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Registration Interface Information Model for Interface to Network Security Functions
draft-hyun-i2nsf-registration-interface-im-01

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Sangwon Hyun , Jaehoon Paul Jeong , SangUk Woo , yunsuk@imtl.skku.ac.kr, Park Jung-Soo
Last updated 2017-03-13 (Latest revision 2016-10-31)
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draft-hyun-i2nsf-registration-interface-im-01
Network Working Group                                            S. Hyun
Internet-Draft                                                  J. Jeong
Intended status: Standards Track                                  S. Woo
Expires: September 14, 2017                                       Y. Yeo
                                                 Sungkyunkwan University
                                                                 J. Park
                                                                    ETRI
                                                          March 13, 2017

   Registration Interface Information Model for Interface to Network
                           Security Functions
             draft-hyun-i2nsf-registration-interface-im-01

Abstract

   This document describes an information model for Interface to Network
   Security Functions (I2NSF) Registration Interface between Security
   Controller and Developer's Management System.  The information model
   is required for Network Security Function (NSF) instance registration
   and the dynamic life cycle management of NSF instances.  This
   document explains the procedures over I2NSF registration interface
   for these functionalities.  It also describes the detailed
   information which should be exchanged via I2NSF registration
   interface.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 14, 2017.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 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
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   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.  Requirements Language  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   4.  Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   5.  Information Model  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     5.1.  Life-Cycle Managment Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     5.2.  Registration Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     5.3.  NSF Access Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     5.4.  NSF Profile (Capabilities of an NSF instance)  . . . . . .  7
       5.4.1.  Packet Content-Matching Capability . . . . . . . . . .  8
       5.4.2.  Content-Matching Capability  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       5.4.3.  Context-Matching Capability  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       5.4.4.  Attack-Mitigation Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       5.4.5.  Action Capability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       5.4.6.  Performance Capability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   7.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   8.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     8.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     8.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   Appendix A.  Changes from
                draft-hyun-i2nsf-registration-interface-im-00 . . . . 11

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1.  Introduction

   A number of virtual network security function instances typically
   exist in Interface to Network Security Functions (I2NSF) framework
   [i2nsf-framework].  In this environment, it is important to
   dynamically manage a Network Security Function (NSF) instance pool
   for efficient resource utilization.  For instance, if a certain NSF
   instance is receiving an excessive amount of traffic beyond its
   capacity, an additional instance for the same security function
   should be created.  If an NSF instance is idle for a period of time,
   it would be better to destroy it to avoid resource waste.  In
   addition, the existing information model for NSF-facing interface
   requires an NSF to trigger another type of NSF for further inspection
   [capability-im].  In this case, if there is no available instance for
   the latter NSF, a new NSF should be instantiated.  Similarly, in
   order to enforce a security policy from the client, all the required
   NSF instances should be created.

   This document describes the procedures which should be performed on
   the registration interface between security controller and
   developer's management system to dynamically manage a pool of NSF
   instances.  It further describes the detailed information which
   should be exchanged between security controller and developer's
   management system.

2.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3.  Terminology

   This document uses the terminology described in
   [i2nsf-terminology][capability-im][i2nsf-framework]
   [nsf-triggered-steering].

   o  Network Security Function (NSF): A function that is responsible
      for specific treatment of received packets.  A Network Security
      Function can act at various layers of a protocol stack (e.g., at
      the network layer or other OSI layers).  Sample Network Security
      Service Functions are as follows: Firewall, Intrusion Prevention/
      Detection System (IPS/IDS), Deep Packet Inspection (DPI),
      Application Visibility and Control (AVC), network virus and
      malware scanning, sandbox, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Distributed
      Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation and TLS proxy
      [nsf-triggered-steering].

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   o  Advanced Inspection/Action: As like the I2NSF information model
      for NSF-facing interface [capability-im], Advanced Inspection/
      Action means that a security function calls another security
      function for further inspection based on its own inspection result
      [nsf-triggered-steering].

   o  Network Security Function Profile (NSF Profile): NSF Profile
      specifies the security and performance capability of an NSF
      instance.  Each NSF instance has its own NSF Profile which
      describes the type of security service it can provide and its
      resource capacity. [nsf-triggered-steering].

4.  Objectives

   o  Efficient network resource utilization through dynamic
      instantiation of NSFs and load balancing: In I2NSF framework, it
      is sometimes possible that a specific NSF experiences heavy
      traffic loads.  For example, under DDoS attacks, a huge volume of
      traffic would be delivered to DoS attack mitigator function to
      cope with the attacks.  In this case, we should allocate a large
      portion of resources to that DoS attack mitigator function by
      creating a sufficient number of DoS mitigator instances.  In
      addition, after the attack is terminated, we should eliminate some
      of the instances no longer used.  In this way, we can achieve
      efficient resource utilization.  For this purpose, it is essential
      to define an information model of registration interface for
      dynamic instantiation/elimination of NSF instances.

   o  Creating an NSF instance to serve another NSF's inspection
      request: In I2NSF framework, an NSF can trigger another type of
      NSF(s) for more advanced security inspection of the traffic.  In
      this case, the next NSF is determined by the current NSF's
      inspection result and client's policy.  However, if there is no
      available NSF instance to serve the former NSF's request, we
      should create an NSF instance by requesting Developer's Management
      System (DMS) through registration interface.

   o  Creating NSF instances required to enforce security policy rules
      from Client: In I2NSF framework, users decide which security
      service is necessary in the system.  If there is no NSF instances
      to enforce the client's security policy, then we should also
      create the required instances by requesting DMS via registration
      interface.

   o  Registering NSF instances from Developer's Management System:
      Depending on system's security requirements, it may require some
      NSFs by default.  In this case, DMS creates these default NSF
      instances without the need of receiving requests from Security

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      Controller.  After creating them, DMS notifies Security Controller
      of those NSF instances via registration interface.

5.  Information Model

   The I2NSF registration interface was only used for registering new
   NSF instances to Security Controller.  In this document, however, we
   extend its utilization to support dynamic NSF life cycle management
   and describe the information that should be exchanged via the
   registration interface for the functionality .  Moreover, we also
   define the information model of NSF Profile because, for registration
   interface, NSF Profile (i.e., capabilities of an NSF) needs to be
   clarified so that the components of I2NSF framework can exchange the
   set of capabilities in a standardized manner.  This is typically done
   through the following process::

   1)  Security Controller first recognizes the set of capabilities
       (i.e., NSF Profile) or the signature of a specific NSF required
       or wasted in the current system.

   2)  Developer's Management System (DMS) matches the recognized
       information to an NSF based on the information model definition.

   3)  Developer's Management System creates or eliminates NSFs matching
       with the above information.

   4)  Security Controller can then add/remove the corresponding NSF
       instance to/from its list of available NSF instances in the
       system.

   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   | Registration Interface Information Design                         |
   |                                                                   |
   |       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+       |
   |       |Life-Cycle Management|       |    Registration     |       |
   |       |      Sub-Model      |       |      Sub-Model      |       |
   |       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+       |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

       Figure 1: The Registration Interface Information Model Design

   As illustrated in Figure 1, the information model for Registration
   Interface consists of two sub-models: life-cycle management,
   registration sub-models.  The life-cycle management functionality and
   the registration functionality use NSF Profile to achieve their
   goals.  In this context, NSF Profile is the capability objects that

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   describe and/or prescribe inspection capability an NSF instance can
   provide.

5.1.  Life-Cycle Managment Mechanism

   For the life-cycle management of NSFs, Security Controller in I2NSF
   framework requires two types of requests: Instance Creation and
   Elimination Request Messages.  Security Controller sends the request
   messages to DMS when required.  Once receiving the request, DMS
   conducts creating/eliminating the corresponding NSF instance and
   responds Security Controller with the results.  There are several
   cases requiring creation of a new NSF instance which provides
   specific security inspection functionalities and elimination of an
   existing NSF which is unused for a period of time.  For example,

   1)  When an NSF triggers an advanced inspection of the suspicious
       traffic via another type of NSF whose instance is currently
       unavailable in the system.

   2)  When an NSF instance undergoes an excessive amount of traffic

           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
           |Instance Creation|           | Instance Elimination  |
           | Request Message |           |    Request Message    |
           +-+-+-+-^-+-+-+-+-+           +-+-+-+-+-+^+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                   |                                |
                   |                                |
                   |                                |
                   |                                |
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
           |  NSF Profile  |                |  NSF Access   |
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                |  Information  |
                                            +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

            Figure 2: Life-Cycle Management Sub-Model Overview

5.2.  Registration Mechanism

   In order to register a new NSF instance, DMS should generate a
   Registration Message to Security Controller.  A Registration Message
   consists of an NSF Profile and an NSF Access Information.  The former
   describes the inspection capability of the new NSF instance and the
   latter is for enabling network access to the new instance from other
   components.  After this registration process, as explained in
   [capability-im], the I2NSF capability interface can conduct
   controlling and monitoring the new registered NSF instance.

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                         +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                         | Registration  |
                         |    Message    |
                         +-+-+-+-^-+-+-+-+
                                 |
                  +-----------------------------+
                  |                             |
                  |                             |
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+               +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
           | NSF Profile |               | NSF Access  |
           |             |               | Information |
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+               +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

            Figure 3: Registration Mechanism Sub-Model Overview

5.3.  NSF Access Information

   NSF Access Information contains the followings that are required to
   communicate with an NSF: IPv4 address, IPv6 address, port number, and
   supported transport protocol(s) (e.g., Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN)
   [RFC 7348], Generic Protocol Extension for VXLAN (VXLAN-GPE)
   [nvo3-vxlan-gpe], Generic Route Encapsulation (GRE), Ethernet etc.).
   In this document, NSF Access Information is used to identify a
   specific NSF instance (i.e.  NSF Access Information is the
   signature(unique identifier) of an NSF instance in the overall
   system).

5.4.  NSF Profile (Capabilities of an NSF instance)

   NSF Profile basically refers the inspection capabilities of an NSF
   instance.  As illustrated in Figure 4, it can be split into five
   capabilities (Content-Matching, Context-Matching, Attack-Mitigation,
   Action, Performance Capabilities).  We share the security
   capabilities which are defined in Section 3 (Overall Analysis of
   Security Capability) in [capability-im] for the first five
   capabilities and append one additional capability.

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                             +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                             |  Capability   |
                             |    Objects    |
                             +-+-+-+-^-+-+-+-+
                                     |
                +--------------------+--------------------+-----------+
                |                    |                    |           |
                |                    |                    |           |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  |
       |Content-Matching |  |Content-Matching |  |Context-Matching |  |
       |    (Packet)     |  |   Capability    |  |   Capability    |  |
       |   Capability    |  |                 |  |                 |  |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  |
                                                                      |
                +--------------------+--------------------+-----------+
                |                    |                    |
                |                    |                    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |Attack Mitigation|  |     Action      |  |   Performance   |
       |   Capability    |  |   Capability    |  |   Capability    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                      Figure 4: NSF Profile Overview

5.4.1.  Packet Content-Matching Capability

   Refer to the kind of information or attributes acquired directly from
   the packet headers or payloads that can be used in the security
   policy.  It can be any fields or attributes in the packet L2/L3/L4
   header, or special segment of bytes in the packet payload.
   [capability-im]

5.4.2.  Content-Matching Capability

   Content security is another category of security capabilities applied
   to application layer.  Through detecting the contents carried over
   the traffic in application layer, these capabilities can realize
   various security functions, such as defending against intrusion,
   inspecting virus, filtering malicious URL or junk email, blocking
   illegal web access or malicious data retrieval. [capability-im]

5.4.3.  Context-Matching Capability

   This capability refers to the content information for the received
   packets.  It can be User, Schedule, Region, Target, State and
   Direction information. [capability-im]

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5.4.4.  Attack-Mitigation Capability

   This category of security capabilities is used to detect and mitigate
   various types of network attacks.  Today's common network attacks can
   be classified into the following sets, and each set further consists
   of a number of specific attacks: [capability-im]

   o  DDoS attacks:

      *  Network layer DDoS attacks: Examples include SYN flood, UDP
         flood, ICMP flood, IP fragment flood, IPv6 Routing header
         attack, and IPv6 duplicate address detection attack;

      *  Application layer DDoS attacks: Examples include http flood,
         https flood, cache-bypass http floods, WordPress XML RPC
         floods, ssl DDoS.

   o  Single-packet attack:

      *  Scanning and sniffing attacks: IP sweep, port scanning, etc

      *  Malformed packet attacks: Ping of Death, Teardrop, etc

      *  Special packet attacks: Oversized ICMP, Tracert, IP timestamp
         option packets, etc

5.4.5.  Action Capability

   NSFs provide security functions by executing various Actions, which
   at least includes: [capability-im]

   o  Ingress actions, such as pass, drop, mirroring, etc;

   o  Egress actions, such as invoke signaling, tunnel encapsulation,
      packet forwarding and/or transformation;

   o  Applying a specific Functional Profile or signature (NSF Profile)
      - The functional profile or signature file defines the security
      capabilities for content security control and/or attack mitigation
      control.  One goal of I2NSF is to standardize the form and
      functional interface of those security capabilities while
      supporting vendor-specific implementations of each.

5.4.6.  Performance Capability

   This information basically represents the processing capability of an
   NSF, i.e., the amount of traffic it can process for a unit time
   period.  This information can be used to determine whether the NSF is

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   in congestion by comparing this with the workload that the NSF
   currently undergoes.  Moreover, this information can specify an
   available amount of each type of resources such as processing power
   and memory which are available on the NSF.

6.  Security Considerations

   The information model of the registration interface is based on the
   I2NSF framework without any architectural changes.  Thus, this
   document shares the security considerations of the I2NSF framwork
   that are specified in [i2nsf-framework] for the purpose of achieving
   secure communication between components in the proposed architecture.

7.  Acknowledgements

   This work was supported by Institute for Information & communications
   Technology Promotion(IITP) grant funded by the Korea government(MSIP)
   (No.R-20160222-002755, Cloud based Security Intelligence Technology
   Development for the Customized Security Service Provisioning).

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]                 Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to
                             Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14,
                             RFC 2119, March 1997.

8.2.  Informative References

   [capability-im]           Xia, L., Strassner, J., Basile, C., and D.
                             Lopez, "Information Model of NSFs
                             Capabilities",
                             draft-xibassnez-i2nsf-capability-01 (work
                             in progress), March 2017.

   [i2nsf-framework]         Lopez, D., Lopez, E., Dunbar, L.,
                             Strassner, J., and R. Kumar, "Framework for
                             Interface to Network Security Functions",
                             draft-ietf-i2nsf-framework-04 (work in
                             progress), October 2016.

   [i2nsf-terminology]       Hares, S., Strassner, J., Lopez, D., Xia,
                             L., and H. Birkholz, "Interface to Network
                             Security Functions (I2NSF) Terminology",
                             draft-ietf-i2nsf-terminology-03 (work in
                             progress), March 2017.

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   [nsf-triggered-steering]  Hyun, S., Jeong, J., Woo, S., Yeo, Y., and
                             J. Park, "NSF-Triggered Traffic Steering",
                             draft-hyun-i2nsf-nsf-triggered-steering-02
                             (work in progress), March 2017.

   [nvo3-vxlan-gpe]          Maino, F., Kreeger, L., and U. Elzur,
                             "Generic Protocol Extension for VXLAN",
                             draft-ietf-nvo3-vxlan-gpe-03 (work in
                             progress), October 2016.

Appendix A.  Changes from draft-hyun-i2nsf-registration-interface-im-00

   The following changes are made from
   draft-hyun-i2nsf-registration-interface-im-00:

   o  Miscellaneous expressions in the whole descriptions are corrected.

   o  The description of NSF Access Information and Performance
      Capability is specified in more detail than the previous version.

Authors' Addresses

   Sangwon Hyun
   Department of Software
   Sungkyunkwan University
   2066 Seobu-Ro, Jangan-Gu
   Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do  16419
   Republic of Korea

   Phone: +82 31 290 7222
   Fax:   +82 31 299 6673
   EMail: swhyun77@skku.edu
   URI:   http://imtl.skku.ac.kr/

   Jaehoon Paul Jeong
   Department of Software
   Sungkyunkwan University
   2066 Seobu-Ro, Jangan-Gu
   Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do  16419
   Republic of Korea

   Phone: +82 31 299 4957
   Fax:   +82 31 290 7996
   EMail: pauljeong@skku.edu
   URI:   http://iotlab.skku.edu/people-jaehoon-jeong.php

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   SangUk Woo
   Department of Software
   Sungkyunkwan University
   2066 Seobu-Ro, Jangan-Gu
   Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do  16419
   Republic of Korea

   Phone: +82 31 290 7222
   Fax:   +82 31 299 6673
   EMail: suwoo@imtl.skku.ac.kr,
   URI:   http://imtl.skku.ac.kr/index.php?mid=member_student

   YunSuk Yeo
   Department of Software
   Sungkyunkwan University
   2066 Seobu-Ro, Jangan-Gu
   Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do  16419
   Republic of Korea

   Phone: +82 31 290 7222
   Fax:   +82 31 299 6673
   EMail: yunsuk@imtl.skku.ac.kr,
   URI:   http://imtl.skku.ac.kr/index.php?mid=member_student

   Jung-Soo Park
   Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
   218 Gajeong-Ro, Yuseong-Gu
   Daejeon  305-700
   Republic of Korea

   Phone: +82 42 860 6514
   EMail: pjs@etri.re.kr

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