draft-ietf-v6ops-ipv6-ehs-packet-drops-00.txt

IPv6 Operations Working Group (v6ops)                            F. Gont
Internet-Draft                                              SI6 Networks
Intended status: Informational                               N. Hilliard
Expires: February 1, 2021                                           INEX
                                                              G. Doering
                                                             SpaceNet AG
                                                               W. Kumari
                                                                  Google
                                                               G. Huston
                                                                   APNIC
                                                                  W. Liu
                                                     Huawei Technologies
                                                           July 31, 2020


    Operational Implications of IPv6 Packets with Extension Headers
               draft-ietf-v6ops-ipv6-ehs-packet-drops-00

Abstract

   This document summarizes the operational implications of IPv6
   extension headers, and attempts to analyze reasons why packets with
   IPv6 extension headers may be dropped in the public Internet.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on February 1, 2021.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 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



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   (https://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
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Disclaimer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Previous Work on IPv6 Extension Headers . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Packet Forwarding Engine Constraints  . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Requirement to Process Layer-3/layer-4 information in
       Intermediate Systems  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     5.1.  ECMP and Hash-based Load-Sharing  . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     5.2.  Enforcing infrastructure ACLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     5.3.  DDoS Management and Customer Requests for Filtering . . .   7
   6.  Operational Implications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.1.  Inability to Find Layer-4 Information . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.2.  Route-Processor Protection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.3.  Inability to Perform Fine-grained Filtering . . . . . . .   8
     6.4.  Security Concerns Associated with IPv6 Extension Headers    8
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   9.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15

1.  Introduction

   IPv6 Extension Headers (EHs) allow for the extension of the IPv6
   protocol, and provide support for core functionality such as IPv6
   fragmentation.  However, common implementation limitations suggest
   that EHs present a challenge for IPv6 packet routing equipment and
   middle-boxes, and evidence exists that IPv6 packets with EHs may be
   intentionally dropped in the public Internet in some network
   deployments.

   The authors of this document have been involved in numerous
   discussions about IPv6 extension headers (both within the IETF and in
   other fora), and have noticed that the security and operational
   implications associated with IPv6 EHs were unknown to the larger
   audience participating in these discussions.




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   This document has the following goals:

   o  Raise awareness about the operational and security implications of
      IPv6 Extension Headers, and presents reasons why some networks may
      intentionally drop packets containing IPv6 Extension Headers.

   o  Highlight areas where current IPv6 support by networking devices
      maybe sub-optimal, such that the aforementioned support is
      improved.

   o  Highlight operational issues associated with IPv6 extension
      headers, such that those issues are considered in IETF
      standardization efforts.

   Section 3 of this document summarizes the previous work that has been
   carried out in the area of IPv6 extension headers.  Section 4
   discuses packet forwarding engine constraints in modern routers.
   Section 5 discusses why modern routers and middle-boxes may need to
   access Layer-4 information to make a forwarding decision.  Finally,
   Section 6 discusses the operational implications of IPv6 EHs.

2.  Disclaimer

   This document analyzes the operational challenges represented by
   packets that employ IPv6 Extension Headers, and documents some of the
   operational reasons for which these packets may be dropped in the
   public Internet.  This document IS NOT a recommendation to drop such
   packets, but rather an analysis of why they are dropped.

3.  Previous Work on IPv6 Extension Headers

   Some of the operational implications of IPv6 Extension Headers have
   been discussed in IETF circles:

   o  [I-D.taylor-v6ops-fragdrop] discusses a rationale for which
      operators drop IPv6 fragments.

   o  [I-D.wkumari-long-headers] discusses possible issues arising from
      "long" IPv6 header chains.

   o  [I-D.kampanakis-6man-ipv6-eh-parsing] describes how
      inconsistencies in the way IPv6 packets with extension headers are
      parsed by different implementations may result in evasion of
      security controls, and presents guidelines for parsing IPv6
      extension headers with the goal of providing a common and
      consistent parsing methodology for IPv6 implementations.





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   o  [I-D.ietf-opsec-ipv6-eh-filtering] analyzes the security
      implications of IPv6 EHs, and the operational implications of
      dropping packets that employ IPv6 EHs and associated options.

   o  [RFC7113] discusses how some popular RA-Guard implementations are
      subject to evasion by means of IPv6 extension headers.

   o  [I-D.ietf-intarea-frag-fragile] analyzes the fragility introduced
      by IP fragmentation.

   A number of recent RFCs have discussed issues related to IPv6
   extension headers, specifying updates to a previous revision of the
   IPv6 standard ([RFC2460]), many of which have now been incorporated
   into the current IPv6 core standard ([RFC8200]) or the IPv6 Node
   Requirements ([RFC8504]).  Namely,

   o  [RFC5095] discusses the security implications of Routing Header
      Type 0 (RTH0), and deprecates it.

   o  [RFC5722] analyzes the security implications of overlapping
      fragments, and provides recommendations in this area.

   o  [RFC7045] clarifies how intermediate nodes should deal with IPv6
      extension headers.

   o  [RFC7112] discusses the issues arising in a specific fragmentation
      case where the IPv6 header chain is fragmented into two or more
      fragments (and formally forbids such fragmentation case).

   o  [RFC6946] discusses a flawed (but common) processing of the so-
      called IPv6 "atomic fragments", and specified improved processing
      of such packets.

   o  [RFC8021] deprecates the generation of IPv6 atomic fragments.

   o  [RFC8504] clarifies processing rules for packets with extension
      headers, and also allows hosts to enforce limits on the number of
      options included in IPv6 EHs.

   o  [RFC7739] discusses the security implications of predictable
      fragment Identification values, and provides recommendations for
      the generation of these values.

   o  [RFC6980] analyzes the security implications of employing IPv6
      fragmentation with Neighbor Discovery for IPv6, and formally
      recommends against such usage.





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   Additionally, [RFC8200] has relaxed the requirement that "all nodes
   examine and process the Hop-by-Hop Options header" from [RFC2460], by
   specifying that only to nodes that have been explicitly configured to
   process the Hop-by-Hop Options header are required to do so.

   A number of studies have measured the extent to which packets
   employing IPv6 extension headers are dropped in the public Internet:

   o  [PMTUD-Blackholes], [Gont-IEPG88], [Gont-Chown-IEPG89], and
      [Linkova-Gont-IEPG90] presented some preliminary measurements
      regarding the extent to which packet containing IPv6 EHs are
      dropped in the public Internet.

   o  [RFC7872] presents more comprehensive results and documents the
      methodology for obtaining the presented results.

   o  [Huston-2017] and [Huston-2020] measured packet drops resulting
      from IPv6 fragmentation when communicating with DNS servers.

4.  Packet Forwarding Engine Constraints

   Most modern routers use dedicated hardware (e.g.  ASICs or NPUs) to
   determine how to forward packets across their internal fabrics (see
   [IEPG94-Scudder] and [APNIC-Scudder] for details).  One of the common
   methods of handling next-hop lookup is to send a small portion of the
   ingress packet to a lookup engine with specialised hardware (e.g.
   ternary CAM or RLDRAM) to determine the packet's next-hop.  Technical
   constraints mean that there is a trade-off between the amount of data
   sent to the lookup engine and the overall performance of the lookup
   engine.  If more data is sent, the lookup engine can inspect further
   into the packet, but the overall performance of the system will be
   reduced.  If less data is sent, the overall performance of the router
   will be increased but the packet lookup engine may not be able to
   inspect far enough into a packet to determine how it should be
   handled.

   NOTE:
      For example, current high-end routers can use up to 192 bytes of
      header (Cisco ASR9000 Typhoon) or 384 bytes of header (Juniper MX
      Trio).

   If a hardware forwarding engine on a modern router cannot make a
   forwarding decision about a packet because critical information is
   not sent to the look-up engine, then the router will normally drop
   the packet.

   NOTE:




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      Section 5 discusses some of the reasons for which a modern router
      might need to access layer-4 information to make a forwarding
      decision.

   Historically, some packet forwarding engines punted packets of this
   form to the control plane for more in-depth analysis, but this is
   unfeasible on most current router architectures as a result of the
   vast difference between the hardware forwarding capacity of the
   router and processing capacity of the control plane and the size of
   the management link which connects the control plane to the
   forwarding plane.

   If an IPv6 header chain is sufficiently long that its header exceeds
   the packet look-up capacity of the router, then it may be dropped due
   to hardware inability to determine how it should be handled.

5.  Requirement to Process Layer-3/layer-4 information in Intermediate
    Systems

   The following subsections discuss some of reasons for which modern
   routers and middle-boxes may need to process Layer-3/layer-4
   information to make a forwarding decision.

5.1.  ECMP and Hash-based Load-Sharing

   In the case of ECMP (equal cost multi path) load sharing, the router
   on the sending side of the link needs to make a decision regarding
   which of the links to use for a given packet.  Since round-robin
   usage of the links is usually avoided in order to prevent packet
   reordering, forwarding engines need to use a mechanism which will
   consistently forward the same data streams down the same forwarding
   paths.  Most forwarding engines achieve this by calculating a simple
   hash using an n-tuple gleaned from a combination of layer-2 through
   to layer-4 packet header information.  This n-tuple will typically
   use the src/dst MAC address, src/dst IP address, and if possible
   further layer-4 src/dst port information.  As layer-4 port
   information increases the entropy of the hash, it is normally highly
   desirable to use it where possible.

   We note that in the IPv6 world, flows are expected to be identified
   by means of the IPv6 Flow Label [RFC6437].  Thus, ECMP and Hash-based
   Load-Sharing would be possible without the need to process the entire
   IPv6 header chain to obtain upper-layer information to identify
   flows.  However, we note that for a long time many IPv6
   implementations failed to set the Flow Label, and ECMP and Hash-based
   Load-Sharing devices also did not employ the Flow Label for
   performing their task.




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   Clearly, widespread support of [RFC6437] would relieve middle-boxes
   from having to process the entire IPv6 header chain, making Flow
   Label-based ECMP and Hash-based Load-Sharing [RFC6438] feasible.

   While support of [RFC6437] is currently widespread for current
   versions of all popular host implementations, there is still only
   marginal usage of the IPv6 Flow Label for ECMP and load balancing
   [Cunha-2020] -- possibly as a result of issues that have been found
   in host implementations and middle-boxes [Jaeggli-2018].

5.2.  Enforcing infrastructure ACLs

   Generally speaking, infrastructure ACLs (iACLs) drop unwanted packets
   destined to parts of a provider's infrastructure, because they are
   not operationally needed and can be used for attacks of different
   sorts against the router's control plane.  Some traffic needs to be
   differentiated depending on layer-3 or layer-4 criteria to achieve a
   useful balance of protection and functionality, for example:

   o  Permit some amount of ICMP echo (ping) traffic towards the
      router's addresses for troubleshooting.

   o  Permit BGP sessions on the shared network of an exchange point
      (potentially differentiating between the amount of packets/seconds
      permitted for established sessions and connection establishment),
      but do not permit other traffic from the same peer IP addresses.

5.3.  DDoS Management and Customer Requests for Filtering

   The case of customer DDoS protection and edge-to-core customer
   protection filters is similar in nature to the infrastructure ACL
   protection.  Similar to infrastructure ACL protection, layer-4 ACLs
   generally need to be applied as close to the edge of the network as
   possible, even though the intent is usually to protect the customer
   edge rather than the provider core.  Application of layer-4 DDoS
   protection to a network edge is often automated using Flowspec
   [RFC5575].

   For example, a web site which normally only handled traffic on TCP
   ports 80 and 443 could be subject to a volumetric DDoS attack using
   NTP and DNS packets with randomised source IP address, thereby
   rendering traditional [RFC5635] source-based real-time black hole
   mechanisms useless.  In this situation, DDoS protection ACLs could be
   configured to block all UDP traffic at the network edge without
   impairing the web server functionality in any way.  Thus, being able
   to block arbitrary protocols at the network edge can avoid DDoS-
   related problems both in the provider network and on the customer
   edge link.



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6.  Operational Implications

6.1.  Inability to Find Layer-4 Information

   As discussed in Section 5, modern routers and middle-boxes that need
   to find the layer-4 header must process the entire IPv6 extension
   header chain.  When such devices are unable to obtain the required
   information, they may simply resort to dropping the corresponding
   packets.

6.2.  Route-Processor Protection

   Most modern routers have a fast hardware-assisted forwarding plane
   and a loosely coupled control plane, connected together with a link
   that has much less capacity than the forwarding plane could handle.
   Traffic differentiation cannot be done by the control plane side,
   because this would overload the internal link connecting the
   forwarding plane to the control plane.

   The Hop-by-Hop Options header has been particularly challenging
   since, in most (if not all) implementations, it has typically caused
   the corresponding packet to be punted to a software path.  As a
   result, operators usually drop IPv6 packets containing this extension
   header.  Please see [RFC6192] for advice regarding protection of the
   router control plane.

6.3.  Inability to Perform Fine-grained Filtering

   Some router implementations lack fine-grained filtering of IPv6
   extension headers.  For example, an operator may want to drop packets
   containing Routing Header Type 0 (RHT0) but may only be able to
   filter on the extension header type (Routing Header).  As a result,
   the operator may end up enforcing a more coarse filtering policy
   (e.g. "drop all packets containing a Routing Header" vs. "only drop
   packets that contain a Routing Header Type 0").

6.4.  Security Concerns Associated with IPv6 Extension Headers

   The security implications of IPv6 Extension Headers generally fall
   into one or more of these categories:

   o  Evasion of security controls

   o  DoS due to processing requirements

   o  DoS due to implementation errors

   o  Extension Header-specific issues



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   Unlike IPv4 packets where the upper-layer protocol can be trivially
   found by means of the "IHL" ("Internet Header Length") IPv4 header
   field, the structure of IPv6 packets is more flexible and complex,
   and may represent a challenge for devices that need to find this
   information, since locating upper-layer protocol information requires
   that all IPv6 extension headers be examined.  This has presented
   implementation difficulties, and packet filtering mechanisms that
   require upper-layer information (even if just the upper layer
   protocol type) have been found to be trivially evasible by inserting
   IPv6 Extension Headers between the main IPv6 header and the upper
   layer protocol.  [RFC7113] describes this issue for the RA-Guard
   case, but the same techniques can be employed to circumvent other
   IPv6 firewall and packet filtering mechanisms.  Additionally,
   implementation inconsistencies in packet forwarding engines may
   result in evasion of security controls
   [I-D.kampanakis-6man-ipv6-eh-parsing] [Atlasis2014] [BH-EU-2014].

   Packets that use IPv6 Extension Headers may have a negative
   performance impact on the handling devices.  Unless appropriate
   mitigations are put in place (e.g., packet dropping and/or rate-
   limiting), an attacker could simply send a large amount of IPv6
   traffic employing IPv6 Extension Headers with the purpose of
   performing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack (see Section 6 for
   further details).

   NOTE:
      In the most trivial case, a packet that includes a Hop-by-Hop
      Options header might go through the slow forwarding path, and be
      processed by the router's CPU.  Another possible case might be
      that in which a router that has been configured to enforce an ACL
      based on upper-layer information (e.g., upper layer protocol or
      TCP Destination Port), needs to process the entire IPv6 header
      chain (in order to find the required information), causing the
      packet to be processed in the slow path [Cisco-EH-Cons].  We note
      that, for obvious reasons, the aforementioned performance issues
      may affect other devices such as firewalls, Network Intrusion
      Detection Systems (NIDS), etc.  [Zack-FW-Benchmark].  The extent
      to which these devices are affected is typically implementation-
      dependent.

   IPv6 implementations, like all other software, tend to mature with
   time and wide-scale deployment.  While the IPv6 protocol itself has
   existed for over 20 years, serious bugs related to IPv6 Extension
   Header processing continue to be discovered.  Because there is
   currently little operational reliance on IPv6 Extension headers, the
   corresponding code paths are rarely exercised, and there is the
   potential for bugs that still remain to be discovered in some
   implementations.



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   IPv6 Fragment Headers are employed to allow fragmentation of IPv6
   packets.  While many of the security implications of the
   fragmentation / reassembly mechanism are known from the IPv4 world,
   several related issues have crept into IPv6 implementations.  These
   range from denial of service attacks to information leakage, as
   discussed in [RFC7739], [Bonica-NANOG58] and [Atlasis2012]).

7.  IANA Considerations

   There are no IANA registries within this document.  The RFC-Editor
   can remove this section before publication of this document as an
   RFC.

8.  Security Considerations

   The security implications of IPv6 extension headers are discussed in
   Section 6.4.  This document does not introduce any new security
   issues.

9.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank (in alphabetical order) Mikael
   Abrahamsson, Fred Baker, Brian Carpenter, Tim Chown, Owen DeLong, Tom
   Herbert, Lee Howard, Sander Steffann, Eduard Vasilenko, Eric Vyncke,
   Jingrong Xie, and Andrew Yourtchenko, for providing valuable comments
   on earlier versions of this document.

   Fernando Gont would like to thank Jan Zorz / Go6 Lab
   <http://go6lab.si/>, Jared Mauch, and Sander Steffann
   <http://steffann.nl/>, for providing access to systems and networks
   that were employed to perform experiments and measurements involving
   packets with IPv6 Extension Headers.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2460]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, DOI 10.17487/RFC2460,
              December 1998, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2460>.

   [RFC5095]  Abley, J., Savola, P., and G. Neville-Neil, "Deprecation
              of Type 0 Routing Headers in IPv6", RFC 5095,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5095, December 2007,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5095>.






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   [RFC5722]  Krishnan, S., "Handling of Overlapping IPv6 Fragments",
              RFC 5722, DOI 10.17487/RFC5722, December 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5722>.

   [RFC6946]  Gont, F., "Processing of IPv6 "Atomic" Fragments",
              RFC 6946, DOI 10.17487/RFC6946, May 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6946>.

   [RFC6980]  Gont, F., "Security Implications of IPv6 Fragmentation
              with IPv6 Neighbor Discovery", RFC 6980,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6980, August 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6980>.

   [RFC7112]  Gont, F., Manral, V., and R. Bonica, "Implications of
              Oversized IPv6 Header Chains", RFC 7112,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7112, January 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7112>.

   [RFC8021]  Gont, F., Liu, W., and T. Anderson, "Generation of IPv6
              Atomic Fragments Considered Harmful", RFC 8021,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8021, January 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8021>.

   [RFC8200]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
              (IPv6) Specification", STD 86, RFC 8200,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8200, July 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8200>.

   [RFC8504]  Chown, T., Loughney, J., and T. Winters, "IPv6 Node
              Requirements", BCP 220, RFC 8504, DOI 10.17487/RFC8504,
              January 2019, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8504>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [APNIC-Scudder]
              Scudder, J., "Modern router architecture and IPv6",  APNIC
              Blog, June 4, 2020, <https://blog.apnic.net/2020/06/04/
              modern-router-architecture-and-ipv6/>.

   [Atlasis2012]
              Atlasis, A., "Attacking IPv6 Implementation Using
              Fragmentation",  BlackHat Europe 2012. Amsterdam,
              Netherlands. March 14-16, 2012,
              <https://media.blackhat.com/bh-eu-12/Atlasis/bh-eu-12-
              Atlasis-Attacking_IPv6-Slides.pdf>.






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   [Atlasis2014]
              Atlasis, A., "A Novel Way of Abusing IPv6 Extension
              Headers to Evade IPv6 Security Devices", May 2014,
              <http://www.insinuator.net/2014/05/a-novel-way-of-abusing-
              ipv6-extension-headers-to-evade-ipv6-security-devices/>.

   [BH-EU-2014]
              Atlasis, A., Rey, E., and R. Schaefer, "Evasion of High-
              End IDPS Devices at the IPv6 Era",  BlackHat Europe 2014,
              2014, <https://www.ernw.de/download/eu-14-Atlasis-Rey-
              Schaefer-briefings-Evasion-of-HighEnd-IPS-Devices-wp.pdf>.

   [Bonica-NANOG58]
              Bonica, R., "IPv6 Extension Headers in the Real World
              v2.0",  NANOG 58. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. June 3-5,
              2013, <https://www.nanog.org/sites/default/files/
              mon.general.fragmentation.bonica.pdf>.

   [Cisco-EH-Cons]
              Cisco, "IPv6 Extension Headers Review and Considerations",
              October 2006,
              <http://www.cisco.com/en/US/technologies/tk648/tk872/
              technologies_white_paper0900aecd8054d37d.pdf>.

   [Cunha-2020]
              Cunha, I., "IPv4 vs IPv6 load balancing in Internet
              routes",  NPS/CAIDA 2020 Virtual IPv6 Workshop, 2020,
              <https://www.cmand.org/workshops/202006-v6/slides/
              cunha.pdf>.

   [Gont-Chown-IEPG89]
              Gont, F. and T. Chown, "A Small Update on the Use of IPv6
              Extension Headers", IEPG 89. London, UK. March 2, 2014,
              <http://www.iepg.org/2014-03-02-ietf89/fgont-iepg-ietf89-
              eh-update.pdf>.

   [Gont-IEPG88]
              Gont, F., "Fragmentation and Extension header Support in
              the IPv6 Internet",  IEPG 88. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
              November 13, 2013, <http://www.iepg.org/2013-11-ietf88/
              fgont-iepg-ietf88-ipv6-frag-and-eh.pdf>.

   [Huston-2017]
              Huston, G., "Dealing with IPv6 fragmentation in the
              DNS",  APNIC Blog, 2017,
              <https://blog.apnic.net/2017/08/22/dealing-ipv6-
              fragmentation-dns/>.




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   [Huston-2020]
              Huston, G., "Measurement of IPv6 Extension Header
              Support",  NPS/CAIDA 2020 Virtual IPv6 Workshop, 2020,
              <https://www.cmand.org/workshops/202006-v6/
              slides/2020-06-16-xtn-hdrs.pdf>.

   [I-D.ietf-intarea-frag-fragile]
              Bonica, R., Baker, F., Huston, G., Hinden, R., Troan, O.,
              and F. Gont, "IP Fragmentation Considered Fragile", draft-
              ietf-intarea-frag-fragile-17 (work in progress), September
              2019.

   [I-D.ietf-opsec-ipv6-eh-filtering]
              Gont, F. and W. LIU, "Recommendations on the Filtering of
              IPv6 Packets Containing IPv6 Extension Headers", draft-
              ietf-opsec-ipv6-eh-filtering-06 (work in progress), July
              2018.

   [I-D.kampanakis-6man-ipv6-eh-parsing]
              Kampanakis, P., "Implementation Guidelines for parsing
              IPv6 Extension Headers", draft-kampanakis-6man-ipv6-eh-
              parsing-01 (work in progress), August 2014.

   [I-D.taylor-v6ops-fragdrop]
              Jaeggli, J., Colitti, L., Kumari, W., Vyncke, E., Kaeo,
              M., and T. Taylor, "Why Operators Filter Fragments and
              What It Implies", draft-taylor-v6ops-fragdrop-02 (work in
              progress), December 2013.

   [I-D.wkumari-long-headers]
              Kumari, W., Jaeggli, J., Bonica, R., and J. Linkova,
              "Operational Issues Associated With Long IPv6 Header
              Chains", draft-wkumari-long-headers-03 (work in progress),
              June 2015.

   [IEPG94-Scudder]
              Petersen, B. and J. Scudder, "Modern Router Architecture
              for Protocol Designers",  IEPG 94. Yokohama, Japan.
              November 1, 2015, <http://www.iepg.org/2015-11-01-ietf94/
              IEPG-RouterArchitecture-jgs.pdf>.

   [Jaeggli-2018]
              Jaeggli, G., "Dealing with IPv6 fragmentation in the
              DNS",  APNIC Blog, 2018,
              <https://blog.apnic.net/2018/01/11/ipv6-flow-label-misuse-
              hashing/>.





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   [Linkova-Gont-IEPG90]
              Linkova, J. and F. Gont, "IPv6 Extension Headers in the
              Real World v2.0",  IEPG 90. Toronto, ON, Canada. July 20,
              2014, <http://www.iepg.org/2014-07-20-ietf90/iepg-
              ietf90-ipv6-ehs-in-the-real-world-v2.0.pdf>.

   [PMTUD-Blackholes]
              De Boer, M. and J. Bosma, "Discovering Path MTU black
              holes on the Internet using RIPE Atlas", July 2012,
              <http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/downloads/publications/pmtu-
              black-holes-msc-thesis.pdf>.

   [RFC5575]  Marques, P., Sheth, N., Raszuk, R., Greene, B., Mauch, J.,
              and D. McPherson, "Dissemination of Flow Specification
              Rules", RFC 5575, DOI 10.17487/RFC5575, August 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5575>.

   [RFC5635]  Kumari, W. and D. McPherson, "Remote Triggered Black Hole
              Filtering with Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF)",
              RFC 5635, DOI 10.17487/RFC5635, August 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5635>.

   [RFC6192]  Dugal, D., Pignataro, C., and R. Dunn, "Protecting the
              Router Control Plane", RFC 6192, DOI 10.17487/RFC6192,
              March 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6192>.

   [RFC6437]  Amante, S., Carpenter, B., Jiang, S., and J. Rajahalme,
              "IPv6 Flow Label Specification", RFC 6437,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6437, November 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6437>.

   [RFC6438]  Carpenter, B. and S. Amante, "Using the IPv6 Flow Label
              for Equal Cost Multipath Routing and Link Aggregation in
              Tunnels", RFC 6438, DOI 10.17487/RFC6438, November 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6438>.

   [RFC7045]  Carpenter, B. and S. Jiang, "Transmission and Processing
              of IPv6 Extension Headers", RFC 7045,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7045, December 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7045>.

   [RFC7113]  Gont, F., "Implementation Advice for IPv6 Router
              Advertisement Guard (RA-Guard)", RFC 7113,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7113, February 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7113>.






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   [RFC7739]  Gont, F., "Security Implications of Predictable Fragment
              Identification Values", RFC 7739, DOI 10.17487/RFC7739,
              February 2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7739>.

   [RFC7872]  Gont, F., Linkova, J., Chown, T., and W. Liu,
              "Observations on the Dropping of Packets with IPv6
              Extension Headers in the Real World", RFC 7872,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7872, June 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7872>.

   [Zack-FW-Benchmark]
              Zack, E., "Firewall Security Assessment and Benchmarking
              IPv6 Firewall Load Tests",  IPv6 Hackers Meeting #1,
              Berlin, Germany. June 30, 2013,
              <http://www.ipv6hackers.org/meetings/ipv6-hackers-1/zack-
              ipv6hackers1-firewall-security-assessment-and-
              benchmarking.pdf>.

Authors' Addresses

   Fernando Gont
   SI6 Networks
   Segurola y Habana 4310, 7mo Piso
   Villa Devoto, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires
   Argentina

   Email: fgont@si6networks.com
   URI:   https://www.si6networks.com


   Nick Hilliard
   INEX
   4027 Kingswood Road
   Dublin  24
   IE

   Email: nick@inex.ie


   Gert Doering
   SpaceNet AG
   Joseph-Dollinger-Bogen 14
   Muenchen  D-80807
   Germany

   Email: gert@space.net





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   Warren Kumari
   Google
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View, CA  94043
   US

   Email: warren@kumari.net


   Geoff Huston

   Email: gih@apnic.net
   URI:   http://www.apnic.net


   Will (Shucheng) Liu
   Huawei Technologies
   Bantian, Longgang District
   Shenzhen  518129
   P.R. China

   Email: liushucheng@huawei.com





























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