1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
|
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) T. Chown
Request for Comments: 6104 University of Southampton
Category: Informational S. Venaas
ISSN: 2070-1721 Cisco Systems
February 2011
Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisement Problem Statement
Abstract
When deploying IPv6, whether IPv6-only or dual-stack, routers are
configured to send IPv6 Router Advertisements (RAs) to convey
information to nodes that enable them to autoconfigure on the
network. This information includes the implied default router
address taken from the observed source address of the RA message, as
well as on-link prefix information. However, unintended
misconfigurations by users or administrators, or possibly malicious
attacks on the network, may lead to bogus RAs being present, which in
turn can cause operational problems for hosts on the network. In
this document, we summarise the scenarios in which rogue RAs may be
observed and present a list of possible solutions to the problem. We
focus on the unintended causes of rogue RAs in the text. The goal of
this text is to be Informational, and as such to present a framework
around which solutions can be proposed and discussed.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6104.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 1]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
Contributions published or made publicly available before November
10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 2]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................4
2. Bogus RA Scenarios ..............................................4
2.1. Administrator Misconfiguration .............................5
2.2. User Misconfiguration ......................................5
2.3. Malicious Misconfiguration .................................5
3. Methods to Mitigate against Rogue RAs ...........................6
3.1. Manual Configuration .......................................6
3.2. Introducing RA Snooping ....................................6
3.3. Using ACLs on Managed Switches .............................7
3.4. SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND) ...........................7
3.5. Router Preference Option ...................................8
3.6. Relying on Layer 2 Admission Control .......................8
3.7. Using Host-Based Packet Filters ............................8
3.8. Using an "Intelligent" Deprecation Tool ....................8
3.9. Using Layer 2 Partitioning .................................9
3.10. Adding Default Gateway/Prefix Options to DHCPv6 ...........9
4. Scenarios and Mitigations ......................................10
5. Other Related Considerations ...................................11
5.1. Unicast RAs ...............................................11
5.2. The DHCP versus RA Threat Model ...........................11
5.3. IPv4-Only Networks ........................................12
5.4. Network Monitoring Tools ..................................12
5.5. Recovering from Bad Configuration State ...................12
5.6. Isolating the Offending Rogue RA Source ...................13
6. Conclusions ....................................................13
7. Security Considerations ........................................14
8. Acknowledgments ................................................14
9. Informative References .........................................15
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 3]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
1. Introduction
The Neighbor Discovery protocol [RFC4861] describes the operation of
IPv6 Router Advertisements (RAs) that are used to determine node
configuration information during the IPv6 autoconfiguration process,
whether that node's configuration is stateful, via the Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6) [RFC3315] or stateless, as
per [RFC4862], possibly in combination with DHCPv6 Light [RFC3736].
In observing the operation of deployed IPv6 networks, it is apparent
that there is a problem with undesired or "bogus" IPv6 RAs appearing
on network links or subnets. By "bogus" we mean RAs that were not
the intended configured RAs, but rather RAs that have appeared for
some other reason. While the problem appears more common in shared
wireless environments, it is also seen on wired enterprise networks.
The problem with rogue RAs is that they can cause partial or complete
failure of operation of hosts on an IPv6 link. For example, the
default router address is drawn directly from the source address of
the RA message. In addition, rogue RAs can cause hosts to assume
wrong prefixes to be used for stateless address autoconfiguration.
In a case where there may be mixing of "good" and "bad" RAs, a host
might keep on using the "good" default gateway, but pick a wrong
source address, leading to egress filtering problems. As such, rogue
RAs are an operational issue for which solution(s) are required, and
for which best practice needs to be conveyed. This not only includes
preventing or detecting rogue RAs, but also where necessary ensuring
the network (and hosts on the network) have the ability to quickly
recover from a state where host configuration is incorrect as a
result of processing such an RA.
In the next section, we discuss the scenarios that may give rise to
rogue RAs being present. In the following section, we present some
candidate solutions for the problem, some of which may be more
practical to deploy than others. This document focuses on
"accidental" rogue RAs; while malicious RAs are of course also
possible, the common problem today lies with unintended RAs. In
addition, a network experiencing malicious attack of this kind is
likely to also experience malicious Neighbor Advertisement (NA) and
related messages.
2. Bogus RA Scenarios
There are three broad classes of scenario in which bogus RAs may be
introduced to an IPv6 network.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 4]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
2.1. Administrator Misconfiguration
Here an administrator incorrectly configures RAs on a router
interface, causing incorrect RAs to appear on links and causing hosts
to generate incorrect or unintended IPv6 address, gateway, or other
information. In such a case, the default gateway may be correct, but
a host might for example become multiaddressed, possibly with a
correct and incorrect address based on a correct and incorrect
prefix. There is also the possibility of other configuration
information being misconfigured, such as the lifetime option.
In the case of a Layer 2 IEEE 802.1Q Virtual LAN (VLAN)
misconfiguration, RAs may "flood" to unintended links, causing hosts
or more than one link to potentially become incorrectly
multiaddressed, with possibly two different default routers
available.
2.2. User Misconfiguration
In this case, a user's device "accidentally" transmits RAs onto the
local link, potentially adding an additional default gateway and
associated prefix information.
This seems to typically be seen on wireless (though sometimes wired)
networks where a laptop has enabled the Windows Internet Connection
Sharing (ICS) service, which can turn a host into a 6to4 [RFC3056]
gateway; this can be a useful feature, unless of course it is run
when not intended. This service can also cause IPv4 problems, as it
will typically start a "rogue" DHCPv4 server on the host.
We have also had reports that hosts may not see genuine IPv6 RAs on a
link due to host firewalls, causing them to turn on a connection-
sharing service and 6to4 as a result. In some cases, more technical
users may also use a laptop as a home gateway (e.g., again a 6to4
gateway) and then connect to another network, forgetting their
previous gateway configuration is still active.
There are also reported incidents in enterprise networks of users
physically plugging Ethernet cables into the wrong sockets and
bridging two subnets together, causing a problem similar to VLAN
flooding.
2.3. Malicious Misconfiguration
Here an attacker is deliberately generating RAs on the local network
in an attempt to perform some form of denial-of-service or man-in-
the-middle attack.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 5]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
As stated above, while this is a genuine concern for network
administrators, there have been few if any reports of such activity,
while in contrast reports of accidental rogue RAs are very
commonplace. In writing this text, and with the feedback of the
v6ops working group, we came to the conclusion that the issue of
malicious attack, due to the other complementary attacks that are
likely to be launched using rogue NA and similar messages, are best
considered by further work and document(s). As a result, this text
intends to provide informational guidance for operators looking for
practical measures to take to avoid "accidental" rogue RAs on their
own networks.
3. Methods to Mitigate against Rogue RAs
In this section, we present a summary of methods suggested to date
for reducing or removing the possibility of rogue RAs being seen on a
network.
3.1. Manual Configuration
The default gateway and host address can usually be manually
configured on a node. This of course can be a resource intensive
solution, and also prone to administrative mistakes in itself.
Manual configuration implies that RA processing is disabled. Most
operating systems allow RA messages to be ignored, such that if an
IPv6 address is manually configured on a system, an additional global
autoconfigured address will not be added should an unexpected RA
appear on the link.
3.2. Introducing RA Snooping
It should be possible to implement "RA snooping" in Layer 2 switches
in a similar way to DHCP snooping, such that RAs observed from
incorrect sources are blocked or dropped, and not propagated through
a subnet. One candidate solution in this space, called "RA-Guard"
[RFC6105], has been proposed. This type of solution has appeal
because it is a familiar model for enterprise network managers, but
it can also be used to complement SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)
[RFC3971], by a switch acting as a SEND proxy for hosts.
This type of solution may not be applicable everywhere, e.g., in
environments where there are not centrally controlled or manageable
switches.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 6]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
3.3. Using ACLs on Managed Switches
Certain switch platforms can already implement some level of rogue RA
filtering by the administrator configuring Access Control Lists
(ACLs) that block RA ICMP messages that might be inbound on "user"
ports. Again this type of "solution" depends on the presence of such
configurable switches.
A recent document describes the RA message format(s) for filtering
[IPv6-AUTOCFG-FILTER]. The document also notes requirements for
DHCPv6 snooping, which can then be implemented similarly to DHCPv4
snooping.
3.4. SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)
The SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND) [RFC3971] protocol provides a
method for hosts and routers to perform secure Neighbor Discovery.
Thus, it can in principle protect a network against rogue RAs.
SEND is not yet widely used at the time of writing, in part because
there are very few implementations of the protocol. Some other
deployment issues have been raised, though these are likely to be
resolved in due course. For example, routers probably don't want to
use autogenerated addresses (which might need to be protected by
ACLs), so SEND needs to be shown to work with non-autogenerated
addresses. Also, it has been argued that there are "bootstrapping"
issues, in that hosts wanting to validate router credentials (e.g.,
to a certificate server or Network Time Protocol (NTP) server) are
likely to need to communicate via the router for that information.
Further, it's not wholly clear how widely adopted SEND could or would
be in site networks with "lightweight" security (e.g., many campus
networks), especially where hosts are managed by users and not
administratively. Public or conference wireless networks may face
similar challenges. There may also be networks, like perhaps sensor
networks, where use of SEND is less practical. These networks still
require rogue RA protection.
While SEND clearly can provide a good, longer-term solution,
especially in networks where malicious activity is a significant
concern, there is a requirement today for practical solutions, and/or
solutions more readily applicable in more "relaxed" environments. In
the latter case, solutions like "RA snooping" or applied ACLs are
more attractive now.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 7]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
3.5. Router Preference Option
[RFC4191] introduced a Router Preference option, such that an RA
could carry one of three Router Preference values: High, Medium
(default), or Low. Thus, an administrator could use "High" settings
for managed RAs, and hope that "accidental" RAs would be medium
priority. This of course would only work in some scenarios -- if the
user who accidentally sends out a rogue RA on the network has
configured their device with "High" precedence for their own intended
usage, the priorities would clash. But for accidental rogue RAs
caused by software like Windows ICS and 6to4, which would use the
default precedence, it could be useful. Obviously this solution
would also rely on clients (and routers) having implementations of
the Router Preference option.
3.6. Relying on Layer 2 Admission Control
In principle, if a technology such as IEEE 802.1x is used, devices
would first need to authenticate to the network before being able to
send or receive IPv6 traffic. Ideally, authentication would be
mutual. Deployment of 802.1x, with mutual authentication, may
however be seen as somewhat "heavyweight", akin to SEND, for some
deployments.
Improving Layer 2 security may help to mitigate against an attacker's
capability to join the network to send RAs, but it doesn't prevent
misconfiguration issues. A user can happily authenticate and still
launch a Windows ICS service, for example.
3.7. Using Host-Based Packet Filters
In a managed environment, hosts could be configured via their
"personal firewall" to only accept RAs from trusted sources. Hosts
could also potentially be configured to discard 6to4-based RAs in a
managed enterprise environment.
However, the problem is then pushed to keeping this configuration
maintained and correct. If a router fails and is replaced, possibly
with a new Layer 2 interface address, the link local source address
in the filter may become incorrect, and thus no method would be
available to push the new information to the host over the network.
3.8. Using an "Intelligent" Deprecation Tool
It is possible to run a daemon on a link (perhaps on the router on
the link) to watch for incorrect RAs and to send a deprecating RA
with a router lifetime of zero when such an RA is observed. The KAME
rafixd is an example of such a tool, which has been used at IETF
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 8]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
meetings with some success. A slightly enhanced tool called RAMOND
has since been developed from this code, and is now available as a
Sourceforge project. As with host-based firewalling, the daemon
would need to somehow know what "good" and "bad" RAs are, from some
combination of known good sources and/or link prefixes. In an
environment with native IPv6, though, 6to4-based RAs would certainly
be known to be rogue.
Whether or not use of such a tool is the preferred method, monitoring
a link for observed RAs seems prudent from a network management
perspective. Some such tools exist already, e.g., NDPMon, which can
also detect other undesirable behaviour.
3.9. Using Layer 2 Partitioning
If each system or user on a network is partitioned into a different
Layer 2 medium, then the impact of rogue RAs can be limited. In
broadband networks, bridging [RFC2684] may be available, for example.
The benefit may be scenario-specific, e.g., whether a given user or
customer has their own network prefix or whether the provisioning is
in a shared subnet or link. It is certainly desirable that any given
user or customer's system(s) are unable to see RAs that may be
generated by other users or customers.
However, such partitioning would probably increase address space
consumption significantly if applied in enterprise networks, and in
many cases, hardware costs and software licensing costs to enable
routing to the edge can be quite significant.
3.10. Adding Default Gateway/Prefix Options to DHCPv6
Adding Default Gateway and Prefix options for DHCPv6 would allow
network administrators to configure hosts to only use DHCPv6 for
default gateway and prefix configuration in managed networks, where
RAs would be required today. A new document has proposed such a
default router option, along with prefix advertisement options for
DHCPv6 [DHCPv6-DEFAULT-RTR]. Even with such options added to DHCPv6,
an RA is in principle still required to inform hosts to use DHCPv6.
An advantage of DHCPv6 is that should an error be introduced, only
hosts that have refreshed their DHCP information since that time are
affected, while a multicast rogue RA will most likely affect all
hosts immediately. DHCPv6 also allows different answers to be given
to different hosts.
While making host configuration possible via DHCPv6 alone is a viable
option that would allow IPv6 configuration to be done in a way
similar to IPv4 today, the problem has only been shifted: rather than
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 9]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
rogue RAs being the problem, rogue DHCPv6 servers would be an
equivalent issue. As with IPv4, a network would then still require
use of Authenticated DHCP, or DHCP(v6) snooping, as suggested in
[IPv6-AUTOCFG-FILTER].
There is certainly some demand in the community for DHCPv6-only host
configuration. While this may mitigate the rogue RA issue, it simply
moves the trust problem elsewhere, albeit to a place administrators
are familiar with today.
4. Scenarios and Mitigations
In this section, we summarise the error/misconfiguration scenarios
and practical mitigation methods described above in a matrix format.
We consider, for the case of a rogue multicast RA, which of the
mitigation methods helps protect against administrator and user
errors. For the administrator error, we discount an error in
configuring the countermeasure itself; rather, we consider an
administrator error to be an error in configuration elsewhere in the
network.
+------------------------+---------------------------+
| | Scenario |
| Mitigation |---------------------------|
| Method | Admin Error | User Error |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Manual configuration | Y | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| SEND | Y | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| RA snooping | Y | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Use switch ACLs | Y | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Router preference | N | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Layer 2 admission | N | N |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Host firewall | Y | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Deprecation daemon | Y | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| Layer 2 partition | N | Y |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| DHCPv6 gateway option | Partly | If Auth |
+------------------------+-------------+-------------+
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 10]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
What the above summary does not consider is the practicality of
deploying the measure. An easy-to-deploy method that buys improved
resilience to rogue RAs without significant administrative overhead
is attractive. On that basis, the RA snooping proposal, e.g.,
RA-Guard, has merit, while approaches like manual configuration are
less appealing. However, RA-Guard is not yet fully defined or
available, while only certain managed switch equipment may support
the required ACLs.
5. Other Related Considerations
There are a number of related issues that have come out of
discussions on the rogue RA topic, which the authors believe are
worth capturing in this document.
5.1. Unicast RAs
The above discussion was initially held on the assumption that rogue
multicast RAs were the cause of problems on a shared network subnet.
However, the specifications for Router Advertisements allow them to
be sent unicast to a host, as per Section 6.2.6 of RFC 4861. If a
host sending rogue RAs sends them unicast to the soliciting host,
that RA may not be seen by other hosts on the shared medium, e.g., by
a monitoring daemon. In most cases, though, an accidental rogue RA
is likely to be multicast.
5.2. The DHCP versus RA Threat Model
Comparing the threat model for rogue RAs and rogue DHCPv6 servers is
an interesting exercise. In the case of Windows ICS causing rogue
6to4-based RAs to appear on a network, it is very likely that the
same host is also acting as a rogue IPv4 DHCP server. The rogue
DHCPv4 server can allocate a default gateway and an address to hosts,
just as a rogue RA can lead hosts to learning of a new (additional)
default gateway, prefix(es), and address. In the case of multicast
rogue RAs, however, the impact is potentially immediate to all hosts,
while the rogue DHCP server's impact will depend on lease timers for
hosts.
In principle, Authenticated DHCP can be used to protect against rogue
DHCPv4 (and DHCPv6) servers, just as SEND could be used to protect
against rogue IPv6 RAs. However, actual use of Authenticated DHCP in
typical networks is currently minimal. Were new DHCPv6 default
gateway and prefix options to be standardised as described above,
then without Authenticated DHCP the (lack of) security is just pushed
to another place.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 11]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
The RA-Guard approach is essentially using a similar model to DHCP
message snooping to protect against rogue RAs in network (switch)
equipment. As noted above, DHCPv6 message snooping would also be
very desirable in IPv6 networks.
5.3. IPv4-Only Networks
The rogue RA problem should also be considered by administrators and
operators of IPv4-only networks, where IPv6 monitoring, firewalling,
and other related mechanisms may not be in place.
For example, a comment has been made that in the case of 6to4 being
run by a host on a subnet that is not administratively configured
with IPv6, some OSes or applications may begin using IPv6 to the 6to4
host (router) rather than IPv4 to the intended default IPv4 router,
because they have IPv6 enabled by default and some applications
prefer IPv6 by default. Technically aware users may also
deliberately choose to use IPv6, possibly for subversive reasons.
Mitigating against this condition can also be seen to be important.
5.4. Network Monitoring Tools
It would generally be prudent for network monitoring or management
platforms to be able to observe and report on observed RAs, and
whether unintended RAs (possibly from unintended sources) are present
on a network. Further, it may be useful for individual hosts to be
able to report their address status (assuming their configuration
status allowed it, of course), e.g., this could be useful during an
IPv6 renumbering phased process as described in RFC 4192 [RFC4192].
The above assumes, of course, that what defines a "good" (or "bad")
RA can be configured in a trustworthy manner within the network's
management framework.
5.5. Recovering from Bad Configuration State
After a host receives and processes a rogue RA, it may have multiple
default gateways, global addresses, and potentially clashing RA
options (e.g., M/O bits [RFC4861]). The host's behaviour may then be
unpredictable, in terms of the default router that is used, and the
(source) address(es) used in communications. A host that is aware of
protocols such as Shim6 [RFC5533] may believe it is genuinely
multihomed.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 12]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
An important issue is how readily a host can recover from receiving
and processing bad configuration information, e.g., considering the
"2 hour rule" mentioned in Section 5.5.3 of RFC 4862 (though this
applies to the valid address lifetime and not the router lifetime).
We should ensure that methods exist for a network administrator to
correct bad configuration information on a link or subnet, and that
OS platforms support these methods. At least if the problem can be
detected, and corrected promptly, the impact is minimised.
5.6. Isolating the Offending Rogue RA Source
In addition to issuing a deprecating RA, it would be desirable to
isolate the offending source of the rogue RA from the network. It
may be possible to use Network Access Control methods to quarantine
the offending host, or rather the network point of attachment or port
that it is using.
6. Conclusions
In this text we have described scenarios via which rogue Router
Advertisements (RAs) may appear on a network, and some measures that
could be used to mitigate against these. We have also noted some
related issues that have arisen in the rogue RA discussions. Our
discussion is generally focused on the assumption that rogue RAs are
appearing as a result of accidental misconfiguration on the network,
by a user or administrator.
While SEND perhaps offers the most robust solution, implementations
and deployment guidelines are not yet widely available. SEND is very
likely to be a good, longer-term solution, but many administrators
are seeking solutions today. Such administrators are also often in
networks with security models for which SEND is a "heavyweight"
solution, e.g., campus networks, or wireless conference or public
networks. For such scenarios, simpler measures are desirable.
Adding new DHCPv6 Default Gateway and Prefix options would allow IPv6
host configuration by DHCP only and would be a method that IPv4
administrators are comfortable with (for better or worse), but this
simply shifts the robustness issue elsewhere.
While a number of the mitigations described above have their appeal,
the simplest solutions probably lie in switch-based ACLs and
RA-Guard-style approaches. Where managed switches are not available,
use of the Router Preference option and (more so in managed desktop
environments) host firewalls may be appropriate.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 13]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
In the longer term, wider experience of SEND will be beneficial,
while the use of RA snooping will remain useful either to complement
SEND (where a switch running RA-Guard can potentially be a SEND
proxy) or to assist in scenarios for which SEND is not deployed.
7. Security Considerations
This Informational document is focused on discussing solutions to
operational problems caused by rogue RAs resulting from unintended
misconfiguration by users or administrators. Earlier versions of
this text included some analysis of rogue RAs introduced maliciously;
e.g., the text included an extra column in the matrix in Section 4.
However, the consensus of the v6ops working group feedback was to
instead focus on the common operational problem of "accidental" rogue
RAs seen today.
Thus, the final version of this text does not address attacks on a
network where rogue RAs are intentionally introduced as part of a
broader attack, e.g., including malicious NA messages. On the wire,
malicious rogue RAs will generally look the same as "accidental"
ones, though they are more likely, for example, to spoof the Media
Access Control (MAC) or IPv6 source address of the genuine router, or
to use a "High" Router Preference option. It is also likely that
malicious rogue RAs will be accompanied by other attacks on the IPv6
infrastructure, making discussion of mitigations more complex.
Administrators may be able to detect such activity by the use of
tools such as NDPMon.
It is worth noting that the deprecation daemon could be used as part
of a denial-of-service attack, should the tool be used to deprecate
the genuine RA.
8. Acknowledgments
Thanks are due to members of the IETF IPv6 Operations and DHCP
working groups for their inputs on this topic, as well as some
comments from various operational mailing lists, and private
comments, including but not limited to: Iljitsch van Beijnum, Dale
Carder, Remi Denis-Courmont, Tony Hain, Bob Hinden, Christian
Huitema, Tatuya Jinmei, Eric Levy-Abegnoli, David Malone, Thomas
Narten, Chip Popoviciu, Dave Thaler, Gunter Van de Velde, Goeran
Weinholt, and Dan White.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 14]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
9. Informative References
[RFC2684] Grossman, D. and J. Heinanen, "Multiprotocol Encapsulation
over ATM Adaptation Layer 5", RFC 2684, September 1999.
[RFC3056] Carpenter, B. and K. Moore, "Connection of IPv6 Domains
via IPv4 Clouds", RFC 3056, February 2001.
[RFC3315] Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C.,
and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.
[RFC3736] Droms, R., "Stateless Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) Service for IPv6", RFC 3736, April 2004.
[RFC3971] Arkko, J., Kempf, J., Zill, B., and P. Nikander, "SEcure
Neighbor Discovery (SEND)", RFC 3971, March 2005.
[RFC4191] Draves, R. and D. Thaler, "Default Router Preferences and
More-Specific Routes", RFC 4191, November 2005.
[RFC4192] Baker, F., Lear, E., and R. Droms, "Procedures for
Renumbering an IPv6 Network without a Flag Day", RFC 4192,
September 2005.
[RFC4861] Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
"Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861,
September 2007.
[RFC4862] Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless
Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862, September 2007.
[RFC5533] Nordmark, E. and M. Bagnulo, "Shim6: Level 3 Multihoming
Shim Protocol for IPv6", RFC 5533, June 2009.
[RFC6105] Levy-Abegnoli, E., Van de Velde, G., Popoviciu, C., and J.
Mohacsi, "IPv6 Router Advertisement Guard", RFC 6105,
February 2011.
[IPv6-AUTOCFG-FILTER]
Ward, N., "IPv6 Autoconfig Filtering on Ethernet
Switches", Work in Progress, March 2009.
[DHCPv6-DEFAULT-RTR]
Droms, R. and T. Narten, "Default Router and Prefix
Advertisement Options for DHCPv6", Work in Progress,
March 2009.
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 15]
^L
RFC 6104 Rogue IPv6 Router Advertisements February 2011
Authors' Addresses
Tim Chown
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom
EMail: tjc@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Stig Venaas
Cisco Systems
Tasman Drive
San Jose, CA 95134
USA
EMail: stig@cisco.com
Chown & Venaas Informational [Page 16]
^L
|