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Distributed SUIT Architecture Model
draft-lee-suit-distarch-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Jong-Hyouk Lee , Park Jung-Soo
Last updated 2020-10-28
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draft-lee-suit-distarch-00
SUIT Working Group                                                J. Lee
Internet-Draft                                         Sejong University
Intended status: Standards Track                                 J. Park
Expires: May 1, 2021                                                ETRI
                                                        October 28, 2020

                  Distributed SUIT Architecture Model
                       draft-lee-suit-distarch-00

Abstract

   The management of data is entirely centralized on servers in a server
   client model which leads the servers to be high-value targets for
   adversaries.  Also, firmware consumers fail to download the latest
   firmware image if the author is disappeared in the server client
   model.  The distribution of network for managing the manifest and
   firmware image files thus required.  This draft introduces a
   distributed SUIT architecture model, which utilizes blockchains to
   resolve the issues of the server client model for SUIT.

Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL","SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]

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 May 1, 2021.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Motivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Distributed SUIT Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Example Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   In the existing SUIT architecture, firmware images and manifest files
   are stored in the firmware servers, which deploy the firmware images
   based on the traditional server-client model.  However, in the
   server-client model, servers may endure excessive network traffic and
   overload because of the centralized architecture.  As the number of
   IoT devices is rapidly increasing, the servers will be overwhelming
   to handle the requests from the IoT devices all around the world.
   Also, a server is a high-value target for adversaries since the
   server takes charge of data management.

   In the server-client model, the firmware consumers are unable to
   download the latest firmware image if the authors disappeared.  In
   this draft, we propose a distributed firmware update architecture by
   applying blockchain to the existing SUIT architecture.  The proposed
   distributed SUIT architecture decentralizes the requests from the IoT
   devices, prevents targeting attacks, and provides sustainable updates
   even after an author disappears.

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2.  Motivations

   The existing SUIT update architecture is as follows:

               Firmware +  +----------+       Firmware + +-----------+
               Manifest    |          |-+     Manifest   |           |-+
                +--------->| Firmware | |<---------------|           | |
                |          | Server   | |                |  Author   | |
                |          |          | |                |           | |
                |          +----------+ |                +-----------+ |
                |            +----------+                  +-----------+
                |
        /-------+-------\                       /-----------\
       /        v        \                     /             \
       | +------------+   |                   /               \
      |  |  Firmware  |    |                  |                |
     /   |  Consumer  |    \    Device       /    +--------+    \
     |   +------------+    |    Management   |    |        |    |
    /    |            |<----\---------------/---> | Status |     \
    `    |   Device   |      `              |     | Tracker|     |
   /     +------------+      \              /     |        |     \
   \                         /              |     +--------+     |
    \                       /               \                    /
    \                       /                \                  /
     \       Network       /                  |     Device      |
      ,      Operator      ,                  \    Operator    /
      \                   /                    |              |
       |                 |                      \             /
       \                 /                       '-----------'
        '----------------'

                   Figure 1: Existing SUIT Architecture

   The existing SUIT architecture can cause failures and targeting
   attacks due to the centralized server-client model.

   The author's continued service offer is not guaranteed.  The company
   and its servers may disappear due to an attacker's cyber-attack or
   funding problems.  In the worst case, all author nodes managed by the
   author may not function properly.  At this point, devices that have
   not been updated with the latest firmware before the author
   disappears can no longer update the firmware.  The existing SUIT
   architecture cannot solve author disappearing issues.

   If the firmware update does not complete properly, the client may not
   be able to use the newly provided service or the security patch and
   be exposed to the cyber-attack easily.

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3.  Distributed SUIT Architecture

   In the firmware update architecture based on server-client model, the
   firmware consumers request the firmware server to download the latest
   version of the firmware.  However, the traditional server-client
   method adopted in the existing SUIT architecture can cause several
   problems in network traffic, data security and firmware update
   persistence.

   In the server-client model, data is dependently managed by the server
   in a centralized structure.  Since many clients request one server,
   this centralized structure causes excessive overhead when excessive
   network traffic occurs and may cause a situation in which requests
   are not properly processed.  In addition, when an attacker attacks a
   server, it is impossible to use all data managed by the server, so an
   attack targeting the server may occur.

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                                      +------+
                                      |      |-+
                             +--------|Author| |
                             |        |      | |
                             |        +------+ |
                             |          +------+
                             |
                             | Firmware+
                             | Manifest
       Blockchain            |
        Network              |
      +----------------------|--------------------------+
      |                      V
      |               +------------+                    |
      |               |            |-+                  |
      |               |Registration| |                  |
      |               |    Node    | |                  |
      |               |            | |                  |
      |               +------------+ |                  |
      |                .+-------------                  |
      |               -               `.                |
      |             ,'                  \               |
      |            /                     '              |
      |          .'                       `.            |
      |   +------`-----+              +-----'------+    |
      |   |            |-+            |            |-+  |
      |   | Retrieval  | |            |  General   | |  |
      |   |    Node    | +------------+    Node    | |  |
      |   |            | |            |            | |  |
      |   +------------+ |            +------------+ |  |
      |     +------------+              +------------+  |
      |         |                                       |
      +---------+---------------------------------------+
                |
                | Firmware+
                | Manifest
                |
                |
                V
   +------------+
   |  Firmware  |
   |  Consumer  |
   +------------+
   |            |
   |   Device   |
   +------------+

                  Figure 2: Distributed SUIT Architecture

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   As shown in Figure 2, the authors upload the manifest files and
   firmware images to the blockchain network in the proposed firmware
   update architecture.  The IoT devices download the manifest files and
   firmware images through the blockchain network.  When an IoT device
   requests upload, the retrieval nodes retrieve the firmware images
   that were stored as chunks in a distributed file system and deliver
   the manifest file and firmware image after the device verified.

4.  Example Procedure

   TBA.

5.  Conclusion

   TBA.

6.  Security Considerations

   TBA.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document presents no IANA considerations.

8.  Normative References

   [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>.

Authors' Addresses

   Jong-Hyouk Lee
   Sejong University
   209, Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu
   Seoul  05006
   Republic of Korea

   EMail: jonghyouk@sejong.ac.kr

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   Jungsoo Park
   ETRI
   218, Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu
   Deajeon  34129
   Republic of Korea

   EMail: pjs@etri.re.kr

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