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rfc:rfc7721

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Cooper Request for Comments: 7721 Cisco Category: Informational F. Gont ISSN: 2070-1721 Huawei Technologies

                                                             D. Thaler
                                                             Microsoft
                                                            March 2016
              Security and Privacy Considerations for
                 IPv6 Address Generation Mechanisms

Abstract

 This document discusses privacy and security considerations for
 several IPv6 address generation mechanisms, both standardized and
 non-standardized.  It evaluates how different mechanisms mitigate
 different threats and the trade-offs that implementors, developers,
 and users face in choosing different addresses or address generation
 mechanisms.

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 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/rfc7721.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2016 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.

Table of Contents

 1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
 2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
 3.  Weaknesses in IEEE-Identifier-Based IIDs  . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.1.  Correlation of Activities over Time . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.2.  Location Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.3.  Address Scanning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.4.  Device-Specific Vulnerability Exploitation  . . . . . . .   7
 4.  Privacy and Security Properties of Address Generation
     Mechanisms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.1.  IEEE-Identifier-Based IIDs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   4.2.  Static, Manually Configured IIDs  . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   4.3.  Constant, Semantically Opaque IIDs  . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   4.4.  Cryptographically Generated IIDs  . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   4.5.  Stable, Semantically Opaque IIDs  . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   4.6.  Temporary IIDs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   4.7.  DHCPv6 Generation of IIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   4.8.  Transition and Coexistence Technologies . . . . . . . . .  12
 5.  Miscellaneous Issues with IPv6 Addressing . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.1.  Network Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.2.  Compliance  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.3.  Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) . . . . . . . . . . .  13
 6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
 7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
 Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
 Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 2] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

1. Introduction

 IPv6 was designed to improve upon IPv4 in many respects, and
 mechanisms for address assignment were one such area for improvement.
 In addition to static address assignment and DHCP, stateless
 autoconfiguration was developed as a less intensive, fate-shared
 means of performing address assignment.  With stateless
 autoconfiguration, routers advertise on-link prefixes and hosts
 generate their own Interface Identifiers (IIDs) to complete their
 addresses.  [RFC7136] clarifies that the IID should be treated as an
 opaque value, while [RFC7421] provides an analysis of the 64-bit
 boundary in IPv6 addressing (e.g., the implications of the IID length
 on security and privacy).  Over the years, many IID generation
 techniques have been defined, both standardized and non-standardized:
 o  Manual configuration [RFC7707]
  • IPv4 address
  • Service port
  • Wordy
  • Low-byte
 o  Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC)
  • IEEE 802 48-bit Media Access Control (MAC) or IEEE 64-bit

Extended Unique Identifier (EUI-64) [RFC2464]

  • Cryptographically generated [RFC3972]
  • Temporary (also known as "privacy addresses") [RFC4941]
  • Constant, semantically opaque (also known as "random")

[Microsoft]

  • Stable, semantically opaque [RFC7217]
 o  DHCPv6 based [RFC3315]
 o  Specified by transition/co-existence technologies
  • Derived from an IPv4 address (e.g., [RFC5214], [RFC6052])
  • Derived from an IPv4 address and port set ID (e.g., [RFC7596],

[RFC7597], [RFC7599])

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 3] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

  • Derived from an IPv4 address and port (e.g., [RFC4380])
 Deriving the IID from a globally unique IEEE identifier [RFC2464]
 [RFC4862] was one of the earliest mechanisms developed (and
 originally specified in [RFC1971] and [RFC1972]).  A number of
 privacy and security issues related to the IIDs derived from IEEE
 identifiers were discovered after their standardization, and many of
 the mechanisms developed later aimed to mitigate some or all of these
 weaknesses.  This document identifies four types of attacks against
 IEEE-identifier-based IIDs and discusses how other existing
 techniques for generating IIDs do or do not mitigate those attacks.

2. Terminology

 This section clarifies the terminology used throughout this document.
 Public address:
    An address that has been published in a directory or other public
    location, such as the DNS, a SIP proxy [RFC3261], an application-
    specific Distributed Hash Table (DHT), or a publicly available
    URI.  A host's public addresses are intended to be discoverable by
    third parties.
 Stable address:
    An address that does not vary over time within the same IPv6 link.
    Note that [RFC4941] refers to these as "public" addresses, but
    "stable" is used here for reasons explained in Section 4.
 Temporary address:
    An address that varies over time within the same IPv6 link.
 Constant IID:
    An IPv6 interface identifier that is globally stable.  That is,
    the Interface ID will remain constant even if the node moves from
    one IPv6 link to another.
 Stable IID:
    An IPv6 interface identifier that is stable within some specified
    context.  For example, an Interface ID can be globally stable
    (constant) or could be stable per IPv6 link (meaning that the
    Interface ID will remain unchanged as long as the node stays on
    the same IPv6 link but may change when the node moves from one
    IPv6 link to another).
 Temporary IID:
    An IPv6 interface identifier that varies over time.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 4] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 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
 [RFC2119].  These words take their normative meanings only when they
 are presented in ALL UPPERCASE.

3. Weaknesses in IEEE-Identifier-Based IIDs

 There are a number of privacy and security implications that exist
 for hosts that use IEEE-identifier-based IIDs.  This section
 discusses four generic attack types: correlation of activities over
 time, location tracking, address scanning, and device-specific
 vulnerability exploitation.  The first three of these rely on the
 attacker first gaining knowledge of the IID of the target host.  This
 could be achieved by a number of different entities: the operator of
 a server to which the host connects, such as a web server or a peer-
 to-peer server; an entity that connects to the same IPv6 link as the
 target (such as a conference network or any public network); a
 passive observer of traffic that the host broadcasts; or an entity
 that is on path to the destinations with which the host communicates,
 such as a network operator.

3.1. Correlation of Activities over Time

 As with other identifiers, an IPv6 address can be used to correlate
 the activities of a host for at least as long as the lifetime of the
 address.  The correlation made possible by IEEE-identifier-based IIDs
 is of particular concern since they last roughly for the lifetime of
 a device's network interface, allowing correlation on the order of
 years.
 As [RFC4941] explains,
    [t]he use of a non-changing interface identifier to form addresses
    is a specific instance of the more general case where a constant
    identifier is reused over an extended period of time and in
    multiple independent activities.  Anytime the same identifier is
    used in multiple contexts, it becomes possible for that identifier
    to be used to correlate seemingly unrelated activity. ... The use
    of a constant identifier within an address is of special concern
    because addresses are a fundamental requirement of communication
    and cannot easily be hidden from eavesdroppers and other parties.
    Even when higher layers encrypt their payloads, addresses in
    packet headers appear in the clear.
 IP addresses are just one example of information that can be used to
 correlate activities over time.  DNS names, cookies [RFC6265],
 browser fingerprints [Panopticlick], and application-layer usernames

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 5] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 can all be used to link a host's activities together.  Although IEEE-
 identifier-based IIDs are likely to last at least as long or longer
 than these other identifiers, IIDs generated in other ways may have
 shorter or longer lifetimes than these identifiers depending on how
 they are generated.  Therefore, the extent to which a host's
 activities can be correlated depends on whether the host uses
 multiple identifiers together and the lifetimes of all of those
 identifiers.  Frequently refreshing an IPv6 address may not mitigate
 correlation if an attacker has access to other longer-lived
 identifiers for a particular host.  This is an important caveat to
 keep in mind throughout the discussion of correlation in this
 document.  For further discussion of correlation, see Section 5.2.1
 of [RFC6973].
 As noted in [RFC4941], in some cases correlation is just as feasible
 for a host using an IPv4 address as for a host using an IEEE
 identifier to generate its IID in its IPv6 address.  Hosts that use
 static IPv4 addressing or who are consistently allocated the same
 address via DHCPv4 can be tracked as described above.  However, the
 widespread use of both NAT and DHCPv4 implementations that assign the
 same host a different address upon lease expiration mitigates this
 threat in the IPv4 case as compared to the IEEE identifier case in
 IPv6.

3.2. Location Tracking

 Because the IPv6 address structure is divided between a topological
 portion and an interface identifier portion, an interface identifier
 that remains constant when a host connects to different IPv6 links
 (as an IEEE-identifier-based IID does) provides a way for observers
 to track the movements of that host.  In a passive attack on a mobile
 host, a server that receives connections from the same host over time
 would be able to determine the host's movements as its prefix
 changes.
 Active attacks are also possible.  An attacker that first learns the
 host's interface identifier by being connected to the same IPv6 link,
 running a server that the host connects to, or being on path to the
 host's communications could subsequently probe other networks for the
 presence of the same interface identifier by sending a probe packet
 (e.g., ICMPv6 Echo Request, or any other probe packet).  Even if the
 host does not respond, the first-hop router will usually respond with
 an ICMP Destination Unreachable/Address Unreachable (type 1, code 3)
 when the host is not present and be silent when the host is present.
 Location tracking based on IP address is generally not possible in
 IPv4 since hosts get assigned wholly new addresses when they change
 networks.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 6] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

3.3. Address Scanning

 The structure of IEEE-based identifiers used for address generation
 can be leveraged by an attacker to reduce the target search space
 [RFC7707].  The 24-bit Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) of
 MAC addresses, together with the fixed value (0xff, 0xfe) used to
 form a Modified EUI-64 interface identifier, greatly help to reduce
 the search space, making it easier for an attacker to scan for
 individual addresses using widely known popular OUIs.  This erases
 much of the protection against address scanning that the larger IPv6
 address space could provide as compared to IPv4.

3.4. Device-Specific Vulnerability Exploitation

 IPv6 addresses that embed IEEE identifiers leak information about the
 device (e.g., Network Interface Card vendor, or even Operating System
 and/or software type), which could be leveraged by an attacker with
 knowledge of device- or software-specific vulnerabilities to quickly
 find possible targets.  Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in
 hosts whose IIDs they have previously obtained or scan an address
 space to find potential targets.

4. Privacy and Security Properties of Address Generation Mechanisms

 Analysis of the extent to which a particular host is protected
 against the attacks described in Section 3 depends on how each of a
 host's addresses is generated and used.  In some scenarios, a host
 configures a single global address and uses it for all
 communications.  In other scenarios, a host configures multiple
 addresses using different mechanisms and may use any or all of them.
 [RFC3041] (later obsoleted by [RFC4941]) sought to address some of
 the problems described in Section 3 by defining "temporary addresses"
 for outbound connections.  Temporary addresses are meant to
 supplement the other addresses that a device might use, not to
 replace them.  They use IIDs that are randomly generated and change
 daily by default.  The idea was for temporary addresses to be used
 for outgoing connections (e.g., web browsing) while maintaining the
 ability to use a stable address when more address stability is
 desired (e.g., for IPv6 addresses published in the DNS).
 [RFC3484] originally specified that stable addresses be used for
 outbound connections unless an application explicitly prefers
 temporary addresses.  The default preference for stable addresses was
 established to avoid applications potentially failing due to the
 short lifetime of temporary addresses or the possibility of a reverse
 look-up failure or error.  However, [RFC3484] allowed that
 "implementations for which privacy considerations outweigh these

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 7] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 application-compatibility concerns MAY reverse the sense of this
 rule" and instead prefer by default temporary addresses rather than
 stable addresses.  Indeed, most implementations (notably including
 Windows) chose to default to temporary addresses for outbound
 connections since privacy was considered more important (and few
 applications supported IPv6 at the time, so application compatibility
 concerns were minimal).  [RFC6724] then obsoleted [RFC3484] and
 changed the default to match what implementations actually did.
 The envisioned relationship in [RFC3484] between stability of an
 address and its use in "public" can be misleading when conducting
 privacy analysis.  The stability of an address and the extent to
 which it is linkable to some other public identifier are independent
 of one another.  For example, there is nothing that prevents a host
 from publishing a temporary address in a public place, such as the
 DNS.  Publishing both a stable address and a temporary address in the
 DNS or elsewhere where they can be linked together by a public
 identifier allows the host's activities when using either address to
 be correlated together.
 Moreover, because temporary addresses were designed to supplement
 other addresses generated by a host, the host may still configure a
 more stable address even if it only ever intentionally uses temporary
 addresses (as source addresses) for communication to off-link
 destinations.  An attacker can probe for the stable address even if
 it is never used as such a source address or advertised outside the
 link (e.g., in DNS or SIP).
 This section compares the privacy and security properties of a
 variety of IID generation mechanisms and their possible usage
 scenarios, including scenarios in which a single mechanism is used to
 generate all of a host's IIDs and those in which temporary addresses
 are used together with addresses generated using a different IID
 generation mechanism.  The analysis of the exposure of each IID type
 to correlation assumes that IPv6 prefixes are shared by a reasonably
 large number of nodes.  As [RFC4941] notes, if a very small number of
 nodes (say, only one) use a particular prefix for an extended period
 of time, the prefix itself can be used to correlate the host's
 activities regardless of how the IID is generated.  For example,
 [RFC3314] recommends that prefixes be uniquely assigned to mobile
 handsets where IPv6 is used within General Packet Radio Service
 (GPRS).  In cases where this advice is followed and prefixes persist
 for extended periods of time (or get reassigned to the same handsets
 whenever those handsets reconnect to the same network router), hosts'
 activities could be correlatable for longer periods than the analysis
 below would suggest.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 8] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 The table below provides a summary of the whole analysis.  A "No"
 entry indicates that the attack is prevented from being carried out
 on the basis of the IID, but the host may still be vulnerable
 depending on how it employs other protocols.
 +--------------+-------------+----------+-------------+-------------+
 | Mechanism(s) | Correlation | Location | Address     | Device      |
 |              |             | tracking | scanning    | exploits    |
 +--------------+-------------+----------+-------------+-------------+
 | IEEE         | For device  | For      | Possible    | Possible    |
 | identifier   | lifetime    | device   |             |             |
 |              |             | lifetime |             |             |
 |              |             |          |             |             |
 | Static       | For address | For      | Depends on  | Depends on  |
 | manual       | lifetime    | address  | generation  | generation  |
 |              |             | lifetime | mechanism   | mechanism   |
 |              |             |          |             |             |
 | Constant,    | For address | For      | No          | No          |
 | semantically | lifetime    | address  |             |             |
 | opaque       |             | lifetime |             |             |
 |              |             |          |             |             |
 | CGA          | For         | No       | No          | No          |
 |              | lifetime of |          |             |             |
 |              | (modifier   |          |             |             |
 |              | block +     |          |             |             |
 |              | public key) |          |             |             |
 |              |             |          |             |             |
 | Stable,      | Within      | No       | No          | No          |
 | semantically | single IPv6 |          |             |             |
 | opaque       | link        |          |             |             |
 |              |             |          |             |             |
 | Temporary    | For temp    | No       | No          | No          |
 |              | address     |          |             |             |
 |              | lifetime    |          |             |             |
 |              |             |          |             |             |
 | DHCPv6       | For lease   | No       | Depends on  | No          |
 |              | lifetime    |          | generation  |             |
 |              |             |          | mechanism   |             |
 +--------------+-------------+----------+-------------+-------------+
 Table 1: Privacy and Security Properties of IID Generation Mechanisms

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 9] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

4.1. IEEE-Identifier-Based IIDs

 As discussed in Section 3, addresses that use IIDs based on IEEE
 identifiers are vulnerable to all four attacks.  They allow
 correlation and location tracking for the lifetime of the device
 since IEEE identifiers last that long and their structure makes
 address scanning and device exploits possible.

4.2. Static, Manually Configured IIDs

 Because static, manually configured IIDs are stable, both correlation
 and location tracking are possible for the life of the address.
 The extent to which location tracking can be successfully performed
 depends, to some extent, on the uniqueness of the employed IID.  For
 example, one would expect "low byte" IIDs to be more widely reused
 than, for example, IIDs where the whole 64 bits follow some pattern
 that is unique to a specific organization.  Widely reused IIDs will
 typically lead to false positives when performing location tracking.
 Whether manually configured addresses are vulnerable to address
 scanning and device exploits depends on the specifics of how the IIDs
 are generated.

4.3. Constant, Semantically Opaque IIDs

 Although a mechanism to generate a constant, semantically opaque IID
 has not been standardized, it has been in wide use for many years on
 at least one platform (Windows).  Windows uses the random generation
 mechanism described in [RFC4941] in lieu of generating an IEEE-
 identifier-based IID.  This mitigates the device-specific
 exploitation and address-scanning attacks but still allows
 correlation and location tracking because the IID is constant across
 IPv6 links and time.

4.4. Cryptographically Generated IIDs

 Cryptographically Generated Addresses (CGAs) [RFC3972] bind a hash of
 the host's public key to an IPv6 address in the SEcure Neighbor
 Discovery (SEND) protocol [RFC3971].  CGAs may be regenerated for
 each subnet prefix, but this is not required given that they are
 computationally expensive to generate.  A host using a CGA can be
 correlated for as long as the lifetime of the combination of the
 public key and the chosen modifier block since it is possible to
 rotate modifier blocks without generating new public keys.  Because
 the cryptographic hash of the host's public key uses the subnet
 prefix as an input, even if the host does not generate a new public
 key or modifier block when it moves to a different IPv6 link, its

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 10] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 location cannot be tracked via the IID.  CGAs do not allow device-
 specific exploitation or address-scanning attacks.

4.5. Stable, Semantically Opaque IIDs

 [RFC7217] specifies an algorithm that generates, for each network
 interface, a unique random IID per IPv6 link.  The aforementioned
 algorithm is employed not only for global unicast addresses, but also
 for unique local unicast addresses and link-local unicast addresses
 since these addresses may leak out via application protocols (e.g.,
 IPv6 addresses embedded in email headers).
 A host that stays connected to the same IPv6 link could therefore be
 tracked at length, whereas a mobile host's activities could only be
 correlated for the duration of each network connection.  Location
 tracking is not possible with these addresses.  They also do not
 allow device-specific exploitation or address-scanning attacks.

4.6. Temporary IIDs

 A host that uses only a temporary address mitigates all four threats.
 Its activities may only be correlated for the lifetime of a single
 temporary address.
 A host that configures both an IEEE-identifier-based IID and
 temporary addresses makes the host vulnerable to the same attacks as
 if temporary addresses were not in use, although the viability of
 some of them depends on how the host uses each address.  An attacker
 can correlate all of the host's activities for which it uses its
 IEEE-identifier-based IID.  Once an attacker has obtained the IEEE-
 identifier-based IID, location tracking becomes possible on other
 IPv6 links even if the host only makes use of temporary addresses on
 those other IPv6 links; the attacker can actively probe the other
 IPv6 links for the presence of the IEEE-identifier-based IID.
 Device-specific vulnerabilities can still be exploited.  Address
 scanning is also still possible because the IEEE-identifier-based
 address can be probed.
 If the host instead generates a constant, semantically opaque IID to
 use in a stable address for server-like connections together with
 temporary addresses for outbound connections (as is the default in
 Windows), it sees some improvements over the previous scenario.  The
 address-scanning attacks and device-specific exploitation attacks are
 no longer possible because the OUI is no longer embedded in any of
 the host's addresses.  However, correlation of some activities across
 time and location tracking are both still possible because the
 semantically opaque IID is constant.  And once an attacker has
 obtained the host's semantically opaque IID, location tracking is

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 11] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 possible on any network by probing for that IID, even if the host
 only uses temporary addresses on those networks.  However, if the
 host generates but never uses a constant, semantically opaque IID, it
 mitigates all four threats.
 When used together with temporary addresses, the stable, semantically
 opaque IID generation mechanism [RFC7217] improves upon the previous
 scenario by limiting the potential for correlation to the lifetime of
 the stable address (which may still be lengthy for hosts that are not
 mobile) and by eliminating the possibility for location tracking
 (since a different IID is generated for each subnet prefix).  As in
 the previous scenario, a host that configures but does not use a
 stable, semantically opaque address mitigates all four threats.

4.7. DHCPv6 Generation of IIDs

 The security and privacy implications of DHCPv6-based addresses will
 typically depend on whether the client requests an IA_NA (Identity
 Association for Non-temporary Addresses) or an IA_TA (Identity
 Association for Temporary Addresses) [RFC3315] and the specific
 DHCPv6 server software being employed.
 DHCPv6 temporary addresses have the same properties as SLAAC
 temporary addresses (see Section 4.6).  On the other hand, the
 properties of DHCPv6 non-temporary addresses typically depend on the
 specific DHCPv6 server software being employed.  Recent releases of
 most popular DHCPv6 server software typically lease random addresses
 with a similar lease time as that of IPv4.  Thus, these addresses can
 be considered to be "stable, semantically opaque".  [DHCPv6-IID]
 specifies an algorithm that can be employed by DHCPv6 servers to
 generate "stable, semantically opaque" addresses.
 On the other hand, some DHCPv6 software leases sequential addresses
 (typically low-byte addresses).  These addresses can be considered to
 be stable addresses.  The drawback of this address generation scheme
 compared to "stable, semantically opaque" addresses is that, since
 they follow specific patterns, they enable IPv6 address scans.

4.8. Transition and Coexistence Technologies

 Addresses specified based on transition or coexistence technologies
 that embed an IPv4 address within an IPv6 address are not included in
 Table 1 because their privacy and security properties are inherited
 from the embedded address.  For example, Teredo [RFC4380] specifies a
 means to generate an IPv6 address from the underlying IPv4 address
 and port, leaving many other bits set to zero.  This makes it
 relatively easy for an attacker to scan for IPv6 addresses by
 guessing the Teredo client's IPv4 address and port (which for many

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 12] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 NATs is not randomized).  For this reason, popular implementations
 (e.g., Windows) began deviating from the standard by including 12
 random bits in place of zero bits.  This modification was later
 standardized in [RFC5991].
 Some other transition technologies (e.g., [RFC5214], [RFC6052])
 specify means to generate an IPv6 address from an underlying IPv4
 address without a port.  Such mechanisms thus make it much easier for
 an attacker to conduct an address scan than for mechanisms that
 require finding a port number as well.
 Finally, still other mechanisms (e.g., [RFC7596], [RFC7597],
 [RFC7599]) are somewhere in between, using an IPv4 address and a port
 set ID (which for many NATs is not randomized).  In general, such
 mechanisms are thus typically as easy to scan as in the Teredo
 example above without the 12-bit mitigation.

5. Miscellaneous Issues with IPv6 Addressing

5.1. Network Operation

 It is generally agreed that IPv6 addresses that vary over time in a
 specific IPv6 link tend to increase the complexity of event logging,
 trouble-shooting, enforcement of access controls and quality of
 service, etc.  As a result, some organizations disable the use of
 temporary addresses [RFC4941] even at the expense of reduced privacy
 [Broersma].

5.2. Compliance

 Some IPv6 compliance testing suites required (and might still
 require) implementations to support IEEE-identifier-based IIDs in
 order to be approved as compliant.  This document recommends that
 compliance testing suites be relaxed to allow other forms of address
 generation that are more amenable to privacy.

5.3. Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)

 Some IPv6 addressing techniques might be covered by Intellectual
 Property rights, which might limit their implementation in different
 operating systems.  [CGA-IPR] and [KAME-CGA] discuss the IPRs on
 CGAs.

6. Security Considerations

 This whole document concerns the privacy and security properties of
 different IPv6 address generation mechanisms.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 13] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

7. References

7.1. 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,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
 [RFC2464]  Crawford, M., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet
            Networks", RFC 2464, DOI 10.17487/RFC2464, December 1998,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2464>.
 [RFC3315]  Droms, R., Ed., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins,
            C., and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
            for IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, DOI 10.17487/RFC3315, July
            2003, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3315>.
 [RFC3971]  Arkko, J., Ed., Kempf, J., Zill, B., and P. Nikander,
            "SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)", RFC 3971,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC3971, March 2005,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3971>.
 [RFC3972]  Aura, T., "Cryptographically Generated Addresses (CGA)",
            RFC 3972, DOI 10.17487/RFC3972, March 2005,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3972>.
 [RFC4380]  Huitema, C., "Teredo: Tunneling IPv6 over UDP through
            Network Address Translations (NATs)", RFC 4380,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC4380, February 2006,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4380>.
 [RFC4862]  Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless
            Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC4862, September 2007,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4862>.
 [RFC4941]  Narten, T., Draves, R., and S. Krishnan, "Privacy
            Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in
            IPv6", RFC 4941, DOI 10.17487/RFC4941, September 2007,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4941>.
 [RFC5991]  Thaler, D., Krishnan, S., and J. Hoagland, "Teredo
            Security Updates", RFC 5991, DOI 10.17487/RFC5991,
            September 2010, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5991>.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 14] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 [RFC6724]  Thaler, D., Ed., Draves, R., Matsumoto, A., and T. Chown,
            "Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol Version 6
            (IPv6)", RFC 6724, DOI 10.17487/RFC6724, September 2012,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6724>.
 [RFC7136]  Carpenter, B. and S. Jiang, "Significance of IPv6
            Interface Identifiers", RFC 7136, DOI 10.17487/RFC7136,
            February 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7136>.
 [RFC7217]  Gont, F., "A Method for Generating Semantically Opaque
            Interface Identifiers with IPv6 Stateless Address
            Autoconfiguration (SLAAC)", RFC 7217,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC7217, April 2014,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7217>.

7.2. Informative References

 [Broersma] Broersma, R., "IPv6 Everywhere: Living with a Fully
            IPv6-enabled environment",  Australian IPv6 Summit 2010,
            Melbourne, VIC Australia, October 2010,
            <http://www.ipv6.org.au/10ipv6summit/talks/
            Ron_Broersma.pdf>.
 [CGA-IPR]  IETF, "IPR Details: Microsoft's Statement about IPR
            claimed in RFC 3972", November 2005,
            <https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/676/>.
 [DHCPv6-IID]
            Gont, F. and W. Liu, "A Method for Generating Semantically
            Opaque Interface Identifiers with Dynamic Host
            Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)", Work in
            Progress, draft-ietf-dhc-stable-privacy-addresses-02,
            April 2015.
 [KAME-CGA] The KAME Project, "The KAME IPR policy and concerns of
            some technologies which have IPR claims", November 2005,
            <http://www.kame.net/newsletter/20040525/>.
 [Microsoft]
            Microsoft, "IPv6 interface identifiers", 2013,
            <http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/
            windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/
            sag_ip_v6_imp_addr7.mspx?mfr=true>.
 [Panopticlick]
            Electronic Frontier Foundation, "Panopticlick", 2011,
            <http://panopticlick.eff.org>.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 15] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 [RFC1971]  Thomson, S. and T. Narten, "IPv6 Stateless Address
            Autoconfiguration", RFC 1971, DOI 10.17487/RFC1971, August
            1996, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1971>.
 [RFC1972]  Crawford, M., "A Method for the Transmission of IPv6
            Packets over Ethernet Networks", RFC 1972,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC1972, August 1996,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc1972>.
 [RFC3041]  Narten, T. and R. Draves, "Privacy Extensions for
            Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6", RFC 3041,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC3041, January 2001,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3041>.
 [RFC3261]  Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston,
            A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E.
            Schooler, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC3261, June 2002,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3261>.
 [RFC3314]  Wasserman, M., Ed., "Recommendations for IPv6 in Third
            Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Standards",
            RFC 3314, DOI 10.17487/RFC3314, September 2002,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3314>.
 [RFC3484]  Draves, R., "Default Address Selection for Internet
            Protocol version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 3484,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC3484, February 2003,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3484>.
 [RFC5214]  Templin, F., Gleeson, T., and D. Thaler, "Intra-Site
            Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)", RFC 5214,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC5214, March 2008,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5214>.
 [RFC6052]  Bao, C., Huitema, C., Bagnulo, M., Boucadair, M., and X.
            Li, "IPv6 Addressing of IPv4/IPv6 Translators", RFC 6052,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC6052, October 2010,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6052>.
 [RFC6265]  Barth, A., "HTTP State Management Mechanism", RFC 6265,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC6265, April 2011,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6265>.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 16] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

 [RFC6973]  Cooper, A., Tschofenig, H., Aboba, B., Peterson, J.,
            Morris, J., Hansen, M., and R. Smith, "Privacy
            Considerations for Internet Protocols", RFC 6973,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC6973, July 2013,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6973>.
 [RFC7421]  Carpenter, B., Ed., Chown, T., Gont, F., Jiang, S.,
            Petrescu, A., and A. Yourtchenko, "Analysis of the 64-bit
            Boundary in IPv6 Addressing", RFC 7421,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC7421, January 2015,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7421>.
 [RFC7596]  Cui, Y., Sun, Q., Boucadair, M., Tsou, T., Lee, Y., and I.
            Farrer, "Lightweight 4over6: An Extension to the Dual-
            Stack Lite Architecture", RFC 7596, DOI 10.17487/RFC7596,
            July 2015, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7596>.
 [RFC7597]  Troan, O., Ed., Dec, W., Li, X., Bao, C., Matsushima, S.,
            Murakami, T., and T. Taylor, Ed., "Mapping of Address and
            Port with Encapsulation (MAP-E)", RFC 7597,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC7597, July 2015,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7597>.
 [RFC7599]  Li, X., Bao, C., Dec, W., Ed., Troan, O., Matsushima, S.,
            and T. Murakami, "Mapping of Address and Port using
            Translation (MAP-T)", RFC 7599, DOI 10.17487/RFC7599, July
            2015, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7599>.
 [RFC7707]  Gont, F. and T. Chown, "Network Reconnaissance in IPv6
            Networks", RFC 7707, DOI 10.17487/RFC7707, March 2016,
            <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7707>.

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 17] RFC 7721 IPv6 Address Generation Privacy March 2016

Acknowledgements

 The authors would like to thank Bernard Aboba, Brian Carpenter, Tim
 Chown, Lorenzo Colitti, Rich Draves, Robert Hinden, Robert Moskowitz,
 Erik Nordmark, Mark Smith, Ole Troan, and James Woodyatt for
 providing valuable comments on earlier draft versions of this
 document.

Authors' Addresses

 Alissa Cooper
 Cisco
 707 Tasman Drive
 Milpitas, CA  95035
 United States
 Phone: +1-408-902-3950
 Email: alcoop@cisco.com
 URI:   https://www.cisco.com/
 Fernando Gont
 Huawei Technologies
 Evaristo Carriego 2644
 Haedo, Provincia de Buenos Aires  1706
 Argentina
 Phone: +54 11 4650 8472
 Email: fgont@si6networks.com
 URI:   http://www.si6networks.com
 Dave Thaler
 Microsoft
 One Microsoft Way
 Redmond, WA  98052
 United States
 Phone: +1 425 703 8835
 Email: dthaler@microsoft.com

Cooper, et al. Informational [Page 18]

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