Re: [6tisch] Warren Kumari's Discuss on draft-ietf-6tisch-enrollment-enhanced-beacon-13: (with DISCUSS and COMMENT)

[Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>]

Warren Kumari via Datatracker <[e-mail]> wrote:
    > [ Be ye not afraid - this should be easy to answer / address ] The
    > Privacy Considerations says: "The use of a network ID may reveal
    > information about the network."  Good point - but it also goes on to
    > say: "The use of a SHA256 hash of the DODAGID, rather than using the
    > DODAGID (which is usually derived from the LLN prefix) directly
    > provides some privacy for the the addresses used within the network, as
    > the DODAGID is usually the IPv6 address of the root of the RPL mesh."

    > I don't know if this is an issue, but how much entropy is in a DODAGID?
    > From what I could find, the DODAGID is often just an IP address - and
    > subnets are not randomly distributed, nor are L2 addresses (inputs to
    > address generation) - if I know that many of the nodes come from
    > vendor_A, and I know their L2 / MAC range, can I enumerate this, and by
    > extension the DODAGID, and so the hash?

The point of a good hash is to spread whatever entropy there is in the input
all over the output.   If there are a very few number of inputs, then akin to
the /etc/passwd dictionary attacks, an attacker can just pre-calculate a
bunch of things.

So, can you enumerate the DODAGIDs?  Maybe.

The 6LBR address which is usually used as the DODAGID is an IPv6 address.
So there is some ~32-bits of space assuming that the RIR assigned prefix
(e.g. 2001:db8::/32) is discoverable by looking up www.example.com
This assumes that you know who you are trying learn about.
The next 32-bits will be operator or DHCPv6-PD assigned, and maybe not guess
that part.  And then the IID could be assigned via any number of our RFC8064,
or might be ::1.

So if you know what network you are looking for, you can probably find it.
The operator is allowed to generate the NetworkID with a random number
generator, btw.

But, if you observe ten LLNs the hash makes it hard to trivially map them
back to a specific operator.

Do you feel that I need to add this to the document?
I feel that it distracts: SHA256 is just a suggestion.

    > I will happily admit that I haven't fully researched this / thought it
    > through, so "Nah, won't work" or "Yes, will work, but we did say
    > 'provides some privacy', not 'absolute privacy'" or all acceptable
    > answers :-)

Some privacy.

    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    > COMMENT:
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    > I found this document to be well written, and helpfully explained the
    > background, issue, etc. Thank you!

    > Question: "Pledges which have not yet enrolled are unable to
    > authenticate the beacons, and will be forced to temporarily take the
    > contents on faith. After enrollment, a newly enrolled node will be able
    > to return to the beacon and validate it."  Yes, this is true - a newly
    > enrolled node will be able to do this -- but I don't see a suggestion /
    > requirement that they actually *do* so. I'm perfectly capable of
    > picking up my socks, but.... :-)

You want to read draft-ietf-6tisch-minimal-security section 5 and section 9,
last paragraph.
Doing so is somewhat optional: if the pledge doesn't verify the beacon it saw
then it will verify the next beacon.
If the beacon was bogus, then the 6tisch-CoJP likely also failed, or the
pledge won't get to the Join Proxy at all, since it will not have a workable
TSCH schedule.

    > Nit: "Although However, even in this case, a" - typo / redundancy.

    > Please also see Qin Wu's Opsdir review
    > (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/review-ietf-6tisch-enrollment-enhanced-beacon-08-opsdir-lc-wu-2020-01-21/),
    > which has some useful questions / nits.

I thought I had, but I don't have anything in my outbox, so I'll grab it when
I land.

--
Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>, Sandelman Software Works
 -= IPv6 IoT consulting =-