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rfc:bcp:bcp194

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) J. Durand Request for Comments: 7454 Cisco Systems, Inc. BCP: 194 I. Pepelnjak Category: Best Current Practice NIL ISSN: 2070-1721 G. Doering

                                                              SpaceNet
                                                         February 2015
                    BGP Operations and Security

Abstract

 The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the protocol almost exclusively
 used in the Internet to exchange routing information between network
 domains.  Due to this central nature, it is important to understand
 the security measures that can and should be deployed to prevent
 accidental or intentional routing disturbances.
 This document describes measures to protect the BGP sessions itself
 such as Time to Live (TTL), the TCP Authentication Option (TCP-AO),
 and control-plane filtering.  It also describes measures to better
 control the flow of routing information, using prefix filtering and
 automation of prefix filters, max-prefix filtering, Autonomous System
 (AS) path filtering, route flap dampening, and BGP community
 scrubbing.

Status of This Memo

 This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.
 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).  Further information on
 BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
 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/rfc7454.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 1] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2015 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.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 2] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

Table of Contents

 1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
 2.  Scope of the Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
 3.  Definitions and Acronyms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
 4.  Protection of the BGP Speaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
 5.  Protection of BGP Sessions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.1.  Protection of TCP Sessions Used by BGP  . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.2.  BGP TTL Security (GTSM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
 6.  Prefix Filtering  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.1.  Definition of Prefix Filters  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.1.1.  Special-Purpose Prefixes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.1.2.  Unallocated Prefixes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.1.3.  Prefixes That Are Too Specific  . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     6.1.4.  Filtering Prefixes Belonging to the Local AS and
             Downstreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     6.1.5.  IXP LAN Prefixes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     6.1.6.  The Default Route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   6.2.  Prefix Filtering Recommendations in Full Routing Networks  14
     6.2.1.  Filters with Internet Peers . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     6.2.2.  Filters with Customers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     6.2.3.  Filters with Upstream Providers . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   6.3.  Prefix Filtering Recommendations for Leaf Networks  . . .  17
     6.3.1.  Inbound Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     6.3.2.  Outbound Filtering  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
 7.  BGP Route Flap Dampening  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
 8.  Maximum Prefixes on a Peering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
 9.  AS Path Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
 10. Next-Hop Filtering  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
 11. BGP Community Scrubbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
 12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
 13. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   13.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   13.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
 Appendix A.  IXP LAN Prefix Filtering - Example . . . . . . . . .  25
 Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
 Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 3] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

1. Introduction

 The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), specified in RFC 4271 [2], is the
 protocol used in the Internet to exchange routing information between
 network domains.  BGP does not directly include mechanisms that
 control whether the routes exchanged conform to the various
 guidelines defined by the Internet community.  This document intends
 to both summarize common existing guidelines and help network
 administrators apply coherent BGP policies.

1.1. 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 RFC 2119 [1].

2. Scope of the Document

 The guidelines defined in this document are intended for generic
 Internet BGP peerings.  The nature of the Internet is such that
 Autonomous Systems can always agree on exceptions to a common
 framework for relevant local needs, and therefore configure a BGP
 session in a manner that may differ from the recommendations provided
 in this document.  While this is perfectly acceptable, every
 configured exception might have an impact on the entire inter-domain
 routing environment, and network administrators SHOULD carefully
 appraise this impact before implementation.

3. Definitions and Acronyms

 o  ACL: Access Control List
 o  ASN: Autonomous System Number
 o  IRR: Internet Routing Registry
 o  IXP: Internet Exchange Point
 o  LIR: Local Internet Registry
 o  PMTUD: Path MTU Discovery
 o  RIR: Regional Internet Registry
 o  Tier 1 transit provider: an IP transit provider that can reach any
    network on the Internet without purchasing transit services.
 o  uRPF: Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 4] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 In addition to the list above, the following terms are used with a
 specific meaning.
 o  Downstream: any network that is downstream; it can be a provider
    or a customer network.
 o  Upstream: any network that is upstream.

4. Protection of the BGP Speaker

 The BGP speaker needs to be protected from attempts to subvert the
 BGP session.  This protection SHOULD be achieved by an Access Control
 List (ACL) that would discard all packets directed to TCP port 179 on
 the local device and sourced from an address not known or permitted
 to become a BGP neighbor.  Experience has shown that the natural
 protection TCP should offer is not always sufficient, as it is
 sometimes run in control-plane software.  In the absence of ACLs, it
 is possible to attack a BGP speaker by simply sending a high volume
 of connection requests to it.
 If supported, an ACL specific to the control plane of the router
 SHOULD be used (receive-ACL, control-plane policing, etc.), to avoid
 configuration of data-plane filters for packets transiting through
 the router (and therefore not reaching the control plane).  If the
 hardware cannot do that, interface ACLs can be used to block packets
 addressed to the local router.
 Some routers automatically program such an ACL upon BGP
 configuration.  On other devices, this ACL should be configured and
 maintained manually or using scripts.
 In addition to strict filtering, rate-limiting MAY be configured for
 accepted BGP traffic.  Rate-limiting BGP traffic consists in
 permitting only a certain quantity of bits per second (or packets per
 second) of BGP traffic to the control plane.  This protects the BGP
 router control plane in case the amount of BGP traffic surpasses
 platform capabilities.
 Filtering and rate-limiting of control-plane traffic is a wider topic
 than "just for BGP".  (If a network administrator brings down a
 router by overloading one of the other protocols remotely, BGP is
 harmed as well.)  For a more detailed recommendation on how to
 protect the router's control plane, see RFC 6192 [11].

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 5] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

5. Protection of BGP Sessions

 Current security issues of TCP-based protocols (therefore including
 BGP) have been documented in RFC 6952 [14].  The following
 subsections list the major points raised in this RFC and give the
 best practices related to TCP session protection for BGP operation.

5.1. Protection of TCP Sessions Used by BGP

 Attacks on TCP sessions used by BGP (aka BGP sessions), for example,
 sending spoofed TCP RST packets, could bring down a BGP peering.
 Following a successful ARP spoofing attack (or other similar man-in-
 the-middle attack), the attacker might even be able to inject packets
 into the TCP stream (routing attacks).
 BGP sessions can be secured with a variety of mechanisms.  MD5
 protection of the TCP session header, described in RFC 2385 [7], was
 the first such mechanism.  It has been obsoleted by the TCP
 Authentication Option (TCP-AO; RFC 5925 [4]), which offers stronger
 protection.  While MD5 is still the most used mechanism due to its
 availability in vendors' equipment, TCP-AO SHOULD be preferred when
 implemented.
 IPsec could also be used for session protection.  At the time of
 publication, there is not enough experience of the impact of using
 IPsec for BGP peerings, and further analysis is required to define
 guidelines.
 The drawback of TCP session protection is additional configuration
 and management overhead for the maintenance of authentication
 information (for example, MD5 passwords).  Protection of TCP sessions
 used by BGP is thus NOT REQUIRED even when peerings are established
 over shared networks where spoofing can be done (like IXPs), but
 operators are RECOMMENDED to consider the trade-offs and to apply TCP
 session protection where appropriate.
 Furthermore, network administrators SHOULD block spoofed packets
 (packets with a source IP address belonging to their IP address
 space) at all edges of their network (see RFC 2827 [8] and RFC 3704
 [9]).  This protects the TCP session used by Internal BGP (IBGP) from
 attackers outside the Autonomous System.

5.2. BGP TTL Security (GTSM)

 BGP sessions can be made harder to spoof with the Generalized TTL
 Security Mechanisms (GTSM aka TTL security), defined in RFC 5082 [3].
 Instead of sending TCP packets with TTL value of 1, the BGP speakers
 send the TCP packets with TTL value of 255, and the receiver checks

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 6] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 that the TTL value equals 255.  Since it's impossible to send an IP
 packet with TTL of 255 to an IP host that is not directly connected,
 BGP TTL security effectively prevents all spoofing attacks coming
 from third parties not directly connected to the same subnet as the
 BGP-speaking routers.  Network administrators SHOULD implement TTL
 security on directly connected BGP peerings.
 GTSM could also be applied to multi-hop BGP peering as well.  To
 achieve this, TTL needs to be configured with a proper value
 depending on the distance between BGP speakers (using the principle
 described above).  Nevertheless, it is not as effective because
 anyone inside the TTL diameter could spoof the TTL.
 Like MD5 protection, TTL security has to be configured on both ends
 of a BGP session.

6. Prefix Filtering

 The main aspect of securing BGP resides in controlling the prefixes
 that are received and advertised on the BGP peerings.  Prefixes
 exchanged between BGP peers are controlled with inbound and outbound
 filters that can match on IP prefixes (as described in this section),
 AS paths (as described in Section 9) or any other attributes of a BGP
 prefix (for example, BGP communities, as described in Section 11).

6.1. Definition of Prefix Filters

 This section lists the most commonly used prefix filters.  The
 following sections will clarify where these filters should be
 applied.

6.1.1. Special-Purpose Prefixes

6.1.1.1. IPv4 Special-Purpose Prefixes

 The IANA IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry [23] maintains the
 list of IPv4 special-purpose prefixes and their routing scope, and it
 SHOULD be used for prefix-filter configuration.  Prefixes with value
 "False" in column "Global" SHOULD be discarded on Internet BGP
 peerings.

6.1.1.2. IPv6 Special-Purpose Prefixes

 The IANA IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry [24] maintains the
 list of IPv6 special-purpose prefixes and their routing scope, and it
 SHOULD be used for prefix-filter configuration.  Only prefixes with
 value "False" in column "Global" SHOULD be discarded on Internet BGP
 peerings.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 7] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

6.1.2. Unallocated Prefixes

 IANA allocates prefixes to RIRs that in turn allocate prefixes to
 LIRs (Local Internet Registries).  It is wise not to accept routing
 table prefixes that are not allocated by IANA and/or RIRs.  This
 section details the options for building a list of allocated prefixes
 at every level.  It is important to understand that filtering
 unallocated prefixes requires constant updates, as prefixes are
 continually allocated.  Therefore, automation of such prefix filters
 is key for the success of this approach.  Network administrators
 SHOULD NOT consider solutions described in this section if they are
 not capable of maintaining updated prefix filters: the damage would
 probably be worse than the intended security policy.

6.1.2.1. IANA-Allocated Prefix Filters

 IANA has allocated all the IPv4 available space.  Therefore, there is
 no reason why network administrators would keep checking that
 prefixes they receive from BGP peers are in the IANA-allocated IPv4
 address space [25].  No specific filters need to be put in place by
 administrators who want to make sure that IPv4 prefixes they receive
 in BGP updates have been allocated by IANA.
 For IPv6, given the size of the address space, it can be seen as wise
 to accept only prefixes derived from those allocated by IANA.
 Administrators can dynamically build this list from the IANA-
 allocated IPv6 space [26].  As IANA keeps allocating prefixes to
 RIRs, the aforementioned list should be checked regularly against
 changes, and if they occur, prefix filters should be computed and
 pushed on network devices.  The list could also be pulled directly by
 routers when they implement such mechanisms.  As there is delay
 between the time a RIR receives a new prefix and the moment it starts
 allocating portions of it to its LIRs, there is no need for doing
 this step quickly and frequently.  However, network administrators
 SHOULD ensure that all IPv6 prefix filters are updated within a
 maximum of one month after any change in the list of IPv6 prefixes
 allocated by IANA.
 If the process in place (whether manual or automatic) cannot
 guarantee that the list is updated regularly, then it's better not to
 configure any filters based on allocated networks.  The IPv4
 experience has shown that many network operators implemented filters
 for prefixes not allocated by IANA but did not update them on a
 regular basis.  This created problems for the latest allocations, and
 required extra work for RIRs that had to "de-bogonize" the newly
 allocated prefixes.  (See [18] for information on de-bogonizing.)

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 8] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

6.1.2.2. RIR-Allocated Prefix Filters

 A more precise check can be performed when one would like to make
 sure that prefixes they receive are being originated or transited by
 Autonomous Systems (ASes) entitled to do so.  It has been observed in
 the past that an AS could easily advertise someone else's prefix (or
 more specific prefixes) and create black holes or security threats.
 To partially mitigate this risk, administrators would need to make
 sure BGP advertisements correspond to information located in the
 existing registries.  At this stage, two options can be considered:
 short- and long-term options.  They are described in the following
 subsections.

6.1.2.2.1. Prefix Filters Created from Internet Routing Registries

          (IRRs)
 An Internet Routing Registry (IRR) is a database containing Internet
 routing information, described using Routing Policy Specification
 Language objects as described in RFC 4012 [10].  Network
 administrators are given privileges to describe routing policies of
 their own networks in the IRR, and that information is published,
 usually publicly.  A majority of Regional Internet Registries do also
 operate an IRR and can control whether registered routes conform to
 the prefixes that are allocated or directly assigned.  However, it
 should be noted that the list of such prefixes is not necessarily a
 complete list, and as such the list of routes in an IRR is not the
 same as the set of RIR-allocated prefixes.
 It is possible to use the IRR information to build, for a given
 neighbor AS, a list of originated or transited prefixes that one may
 accept.  This can be done relatively easily using scripts and
 existing tools capable of retrieving this information from the
 registries.  This approach is exactly the same for both IPv4 and
 IPv6.
 The macro-algorithm for the script is as follows.  For the peer that
 is considered, the distant network administrator has provided the AS
 and may be able to provide an AS-SET object (aka AS-MACRO).  An
 AS-SET is an object that contains AS numbers or other AS-SETs.  An
 operator may create an AS-SET defining all the AS numbers of its
 customers.  A Tier 1 transit provider might create an AS-SET
 describing the AS-SET of connected operators, which in turn describe
 the AS numbers of their customers.  Using recursion, it is possible
 to retrieve from an AS-SET the complete list of AS numbers that the
 peer is likely to announce.  For each of these AS numbers, it is also
 easy to look in the corresponding IRR for all associated prefixes.
 With these two mechanisms, a script can build, for a given peer, the

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 9] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 list of allowed prefixes and the AS number from which they should be
 originated.  One could decide not use the origin information and only
 build monolithic prefix filters from fetched data.
 As prefixes, AS numbers, and AS-SETs may not all be under the same
 RIR authority, it is difficult to choose for each object the
 appropriate IRR to poll.  Some IRRs have been created and are not
 restricted to a given region or authoritative RIR.  They allow RIRs
 to publish information contained in their IRR in a common place.
 They also make it possible for any subscriber (probably under
 contract) to publish information too.  When doing requests inside
 such an IRR, it is possible to specify the source of information in
 order to have the most reliable data.  One could check a popular IRR
 containing many sources (such as RADb [27], the Routing Assets
 Database) and only select as sources some desired RIRs and trusted
 major ISPs (Internet Service Providers).
 As objects in IRRs may frequently vary over time, it is important
 that prefix filters computed using this mechanism are refreshed
 regularly.  Refreshing the filters on a daily basis SHOULD be
 considered because routing changes must sometimes be done in an
 emergency and registries may be updated at the very last moment.
 Note that this approach significantly increases the complexity of the
 router configurations, as it can quickly add tens of thousands of
 configuration lines for some important peers.  To manage this
 complexity, network administrators could use, for example, IRRToolSet
 [30], a set of tools making it possible to simplify the creation of
 automated filter configuration from policies stored in an IRR.
 Last but not least, network administrators SHOULD publish and
 maintain their resources properly in the IRR database maintained by
 their RIR, when available.

6.1.2.2.2. SIDR - Secure Inter-Domain Routing

 An infrastructure called SIDR (Secure Inter-Domain Routing),
 described in RFC 6480 [12], has been designed to secure Internet
 advertisements.  At the time of writing this document, many documents
 have been published and a framework with a complete set of protocols
 is proposed so that advertisements can be checked against signed
 routing objects in RIRs.  There are basically two services that SIDR
 offers:
 o  Origin validation, described in RFC 6811 [5], seeks to make sure
    that attributes associated with routes are correct.  (The major
    point is the validation of the AS number originating a given
    route.)  Origin validation is now operational (Internet

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 10] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

    registries, protocols, implementations on some routers), and in
    theory it can be implemented knowing that the number of signed
    resources is still low at the time of writing this document.
 o  Path validation provided by BGPsec [29] seeks to make sure that no
    one announces fake/wrong BGP paths that would attract traffic for
    a given destination; see RFC 7132 [16].  BGPsec is still an
    ongoing work item at the time of writing this document and
    therefore cannot be implemented.
 Implementing SIDR mechanisms is expected to solve many of the BGP
 routing security problems in the long term, but it may take time for
 deployments to be made and objects to become signed.  Also, note that
 the SIDR infrastructure is complementing (not replacing) the security
 best practices listed in this document.  Therefore, network
 administrators SHOULD implement any SIDR proposed mechanism (for
 example, route origin validation) on top of the other existing
 mechanisms even if they could sometimes appear to be targeting the
 same goal.
 If route origin validation is implemented, the reader SHOULD refer to
 the rules described in RFC 7115 [15].  In short, each external route
 received on a router SHOULD be checked against the Resource Public
 Key Infrastructure (RPKI) data set:
 o  If a corresponding ROA (Route Origin Authorization) is found and
    is valid, then the prefix SHOULD be accepted.
 o  If the ROA is found and is INVALID, then the prefix SHOULD be
    discarded.
 o  If a ROA is not found, then the prefix SHOULD be accepted, but the
    corresponding route SHOULD be given a low preference.
 In addition to this, network administrators SHOULD sign their routing
 objects so their routes can be validated by other networks running
 origin validation.
 One should understand that the RPKI model brings new, interesting
 challenges.  The paper "On the Risk of Misbehaving RPKI Authorities"
 [31] explains how the RPKI model can impact the Internet if
 authorities don't behave as they are supposed to.  Further analysis
 is certainly required on RPKI, which carries part of BGP security.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 11] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

6.1.3. Prefixes That Are Too Specific

 Most ISPs will not accept advertisements beyond a certain level of
 specificity (and in return, they do not announce prefixes they
 consider to be too specific).  That acceptable specificity is decided
 for each peering between the two BGP peers.  Some ISP communities
 have tried to document acceptable specificity.  This document does
 not make any judgement on what the best approach is, it just notes
 that there are existing practices on the Internet and recommends that
 the reader refer to them.  As an example, the RIPE community has
 documented that, at the time of writing of this document, IPv4
 prefixes longer than /24 and IPv6 prefixes longer than /48 are
 generally neither announced nor accepted in the Internet [20] [21].
 These values may change in the future.

6.1.4. Filtering Prefixes Belonging to the Local AS and Downstreams

 A network SHOULD filter its own prefixes on peerings with all its
 peers (inbound direction).  This prevents local traffic (from a local
 source to a local destination) from leaking over an external peering,
 in case someone else is announcing the prefix over the Internet.
 This also protects the infrastructure that may directly suffer if the
 backbone's prefix is suddenly preferred over the Internet.
 In some cases, for example, multihoming scenarios, such filters
 SHOULD NOT be applied, as this would break the desired redundancy.
 To an extent, such filters can also be configured on a network for
 the prefixes of its downstreams in order to protect them, too.  Such
 filters must be defined with caution as they can break existing
 redundancy mechanisms.  For example, when an operator has a
 multihomed customer, it should keep accepting the customer prefix
 from its peers and upstreams.  This will make it possible for the
 customer to keep accessing its operator network (and other customers)
 via the Internet even if the BGP peering between the customer and the
 operator is down.

6.1.5. IXP LAN Prefixes

6.1.5.1. Network Security

 When a network is present on an IXP and peers with other IXP members
 over a common subnet (IXP LAN prefix), it SHOULD NOT accept more-
 specific prefixes for the IXP LAN prefix from any of its external BGP
 peers.  Accepting these routes may create a black hole for
 connectivity to the IXP LAN.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 12] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 If the IXP LAN prefix is accepted as an "exact match", care needs to
 be taken to prevent other routers in the network from sending IXP
 traffic towards the externally learned IXP LAN prefix (recursive
 route lookup pointing into the wrong direction).  This can be
 achieved by preferring IGP routes over External BGP (EBGP), or by
 using "BGP next-hop-self" on all routes learned on that IXP.
 If the IXP LAN prefix is accepted at all, it SHOULD only be accepted
 from the ASes that the IXP authorizes to announce it -- this will
 usually be automatically achieved by filtering announcements using
 the IRR database.

6.1.5.2. PMTUD and the Loose uRPF Problem

 In order to have PMTUD working in the presence of loose uRPF, it is
 necessary that all the networks that may source traffic that could
 flow through the IXP (i.e., IXP members and their downstreams) have a
 route for the IXP LAN prefix.  This is necessary as "packet too big"
 ICMP messages sent by IXP members' routers may be sourced using an
 address of the IXP LAN prefix.  In the presence of loose uRPF, this
 ICMP packet is dropped if there is no route for the IXP LAN prefix or
 a less specific route covering IXP LAN prefix.
 In that case, any IXP member SHOULD make sure it has a route for the
 IXP LAN prefix or a less specific prefix on all its routers and that
 it announces the IXP LAN prefix or the less specific route (up to a
 default route) to its downstreams.  The announcements done for this
 purpose SHOULD pass IRR-generated filters described in
 Section 6.1.2.2.1 as well as "prefixes that are too specific" filters
 described in Section 6.1.3.  The easiest way to implement this is for
 the IXP itself to take care of the origination of its prefix and
 advertise it to all IXP members through a BGP peering.  Most likely,
 the BGP route servers would be used for this, and the IXP would send
 its entire prefix, which would be equal to or less specific than the
 IXP LAN prefix.
 Appendix A gives an example of guidelines regarding IXP LAN prefix.

6.1.6. The Default Route

6.1.6.1. IPv4

 Typically, the 0.0.0.0/0 prefix is not intended to be accepted or
 advertised except in specific customer/provider configurations;
 general filtering outside of these is RECOMMENDED.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 13] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

6.1.6.2. IPv6

 Typically, the ::/0 prefix is not intended to be accepted or
 advertised except in specific customer/provider configurations;
 general filtering outside of these is RECOMMENDED.

6.2. Prefix Filtering Recommendations in Full Routing Networks

 For networks that have the full Internet BGP table, some policies
 should be applied on each BGP peer for received and advertised
 routes.  It is RECOMMENDED that each Autonomous System configures
 rules for advertised and received routes at all its borders, as this
 will protect the network and its peer even in case of
 misconfiguration.  The most commonly used filtering policy is
 proposed in this section and uses prefix filters defined in
 Section 6.1.

6.2.1. Filters with Internet Peers

6.2.1.1. Inbound Filtering

 There are basically two options -- the loose one where no check will
 be done against RIR allocations and the strict one where it will be
 verified that announcements strictly conform to what is declared in
 routing registries.

6.2.1.1.1. Inbound Filtering Loose Option

 In this case, the following prefixes received from a BGP peer will be
 filtered:
 o  prefixes that are not globally routable (Section 6.1.1)
 o  prefixes not allocated by IANA (IPv6 only) (Section 6.1.2.1)
 o  routes that are too specific (Section 6.1.3)
 o  prefixes belonging to the local AS (Section 6.1.4)
 o  IXP LAN prefixes (Section 6.1.5)
 o  the default route (Section 6.1.6)

6.2.1.1.2. Inbound Filtering Strict Option

 In this case, filters are applied to make sure advertisements
 strictly conform to what is declared in routing registries
 (Section 6.1.2.2).  Warning is given as registries are not always

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 14] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 accurate (prefixes missing, wrong information, etc.).  This varies
 across the registries and regions of the Internet.  Before applying a
 strict policy, the reader SHOULD check the impact on the filter and
 make sure the solution is not worse than the problem.
 Also, in case of script failure, each administrator may decide if all
 routes are accepted or rejected depending on routing policy.  While
 accepting the routes during that time frame could break the BGP
 routing security, rejecting them might re-route too much traffic on
 transit peers, and could cause more harm than what a loose policy
 would have done.
 In addition to this, network administrators could apply the following
 filters beforehand in case the routing registry that's used as the
 source of information by the script is not fully trusted:
 o  prefixes that are not globally routable (Section 6.1.1)
 o  routes that are too specific (Section 6.1.3)
 o  prefixes belonging to the local AS (Section 6.1.4)
 o  IXP LAN prefixes (Section 6.1.5)
 o  the default route (Section 6.1.6)

6.2.1.2. Outbound Filtering

 The configuration should ensure that only appropriate prefixes are
 sent.  These can be, for example, prefixes belonging to both the
 network in question and its downstreams.  This can be achieved by
 using BGP communities, AS paths, or both.  Also, it may be desirable
 to add the following filters before any policy to avoid unwanted
 route announcements due to bad configuration:
 o  Prefixes that are not globally routable (Section 6.1.1)
 o  Routes that are too specific (Section 6.1.3)
 o  IXP LAN prefixes (Section 6.1.5)
 o  The default route (Section 6.1.6)
 If it is possible to list the prefixes to be advertised, then just
 configuring the list of allowed prefixes and denying the rest is
 sufficient.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 15] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

6.2.2. Filters with Customers

6.2.2.1. Inbound Filtering

 The inbound policy with end customers is pretty straightforward: only
 customer prefixes SHOULD be accepted, all others SHOULD be discarded.
 The list of accepted prefixes can be manually specified, after having
 verified that they are valid.  This validation can be done with the
 appropriate IP address management authorities.
 The same rules apply when the customer is a network connecting other
 customers (for example, a Tier 1 transit provider connecting service
 providers).  An exception is when the customer network applies strict
 inbound/outbound prefix filtering, and there are too many prefixes
 announced by that network to list them in the router configuration.
 In that case, filters as in Section 6.2.1.1 can be applied.

6.2.2.2. Outbound Filtering

 The outbound policy with customers may vary according to the routes
 the customer wants to receive.  In the simplest possible scenario,
 the customer may want to receive only the default route; this can be
 done easily by applying a filter with the default route only.
 In case the customer wants to receive the full routing (if it is
 multihomed or if it wants to have a view of the Internet table), the
 following filters can be applied on the BGP peering:
 o  prefixes that are not globally routable (Section 6.1.1)
 o  routes that are too specific (Section 6.1.3)
 o  the default route (Section 6.1.6)
 In some cases, the customer may desire to receive the default route
 in addition to the full BGP table.  This can be done by the provider
 simply by removing the filter for the default route.  As the default
 route may not be present in the routing table, network administrators
 may decide to originate it only for peerings where it has to be
 advertised.

6.2.3. Filters with Upstream Providers

6.2.3.1. Inbound Filtering

 If the full routing table is desired from the upstream, the prefix
 filtering to apply is the same as the one for peers Section 6.2.1.1
 with the exception of the default route.  Sometimes, the default

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 16] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 route (in addition to the full BGP table) can be desired from an
 upstream provider.  If the upstream provider is supposed to announce
 only the default route, a simple filter will be applied to accept
 only the default prefix and nothing else.

6.2.3.2. Outbound Filtering

 The filters to be applied would most likely not differ much from the
 ones applied for Internet peers (Section 6.2.1.2).  However,
 different policies could be applied if a particular upstream should
 not provide transit to all the prefixes.

6.3. Prefix Filtering Recommendations for Leaf Networks

6.3.1. Inbound Filtering

 The leaf network will deploy the filters corresponding to the routes
 it is requesting from its upstream.  If a default route is requested,
 a simple inbound filter can be applied to accept only the default
 route (Section 6.1.6).  If the leaf network is not capable of listing
 the prefixes because there are too many (for example, if it requires
 the full Internet routing table), then it should configure the
 following filters to avoid receiving bad announcements from its
 upstream:
 o  prefixes not routable (Section 6.1.1)
 o  routes that are too specific (Section 6.1.3)
 o  prefixes belonging to local AS (Section 6.1.4)
 o  the default route (Section 6.1.6) depending on whether or not the
    route is requested

6.3.2. Outbound Filtering

 A leaf network will most likely have a very straightforward policy:
 it will only announce its local routes.  It can also configure the
 prefix filters described in Section 6.2.1.2 to avoid announcing
 invalid routes to its upstream provider.

7. BGP Route Flap Dampening

 The BGP route flap dampening mechanism makes it possible to give
 penalties to routes each time they change in the BGP routing table.
 Initially, this mechanism was created to protect the entire Internet
 from multiple events that impact a single network.  Studies have
 shown that implementations of BGP route flap dampening could cause

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 17] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 more harm than benefit; therefore, in the past, the RIPE community
 has recommended against using BGP route flap dampening [19].  Later,
 studies were conducted to propose new route flap dampening thresholds
 in order to make the solution "usable"; see RFC 7196 [6] and [22] (in
 which RIPE reviewed its recommendations).  This document RECOMMENDS
 following IETF and RIPE recommendations and using BGP route flap
 dampening with the adjusted configured thresholds.

8. Maximum Prefixes on a Peering

 It is RECOMMENDED to configure a limit on the number of routes to be
 accepted from a peer.  The following rules are generally RECOMMENDED:
 o  From peers, it is RECOMMENDED to have a limit lower than the
    number of routes in the Internet.  This will shut down the BGP
    peering if the peer suddenly advertises the full table.  Network
    administrators can also configure different limits for each peer,
    according to the number of routes they are supposed to advertise,
    plus some headroom to permit growth.
 o  From upstreams that provide full routing, it is RECOMMENDED to
    have a limit higher than the number of routes in the Internet.  A
    limit is still useful in order to protect the network (and in
    particular, the routers' memory) if too many routes are sent by
    the upstream.  The limit should be chosen according to the number
    of routes that can actually be handled by routers.
 It is important to regularly review the limits that are configured as
 the Internet can quickly change over time.  Some vendors propose
 mechanisms to have two thresholds: while the higher number specified
 will shut down the peering, the first threshold will only trigger a
 log and can be used to passively adjust limits based on observations
 made on the network.

9. AS Path Filtering

 This section lists the RECOMMENDED practices when processing BGP AS
 paths.
 o  Network administrators SHOULD accept from customers only 2-byte or
    4-byte AS paths containing ASNs belonging to (or authorized to
    transit through) the customer.  If network administrators cannot
    build and generate filtering expressions to implement this, they
    SHOULD consider accepting only path lengths relevant to the type
    of customer they have (as in, if these customers are a leaf or
    have customers of their own) and SHOULD try to discourage
    excessive prepending in such paths.  This loose policy could be

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 18] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

    combined with filters for specific 2-byte or 4-byte AS paths that
    must not be accepted if advertised by the customer, such as
    upstream transit providers or peer ASNs.
 o  Network administrators SHOULD NOT accept prefixes with private AS
    numbers in the AS path unless the prefixes are from customers.  An
    exception could occur when an upstream is offering some particular
    service like black-hole origination based on a private AS number:
    in that case, prefixes SHOULD be accepted.  Customers should be
    informed by their upstream in order to put in place ad hoc policy
    to use such services.
 o  Network administrators SHOULD NOT accept prefixes when the first
    AS number in the AS path is not the one of the peer's unless the
    peering is done toward a BGP route server [17] (for example, on an
    IXP) with transparent AS path handling.  In that case, this
    verification needs to be deactivated, as the first AS number will
    be the one of an IXP member, whereas the peer AS number will be
    the one of the BGP route server.
 o  Network administrators SHOULD NOT advertise prefixes with a
    nonempty AS path unless they intend to provide transit for these
    prefixes.
 o  Network administrators SHOULD NOT advertise prefixes with upstream
    AS numbers in the AS path to their peering AS unless they intend
    to provide transit for these prefixes.
 o  Private AS numbers are conventionally used in contexts that are
    "private" and SHOULD NOT be used in advertisements to BGP peers
    that are not party to such private arrangements, and they SHOULD
    be stripped when received from BGP peers that are not party to
    such private arrangements.
 o  Network administrators SHOULD NOT override BGP's default behavior,
    i.e., they should not accept their own AS number in the AS path.
    When considering an exception, the impact (which may be severe on
    routing) should be studied carefully.
 AS path filtering should be further analyzed when ASN renumbering is
 done.  Such an operation is common, and mechanisms exist to allow
 smooth ASN migration [28].  The usual migration technique, local to a
 router, consists in modifying the AS path so it is presented to a
 peer with the previous ASN, as if no renumbering was done.  This
 makes it possible to change the ASN of a router without reconfiguring
 all EBGP peers at the same time (as that operation would require
 synchronization with all peers attached to that router).  During this
 renumbering operation, the rules described above may be adjusted.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 19] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

10. Next-Hop Filtering

 If peering on a shared network, like an IXP, BGP can advertise
 prefixes with a third-party next hop, thus directing packets not to
 the peer announcing the prefix but somewhere else.
 This is a desirable property for BGP route-server setups [17], where
 the route server will relay routing information but has neither the
 capacity nor the desire to receive the actual data packets.  So, the
 BGP route server will announce prefixes with a next-hop setting
 pointing to the router that originally announced the prefix to the
 route server.
 In direct peerings between ISPs, this is undesirable, as one of the
 peers could trick the other one into sending packets into a black
 hole (unreachable next hop) or to an unsuspecting third party who
 would then have to carry the traffic.  Especially for black-holing,
 the root cause of the problem is hard to see without inspecting BGP
 prefixes at the receiving router of the IXP.
 Therefore, an inbound route policy SHOULD be applied on IXP peerings
 in order to set the next hop for accepted prefixes to the BGP peer IP
 address (belonging to the IXP LAN) that sent the prefix (which is
 what "next-hop-self" would enforce on the sending side).
 This policy SHOULD NOT be used on route-server peerings or on
 peerings where network administrators intentionally permit the other
 side to send third-party next hops.
 This policy also SHOULD be adjusted if the best practice of Remote
 Triggered Black Holing (aka RTBH as described in RFC 6666 [13]) is
 implemented.  In that case, network administrators would apply a
 well-known BGP next hop for routes they want to filter (if an
 Internet threat is observed from/to this route, for example).  This
 well-known next hop will be statically routed to a null interface.
 In combination with a unicast RPF check, this will discard traffic
 from and toward this prefix.  Peers can exchange information about
 black holes using, for example, particular BGP communities.  Network
 administrators could propagate black-hole information to their peers
 using an agreed-upon BGP community: when receiving a route with that
 community, a configured policy could change the next hop in order to
 create the black hole.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 20] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

11. BGP Community Scrubbing

 Optionally, we can consider the following rules on BGP AS paths:
 o  Network administrators SHOULD scrub inbound communities with their
    number in the high-order bits, and allow only those communities
    that customers/peers can use as a signaling mechanism
 o  Networks administrators SHOULD NOT remove other communities
    applied on received routes (communities not removed after
    application of the previous statement).  In particular, they
    SHOULD keep original communities when they apply a community.
    Customers might need them to communicate with upstream providers.
    In particular, network administrators SHOULD NOT (generally)
    remove the no-export community, as it is usually announced by
    their peer for a certain purpose.

12. Security Considerations

 This document is entirely about BGP operational security.  It depicts
 best practices that one should adopt to secure BGP infrastructure:
 protecting BGP router and BGP sessions, adopting consistent BGP
 prefix and AS path filters, and configuring other options to secure
 the BGP network.
 This document does not aim to describe existing BGP implementations,
 their potential vulnerabilities, or ways they handle errors.  It does
 not detail how protection could be enforced against attack techniques
 using crafted packets.

13. References

13.1. Normative References

 [1]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
       Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
 [2]   Rekhter,, Y., Li,, T., and S. Hares,, "A Border Gateway
       Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 4271, January 2006,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4271>.
 [3]   Gill, V., Heasley, J., Meyer, D., Savola,, P., and C.
       Pignataro, "The Generalized TTL Security Mechanism (GTSM)", RFC
       5082, October 2007, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5082>.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 21] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 [4]   Touch, J., Mankin, A., and R. Bonica, "The TCP Authentication
       Option", RFC 5925, June 2010,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5925>.
 [5]   Mohapatra, P., Scudder, J., Ward, D., Bush, R., and R.
       Austein, "BGP Prefix Origin Validation", RFC 6811, January
       2013, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6811>.
 [6]   Pelsser, C., Bush, R., Patel, K., Mohapatra, P., and O.
       Maennel, "Making Route Flap Damping Usable", RFC 7196, May
       2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7196>.

13.2. Informative References

 [7]   Heffernan, A., "Protection of BGP Sessions via the TCP MD5
       Signature Option", RFC 2385, August 1998,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2385>.
 [8]   Ferguson, P. and D. Senie, "Network Ingress Filtering:
       Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source
       Address Spoofing", RFC 2827, May 2000,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2827>.
 [9]   Baker, F. and P. Savola, "Ingress Filtering for Multihomed
       Networks", RFC 3704, March 2004,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3704>.
 [10]  Blunk, L., Damas, J., Parent, F., and A. Robachevsky, "Routing
       Policy Specification Language next generation (RPSLng)", RFC
       4012, March 2005, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4012>.
 [11]  Dugal, D., Pignataro, C., and R. Dunn, "Protecting the Router
       Control Plane", RFC 6192, March 2011,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6192>.
 [12]  Lepinski, M. and S. Kent, "An Infrastructure to Support Secure
       Internet Routing", RFC 6480, February 2012,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6480>.
 [13]  Hilliard, N. and D. Freedman, "A Discard Prefix for IPv6", RFC
       6666, August 2012, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6666>.
 [14]  Jethanandani, M., Patel, K., and L. Zheng, "Analysis of BGP,
       LDP, PCEP, and MSDP Issues According to the Keying and
       Authentication for Routing Protocols (KARP) Design Guide", RFC
       6952, May 2013, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6952>.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 22] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 [15]  Bush, R., "Origin Validation Operation Based on the Resource
       Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI)", RFC 7115, January 2014,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7115>.
 [16]  Kent, S. and A. Chi, "Threat Model for BGP Path Security", RFC
       7132, February 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7132>.
 [17]  Jasinska, E., Hilliard, N., Raszuk, R., and N. Bakker,
       "Internet Exchange Route Server", Work in Progress,
       draft-ietf-idr-ix-bgp-route-server-06, December 2014.
 [18]  Karrenberg, D., "RIPE-351 - De-Bogonising New Address Blocks",
       October 2005.
 [19]  Smith, P. and C. Panigl, "RIPE-378 - RIPE Routing Working Group
       Recommendations On Route-flap Damping", May 2006.
 [20]  Smith, P., Evans, R., and M. Hughes, "RIPE-399 - RIPE Routing
       Working Group Recommendations on Route Aggregation", December
       2006.
 [21]  Smith, P. and R. Evans, "RIPE-532 - RIPE Routing Working Group
       Recommendations on IPv6 Route Aggregation", November 2011.
 [22]  Smith, P., Bush, R., Kuhne, M., Pelsser, C., Maennel, O.,
       Patel, K., Mohapatra, P., and R. Evans, "RIPE-580 - RIPE
       Routing Working Group Recommendations On Route-flap Damping",
       January 2013.
 [23]  IANA, "IANA IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry",
       <http://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv4-special-registry>.
 [24]  IANA, "IANA IPv6 Special-Purpose Address Registry",
       <http://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv6-special-registry>.
 [25]  IANA, "IANA IPv4 Address Space Registry",
       <http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space>.
 [26]  IANA, "Internet Protocol Version 6 Address Space",
       <http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv6-address-space>.
 [27]  Merit Network Inc., "Merit RADb", <http://www.radb.net>.
 [28]  George, W. and S. Amante, "Autonomous System (AS) Migration
       Features and Their Effects on the BGP AS_PATH Attribute", Work
       in Progress, draft-ga-idr-as-migration-03, January 2014.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 23] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

 [29]  Bellovin, S., Bush, R., and D. Ward, "Security Requirements for
       BGP Path Validation", RFC 7353, August 2014,
       <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7353>.
 [30]  "IRRToolSet project page", <http://irrtoolset.isc.org>.
 [31]  Cooper, D., Heilman, E., Brogle, K., Reyzin, L., and S.
       Goldberg, "On the Risk of Misbehaving RPKI Authorities",
       <http://www.cs.bu.edu/~goldbe/papers/hotRPKI.pdf>.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 24] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

Appendix A. IXP LAN Prefix Filtering - Example

 An IXP in the RIPE region is allocated an IPv4 /22 prefix by RIPE NCC
 (X.Y.0.0/22 in this example) and uses a /23 of this /22 for the IXP
 LAN (let say X.Y.0.0/23).  This IXP LAN prefix is the one used by IXP
 members to configure EBGP peerings.  The IXP could also be allocated
 an AS number (AS64496 in our example).
 Any IXP member SHOULD make sure it filters prefixes more specific
 than X.Y.0.0/23 from all its EBGP peers.  If it received X.Y.0.0/24
 or X.Y.1.0/24 this could seriously impact its routing.
 The IXP SHOULD originate X.Y.0.0/22 and advertise it to its members
 through an EBGP peering (most likely from its BGP route servers,
 configured with AS64496).
 The IXP members SHOULD accept the IXP prefix only if it passes the
 IRR generated filters (see Section 6.1.2.2.1)
 IXP members SHOULD then advertise X.Y.0.0/22 prefix to their
 downstreams.  This announce would pass IRR based filters as it is
 originated by the IXP.

Acknowledgements

 The authors would like to thank the following people for their
 comments and support: Marc Blanchet, Ron Bonica, Randy Bush, David
 Freedman, Wesley George, Daniel Ginsburg, David Groves, Mike Hugues,
 Joel Jaeggli, Tim Kleefass, Warren Kumari, Jacques Latour, Lionel
 Morand, Jerome Nicolle, Hagen Paul Pfeifer, Thomas Pinaud, Carlos
 Pignataro, Jean Rebiffe, Donald Smith, Kotikalapudi Sriram, Matjaz
 Straus, Tony Tauber, Gunter Van de Velde, Sebastian Wiesinger, and
 Matsuzaki Yoshinobu.
 The authors would like to thank once again Gunter Van de Velde for
 presenting the document at several IETF meetings in various working
 groups, indeed helping dissemination of this document and gathering
 of precious feedback.

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 25] RFC 7454 BGP OPSEC February 2015

Authors' Addresses

 Jerome Durand
 Cisco Systems, Inc.
 11 rue Camille Desmoulins
 Issy-les-Moulineaux  92782 CEDEX
 France
 EMail: jerduran@cisco.com
 Ivan Pepelnjak
 NIL Data Communications
 Tivolska 48
 Ljubljana  1000
 Slovenia
 EMail: ip@ipspace.net
 Gert Doering
 SpaceNet AG
 Joseph-Dollinger-Bogen 14
 Muenchen  D-80807
 Germany
 EMail: gert@space.net

Durand, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 26]

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