[Starlink] Measuring the Satellite Links of a LEO Network

[Alexandre Petrescu]

sorry, it could be that I have it on the wrong side.

If VRRP and starlink like to have that IPv6 LL address with ff:fe 
inside, and always constant, so be it.  There might be some reasons for 
it to be that way.

Alex

Le 13/02/2024 à 18:44, Alexandre Petrescu via Starlink a écrit :
>
> Le 13/02/2024 à 18:12, J Pan a écrit :
>> yes, the mac for fe80::200:5eff:fe00:101 is 00:00:5e:00:01:01 (a
>> virtual mac used by the virtual router redundancy protocol commonly
>> used by service providers in point-of-presence?)
>
> maybe they should rather use the IPv6 anycast concept?
>
> Alex
>
>> -- 
>> J Pan, UVic CSc, ECS566, 250-472-5796 (NO VM), Pan at UVic.CA, 
>> Web.UVic.CA/~pan
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 6:14 AM Alexandre Petrescu via Starlink
>> <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>>> this is an issue for 6MAN WG at IETF, but this is the text with the
>>> issue in the paper:
>>>
>>>>  From the user device or customer router at 192.168.1.1,
>>>> we can reach its GS gateway at 100.64.0.1 (or equivalently
>>>> fe80::200:5eff:fe00:101 for IPv6)
>>> That IPv6 link-local address has an 'ff:fe' in it; the prefix is 'fe80'
>>> and the rest is an 'Interface ID', in RFC parlance.
>>>
>>> That IID should be more random in its appearance.  It is called an
>>> 'opaque' IID, and specified in RFC 7217 "Stable and Opaque IIDs with
>>> SLAAC" of year 2014.
>>>
>>> That IPv6 address corresponds to earlier forms of these IIDs 
>>> (RFC2464 of
>>> year 1998); they had that IID to be derived from a 48bit MAC address 
>>> and
>>> inserted an 'ff:fe' string in it to become 64bit.
>>>
>>> Most embedded linux platforms (v2.x kernels?) still use that ff:fe.
>>> Migrating these kernels is sometimes very difficult.  One might not 
>>> want
>>> to migrate an kernel to a bloated and slower v3 or higher just for that
>>> little 'ff:fe'.  Maybe one wants to migrate just its IPv6 stack, but
>>> it's not easy.
>>>
>>> The reason of making this IID more opaque is to resist scanning
>>> attacks.  A scanning attack is when a user might have somehow an
>>> illegitimate starlink terminal and tries to connect to the legitimate
>>> starlink network.  Part of that trying is to know the IP address of the
>>> next hop.  With IPv6 it comes down to testing all these addresses.  If
>>> they have a constant 'ff:fe' in them, it is easier to find them by 
>>> brute
>>> force than if they were opaque.  It is also true that if in IPv4 that
>>> next hop is always the same then the easiest attack is to simply use
>>> IPv4 instead of IPv6.  But this 'opaqueness' of the IID in the IPv6 ll
>>> address might still be needed when IPv4 is get rid of.
>>>
>>> This could be discussed at IETF, could be suggested to starlink to
>>> upgrade, etc.
>>>
>>> Alex
>>>
>>> Le 12/02/2024 à 07:59, J Pan via Starlink a écrit :
>>>> http://pan.uvic.ca/webb/viewtopic.php?p=124670#p124670 to appear at
>>>> ieee icc 2024. feedback welcome, especially during the camera-ready
>>>> stage this week. thanks!  -j
>>>> -- 
>>>> J Pan, UVic CSc, ECS566, 250-472-5796 (NO VM), Pan at UVic.CA, 
>>>> Web.UVic.CA/~pan
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