dhc Group                                                        B. Volz
Internet-Draft                                                  R. Droms
Intended status: Informational                       Cisco Systems, Inc.
Expires: May 17, 2007                                  November 13, 2006


               DHCPv6 Server Reply Sequence Number Option
                draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-srsn-option-00.txt

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

   This memo defines the Server Reply Sequence Number option for the
   Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6).  This option
   is sent from a DHCPv6 server to a DHCPv6 relay agent to allow a relay
   agent to detect proper sequencing of Relay-Reply messages that could
   be delivered out of order.






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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  The Server Reply Sequence Number Option . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   4.  DHCPv6 Relay Agent Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5.  DHCPv6 Server Behavior  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   6.  IANA considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   7.  Security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   8.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     8.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     8.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements  . . . . . . . . . . 8





































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1.  Introduction

   When a DHCPv6 server sends a Reply, there is no guarantee as to the
   order of delivery of those datagrams sent by a server.  A DHCPv6
   client is protected against delivery of old Reply messages because of
   the transaction-id in the message.  However, a relay agent receiving
   Relay-Reply messages and maintaining client state information (e.g.,
   [5] has no such technique.  Thus a delayed earlier Relay-Reply may
   arrive after other Relay-Reply messages.  As an example, suppose a
   client sends a Request, the Reply (encapsulated in a Relay-Reply) is
   delayed between server and relay agent.  The client retransmits the
   Request, the retransmitted Reply is processed through the relay agent
   and then by the client.  The client next transacts a Release/Reply
   sequence, which causes the relay agent to remove the client's state
   information when relaying the Relay-Reply.  However, now the delayed
   first Request's Reply arrives at the relay agent; if the relay agent
   were to update the client's state based on this out of order message
   (e.g., [5]), it would add client state that is no longer valid.  The
   Server Reply Sequence Number (SRSN) option can be used to prevent
   this as the relay agent can detect and discard out of order message.

   To allow a relay agent to detect and discard out of order messages,
   the relay agent requests the server to include a SRSN option in
   Relay-Reply messages.  The SRSN option contains a monotonically
   increasing sequence number that the relay agent can use to re-
   sequence (or discard) out of order Relay-Reply messages from the
   server.


2.  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 [1].

   Additional terms used in the description of DHCPv6 and DHCPv6 prefix
   delegation are defined in [2] and [3].


3.  The Server Reply Sequence Number Option

   The SRSN option is used by a server to indicate the order in which
   the server has generated replies and therefore allows a relay agent
   receiving Relay-Reply messages to determine the order in which those
   Relay-Reply messages were originally sent.  The Relay-Reply messages
   are sent via UDP and, therefore, may be delivered out of order.

   The server's sequence number in the SRSN is a monotonically



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   increasing series.  This property is maintained by the server even if
   the server loses internal state; e.g., if the server is restarted.
   The value of the sequence number in the SRSN option is not related to
   the contents of any options in the Relay-Reply message; the existence
   of this sequence number does not indicate that any data at the server
   has necessarily changed.

   The DHCPv6 Server Reply Sequence Number Option has the following
   format:


     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |         option-code           |            length             |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                                                               |
    +                  server-reply-sequence-number                 +
    |                                                               |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+


   option-code          OPTION_SRSN (TBD).

   length               8.

   server-reply-sequence-number
                        The 64-bit monotonically increasing server reply
                        sequence number.


4.  DHCPv6 Relay Agent Behavior

   If a relay agent requires the server to provide the SRSN option, it
   MUST include an Option Request option, requesting the SRSN option, as
   described in section 22.7 of [2].

   A relay agent MUST save the received server-reply-sequence-number
   (and the server's Server Identifier Option, OPTION_SERVERID) with any
   client state information extracted from a Relay-Reply if it needs to
   assure it does not use out of date information.

   A relay agent that uses the SRSN option needs do the following when
   maintaining client state information:

   1.  Only update existing client state information if the received
       server-reply-sequence-number (if from the same server) is greater
       than the stored server-reply-sequence-number for the information;



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       the received server-reply-sequence-number and Server Identifier
       must be stored with the client state information.

   2.  Delay removing expired client state information from its storage
       for at least the maximum lifetime of a datagram.  This assures
       that any undelivered Relay-Reply datagrams will have expired and
       been dropped from the network; and thus the server-reply-
       sequence-number checking will prevent outdated information from
       being used.  A value of 2 minutes is the recommended value for
       the maximum datagram lifetime, based on the maximum segment
       lifetime used by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) [4].

   A change in the server-reply-sequence-number MUST NOT be used to
   assume a client's state has changed, as a server may be
   retransmitting the same information but with a different server-
   reply-sequence-number.


5.  DHCPv6 Server Behavior

   If a relay agent has requested the SRSN option in an ORO, the server
   SHOULD return the option with a monotonically increasing sequence
   number.  And, the server MUST also include a Server Identifier Option
   (OPTION_SERVER_ID) in the Relay-Reply if it includes the SRSN option.

   The server MUST monotonically increase the sequence number for any
   Relay-Reply messages it transmits which include a SRSN option.  A
   server MAY increase the sequence number for each message it
   transmits, even those that do not include a SRSN option.

   One technique for a server to provide the monotonically increasing
   sequence number is by splitting the 64-bit number into two 32-bit
   values (minding network/host byte ordering) - a major (most
   significant bits) and minor sequence number.  When the server starts,
   the major sequence number is set to the current time (in seconds
   since Jan 1, 1970).  The minor sequence number is set to 0 and only
   it is incremented while the server is running (except if it rolls
   over, in which case the major sequence number MUST be updated); there
   is no need to commit the sequence number to stable storage.


6.  IANA considerations

   IANA is requested to assign an option code from the "DHCPv6 and
   DHCPv6 options" registry,
   http://www.iana.org/assignments/dhcpv6-parameters, to OPTION_SRSN.





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7.  Security considerations

   Security issues related to DHCP are described in [2] and [3].

   The DHCPv6 Server Reply Sequence Number option may be used to mount a
   denial of service attack by causing a relay agent to incorrectly
   record a very high server-reply-sequence-number and thus preventing
   legitimate Relay-Reply messages from a server from being processed.
   Communication between a server and a relay agent, and communication
   between relay agents, can be secured through the use of IPSec, as
   described in section 21.1 of [2].


8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

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

   [2]  Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C., and M.
        Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)",
        RFC 3315, July 2003.

   [3]  Troan, O. and R. Droms, "IPv6 Prefix Options for Dynamic Host
        Configuration Protocol (DHCP) version 6", RFC 3633,
        December 2003.

8.2.  Informative References

   [4]  Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7, RFC 793,
        September 1981.

   [5]  Droms, R., "DHCPv6 Relay Agent Assignment Notification (RAAN)
        Option", draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-agentopt-delegate-02 (work in
        progress), November 2006.















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Authors' Addresses

   Bernie Volz
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   1414 Massachusetts Avenue
   Boxborough, MA  01719
   USA

   Phone: +1 978.936.0382
   Email: volz@cisco.com


   Ralph Droms
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   1414 Massachusetts Avenue
   Boxborough, MA  01719
   USA

   Phone: +1 978.936.1674
   Email: rdroms@cisco.com































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