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The Use of Maxlength in the RPKI
draft-yossigi-rpkimaxlen-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Authors Yossi Gilad , Sharon Goldberg , Kotikalapudi Sriram , Job Snijders
Last updated 2017-09-07
Replaced by draft-ietf-sidrops-rpkimaxlen, draft-ietf-sidrops-rpkimaxlen, RFC 9319
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draft-yossigi-rpkimaxlen-01
Network Working Group                                           Y. Gilad
Internet-Draft                                               S. Goldberg
Intended status: Best Current Practice                 Boston University
Expires: March 11, 2018                                        K. Sriram
                                                                    NIST
                                                             J. Snijders
                                                                     NTT
                                                       September 7, 2017

                    The Use of Maxlength in the RPKI
                      draft-yossigi-rpkimaxlen-01

Abstract

   This document recommends that operators avoid using the maxLength
   attribute when issuing Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs) in the
   Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI).  These recommendations
   complement those in [RFC7115].

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
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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 March 11, 2018.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 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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   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must

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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
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Suggested Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Forged Origin Subprefix Hijack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Measurements of Today's RPKI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Use Minimal ROAs without Maxlength  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     5.1.  When a Minimal ROA Cannot Be Used?  . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Change Log  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   The RPKI [RFC6480] uses Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs) to create
   a trusted mapping from an IP prefix to a set of autonomous systems
   (ASes) that are authorized to originate this prefix.  Each ROA
   contains a set of IP prefixes, and an AS number of an AS authorized
   originate all the IP prefixes in the set [RFC6482].  Each ROA is
   cryptographically signed by the party that is authorized to allocate
   the set of IP prefixes.

   The RPKI also supports a maxLength attribute.  According to
   [RFC6482], "When present, the maxLength specifies the maximum length
   of the IP address prefix that the AS is authorized to advertise."
   Thus, rather than requiring the ROA to explictly list each prefix the
   AS is authorized to originate, the maxLength attribute provides a
   shorthand that authorizes an AS to originate a set of IP prefixes.

   However, measurements of current RPKI deployments have found that use
   of the maxLength in ROAs tends to lead to security problems.
   Specifically, as of June 2017, 84% of the prefixes specified in ROAs
   that use the maxLength attribute, are vulnerable to a forged-origin
   subprefix hijack.  The forged-origin subprefix hijack can be launched
   against any IP prefix that is authorized in ROA but is not originated
   in BGP.  The impact of such an attack is the same as standard
   subprefix hijack on an IP prefix that is unprotected by a ROA in the
   RPKI.

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   For this reason, this document recommends that, whenever possible,
   operators SHOULD use "minimal ROAs" that include only those IP
   prefixes that are actually originated in BGP, and no other prefixes.
   Operators SHOULD also avoid using the maxLength attribute in their
   ROAS whenever possible.  One ideal place to implement these
   recommendations is in the user interfaces for configuring ROAs.

   The recommendations in this document clarify and extend the following
   recommendation from [RFC7115]:

      One advantage of minimal ROA length is that the forged origin
      attack does not work for sub-prefixes that are not covered by
      overly long max length.  For example, if, instead of
      10.0.0.0/16-24, one issues 10.0.0.0/16 and 10.0.42.0/24, a forged
      origin attack cannot succeed against 10.0.666.0/24.  They must
      attack the whole /16, which is more likely to be noticed because
      of its size.

   This best current practice requires no changes to the RPKI
   specification and will not increase the number of signed ROAs in the
   RPKI, because ROAs already support lists of IP prefixes [RFC6482].

1.1.  Requirements

   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].

2.  Suggested Reading

   It is assumed that the reader understands BGP [RFC4271], the RPKI
   [RFC6480] Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs) [RFC6482], RPKI-based
   Prefix Validation [RFC6811], and BGPSEC
   [I-D.ietf-sidr-bgpsec-protocol].

3.  Forged Origin Subprefix Hijack

   The forged-origin subprefix hijack is relevant to a scenario in which
   (1) the RPKI [RFC6480] is deployed, and (2) routers use RPKI origin
   validation to drop invalid routes [RFC6811], but (3) BGPSEC
   [I-D.ietf-sidr-bgpsec-protocol] is not deployed.

   We describe the forged-origin subprefix hijack [RFC7115] [GCHSS]
   using a running example.

   Consider the IP prefix 168.122.0.0/16 which is allocated to an
   organization that also operates AS 111.  In BGP, AS 111 originates
   the IP prefix 168.122.0.0/16 as well as its subprefix

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   168.122.225.0/24.  Therefore, the RPKI should contain a ROA
   authorizing AS 111 to originate these two IP prefixes.  That is, the
   ROA should be

      ROA:(168.122.0.0/16,168.122.225.0/24, AS 111)

   This ROA is "minimal" because it includes only those IP prefixes that
   AS 111 originates in BGP, but no other IP prefixes.  [RFC6907]

   Now suppose an attacking AS 666 originates a BGP announcement for a
   subprefix 168.122.0.0/24.  This is a standard "subprefix hijack".

   In the absence of the minimal ROA above, AS 666 could intercept
   traffic for the addresses in 168.122.0.0/24.  This is because routers
   perform a longest-prefix match when deciding where to forward IP
   packets, and 168.122.0.0/24 originated by AS 666 is a longer prefix
   than 168.122.0.0/16 originated by AS 111.

   However, the minimal ROA renders AS 666's BGP announcement invalid,
   because (1) this ROA "covers" the attacker's announcement (since
   168.122.0.0/24 is a subprefix of 168.122.0.0/16), and (2) there is no
   ROA "matching" the attacker's announcement (there is no ROA for AS
   666 and IP prefix 168.122.0.0/24) [RFC6811].  If routers ignore
   invalid BGP announcements, the minimal ROA above ensures that the
   subprefix hijack will fail.

   Now suppose that instead the "minimal ROA" was replaced with a "loose
   ROA" that used maxLength as a shorthand for set of IP prefixes that
   AS 111 is authorized to originate.  The "loose ROA" would be:

      ROA:(168.122.0.0/16-24, AS 111)

   This "loose ROA" authorizes AS 111 to originate any subprefix of
   168.122.0.0/16, up to length /24.  That is, AS 111 could originate
   168.122.225.0/24 as well as all of 168.122.0.0/17, 168.122.128.0/17,
   ..., 168.122.255.0/24 but not 168.122.0.0/25.

   However, AS 111 only originates two prefixes in BGP: 168.122.0.0/16
   and 168.122.255.0/24.  This means that all other prefixes authorized
   by the "loose ROA" (for instance, 168.122.0.0/24), are vulnerable to
   the following forged-origin subprefix hijack [[RFC7115],[GCHSS]]:

      The hijacker AS 666 sends a BGP announcement "168.122.0.0/24: AS
      666, AS 111", falsely claiming that AS 666 is a neighbor of AS 111
      and falsely claiming that AS 111 originates the IP prefix
      168.122.0.0/24.  In fact, the IP prefix 168.122.0.0/24 is not
      originated by AS 111.

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   The hijacker's BGP announcement is valid according the RPKI, since
   the ROA (168.122.0.0/16-24, AS 111) authorizes AS 111 to originate
   BGP routes for 168.122.0.0/24.  Becaue AS 111 does not actually
   originate a route for 168.122.0.0/24, the hijacker's route is the
   *only* route to the 168.122.0.0/24.  Longest-prefix-match routing
   ensures that the hijacker's route to the subprefix 168.122.0.0/24 is
   always preferred over the legitimate route to 168.122.0.0/16
   originated by AS 111.  Thus, if the hijacker's route propagates
   through the Internet, the hijacker will intercept traffic destined
   for IP addresses in 168.122.0.0/24.

   The forged origin *subprefix* hijack would have failed if the
   "minimal ROA" described above was used instead of the "loose ROA".
   If the "minimal ROA" had been used instead, the attacker would be
   forced to launch a forged origin *prefix* hijack in order to attract
   traffic, as follows:

      The hijacker AS 666 sends a BGP announcement "168.122.0.0/16: AS
      666, AS 111", falsely claiming that AS 666 is a neighbor of AS
      111.

   This forged-origin *prefix* hijack is significantly less damaging
   than the forged-origin *subprefix* hijack.  With a forged-origin
   *prefix* hijack, AS 111 legitimately originates 168.122.0.0/16 in
   BGP, so the hijacker AS 666 is not presenting the *only* route to
   168.122.0.0/16.  Moreover, the path originated by AS 666 is one hop
   longer than the path originated by the legitimate origin AS 111.  As
   discussed in [LSG16], this means that the hijacker will attract less
   traffic than he would have in the forged origin *subprefix* hijack,
   where the hijacker presents the *only* route to the hijacked
   subprefix.

   In sum, a forged-origin subprefix hijack has the same impact as a
   regular subprefix hijack.  A forged-origin *subprefix* hijack is also
   more damaging than than forged-origin *prefix* hijack.

   Any ROA that is not minimal is vulnerable to forged-origin subprefix
   hijack.

4.  Measurements of Today's RPKI

   Network measurements from June 1, 2017 show that 12% of the IP
   prefixes authorized in ROAs have a maxLength longer than their prefix
   length.  The vast majority of these (84%) of these are vulnerable to
   forged-origin subprefix hijacks.  Even large providers are vulnerable
   to these attacks.  See [GSG17] for details.

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   These measurements suggest that operators commonly misconfigure the
   maxLength attribute, and unwittingly open themselves up to forged-
   origin subprefix hijacks.

5.  Use Minimal ROAs without Maxlength

   Operators SHOULD avoid using the maxLength attribute in their ROAs.

   Operators SHOULD use "minimal ROAs" whenever possible.  A minimal ROA
   contains only those IP prefixes that are actually originated by an AS
   in BGP, and no other IP prefixes.  (See Section 3 for an example.)

   This practice requires no changes to the RPKI specification and will
   not increase the number of signed ROAs in the RPKI, because ROAs
   already support lists of IP prefixes [RFC6482].  See also [GSG17] for
   further discussion of why this practice will have minimal impact on
   the performance of the RPKI ecosystem.

5.1.  When a Minimal ROA Cannot Be Used?

   Sometimes, it is not possible to use a "minimal ROA", because an
   operator wants to issue a ROA that includes an IP prefix that is
   sometimes (but not always) originated in BGP.

   In this case, the ROA SHOULD include (1) the set of IP prefixes that
   are always originated in BGP, and (2) the set IP prefixes that are
   sometimes, but not always, originated in BGP.  The ROA SHOULD NOT
   include any IP prefixes that the operator knows will not be
   originated in BGP.  Whenever possible, the ROA SHOULD also avoid the
   use of the maxlength attribute.

   We now extend our running example to illustrate one situation where
   where it is not possible to issue a minimal ROA.

   Suppose AS 111 has a contract with a DDoS mitigation service provider
   that holds AS 222.  The DDoS mitigation service is contracted to
   protect all IP addresses covered by 168.122.0.0/22.  When a DDoS
   attack is detected, AS 222 immediately originates 168.122.0.0/22,
   thus attracting all the DDoS traffic to itself.  The traffic is
   scrubbed at AS 222 and then and sent back to AS 111 over a backhaul
   data link.  Notice that, during a DDoS attack, the DDoS mitigation
   service provider AS 222 originates a /22 prefix that are longer than
   than AS 111's /16 prefix, and so all the traffic that normally goes
   to AS 111 goes to AS 222 instead.

   First, suppose the RPKI only had the minimal ROA for AS 111, as
   described in Section 3.  But, if there is no ROA authorizing AS 222
   to announce the /23 prefix, then the traffic-scrubbing scheme would

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   not work.  That is, if AS 222 originates the /22 prefix in BGP during
   a DDoS attack, the announcement would be invalid [RFC6811].

   Instead, the RPKI should have two ROAs: one for AS 111 and one for AS
   222.

      ROA:(168.122.0.0/16,168.122.225.0/24, AS 111)

      ROA:(168.122.0.0/22, AS 222)

   Neither ROA uses the maxLength attribute.  But, the second ROA is not
   "minimal" because it contains a /22 prefix that is not originated by
   anyone in BGP during normal operations.  The /22 prefix is only
   originated by AS 222 as part of its DDoS mitigation service during a
   DDoS attack.

   Notice, however, that this scheme does not come without risks.
   Namely, all of the IP addresses in 168.122.0.0/22 are vulnerable to a
   forged-origin subprefix hijack during normal operations, when the /22
   prefix is not originated.  (The hijacker AS 666 would send the BGP
   announcement `168.122.0.0/22: AS 666, AS 222'', falsely claiming that
   AS 666 is a neighbor of AS 222 and falsely claiming that AS 222
   originates 168.122.0.0/22.)

   In some situations, the DDoS mitigation service at AS 222 might want
   to limit the amount of DDoS traffic that it attracts and scrubs.
   Suppose that a DDoS attack only targets IP addresses in
   168.122.0.0/24.  Then, the DDoS mitigation service at AS 222 only
   wants to attract the traffic destinated for the /24 prefix that is
   under attack, but not the entire /22 prefix.  To allow for this, the
   RPKI should have two ROAs: one for AS 111 and one for AS 222.

      ROA:(168.122.0.0/16,168.122.225.0/24, AS 111)

      ROA:(168.122.0.0/22-24, AS 222)

   The second ROA uses the maxLength attribute because it is designed to
   explicitly enable AS 222 to originate *any* /24 subprefix of
   168.122.0.0/22.

   As before, the second ROA is also not "minimal" because it contains
   prefixes that are not originated by anyone in BGP during normal
   operations.  As before, all of the IP addresses in 168.122.0.0/22 are
   vulnerable to a forged-origin subprefix hijack during normal
   operations, when the /22 prefix is not originated.

   The use of maxLength in this second ROA also comes with an additional
   risk.  Consider a DDoS attack that causes the DDoS mitigation service

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   at AS 222 to originates prefix 168.122.0.0/24.  It follows that all
   *other* /24 prefixes covered by the /22 prefix (i.e., 168.122.1.0/24,
   168.122.2.0/24, 168.122.3.0/24) are all vulnerable to a forged-origin
   subprefix attacks during the DDoS attack.

6.  Change Log

   Note to RFC Editor: if this document does not obsolete an existing
   RFC, please remove this appendix before publication as an RFC.

      00 - New document.

      01 - Updated network measurements.  Updated citation to [GSG17].
      Editorial changes to clarify difference between "minimal ROA"
      recommendation and "avoid maxLength" recommendation.  Updated
      example in Section 5.1.

7.  Contributors

   This document would not be possible without the work of Omar Sagga
   (Boston University).

8.  References

8.1.  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>.

   [RFC4271]  Rekhter, Y., Ed., Li, T., Ed., and S. Hares, Ed., "A
              Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4271, January 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4271>.

   [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>.

   [RFC6482]  Lepinski, M., Kent, S., and D. Kong, "A Profile for Route
              Origin Authorizations (ROAs)", RFC 6482,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6482, February 2012,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6482>.

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   [RFC6811]  Mohapatra, P., Scudder, J., Ward, D., Bush, R., and R.
              Austein, "BGP Prefix Origin Validation", RFC 6811,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6811, January 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6811>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [GCHSS]    Gilad, Y., Cohen, A., Herzberg, A., Schapira, M., and H.
              Shulman, "Are We There Yet? On RPKI's Deployment and
              Security", in NDSS 2017, February 2017,
              <https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1010.pdf>.

   [GSG17]    Gilad, Y., Sagga, O., and S. Goldberg, "Maxlength
              Considered Harmful to the RPKI", in ACM CoNEXT 2017,
              December 2017, <https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1015.pdf>.

   [I-D.ietf-sidr-bgpsec-protocol]
              Lepinski, M. and K. Sriram, "BGPsec Protocol
              Specification", draft-ietf-sidr-bgpsec-protocol-23 (work
              in progress), April 2017.

   [LSG16]    Lychev, R., Shapira, M., and S. Goldberg, "Rethinking
              Security for Internet Routing", in Communications of the
              ACM, October 2016, <http://cacm.acm.org/
              magazines/2016/10/207763-rethinking-security-for-internet-
              routing/>.

   [RFC6907]  Manderson, T., Sriram, K., and R. White, "Use Cases and
              Interpretations of Resource Public Key Infrastructure
              (RPKI) Objects for Issuers and Relying Parties", RFC 6907,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6907, March 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6907>.

   [RFC7115]  Bush, R., "Origin Validation Operation Based on the
              Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI)", BCP 185,
              RFC 7115, DOI 10.17487/RFC7115, January 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7115>.

Authors' Addresses

   Yossi Gilad
   Boston University
   111 Cummington St, MCS135
   Boston, MA  02215
   USA

   EMail: yossigi@bu.edu

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   Sharon Goldberg
   Boston University
   111 Cummington St, MCS135
   Boston, MA  02215
   USA

   EMail: goldbe@cs.bu.edu

   Kotikalapudi Sriram
   NIST
   100 Bureau Drive
   Gaithersburg, MD  20899
   USA

   EMail: kotikalapudi.sriram@nist.gov

   Job Snijders
   NTT Communications
   Theodorus Majofskistraat 100
   Amsterdam  1065 SZ
   The Netherlands

   EMail: job@ntt.net

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