Internet Area WG R. Bonica
Internet-Draft Juniper Networks
Intended status: Best Current Practice F. Baker
Expires: April 13, 2019 Unaffiliated
G. Huston
APNIC
R. Hinden
Check Point Software
O. Troan
Cisco
F. Gont
SI6 Networks
October 10, 2018
IP Fragmentation Considered Fragile
draft-ietf-intarea-frag-fragile-01
Abstract
This document describes IP fragmentation and explains how it reduces
the reliability of Internet communication.
This document also proposes alternatives to IP fragmentation and
provides recommendations for developers and network operators.
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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This Internet-Draft will expire on April 13, 2019.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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(https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. IP Fragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Links, Paths, MTU and PMTU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2. Fragmentation Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3. Upper-Layer Reliance on IP Fragmentation . . . . . . . . 6
3. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Reduced Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Policy-Based Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2. Network Address Translation (NAT) . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3. Stateless Firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.4. Stateless Load Balancers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.5. Security Vulnerabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.6. Blackholing Due to ICMP Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.6.1. Transient Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.6.2. Incorrect Implementation of Security Policy . . . . . 12
4.6.3. Persistent Loss Caused By Anycast . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.7. Blackholing Due To Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Alternatives to IP Fragmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.1. Transport Layer Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2. Application Layer Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6. Applications That Rely on IPv6 Fragmentation . . . . . . . . 16
6.1. DNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.2. OSPF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.3. Packet-in-Packet Encapsulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7. Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7.1. For Application Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7.2. For System Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7.3. For Middle Box Developers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7.4. For Network Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Appendix A. Contributors' Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1. Introduction
Operational experience [Kent] [Huston] [RFC7872] reveals that IP
fragmentation reduces the reliability of Internet communication.
This document describes IP fragmentation and explains how it reduces
the reliability of Internet communication. This document also
proposes alternatives to IP fragmentation and provides
recommendations for developers and network operators.
While this document identifies issues associated with IP
fragmentation, it does not recommend deprecation. Some applications
(e.g., [I-D.ietf-intarea-tunnels]) require IP fragmentation.
Rather than deprecating IP Fragmentation, this document recommends
that upper-layer protocols address the problem of fragmentation at
their layer, reducing their reliance on IP fragmentation to the
greatest degree possible.
2. IP Fragmentation
2.1. Links, Paths, MTU and PMTU
An Internet path connects a source node to a destination node. A
path can contain links and routers. If a path contains more than one
link, the links are connected in series and a router connects each
link to the next.
Internet paths are dynamic. Assume that the path from one node to
another contains a set of links and routers. If the network topology
changes, that path can also change so that it includes a different
set of links and routers.
Each link is constrained by the number of bytes that it can convey in
a single IP packet. This constraint is called the link Maximum
Transmission Unit (MTU). IPv4 [RFC0791] requires every link to
support a specified MTU (see footnote). IPv6 [RFC8200] requires
every link to support an MTU of 1280 bytes or greater. These are
called the IPv4 and IPv6 minimum link MTU's.
Likewise, each Internet path is constrained by the number of bytes
that it can convey in a IP single packet. This constraint is called
the Path MTU (PMTU). For any given path, the PMTU is equal to the
smallest of its link MTU's. Because Internet paths are dynamic, PMTU
is also dynamic.
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For reasons described below, source nodes estimate the PMTU between
themselves and destination nodes. A source node can produce
extremely conservative PMTU estimates in which:
o The estimate for each IPv4 path is equal to the IPv4 minimum link
MTU.
o The estimate for each IPv6 path is equal to the IPv6 minimum link
MTU.
While these conservative estimates are guaranteed to be less than or
equal to the actual PMTU, they are likely to be much less than the
actual PMTU. This may adversely affect upper-layer protocol
performance.
By executing Path MTU Discovery (PMTUD) [RFC1191] [RFC8201]
procedures, a source node can maintain a less conservative estimate
of the PMTU between itself and a destination node. In PMTUD, the
source node produces an initial PMTU estimate. This initial estimate
is equal to the MTU of the first link along the path to the
destination node. It can be greater than the actual PMTU.
Having produced an initial PMTU estimate, the source node sends non-
fragmentable IP packets to the destination node. If one of these
packets is larger than the actual PMTU, a downstream router will not
be able to forward the packet through the next link along the path.
Therefore, the downstream router drops the packet and sends an
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) [RFC0792] [RFC4443] Packet
Too Big (PTB) message to the source node. The ICMP PTB message
indicates the MTU of the link through which the packet could not be
forwarded. The source node uses this information to refine its PMTU
estimate.
PMTUD produces a running estimate of the PMTU between a source node
and a destination node. Because PMTU is dynamic, at any given time,
the PMTU estimate can differ from the actual PMTU. In order to
detect PMTU increases, PMTUD occasionally resets the PMTU estimate to
its initial value and repeats the procedure described above.
PMTUD has the following characteristics:
o It relies on the network's ability to deliver ICMP PTB messages to
the source node.
o It is susceptible to attack because ICMP messages are easily
forged [RFC5927].
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FOOTNOTE: In IPv4, every host must be capable of receiving a packet
whose length is equal to 576 bytes. However, the IPv4 minimum link
MTU is not 576. Section 3.2 of RFC 791 explicitly states that the
IPv4 minimum link MTU is 68 bytes. But for practical purposes, many
network operators consider the IPv4 minimum link MTU to be 576 bytes.
So, for the purposes of this document, we assume that the IPv4
minimum link MTU is 576 bytes.
FOOTNOTE: In the paragraphs above, the term "non-fragmentable packet"
is introduced. A non-fragmentable packet can be fragmented at its
source. However, it cannot be fragmented by a downstream node. An
IPv4 packet whose DF-bit is set to zero is fragmentable. An IPv4
packet whose DF-bit is set to one is non-fragmentable. All IPv6
packets are also non-fragmentable.
FOOTNOTE: In the paragraphs above, the term "ICMP PTB message" is
introduced. The ICMP PTB message has two instantiations. In ICMPv4
[RFC0792], the ICMP PTB message is Destination Unreachable message
with Code equal to (4) fragmentation needed and DF set. This message
was augmented by [RFC1191] to indicates the MTU of the link through
which the packet could not be forwarded. In ICMPv6 [RFC4443], the
ICMP PTB message is a Packet Too Big Message with Code equal to (0).
This message also indicates the MTU of the link through which the
packet could not be forwarded.
2.2. Fragmentation Procedures
When an upper-layer protocol submits data to the underlying IP
module, and the resulting IP packet's length is greater than the
PMTU, the packet can be divided into fragments. Each fragment
includes an IP header and a portion of the original packet.
[RFC0791] describes IPv4 fragmentation procedures. An IPv4 packet
whose DF-bit is set to one cannot be fragmented. An IPv4 packet
whose DF-bit is set to zero can be fragmented by the source node or
by any downstream router. When an IPv4 packet is fragmented, all IP
options appear in the first fragment, but only options whose "copy"
bit is set to one appear in subsequent fragments.
[RFC8200] describes IPv6 fragmentation procedures. An IPv6 packets
can be fragmented at the source node only. When an IPv6 packet is
fragmented, all extension headers appear in the first fragment, but
only per-fragment headers appear in subsequent fragments. Per-
fragment headers include the following:
o The IPv6 header.
o The Hop-by-hop Options header (if present)
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o The Destination Options header (if present and if it precedes a
Routing header)
o The Routing Header (if present)
o The Fragment Header
In both IPv4 and IPv6, the upper-layer header appears in the first
fragment only. It does not appear in subsequent fragments.
2.3. Upper-Layer Reliance on IP Fragmentation
Upper-layer protocols can operate in the following modes:
o Do not rely on IP fragmentation.
o Rely on IP fragmentation by the source node only.
o Rely on IP fragmentation by any node.
Upper-layer protocols running over IPv4 can operate in all of the
above-mentioned modes. Upper-layer protocols running over IPv6 can
operate in the first and second modes only.
Upper-layer protocols that operate in the first two modes (above)
require access to the PMTU estimate. In order to fulfil this
requirement, they can:
o Estimate the PMTU to be equal to the IPv4 or IPv6 minimum link
MTU.
o Access the estimate that PMTUD produced.
o Execute PMTUD procedures themselves.
o Execute Packetization Layer PMTUD (PLPMTUD) [RFC4821]
[I-D.ietf-tsvwg-datagram-plpmtud] procedures.
According to PLPMTUD procedures, the upper-layer protocol maintains a
running PMTU estimate. It does so by sending probe packets of
various sizes to its upper-layer peer and receiving acknowledgements.
This strategy differs from PMTUD in that it relies of acknowledgement
of received messages, as opposed to ICMP PTB messages concerning
dropped messages. Therefore, PLPMTUD does not rely on the network's
ability to deliver ICMP PTB messages to the source.
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3. 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.
4. Reduced Reliability
This section explains how IP fragmentation reduces the reliability of
Internet communication.
4.1. Policy-Based Routing
IP Fragmentation causes problems for routers that implement policy-
based routing.
When a router receives a packet, it identifies the next-hop on route
to the packet's destination and forwards the packet to that next-hop.
In order to identify the next-hop, the router interrogates a local
data structure called the Forwarding Information Base (FIB).
Normally, the FIB contains destination-based entries that map a
destination prefix to a next-hop. Policy-based routing allows
destination-based and policy-based entries to coexist in the same
FIB. A policy-based FIB entry maps multiple fields, drawn from
either the IP or transport-layer header, to a next-hop.
+-------+--------------+-----------------+------------+-------------+
| Entry | Type | Dest. Prefix | Next Hdr / | Next-Hop |
| | | | Dest. Port | |
+-------+--------------+-----------------+------------+-------------+
| | | | | |
| 1 | Destination- | 2001:db8::1/128 | Any / Any | 2001:db8::2 |
| | based | | | |
| | | | | |
| 2 | Policy- | 2001:db8::1/128 | TCP / 80 | 2001:db8::3 |
| | based | | | |
+-------+--------------+-----------------+------------+-------------+
Table 1: Policy-Based Routing FIB
Assume that a router maintains the FIB in Table 1. The first FIB
entry is destination-based. It maps the a destination prefix
(2001:db8::1/128) to a next-hop (2001:db8::2). The second FIB entry
is a policy-based. It maps the same destination prefix
(2001:db8::1/128) and a destination port ( TCP / 80 ) to a different
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next-hop (2001:db8::3). The second entry is more specific than the
first.
When the router receives the first fragment of a packet that is
destined for TCP port 80 on 2001:db8::1, it interrogates the FIB.
Both FIB entries satisfy the query. The router selects the second
FIB entry because it is more specific and forwards the packet to
2001:db8::3.
When the router receives the second fragment of the packet, it
interrogates the FIB again. This time, only the first FIB entry
satisfies the query, because the second fragment contains no
indication that the packet is destined for TCP port 80. Therefore,
the router selects the first FIB entry and forwards the packet to
2001:db8::2.
Policy-based routing is also known as filter-based-forwarding.
4.2. Network Address Translation (NAT)
IP fragmentation causes problems for Network Address Translation
(NAT) devices. When a NAT device detects a new, outbound flow, it
maps that flow's source port and IP address to another source port
and IP address. Having created that mapping, the NAT device
translates:
o The Source IP Address and Source Port on each outbound packet.
o The Destination IP Address and Destination Port on each inbound
packet.
A+P [RFC6346] and Carrier Grade NAT (CGN) [RFC6888] are two common
NAT strategies. In both approaches the NAT device must virtually
reassemble fragmented packets in order to translate and forward each
fragment.
Virtual reassembly in the network is problematic, because it is
computationally expensive and because it is prone to attacks
(Section 4.5).
4.3. Stateless Firewalls
IP fragmentation causes problems for stateless firewalls whose rules
include TCP and UDP ports. Because port information is not available
in the trailing fragments the firewall is limited to the following
options:
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o Accept all trailing fragments, possibly admitting certain classes
of attack.
o Block all trailing fragments, possibly blocking legitimate
traffic.
Neither option is attractive.
This problem does not occur in stateful firewalls.
4.4. Stateless Load Balancers
IP fragmentation causes problems for stateless load balancers. In
order to assign a packet or packet fragment to a link, the load-
balancer executes an algorithm. If the packet or packet fragment
contains a transport-layer header, the load balancing algorithm
accepts the following 5-tuple as input:
o IP Source Address.
o IP Destination Address.
o IPv4 Protocol or IPv6 Next Header.
o transport-layer source port.
o transport-layer destination port.
If the packet or packet fragment does not contain a transport-layer
header, the load balancing algorithm accepts only the following
3-tuple as input:
o IP Source Address.
o IP Destination Address.
o IPv4 Protocol or IPv6 Next Header.
Therefore, non-fragmented packets belonging to a flow can be assigned
to one link while fragmented packets belonging to the same flow can
be divided between that link and another. This can cause suboptimal
load balancing.
4.5. Security Vulnerabilities
Security researchers have documented several attacks that exploit IP
fragmentation. The following are examples:
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o Overlapping fragment attacks [RFC1858][RFC3128][RFC5722]
o Resource exhaustion attacks (such as the Rose Attack)
o Attacks based on predictable fragment identification values
[RFC7739]
o Evasion of Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) [Ptacek1998]
In the overlapping fragment attack, an attacker constructs a series
of packet fragments. The first fragment contains an IP header, a
transport-layer header, and some transport-layer payload. This
fragment complies with local security policy and is allowed to pass
through a stateless firewall. A second fragment, having a non-zero
offset, overlaps with the first fragment. The second fragment also
passes through the stateless firewall. When the packet is
reassembled, the transport layer header from the first fragment is
overwritten by data from the second fragment. The reassembled packet
does not comply with local security policy. Had it traversed the
firewall in one piece, the firewall would have rejected it.
A stateless firewall cannot protect against the overlapping fragment
attack. However, destination nodes can protect against the
overlapping fragment attack by implementing the procedures described
in RFC 1858, RFC 3128 and RFC 8200. These reassembly procedures
detect the overlap and discard the packet.
The fragment reassembly algorithm is a stateful procedure for an
otherwise stateless protocol. Therefore, it can be exploited by
resource exhaustion attacks. An attacker can construct a series of
fragmented packets, with one fragment missing from each packet so
that the reassembly is impossible. Thus, this attack causes resource
exhaustion on the destination node, possibly denying reassembly
services to other flows. This type of attack can be mitigated by
flushing fragment reassembly buffers when necessary, at the expense
of possibly dropping legitimate fragments.
Each IP fragment contains an "Identification" field that destination
nodes use to reassemble fragmented packets. Many implementations set
the Identification field to a predictable value, thus making it easy
for an attacker to forge malicious IP fragments that would cause the
reassembly procedure for legitimate packets to fail.
NIDS aims at identifying malicious activity by analyzing network
traffic. Ambiguity in the possible result of the fragment reassembly
process may allow an attacker to evade these systems. Many of these
systems try to mitigate some of these evasion techniques (e.g. By
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computing all possible outcomes of the fragment reassembly process,
at the expense of increased processing requirements).
4.6. Blackholing Due to ICMP Loss
As mentioned in Section 2.3, upper-layer protocols can be configured
to rely on PMTUD. Because PMTUD relies upon the network to deliver
ICMP PTB messages, those protocols also rely on the networks to
deliver ICMP PTB messages.
According to [RFC4890], ICMP PTB messages must not be filtered.
However, ICMP PTB delivery is not reliable. It is subject to both
transient and persistent loss.
Transient loss of ICMP PTB messages can cause transient black holes.
When the conditions contributing to transient loss abate, the network
regains its ability to deliver ICMP PTB messages and connectivity
between the source and destination nodes is restored. Section 4.6.1
of this document describes conditions that lead to transient loss of
ICMP PTB messages.
Persistent loss of ICMP PTB messages can cause persistent black
holes. Section 4.6.2 and Section 4.6.3 of this document describe
conditions that lead to persistent loss of ICMP PTB messages.
The problem described in this section is specific to PMTUD. It does
not occur when the upper-layer protocol obtains its PMTU estimate
from PLPMTUD or from any other source.
4.6.1. Transient Loss
The following factors can contribute to transient loss of ICMP PTB
messages:
o Network congestion.
o Packet corruption.
o Transient routing loops.
o ICMP rate limiting.
The effect of rate limiting may be severe, as RFC 4443 recommends
strict rate limiting of IPv6 traffic.
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4.6.2. Incorrect Implementation of Security Policy
Incorrect implementation of security policy can cause persistent loss
of ICMP PTB messages.
Assume that a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) router implements the
following zone-based security policy:
o Allow any traffic to flow from the inside zone to the outside
zone.
o Do not allow any traffic to flow from the outside zone to the
inside zone unless it is part of an existing flow (i.e., it was
elicited by an outbound packet).
When a correct implementation of the above-mentioned security policy
receives an ICMP PTB message, it examines the ICMP PTB payload in
order to determine whether the original packet (i.e., the packet that
elicited the ICMP PTB message) belonged to an existing flow. If the
original packet belonged to an existing flow, the implementation
allows the ICMP PTB to flow from the outside zone to the inside zone.
If not, the implementation discards the ICMP PTB message.
When a incorrect implementation of the above-mentioned security
policy receives an ICMP PTB message, it discards the packet because
its source address is not associated with an existing flow.
The security policy described above is implemented incorrectly on
many consumer CPE routers.
4.6.3. Persistent Loss Caused By Anycast
Anycast can cause persistent loss of ICMP PTB messages. Consider the
example below:
A DNS client sends a request to an anycast address. The network
routes that DNS request to the nearest instance of that anycast
address (i.e., a DNS Server). The DNS server generates a response
and sends it back to the DNS client. While the response does not
exceed the DNS server's PMTU estimate, it does exceed the actual
PMTU.
A downstream router drops the packet and sends an ICMP PTB message
the packet's source (i.e., the anycast address). The network routes
the ICMP PTB message to the anycast instance closest to the
downstream router. That anycast instance may not be the DNS server
that originated the DNS response. It may be another DNS server with
the same anycast address. The DNS server that originated the
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response may never receive the ICMP PTB message and may never updates
it PMTU estimate.
4.7. Blackholing Due To Filtering
In RFC 7872, researchers sampled Internet paths to determine whether
they would convey packets that contain IPv6 extension headers.
Sampled paths terminated at popular Internet sites (e.g., popular
web, mail and DNS servers).
The study revealed that at least 28% of the sampled paths did not
convey packets containing the IPv6 Fragment extension header. In
most cases, fragments were dropped in the destination autonomous
system. In other cases, the fragments were dropped in transit
autonomous systems.
Another recent study [Huston] confirmed this finding. It reported
that 37% of sampled endpoints used IPv6-capable DNS resolvers that
were incapable of receiving a fragmented IPv6 response.
It is difficult to determine why network operators drop fragments.
Possible causes follow:
o Hardware inability to process fragmented packets.
o Failure to change vendor defaults.
o Unintentional misconfiguration.
o Intentional configuration (e.g., network operators consciously
chooses to drop IPv6 fragments in order to address the issues
raised in Section 4.1 through Section 4.6, above.)
5. Alternatives to IP Fragmentation
5.1. Transport Layer Solutions
The Transport Control Protocol (TCP) [RFC0793]) can be operated in a
mode that does not require IP fragmentation.
Applications submit a stream of data to TCP. TCP divides that stream
of data into segments, with no segment exceeding the TCP Maximum
Segment Size (MSS). Each segment is encapsulated in a TCP header and
submitted to the underlying IP module. The underlying IP module
prepends an IP header and forwards the resulting packet.
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If the TCP MSS is sufficiently small, the underlying IP module never
produces a packet whose length is greater than the actual PMTU.
Therefore, IP fragmentation is not required.
TCP offers the following mechanisms for MSS management:
o Manual configuration
o PMTUD
o PLPMTUD
Manual configuration is always applicable. If the MSS is configured
to a sufficiently low value, the IP layer will never produce a packet
whose length is greater than the protocol minimum link MTU. However,
manual configuration prevents TCP from taking advantage of larger
link MTU's.
Upper-layer protocols can implement PMTUD in order to discover and
take advantage of larger path MTUs. However, as mentioned in
Section 2.1, PMTUD relies upon the network to deliver ICMP PTB
messages. Therefore, PMTUD is applicable only in environments where
the risk of ICMP PTB loss is acceptable.
By contrast, PLPMTUD does not rely upon the network's ability to
deliver ICMP PTB messages. However, in many loss-based TCP
congestion control algorithms, the dropping of a packet may cause the
TCP control algorithm to drop the congestion control window, or even
re-start with the entire slow start process. For high capacity, long
round-trip time, large volume TCP streams, the deliberate probing
with large packets and the consequent packet drop may impose too
harsh a penalty on total TCP throughput for it to be a viable
approach. [RFC4821] defines PLPMTUD procedures for TCP.
While TCP will never cause the underlying IP module to emit a packet
that is larger than the PMTU estimate, it can cause the underlying IP
module to emit a packet that is larger than the actual PMTU. If this
occurs, the packet is dropped, the PMTU estimate is updated, the
segment is divided into smaller segments and each smaller segment is
submitted to the underlying IP module.
The Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) [RFC4340] and the
Stream Control Protocol (SCP) [RFC4960] also can be operated in a
mode that does not require IP fragmentation. They both accept data
from an application and divide that data into segments, with no
segment exceeding a maximum size. Both DCCP and SCP offer manual
configuration, PMTUD and PLPMTUD as mechanisms for managing that
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maximum size. [I-D.ietf-tsvwg-datagram-plpmtud] proposes PLPMTUD
procedures for DCCP and SCP.
Currently, User Data Protocol (UDP) [RFC0768] lacks a fragmentation
mechanism of its own and relies on IP fragmentation. However,
[I-D.ietf-tsvwg-udp-options] proposes a fragmentation mechanism for
UDP.
5.2. Application Layer Solutions
[RFC8085] recognizes that IP fragmentation reduces the reliability of
Internet communication. It also recognizes that UDP lacks a
fragmentation mechanism of its own and relies on IP fragmentation.
Therefore, [RFC8085] offers the following advice regarding
applications the run over the UDP.
"An application SHOULD NOT send UDP datagrams that result in IP
packets that exceed the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) along the
path to the destination. Consequently, an application SHOULD either
use the path MTU information provided by the IP layer or implement
Path MTU Discovery (PMTUD) itself to determine whether the path to a
destination will support its desired message size without
fragmentation."
RFC 8085 continues:
"Applications that do not follow the recommendation to do PMTU/
PLPMTUD discovery SHOULD still avoid sending UDP datagrams that would
result in IP packets that exceed the path MTU. Because the actual
path MTU is unknown, such applications SHOULD fall back to sending
messages that are shorter than the default effective MTU for sending
(EMTU_S in [RFC1122]). For IPv4, EMTU_S is the smaller of 576 bytes
and the first-hop MTU. For IPv6, EMTU_S is 1280 bytes. The
effective PMTU for a directly connected destination (with no routers
on the path) is the configured interface MTU, which could be less
than the maximum link payload size. Transmission of minimum-sized
UDP datagrams is inefficient over paths that support a larger PMTU,
which is a second reason to implement PMTU discovery."
RFC 8085 assumes that for IPv4, an EMTU_S of 576 is sufficiently
small, even though the IPv4 minimum link MTU is 68 bytes.
This advice applies equally to application that run directly over IP.
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6. Applications That Rely on IPv6 Fragmentation
The following applications rely on IPv6 fragmentation:
o DNS [RFC1035]
o OSPFv3 [RFC2328][RFC5340]
o Packet-in-packet encapsulations
Each of these applications relies on IPv6 fragmentation to a varying
degree. In some cases, that reliance is essential, and cannot be
broken without fundamentally changing the protocol. In other cases,
that reliance is incidental, and most implementations already take
appropriate steps to avoid fragmentation.
This list is not comprehensive, and other protocols that rely on IP
fragmentation may exist. They are not specifically considered in the
context of this document.
6.1. DNS
DNS relies on UDP for efficiency, and the consequence is the use of
IP fragmentation for large responses, as permitted by the DNS EDNS(0)
options in the query. It is possible to mitigate the issue of
fragmentation-based packet loss by having queries use smaller EDNS(0)
UDP buffer sizes, or by having the DNS server limit the size of its
UDP responses to some self-imposed maximum packet size that may be
less than the preferred EDNS(0) UDP Buffer Size. In both cases,
large responses are truncated in the DNS, signalling to the client to
re-query using TCP to obtain the complete response. However, the
operational issue of the partial level of support for DNS over TCP,
particularly in the case where IPv6 transport is being used, becomes
a limiting factor of the efficacy of this approach [Damas].
Larger DNS responses can normally be avoided by aggressively pruning
the Additional section of DNS responses. One scenario where such
pruning is ineffective is in the use of DNSSEC, where large key sizes
act to increase the response size to certain DNS queries. There is
no effective response to this situation within the DNS other than
using smaller cryptographic keys and adoption of DNSSEC
administrative practices that attempt to keep DNS response as short
as possible.
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6.2. OSPF
OSPF implementations can emit messages large enough to cause
fragmentation. However, in order to optimize performance, most OSPF
implementations restrict their maximum message size to a value that
will not cause fragmentation.
6.3. Packet-in-Packet Encapsulations
In this document, packet-in-packet encapsulations include IP-in-IP
[RFC2003], Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) [RFC2784], GRE-in-UDP
[RFC8086] and Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 [RFC2473]. [RFC4459]
describes fragmentation issues associated with all of the above-
mentioned encapsulations.
The fragmentation strategy described for GRE in [RFC7588] has been
deployed for all of the above-mentioned encapsulations. This
strategy does not rely on IP fragmentation except in one corner case.
(see Section 3.3.2.2 of RFC 7588 and Section 7.1 of RFC 2473).
Section 3.3 of [RFC7676] further describes this corner case.
7. Recommendations
7.1. For Application Developers
Application developers SHOULD NOT develop new applications that rely
on IP fragmentation.
Application-layer protocols that depend upon IPv6 fragmentation
SHOULD be updated to break that dependency. This can be achieved by
using a sufficiently small MTU (e.g. The protocol minimum link MTU),
disabling fragmentation, and ensuring that the transport protocol in
use adapts its segment size to that MTU. This would avoid the
problem of PMTUD failure described in Section 4.6. Another approach
is to use PLPMTUD in a way suitable for the transport protocol in use
(e.g. [I-D.ietf-tsvwg-datagram-plpmtud] for UDP).
7.2. For System Developers
Software libraries SHOULD include provision for PLPMTUD for each
supported transport protocol.
7.3. For Middle Box Developers
Middle box developers SHOULD implement devices that support IP
fragmentation. These boxes SHOULD not fail or cause failures when
processing fragmented IP packets.
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For example, in order to support IP fragmentation, a load balancer
might execute the following procedure:
o Receive a fragmented packet
o Identify a next-hop using information drawn from the first
fragment
o Forward the first fragment and all subsequent fragments through
the above-mentioned next-hop
7.4. For Network Operators
As per RFC 4890, network operators MUST NOT filter ICMPv6 PTB
messages unless they are known to be forged or otherwise
illegitimate. As stated in Section 4.6, filtering ICMPv6 PTB packets
causes PMTUD to fail. Operators MUST ensure proper PMTUD operation
in their network, including making sure the network generates PTB
packets when dropping packets too large compared to outgoing
interface MTU.
Many upper-layer protocols rely on PMTUD.
8. IANA Considerations
This document makes no request of IANA.
9. Security Considerations
This document mitigates some of the security considerations
associated with IP fragmentation by discouraging its use. It does
not introduce any new security vulnerabilities, because it does not
introduce any new alternatives to IP fragmentation. Instead, it
recommends well-understood alternatives.
10. Acknowledgements
Thanks to Mikael Abrahamsson, Brian Carpenter, Silambu Chelvan,
Lorenzo Colitti, Mike Heard, Tom Herbert, Tatuya Jinmei, Paolo
Lucente, Manoj Nayak, Eric Nygren, and Joe Touch for their comments.
11. References
11.1. Normative References
[RFC0768] Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768,
DOI 10.17487/RFC0768, August 1980,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc768>.
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[RFC0791] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791,
DOI 10.17487/RFC0791, September 1981,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc791>.
[RFC0792] Postel, J., "Internet Control Message Protocol", STD 5,
RFC 792, DOI 10.17487/RFC0792, September 1981,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc792>.
[RFC0793] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,
RFC 793, DOI 10.17487/RFC0793, September 1981,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc793>.
[RFC1035] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, DOI 10.17487/RFC1035,
November 1987, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1035>.
[RFC1191] Mogul, J. and S. Deering, "Path MTU discovery", RFC 1191,
DOI 10.17487/RFC1191, November 1990,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1191>.
[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>.
[RFC4443] Conta, A., Deering, S., and M. Gupta, Ed., "Internet
Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet
Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", STD 89,
RFC 4443, DOI 10.17487/RFC4443, March 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4443>.
[RFC4821] Mathis, M. and J. Heffner, "Packetization Layer Path MTU
Discovery", RFC 4821, DOI 10.17487/RFC4821, March 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4821>.
[RFC8085] Eggert, L., Fairhurst, G., and G. Shepherd, "UDP Usage
Guidelines", BCP 145, RFC 8085, DOI 10.17487/RFC8085,
March 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8085>.
[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>.
[RFC8200] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
(IPv6) Specification", STD 86, RFC 8200,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8200, July 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8200>.
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[RFC8201] McCann, J., Deering, S., Mogul, J., and R. Hinden, Ed.,
"Path MTU Discovery for IP version 6", STD 87, RFC 8201,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8201, July 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8201>.
11.2. Informative References
[Damas] Damas, J. and G. Huston, "Measuring ATR", April 2018,
<http://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2018-04/atr.html>.
[Huston] Huston, G., "IPv6, Large UDP Packets and the DNS
(http://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2017-08/xtn-hdrs.html)",
August 2017.
[I-D.ietf-intarea-tunnels]
Touch, J. and M. Townsley, "IP Tunnels in the Internet
Architecture", draft-ietf-intarea-tunnels-09 (work in
progress), July 2018.
[I-D.ietf-tsvwg-datagram-plpmtud]
Fairhurst, G., Jones, T., Tuexen, M., and I. Ruengeler,
"Packetization Layer Path MTU Discovery for Datagram
Transports", draft-ietf-tsvwg-datagram-plpmtud-05 (work in
progress), October 2018.
[I-D.ietf-tsvwg-udp-options]
Touch, J., "Transport Options for UDP", draft-ietf-tsvwg-
udp-options-05 (work in progress), July 2018.
[Kent] Kent, C. and J. Mogul, ""Fragmentation Considered
Harmful", In Proc. SIGCOMM '87 Workshop on Frontiers in
Computer Communications Technology, DOI
10.1145/55483.55524", August 1987,
<http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/Compaq-DEC/
WRL-87-3.pdf>.
[Ptacek1998]
Ptacek, T. and T. Newsham, "Insertion, Evasion and Denial
of Service: Eluding Network Intrusion Detection", 1998,
<http://www.aciri.org/vern/Ptacek-Newsham-Evasion-98.ps>.
[RFC1122] Braden, R., Ed., "Requirements for Internet Hosts -
Communication Layers", STD 3, RFC 1122,
DOI 10.17487/RFC1122, October 1989,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1122>.
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[RFC1858] Ziemba, G., Reed, D., and P. Traina, "Security
Considerations for IP Fragment Filtering", RFC 1858,
DOI 10.17487/RFC1858, October 1995,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1858>.
[RFC2003] Perkins, C., "IP Encapsulation within IP", RFC 2003,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2003, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2003>.
[RFC2328] Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2328, April 1998,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2328>.
[RFC2473] Conta, A. and S. Deering, "Generic Packet Tunneling in
IPv6 Specification", RFC 2473, DOI 10.17487/RFC2473,
December 1998, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2473>.
[RFC2784] Farinacci, D., Li, T., Hanks, S., Meyer, D., and P.
Traina, "Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)", RFC 2784,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2784, March 2000,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2784>.
[RFC3128] Miller, I., "Protection Against a Variant of the Tiny
Fragment Attack (RFC 1858)", RFC 3128,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3128, June 2001,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3128>.
[RFC4340] Kohler, E., Handley, M., and S. Floyd, "Datagram
Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 4340,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4340, March 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4340>.
[RFC4459] Savola, P., "MTU and Fragmentation Issues with In-the-
Network Tunneling", RFC 4459, DOI 10.17487/RFC4459, April
2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4459>.
[RFC4890] Davies, E. and J. Mohacsi, "Recommendations for Filtering
ICMPv6 Messages in Firewalls", RFC 4890,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4890, May 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4890>.
[RFC4960] Stewart, R., Ed., "Stream Control Transmission Protocol",
RFC 4960, DOI 10.17487/RFC4960, September 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4960>.
[RFC5340] Coltun, R., Ferguson, D., Moy, J., and A. Lindem, "OSPF
for IPv6", RFC 5340, DOI 10.17487/RFC5340, July 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5340>.
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[RFC5722] Krishnan, S., "Handling of Overlapping IPv6 Fragments",
RFC 5722, DOI 10.17487/RFC5722, December 2009,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5722>.
[RFC5927] Gont, F., "ICMP Attacks against TCP", RFC 5927,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5927, July 2010,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5927>.
[RFC6346] Bush, R., Ed., "The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to
the IPv4 Address Shortage", RFC 6346,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6346, August 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6346>.
[RFC6888] Perreault, S., Ed., Yamagata, I., Miyakawa, S., Nakagawa,
A., and H. Ashida, "Common Requirements for Carrier-Grade
NATs (CGNs)", BCP 127, RFC 6888, DOI 10.17487/RFC6888,
April 2013, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6888>.
[RFC7588] Bonica, R., Pignataro, C., and J. Touch, "A Widely
Deployed Solution to the Generic Routing Encapsulation
(GRE) Fragmentation Problem", RFC 7588,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7588, July 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7588>.
[RFC7676] Pignataro, C., Bonica, R., and S. Krishnan, "IPv6 Support
for Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)", RFC 7676,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7676, October 2015,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7676>.
[RFC7739] Gont, F., "Security Implications of Predictable Fragment
Identification Values", RFC 7739, DOI 10.17487/RFC7739,
February 2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7739>.
[RFC7872] Gont, F., Linkova, J., Chown, T., and W. Liu,
"Observations on the Dropping of Packets with IPv6
Extension Headers in the Real World", RFC 7872,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7872, June 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7872>.
[RFC8086] Yong, L., Ed., Crabbe, E., Xu, X., and T. Herbert, "GRE-
in-UDP Encapsulation", RFC 8086, DOI 10.17487/RFC8086,
March 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8086>.
Appendix A. Contributors' Address
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Authors' Addresses
Ron Bonica
Juniper Networks
2251 Corporate Park Drive
Herndon, Virginia 20171
USA
Email: rbonica@juniper.net
Fred Baker
Unaffiliated
Santa Barbara, California 93117
USA
Email: FredBaker.IETF@gmail.com
Geoff Huston
APNIC
6 Cordelia St
Brisbane, 4101 QLD
Australia
Email: gih@apnic.net
Robert M. Hinden
Check Point Software
959 Skyway Road
San Carlos, California 94070
USA
Email: bob.hinden@gmail.com
Ole Troan
Cisco
Philip Pedersens vei 1
N-1366 Lysaker
Norway
Email: ot@cisco.com
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Fernando Gont
SI6 Networks
Evaristo Carriego 2644
Haedo, Provincia de Buenos Aires
Argentina
Email: fgont@si6networks.com
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