Security Threats for the Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (NHDP)
RFC 7186

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                             J. Yi
Request for Comments: 7186                      LIX, Ecole Polytechnique
Category: Informational                                       U. Herberg
ISSN: 2070-1721                          Fujitsu Laboratories of America
                                                              T. Clausen
                                                LIX, Ecole Polytechnique
                                                              April 2014

    Security Threats for the Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (NHDP)

Abstract

   This document analyzes common security threats of the Neighborhood
   Discovery Protocol (NHDP) and describes their potential impacts on
   Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) routing protocols using NHDP.  This
   document is not intended to propose solutions to the threats
   described.

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/rfc7186.

Yi, et al.                    Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 7186                Security Threats for NHDP             April 2014

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  NHDP Threat Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Detailed Threat Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.1.  Jamming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.2.  Denial-of-Service Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.3.  Eavesdropping and Traffic Analysis  . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.4.  Incorrect HELLO Message Generation  . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       4.4.1.  Identity Spoofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       4.4.2.  Link Spoofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.5.  Replay Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.6.  Message Timing Attacks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.6.1.  Interval Time Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       4.6.2.  Validity Time Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.7.  Indirect Channel Overloading  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.8.  Attack on Link Quality Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   5.  Impact of Inconsistent Information Bases on Protocols using
       NHDP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     5.1.  MPR Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       5.1.1.  Flooding Disruption due to Identity Spoofing  . . . .  12
       5.1.2.  Flooding Disruption due to Link Spoofing  . . . . . .  13
       5.1.3.  Broadcast Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     5.2.  Routing Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     5.3.  Invalid or Nonexistent Paths to Destinations  . . . . . .  16
     5.4.  Data Sinkhole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   6.  Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   8.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

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RFC 7186                Security Threats for NHDP             April 2014

1.  Introduction

   The Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (NHDP) [RFC6130] allows routers
   to acquire topological information up to two hops away from