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Revision: 1.8
Committed: Sun Aug 10 23:04:05 2008 UTC (15 years, 10 months ago) by pcg
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.7: +31 -34 lines
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131     .IX Title "GVPE.PROTOCOL 7"
132 pcg 1.8 .TH GVPE.PROTOCOL 7 "2008-08-10" "2.2" "GNU Virtual Private Ethernet"
133 pcg 1.2 .SH "The GNU-VPE Protocols"
134     .IX Header "The GNU-VPE Protocols"
135     .SH "Overview"
136     .IX Header "Overview"
137     \&\s-1GVPE\s0 can make use of a number of protocols. One of them is the \s-1GNU\s0 \s-1VPE\s0
138     protocol which is used to authenticate tunnels and send encrypted data
139     packets. This protocol is described in more detail the second part of this
140     document.
141     .PP
142     The first part of this document describes the transport protocols which
143     are used by \s-1GVPE\s0 to send it's data packets over the network.
144 pcg 1.7 .SH "PART 1: Transport protocols"
145     .IX Header "PART 1: Transport protocols"
146 pcg 1.8 \&\s-1GVPE\s0 offers a wide range of transport protocols that can be used to
147     interchange data between nodes. Protocols differ in their overhead, speed,
148 pcg 1.3 reliability, and robustness.
149     .PP
150     The following sections describe each transport protocol in more
151     detail. They are sorted by overhead/efficiency, the most efficient
152 pcg 1.4 transport is listed first:
153 pcg 1.2 .Sh "\s-1RAW\s0 \s-1IP\s0"
154     .IX Subsection "RAW IP"
155 pcg 1.3 This protocol is the best choice, performance\-wise, as the minimum
156     overhead per packet is only 38 bytes.
157     .PP
158     It works by sending the \s-1VPN\s0 payload using raw ip frames (using the
159     protocol set by \f(CW\*(C`ip\-proto\*(C'\fR).
160     .PP
161     Using raw ip frames has the drawback that many firewalls block \*(L"unknown\*(R"
162     protocols, so this transport only works if you have full \s-1IP\s0 connectivity
163     between nodes.
164 pcg 1.2 .Sh "\s-1ICMP\s0"
165     .IX Subsection "ICMP"
166 pcg 1.3 This protocol offers very low overhead (minimum 42 bytes), and can
167 pcg 1.8 sometimes tunnel through firewalls when other protocols can not.
168 pcg 1.3 .PP
169 pcg 1.8 It works by prepending an \s-1ICMP\s0 header with type \f(CW\*(C`icmp\-type\*(C'\fR and a code
170 pcg 1.3 of \f(CW255\fR. The default \f(CW\*(C`icmp\-type\*(C'\fR is \f(CW\*(C`echo\-reply\*(C'\fR, so the resulting
171     packets look like echo replies, which looks rather strange to network
172     admins.
173     .PP
174     This transport should only be used if other transports (i.e. raw ip) are
175     not available or undesirable (due to their overhead).
176 pcg 1.2 .Sh "\s-1UDP\s0"
177     .IX Subsection "UDP"
178 pcg 1.3 This is a good general choice for the transport protocol as \s-1UDP\s0 packets
179     tunnel well through most firewalls and routers, and the overhead per
180     packet is moderate (minimum 58 bytes).
181     .PP
182     It should be used if \s-1RAW\s0 \s-1IP\s0 is not available.
183 pcg 1.2 .Sh "\s-1TCP\s0"
184     .IX Subsection "TCP"
185 pcg 1.3 This protocol is a very bad choice, as it not only has high overhead (more
186     than 60 bytes), but the transport also retries on it's own, which leads
187     to congestion when the link has moderate packet loss (as both the \s-1TCP\s0
188     transport and the tunneled traffic will retry, increasing congestion more
189     and more). It also has high latency and is quite inefficient.
190     .PP
191     It's only useful when tunneling through firewalls that block better
192     protocols. If a node doesn't have direct internet access but a \s-1HTTP\s0 proxy
193     that supports the \s-1CONNECT\s0 method it can be used to tunnel through a web
194     proxy. For this to work, the \f(CW\*(C`tcp\-port\*(C'\fR should be \f(CW443\fR (\f(CW\*(C`https\*(C'\fR), as
195     most proxies do not allow connections to other ports.
196     .PP
197     It is an abuse of the usage a proxy was designed for, so make sure you are
198     allowed to use it for \s-1GVPE\s0.
199     .PP
200 pcg 1.8 This protocol also has server and client sides. If the \f(CW\*(C`tcp\-port\*(C'\fR is
201     set to zero, other nodes cannot connect to this node directly. If the
202     \&\f(CW\*(C`tcp\-port\*(C'\fR is non\-zero, the node can act both as a client as well as a
203     server.
204 pcg 1.2 .Sh "\s-1DNS\s0"
205     .IX Subsection "DNS"
206 pcg 1.3 \&\fB\s-1WARNING:\s0\fR Parsing and generating \s-1DNS\s0 packets is rather tricky. The code
207     almost certainly contains buffer overflows and other, likely exploitable,
208     bugs. You have been warned.
209     .PP
210     This is the worst choice of transport protocol with respect to overhead
211     (overhead can be 2\-3 times higher than the transferred data), and latency
212     (which can be many seconds). Some \s-1DNS\s0 servers might not be prepared to
213     handle the traffic and drop or corrupt packets. The client also has to
214     constantly poll the server for data, so the client will constantly create
215     traffic even if it doesn't need to transport packets.
216     .PP
217     In addition, the same problems as the \s-1TCP\s0 transport also plague this
218     protocol.
219     .PP
220     It's only use is to tunnel through firewalls that do not allow direct
221     internet access. Similar to using a \s-1HTTP\s0 proxy (as the \s-1TCP\s0 transport
222     does), it uses a local \s-1DNS\s0 server/forwarder (given by the \f(CW\*(C`dns\-forw\-host\*(C'\fR
223     configuration value) as a proxy to send and receive data as a client,
224 pcg 1.8 and an \f(CW\*(C`NS\*(C'\fR record pointing to the \s-1GVPE\s0 server (as given by the
225 pcg 1.3 \&\f(CW\*(C`dns\-hostname\*(C'\fR directive).
226     .PP
227     The only good side of this protocol is that it can tunnel through most
228 pcg 1.8 firewalls mostly undetected, iff the local \s-1DNS\s0 server/forwarder is sane
229     (which is true for most routers, \s-1WLAN\s0 gateways and nameservers).
230     .PP
231     Finetuning needs to be done by editing \f(CW\*(C`src/vpn_dns.C\*(C'\fR directly.
232 pcg 1.2 .SH "PART 2: The GNU VPE protocol"
233     .IX Header "PART 2: The GNU VPE protocol"
234     This section, unfortunately, is not yet finished, although the protocol
235     is stable (until bugs in the cryptography are found, which will likely
236     completely change the following description). Nevertheless, it should give
237     you some overview over the protocol.
238 pcg 1.1 .Sh "Anatomy of a \s-1VPN\s0 packet"
239     .IX Subsection "Anatomy of a VPN packet"
240     The exact layout and field lengths of a \s-1VPN\s0 packet is determined at
241     compiletime and doesn't change. The same structure is used for all
242 pcg 1.2 transort protocols, be it \s-1RAWIP\s0 or \s-1TCP\s0.
243 pcg 1.1 .PP
244     .Vb 3
245 pcg 1.8 \& +\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+
246 pcg 1.1 \& | HMAC | TYPE | SRCDST | DATA |
247 pcg 1.8 \& +\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+
248 pcg 1.1 .Ve
249     .PP
250     The \s-1HMAC\s0 field is present in all packets, even if not used (e.g. in auth
251     request packets), in which case it is set to all zeroes. The checksum
252 pcg 1.2 itself is calculated over the \s-1TYPE\s0, \s-1SRCDST\s0 and \s-1DATA\s0 fields in all cases.
253 pcg 1.1 .PP
254     The \s-1TYPE\s0 field is a single byte and determines the purpose of the packet
255     (e.g. \s-1RESET\s0, \s-1COMPRESSED/UNCOMPRESSED\s0 \s-1DATA\s0, \s-1PING\s0, \s-1AUTH\s0 \s-1REQUEST/RESPONSE\s0,
256     \&\s-1CONNECT\s0 \s-1REQUEST/INFO\s0 etc.).
257     .PP
258     \&\s-1SRCDST\s0 is a three byte field which contains the source and destination
259 pcg 1.8 node IDs (12 bits each).
260 pcg 1.1 .PP
261     The \s-1DATA\s0 portion differs between each packet type, naturally, and is the
262     only part that can be encrypted. Data packets contain more fields, as
263     shown:
264     .PP
265     .Vb 3
266 pcg 1.8 \& +\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+
267 pcg 1.1 \& | HMAC | TYPE | SRCDST | RAND | SEQNO | DATA |
268 pcg 1.8 \& +\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-\-+\-\-\-\-\-\-+
269 pcg 1.1 .Ve
270     .PP
271     \&\s-1RAND\s0 is a sequence of fully random bytes, used to increase the entropy of
272     the data for encryption purposes.
273     .PP
274     \&\s-1SEQNO\s0 is a 32\-bit sequence number. It is negotiated at every connection
275     initialization and starts at some random 31 bit value. \s-1VPE\s0 currently uses
276 pcg 1.2 a sliding window of 512 packets/sequence numbers to detect reordering,
277 pcg 1.8 duplication and replay attacks.
278     .Sh "The authentication protocol"
279     .IX Subsection "The authentication protocol"
280 pcg 1.1 Before hosts can exchange packets, they need to establish authenticity of
281     the other side and a key. Every host has a private \s-1RSA\s0 key and the public
282     \&\s-1RSA\s0 keys of all other hosts.
283     .PP
284 pcg 1.8 A host establishes a simplex connection by sending the other host an
285 pcg 1.1 \&\s-1RSA\s0 encrypted challenge containing a random challenge (consisting of
286     the encryption key to use when sending packets, more random data and
287     \&\s-1PKCS1_OAEP\s0 padding) and a random 16 byte \*(L"challenge\-id\*(R" (used to detect
288     duplicate auth packets). The destination host will respond by replying
289     with an (unencrypted) \s-1RIPEMD160\s0 hash of the decrypted challenge, which
290 pcg 1.8 will authenticate that host. The destination host will also set the
291     outgoing encryption parameters as given in the packet.
292 pcg 1.1 .PP
293     When the source host receives a correct auth reply (by verifying the
294     hash and the id, which will expire after 120 seconds), it will start to
295     accept data packets from the destination host.
296     .PP
297     This means that a host can only initate a simplex connection, telling the
298     other side the key it has to use when it sends packets. The challenge
299 pcg 1.2 reply is only used to set the current \s-1IP\s0 address of the other side and
300     protocol parameters.
301 pcg 1.1 .PP
302 pcg 1.2 This protocol is completely symmetric, so to be able to send packets the
303     destination host must send a challenge in the exact same way as already
304     described (so, in essence, two simplex connections are created per host
305     pair).
306 pcg 1.1 .Sh "Retrying"
307     .IX Subsection "Retrying"
308     When there is no response to an auth request, the host will send auth
309     requests in bursts with an exponential backoff. After some time it will
310 pcg 1.2 resort to \s-1PING\s0 packets, which are very small (8 bytes) and lightweight
311     (no \s-1RSA\s0 operations required). A host that receives ping requests from an
312     unconnected peer will respond by trying to create a connection.
313 pcg 1.1 .PP
314     In addition to the exponential backoff, there is a global rate-limit on
315 pcg 1.2 a per-IP base. It allows long bursts but will limit total packet rate to
316 pcg 1.1 something like one control packet every ten seconds, to avoid accidental
317 pcg 1.2 floods due to protocol problems (like a \s-1RSA\s0 key file mismatch between two
318 pcg 1.1 hosts).
319     .Sh "Routing and Protocol translation"
320     .IX Subsection "Routing and Protocol translation"
321     The gvpe routing algorithm is easy: there isn't any routing. \s-1GVPE\s0 always
322     tries to establish direct connections, if the protocol abilities of the
323     two hosts allow it.
324     .PP
325     If the two hosts should be able to reach each other (common protocol, ip
326     and port all known), but cannot (network down), then there will be no
327     connection, point.
328     .PP
329     A host can usually declare itself unreachable directly by setting it's
330     port number(s) to zero. It can declare other hosts as unreachable by using
331     a config-file that disables all protocols for these other hosts.
332     .PP
333     If two hosts cannot connect to each other because their \s-1IP\s0 address(es)
334     are not known (such as dialup hosts), one side will send a connection
335     request to a router (routers must be configured to act as routers!), which
336     will send both the originating and the destination host a connection info
337     request with protocol information and \s-1IP\s0 address of the other host (if
338     known). Both hosts will then try to establish a connection to the other
339     peer, which is usually possible even when both hosts are behind a \s-1NAT\s0
340     gateway.
341     .PP
342     If the hosts cannot reach each other because they have no common protocol,
343     the originator instead use the router with highest priority and matching
344     protocol as peer. Since the \s-1SRCDST\s0 field is not encrypted, the router host
345     can just forward the packet to the destination host. Since each host uses
346     it's own private key, the router will not be able to decrypt or encrypt
347     packets, it will just act as a simple router and protocol translator.
348     .PP
349     When no router is connected, the host will aggressively try to connect to
350     all routers, and if a router is asked for an unconnected host it will try
351     to ask another router to establish the connection.
352     .PP
353     \&... more not yet written about the details of the routing, please bug me
354     \&...