Re: scope of derive

Dean Willis <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.ietf.sip
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Dec 8, 2008, at 2:39 PM, Jiri Kuthan wrote:

> Hadriel Kaplan wrote:
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf  
>>> Of Dean
>>> Willis
>>> Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 12:22 PM
>>>
>>> Question 1: Usefulness of indirect request return-routability checks
>>> in SIP
>>>
>>> Many attacks seen in the Internet rely on forged transmission
>>> identifiers. For example, consider the once wildly popular Smurf  
>>> attack:
>>> The Smurf attack uses a ICMP echo request with a forged IPsource
>>> address, where the victim's address is used as its source address
>>> (i.e, it's "From:"). This initial request is addressed to the
>>> broadcast address of a remote subnet. If the attack succeeds, each
>>> host on the remote subnet replies, thereby flooding the victim with
>>> unexpected ICMP echo request responses.
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> DERIVE clearly reduces the opportunity to use a forged From: to  
>>> bypass
>>> controls on the victim's phone. Not perfect, but it passes the  
>>> script-
>>> kiddie test.
>> Ummmm... no it doesn't.  It stops me from attacking the intended  
>> target's phone *directly*, but not as a smurf-style attack.  I  
>> simply set my From: to the *target's* URI, then send that INVITE to  
>> every number I can.  Thus I get other devices to flood the target  
>> with SUBSCRIBEs.  It's not as annoying as ringing the target's  
>> phone, for sure, but it's still an attack.  And unlike SMURF or  
>> hammer attack, it only requires me to know the target's AoR, not  
>> its IP or MAC.  And unlike a direct INVITE attack, I don't even  
>> need authorization or a path to reach the intended target; I only  
>> need to be able to reach a lot of Derive-capable UA's and hope some  
>> of them can reach the intended target.
>
> This is a question IMO: what does the attacker gain here? IMO a free  
> topology hiding feature,
> he is not getting an amplification. Couldn't we lower the concerns  
> by fingerpointing at the
> attacker in the DERIVE tests?
>

Actually, for each INVITE, the attacker is potentially getting  
amplification in that SUBSCRIBE will be retransmitted until timeout or  
a response. So if the From: field isn't even pointed at SIP UA, one  
can get some level of amplification in just doing a DOS-flood on it.  
Say, 7 or 8 to 1. Also, since the INVITE can be very small, we might  
be looking at a 20 to 1 amplifier in terms of total data volume.  
Pointing that at a mobile device could be very annoying.


--
dean
_______________________________________________
Sip mailing list  https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/sip
This list is for NEW development of the core SIP Protocol
Use [email protected] for questions on current sip
Use [email protected] for new developments on the application of sip
lmpx.com only provides a reader for public news (NNTP) servers. It is not affiliated with the servers or forums shown here and is not responsible for the content of articles, which is written by their respective authors.