Security Assessment of the Internet Protocol Version 4
RFC 6274
|
| Document |
Type |
|
RFC - Informational
(July 2011; Errata)
|
|
Last updated |
|
2015-10-14
|
|
Replaces |
|
draft-gont-opsec-ip-security
|
|
Stream |
|
IETF
|
|
Formats |
|
plain text
pdf
html
bibtex
|
| Stream |
WG state
|
|
WG Document
|
|
Document shepherd |
|
No shepherd assigned
|
| IESG |
IESG state |
|
RFC 6274 (Informational)
|
|
Consensus Boilerplate |
|
Unknown
|
|
Telechat date |
|
|
|
Responsible AD |
|
Ron Bonica
|
|
IESG note |
|
The Document Shepherd is Joel Jaeggli (joelja@bogus.com).
|
|
Send notices to |
|
(None)
|
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) F. Gont
Request for Comments: 6274 UK CPNI
Category: Informational July 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721
Security Assessment of the Internet Protocol Version 4
Abstract
This document contains a security assessment of the IETF
specifications of the Internet Protocol version 4 and of a number of
mechanisms and policies in use by popular IPv4 implementations. It
is based on the results of a project carried out by the UK's Centre
for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).
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/rfc6274.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 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
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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.
Gont Informational [Page 1]
RFC 6274 IPv4 Security Assessment July 2011
Table of Contents
1. Preface .........................................................4
1.1. Introduction ...............................................4
1.2. Scope of This Document .....................................6
1.3. Organization of This Document ..............................7
2. The Internet Protocol ...........................................7
3. Internet Protocol Header Fields .................................8
3.1. Version ....................................................9
3.2. IHL (Internet Header Length) ..............................10
3.3. Type of Service (TOS) .....................................10
3.3.1. Original Interpretation ............................10
3.3.2. Standard Interpretation ............................12
3.3.2.1. Differentiated Services Field .............12
3.3.2.2. Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) ....13
3.4. Total Length ..............................................14
3.5. Identification (ID) .......................................15
3.5.1. Some Workarounds Implemented by the Industry .......16
3.5.2. Possible Security Improvements .....................17
3.5.2.1. Connection-Oriented Transport Protocols ...17
3.5.2.2. Connectionless Transport Protocols ........18
3.6. Flags .....................................................19
3.7. Fragment Offset ...........................................21
3.8. Time to Live (TTL) ........................................22
3.8.1. Fingerprinting the Operating System in Use
by the Source Host .................................24
3.8.2. Fingerprinting the Physical Device from
which the Packets Originate ........................24
3.8.3. Mapping the Network Topology .......................24
3.8.4. Locating the Source Host in the Network Topology ...25
3.8.5. Evading Network Intrusion Detection Systems ........26
3.8.6. Improving the Security of Applications That
Make Use of the Internet Protocol (IP) .............27
3.8.7. Limiting Spread ....................................28
3.9. Protocol ..................................................28
3.10. Header Checksum ..........................................28
3.11. Source Address ...........................................29
3.12. Destination Address ......................................30
3.13. Options ..................................................30
Show full document text