Internet of Things (IoT) Security: State of the Art and Challenges
RFC 8576
Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) O. Garcia-Morchon
Request for Comments: 8576 Philips
Category: Informational S. Kumar
ISSN: 2070-1721 Signify
M. Sethi
Ericsson
April 2019
Internet of Things (IoT) Security: State of the Art and Challenges
Abstract
The Internet of Things (IoT) concept refers to the usage of standard
Internet protocols to allow for human-to-thing and thing-to-thing
communication. The security needs for IoT systems are well
recognized, and many standardization steps to provide security have
been taken -- for example, the specification of the Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP) secured with Datagram Transport Layer
Security (DTLS). However, security challenges still exist, not only
because there are some use cases that lack a suitable solution, but
also because many IoT devices and systems have been designed and
deployed with very limited security capabilities. In this document,
we first discuss the various stages in the lifecycle of a thing.
Next, we document the security threats to a thing and the challenges
that one might face to protect against these threats. Lastly, we
discuss the next steps needed to facilitate the deployment of secure
IoT systems. This document can be used by implementers and authors
of IoT specifications as a reference for details about security
considerations while documenting their specific security challenges,
threat models, and mitigations.
This document is a product of the IRTF Thing-to-Thing Research Group
(T2TRG).
Garcia-Morchon, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 8576 IoT Security April 2019
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 Research Task Force
(IRTF). The IRTF publishes the results of Internet-related research
and development activities. These results might not be suitable for
deployment. Documents approved for publication by the IRSG are not
candidates 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
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8576.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2019 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
(https://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.
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RFC 8576 IoT Security April 2019
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. The Thing Lifecycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Security Threats and Managing Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4. State of the Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.1. IP-Based IoT Protocols and Standards . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2. Existing IP-Based Security Protocols and Solutions . . . 16
4.3. IoT Security Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5. Challenges for a Secure IoT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.1. Constraints and Heterogeneous Communication . . . . . . . 21
5.1.1. Resource Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.1.2. Denial-of-Service Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.1.3. End-to-End Security, Protocol Translation, and the
Role of Middleboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.1.4. New Network Architectures and Paradigm . . . . . . . 25
5.2. Bootstrapping of a Security Domain . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.3. Operational Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.3.1. Group Membership and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.3.2. Mobility and IP Network Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.4. Secure Software Update and Cryptographic Agility . . . . 27
5.5. End-of-Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.6. Verifying Device Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.7. Testing: Bug Hunting and Vulnerabilities . . . . . . . . 31
5.8. Quantum-Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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