Re: [v6ops] [ipv6-wg] Extension Headers / Impact on Security Devices

Brian Haberman <brian@innovationslab.net> Wed, 17 June 2015 18:22 UTC

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Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 14:22:33 -0400
From: Brian Haberman <brian@innovationslab.net>
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Subject: Re: [v6ops] [ipv6-wg] Extension Headers / Impact on Security Devices
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Enno,

On 6/17/15 2:04 PM, Enno Rey wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 01:48:15PM -0400, Brian Haberman wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> Let's put it slightly different: the intrusion detector is
>>> supposed to detect/block certain application layer attacks. Which
>>> it does as long as those come in/pass by without extension
>> 
>> If the device is trying to inspect application-layer data, it might
>> as well act like the destination and re-assemble the fragments.
>> Yes, this is costly processing, but it mitigates this bypass
>> mechanism.
> 
> in theory yes. Given the majority of end host operating systems
> happily wait up to 60 seconds for "that last [potentially 42th]

Yes, that is a common maximum wait time, but I doubt that it is common.
 Unfortunately, I don't see any peer-reviewed literature right off that
talks about the average wait time to perform fragment re-assembly.

> fragment" of a single datagram coming in, this is probably not an
> option for all those types of security controls (intrusion detectors,
> First Hop Security mechanisms, Infrastructure ACLs) expected to work
> mostly in wire speed. It is hence not an option for a number of
> networks using such techniques which is why they usually drop all
> extension headers except for AH, ESP and (in a few cases) FH. Doing
> so is a reasonable decision from their side and will not exactly
> encourage widespread development of new services using extension
> headers. Which then raises the question: what's the benefit of this
> thing called extension headers which do not provide much use today
> and might - given there's a growing number of networks acting as
> described - not provide much use tomorrow? This thing then seems to
> add an undesirable layer of complexity.

Hmm... The old NFR platform, which I think got purchased by Checkpoint,
performed fragmentation re-assembly prior to doing its analysis.  So, at
least some products close that hole.

Regards,
Brian