Threat Analysis for TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses
RFC 6181
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Bagnulo
Request for Comments: 6181 UC3M
Category: Informational March 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721
Threat Analysis for TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation
with Multiple Addresses
Abstract
Multipath TCP (MPTCP for short) describes the extensions proposed for
TCP so that endpoints of a given TCP connection can use multiple
paths to exchange data. Such extensions enable the exchange of
segments using different source-destination address pairs, resulting
in the capability of using multiple paths in a significant number of
scenarios. Some level of multihoming and mobility support can be
achieved through these extensions. However, the support for multiple
IP addresses per endpoint may have implications on the security of
the resulting MPTCP. This note includes a threat analysis for MPTCP.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6181.
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RFC 6181 MPTCP Threat Analysis March 2011
Copyright Notice
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Basic MPTCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Flooding Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6. Hijacking Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.1. Hijacking Attacks to the Basic MPTCP . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.2. Time-Shifted Hijacking Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.3. NAT Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7. Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9. Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
10. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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RFC 6181 MPTCP Threat Analysis March 2011
1. Introduction
Multipath TCP (MPTCP for short) describes the extensions proposed for
TCP [RFC0793] so that endpoints of a given TCP connection can use
multiple paths to exchange data. Such extensions enable the exchange
of segments using different source-destination address pairs,
resulting in the capability of using multiple paths in a significant
number of scenarios. Some level of multihoming and mobility support
can be achieved through these extensions. However, the support for
multiple IP addresses per endpoint may have implications on the
security of the resulting MPTCP. This note includes a threat
analysis for MPTCP. There are many other ways to provide multiple
paths for a TCP connection other than the usage of multiple
addresses. The threat analysis performed in this document is limited
to the specific case of using multiple addresses per endpoint.
2. Scope
There are multiple ways to achieve Multipath TCP. Essentially, what
is needed is for different segments of the communication to be
forwarded through different paths by enabling the sender to specify
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