at IETF-125 | ||
| Document shepherd | (None) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | I-D Exists | |
| Consensus boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Telechat date | (None) | ||
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| Send notices to | (None) |
draft-ietf-sidrops-moa-profile-03
Network Working Group C. Xie
Internet-Draft G. Dong
Intended status: Standards Track China Telecom
Expires: 16 July 2026 X. Li
CERNET Center/Tsinghua University
G. Huston
APNIC
D. Ma
ZDNS
12 January 2026
A Profile for Mapping Origin Authorizations (MOAs)
draft-ietf-sidrops-moa-profile-03
Abstract
This document proposes a new approach by leveraging Resource Public
Key Infrastructure (RPKI) architecture to verify the authenticity of
the mapping origin of an IPv4 address block. MOA is a newly defined
cryptographically signed object that provides a means for the address
holder can authorize an IPv6 mapping prefix to originate mapping for
one or more IPv4 prefixes. When receiving the MOA objects from the
relying parties, PE devices can verify and discard invalid address
mapping announcements from unauthorized IPv6 mapping prefixes to
prevent IPv4 prefix hijacking.
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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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 16 July 2026.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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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 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. Terminology, Abbreviations and Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. The MOA Content-Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. The MOA eContent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.1. Element version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2. Element mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2.1. type MOAIPMapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. MOA Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8. Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Appendix A. ASN.1 Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1. Introduction
This document defines a security enhancement for the address mapping
announcement in multi-domain IPv6-only underlay networks
[I-D.ietf-v6ops-framework-md-ipv6only-underlay]. For IPv4 service
delivery in an IPv6-only network, IPv6 mapping prefixes are
configured at the PE devices to identify the location of IPv4 address
blocks, for any given IPv4 address block, its corresponding IPv6
mapping prefix is considered as the mapping origin. In
[I-D.ietf-idr-mpbgp-extension-4map6], a PE device at the edge of the
IPv6-only network distributes the mapping between an IPv4 address
block and its mapping origin through 4map6 extension of MP-BGP.
Based on the obtained mapping data, the ingress PE can statelessly
transform the incoming IPv4 packets into IPv6 ones and send them to
the correct egress PE.
From the above, it can be seen that the correctness of transmitting
IPv4 service data in an IPv6-only network lies on the authenticity of
the address mapping relationship. This can be further explained by
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the case where if an attacker maps an IPv4 address block using a fake
IPv6 mapping prefix, IPv4 service data will be sent to the wrong
egress PE, resulting in a situation of IPv4 prefix hijacking. In a
small-scale controlled network, this problem may not be too serious.
However, as the scale of IPv6-only deployment increases and there is
interconnection among multiple operators, it is necessary to
guarantee the authenticity of mapping relationship. This document
proposes a new approach by leveraging Resource Public Key
Infrastructure (RPKI) architecture to verify the authenticity of the
mapping origin of an IPv4 address block. RPKI is a security
framework by which network owners can validate and secure the
critical route updates or BGP announcements between public Internet
networks [RFC6480]. For the scenario discussed, a new object, namely
Mapping Origin Authorization (MOA), under the RPKI framework is
defined in this document. MOA is a cryptographically signed mapping
object between an IPv4 address block and its right mapping origin
that is allowed to be declared in the announcement of MP-BGP. With
this architecture, a legitimate holder of IPv4 address block, e.g. an
ISP, can authorize an IPv6 mapping prefix to map IPv4 address block.
A distributed repository system stores and disseminates the data
objects that comprise the RPKI, as well as other signed objects
necessary for improved mapping data and routing security. When
receiving MOA objects from the relying parties, the PE routers can
use them for Mapping Origin Validation (MOV) of IPv4 address blocks:
verifying and discarding "invalid" address mapping announcements to
prevent IPv4 prefix hijacking in an IPv6 network.
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. Terminology, Abbreviations and Acronyms
The following abbreviations and acronyms are used in this document:
– CMS: Cryptographic Message Syntax
– MOA: Mapping Origin Authorization
– MOV: Mapping Origin Validation
– MP-BGP: Multiprotocol BGP
– PE: Provider Edge
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– PKI: Public Key Infrastructure
– RPKI: Resource Public Key Infrastructure
– ROA: Route Origin Authorization([RFC9582])
3. The MOA Content-Type
The content-type for a MOA is defined as MappingOriginAuthz and has
the numerical value of x.x.xxx.xxxxx.x.x.x.x.xx.
This OID MUST appear both within the eContentType in the
encapContentInfo object as well as the content-type signed attribute
in the signerInfo object (see [RFC6488]).
4. The MOA eContent
The content of a MOA identifies a single IPv6 mapping prefix that has
been authorized by the address holder to originate mapping of one or
more IPv4 prefixes that will be advertised. If the address holder
needs to authorize multiple IPv6 mapping prefixes to advertise the
same set of IPv4 prefixes, the holder issues multiple MOAs, one per
IPv6 mapping prefix. A MOA is formally defined as:
MappingOriginAttestation ::= SEQUENCE {
version [0] INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
mappings SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..MAX)) OF MOAIPMapping }
MOAIPMapping ::= SEQUENCE {
v6MappingPrefix IPv6MappingPrefix,
v4Prefixes SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..MAX)) OF IPv4Prefix }
IPv6MappingPrefix ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (0..ub-IPv6))
IPv4Prefix ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (0..ub-IPv4))
ub-IPv6 INTEGER ::= 128
ub-IPv4 INTEGER ::= 32
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Note that this content appears as the eContent within the
encapContentInfo (see [RFC6488]).
4.1. Element version
The version number of the MappingOriginAttestation MUST be xxx.
4.2. Element mappings
The mappings element encodes the set of address mapping behavior,
which indicates that the given IPv6 Mapping Prefix is authorized to
originate mappings for a single or a set of IPv4 prefixes.
4.2.1. type MOAIPMapping
Within the MOAIPMapping structure, v6MappingPrefix element contains
the IPv6 prefix used to originate mapping for a set of IPv4 prefixes.
The length of v6MappingPrefix can be set as 40, 48, 56, 64 or 96 in
actual deployment. The v4Prefixes element represents IPv4 prefixes
as a sequence of IPv4Prefix.
It is proposed to define a canonical ordering for v4Prefixes, which
allows RP software to more easily verify the contents of the
eContent. In section 3.3.2 of [I-D.ietf-sidrops-rpki-prefixlist], a
canonical form is defined such that every set of IPv4 address
prefixes has a unique representation. It can be used for the case of
MOA defined in this document.
To semantically compare, sort, and deduplicate the contents of the
v4Prefix field, each v4Prefix element is mapped to an abstract data
element composed of two integer values:
addr
The first IPv4 address of the IPv4 prefix appearing in the
v4Prefix field, as a 32-bit (IPv4) integer value.
plen
The prefix length of the IPv4 prefix appearing in the v4Prefix
address field as an integer value.
Thus, the equality or relative order of two v4Prefix elements can be
tested by comparing their abstract representations.
With comparator the set of v4Prefix is totally ordered. The order of
two v4Prefixes is determined by the first non-equal comparison in the
following list.
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1. Data elements with a lower addr value precede data elements with
a higher addr value.
2. Data elements with a lower plen value precede data elements with
a higher plen value.
Data elements for which all two values compare equal are duplicates
of one another.
5. MOA Validation
Before a relying party can use a MOA to validate a mapping
announcement received, the relying party MUST first validate the MOA.
To validate a MOA, the relying party MUST perform all the validation
checks specified in [RFC6488] as well as the following additional
MOA-specific validation step.
-The IP address delegation extension [RFC3779] is present in the end-
entity (EE) certificate (contained within the MOA), and each IPv4
prefix in the MOA is contained within the set of IP addresses
specified by the EE certificate’s IP address delegation extension.
6. Security Considerations
There is no assumption of confidentiality for the data in a MOA; it
is anticipated that MOAs will be stored in repositories that are
accessible to all ISPs, and perhaps to all Internet users. There is
no explicit authentication associated with a MOA, since the PKI used
for MOA validation provides authorization but not authentication.
Although the MOA is a signed, application-layer object, there is no
intent to convey non-repudiation via a MOA.
The purpose of a MOA is to convey authorization for an IPv6 mapping
prefix to originate a mapping to the prefix(es) in the MOA. Thus,
the integrity of a MOA MUST be established. The MOA specification
makes use of the RPKI signed object format; thus, all security
considerations in [RFC6448] also apply to MOAs. Additionally, the
signed object profile uses the CMS signed message format for
integrity; thus, MOAs inherit all security considerations associated
with that data structure.
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The right of the MOA signer to authorize the target IPv6 mapping
prefix to originate mappings to the prefix(es) is established through
use of the address space and IPv6 mapping prefix number PKI described
in [RFC6480]. Specifically, one MUST verify the signature on the MOA
using an X.509 certificate issued under this PKI, and check that the
prefix(es) in the ROA match those in the certificate’s address space
extension.
As mentioned in [I-D.ietf-idr-mpbgp-extension-4map6], the 4map6
extension is mainly used for controlled IPv6-only network operated by
single or multiple ISPs. In this scenario, as the IPv6 mapping
prefix indicates the direction of IPv4 service data transmission in
the IPv6-only network, and MOA is used to validate the mapping origin
of IPv4 address block, there is no need to use IPv4 ROA for the
validation of IPv4 BGP announcements; on the other hand, as the
operation of MOA depends on the authenticity of address authorization
in the underlying IPv6 network, if the IPv6 address prefix is
maliciously originated by a third-party AS, even if the IPv4 address
block is legitimately authorized to its corresponding IPv6 mapping
prefix, traffic hijacking may occur due to the malicious announcement
of the IPv6 mapping prefix. Therefore, it is recommended to also
deploy IPv6 ROA validation where MOA is deployed.
7. IANA Considerations
With this document, IANA is requested to allocate the code for MOA in
the registry of "RPKI Signed Objects". In addition, two OIDs need to
be assigned by IANA, one for the module identifier, and another one
for the content type. The codes will use this document as the
reference.
8. Acknowledgement
The authors would like to express sincere thanks to Russ Housley and
Job Snijders for their review, suggestions and contributions. Thanks
are also given to Nan Geng, Lancheng Qin, Jie Dong, Linda Dunba,
Jiankang Yao, Sriram Kotikalapudi, Giuseppe Fioccola, Yu Fu, Shunwan
Zhuang, Aijun Wang, Shengnan Yue and Cong Li for their review and
comments
9. References
9.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-sidrops-rpki-prefixlist]
Snijders, J. and G. Huston, "A profile for Signed Prefix
Lists for Use in the Resource Public Key Infrastructure
(RPKI)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
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sidrops-rpki-prefixlist-05, 10 December 2025,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-sidrops-
rpki-prefixlist-05>.
[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>.
[RFC3779] Lynn, C., Kent, S., and K. Seo, "X.509 Extensions for IP
Addresses and AS Identifiers", RFC 3779,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3779, June 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3779>.
[RFC5280] Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,
Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key
Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List
(CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, DOI 10.17487/RFC5280, May 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5280>.
[RFC5652] Housley, R., "Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS)", STD 70,
RFC 5652, DOI 10.17487/RFC5652, September 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5652>.
[RFC6448] Yount, R., "The Unencrypted Form of Kerberos 5 KRB-CRED
Message", RFC 6448, DOI 10.17487/RFC6448, November 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6448>.
[RFC6487] Huston, G., Michaelson, G., and R. Loomans, "A Profile for
X.509 PKIX Resource Certificates", RFC 6487,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6487, February 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6487>.
[RFC6488] Lepinski, M., Chi, A., and S. Kent, "Signed Object
Template for the Resource Public Key Infrastructure
(RPKI)", RFC 6488, DOI 10.17487/RFC6488, February 2012,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6488>.
[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>.
[RFC9582] Snijders, J., Maddison, B., Lepinski, M., Kong, D., and S.
Kent, "A Profile for Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs)",
RFC 9582, DOI 10.17487/RFC9582, May 2024,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9582>.
9.2. Informative References
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[I-D.ietf-idr-mpbgp-extension-4map6]
Xie, C., Dong, G., Li, X., Han, G., and Z. Guo, "MP-BGP
Extension and the Procedures for IPv4/IPv6 Mapping
Advertisement", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-
ietf-idr-mpbgp-extension-4map6-05, 3 December 2025,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-idr-
mpbgp-extension-4map6-05>.
[I-D.ietf-v6ops-framework-md-ipv6only-underlay]
Xie, C., Ma, C., Li, X., Mishra, G. S., and T. Graf,
"Framework for Multi-domain IPv6-only Underlay Network and
IPv4-as-a-Service", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
draft-ietf-v6ops-framework-md-ipv6only-underlay-16, 21
December 2025, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
draft-ietf-v6ops-framework-md-ipv6only-underlay-16>.
[RFC6480] Lepinski, M. and S. Kent, "An Infrastructure to Support
Secure Internet Routing", RFC 6480, DOI 10.17487/RFC6480,
February 2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6480>.
Appendix A. ASN.1 Module
This normative appendix provides an ASN.1 module that specifies the
MOA content in ASN.1 syntax.
RPKIMappingOriginAuthz-2024
{iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1)
pkcs9(9) smime(16) mod(0) TBD0 }
DEFINITIONS EXPLICIT TAGS ::= BEGIN
IMPORTS
CONTENT-TYPE
FROM CryptographicMessageSyntax-2009--in [RFC5911]
{ iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1)
pkcs9(9) smime(16) modules(0) id-mod-cms-2004-02(41) };
ct-MappingOriginAuthz CONTENT-TYPE ::=
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{ TYPE MappingOriginAttestation
IDENTIFIED BY id-ct-MappingOriginAuthz }
id-ct-MappingOriginAuthz OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::=
{ iso(1) member-body(2) us(840) rsadsi(113549) pkcs(1)
pkcs9(9)smime(16) ct(1) TBD1 }
MappingOriginAttestation ::= SEQUENCE {
version [0] INTEGER DEFAULT 0,
mappings SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..MAX)) OF MOAIPMapping }
MOAIPMapping ::= SEQUENCE {
v6MappingPrefix IPv6MappingPrefix,
v4Prefixes SEQUENCE (SIZE(1..MAX)) OF IPv4Prefix }
IPv6MappingPrefix ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (0..ub-IPv6))
IPv4Prefix ::= BIT STRING (SIZE (0..ub-IPv4))
ub-IPv6 INTEGER ::= 128
ub-IPv4 INTEGER ::= 32
END
Authors' Addresses
Chongfeng Xie
China Telecom
Beiqijia Town, Changping District
Beijing
102209
China
Email: xiechf@chinatelecom.cn
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Guozhen Dong
China Telecom
Beiqijia Town, Changping District
Beijing
102209
China
Email: donggz@chinatelecom.cn
Xing Li
CERNET Center/Tsinghua University
Shuangqing Road No.30, Haidian District
Beijing
100084
China
Email: xing@cernet.edu.cn
Geoff Huston
APNIC
Email: gih@apnic.net
Di Ma
ZDNS
Floor 21, Block B, Greenland Center
Beijing
100102
China
Email: madi@zdns.cn
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