Analysis of Residual Threats and Possible Fixes for Multipath TCP (MPTCP)
RFC 7430
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Bagnulo
Request for Comments: 7430 UC3M
Category: Informational C. Paasch
ISSN: 2070-1721 UCLouvain
F. Gont
SI6 Networks / UTN-FRH
O. Bonaventure
UCLouvain
C. Raiciu
UPB
July 2015
Analysis of Residual Threats and Possible Fixes for
Multipath TCP (MPTCP)
Abstract
This document analyzes the residual threats for Multipath TCP (MPTCP)
and explores possible solutions to address them.
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/rfc7430.
Bagnulo, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 7430 MPTCP Residual Threats July 2015
Copyright Notice
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document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. ADD_ADDR Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Possible Security Enhancements to Prevent This Attack . . 10
3. DoS Attack on MP_JOIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1. Possible Security Enhancements to Prevent This Attack . . 12
4. SYN Flooding Amplification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.1. Possible Security Enhancements to Prevent This Attack . . 13
5. Eavesdropper in the Initial Handshake . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.1. Possible Security Enhancements to Prevent This Attack . . 14
6. SYN/JOIN Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1. Possible Security Enhancements to Prevent This Attack . . 14
7. Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.1. MPTCP Security Improvements for a Standards Track
Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.2. Security Enhancements for MPTCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
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RFC 7430 MPTCP Residual Threats July 2015
1. Introduction
This document provides a complement to the threat analysis for
Multipath TCP (MPTCP) [RFC6824] documented in RFC 6181 [RFC6181].
RFC 6181 provided a threat analysis for the general solution space of
extending TCP to operate with multiple IP addresses per connection.
Its main goal was to leverage previous experience acquired during the
design of other multi-address protocols, notably Shim6 [RFC5533], the
Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) [RFC4960], and Mobile
IPv6 (MIP6) [RFC6275] for designing MPTCP. Thus, RFC 6181 was
produced before the actual MPTCP specification (RFC 6824) was
completed and documented a set of recommendations that were
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