Internet-Draft | DOTS Multihoming | February 2022 |
Boucadair, et al. | Expires 14 August 2022 | [Page] |
This document discusses multi-homing considerations for Distributed-Denial-of-Service Open Threat Signaling (DOTS). The goal is to provide some guidance for DOTS clients and client-domain DOTS gateways when multihomed.¶
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In many deployments, it may not be possible for a network to determine the cause of a distributed Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack [RFC4732]. Rather, the network may just realize that some resources appear to be under attack. To help with such situations, the IETF has specified the DDoS Open Threat Signaling (DOTS) architecture [RFC8811], where a DOTS client can inform an upstream DOTS server that its network is under a potential attack and that appropriate mitigation actions are required. The DOTS protocols can be used to coordinate real-time mitigation efforts which can evolve as the attacks mutate, thereby reducing the impact of an attack and leading to more efficient responsive actions. [RFC8903] identifies a set of scenarios for DOTS; most of these scenarios involve a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE).¶
The high-level base DOTS architecture is illustrated in Figure 1 ([RFC8811]):¶
+-----------+ +-------------+ | Mitigator | ~~~~~~~~~~ | DOTS Server | +-----------+ +-------------+ | | | +---------------+ +-------------+ | Attack Target | ~~~~~~ | DOTS Client | +---------------+ +-------------+
[RFC8811] specifies that the DOTS client may be provided with a list of DOTS servers; each of these servers is associated with one or more IP addresses. These addresses may or may not be of the same address family. The DOTS client establishes one or more DOTS sessions by connecting to the provided DOTS server(s) addresses (e.g., by using [RFC8973]).¶
DOTS may be deployed within networks that are connected to one single upstream provider. DOTS can also be enabled within networks that are multi-homed. The reader may refer to [RFC3582] for an overview of multi-homing goals and motivations. This document discusses DOTS multi-homing considerations. Specifically, the document aims to:¶
Complete the base DOTS architecture with multi-homing specifics. Those specifics need to be taken into account because:¶
Provide guidelines and recommendations for placing DOTS requests in multi-homed networks, e.g.,:¶
This document adopts the following methodology:¶
Augment the description with multi-homing technicalities, e.g.,¶
Multi-homed DOTS agents are assumed to make use of the protocols defined in [RFC9132] and [RFC8783]. This document does not require any specific extension to the base DOTS protocols for deploying DOTS in a multi-homed context.¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119][RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
This document makes use of the terms defined in [RFC8811] and [RFC4116]. In particular:¶
IP indifferently refers to IPv4 or IPv6.¶
This section describes some multi-homing scenarios that are relevant to DOTS. In the following subsections, only the connections of border routers are shown; internal network topologies are not elaborated.¶
A multihomed network may enable DOTS for all or a subset of its upstream interconnection links. In such a case, DOTS servers can be explicitly configured or dynamically discovered by a DOTS client using means such as those discussed in [RFC8973]. These DOTS servers can be owned by the upstream provider, managed by a third-party (e.g., mitigation service provider), or a combination thereof.¶
If a DOTS server is explicitly configured, it is assumed that an interface is also provided to bind the DOTS service to an interconnection link. If no interface is provided, this means that the DOTS server can be reached via any active interface.¶
This section distinguishes between residential CPEs vs. enterprise CPEs because PI addresses may be used for enterprises while this is not the current practice for residential CPEs.¶
In the following subsections, all or a subset of interconnection links are associated with DOTS servers.¶
The scenario shown in Figure 2 is characterized as follows:¶
The CPE is connected to multiple provisioning domains (i.e., both fixed and mobile networks). Provisioning domain (PvD) is explained in [RFC7556].¶
In a typical deployment scenario, these provisioning domains are owned by the same provider (see Section 1 of [RFC8803]). Such a deployment is meant to seamlessly use both fixed and cellular networks for bonding, faster hand-overs, or better resiliency purposes.¶
+-------+ +-------+ |Fixed | |Mobile | |Network| |Network| +---+---+ +---+---+ | | Service Providers ............|....................|....................... +---------++---------+ Home Network || +--++-+ | CPE | +-----+ ... (Internal Network)
The scenario shown in Figure 3 is characterized as follows:¶
Unlike the previous scenario, two sub-cases can be considered for an enterprise network with regards to assigned addresses:¶
+------+ +------+ | ISP1 | | ISP2 | +---+--+ +--+---+ | | Service Providers ............|....................|....................... +---------++---------+ Enterprise Network || +--++-+ | CPE | +-----+ ... (Internal Network)
This scenario is similar to the one described in Section 4.2; the main difference is that dedicated routers (rtr1 and rtr2) are used to connect to each provisioning domain.¶
+------+ +------+ | ISP1 | | ISP2 | +---+--+ +--+---+ | | Service Providers ......................|..........|....................... | | Enterprise Network +---+--+ +--+---+ | rtr1 | | rtr2 | +------+ +------+ ... (Internal Network)
This scenario is a variant of Section 4.2 and Section 4.3 in which multi-homing is supported by the same ISP (i.e., same provisioning domain).¶
Table 1 provides some sample, non-exhaustive, deployment schemes to illustrate how DOTS agents may be deployed for each of the scenarios introduced in Section 4.¶
Scenario | DOTS client | Client-domain DOTS gateway |
---|---|---|
Residential CPE | CPE | N/A |
Single CPE, Multiple provisioning domains | Internal hosts or CPE | CPE |
Multiple CPEs, Multiple provisioning domains | Internal hosts or all CPEs (rtr1 and rtr2) | CPEs (rtr1 and rtr2) |
Multi-homed enterprise, Single provisioning domain | Internal hosts or all CPEs (rtr1 and rtr2) | CPEs (rtr1 and rtr2) |
These deployment schemes are further discussed in the following subsections.¶
Figure 5 depicts DOTS sessions that need to be established between a DOTS client (C) and two DOTS servers (S1, S2) within the context of the scenario described in Section 4.1. As listed in Table 1, the DOTS client is hosted by the residential CPE.¶
The DOTS client MUST resolve the DOTS server's name provided by each provisioning domain using either the DNS servers learned from the respective provisioning domain or from the DNS servers associated with the interface(s) for which a DOTS server was explicitly configured (Section 4). IPv6-capable DOTS clients MUST use the source address selection algorithm defined in [RFC6724] to select the candidate source addresses to contact each of these DOTS servers. DOTS sessions MUST be established and MUST be maintained with each of the DOTS servers because the mitigation scope of each of these servers is restricted. The DOTS client SHOULD use the certificate provided by a provisioning domain to authenticate itself to the DOTS server(s) provided by the same provisioning domain. How such a certificate is provided to the DOTS client is out of the scope of this document.¶
When conveying a mitigation request to protect the attack target(s), the DOTS client MUST select an available DOTS server whose network has assigned the IP prefixes from which target prefixes/addresses are derived. This implies that if no appropriate DOTS server is found, the DOTS client MUST NOT send the mitigation request to any other available DOTS server.¶
For example, a mitigation request to protect target resources bound to a PA IP address/prefix cannot be satisfied by a provisioning domain other than the one that owns those addresses/prefixes. Consequently, if a CPE detects a DDoS attack that spreads over all its network attachments, it MUST contact all DOTS servers for mitigation purposes.¶
The DOTS client MUST be able to associate a DOTS server with each provisioning domain it serves. For example, if the DOTS client is provisioned with S1 using DHCP when attaching to a first network and with S2 using Protocol Configuration Option (PCO) [TS.24008] when attaching to a second network, the DOTS client must record the interface from which a DOTS server was provisioned. DOTS signaling session to a given DOTS server must be established using the interface from which the DOTS server was provisioned. If a DOTS server is explicitly configured, DOTS signaling with that server must be established via the interfaces that are indicated in the explicit configuration or via any active interface if no interface is configured.¶
+--+ ----------|S1| / +--+ / DOTS Server Domain #1 / +---+/ | C | +---+\ CPE \ \ \ +--+ ----------|S2| +--+ DOTS Server Domain #2
Figure 6 illustrates the DOTS sessions that can be established with a client-domain DOTS gateway (hosted within the CPE as per Table 1), which is enabled within the context of the scenario described in Section 4.2. This deployment is characterized as follows:¶
+--+ ----------|S1| +---+ / +--+ | C1|----+ / DOTS Server Domain #1 +---+ | / | / +---+ +-+-+/ | C3|------| G | +---+ +-+-+\ CPE \ +---+ | \ | C2|----+ \ +---+ \ +--+ ----------|S2| +--+ DOTS Server Domain #2
When PA addresses/prefixes are in use, the same considerations discussed in Section 5.1 need to be followed by the client-domain DOTS gateway to contact its DOTS server(s). The client-domain DOTS gateways can be reachable from DOTS clients by using an unicast address or an anycast address (Section 3.2.4 of [RFC8811]).¶
Nevertheless, when PI addresses/prefixes are assigned and absent any policy, the client-domain DOTS gateway MUST send mitigation requests to all its DOTS servers. Otherwise, the attack traffic may still be delivered via the ISP which hasn't received the mitigation request.¶
An alternate deployment model is depicted in Figure 7. This deployment assumes that:¶
.......... . +--+ . +--------|C1|--------+ | . +--+ . | | . . | +--+ . +--+ . +--+ |S2|------|C3|------|S1| +--+ . +--+ . +--+ | . . | | . +--+ . | +--------|C2|--------+ . +--+ . .......... DOTS Client Domain
If PI addresses/prefixes are in use, the DOTS client MUST send a mitigation request to all the DOTS servers. The use of anycast addresses to reach these DOTS servers is NOT RECOMMENDED. If a well-known anycast address is used to reach multiple DOTS servers, the CPE may not be able to select the appropriate provisioning domain to which the mitigation request should be forwarded. As a consequence, the request may not be forwarded to the appropriate DOTS server.¶
If PA addresses/prefixes are used, the same considerations discussed in Section 5.1 need to be followed by the DOTS clients. Because DOTS clients are not embedded in the CPE and multiple addresses/prefixes may not be assigned to the DOTS client (typically in an IPv4 context), some issues may arise in how to steer traffic towards the appropriate DOTS server by using the appropriate source IP address. These complications discussed in [RFC4116] are not specific to DOTS.¶
Another deployment approach is to enable many DOTS clients; each of them is responsible for handling communications with a specific DOTS server (see Figure 8).¶
.......... . +--+ . +--------|C1| . | . +--+ . +--+ . +--+ . +--+ |S2| . |C2|------|S1| +--+ . +--+ . +--+ .......... DOTS Client Domain
For both deployments depicted in Figures 7 and 8, each DOTS client SHOULD be provided with policies (e.g., a prefix filter that will be against DDoS detection alarms) that will trigger DOTS communications with the DOTS servers. Such policies will help the DOTS client to select the appropriate destination DOTS server. The CPE MUST select the appropriate source IP address when forwarding DOTS messages received from an internal DOTS client.¶
The deployments depicted in Figures 7 and 8 also apply to the scenario described in Section 4.3. One specific problem for this scenario is to select the appropriate exit router when contacting a given DOTS server.¶
An alternative deployment scheme is shown in Figure 9:¶
+---+ +------------| C1|----+ | +---+ | | | +--+ +-+-+ +---+ +-+-+ +--+ |S2|------|G2 |------| C3|------|G1 |------|S1| +--+ +-+-+ +---+ +-+-+ +--+ rtr2 rtr1 | +---+ | +------------| C2|----+ +---+
When PI addresses/prefixes are used, DOTS clients MUST contact all the client-domain DOTS gateways to send a DOTS message. Client-domain DOTS gateways will then relay the request to the DOTS servers as a function of local policy. Note that anycast addresses cannot be used to establish DOTS sessions between DOTS clients and client-domain DOTS gateways because only one DOTS gateway will receive the mitigation request.¶
When PA addresses/prefixes are used, but no filter rules are provided to DOTS clients, the latter MUST contact all client-domain DOTS gateways simultaneously to send a DOTS message. Upon receipt of a request by a client-domain DOTS gateway, it MUST check whether the request is to be forwarded upstream (if the target IP prefix is managed by the upstream server) or rejected.¶
When PA addresses/prefixes are used, but specific filter rules are provided to DOTS clients using some means that are out of scope of this document, the clients MUST select the appropriate client-domain DOTS gateway to reach. The use of anycast addresses is NOT RECOMMENDED to reach client-domain DOTS gateways.¶
The key difference of the scenario described in Section 4.4 compared to the other scenarios is that multi-homing is provided by the same ISP. Concretely, that ISP can decide to provision the enterprise network with:¶
In both cases, DOTS agents enabled within the enterprise network MAY decide to select one or all network attachments to send DOTS mitigation requests.¶
DOTS-related security considerations are discussed in Section 4 of [RFC8811].¶
DOTS clients should control the information that they share with peer DOTS servers. In particular, if a DOTS client maintains DOTS sessions with specific DOTS servers per interconnection link, the DOTS client SHOULD NOT leak information specific to a given link to DOTS servers on different interconnection links that are not authorized to mitigate attacks for that given link. Whether this constraint is relaxed is deployment-specific and must be subject to explicit consent from the DOTS client domain administrator. How to seek for such consent is implementation- and deployment-specific.¶
This document does not require any action from IANA.¶
Thanks to Roland Dobbins, Nik Teague, Jon Shallow, Dan Wing, and Christian Jacquenet for sharing their comments on the mailing list.¶
Thanks to Kirill Kasavchenko for the comments.¶
Thanks to Kathleen Moriarty for the secdir review and Joel Jaeggli for the opsdir review.¶
Many thanks to Roman Danyliw for the careful AD review.¶