[Unwanted-trackers] Proposal for addition of a new threat - Swarm Attack. (GitHub issue #167)

["Srivatsa Srinivasa (Nokia)" <[e-mail]>]

Hi All,

I have been reviewing the draft (draft-ietf-dult-threat-model-03) and I'd like to suggest a short addition to the threat model to cover Swarm Tracking, a scenario where multiple Accessories are used to track a person without any single device being active long enough to trigger alerts.

In this attack, an adversary places several Accessories near a Target. Each Accessory broadcasts for only brief windows, repeated over time. This prevents any one device from appearing persistent enough to be flagged as unwanted tracking. Even if one Accessory is found and removed, the others continue the tracking.
While each device provides only small pieces of information, together they allow the adversary to infer the Target's location over time. Because the Accessories are rarely visible at the same time, scanning for multiple Tags (3.4.3) is less effective, and network-level correlation may not link the findings together.

  *   Impact: High- enables long-term tracking while avoiding alerts.
  *   Likelihood: Medium - can be done with low-cost devices and simple configuration changes.
  *   Overall Risk: Medium - Influenced by likelihood.
Possible mitigations include identifying repeated short observations near the same user over time, while still protecting user privacy.

I have detailed these points and the complete section on the proposed threat in a github issue #162<https://github.com/ietf-wg-dult/threat-model/issues/162>. Looking forward to hearing your comments.

Thanks,
Srivatsa