Exploiting Cross-Layer Vulnerabilities: Off-Path Attacks on the TCP/IP Protocol Suite

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Feng, Xuewei, Li, Qi, Sun, Kun, Xu, Ke, Wu, Jianping
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Feng, Xuewei
Li, Qi
Sun, Kun
Xu, Ke
Wu, Jianping
author_facet Feng, Xuewei
Li, Qi
Sun, Kun
Xu, Ke
Wu, Jianping
contents After more than 40 years of development, the fundamental TCP/IP protocol suite, serving as the backbone of the Internet, is widely recognized for having achieved an elevated level of robustness and security. Distinctively, we take a new perspective to investigate the security implications of cross-layer interactions within the TCP/IP protocol suite caused by ICMP error messages. Through a comprehensive analysis of interactions among Wi-Fi, IP, ICMP, UDP, and TCP due to ICMP errors, we uncover several significant vulnerabilities, including information leakage, desynchronization, semantic gaps, and identity spoofing. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by off-path attackers to manipulate network traffic stealthily, affecting over 20% of popular websites and more than 89% of public Wi-Fi networks, thus posing risks to the Internet. By responsibly disclosing these vulnerabilities to affected vendors and proposing effective countermeasures, we enhance the robustness of the TCP/IP protocol suite, receiving acknowledgments from well-known organizations such as the Linux community, the OpenWrt community, the FreeBSD community, Wi-Fi Alliance, Qualcomm, HUAWEI, China Telecom, Alibaba, and H3C.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_09895
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exploiting Cross-Layer Vulnerabilities: Off-Path Attacks on the TCP/IP Protocol Suite
Feng, Xuewei
Li, Qi
Sun, Kun
Xu, Ke
Wu, Jianping
Cryptography and Security
After more than 40 years of development, the fundamental TCP/IP protocol suite, serving as the backbone of the Internet, is widely recognized for having achieved an elevated level of robustness and security. Distinctively, we take a new perspective to investigate the security implications of cross-layer interactions within the TCP/IP protocol suite caused by ICMP error messages. Through a comprehensive analysis of interactions among Wi-Fi, IP, ICMP, UDP, and TCP due to ICMP errors, we uncover several significant vulnerabilities, including information leakage, desynchronization, semantic gaps, and identity spoofing. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by off-path attackers to manipulate network traffic stealthily, affecting over 20% of popular websites and more than 89% of public Wi-Fi networks, thus posing risks to the Internet. By responsibly disclosing these vulnerabilities to affected vendors and proposing effective countermeasures, we enhance the robustness of the TCP/IP protocol suite, receiving acknowledgments from well-known organizations such as the Linux community, the OpenWrt community, the FreeBSD community, Wi-Fi Alliance, Qualcomm, HUAWEI, China Telecom, Alibaba, and H3C.
title Exploiting Cross-Layer Vulnerabilities: Off-Path Attacks on the TCP/IP Protocol Suite
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.09895