Re: [MMUSIC] AD evaluation: draft-ietf-mmusic-latching-04

[Alissa Cooper <[e-mail]>]

On 4/3/14 10:39 AM, "Dan Wing" <[e-mail]> wrote:

>
>On Apr 3, 2014, at 10:28 AM, Alissa Cooper <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Dan,
>> 
>> On 4/1/14 11:42 AM, "Dan Wing" <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>> 
>>>>> The draft suggests use of SRTP for authenticating media which does
>>>>> resolve the security issues (from a privacy/confidentiality
>>>>> perspective).
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I was more concerned with the DoS aspect.

In response to Emil's note above about the SRTP text resolving the
security issues "from a privacy/confidentiality perspective," all I was
saying was that my initial question was prompted not because I was
concerned about a breach of confidentiality, but about the ability to
perform a DoS attack even when SRTP is in use. I think the text in Section
5 that describes this is ok though.

>>> 
>>> The DoS aspect of authenticating incoming SRTP packets to the SBC?
>> 
>> The DoS aspect that is described in the paragraph Emil quoted below.
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> That's part of section 5:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Naturally, SRTP [RFC3711] would help mitigate such threats and should
>>>>> be used independently of HNT.  For example, in cases where end-to-end
>>>>> encryption is used it would still be possible for an attacker to
>>>>> hijack a session despite the use of SRTP and perform a denial of
>>>>> service attack.  However, media integrity would not be compromised.
>>>>> 
>
>Sorry, I read it again and I'm still not clear on the concern.  Could you
>restate or rephrase.
>
>
>> 
>>>> I think something like the following might capture the
>>>> situation better:
>>>> 
>>>> OLD:
>>>> Due to the security issues presented in Section 5, the latching
>>>> mechanism
>>>> is considered inappropriate for general use on the Internet unless all
>>>> security considerations are taken into account and solved.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> NEW:
>>>> Due to the security issues presented in Section 5, the latching
>>>> mechanism
>>>> is considered inappropriate for general use on the Internet, and in
>>>> controlled environments unless all security considerations are taken
>>>> into
>>>> account and solved.
>>> 
>>> "General use on the Internet" and "in controlled environments" are 100%
>>> of all networks, so perhaps simplifying to:
>>> 
>>> NEW:
>>> Due to the security issues presented in Section 5, the latching
>>> mechanism
>>> is considered appropriate only when all security considerations are
>>> taken into
>>> account and solved.
>> 
>> I think the text in the -04 is preferable to this, as it is more
>>specific.
>> 
>> I would be interested in others' thoughts on the text I proposed above.
>
>Could we at least eliminate the double negatives ("inappropriate ...
>unless")?

In principle, yes, but it seems much easier to enumerate the situations
where it's inappropriate than where it's appropriate -- I'm finding it
difficult to think of better phrasing.

Alissa

>
>-d
>
>
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Alissa
>> 
>> 
>