Clear draft-ietf-vrrp-unified-spec 6
Stephen Nadas <[email protected]> Fri, 2 Oct 2009 17:53:30 -0400
| Newsgroups | gmane.ietf.vrrp |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <450AE4BEC513614F96969DDA34F3593497639DC0@EUSAACMS0701.eamcs.ericsson.se> |
Hi Pasi,
With respect to your 1st part of discuss (2nd part still in process):
The security considerations text basically says security doesn't have
to be considered here because an attacker can cause havoc with ARP
anyway. I don't think this is fully accurate description. Many
networks with untrusted hosts use switch security features that
prevent hosts from bringing down the network with spoofed ARP packets
(somewhat similar to what SAVI WG is working on). While compromising
one of the switches or routers would still cause damage, compromised
or malicious ordinary hosts (attached to switch ports where these
features are enabled) can't do that much.
The other reason for removing cryptographic authentication of VRRP
messages is said to be misconfigured secrets (which obviously does
cause problems -- but on the other hand, this situation should be
detected very quickly). If it's indeed the case that cryptographic
per-message authentication isn't a good solution to securing VRRP, at
the very least the document should discuss other possible mechanisms.
Perhaps e.g. filtering mechanisms in switches, configured on per-port
basis, could provide some protection? Or could this somehow leverage
the existing mechanisms for ARP?
Does the below text capture your concerns? If not could you please suggest changes that would?
VRRP for IPvX does not currently include any type of
authentication. Earlier versions of the VRRP (for IPv4)
specification included several types of authentication ranging
from none to strong. Operational experience and further
analysis determined that these did not provide sufficient
security to overcome the vulnerability of misconfigured secrets
causing multiple masters to be elected. Due to the nature of
the VRRP protocol, even if VRRP messages are cryptographically
protected, it does not prevent hostile nodes from behaving as
if they are a VRRP master, creating multiple masters.
Authentication of VRRP messages could have prevented a hostile
node from causing all properly functioning routers from going
into backup state. However, having multiple masters can cause
as much disruption as no routers, which authentication cannot
prevent. Also, even if a hostile nodes could not disrupt VRRP,
it can disrupt ARP and create the same effect as having all
routers go into backup.
Some L2 switches provide the capability to filter out, e.g., ARP
and/or ND messages from end hosts on a switch port basis. This
mechanism could also filter VRRP messages from switch ports
associated with end hosts and can be considered for deployments
with untrusted hosts.
Thanks,
Steve
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