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authorNick Mathewson <nickm@torproject.org>2007-07-10 17:27:33 +0000
committerNick Mathewson <nickm@torproject.org>2007-07-10 17:27:33 +0000
commit3194855bb807e9add1acafaf449590e001021e0a (patch)
treeef7ccf01073e0c05cdd6d5ab20d026c52c8e093e /proposals/117-ipv6-exits.txt
parent2721a2187afb23bd44bf0f048f535d7ac77d5999 (diff)
downloadtorspec-3194855bb807e9add1acafaf449590e001021e0a.tar.gz
torspec-3194855bb807e9add1acafaf449590e001021e0a.zip
r13674@catbus: nickm | 2007-07-10 13:27:30 -0400
Re-wrap proposal 117 so it fits in 80 columns. svn:r10784
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@@ -3,281 +3,301 @@ Proposal : IPv6 exit
Overview
Extend Tor for TCP exit via IPv6 transport and DNS resolution of IPv6
- addresses. This proposal does not imply any IPv6 support for OR traffic,
- only exit and name resolution.
+ addresses. This proposal does not imply any IPv6 support for OR
+ traffic, only exit and name resolution.
Contents
0. Motivation
- As the IPv4 address space becomes more scarce there is increasing effort to
- provide Internet services via the IPv6 protocol. Many hosts are available
- at IPv6 endpoints which are currently inaccessible for Tor users.
+ As the IPv4 address space becomes more scarce there is increasing
+ effort to provide Internet services via the IPv6 protocol. Many
+ hosts are available at IPv6 endpoints which are currently
+ inaccessible for Tor users.
- Extending Tor to support IPv6 exit streams and IPv6 DNS name resolution will
- allow users of the Tor network to access these hosts. This capability would
- be present for those who do not currently have IPv6 access, thus increasing
- the utility of Tor and furthering adoption of IPv6.
+ Extending Tor to support IPv6 exit streams and IPv6 DNS name
+ resolution will allow users of the Tor network to access these hosts.
+ This capability would be present for those who do not currently have
+ IPv6 access, thus increasing the utility of Tor and furthering
+ adoption of IPv6.
1. Design
1.1. General design overview
- There are three main components to this proposal. The first is a method for
- routers to advertise their ability to exit IPv6 traffic. The second is the
- manner in which routers resolve names to IPv6 addresses. Last but not least
- is the method in which clients communicate with Tor to resolve and connect
- to IPv6 endpoints anonymously.
+ There are three main components to this proposal. The first is a
+ method for routers to advertise their ability to exit IPv6 traffic.
+ The second is the manner in which routers resolve names to IPv6
+ addresses. Last but not least is the method in which clients
+ communicate with Tor to resolve and connect to IPv6 endpoints
+ anonymously.
1.2. Router IPv6 exit support
- In order to specify exit policies and IPv6 capability new directives in the
- Tor configuration will be needed. If a router advertises IPv6 exit policies
- in its descriptor this will signal the ability to provide IPv6 exit. There
- are a number of additional default deny rules associated with this new
- address space which are detailed in the addendum.
+ In order to specify exit policies and IPv6 capability new directives
+ in the Tor configuration will be needed. If a router advertises IPv6
+ exit policies in its descriptor this will signal the ability to
+ provide IPv6 exit. There are a number of additional default deny
+ rules associated with this new address space which are detailed in
+ the addendum.
- When Tor is started on a host it should check for the presence of a global
- unicast address, [2000::]/3, and if present include the default IPv6 exit
- policies and any user specified IPv6 exit policies.
+ When Tor is started on a host it should check for the presence of a
+ global unicast address, [2000::]/3, and if present include the
+ default IPv6 exit policies and any user specified IPv6 exit policies.
- If a user provides IPv6 exit policies but no global unicast address is
- available Tor should generate a warning and not publish the IPv6 policy in
- the router descriptor.
+ If a user provides IPv6 exit policies but no global unicast address
+ is available Tor should generate a warning and not publish the IPv6
+ policy in the router descriptor.
It should be noted that IPv4 mapped IPv6 addresses are not valid exit
- destinations. This mechanism is mainly used to interoperate with both IPv4
- and IPv6 clients on the same socket. Any attempts to use an IPv4 mapped
- IPv6 address, perhaps to circumvent exit policy for IPv4, must be refused.
+ destinations. This mechanism is mainly used to interoperate with
+ both IPv4 and IPv6 clients on the same socket. Any attempts to use
+ an IPv4 mapped IPv6 address, perhaps to circumvent exit policy for
+ IPv4, must be refused.
1.3. DNS name resolution of IPv6 addresses (AAAA records)
- In addition to exit support for IPv6 TCP connections, a method to resolve
- domain names to their respective IPv6 addresses is also needed. This is
- accomplished in the existing DNS system via AAAA records. Routers will
- perform both A and AAAA requests when resolving a name so that the client can
- utilize an IPv6 endpoint when available or preferred.
+ In addition to exit support for IPv6 TCP connections, a method to
+ resolve domain names to their respective IPv6 addresses is also
+ needed. This is accomplished in the existing DNS system via AAAA
+ records. Routers will perform both A and AAAA requests when
+ resolving a name so that the client can utilize an IPv6 endpoint when
+ available or preferred.
- To avoid potential problems with caching DNS servers that behave poorly all
- NXDOMAIN responses to AAAA requests should be ignored if a successful
- response is received for an A request. This implies that both AAAA and A
- requests will always be performed for each name resolution.
+ To avoid potential problems with caching DNS servers that behave
+ poorly all NXDOMAIN responses to AAAA requests should be ignored if a
+ successful response is received for an A request. This implies that
+ both AAAA and A requests will always be performed for each name
+ resolution.
- For reverse lookups on IPv6 addresses, like that used for RESOLVE_PTR, Tor
- will perform the necessary PTR requests via IP6.ARPA.
+ For reverse lookups on IPv6 addresses, like that used for
+ RESOLVE_PTR, Tor will perform the necessary PTR requests via
+ IP6.ARPA.
- All routers which perform DNS resolution on behalf of clients (RELAY_RESOLVE)
- should perform and respond with both A and AAAA resources.
+ All routers which perform DNS resolution on behalf of clients
+ (RELAY_RESOLVE) should perform and respond with both A and AAAA
+ resources.
1.4. Client interaction with IPv6 exit capability
1.4.1. Usability goals
- There are a number of behaviors which Tor can provide when interacting with
- clients that will improve the usability of IPv6 exit capability. These
- behaviors are designed to make it simple for clients to express a preference
- for IPv6 transport and utilize IPv6 host services.
+ There are a number of behaviors which Tor can provide when
+ interacting with clients that will improve the usability of IPv6 exit
+ capability. These behaviors are designed to make it simple for
+ clients to express a preference for IPv6 transport and utilize IPv6
+ host services.
1.4.2. SOCKSv5 IPv6 client behavior
- The SOCKS version 5 protocol supports IPv6 connections. When using SOCKSv5
- with hostnames it is difficult to determine if a client wishes to use an IPv4
- or IPv6 address to connect to the desired host if it resolves to both address
- types.
+ The SOCKS version 5 protocol supports IPv6 connections. When using
+ SOCKSv5 with hostnames it is difficult to determine if a client
+ wishes to use an IPv4 or IPv6 address to connect to the desired host
+ if it resolves to both address types.
- In order to make this more intuitive the SOCKSv5 protocol can be supported on
- a local IPv6 endpoint, [::1] port 9050 for example. When a client requests
- a connection to the desired host via an IPv6 SOCKS connection Tor will prefer
- IPv6 addresses when resolving the host name and connecting to the host.
+ In order to make this more intuitive the SOCKSv5 protocol can be
+ supported on a local IPv6 endpoint, [::1] port 9050 for example.
+ When a client requests a connection to the desired host via an IPv6
+ SOCKS connection Tor will prefer IPv6 addresses when resolving the
+ host name and connecting to the host.
- Likewise, RESOLVE and RESOLVE_PTR requests from an IPv6 SOCKS connection will
- return IPv6 addresses when available, and fall back to IPv4 addresses if not.
+ Likewise, RESOLVE and RESOLVE_PTR requests from an IPv6 SOCKS
+ connection will return IPv6 addresses when available, and fall back
+ to IPv4 addresses if not.
1.4.3. MAPADDRESS behavior
- The MAPADDRESS capability supports clients that may not be able to use the
- SOCKSv4a or SOCKSv5 hostname support to resolve names via Tor. This ability
- should be extended to IPv6 addresses in SOCKSv5 as well.
-
- When a client requests an address mapping from the wildcard IPv6 address,
- [::0], the server will respond with a unique local IPv6 address on success.
- It is important to note that there may be two mappings for the same name
- if both an IPv4 and IPv6 address are associated with the host. In this case
- a CONNECT to a mapped IPv6 address should prefer IPv6 for the connection to
- the host, if available, while CONNECT to a mapped IPv4 address will prefer
- IPv4.
-
- It should be noted that IPv6 does not provide the concept of a host local
- subnet, like 127.0.0.0/8 in IPv4. For this reason integration of Tor with
- IPv6 clients should consider a firewall or filter rule to drop unique
- local addresses to or from the network when possible. These packets should
- not be routed, however, keeping them off the subnet entirely is worthwhile.
+ The MAPADDRESS capability supports clients that may not be able to
+ use the SOCKSv4a or SOCKSv5 hostname support to resolve names via
+ Tor. This ability should be extended to IPv6 addresses in SOCKSv5 as
+ well.
+
+ When a client requests an address mapping from the wildcard IPv6
+ address, [::0], the server will respond with a unique local IPv6
+ address on success. It is important to note that there may be two
+ mappings for the same name if both an IPv4 and IPv6 address are
+ associated with the host. In this case a CONNECT to a mapped IPv6
+ address should prefer IPv6 for the connection to the host, if
+ available, while CONNECT to a mapped IPv4 address will prefer IPv4.
+
+ It should be noted that IPv6 does not provide the concept of a host
+ local subnet, like 127.0.0.0/8 in IPv4. For this reason integration
+ of Tor with IPv6 clients should consider a firewall or filter rule to
+ drop unique local addresses to or from the network when possible.
+ These packets should not be routed, however, keeping them off the
+ subnet entirely is worthwhile.
1.4.3.1. Generating unique local IPv6 addresses
- The usual manner of generating a unique local IPv6 address is to select a
- Global ID part randomly, along with a Subnet ID, and sharing this prefix
- among the communicating parties who each have their own distinct Interface
- ID. In this style a given Tor instance might select a random Global and
- Subnet ID and provide MAPADDRESS assignments with a random Interface ID as
- needed. This has the potential to associate unique Global/Subnet identifiers
- with a given Tor instance and may expose attacks against the anonymity of Tor
+ The usual manner of generating a unique local IPv6 address is to
+ select a Global ID part randomly, along with a Subnet ID, and sharing
+ this prefix among the communicating parties who each have their own
+ distinct Interface ID. In this style a given Tor instance might
+ select a random Global and Subnet ID and provide MAPADDRESS
+ assignments with a random Interface ID as needed. This has the
+ potential to associate unique Global/Subnet identifiers with a given
+ Tor instance and may expose attacks against the anonymity of Tor
users.
- Tor avoid this potential problem entirely MAPADDRESS must always generate the
- Global, Subnet, and Interface IDs randomly for each request. It is also
- highly suggested that explicitly specifying an IPv6 source address instead of
- the wildcard address not be supported to ensure that a good random address is
- used.
+ Tor avoid this potential problem entirely MAPADDRESS must always
+ generate the Global, Subnet, and Interface IDs randomly for each
+ request. It is also highly suggested that explicitly specifying an
+ IPv6 source address instead of the wildcard address not be supported
+ to ensure that a good random address is used.
1.4.4. DNSProxy IPv6 client behavior
- A new capability in recent Tor versions is the transparent DNS proxy. This
- feature will need to return both A and AAAA resource records when responding
- to client name resolution requests.
+ A new capability in recent Tor versions is the transparent DNS proxy.
+ This feature will need to return both A and AAAA resource records
+ when responding to client name resolution requests.
- The transparent DNS proxy should also support reverse lookups for IPv6
- addresses. It is suggested that any such requests to the deprecated IP6.INT
- domain should be translated to IP6.ARPA instead. This translation is not
- likely to be used and is of low priority.
+ The transparent DNS proxy should also support reverse lookups for
+ IPv6 addresses. It is suggested that any such requests to the
+ deprecated IP6.INT domain should be translated to IP6.ARPA instead.
+ This translation is not likely to be used and is of low priority.
- It would be nice to support DNS over IPv6 transport as well, however, this
- is not likely to be used and is of low priority.
+ It would be nice to support DNS over IPv6 transport as well, however,
+ this is not likely to be used and is of low priority.
1.4.5. TransPort IPv6 client behavior
- Tor also provides transparent TCP proxy support via the Trans* directives in
- the configuration. The TransListenAddress directive should accept an IPv6
- address in addition to IPv4 so that IPv6 TCP connections can be transparently
- proxied.
+ Tor also provides transparent TCP proxy support via the Trans*
+ directives in the configuration. The TransListenAddress directive
+ should accept an IPv6 address in addition to IPv4 so that IPv6 TCP
+ connections can be transparently proxied.
1.5. Additional changes
- The RedirectExit option should be deprecated rather than extending this
- feature to IPv6.
+ The RedirectExit option should be deprecated rather than extending
+ this feature to IPv6.
2. Spec changes
2.1. Tor specification
- In '6.2. Opening streams and transferring data' the following should be
- changed to indicate IPv6 exit capability:
+ In '6.2. Opening streams and transferring data' the following should
+ be changed to indicate IPv6 exit capability:
"No version of Tor currently generates the IPv6 format."
- In '6.4. Remote hostname lookup' the following should be updated to reflect
- use of ip6.arpa in addition to in-addr.arpa.
+ In '6.4. Remote hostname lookup' the following should be updated to
+ reflect use of ip6.arpa in addition to in-addr.arpa.
"For a reverse lookup, the OP sends a RELAY_RESOLVE cell containing an
in-addr.arpa address."
- In 'A.1. Differences between spec and implementation' the following should
- be updated to indicate IPv6 exit capability:
+ In 'A.1. Differences between spec and implementation' the following
+ should be updated to indicate IPv6 exit capability:
"The current codebase has no IPv6 support at all."
2.2. Directory specification
- In '2.1. Router descriptor format' a new set of directives is needed for
- IPv6 exit policy. The existing accept/reject directives should be
- clarified to indicate IPv4 or wildcard address relevance. The new IPv6
- directives will be in the form of:
+ In '2.1. Router descriptor format' a new set of directives is needed
+ for IPv6 exit policy. The existing accept/reject directives should
+ be clarified to indicate IPv4 or wildcard address relevance. The new
+ IPv6 directives will be in the form of:
"accept6" exitpattern NL
"reject6" exitpattern NL
- The section describing accept6/reject6 should explain that the presence
- of accept6 or reject6 exit policies in a router descriptor signals the
- ability of that router to exit IPv6 traffic (according to IPv6 exit
- policies).
+ The section describing accept6/reject6 should explain that the
+ presence of accept6 or reject6 exit policies in a router descriptor
+ signals the ability of that router to exit IPv6 traffic (according to
+ IPv6 exit policies).
- The "[::]/0" notation is used to represent "all IPv6 addresses". "[::0]/0"
- may also be used for this representation.
+ The "[::]/0" notation is used to represent "all IPv6 addresses".
+ "[::0]/0" may also be used for this representation.
- If a user specifies a 'reject6 [::]/0:*' policy in the Tor configuration this
- will be interpreted as forcing no IPv6 exit support and no accept6/reject6
- policies will be included in the published descriptor. This will prevent
- IPv6 exit if the router host has a global unicast IPv6 address present.
+ If a user specifies a 'reject6 [::]/0:*' policy in the Tor
+ configuration this will be interpreted as forcing no IPv6 exit
+ support and no accept6/reject6 policies will be included in the
+ published descriptor. This will prevent IPv6 exit if the router host
+ has a global unicast IPv6 address present.
- It is important to note that a wildcard address in an accept or reject policy
- applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
+ It is important to note that a wildcard address in an accept or
+ reject policy applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
2.3. Control specification
- In '3.8. MAPADDRESS' the potential to have to addresses for a given name
- should be explained. The method for generating unique local addresses
- for IPv6 mappings needs explanation as described above.
+ In '3.8. MAPADDRESS' the potential to have to addresses for a given
+ name should be explained. The method for generating unique local
+ addresses for IPv6 mappings needs explanation as described above.
When IPv6 addresses are used in this document they should include the
- brackets for consistency. For example, the null IPv6 address should be
- written as "[::0]" and not "::0". The control commands will expect the
- same syntax as well.
+ brackets for consistency. For example, the null IPv6 address should
+ be written as "[::0]" and not "::0". The control commands will
+ expect the same syntax as well.
- In '3.9. GETINFO' the "address" command should return both public IPv4 and
- IPv6 addresses if present. These addresses should be separated via \r\n.
+ In '3.9. GETINFO' the "address" command should return both public
+ IPv4 and IPv6 addresses if present. These addresses should be
+ separated via \r\n.
2.4. Tor SOCKS extensions
- In '2. Name lookup' a description of IPv6 address resolution is needed for
- SOCKSv5 as described above. IPv6 addresses should be supported in both the
- RESOLVE and RESOLVE_PTR extensions.
+ In '2. Name lookup' a description of IPv6 address resolution is
+ needed for SOCKSv5 as described above. IPv6 addresses should be
+ supported in both the RESOLVE and RESOLVE_PTR extensions.
- A new section describing the ability to accept SOCKSv5 clients on a local
- IPv6 address to indicate a preference for IPv6 transport as described above
- is also needed. The behavior of Tor SOCKSv5 proxy with an IPv6 preference
- should be explained, for example, preferring IPv6 transport to a named host
- with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses available (A and AAAA records).
+ A new section describing the ability to accept SOCKSv5 clients on a
+ local IPv6 address to indicate a preference for IPv6 transport as
+ described above is also needed. The behavior of Tor SOCKSv5 proxy
+ with an IPv6 preference should be explained, for example, preferring
+ IPv6 transport to a named host with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
+ available (A and AAAA records).
3. Questions and concerns
3.1. DNS A6 records
- A6 is explicitly avoided in this document. There are potential reasons for
- implementing this, however, the inherent complexity of the protocol and
- resolvers make this unappealing. Is there a compelling reason to consider
- A6 as part of IPv6 exit support?
+ A6 is explicitly avoided in this document. There are potential
+ reasons for implementing this, however, the inherent complexity of
+ the protocol and resolvers make this unappealing. Is there a
+ compelling reason to consider A6 as part of IPv6 exit support?
3.2. IPv4 and IPv6 preference
- The design above tries to infer a preference for IPv4 or IPv6 transport
- based on client interactions with Tor. It might be useful to provide
- more explicit control over this preference. For example, an IPv4 SOCKSv5
- client may want to use IPv6 transport to named hosts in CONNECT requests
- while the current implementation would assume an IPv4 preference. Should
- more explicit control be available, through either configuration directives
- or control commands?
+ The design above tries to infer a preference for IPv4 or IPv6
+ transport based on client interactions with Tor. It might be useful
+ to provide more explicit control over this preference. For example,
+ an IPv4 SOCKSv5 client may want to use IPv6 transport to named hosts
+ in CONNECT requests while the current implementation would assume an
+ IPv4 preference. Should more explicit control be available, through
+ either configuration directives or control commands?
- This can be worked around by resolving names and then CONNECTing to an IPv4
- or IPv6 address as desired, however, not all client applications may have
- this option available.
+ This can be worked around by resolving names and then CONNECTing to
+ an IPv4 or IPv6 address as desired, however, not all client
+ applications may have this option available.
3.3. Support for IPv6 only clients
It may be useful to support IPv6 only clients using IPv4 mapped IPv6
- addresses. This would require transparent DNS proxy using IPv6
+ addresses. This would require transparent DNS proxy using IPv6
transport and the ability to map A record responses into IPv4 mapped
- IPv6 addresses. The transparent TCP proxy would thus need to detect these
- mapped addresses and connect to the desired IPv4 host.
+ IPv6 addresses. The transparent TCP proxy would thus need to detect
+ these mapped addresses and connect to the desired IPv4 host.
- The relative lack of any IPv6 only hosts or applications makes this a lot of
- work for very little gain. Is there a compelling reason to support this
- capability?
+ The relative lack of any IPv6 only hosts or applications makes this a
+ lot of work for very little gain. Is there a compelling reason to
+ support this capability?
3.4. IPv6 DNS and older Tor routers
- It is expected that many routers will continue to run with older versions of
- Tor when the IPv6 exit capability is released. Clients who wish to use IPv6
- will need to route RELAY_RESOLVE requests to the newer routers which will
- respond with both A and AAAA resource records when possible.
+ It is expected that many routers will continue to run with older
+ versions of Tor when the IPv6 exit capability is released. Clients
+ who wish to use IPv6 will need to route RELAY_RESOLVE requests to the
+ newer routers which will respond with both A and AAAA resource
+ records when possible.
- One way to do this is to route RELAY_RESOLVE requests to routers with IPv6
- exit policies published, however, this would not utilize current routers
- that can resolve IPv6 addresses even if they can't exit such traffic.
+ One way to do this is to route RELAY_RESOLVE requests to routers with
+ IPv6 exit policies published, however, this would not utilize current
+ routers that can resolve IPv6 addresses even if they can't exit such
+ traffic.
4. Addendum