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Last Call Review of draft-ietf-soc-overload-control-14
review-ietf-soc-overload-control-14-secdir-lc-salowey-2014-01-16-00

Request Review of draft-ietf-soc-overload-control
Requested revision No specific revision (document currently at 15)
Type Last Call Review
Team Security Area Directorate (secdir)
Deadline 2013-12-23
Requested 2013-12-12
Authors Vijay K. Gurbani , Volker Hilt , Henning Schulzrinne
I-D last updated 2014-01-16
Completed reviews Genart Last Call review of -14 by Brian E. Carpenter (diff)
Genart Telechat review of -14 by Brian E. Carpenter (diff)
Secdir Last Call review of -14 by Joseph A. Salowey (diff)
Assignment Reviewer Joseph A. Salowey
State Completed
Request Last Call review on draft-ietf-soc-overload-control by Security Area Directorate Assigned
Reviewed revision 14 (document currently at 15)
Result Has issues
Completed 2014-01-16
review-ietf-soc-overload-control-14-secdir-lc-salowey-2014-01-16-00
I have reviewed this document as part of the security directorate's
ongoing effort to review all IETF documents being processed by the
IESG.  These comments were written primarily for the benefit of the
security area directors.  Document editors and WG chairs should treat
these comments just like any other last call comments.

I think this document is ready with some minor issues.

First I like what you have done with the security considerations section.  It
defines the attacks of concern in a clear way and describes some mitigations.

1.   The security considerations section mentions several mitigations for false
overload control messages including TCP, Websockets, BCP-38 and TLS.   While
TCP and Websockets provide more protection than UDP its not clear to me that
they are providing sufficient protection.   In addition, it seems that BCP-38
should be encouraged in all cases (not just the TLS case).   I'd feel better
about the recommendation if it stated some thing like "TCP and Websockets in
conjunction with BCP-38 make it more difficult for an attacker to insert or
modify messages,  but it is still possible depending on where the attacker is
positioned in the network.  TLS provides better protection from an attacker
that has access to the network link."

2.  Some privacy considerations are mentioned in section 5.3.  Its not really
clear to me what these considerations are so it would be good to expand upon
them in the security considerations section.

3.  Is it possible that some of the oc-agorithms might have their own security
considerations.  If this is likely then it might be good to indicate the reader
should check to see if the individual algorithm specifications security
considerations.

4.  Is there any mitigation for the attack involving a proxy that does not
support mechanism from blindly forwarding an attacker's oc headers?

Cheers,

Joe