Security Considerations for Transient Numeric Identifiers Employed in Network Protocols
draft-gont-numeric-ids-sec-considerations-03

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Network Working Group                                            F. Gont
Internet-Draft                                    SI6 Networks / UTN-FRH
Updates: 3552 (if approved)                                      I. Arce
Intended status: Best Current Practice                         Quarkslab
Expires: September 12, 2019                               March 11, 2019

 Security Considerations for Transient Numeric Identifiers Employed in
                           Network Protocols
              draft-gont-numeric-ids-sec-considerations-03

Abstract

   For more than 30 years, a large number of implementations of the TCP/
   IP protocol suite have been subject to a variety of attacks, with
   effects ranging from Denial of Service (DoS) or data injection, to
   information leakage that could be exploited for pervasive monitoring.
   The root of these issues has been, in many cases, the poor selection
   of transient identifiers in such protocols, usually as a result of an
   insufficient or misleading specifications.  This document formally
   updates RFC3552, such that RFCs are required to perform a security
   and privacy analysis of the transient numeric identifiers they
   specify.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 12, 2019.

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   Copyright (c) 2019 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents

Gont & Arce            Expires September 12, 2019               [Page 1]
Internet-Draft       Security Considerations for IDs          March 2019

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Issues with the Specification of Identifiers  . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Common Flaws in the Generation of Transient Identifiers . . .   5
   5.  Security and Privacy Requirements for Identifiers . . . . . .   6
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   Network protocols employ a variety of transient numeric identifiers
   for different protocol entities, ranging from DNS Transaction IDs
   (TxIDs) to transport protocol numbers (e.g.  TCP ports) or IPv6
   Interface Identifiers (IIDs).  These identifiers usually have
   specific properties that must be satisfied such that they do not
   result in negative interoperability implications (e.g. uniqueness
   during a specified period of time), and associated failure severities
   when such properties are not met.

   For more than 30 years, a large number of implementations of the TCP/
   IP protocol suite have been subject to a variety of attacks, with
   effects ranging from Denial of Service (DoS) or data injection, to
   information leakage that could be exploited for pervasive monitoring
   [RFC7528].  The root of these issues has been, in many cases, the
   poor selection of identifiers in such protocols, usually as a result
   of an insufficient or misleading specification.  While it is
   generally trivial to identify an algorithm that can satisfy the
   interoperability requirements for a given identifier, there exists
   practical evidence that doing so without negatively affecting the