Security Threats to Simplified Multicast Forwarding (SMF)
RFC 7985

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                             J. Yi
Request for Comments: 7985                                    T. Clausen
Updates: 7186                                        Ecole Polytechnique
Category: Informational                                       U. Herberg
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            November 2016

       Security Threats to Simplified Multicast Forwarding (SMF)

Abstract

   This document analyzes security threats to Simplified Multicast
   Forwarding (SMF), including vulnerabilities of duplicate packet
   detection and relay set selection mechanisms.  This document is not
   intended to propose solutions to the threats described.

   In addition, this document updates RFC 7186 regarding threats to the
   relay set selection mechanisms using the Mobile Ad Hoc Network
   (MANET) Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (NHDP) (RFC 6130).

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 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 7841.

   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/rfc7985.

Yi, et al.                    Informational                     [Page 1]
RFC 7985                Security Threats for SMF           November 2016

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2016 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.  SMF Threat Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Threats to Duplicate Packet Detection . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     4.1.  Attack on the Hop Limit Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     4.2.  Threats to Identification-Based Duplicate Packet
           Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       4.2.1.  Pre-Activation Attacks (Pre-Play) . . . . . . . . . .   7
       4.2.2.  De-activation Attacks (Sequence Number Wrangling) . .   8
     4.3.  Threats to Hash-Based Duplicate Packet Detection  . . . .   9
       4.3.1.  Attack on the Hash-Assistant Value  . . . . . . . . .   9
   5.  Threats to Relay Set Selection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     5.1.  Common Threats to Relay Set Selection . . . . . . . . . .  10
     5.2.  Threats to the E-CDS Algorithm  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       5.2.1.  Link Spoofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
       5.2.2.  Identity Spoofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     5.3.  Threats to S-MPR Algorithm  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     5.4.  Threats to the MPR-CDS Algorithm  . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15

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RFC 7985                Security Threats for SMF           November 2016

1.  Introduction

   This document analyzes security threats to Simplified Multicast
   Forwarding (SMF) [RFC6621].  SMF aims at providing basic Internet
   Protocol (IP) multicast forwarding in a way that is suitable for
   wireless mesh and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET).  SMF consists of
   two major functional components: duplicate packet detection (DPD) and
   relay set selection (RSS).

   SMF is typically used in decentralized wireless environments and is
   potentially exposed to various attacks and misconfigurations.  In a
   wireless environment, some of these attacks and misconfigurations
   represent threats of particular significance as compared to what they
   would do in wired networks.  [RFC6621] briefly discusses several of