Network Working Group                                        J. Mattsson
Internet-Draft                                               J. Fornehed
Intended status: Informational                               G. Selander
Expires: March 21, 2019                                     F. Palombini
                                                                Ericsson
                                                              C. Amsuess
                                             Energy Harvesting Solutions
                                                      September 17, 2018


                    Controlling Actuators with CoAP
                 draft-mattsson-core-coap-actuators-06

Abstract

   Being able to trust information from sensors and to securely control
   actuators are essential in a world of connected and networking things
   interacting with the physical world.  In this memo we show that just
   using COAP with a security protocol like DTLS, TLS, or OSCORE is not
   enough.  We describe several serious attacks any on-path attacker can
   do, and discusses tougher requirements and mechanisms to mitigate the
   attacks.  While this document is focused on actuators, some of the
   attacks apply equally well to sensors.

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 https://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 March 21, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 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



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   (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.  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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   2.  Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  The Block Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  The Request Delay Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.3.  The Response Delay and Mismatch Attack  . . . . . . . . .   8
     2.4.  The Relay Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     2.5.  The Request Fragment Rearrangement Attack . . . . . . . .  12
       2.5.1.  Completing an Operation with an Earlier Final Block .  13
       2.5.2.  Injecting a Withheld First Block  . . . . . . . . . .  14
   3.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   5.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     5.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
     5.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17

1.  Introduction

   Being able to trust information from sensors and to securely control
   actuators are essential in a world of connected and networking things
   interacting with the physical world.  One protocol used to interact
   with sensors and actuators is the Constrained Application Protocol
   (CoAP) [RFC7252].  Any Internet-of-Things (IoT) deployment valuing
   security and privacy would use a security protocol such as DTLS
   [RFC6347], TLS [RFC5246], or OSCORE [I-D.ietf-core-object-security]
   to protect CoAP, where the choice of security protocol depends on the
   transport protocol and the presence of intermediaries.  The use of
   CoAP over UDP and DTLS is specified in [RFC6347] and the use of CoAP
   over TCP and TLS is specified in [RFC8323].  OSCORE protects CoAP
   end-to-end with the use of COSE [RFC8152] and the CoAP Object-
   Security option [I-D.ietf-core-object-security], and can therefore be
   used over any transport.

   The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) [RFC7252] was designed
   with the assumption that security could be provided on a separate




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   layer, in particular by using DTLS [RFC6347].  The four properties
   traditionally provided by security protocols are:

   o  Data confidentiality

   o  Data origin authentication

   o  Data integrity checking

   o  Replay protection

   In this document we show that protecting CoAP with a security
   protocol on another layer is not nearly enough to securely control
   actuators (and in many cases sensors) and that secure operation often
   demands far more than the four properties traditionally provided by
   security protocols.  We describe several serious attacks any on-path
   attacker (i.e. not only "trusted intermediaries) can do and discusses
   tougher requirements and mechanisms to mitigate the attacks.  In
   general, secure operation of actuators also requires the three
   properties:

   o  Data-to-Data binding

   o  Data-to-space binding

   o  Data-to-time binding

   "Data-to-Data binding" is e.g. binding of responses to a request or
   binding of data fragments to each other.  "Data-to-space binding" is
   the binding of data to an absolute or relative point in space (i.e. a
   location) and may in the relative case be referred to as proximity.
   "Data-to-time binding" is the binding of data to an absolute or
   relative point in time and may in the relative case be referred to as
   freshness.  The two last properties may be bundled together as "Data-
   to-spacetime binding".

   The request delay attack (valid for DTLS, TLS, and OSCORE and
   described in Section 2.2) lets an attacker control an actuator at a
   much later time than the client anticipated.  The response delay and
   mismatch attack (valid for DTLS and TLS and described in Section 2.3)
   lets an attacker respond to a client with a response meant for an
   older request.  The request fragment rearrangement attack (valid for
   DTLS, TLS, and OSCORE and described in Section 2.5) lets an attacker
   cause unauthorized operations to be performed on the server, and
   responses to unauthorized operations to be mistaken for responses to
   authorized operations.





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   Mechanisms mitigating some of the attacks discussed in this document
   can be found in [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag] and
   [I-D.liu-core-coap-delay-attacks]

1.1.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Attacks

   Internet-of-Things (IoT) deployments valuing security and privacy,
   MUST use a security protocol such as DTLS, TLS, or OSCORE to protect
   CoAP.  This is especially true for deployments of actuators where
   attacks often (but not always) have serious consequences.  The
   attacks described in this section are made under the assumption that
   CoAP is already protected with a security protocol such as DTLS, TLS,
   or OSCORE, as an attacker otherwise can easily forge false requests
   and responses.

2.1.  The Block Attack

   An on-path attacker can block the delivery of any number of requests
   or responses.  The attack can also be performed by an attacker
   jamming the lower layer radio protocol.  This is true even if a
   security protocol like DTLS, TLS, or OSCORE is used.  Encryption
   makes selective blocking of messages harder, but not impossible or
   even infeasible.  With DTLS and TLS, proxies have access to the
   complete CoAP message, and with OSCORE, the CoAP header and several
   CoAP options are not encrypted.  In both security protocols, the IP-
   addresses, ports, and CoAP message lengths are available to all on-
   path attackers, which may be enough to determine the server,
   resource, and command.  The block attack is illustrated in Figures 1
   and 2.

                 Client   Foe   Server
                    |      |      |
                    +----->X      |      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                    | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x47
                    |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                    |      |      |   Payload: 1 (Lock)
                    |      |      |

                       Figure 1: Blocking a request




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   Where 'X' means the attacker is blocking delivery of the message.

               Client   Foe   Server
                  |      |      |
                  +------------>|      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  |      | PUT  |     Token: 0x47
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 1 (Lock)
                  |      |      |
                  |      X<-----+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  |      | 2.04 |     Token: 0x47
                  |      |      |

                       Figure 2: Blocking a response

   While blocking requests to, or responses from, a sensor is just a
   denial of service attack, blocking a request to, or a response from,
   an actuator results in the client losing information about the
   server's status.  If the actuator e.g. is a lock (door, car, etc.),
   the attack results in the client not knowing (except by using out-of-
   band information) whether the lock is unlocked or locked, just like
   the observer in the famous Schrodinger's cat thought experiment.  Due
   to the nature of the attack, the client cannot distinguish the attack
   from connectivity problems, offline servers, or unexpected behavior
   from middle boxes such as NATs and firewalls.

   Remedy: Any IoT deployment of actuators where confirmation is
   important MUST notify the user upon reception of the response, or
   warn the user when a response is not received.

2.2.  The Request Delay Attack

   An on-path attacker may not only block packets, but can also delay
   the delivery of any packet (request or response) by a chosen amount
   of time.  If CoAP is used over a reliable and ordered transport such
   as TCP with TLS or OSCORE, no messages can be delivered before the
   delayed message.  If CoAP is used over an unreliable and unordered
   transport such as UDP with DTLS, or OSCORE, other messages can be
   delivered before the delayed message as long as the delayed packet is
   delivered inside the replay window.  When CoAP is used over UDP, both
   DTLS and OSCORE allow out-of-order delivery and uses sequence numbers
   together with a replay window to protect against replay attacks.  The
   replay window has a default length of 64 in DTLS and 32 in OSCORE.
   The attacker can control the replay window by blocking some or all
   other packets.  By first delaying a request, and then later, after
   delivery, blocking the response to the request, the client is not
   made aware of the delayed delivery except by the missing response.
   The server has in general, no way of knowing that the request was



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   delayed and will therefore happily process the request.  Note that
   delays can also happen for other reasons than a malicious attacker.

   If some wireless low-level protocol is used, the attack can also be
   performed by the attacker simultaneously recording what the client
   transmits while at the same time jamming the server.  The request
   delay attack is illustrated in Figure 3.

               Client   Foe   Server
                  |      |      |
                  +----->@      |      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 0 (Unlock)
                  |      |      |
                    ....   ....
                  |      |      |
                  |      @----->|      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  |      | PUT  |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 0 (Unlock)
                  |      |      |
                  |      X<-----+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  |      | 2.04 |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |

                       Figure 3: Delaying a request

   Where '@' means the attacker is storing and later forwarding the
   message (@ may alternatively be seen as a wormhole connecting two
   points in time).

   While an attacker delaying a request to a sensor is often not a
   security problem, an attacker delaying a request to an actuator
   performing an action is often a serious problem.  A request to an
   actuator (for example a request to unlock a lock) is often only meant
   to be valid for a short time frame, and if the request does not reach
   the actuator during this short timeframe, the request should not be
   fulfilled.  In the unlock example, if the client does not get any
   response and does not physically see the lock opening, the user is
   likely to walk away, calling the locksmith (or the IT-support).

   If a non-zero replay window is used (the default when CoAP is used
   over UDP), the attacker can let the client interact with the actuator
   before delivering the delayed request to the server (illustrated in
   Figure 4).  In the lock example, the attacker may store the first
   "unlock" request for later use.  The client will likely resend the
   request with the same token.  If DTLS is used, the resent packet will



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   have a different sequence number and the attacker can forward it.  If
   OSCORE is used, resent packets will have the same sequence number and
   the attacker must block them all until the client sends a new message
   with a new sequence number (not shown in Figure 4).  After a while
   when the client has locked the door again, the attacker can deliver
   the delayed "unlock" message to the door, a very serious attack.

               Client   Foe   Server
                  |      |      |
                  +----->@      |      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 0 (Unlock)
                  |      |      |
                  +------------>|      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 0 (Unlock)
                  |      |      |
                  <-------------+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  |      | 2.04 |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |
                    ....   ....
                  |      |      |
                  +------------>|      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x7a
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 1 (Lock)
                  |      |      |
                  <-------------+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  |      | 2.04 |     Token: 0x7a
                  |      |      |
                  |      @----->|      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  |      | PUT  |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 0 (Unlock)
                  |      |      |
                  |      X<-----+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  |      | 2.04 |     Token: 0x9c
                  |      |      |

                Figure 4: Delaying request with reordering

   While the second attack (Figure 4) can be mitigated by using a replay
   window of length zero, the first attack (Figure 3) cannot.  A
   solution must enable the server to verify that the request was
   received within a certain time frame after it was sent or enable the
   server to securely determine an absolute point in time when the



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   request is to be executed.  This can be accomplished with either a
   challenge-response pattern, by exchanging timestamps between client
   and server, or by only allowing requests a short period after client
   authentication.

   Requiring a fresh client authentication (such as a new TLS/DTLS
   handshake or an EDHOC key exchange [I-D.selander-ace-cose-ecdhe])
   mitigates the problem, but requires larger messages and more
   processing than a dedicated solution.  Security solutions based on
   exchanging timestamps require exactly synchronized time between
   client and server, and this may be hard to control with complications
   such as time zones and daylight saving.  Wall clock time SHOULD NOT
   be used as it is not monotonic, may reveal that the endpoints will
   accept expired certificates, or reveal the endpoint's location.  Use
   of non-monotonic clocks is not secure as the server will accept
   requests if the clock is moved backward and reject requests if the
   clock is moved forward.  Even if the clocks are synchronized at one
   point in time, they may easily get out-of-sync and an attacker may
   even be able to affect the client or the server time in various ways
   such as setting up a fake NTP server, broadcasting false time signals
   to radio controlled clocks, or expose one of them to a strong gravity
   field.  As soon as client falsely believes it is time synchronized
   with the server, delay attacks are possible.  A challenge response
   mechanism where the server does not need to synchronize its time with
   the client is easier to analyze but require more roundtrips.  The
   challenges, responses, and timestamps may be sent in a CoAP option or
   in the CoAP payload.

   Remedy: The mechanisms specified in [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag]
   or [I-D.liu-core-coap-delay-attacks] SHALL be used for controlling
   actuators unless another application specific challenge-response or
   timestamp mechanism is used.

2.3.  The Response Delay and Mismatch Attack

   The following attack can be performed if CoAP is protected by a
   security protocol where the response is not bound to the request in
   any way except by the CoAP token.  This would include most general
   security protocols, such as DTLS, TLS, and IPsec, but not OSCORE.
   CoAP [RFC7252] uses a client generated token that the server echoes
   to match responses to request, but does not give any guidelines for
   the use of token with DTLS and TLS, except that the tokens currently
   "in use" SHOULD (not SHALL) be unique.  The attacker performs the
   attack by delaying delivery of a response until the client sends a
   request with the same token, the response will be accepted by the
   client as a valid response to the later request.  If CoAP is used
   over a reliable and ordered transport such as TCP with TLS, no
   messages can be delivered before the delayed message.  If CoAP is



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   used over an unreliable and unordered transport such as UDP with
   DTLS, other messages can be delivered before the delayed message as
   long as the delayed packet is delivered inside the replay window.
   Note that mismatches can also happen for other reasons than a
   malicious attacker, e.g. delayed delivery or a server sending
   notifications to an uninterested client.

   The attack can be performed by an attacker on the wire, or an
   attacker simultaneously recording what the server transmits while at
   the same time jamming the client.  The response delay and mismatch
   attack is illustrated in Figure 5.

               Client   Foe   Server
                  |      |      |
                  +------------>|      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 0 (Unlock)
                  |      |      |
                  |      @<-----+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  |      | 2.04 |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |
                    ....   ....
                  |      |      |
                  +----->X      |      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 0 (Lock)
                  |      |      |
                  <------@      |      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  | 2.04 |      |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |

            Figure 5: Delaying and mismatching response to PUT

   If we once again take a lock as an example, the security consequences
   may be severe as the client receives a response message likely to be
   interpreted as confirmation of a locked door, while the received
   response message is in fact confirming an earlier unlock of the door.
   As the client is likely to leave the (believed to be locked) door
   unattended, the attacker may enter the home, enterprise, or car
   protected by the lock.

   The same attack may be performed on sensors, also this with serious
   consequences.  As illustrated in Figure 6, an attacker may convince
   the client that the lock is locked, when it in fact is not.  The
   "Unlock" request may be also be sent by another client authorized to
   control the lock.



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               Client   Foe   Server
                  |      |      |
                  +------------>|      Code: 0.01 (GET)
                  | GET  |      |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |
                  |      @<-----+      Code: 2.05 (Content)
                  |      | 2.05 |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |   Payload: 1 (Locked)
                  |      |      |
                  +------------>|      Code: 0.03 (PUT)
                  | PUT  |      |     Token: 0x34
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |   Payload: 1 (Unlock)
                  |      |      |
                  |      X<-----+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
                  |      | 2.04 |     Token: 0x34
                  |      |      |
                  +----->X      |      Code: 0.01 (GET)
                  | GET  |      |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |  Uri-Path: lock
                  |      |      |
                  <------@      |      Code: 2.05 (Content)
                  | 2.05 |      |     Token: 0x77
                  |      |      |   Payload: 1 (Locked)
                  |      |      |

            Figure 6: Delaying and mismatching response to GET

   As illustrated in Figure 7, an attacker may even mix responses from
   different resources as long as the two resources share the same
   (D)TLS connection on some part of the path towards the client.  This
   can happen if the resources are located behind a common gateway, or
   are served by the same CoAP proxy.  An on-path attacker (not
   necessarily a (D)TLS endpoint such as a proxy) may e.g. deceive a
   client that the living room is on fire by responding with an earlier
   delayed response from the oven (temperatures in degree Celsius).














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           Client   Foe   Server
              |      |      |
              +------------>|      Code: 0.01 (GET)
              | GET  |      |     Token: 0x77
              |      |      |  Uri-Path: oven/temperature
              |      |      |
              |      @<-----+      Code: 2.05 (Content)
              |      | 2.05 |     Token: 0x77
              |      |      |   Payload: 225
              |      |      |
                ....   ....
              |      |      |
              +----->X      |      Code: 0.01 (GET)
              | GET  |      |     Token: 0x77
              |      |      |  Uri-Path: livingroom/temperature
              |      |      |
              <------@      |      Code: 2.05 (Content)
              | 2.05 |      |     Token: 0x77
              |      |      |   Payload: 225
              |      |      |

      Figure 7: Delaying and mismatching response from other resource

   Remedy: If CoAP is protected with a security protocol not providing
   bindings between requests and responses (e.g.  DTLS and TLS) the
   client MUST NOT reuse any tokens until the traffic keys have been
   replaced.  The easiest way to accomplish this is to implement the
   Token as a counter, this approach SHOULD be followed.

2.4.  The Relay Attack

   Yet another type of attack can be performed in deployments where
   actuator actions are triggered automatically based on proximity and
   without any user interaction, e.g. a car (the client) constantly
   polling for the car key (the server) and unlocking both doors and
   engine as soon as the car key responds.  An attacker (or pair of
   attackers) may simply relay the CoAP messages out-of-band, using for
   examples some other radio technology.  By doing this, the actuator
   (i.e. the car) believes that the client is close by and performs
   actions based on that false assumption.  The attack is illustrated in
   Figure 8.  In this example the car is using an application specific
   challenge-response mechanism transferred as CoAP payloads.









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   Client   Foe         Foe   Server
      |      |           |      |
      +----->| ......... +----->|      Code: 0.02 (POST)
      | POST |           | POST |     Token: 0x3a
      |      |           |      |  Uri-Path: lock
      |      |           |      |   Payload: JwePR2iCe8b0ux (Challenge)
      |      |           |      |
      |<-----+ ......... |<-----+      Code: 2.04 (Changed)
      | 2.04 |           | 2.04 |     Token: 0x3a
      |      |           |      |   Payload: RM8i13G8D5vfXK (Response)
      |      |           |      |

            Figure 8: Relay attack (the client is the actuator)

   The consequences may be severe, and in the case of a car, lead to the
   attacker unlocking and driving away with the car, an attack that
   unfortunately is happening in practice.

   Remedy: Getting a response over a short-range radio MUST NOT be taken
   as proof of proximity and therefore MUST NOT be used to take actions
   based on such proximity.  Any automatically triggered mechanisms
   relying on proximity MUST use other stronger mechanisms to guarantee
   proximity.  Mechanisms that MAY be used are: measuring the round-trip
   time and calculate the maximum possible distance based on the speed
   of light, or using radio with an extremely short range like NFC
   (centimeters instead of meters) that cannot be relayed through e.g.
   clothes.  Another option is to including geographical coordinates
   (from e.g.  GPS) in the messages and calculate proximity based on
   these, but in this case the location measurements MUST be very
   precise and the system MUST make sure that an attacker cannot
   influence the location estimation, something that is very hard in
   practice.

2.5.  The Request Fragment Rearrangement Attack

   These attack scenarios show that the Request Delay and Block Attacks
   can be used against blockwise transfers to cause unauthorized
   operations to be performed on the server, and responses to
   unauthorized operations to be mistaken for responses to authorized
   operations.  The combination of these attacks is described as a
   separate attack because it makes the Request Delay Attack relevant to
   systems that are otherwise not time-dependent, which means that they
   could disregard the Request Delay Attack.

   This attack works even if the individual request/response pairs are
   encrypted, authenticated and protected against the Response Delay and
   Mismatch Attack, provided the attacker is on the network path and can
   correctly guess which operations the respective packages belong to.



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2.5.1.  Completing an Operation with an Earlier Final Block

   In this scenario (illustrated in Figure 9), blocks from two
   operations on a POST-accepting resource are combined to make the
   server execute an action that was not intended by the authorized
   client.  This works only if the client attempts a second operation
   after the first operation failed (due to what the attacker made
   appear like a network outage) within the replay window.  The client
   does not receive a confirmation on the second operation either, but,
   by the time the client acts on it, the server has already executed
   the unauthorized action.

   Client   Foe   Server
      |      |      |
      +------------->    POST "incarcerate" (Block1: 0, more to come)
      |      |      |
      <-------------+    2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more)
      |      |      |
      +----->@      |    POST "valjean" (Block1: 1, last block)
      |      |      |
      +----->X      |    All retransmissions dropped
      |      |      |

   (Client: Odd, but let's go on and promote Javert)

      |      |      |
      +------------->    POST "promote" (Block1: 0, more to come)
      |      |      |
      |      X<-----+    2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more)
      |      |      |
      |      @------>    POST "valjean" (Block1: 1, last block)
      |      |      |
      |      X<-----+    2.04 Valjean Promoted
      |      |      |

       Figure 9: Completing an operation with an earlier final block

   Remedy: If a client starts new blockwise operations on a security
   context that has lost packages, it needs to label the fragments in
   such a way that the server will not mix them up.

   A mechanism to that effect is described as Request-Tag
   [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag].  Had it been in place in the
   example and used for body integrity protection, the client would have
   set the Request-Tag option in the "promote" request.  Depending on
   the server's capabilities and setup, either of four outcomes could
   have occurred:




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   1.  The server could have processed the reinjected POST "valjean" as
       belonging to the original "incarcerate" block; that's the
       expected case when the server can handle simultaneous block
       transfers.

   2.  The server could respond 5.03 Service Unavailable, including a
       Max-Age option indicating how long it prefers not to take any
       requests that force it to overwrite the state kept for the
       "incarcerate" request.

   3.  The server could decide to drop the state kept for the
       "incarcerate" request's state, and process the "promote" request.
       The reinjected POST "valjean" will then fail with 4.08 Request
       Entity incomplete, indicating that the server does not have the
       start of the operation any more.

2.5.2.  Injecting a Withheld First Block

   If the first block of a request is withheld by the attacker for later
   use, it can be used to have the server process a different request
   body than intended by the client.  Unlike in the previous scenario,
   it will return a response based on that body to the client.

   Again, a first operation (that would go like "Homeless stole apples.
   What shall we do with him?" - "Set him free.") is aborted by the
   proxy, and a part of that operation is later used in a different
   operation to prime the server for responding leniently to another
   operation that would originally have been "Hitman killed someone.
   What shall we do with him?" - "Hang him.".  The attack is illustrated
   in Figure 10.





















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   Client   Foe   Server
      |      |      |
      +----->@      |    POST "Homeless stole apples. Wh"
      |      |      |        (Block1: 0, more to come)

   (Client: We'll try that one later again; for now, we have something
   more urgent:)

      |      |      |
      +------------->    POST "Hitman killed someone. Wh"
      |      |      |        (Block1: 0, more to come)
      |      |      |
      |      @<-----+    2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more)
      |      |      |
      |      @------>    POST "Homeless stole apples. Wh"
      |      |      |        (Block1: 0, more to come)
      |      |      |
      |      X<-----+    2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more)
      |      |      |
      <------@      |    2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more)
      |      |      |
      +------------->    POST "at shall we do with him?"
      |      |      |        (Block1: 1, last block)
      |      |      |
      <-------------+    2.05 "Set him free."
      |      |      |        (Block1: 1 received and this is the result)

                Figure 10: Injecting a withheld first block

3.  Security Considerations

   The whole document can be seen as security considerations for CoAP.

4.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no actions for IANA.

5.  References

5.1.  Normative References

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






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   [RFC7252]  Shelby, Z., Hartke, K., and C. Bormann, "The Constrained
              Application Protocol (CoAP)", RFC 7252,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7252, June 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7252>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

5.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag]
              Amsuess, C., Mattsson, J., and G. Selander, "Echo and
              Request-Tag", draft-ietf-core-echo-request-tag-02 (work in
              progress), June 2018.

   [I-D.ietf-core-object-security]
              Selander, G., Mattsson, J., Palombini, F., and L. Seitz,
              "Object Security for Constrained RESTful Environments
              (OSCORE)", draft-ietf-core-object-security-15 (work in
              progress), August 2018.

   [I-D.liu-core-coap-delay-attacks]
              Liu, Y. and J. Zhu, "Mitigating delay attacks on
              Constrained Application Protocol", draft-liu-core-coap-
              delay-attacks-01 (work in progress), October 2017.

   [I-D.selander-ace-cose-ecdhe]
              Selander, G., Mattsson, J., and F. Palombini, "Ephemeral
              Diffie-Hellman Over COSE (EDHOC)", draft-selander-ace-
              cose-ecdhe-09 (work in progress), July 2018.

   [RFC5246]  Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
              (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5246, August 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5246>.

   [RFC6347]  Rescorla, E. and N. Modadugu, "Datagram Transport Layer
              Security Version 1.2", RFC 6347, DOI 10.17487/RFC6347,
              January 2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6347>.

   [RFC8152]  Schaad, J., "CBOR Object Signing and Encryption (COSE)",
              RFC 8152, DOI 10.17487/RFC8152, July 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8152>.







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   [RFC8323]  Bormann, C., Lemay, S., Tschofenig, H., Hartke, K.,
              Silverajan, B., and B. Raymor, Ed., "CoAP (Constrained
              Application Protocol) over TCP, TLS, and WebSockets",
              RFC 8323, DOI 10.17487/RFC8323, February 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8323>.

Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Carsten Bormann, Klaus Hartke, Ari
   Keraenen, Matthias Kovatsch, Sandeep Kumar, and Andras Mehes for
   their valuable comments and feedback.

Authors' Addresses

   John Mattsson
   Ericsson AB
   SE-164 80 Stockholm
   Sweden

   Email: john.mattsson@ericsson.com


   John Fornehed
   Ericsson AB
   SE-164 80 Stockholm
   Sweden

   Email: john.fornehed@ericsson.com


   Goeran Selander
   Ericsson AB
   SE-164 80 Stockholm
   Sweden

   Email: goran.selander@ericsson.com


   Francesca Palombini
   Ericsson AB
   SE-164 80 Stockholm
   Sweden

   Email: francesca.palombini@ericsson.com







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   Christian Amsuess
   Energy Harvesting Solutions

   Email: c.amsuess@energyharvesting.at















































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