Techniques for the Detection of Faulty Packet Header Modifications
Abstract
Understanding, measuring, and debugging IP networks, particularly across administrative domains, is challenging. Compounding the problem are transparent in-path appliances and middleboxes that can be difficult to manage and sometimes left out-of-date or misconfigured. As a result, packet headers can be modified in unexpected ways, negatively impacting end-to-end performance. We discuss the impact of such packet header modifications, present an array of techniques for their detection, and define strategies to add tamper-evident protection to our detection techniques. We select a solution for implementation into the Linux TCP stack and use it to examine real-world Internet paths. We discover various instances of in-path modifications and extract lessons learned from them to help drive future design efforts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 12, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA601669
Entities
People
- Mark Allman
- Robert Beverly
- Ryan Craven
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School