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Additional security section on fragmentation reassembly attacks #444
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Additional security section on fragmentation reassembly attacks
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Update draft-ietf-quic-transport.md
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Removing trailing spaces on some of changed lines
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Simplifying the text, per Martin's review
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Simplifying the mitigation text
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And fixing a typo.
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STREAM frames.
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Can lead
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MAY -> could
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@@ -2699,32 +2699,40 @@ packets with ACK frames. | |
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## Stream fragmentation and reassembly attacks | ||
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An adversarial client may attempt to exhaust server memory resource by performing | ||
An adversarial client may attempt to | ||
exhaust server memory resource by performing | ||
a stream fragmentation and reassembly attack, similar to the UDP/ICMP | ||
"Teardrop" fragmentation attacks. The adversarial client would open a stream, | ||
There was a problem hiding this comment. Choose a reason for hiding this commentThe reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more. citation? There was a problem hiding this comment. Choose a reason for hiding this commentThe reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more. Just dropping the name quoting. Could not find a good Teardrop reference. |
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and send some STREAM DATA packets containing fragments of the stream content. | ||
The goal of the attack is to induce the receiving implementation to commit | ||
memory buffers while waiting that the stream data can be reassembled. | ||
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For example, a client | ||
might send some octets at the beginning of a stream and some octets much further | ||
might send some octets at the beginning of a | ||
stream and some octets much further | ||
away in the stream. A vulnerable server, on receiving the stream data fragments, | ||
might allocate memory covering the whole space from beginning to end. The client | ||
would then repeat the process on a large number of streams and a large number | ||
of connections, inducing the server to commit a large amout of memory. | ||
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This attack can be mitigated by not committing memory for stream data reassembly, | ||
This attack can be mitigated by not | ||
committing memory for stream data reassembly, | ||
and simply keeping the STREAM DATA frames until enough fragments have been | ||
received and the data can be delivered to the application in proper sequence. | ||
However, this is not a complete mitigation. The adversarial client could still send | ||
a large number of STREAM DATA packets separated by holes, forcing the server | ||
However, this is not a complete mitigation. | ||
The adversarial client could still send | ||
a large number of STREAM DATA packets separated by holes, | ||
forcing the server | ||
to commit memory for a large number of data segments. | ||
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A possible mitigation is for servers to keep a count of the number of | ||
"reassembly holes" in data streams received from the client. In normal operation, | ||
these holes are caused by transmission errors and are promptly filled by the | ||
"reassembly holes" in data streams received from the client. | ||
In normal operation, | ||
these holes are caused by transmission errors and | ||
are promptly filled by the | ||
recovery processes. An abnormal number of holes is caused by either a | ||
very large rate of transmission errors, or by adversarial client behavior. In both | ||
very large rate of transmission errors, or by | ||
adversarial client behavior. In both | ||
cases, it is reasonable for the server to close the connection. | ||
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# IANA Considerations | ||
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Title Case