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rfc:rfc2521

Network Working Group P. Karn Request for Comments: 2521 Qualcomm Category: Experimental W. Simpson

                                                            DayDreamer
                                                            March 1999
                  ICMP Security Failures Messages

Status of this Memo

 This document defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
 community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
 Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
 Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  Copyright (C) Philip Karn
 and William Allen Simpson (1994-1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 This document specifies ICMP messages for indicating failures when
 using IP Security Protocols (AH and ESP).

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page i] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

Table of Contents

   1.     Introduction ..........................................    1
   2.     Message Formats .......................................    1
      2.1       Bad SPI .........................................    2
      2.2       Authentication Failed ...........................    2
      2.3       Decompression Failed ............................    2
      2.4       Decryption Failed ...............................    2
      2.5       Need Authentication .............................    3
      2.6       Need Authorization ..............................    3
   3.     Error Procedures ......................................    3
   SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS ......................................    4
   HISTORY ......................................................    5
   ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................    5
   REFERENCES ...................................................    5
   CONTACTS .....................................................    6
   COPYRIGHT ....................................................    7

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page ii] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

1. Introduction

 This mechanism is intended for use with the Internet Security
 Protocols [RFC-1825 et sequitur] for authentication and privacy.  For
 statically configured Security Associations, these messages indicate
 that the operator needs to manually reconfigure, or is attempting an
 unauthorized operation.  These messages may also be used to trigger
 automated session-key management.
 The datagram format and basic facilities are already defined for ICMP
 [RFC-792].
 Up-to-date values of the ICMP Type field are specified in the most
 recent "Assigned Numbers" [RFC-1700].  This document concerns the
 following values:
     40  Security Failures

2. Message Formats

 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |     Type      |     Code      |          Checksum             |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |           Reserved            |          Pointer              |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 |                                                               |
 ~     Original Internet Headers + 64 bits of Payload            ~
 |                                                               |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 Type              40
 Code             Indicates the kind of failure:
                    0 = Bad SPI
                    1 = Authentication Failed
                    2 = Decompression Failed
                    3 = Decryption Failed
                    4 = Need Authentication
                    5 = Need Authorization
 Checksum         Two octets.  The ICMP Checksum.
 Reserved         Two octets.  For future use; MUST be set to zero

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page 1] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

                  when transmitted, and MUST be ignored when received.
 Pointer          Two octets.  An offset into the Original Internet
                  Headers that locates the most significant octet of
                  the offending SPI.  Will be zero when no SPI is
                  present.
 Original Internet Headers ...
                  The original Internet Protocol header, any
                  intervening headers up to and including the
                  offending SPI (if any), plus the first 64 bits (8
                  octets) of the remaining payload data.
                  This data is used by the host to match the message
                  to the appropriate process.  If a payload protocol
                  uses port numbers, they are assumed to be in the
                  first 64-bits of the original datagram's payload.
 Usage of this message is elaborated in the following sections.

2.1. Bad SPI

 Indicates that a received datagram includes a Security Parameters
 Index (SPI) that is invalid or has expired.

2.2. Authentication Failed

 Indicates that a received datagram failed the authenticity or
 integrity check for a given SPI.
 Note that the SPI may indicate an outer Encapsulating Security
 Protocol when a separate Authentication Header SPI is hidden inside.

2.3. Decompression Failed

 Indicates that a received datagram failed a decompression check for a
 given SPI.

2.4. Decryption Failed

 Indicates that a received datagram failed a decryption check for a
 given SPI.

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page 2] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

2.5. Need Authentication

 Indicates that a received datagram will not be accepted without
 additional authentication.
 In this case, either no SPI is present, or an unsuitable SPI is
 present.  For example, an encryption SPI without integrity arrives
 from a secure operating system with mutually suspicious users.

2.6. Need Authorization

 Indicates that a received datagram will not be accepted because it
 has insufficient authorization.
 In this case, an authentication SPI is present that is inappropriate
 for the target transport or application.  The principle party denoted
 by the SPI does not have proper authorization for the facilities used
 by the datagram.  For example, the party is authorized for Telnet
 access, but not for FTP access.

3. Error Procedures

 As is usual with ICMP messages, upon receipt of one of these error
 messages that is uninterpretable or otherwise contains an error, no
 ICMP error message is sent in response.  Instead, the message is
 silently discarded.  However, for diagnosis of problems, a node
 SHOULD provide the capability of logging the error, including the
 contents of the silently discarded datagram, and SHOULD record the
 event in a statistics counter.
 On receipt, special care MUST be taken that the ICMP message actually
 includes information that matches a previously sent IP datagram.
 Otherwise, this might provide an opportunity for a denial of service
 attack.
 The sending implementation MUST be able to limit the rate at which
 these messages are generated.  The rate limit parameters SHOULD be
 configurable.  How the limits are applied (such as, by destination or
 per interface) is left to the implementor's discretion.

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page 3] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

Security Considerations

 When a prior Security Association between the parties has not
 expired, these messages SHOULD be sent with authentication.
 However, the node MUST NOT dynamically establish a new Security
 Association for the sole purpose of authenticating these messages.
 Automated key management is computationally intensive.  This could be
 used for a very serious denial of service attack.  It would be very
 easy to swamp a target with bogus SPIs from random IP Sources, and
 have it start up numerous useless key management sessions to
 authentically inform the putative sender.
 In the event of loss of state (such as a system crash), the node will
 need to send failure messages to all parties that attempt subsequent
 communication.  In this case, the node may have lost the key
 management technique that was used to establish the Security
 Association.
 Much better to simply let the peers know that there was a failure,
 and let them request key management as needed (at their staggered
 timeouts).  They'll remember the previous key management technique,
 and restart gracefully.  This distributes the restart burden among
 systems, and helps allow the recently failed node to manage its
 computational resources.
 In addition, these messages inform the recipient when the ICMP sender
 is under attack.  Unlike other ICMP error messages, the messages
 provide sufficient data to determine that these messages are in
 response to previously sent messages.
 Therefore, it is imperative that the recipient accept both
 authenticated and unauthenticated failure messages.  The recipient's
 log SHOULD indicate when the ICMP messages are not validated, and
 when the ICMP messages are not in response to a valid previous
 message.
 There is some concern that sending these messages may result in the
 leak of security information.  For example, an attacker might use
 these messages to test or verify potential forged keys.  However,
 this information is already available through the simple expedient of
 using Echo facilities, or waiting for a TCP 3-way handshake.
 The rate limiting mechanism also limits this form of leak, as many
 messages will not result in an error indication.  At the very least,
 this will lengthen the time factor for verifying such information.

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page 4] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

History

 The text has been extensively reviewed on the IP Security mailing
 list, in January and February of 1995 and again in December 1995.
 The specification is stable, and was forwarded to the IESG by the
 authors for IETF Last Call as a Proposed Standard in March 1996.
 There have been several implementations.

Acknowledgements

 Some of the text of this specification was derived from "Requirements
 for Internet Hosts -- Communication Layers" [RFC-1122] and
 "Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers" [RFC-1812].
 Naganand Doraswamy and Hilarie Orman provided useful critiques of
 earlier versions of this document.
 Stimulating comments were also received from Jeffrey Schiller.
 Special thanks to the Center for Information Technology Integration
 (CITI) for providing computing resources.

References

 [RFC-792]   Postel, J., "Internet Control Message Protocol", STD 5,
             September 1981.
 [RFC-1122]  Braden, R., Editor, "Requirements for Internet Hosts --
             Communication Layers", STD 3, USC/Information Sciences
             Institute, October 1989.
 [RFC-1700]  Reynolds, J., and Postel, J., "Assigned Numbers", STD 2,
             USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1994.
 [RFC-1812]  Baker, F., Editor, "Requirements for IP Version 4
             Routers", Cisco Systems, June 1995.
 [RFC-1825]  Atkinson, R., "Security Architecture for the Internet
             Protocol", Naval Research Laboratory, July 1995.

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page 5] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

Contacts

 Comments about this document should be discussed on the
 photuris@adk.gr mailing list.
 Questions about this document can also be directed to:
    Phil Karn
    Qualcomm, Inc.
    6455 Lusk Blvd.
    San Diego, California  92121-2779
        karn@qualcomm.com
        karn@unix.ka9q.ampr.org (preferred)
    William Allen Simpson
    DayDreamer
    Computer Systems Consulting Services
    1384 Fontaine
    Madison Heights, Michigan  48071
        wsimpson@UMich.edu
        wsimpson@GreenDragon.com (preferred)

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page 6] RFC 2521 ICMP Security Failures March 1999

Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  Copyright (C) Philip
 Karn and William Allen Simpson (1994-1999).  All Rights Reserved.
 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain
 it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied,
 published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction
 of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this
 paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works.
 However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such
 as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet
 Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the
 purpose of developing Internet standards (in which case the
 procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process
 must be followed), or as required to translate it into languages
 other than English.
 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Karn & Simpson Experimental [Page 7]

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