Skip to main content

OWE: Opportunistic Wireless Encryption
draft-wkumari-owe-00

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Warren "Ace" Kumari , Wesley George
Last updated 2015-08-19
RFC stream (None)
Formats
Additional resources
Stream Stream state (No stream defined)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
RFC Editor Note (None)
IESG IESG state I-D Exists
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-wkumari-owe-00
Network Working Group                                          W. Kumari
Internet-Draft                                                    Google
Intended status: Informational                                 W. George
Expires: February 20, 2016                             Time Warner Cable
                                                         August 19, 2015

                 OWE: Opportunistic Wireless Encryption
                          draft-wkumari-owe-00

Abstract

   This document describes a method to incrementally increase the
   security of wireless networks against passive attackers / pervasive
   monitors through unauthenticated encryption.

   [ Ed note: Text inside square brackets ([]) is additional background
   information, answers to frequently asked questions, general musings,
   etc.  They will be removed before publication.]

   [ This document is being collaborated on in Github at:
   https://github.com/wkumari/draft-wkumari-owe.  The most recent
   version of the document, open issues, etc should all be available
   here.  The authors (gratefully) accept pull requests. ]

Status of This Memo

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

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on February 20, 2016.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 1]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

   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.  tl;dr / Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  FAQ / Common questions / Notes  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Introduction / Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  Requirements notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  OWE protected networks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  OWE Support Advertisement in Beacons  . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  OWE Advertisement in Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP)   6
     3.3.  Implementation notes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Deployment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   7.  Privacy Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix A.  Changes / Author Notes.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  tl;dr / Executive summary

   This (colloquial) summary will be removed before publication:

   Currently, there are many open/unencrypted public WiFi networks,
   designed for "ease of use" in places such as coffee shops, libraries,
   etc.  When a user connects to these open networks, they are using an
   unencrypted connection and their traffic can be easily viewed and/or
   intercepted by any other user within wireless range, simply by using
   a network sniffing tool such as Wireshark.

   While users *should* use a VPN, many do not.  Places that provide
   public WiFi access *should* only provide an encrypted SSID, and print
   the passphrase on the wall or receipts (or similar); but, well, they
   are a coffee shop, and want to provide easy access to everyone who
   buys an espresso...

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 2]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

   This document defines a new, opportunistically encrypted mode for
   WiFi networks.  The SSID will still appear to be open (there will not
   be a "lock" icon when scanning), but will actually be encrypted,
   using the SSID as the passphrase.  Software running on the client
   will detect that this is an opportunistically encrypted connection
   and will automagically provide the SSID as the passphrase, providing
   an encrypted connection without any interaction from the user.  This
   system leverages existing WiFi protocols and WPA2, the only change is
   in operational practices and the client UI.

1.1.  FAQ / Common questions / Notes

   Q1: If everyone uses the SSID as the key, can't attackers just use
   this to decrypt all the data?
   A: WPA2 using PSK generates a unique Pairwise Transient Key (PTK)
   between the AP and each client.  This PTK is derived using something
   called the 4-Way Handshake ( see IEEE 802.11-2012 (or the summary at
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11i-2004#The_four-
   way_handshake )), which includes nonces from both the client and the
   AP.  Unfortunately, this doesn't use a public key exchange protocol,
   and so an attacker who can watch the initial client association can
   derive the user's encryption key.  This is a weakness in WPA2-PSK,
   and not specific to OWE.

   Q2: So does this actually help?
   A: Yes. This provides protection if the passive attacker wasn't
   already present when the user connected, or if the passive attacker
   was not able to hear both sides of the connection.  OWE does not
   provide very strong protection, and does not claim to.  It does,
   however, raise the bar for the attacker, or force him to become
   active (and force users to disassociate (so he can watch the 4 way
   handshake)).  OWE specifically does NOT provide the "lock" icon (or
   any other obvious feedback) when users scan for open wireless
   networks, because we do not want users to assume that they are
   getting "real" encryption.  OWE will become more secure if and when
   WiFi with a secure PAKE / public key exchange is deployed.  The
   incremental cost to implement OWE is very small (it involves adding a
   flag to beacons, and clients to know to not display the lock icon)
   and so we feel that the benefit outweighs the cost.

   Q3: Isn't this vulnerable to the fake AP attack?!
   A: Yes. An attacker can stand up their own AP with the same SSID and
   passphrase.  This is true for any network that uses WPA2-PSK when the
   attacker knows the passphrase (for example, if the coffeeshop prints
   the passphrase on the wall, receipts, etc) and it not specific to
   OWE.  OWE is not designed to defeat active attackers, nor solve all
   issues.  See Q2.

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 3]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

   Q4: This isn't really opportunistic encryption...
   A: Perhaps not, but it is has many of the same properties - it is
   unauthenticated, is mainly designed to deal with passive listeners,
   doesn't require interaction from the user, etc.  I also wanted to
   have a cool acronym - actually I wanted it to be OWL, but was not
   able to reverse engineer a non-contrived name that made that...

   Q5: Doesn't this belong in [ IEEE | WiFi Alliance | <insert other SDO
   here> ] ?
   A: Answer unclear, ask again later.  I have discussed this with a
   number of people who participate in other SDOs, and it seems like the
   IETF is the best home for it, at least for now.  It does not require
   changes to any underlying transport, it does not change any
   standards, it simply takes advantage of work done in other standards
   bodies.

2.  Introduction / Background

   As of the time of this writing, it is very common for users to
   connect to so called "open" wireless networks, for example in coffee
   shops, hotels, airports and similar.  These networks provide no
   encryption, which means that the user's traffic is visible to anyone
   nearby with packet capture software, for example, Wireshark.  It is
   also trivial for an attacker to perform a Man-in-the-middle attacks
   as they can see all of the user's traffic.

   There are a number of solutions to this problem, such as WPA2 (Wi-Fi
   Protected Access II), but these require either obtaining a passphrase
   from the network operator (WPA-Personal / Pre-Shared Key (PSK) mode)
   or having valid credentials for the network (WPA-Enterprise /
   [IEEE.802-11i]WPA-802.1X).

   While these provide good security, for convenience reasons network
   operators often deploy open / unencrypted networks for public or
   "guest" use.  This allows the public or visitors to get Internet
   access without having to ask for a passphrase, look around for one
   printed on a receipt or similar.  Instead of chastising network
   operators for providing insecure access, this document provides a
   method to implement unauthenticated, encrypted network access.

   This is not intended to replace other existing and more robust
   methods of authentication that provide encrypted access to a WiFi
   network once the user is authenticated and authorized to join the
   network, e.g.  WPA-Enterprise / IEEE 802.1x or Hotspot 2.0.  Rather,
   this is intended for low-end, unmanaged guest access networks such as
   SOHO networks that would otherwise either be left unencrypted, or
   whose password would be shared via other means such as posting it on
   the wall of the coffeeshop.

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 4]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

2.1.  Requirements notation

   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.  OWE protected networks

   In order to provide an encrypted connection using OWE, the network
   operator creates an SSID with the (WPA2 / 802.11i [IEEE.802-11i])
   pre-shared key identical to the SSID.  As part of the WPA2 protocol
   the wireless client (STAtion) and Access Point (AP) derive a Pairwise
   Transient Key (PTK), which provides an encrypted "channel" between
   the client and AP.

3.1.  OWE Support Advertisement in Beacons

   In order to advertise that this network supports OWE the Access Point
   will include the OWE Vendor-specific Information Element in Wireless
   Beacon frames.

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |    VSA (221)  |    Length (5) |           OUI
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          OUI (Cont)  |         Type                  |    Sub-type   |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   VSA  One octet.  The IEEE Assigned Vendor-Specific Information
      element ID - 221.

   Length  One octet.  The length of the information field, including
      the OUI - 5.

   OUI  Three octets.  The OUI for the of the entity that has defined
      the content of the particular vendor-specific information element
      - 64-6A-74 (AUTH-SERVERS). [ If approved, this may move under the
      IANA OUI if desired]

   Type  One octet.  OWE has been assigned Type 1 under the AUTH-SERVERS
      OUI

   Sub-type  One octet.  Sub-type identified the version of the OWE
      protocol.  Currently only 0 is defined.

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 5]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

   An Access Point that includes the OWE Vendor-specific Information
   Element in beacon frames is signalling that is supports OWE on that
   particular SSID, and that they PSK is the same as the SSID.  Client
   (STAtions) connecting to OWE enabled networks MUST use the SSID as
   the PSK, and MUST NOT display a "lock" icon in the list of SSIDs when
   scanning.  User Interfaces MAY provide some feedback that this is an
   OWE protected network, but this should not be too prominent to avoid
   users assuming that they are getting more security than they actually
   are.

3.2.  OWE Advertisement in Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP)

   This section to be fleshed out later, but the same general principle
   applies.

   SUpport for OWE can also be advertised in IEEE 802.11u-2011 using a
   virtual roaming consortium with the same OUI.  Examples will be
   provided soon.

3.3.  Implementation notes

   [ Ed note: This section contains rough notes for people who want to
   experiment with OWE.  It will be tidied / removed before
   publication.]

   There is some (very rough) example code in the Github repository, and
   also some example beacon captures, in pcapng format (view with
   Wireshark / tcpdump)

   The easiest way to quickly test this (IMO) is to install the hostapd
   tools on something like a Raspberry Pi, and then add

   <CODE BEGINS>
    #OWE:
    vendor_elements=dd05646a740100
   <CODE ENDS>

   to /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf.

   Another easy option is to use an AP running OpenWRT[OpenWrt].  My
   testing setup for this is a Ubiquiti Unifi (~$70USD on Amazon)
   running Barrier Breaker 14.07.

   After installing OpenWRT login via SSH and edit the /lib/netifd/
   hostapd.sh (this gets run when the WiFi interfaces is enabled).  Find
   the section around 'append bss_conf' and add:

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 6]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

<CODE BEGINS>
 #This adds the OWE 802.11 Vendor Specific Information Element to the beacon frames.
 append bss_conf "# OWE: Opportunistic Wireless Encryption - draft-wkumari-owe" "$N"
 append bss_conf "vendor_elements=dd05646a740100"  "$N"
<CODE ENDS>

   Disable and reenable the Wireless interface and it should start
   including the OWE information element in all beacon frames.  You can
   look at the generated config in /tmp/run/hostapd-phy0.conf.  While it
   works, this code is far from ideal - it always includes the OWE
   Vendor Specific Information Element - eventually I'll add something
   to the GUI to enable users to toggle it on and off, but this is a
   good start for testing.  Look for additional code in the Github repo
   soon!

4.  Deployment

   Because one of the largest problems with most low-end WiFi devices is
   their ability to receive timely updates to patch security holes and
   add new features post sale, it may be appropriate to define a
   lightweight version of this opportunistic encryption such that one or
   both sides of the wireless network connection can take advantage of
   this improved privacy via opportunistic encryption despite not being
   updated to formally support OWE beacons.  This model simply defines
   an agreed-upon or best practice method for manually configuring both
   network and client devices to attempt connecting to open, but secured
   WiFi networks when the password is not published, but the presence of
   a password is intended to provide link encryption rather than access
   control.

   As with the full mode defined above, the access point is configured
   to accept a WPA2-PSK that is identical to the SSID.  However, instead
   of advertising the OWE capability in beacons, the network looks like
   a standard encrypted network to host devices that wish to connect to
   it.  Host devices that are not OWE aware can be configured by the
   user to connect in the standard process, by selecting the desired
   SSID and manually entering a password that just happens to be the
   same as the SSID.  Host devices that are OWE-aware can automatically
   try the SSID as a password when the user selects that network to
   attempt to connect to it, and only present the user with a password
   prompt if that authentication fails, even if there is no OWE beacon
   seen from the AP.  If the device is able to connect to the network
   automatically via the SSID password, it can infer that this is an OWE
   network and present the appropriate notifications to the user.

   [ Open question: Instead of just having clients attempt to connect to
   whatever SSID they see, we could propose that OWE support is encoded

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 7]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

   into the SSID at well -- for example, open WiFi operators could
   append "--owe" to the name (e.g CentralPerk--owe).  Thoughts? ]

5.  IANA Considerations

   [ To be completed after discussions ]

   Currently the OWE Vendor-specific Information Element is using type
   1, sub-type 0 under the AUTH-SERVERS OUI.  This is to allow
   experimentation with OWE without squatting on the IANA OUI.  If OWE
   progresses within the IETF, and the IESG chooses, I'm fine to place
   this under the IANA OUI, or for it to remain under AUTH-SERVERS.
   It's all just numbers.

6.  Security Considerations

   There are many attacks that this does not protect against, including
   attackers watching the 4-Way Handshake and deriving the PTK between
   the client and the user.  This is a weakness in the wireless
   specification, and not specific to OWE.  In order to not have the
   user assume that they are getting stronger protection than they
   really are, the user interface should not provide obvious feedback
   that OWE is in use.  OWE simply raises the bar slightly; it does not
   claim to solve all wireless issues.

   This solution does not protect against so called "fake AP" attacks.
   Wireless networks that use PSKs that the attacker may know are
   vulnerable to an attacker standing up an access point with the same
   SSID and PSK.  This is not specific to OWE, it affects all WiFi
   networks.

   This solution does not (directly) protect against disassociation
   attacks and the attacker observing the client authentication.  This
   is not specific to OWE.

   This solution does not claim to provide "strong" security, it is
   intended to be less insecure than "open" WiFi.  In order to avoid
   users assuming that they are getting more security than they really
   are, OWE protected networks do not get a "lock" icon then scanning
   for WiFi networks.

   Ideally users would only associate to networks that they trust, using
   WPA2-Enterprise (802.1X) with certificates that they trust, and then
   immediately use a VPN to a trusted endpoint.  However, open wifi is
   really convenient and users will continue to want it.  While
   abstinence is the best policy, OWE recognises that users will
   continue to behave in risky ways, and thus aims to make this slightly
   less risky...

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 8]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

7.  Privacy Considerations

   By making "open" wireless encrypted by default we aim to decrease the
   incidence of passive eavesdropping by pervasive monitors and idle
   attackers.

8.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank a bunch of people, including Ted
   Hardie, Chris Morrow.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [IEEE.802-11i]
              IANA, "IEEE 802 Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access
              Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications
              Amendment 6: Medium Access Control (MAC) Security
              Enhancements", <http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/
              download/802.11i-2004.pdf>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/
              RFC2119, March 1997,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

9.2.  Informative References

   [OpenWrt]  IANA, "OpenWrt", <http://wiki.openwrt.org/start>.

Appendix A.  Changes / Author Notes.

   [RFC Editor: Please remove this section before publication ]

   From null to -00.

   o  Initial text.

Authors' Addresses

   Warren Kumari
   Google
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View, CA  94043
   US

   Email: warren@kumari.net

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016               [Page 9]
Internet-Draft              draft-wkumari-owe                August 2015

   Wesley George
   Time Warner Cable
   13820 Sunrise Valley Drive
   Herndon, VA  20171
   US

   Email: wesley.george@twcable.com

Kumari & George         Expires February 20, 2016              [Page 10]