Re: [icnrg] [EXT] Question on the NIST NDN forwarder

[Junxiao Shi <[e-mail]>]

Hi Dave

> I assume the L2 (or whatever tunneling protocol used) is cryptographically
> protected or of course all hell can break loose by believing crafted
> hop-by-hop PIT tokens.
>
No, L2 is not cryptographically protected.
NDN-DPDK runs over native Ethernet and only supports point-to-point
connections. Each connection is a direct attach cable or a pair of fiber.
If someone runs NDN-DPDK using a tunneling protocol, it's their
responsibility to setup site-to-site VPN with encryption.

NDN-DPDK has protection against "outdated" PIT tokens.
First, PIT entry index portion of the PIT token is not a memory address,
but a 48-bit index number assigned by the PIT-CS Composite Table (PCCT).
PCCT maintains in a hash table of token to entry mappings. If the upstream
sends back a packet with an old PIT token (i.e. PIT entry removed), chances
are, the PIT token would not be found in the hash table.
Second, even if a PIT entry is found by the PIT token, the forwarder MUST
still verify that the Data satisfies the Interest, through name comparison.
The forwarder cannot blindly trust the PIT token without verifying the name.

PIT token cannot solve all cache poisoning problems, but the hazard is no
worse than doing name lookups everywhere.

Yours, Junxiao