Subject: [nfsv4] RFC 7258: Pervasive Monitoring Is an Attack (May 2014)

From: "McDonald, Alex" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:11:26 +0000

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7258.txt

   Pervasive Monitoring (PM) is widespread (and often covert)
   surveillance through intrusive gathering of protocol artefacts,
   including application content, or protocol metadata such as headers.
   Active or passive wiretaps and traffic analysis, (e.g., correlation,
   timing or measuring packet sizes), or subverting the cryptographic
   keys used to secure protocols can also be used as part of pervasive
   monitoring.  PM is distinguished by being indiscriminate and very
   large scale, rather than by introducing new types of technical
   compromise.

...

   Those developing IETF specifications need to be able to describe how

   they have considered PM, and, if the attack is relevant to the work

   to be published, be able to justify related design decisions.  This

   does not mean a new "pervasive monitoring considerations" section is

   needed in IETF documentation.  It means that, if asked, there needs

   to be a good answer to the question "Is pervasive monitoring relevant

   to this work and if so, how has it been considered?"

   In particular, architectural decisions, including which existing

   technology is reused, may significantly impact the vulnerability of a

   protocol to PM.  Those developing IETF specifications therefore need

   to consider mitigating PM when making architectural decisions.

   Getting adequate, early review of architectural decisions including

   whether appropriate mitigation of PM can be made is important.

   Revisiting these architectural decisions late in the process is very

   costly.

Alex McDonald
Standards & Industry Associations Group
CTO Office
NetApp
+44 7795 046686 Mobile Phone
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
twitter: @alextangent<http://twitter.com/alextangent>
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