Design Considerations for Metadata Insertion
RFC 8165
| Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(May 2017; No errata)
Was draft-hardie-privsec-metadata-insertion (individual in sec area)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2017-05-10 | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | (None) | |
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 8165 (Informational) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Stephen Farrell | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | Version Changed - Review Needed | |
| IANA action state | No IANA Actions | ||
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) T. Hardie
Request for Comments: 8165 May 2017
Category: Informational
ISSN: 2070-1721
Design Considerations for Metadata Insertion
Abstract
The IAB published RFC 7624 in response to several revelations of
pervasive attacks on Internet communications. This document
considers the implications of protocol designs that associate
metadata with encrypted flows. In particular, it asserts that
designs that share metadata only by explicit actions at the host are
preferable to designs in which middleboxes insert metadata.
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 Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate 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
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8165.
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
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.
Hardie Informational [Page 1]
RFC 8165 Design Considerations for Metadata Insertion May 2017
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Terminology .....................................................2
3. Design Pattern ..................................................2
4. Advice ..........................................................3
5. Deployment Considerations .......................................4
6. IANA Considerations .............................................5
7. Security Considerations .........................................5
8. References ......................................................6
8.1. Normative References .......................................6
8.2. Informative References .....................................6
Acknowledgements ...................................................7
Author's Address ...................................................7
1. Introduction
To minimize the risks associated with pervasive surveillance, it is
necessary for the Internet technical community to address the
vulnerabilities exploited in the attacks documented in [RFC7258] and
the threats described in [RFC7624]. The goal of this document is to
address a common design pattern that emerges from the increase in
encryption: explicit association of metadata that would previously
have been inferred from the plaintext protocol.
2. Terminology
This document makes extensive use of standard security and privacy
terminology; see [RFC4949] and [RFC6973]. Readers should be familiar
with the terms defined in [RFC6973], including "Eavesdropper",
"Observer", "Initiator", "Intermediary", "Recipient", "Attack" (in a
privacy context), "Correlation", "Fingerprint", "Traffic Analysis",
and "Identifiability" (and related terms). Readers should also be
familiar with terms that are specific to the attacks discussed in
[RFC7624], including "Pervasive Attack", "Passive Pervasive Attack",
"Active Pervasive Attack", "Observation", "Inference", and
"Collaborator".
3. Design Pattern
One of the core mitigations for the loss of confidentiality in the
presence of pervasive surveillance is data minimization, which limits
the amount of data disclosed to those elements absolutely required to
complete the relevant protocol exchange. When data minimization is
in effect, some information that was previously available may be
removed from specific protocol exchanges. The information may be
removed explicitly (for example, by a browser suppressing cookies
Hardie Informational [Page 2]
RFC 8165 Design Considerations for Metadata Insertion May 2017
during private modes) or by other means. As noted in [RFC7624], some
topologies that aggregate or alter the network path also act to
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