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The checksum in DIASER/UDP/IP is a XOR without STX
draft-petrescu-ipwave-diaser-checksum-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Alexandre Petrescu , Mariama Sarr
Last updated 2019-04-26
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draft-petrescu-ipwave-diaser-checksum-00
IPWAVE Working Group                                         A. Petrescu
Internet-Draft                                                   M. Sarr
Intended status: Standards Track                               CEA, LIST
Expires: October 28, 2019                                 April 26, 2019

           The checksum in DIASER/UDP/IP is a XOR without STX
                draft-petrescu-ipwave-diaser-checksum-00

Abstract

   This document defines the manner in which to calculate the checksum
   for the protocol DIASER.  DIASER is a protocol for communication with
   traffic lights controllers used in France.  DIASER is specified at
   AFNOR.  The specification misses an instruction on how to compute the
   'BCC' checksum ('Byte Character Control').

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
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   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 October 28, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 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
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  DIASER Protocol and IETF Protocols  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Checksum  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   6.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   8.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   Appendix A.  ChangeLog  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

1.  Terminology

   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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

2.  DIASER Protocol and IETF Protocols

   The DIASER protocol does this and that with a Traffic Lights
   controller - it is an Application Layer protocol.  DIASER can be
   transported over UDP and over IP.  The DIASER specification is
   available at a cost from AFNOR, on the World Wide Web.  The DIASER
   specification does not describe the mechanism to compute the checksum
   'BCC' (Byte Control Character).  There exist several verbal (oral)
   versions of this mechanism: to cover or not to cover the STX (Start
   of Text), or the ETX (End of Text).  Studying some implementations of
   a particular controller (Aximum) and packet dumps from independent
   sources, lead to a possibility to reverse engineer the specification
   of the checksum calculation of DIASER.

   The DIASER protocol is an application layer protocol.  Initially it
   was designed to run on serial lines like RS-232.  Later on it was put
   on UDP (User Datagram Protocol).  The UDP protocol is an IETF
   protocol.  Running DIASER over UDP over IP is a great fact; contrary
   to RS-232, it allows to query a Traffic Lights Controller from a
   remote 'Poste de Commande et Control', and further from any other
   point in the Internet; second, it allows to query the controller over
   the future generation of Internet Protocol namely IPv6; thirdly, it
   allows to query the controller from nearby like an autonomous
   shuttle, with lower latency communications, thus supporting higher
   autonomous shuttle speeds; fourthly, it is easy to secure - rely on
   numerous security tools for software (IPsec, VPN) widely available
   and enjoy trust developped by Certificate Authorities and Let's
   Encrypt.

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   IETF has its own way to specify a checksum.  UDP, ICMP and other IETF
   protocols use a unique kind of checksum, which is specified in a
   particular RFC.  It is clear that the RFC checksum is different from
   the DIASER checksum, at least because it involves also a notion of
   complement (not just XOR).

3.  Checksum

   The DIASER checksum is independent of the checksum field in the UDP
   header preceding the DIASER payload.  In a DIASER/UDP packet there
   are two checksums: the DIASER checksum and the UDP checksum.

   The DIASER checksum is an exclusive or operation (XOR) performed
   sequentially on the DIASER command; the bytes are read from left to
   right; the STX character is not read; the ETX character is read.

   A python implementation of the DIASER checksum is the following.
   Note the use of '^' operator for XOR and the 'for' iteration on each
   byte.  Note that only ETX is covered by the checksum, not the STX.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# Mariama for CEA

packet="\x43\x6B\x30\x33\x47\x30\x30\x47\x30\x31\x47\x30\x32\x47\x30\x33\x47\x30\x34\x47\x30\x35\x47\x30\x36\x47\x30\x37\x47\x30\x38\x2A\x2A\x2A\x2A\x2A\x2A\x2A\x2A\x2A\x03"
# packet is 'Ck03G00G01G02G03G04G05G06G07G08*********|ETX'
checksum = 0
for el in packet:
    checksum ^= ord(el)
print hex(checksum)
# code snippet found on 'stack overflow' on April 25th, 2019; and
# adapted for DIASER.

                Figure 1: Code snippet for DIASER Checksum

4.  Security Considerations

   Wrongly calculating a checksum may lead to security risks.

5.  IANA Considerations

   no request.

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6.  Contributors

   Listed.

7.  Acknowledgements

   Listed

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>.

Appendix A.  ChangeLog

   The changes are listed in reverse chronological order, most recent
   changes appearing at the top of the list.

Authors' Addresses

   Alexandre Petrescu
   CEA, LIST
   CEA Saclay
   Gif-sur-Yvette , Ile-de-France   91190
   France

   Phone: +33169089223
   Email: Alexandre.Petrescu@cea.fr

   Mariama Sarr
   CEA, LIST
   CEA Saclay
   Gif-sur-Yvette , Ile-de-France   91190
   France

   Phone: +phone
   Email: Mariama.Sarr@cea.fr

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