| Internet-Draft | CoAP Attacks | February 2022 |
| Preuß Mattsson, et al. | Expires 5 August 2022 | [Page] |
Being able to securely read information from sensors, to securely control actuators, and to not enable distributed denial-of-service attacks are essential in a world of connected and networking things interacting with the physical world. This document summarizes a number of known attacks on CoAP and show that just using CoAP with a security protocol like DTLS, TLS, or OSCORE is not enough for secure operation. The document also summarizes different denial-of-service attacks using CoAP. The goal with this document is motivating generic and protocol-specific recommendations on the usage of CoAP. Several of the discussed attacks can be mitigated with the solutions in draft-ietf-core-echo-request-tag.¶
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RFC EDITOR: PLEASE REMOVE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH The source for this draft is maintained in GitHub. Issues and pull requests can be submitted at https://github.com/EricssonResearch/coap-actuators¶
Being able to securely read information from sensors and to securely control actuators are essential in a world of connected and networking things interacting with the physical world. One protocol used to interact with sensors and actuators is the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) [RFC7252]. Any Internet-of-Things (IoT) deployment valuing security and privacy would use a security protocol such as DTLS [I-D.ietf-tls-dtls13], TLS [RFC8446], or OSCORE [RFC8613] to protect CoAP, where the choice of security protocol depends on the transport protocol and the presence of intermediaries. The use of CoAP over UDP and DTLS is specified in [RFC7252] and the use of CoAP over TCP and TLS is specified in [RFC8323]. OSCORE protects CoAP end-to-end with the use of COSE [RFC8152] and the CoAP Object-Security option [RFC8613], and can therefore be used over any transport.¶
The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) [RFC7252] was designed with the assumption that security could be provided on a separate layer, in particular by using DTLS [RFC6347]. The four properties traditionally provided by security protocols are:¶
In this document we show that protecting CoAP with a security protocol on another layer is not nearly enough to securely control actuators (and in many cases sensors) and that secure operation often demands far more than the four properties traditionally provided by security protocols. We describe several serious attacks any on-path attacker (i.e., not only "trusted intermediaries") can do and discusses tougher requirements and mechanisms to mitigate the attacks. In general, secure operation of actuators also requires the three properties:¶
"Data-to-data binding" is e.g., binding of responses to a request or binding of data fragments to each other. "Data-to-space binding" is the binding of data to an absolute or relative point in space (i.e., a location) and may in the relative case be referred to as proximity. "Data-to-time binding" is the binding of data to an absolute or relative point in time and may in the relative case be referred to as freshness. The two last properties may be bundled together as "Data-to-spacetime binding".¶
Freshness is a measure of when a message was sent on a timescale of the recipient. A client or server that receives a message can either verify that the message is fresh or determine that it cannot be verified that the message is fresh. What is considered fresh is application dependent. Freshness is completely different from replay protection, but most replay protection mechanism use a sequence number. Assuming the client is well-behaving, such a sequence number that can be used by the server as a relative measure of when a message was sent on a timescale of the sender. Replay protection is mandatory in TLS and OSCORE and optional in DTLS. DTLS and TLS use sequence numbers for both requests and responses. In TLS the sequence numbers are implicit and not sent in the record. OSCORE use sequence numbers for requests and some responses. Most OSCORE responses are bound to the request and therefore, enable the client to determine if the response is fresh or not.¶
The request delay attack (valid for DTLS, TLS, and OSCORE and described in Section 2.2) lets an attacker control an actuator at a much later time than the client anticipated. The response delay and mismatch attack (valid for DTLS and TLS and described in Section 2.3) lets an attacker respond to a client with a response meant for an older request. The request fragment rearrangement attack (valid for DTLS, TLS, and OSCORE and described in Section 2.4) lets an attacker cause unauthorized operations to be performed on the server, and responses to unauthorized operations to be mistaken for responses to authorized operations.¶
Protecting CoAP against attacks is not enough. CoAP deployments need to make sure that they are not used for distributed denial-of-service attacks. Section 3.1 summarizes different denial-of-service attacks using CoAP. When transported over UDP, the CoAP NoSec mode is susceptible to source IP address spoofing and as a single request can result in multiple responses from multiple servers, CoAP can have very large amplification factors.¶
The goal with this document is motivating generic and protocol-specific recommendations on the usage of CoAP. Mechanisms mitigating some of the attacks discussed in this document can be found in [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag].¶
Internet-of-Things (IoT) deployments valuing security and privacy, need to use a security protocol such as DTLS, TLS, or OSCORE to protect CoAP. This is especially true for deployments of actuators where attacks often (but not always) have serious consequences. The attacks described in this section are made under the assumption that CoAP is already protected with a security protocol such as DTLS, TLS, or OSCORE, as an attacker otherwise can easily forge false requests and responses.¶
An on-path attacker can block the delivery of any number of requests or responses. The attack can also be performed by an attacker jamming the lower layer radio protocol. This is true even if a security protocol like DTLS, TLS, or OSCORE is used. Encryption makes selective blocking of messages harder, but not impossible or even infeasible. With DTLS and TLS, proxies can read the complete CoAP message, and with OSCORE, the CoAP header and several CoAP options are not encrypted. In all three security protocols, the IP-addresses, ports, and CoAP message lengths are available to all on-path attackers, which may be enough to determine the server, resource, and command. The block attack is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.¶
Client Foe Server | | | +----->X | Code: 0.03 (PUT) | PUT | | Token: 0x47 | | | Uri-Path: lock | | | Payload: 1 (Lock) | | |
Where 'X' means the attacker is blocking delivery of the message.¶
Client Foe Server | | | +------------>| Code: 0.03 (PUT) | | PUT | Token: 0x47 | | | Uri-Path: lock | | | Payload: 1 (Lock) | | | | X<-----+ Code: 2.04 (Changed) | | 2.04 | Token: 0x47 | | |
While blocking requests to, or responses from, a sensor is just a denial-of-service attack, blocking a request to, or a response from, an actuator results in the client losing information about the server's status. If the actuator e.g., is a lock (door, car, etc.), the attack results in the client not knowing (except by using out-of-band information) whether the lock is unlocked or locked, just like the observer in the famous Schrodinger's cat thought experiment. Due to the nature of the attack, the client cannot distinguish the attack from connectivity problems, offline servers, or unexpected behavior from middle boxes such as NATs and firewalls.¶
Remedy: Any IoT deployment of actuators where syncronized state is important need to use confirmable messages and the client need to take appropriate actions when a response is not received and it therefore loses information about the server's status.¶
An on-path attacker may not only block packets, but can also delay the delivery of any packet (request or response) by a chosen amount of time. If CoAP is used over a reliable and ordered transport such as TCP with TLS or OSCORE (with TLS-like sequence number handling), no messages can be delivered before the delayed message. If CoAP is used over an unreliable and unordered transport such as UDP with DTLS or OSCORE, other messages can be delivered before the delayed message as long as the delayed packet is delivered inside the replay window. When CoAP is used over UDP, both DTLS and OSCORE allow out-of-order delivery and uses sequence numbers together with a replay window to protect against replay attacks against requests. The replay window has a default length of 64 in DTLS and 32 in OSCORE. The attacker can influence the replay window state by blocking and delaying packets. By first delaying a request, and then later, after delivery, blocking the response to the request, the client is not made aware of the delayed delivery except by the missing response. The server has in general, no way of knowing that the request was delayed and will therefore happily process the request. Note that delays can also happen for other reasons than a malicious attacker.¶
If some wireless low-level protocol is used, the attack can also be performed by the attacker simultaneously recording what the client transmits while at the same time jamming the server. The request delay attack is illustrated in Figure 3.¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
+----->@ | Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| PUT | | Token: 0x9c
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 0 (Unlock)
| | |
.... ....
| | |
| @----->| Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| | PUT | Token: 0x9c
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 0 (Unlock)
| | |
| X<-----+ Code: 2.04 (Changed)
| | 2.04 | Token: 0x9c
| | |
Where '@' means the attacker is storing and later forwarding the message (@ may alternatively be seen as a wormhole connecting two points in time).¶
While an attacker delaying a request to a sensor is often not a security problem, an attacker delaying a request to an actuator performing an action is often a serious problem. A request to an actuator (for example a request to unlock a lock) is often only meant to be valid for a short time frame, and if the request does not reach the actuator during this short timeframe, the request should not be fulfilled. In the unlock example, if the client does not get any response and does not physically see the lock opening, the user is likely to walk away, calling the locksmith (or the IT-support).¶
If a non-zero replay window is used (the default when CoAP is used over UDP), the attacker can let the client interact with the actuator before delivering the delayed request to the server (illustrated in Figure 4). In the lock example, the attacker may store the first "unlock" request for later use. The client will likely resend the request with the same token. If DTLS is used, the resent packet will have a different sequence number and the attacker can forward it. If OSCORE is used, resent packets will have the same sequence number and the attacker must block them all until the client sends a new message with a new sequence number (not shown in Figure 4). After a while when the client has locked the door again, the attacker can deliver the delayed "unlock" message to the door, a very serious attack.¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
+----->@ | Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| PUT | | Token: 0x9c
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 0 (Unlock)
| | |
+------------>| Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| PUT | | Token: 0x9c
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 0 (Unlock)
| | |
<-------------+ Code: 2.04 (Changed)
| | 2.04 | Token: 0x9c
| | |
.... ....
| | |
+------------>| Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| PUT | | Token: 0x7a
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 1 (Lock)
| | |
<-------------+ Code: 2.04 (Changed)
| | 2.04 | Token: 0x7a
| | |
| @----->| Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| | PUT | Token: 0x9c
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 0 (Unlock)
| | |
| X<-----+ Code: 2.04 (Changed)
| | 2.04 | Token: 0x9c
| | |
While the second attack (Figure 4) can be mitigated by using a replay window of length zero, the first attack (Figure 3) cannot. A solution must enable the server to verify that the request was received within a certain time frame after it was sent or enable the server to securely determine an absolute point in time when the request is to be executed. This can be accomplished with either a challenge-response pattern, by exchanging timestamps between client and server, or by only allowing requests a short period after client authentication.¶
Requiring a fresh client authentication (such as a new TLS/DTLS handshake or an EDHOC key exchange [I-D.ietf-lake-edhoc]) mitigates the problem, but requires larger messages and more processing than a dedicated solution. Security solutions based on exchanging timestamps require exactly synchronized time between client and server, and this may be hard to control with complications such as time zones and daylight saving. Wall clock time is not monotonic, may reveal that the endpoints will accept expired certificates, or reveal the endpoint's location. Use of non-monotonic clocks is problematic as the server will accept requests if the clock is moved backward and reject requests if the clock is moved forward. Even if the clocks are synchronized at one point in time, they may easily get out-of-sync and an attacker may even be able to affect the client or the server time in various ways such as setting up a fake NTP server, broadcasting false time signals to radio-controlled clocks, or exposing one of them to a strong gravity field. As soon as client falsely believes it is time synchronized with the server, delay attacks are possible. A challenge response mechanism where the server does not need to synchronize its time with the client is easier to analyze but require more roundtrips. The challenges, responses, and timestamps may be sent in a CoAP option or in the CoAP payload.¶
Remedy: Any IoT deployment of actuators where freshness is important should use the mechanisms specified in [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag] unless another application specific challenge-response or timestamp mechanism is used.¶
The following attack can be performed if CoAP is protected by a security protocol where the response is not bound to the request in any way except by the CoAP token. This would include most general security protocols, such as DTLS, TLS, and IPsec, but not OSCORE. CoAP [RFC7252] uses a client generated token that the server echoes to match responses to request, but does not give any guidelines for the use of token with DTLS and TLS, except that the tokens currently "in use" SHOULD (not SHALL) be unique. In HTTPS, this type of binding is always assured by the ordered and reliable delivery, as well as mandating that the server sends responses in the same order that the requests were received.¶
The attacker performs the attack by delaying delivery of a response until the client sends a request with the same token, the response will be accepted by the client as a valid response to the later request. If CoAP is used over a reliable and ordered transport such as TCP with TLS, no messages can be delivered before the delayed message. If CoAP is used over an unreliable and unordered transport such as UDP with DTLS, other messages can be delivered before the delayed message as long as the delayed packet is delivered inside the replay window. Note that mismatches can also happen for other reasons than a malicious attacker, e.g., delayed delivery or a server sending notifications to an uninterested client.¶
The attack can be performed by an attacker on the wire, or an attacker simultaneously recording what the server transmits while at the same time jamming the client. As (D)TLS encrypts the Token, the attacker needs to predict when the Token is resused. How hard that is depends on the CoAP library, but some implementations are known to omit the Token as much as possible and others lets the application chose the Token. If the response is a "piggybacked response", the client may additionally check the Message ID and drop it on mismatch. That doesn't make the attack impossible, but lowers the probability.¶
The response delay and mismatch attack is illustrated in Figure 5.¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
+------------>| Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| PUT | | Token: 0x77
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 0 (Unlock)
| | |
| @<-----+ Code: 2.04 (Changed)
| | 2.04 | Token: 0x77
| | |
.... ....
| | |
+----->X | Code: 0.03 (PUT)
| PUT | | Token: 0x77
| | | Uri-Path: lock
| | | Payload: 0 (Lock)
| | |
<------@ | Code: 2.04 (Changed)
| 2.04 | | Token: 0x77
| | |
If we once again take a lock as an example, the security consequences may be severe as the client receives a response message likely to be interpreted as confirmation of a locked door, while the received response message is in fact confirming an earlier unlock of the door. As the client is likely to leave the (believed to be locked) door unattended, the attacker may enter the home, enterprise, or car protected by the lock.¶
The same attack may be performed on sensors. As illustrated in Figure 6, an attacker may convince the client that the lock is locked, when it in fact is not. The "Unlock" request may be also be sent by another client authorized to control the lock.¶
Client Foe Server | | | +------------>| Code: 0.01 (GET) | GET | | Token: 0x77 | | | Uri-Path: lock | | | | @<-----+ Code: 2.05 (Content) | | 2.05 | Token: 0x77 | | | Payload: 1 (Locked) | | | +------------>| Code: 0.03 (PUT) | PUT | | Token: 0x34 | | | Uri-Path: lock | | | Payload: 1 (Unlock) | | | | X<-----+ Code: 2.04 (Changed) | | 2.04 | Token: 0x34 | | | +----->X | Code: 0.01 (GET) | GET | | Token: 0x77 | | | Uri-Path: lock | | | <------@ | Code: 2.05 (Content) | 2.05 | | Token: 0x77 | | | Payload: 1 (Locked) | | |
As illustrated in Figure 7, an attacker may even mix responses from different resources as long as the two resources share the same (D)TLS connection on some part of the path towards the client. This can happen if the resources are located behind a common gateway, or are served by the same CoAP proxy. An on-path attacker (not necessarily a (D)TLS endpoint such as a proxy) may e.g., deceive a client that the living room is on fire by responding with an earlier delayed response from the oven (temperatures in degree Celsius).¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
+------------>| Code: 0.01 (GET)
| GET | | Token: 0x77
| | | Uri-Path: oven/temperature
| | |
| @<-----+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x77
| | | Payload: 225
| | |
.... ....
| | |
+----->X | Code: 0.01 (GET)
| GET | | Token: 0x77
| | | Uri-Path: livingroom/temperature
| | |
<------@ | Code: 2.05 (Content)
| 2.05 | | Token: 0x77
| | | Payload: 225
| | |
Remedy: Section 4.2 of [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag] formally updates the client token processing for CoAP [RFC7252]. Following this updated processing mitigates the attack.¶
These attack scenarios show that the Request Delay and Block Attacks can be used against blockwise transfers to cause unauthorized operations to be performed on the server, and responses to unauthorized operations to be mistaken for responses to authorized operations. The combination of these attacks is described as a separate attack because it makes the Request Delay Attack relevant to systems that are otherwise not time-dependent, which means that they could disregard the Request Delay Attack.¶
This attack works even if the individual request/response pairs are encrypted, authenticated and protected against the Response Delay and Mismatch Attack, provided the attacker is on the network path and can correctly guess which operations the respective packages belong to.¶
The attacks can be performed on any security protocol where the attacker can delay the delivery of a message. This incluses DTLS, IPsec, and most OSCORE configurations. The attacks does not work on TCP with TLS or OSCORE (with TLS-like sequence number handling) as in these cases no messages can be delivered before the delayed message.¶
In this scenario (illustrated in Figure 8), blocks from two operations on a POST-accepting resource are combined to make the server execute an action that was not intended by the authorized client. This works only if the client attempts a second operation after the first operation failed (due to what the attacker made appear like a network outage) within the replay window. The client does not receive a confirmation on the second operation either, but, by the time the client acts on it, the server has already executed the unauthorized action.¶
Client Foe Server | | | +-------------> POST "incarcerate" (Block1: 0, more to come) | | | <-------------+ 2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more) | | | +----->@ | POST "valjean" (Block1: 1, last block) | | | +----->X | All retransmissions dropped | | | (Client: Odd, but let's go on and promote Javert) | | | +-------------> POST "promote" (Block1: 0, more to come) | | | | X<-----+ 2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more) | | | | @------> POST "valjean" (Block1: 1, last block) | | | | X<-----+ 2.04 Valjean Promoted | | |
Remedy: If a client starts new blockwise operations on a security context that has lost packages, it needs to label the fragments in such a way that the server will not mix them up.¶
A mechanism to that effect is described as Request-Tag [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag]. Had it been in place in the example and used for body integrity protection, the client would have set the Request-Tag option in the "promote" request. Depending on the server's capabilities and setup, either of four outcomes could have occurred:¶
If the first block of a request is withheld by the attacker for later use, it can be used to have the server process a different request body than intended by the client. Unlike in the previous scenario, it will return a response based on that body to the client.¶
Again, a first operation (that would go like "Girl stole apple. What shall we do with her?" - "Set her free.") is aborted by the proxy, and a part of that operation is later used in a different operation to prime the server for responding leniently to another operation that would originally have been "Evil Queen poisoned apple. What shall we do with her?" - "Lock her up.". The attack is illustrated in Figure 9.¶
Client Foe Server | | | +----->@ | POST "Girl stole apple. Wh" | | | (Block1: 0, more to come) (Client: We'll try that one later again; for now, we have something more urgent:) | | | +-------------> POST "Evil Queen poisened apple. Wh" | | | (Block1: 0, more to come) | | | | @<-----+ 2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more) | | | | @------> POST "Girl stole apple. Wh" | | | (Block1: 0, more to come) | | | | X<-----+ 2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more) | | | <------@ | 2.31 Continue (Block1: 0 received, send more) | | | +-------------> POST "at shall we do with her?" | | | (Block1: 1, last block) | | | <-------------+ 2.05 "Set her free." | | | (Block1: 1 received and this is the result)
Yet another type of attack can be performed in deployments where actuator actions are triggered automatically based on proximity and without any user interaction, e.g., a car (the client) constantly polling for the car key (the server) and unlocking both doors and engine as soon as the car key responds. An attacker (or pair of attackers) may simply relay the CoAP messages out-of-band, using for examples some other radio technology. By doing this, the actuator (i.e., the car) believes that the client is close by and performs actions based on that false assumption. The attack is illustrated in Figure 10. In this example the car is using an application specific challenge-response mechanism transferred as CoAP payloads.¶
Client Foe Foe Server | | | | +----->| ......... +----->| Code: 0.02 (POST) | POST | | POST | Token: 0x3a | | | | Uri-Path: lock | | | | Payload: JwePR2iCe8b0ux (Challenge) | | | | |<-----+ ......... |<-----+ Code: 2.04 (Changed) | 2.04 | | 2.04 | Token: 0x3a | | | | Payload: RM8i13G8D5vfXK (Response) | | | |
The consequences may be severe, and in the case of a car, lead to the attacker unlocking and driving away with the car, an attack that unfortunately is happening in practice.¶
Remedy: Getting a response over a short-range radio cannot be taken as proof of proximity and can therefore not be used to take actions based on such proximity. Any automatically triggered mechanisms relying on proximity need to use other stronger mechanisms to guarantee proximity. Mechanisms that can be used are: measuring the round-trip time and calculate the maximum possible distance based on the speed of light, or using radio with an extremely short range like NFC (centimeters instead of meters). Another option is to include geographical coordinates (from e.g., GPS) in the messages and calculate proximity based on these, but in this case the location measurements need to be very precise and the system need to make sure that an attacker cannot influence the location estimation. Some types of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) receivers are vulnerable to spoofing attacks.¶
In a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, an attacker sends a large number of requests or responses to a target endpoint. The denial-of-service might be caused by the target endpoint receiving a large amount of data, sending a large amount of data, doing heavy processing, or using too much memory, etc. In a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, the request or responses come from a large number of sources.¶
In an amplification attack, the amplification factor is the ratio between the total size of the data sent to the target and the total size of the data sent by the attacker. In the attacks described in this section, the attacker sends one or more requests, and the target receives one or more responses. An amplification attack alone can be a denial-of-service attack on a server, but often amplification attacks are combined with the attacker spoofing the source IP address of the targeted victim. By requesting as much information as possible from several servers an attacker can multiply the amount of traffic and create a distributed denial-of-service attack on the target. When transported over UDP, the CoAP NoSec mode is susceptible to source IP address spoofing.¶
Amplification attacks with CoAP is unfortunately not only theory, amplification factors of 10-100 are commonly reported from NoSec deployments. [CoAP-Report] and [CoAP-Wild] report average amplification factors of 27 and 34 respectively from a single response to a GET request for /.well-known/core to the default UDP port 5683. NoSec CoAP servers accessible over the Internet are mostly concentrated to a few countries and a few implementations, which do not follow the recommendations in Section 11.3 of [RFC7252] (but the requirements are a bit soft).¶
An amplification attack using a single response is illustrated in Figure 11. If the response is c times larger than the request, the amplification factor is c.¶
Client Foe Server | | | | +----->| Code: 0.01 (GET) | | GET | Uri-Path: random quote | | | |<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content) | | 2.05 | Payload: "just because you own half the county | | | doesn't mean that you have the power | | | to run the rest of us. For twenty- | | | three years, I've been dying to tell | | | you what I thought of you! And now... | | | well, being a Christian woman, I can't | | | say it!"
An attacker can increase the bandwidth by sending several GET requests. An attacker can also increase or control the amplification factor by creating or updating resources. By creating new resources, an attacker can increase the size of /.well-known/core. An amplification attack where the attacker influences the amplification factor is illustrated in Figure 12.¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
| +----->| Code: 0.02 (POST)
| | POST | Uri-Path: /member/
| | | Payload: hampsterdance.hevc
| | |
.... ....
| +----->| Code: 0.02 (GET)
| | GET | Uri-Path: /member/
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Payload: hampsterdance.hevc
| | |
| +----->| Code: 0.02 (GET)
| | GET | Uri-Path: /member/
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Payload: hampsterdance.hevc
.... ....
Amplification factors can be significantly worse when combined with observe [RFC7641] and group requests [I-D.ietf-core-groupcomm-bis]. As a single request can result in multiple responses from multiple servers, the amplification factors can be very large.¶
An amplification attack using observe is illustrated in Figure 13. If each notification response is c times larger than the registration request and each request results in n notifications, the amplification factor is c * n. By registering the same client several times using different Tokens or port numbers, the bandwidth can be increased. By updating the observed resource, the attacker may trigger notifications and increase the size of the notifications. By using conditional attributes [I-D.ietf-core-conditional-attributes] an attacker may increase the frequency of notifications and therefore the amplification factor. The maximum period attribute pmax indicates the maximum time, in seconds, between two consecutive notifications (whether or not the resource state has changed). If it is predictable when notifications are sent as confirmable and which Message ID are used the acknowledgements may be spoofed.¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
| +----->| Code: 0.01 (GET)
| | GET | Token: 0x83
| | | Observe: 0
| | | Uri-Path: temperature
| | | Uri-Query: pmax="0.1"
| | |
| +----->| Code: 0.01 (GET)
| | GET | Token: 0x84
| | | Observe: 0
| | | Uri-Path: temperature
| | | Uri-Query: pmax="0.1"
| | |
.... ....
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x83
| | | Observe: 217362
| | | Payload: "299.7 K"
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x84
| | | Observe: 217362
| | | Payload: "299.7 K"
| | |
.... ....
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x83
| | | Observe: 217363
| | | Payload: "299.7 K"
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x84
| | | Observe: 217363
| | | Payload: "299.7 K"
.... ....
An amplification attack using a group request is illustrated in Figure 14. The group request is sent over multicast or broadcast and in this case a single request results in m responses from m different servers. If each response is c times larger than the request, the amplification factor is c * m. Note that the servers usually do not know the variable m.¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
| +----->| Code: 0.01 (GET)
| | GET | Token: 0x69
| | | Uri-Path: </c>
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x69
| | | Payload: { 1721 : { ...
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x69
| | | Payload: { 1721 : { ...
| | |
.... ....
An amplification attack using a multicast request and observe is illustrated in Figure 15. In this case a single request results in n responses each from m different servers giving a total of n * m responses. If each response is c times larger than the request, the amplification factor is c * n * m.¶
Client Foe Server
| | |
| +----->| Code: 0.01 (GET)
| | GET | Token: 0x44
| | | Observe: 0
| | | Uri-Path: temperature
| | | Uri-Query: pmax="0.1"
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x44
| | | Observe: 217
| | | Payload: "301.2 K"
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x44
| | | Observe: 363
| | | Payload: "293.4 K"
| | |
.... ....
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x44
| | | Observe: 218
| | | Payload: "301.2 K"
| | |
|<------------+ Code: 2.05 (Content)
| | 2.05 | Token: 0x44
| | | Observe: 364
| | | Payload: "293.4 K"
| | |
.... ....
While CoAP has always considered amplification attacks, the recommendations in [RFC7252], [RFC7641], and [I-D.ietf-core-groupcomm-bis] are a bit soft. Most of the requirements are "SHOULD" instead of "MUST", it is undefined what a "large amplification factor" is, [RFC7641] does not specify how many notifications that can be sent before a potentially spoofable acknowledgement must be sent, and in several cases the "SHOULD" level is further softened by "If possible" and "generally". [I-D.ietf-core-conditional-attributes] does not have any amplification attack considerations. [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag] updates [RFC7252] by stating that CoAP servers SHOULD mitigate potential amplification attacks by responding to unauthenticated clients with 4.01 (Unauthorized) including an Echo option. This is still a soft requirement.¶
QUIC [RFC9000] mandates that "an endpoint MUST limit the amount of data it sends to the unvalidated address to three times the amount of data received from that address" without any exceptions. This approach should be seen as current best practice.¶
In CoAP, an address can be validated with a security protocol like DTLS, TLS, OSCORE, or by using the Echo Option [I-D.ietf-core-echo-request-tag]. Restricting the bandwidth per server is not enough as the number of servers the attacker can use is typically unknown. For multicast requests, anti-amplification limits and the Echo Option do not really work unless the number of servers sending responses is known. Even if the responses have the same size as the request, the amplification factor from m servers is m, where m is typically unknown. While DoS attacks from CoAP servers accessible over the Internet pose the largest threat, an attacker on a local network might use local CoAP servers to attack targets on the Internet or on the local network.¶
Remedy: [RFC7252] should be updated with a strict normative requirement (MUST) on implementations similar to QUIC with a specified anti-amplification limit and no exceptions. It should be clear that any devices used in DDoS attacks are violating IETF requirements.¶
The whole document can be seen as security considerations for CoAP.¶
This document has no actions for IANA.¶
The authors would like to thank Carsten Bormann, Klaus Hartke, Jaime Jimenez, Ari Keraenen, Matthias Kovatsch, Achim Kraus, Sandeep Kumar, and Andras Mehes for their valuable comments and feedback.¶