7 Network Working Group E. Rescorla
8 Request for Comments: 4347 RTFM, Inc.
9 Category: Standards Track N. Modadugu
14 Datagram Transport Layer Security
19 This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
20 Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
21 improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
22 Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
23 and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
27 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
31 This document specifies Version 1.0 of the Datagram Transport Layer
32 Security (DTLS) protocol. The DTLS protocol provides communications
33 privacy for datagram protocols. The protocol allows client/server
34 applications to communicate in a way that is designed to prevent
35 eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery. The DTLS protocol is
36 based on the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol and provides
37 equivalent security guarantees. Datagram semantics of the underlying
38 transport are preserved by the DTLS protocol.
42 1. Introduction ....................................................2
43 1.1. Requirements Terminology ...................................3
44 2. Usage Model .....................................................3
45 3. Overview of DTLS ................................................4
46 3.1. Loss-Insensitive Messaging .................................4
47 3.2. Providing Reliability for Handshake ........................4
48 3.2.1. Packet Loss .........................................5
49 3.2.2. Reordering ..........................................5
50 3.2.3. Message Size ........................................5
51 3.3. Replay Detection ...........................................6
52 4. Differences from TLS ............................................6
53 4.1. Record Layer ...............................................6
54 4.1.1. Transport Layer Mapping .............................7
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60 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
63 4.1.1.1. PMTU Discovery .............................8
64 4.1.2. Record Payload Protection ...........................9
65 4.1.2.1. MAC ........................................9
66 4.1.2.2. Null or Standard Stream Cipher .............9
67 4.1.2.3. Block Cipher ..............................10
68 4.1.2.4. New Cipher Suites .........................10
69 4.1.2.5. Anti-replay ...............................10
70 4.2. The DTLS Handshake Protocol ...............................11
71 4.2.1. Denial of Service Countermeasures ..................11
72 4.2.2. Handshake Message Format ...........................13
73 4.2.3. Message Fragmentation and Reassembly ...............15
74 4.2.4. Timeout and Retransmission .........................15
75 4.2.4.1. Timer Values ..............................18
76 4.2.5. ChangeCipherSpec ...................................19
77 4.2.6. Finished Messages ..................................19
78 4.2.7. Alert Messages .....................................19
79 4.3. Summary of new syntax .....................................19
80 4.3.1. Record Layer .......................................20
81 4.3.2. Handshake Protocol .................................20
82 5. Security Considerations ........................................21
83 6. Acknowledgements ...............................................22
84 7. IANA Considerations ............................................22
85 8. References .....................................................22
86 8.1. Normative References ......................................22
87 8.2. Informative References ....................................23
91 TLS [TLS] is the most widely deployed protocol for securing network
92 traffic. It is widely used for protecting Web traffic and for e-mail
93 protocols such as IMAP [IMAP] and POP [POP]. The primary advantage
94 of TLS is that it provides a transparent connection-oriented channel.
95 Thus, it is easy to secure an application protocol by inserting TLS
96 between the application layer and the transport layer. However, TLS
97 must run over a reliable transport channel -- typically TCP [TCP].
98 It therefore cannot be used to secure unreliable datagram traffic.
100 However, over the past few years an increasing number of application
101 layer protocols have been designed that use UDP transport. In
102 particular protocols such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
103 [SIP] and electronic gaming protocols are increasingly popular.
104 (Note that SIP can run over both TCP and UDP, but that there are
105 situations in which UDP is preferable). Currently, designers of
106 these applications are faced with a number of unsatisfactory choices.
107 First, they can use IPsec [RFC2401]. However, for a number of
108 reasons detailed in [WHYIPSEC], this is only suitable for some
109 applications. Second, they can design a custom application layer
110 security protocol. SIP, for instance, uses a subset of S/MIME to
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116 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
119 secure its traffic. Unfortunately, although application layer
120 security protocols generally provide superior security properties
121 (e.g., end-to-end security in the case of S/MIME), they typically
122 requires a large amount of effort to design -- in contrast to the
123 relatively small amount of effort required to run the protocol over
126 In many cases, the most desirable way to secure client/server
127 applications would be to use TLS; however, the requirement for
128 datagram semantics automatically prohibits use of TLS. Thus, a
129 datagram-compatible variant of TLS would be very desirable. This
130 memo describes such a protocol: Datagram Transport Layer Security
131 (DTLS). DTLS is deliberately designed to be as similar to TLS as
132 possible, both to minimize new security invention and to maximize the
133 amount of code and infrastructure reuse.
135 1.1. Requirements Terminology
137 In this document, the keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED",
138 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", and "MAY" are to be interpreted as described
143 The DTLS protocol is designed to secure data between communicating
144 applications. It is designed to run in application space, without
145 requiring any kernel modifications.
147 Datagram transport does not require or provide reliable or in-order
148 delivery of data. The DTLS protocol preserves this property for
149 payload data. Applications such as media streaming, Internet
150 telephony, and online gaming use datagram transport for communication
151 due to the delay-sensitive nature of transported data. The behavior
152 of such applications is unchanged when the DTLS protocol is used to
153 secure communication, since the DTLS protocol does not compensate for
154 lost or re-ordered data traffic.
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177 The basic design philosophy of DTLS is to construct "TLS over
178 datagram". The reason that TLS cannot be used directly in datagram
179 environments is simply that packets may be lost or reordered. TLS
180 has no internal facilities to handle this kind of unreliability, and
181 therefore TLS implementations break when rehosted on datagram
182 transport. The purpose of DTLS is to make only the minimal changes
183 to TLS required to fix this problem. To the greatest extent
184 possible, DTLS is identical to TLS. Whenever we need to invent new
185 mechanisms, we attempt to do so in such a way that preserves the
188 Unreliability creates problems for TLS at two levels:
190 1. TLS's traffic encryption layer does not allow independent
191 decryption of individual records. If record N is not received,
192 then record N+1 cannot be decrypted.
194 2. The TLS handshake layer assumes that handshake messages are
195 delivered reliably and breaks if those messages are lost.
197 The rest of this section describes the approach that DTLS uses to
198 solve these problems.
200 3.1. Loss-Insensitive Messaging
202 In TLS's traffic encryption layer (called the TLS Record Layer),
203 records are not independent. There are two kinds of inter-record
206 1. Cryptographic context (CBC state, stream cipher key stream) is
207 chained between records.
209 2. Anti-replay and message reordering protection are provided by a
210 MAC that includes a sequence number, but the sequence numbers are
211 implicit in the records.
213 The fix for both of these problems is straightforward and well known
214 from IPsec ESP [ESP]: add explicit state to the records. TLS 1.1
215 [TLS11] is already adding explicit CBC state to TLS records. DTLS
216 borrows that mechanism and adds explicit sequence numbers.
218 3.2. Providing Reliability for Handshake
220 The TLS handshake is a lockstep cryptographic handshake. Messages
221 must be transmitted and received in a defined order, and any other
222 order is an error. Clearly, this is incompatible with reordering and
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231 message loss. In addition, TLS handshake messages are potentially
232 larger than any given datagram, thus creating the problem of
233 fragmentation. DTLS must provide fixes for both of these problems.
237 DTLS uses a simple retransmission timer to handle packet loss. The
238 following figure demonstrates the basic concept, using the first
239 phase of the DTLS handshake:
245 X<-- HelloVerifyRequest
253 Once the client has transmitted the ClientHello message, it expects
254 to see a HelloVerifyRequest from the server. However, if the
255 server's message is lost the client knows that either the ClientHello
256 or the HelloVerifyRequest has been lost and retransmits. When the
257 server receives the retransmission, it knows to retransmit. The
258 server also maintains a retransmission timer and retransmits when
261 Note: timeout and retransmission do not apply to the
262 HelloVerifyRequest, because this requires creating state on the
267 In DTLS, each handshake message is assigned a specific sequence
268 number within that handshake. When a peer receives a handshake
269 message, it can quickly determine whether that message is the next
270 message it expects. If it is, then it processes it. If not, it
271 queues it up for future handling once all previous messages have been
276 TLS and DTLS handshake messages can be quite large (in theory up to
277 2^24-1 bytes, in practice many kilobytes). By contrast, UDP
278 datagrams are often limited to <1500 bytes if fragmentation is not
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287 desired. In order to compensate for this limitation, each DTLS
288 handshake message may be fragmented over several DTLS records. Each
289 DTLS handshake message contains both a fragment offset and a fragment
290 length. Thus, a recipient in possession of all bytes of a handshake
291 message can reassemble the original unfragmented message.
293 3.3. Replay Detection
295 DTLS optionally supports record replay detection. The technique used
296 is the same as in IPsec AH/ESP, by maintaining a bitmap window of
297 received records. Records that are too old to fit in the window and
298 records that have previously been received are silently discarded.
299 The replay detection feature is optional, since packet duplication is
300 not always malicious, but can also occur due to routing errors.
301 Applications may conceivably detect duplicate packets and accordingly
302 modify their data transmission strategy.
304 4. Differences from TLS
306 As mentioned in Section 3, DTLS is intentionally very similar to TLS.
307 Therefore, instead of presenting DTLS as a new protocol, we present
308 it as a series of deltas from TLS 1.1 [TLS11]. Where we do not
309 explicitly call out differences, DTLS is the same as in [TLS11].
313 The DTLS record layer is extremely similar to that of TLS 1.1. The
314 only change is the inclusion of an explicit sequence number in the
315 record. This sequence number allows the recipient to correctly
316 verify the TLS MAC. The DTLS record format is shown below:
320 ProtocolVersion version;
321 uint16 epoch; // New field
322 uint48 sequence_number; // New field
324 opaque fragment[DTLSPlaintext.length];
328 Equivalent to the type field in a TLS 1.1 record.
331 The version of the protocol being employed. This document
332 describes DTLS Version 1.0, which uses the version { 254, 255
333 }. The version value of 254.255 is the 1's complement of DTLS
334 Version 1.0. This maximal spacing between TLS and DTLS version
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343 numbers ensures that records from the two protocols can be
344 easily distinguished. It should be noted that future on-the-wire
345 version numbers of DTLS are decreasing in value (while the true
346 version number is increasing in value.)
349 A counter value that is incremented on every cipher state
353 The sequence number for this record.
356 Identical to the length field in a TLS 1.1 record. As in TLS
357 1.1, the length should not exceed 2^14.
360 Identical to the fragment field of a TLS 1.1 record.
362 DTLS uses an explicit sequence number, rather than an implicit one,
363 carried in the sequence_number field of the record. As with TLS, the
364 sequence number is set to zero after each ChangeCipherSpec message is
367 If several handshakes are performed in close succession, there might
368 be multiple records on the wire with the same sequence number but
369 from different cipher states. The epoch field allows recipients to
370 distinguish such packets. The epoch number is initially zero and is
371 incremented each time the ChangeCipherSpec messages is sent. In
372 order to ensure that any given sequence/epoch pair is unique,
373 implementations MUST NOT allow the same epoch value to be reused
374 within two times the TCP maximum segment lifetime. In practice, TLS
375 implementations rarely rehandshake and we therefore do not expect
376 this to be a problem.
378 4.1.1. Transport Layer Mapping
380 Each DTLS record MUST fit within a single datagram. In order to
381 avoid IP fragmentation [MOGUL], DTLS implementations SHOULD determine
382 the MTU and send records smaller than the MTU. DTLS implementations
383 SHOULD provide a way for applications to determine the value of the
384 PMTU (or, alternately, the maximum application datagram size, which
385 is the PMTU minus the DTLS per-record overhead). If the application
386 attempts to send a record larger than the MTU, the DTLS
387 implementation SHOULD generate an error, thus avoiding sending a
388 packet which will be fragmented.
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399 Note that unlike IPsec, DTLS records do not contain any association
400 identifiers. Applications must arrange to multiplex between
401 associations. With UDP, this is presumably done with host/port
404 Multiple DTLS records may be placed in a single datagram. They are
405 simply encoded consecutively. The DTLS record framing is sufficient
406 to determine the boundaries. Note, however, that the first byte of
407 the datagram payload must be the beginning of a record. Records may
410 Some transports, such as DCCP [DCCP] provide their own sequence
411 numbers. When carried over those transports, both the DTLS and the
412 transport sequence numbers will be present. Although this introduces
413 a small amount of inefficiency, the transport layer and DTLS sequence
414 numbers serve different purposes, and therefore for conceptual
415 simplicity it is superior to use both sequence numbers. In the
416 future, extensions to DTLS may be specified that allow the use of
417 only one set of sequence numbers for deployment in constrained
420 Some transports, such as DCCP, provide congestion control for traffic
421 carried over them. If the congestion window is sufficiently narrow,
422 DTLS handshake retransmissions may be held rather than transmitted
423 immediately, potentially leading to timeouts and spurious
424 retransmission. When DTLS is used over such transports, care should
425 be taken not to overrun the likely congestion window. In the future,
426 a DTLS-DCCP mapping may be specified to provide optimal behavior for
429 4.1.1.1. PMTU Discovery
431 In general, DTLS's philosophy is to avoid dealing with PMTU issues.
432 The general strategy is to start with a conservative MTU and then
433 update it if events during the handshake or actual application data
434 transport phase require it.
436 The PMTU SHOULD be initialized from the interface MTU that will be
437 used to send packets. If the DTLS implementation receives an RFC
438 1191 [RFC1191] ICMP Destination Unreachable message with the
439 "fragmentation needed and DF set" Code (otherwise known as Datagram
440 Too Big), it should decrease its PMTU estimate to that given in the
441 ICMP message. A DTLS implementation SHOULD allow the application to
442 occasionally reset its PMTU estimate. The DTLS implementation SHOULD
443 also allow applications to control the status of the DF bit. These
444 controls allow the application to perform PMTU discovery. RFC 1981
445 [RFC1981] procedures SHOULD be followed for IPv6.
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455 One special case is the DTLS handshake system. Handshake messages
456 should be set with DF set. Because some firewalls and routers screen
457 out ICMP messages, it is difficult for the handshake layer to
458 distinguish packet loss from an overlarge PMTU estimate. In order to
459 allow connections under these circumstances, DTLS implementations
460 SHOULD back off handshake packet size during the retransmit backoff
461 described in Section 4.2.4. For instance, if a large packet is being
462 sent, after 3 retransmits the handshake layer might choose to
463 fragment the handshake message on retransmission. In general, choice
464 of a conservative initial MTU will avoid this problem.
466 4.1.2. Record Payload Protection
468 Like TLS, DTLS transmits data as a series of protected records. The
469 rest of this section describes the details of that format.
473 The DTLS MAC is the same as that of TLS 1.1. However, rather than
474 using TLS's implicit sequence number, the sequence number used to
475 compute the MAC is the 64-bit value formed by concatenating the epoch
476 and the sequence number in the order they appear on the wire. Note
477 that the DTLS epoch + sequence number is the same length as the TLS
480 TLS MAC calculation is parameterized on the protocol version number,
481 which, in the case of DTLS, is the on-the-wire version, i.e., {254,
484 Note that one important difference between DTLS and TLS MAC handling
485 is that in TLS MAC errors must result in connection termination. In
486 DTLS, the receiving implementation MAY simply discard the offending
487 record and continue with the connection. This change is possible
488 because DTLS records are not dependent on each other in the way that
491 In general, DTLS implementations SHOULD silently discard data with
492 bad MACs. If a DTLS implementation chooses to generate an alert when
493 it receives a message with an invalid MAC, it MUST generate
494 bad_record_mac alert with level fatal and terminate its connection
497 4.1.2.2. Null or Standard Stream Cipher
499 The DTLS NULL cipher is performed exactly as the TLS 1.1 NULL cipher.
501 The only stream cipher described in TLS 1.1 is RC4, which cannot be
502 randomly accessed. RC4 MUST NOT be used with DTLS.
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511 4.1.2.3. Block Cipher
513 DTLS block cipher encryption and decryption are performed exactly as
516 4.1.2.4. New Cipher Suites
518 Upon registration, new TLS cipher suites MUST indicate whether they
519 are suitable for DTLS usage and what, if any, adaptations must be
524 DTLS records contain a sequence number to provide replay protection.
525 Sequence number verification SHOULD be performed using the following
526 sliding window procedure, borrowed from Section 3.4.3 of [RFC 2402].
528 The receiver packet counter for this session MUST be initialized to
529 zero when the session is established. For each received record, the
530 receiver MUST verify that the record contains a Sequence Number that
531 does not duplicate the Sequence Number of any other record received
532 during the life of this session. This SHOULD be the first check
533 applied to a packet after it has been matched to a session, to speed
534 rejection of duplicate records.
536 Duplicates are rejected through the use of a sliding receive window.
537 (How the window is implemented is a local matter, but the following
538 text describes the functionality that the implementation must
539 exhibit.) A minimum window size of 32 MUST be supported, but a
540 window size of 64 is preferred and SHOULD be employed as the default.
541 Another window size (larger than the minimum) MAY be chosen by the
542 receiver. (The receiver does not notify the sender of the window
545 The "right" edge of the window represents the highest validated
546 Sequence Number value received on this session. Records that contain
547 Sequence Numbers lower than the "left" edge of the window are
548 rejected. Packets falling within the window are checked against a
549 list of received packets within the window. An efficient means for
550 performing this check, based on the use of a bit mask, is described
551 in Appendix C of [RFC 2401].
553 If the received record falls within the window and is new, or if the
554 packet is to the right of the window, then the receiver proceeds to
555 MAC verification. If the MAC validation fails, the receiver MUST
556 discard the received record as invalid. The receive window is
557 updated only if the MAC verification succeeds.
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567 4.2. The DTLS Handshake Protocol
569 DTLS uses all of the same handshake messages and flows as TLS, with
570 three principal changes:
572 1. A stateless cookie exchange has been added to prevent denial of
575 2. Modifications to the handshake header to handle message loss,
576 reordering, and fragmentation.
578 3. Retransmission timers to handle message loss.
580 With these exceptions, the DTLS message formats, flows, and logic are
581 the same as those of TLS 1.1.
583 4.2.1. Denial of Service Countermeasures
585 Datagram security protocols are extremely susceptible to a variety of
586 denial of service (DoS) attacks. Two attacks are of particular
589 1. An attacker can consume excessive resources on the server by
590 transmitting a series of handshake initiation requests, causing
591 the server to allocate state and potentially to perform expensive
592 cryptographic operations.
594 2. An attacker can use the server as an amplifier by sending
595 connection initiation messages with a forged source of the victim.
596 The server then sends its next message (in DTLS, a Certificate
597 message, which can be quite large) to the victim machine, thus
600 In order to counter both of these attacks, DTLS borrows the stateless
601 cookie technique used by Photuris [PHOTURIS] and IKE [IKE]. When the
602 client sends its ClientHello message to the server, the server MAY
603 respond with a HelloVerifyRequest message. This message contains a
604 stateless cookie generated using the technique of [PHOTURIS]. The
605 client MUST retransmit the ClientHello with the cookie added. The
606 server then verifies the cookie and proceeds with the handshake only
607 if it is valid. This mechanism forces the attacker/client to be able
608 to receive the cookie, which makes DoS attacks with spoofed IP
609 addresses difficult. This mechanism does not provide any defense
610 against DoS attacks mounted from valid IP addresses.
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623 The exchange is shown below:
629 <----- HelloVerifyRequest
637 DTLS therefore modifies the ClientHello message to add the cookie
641 ProtocolVersion client_version;
643 SessionID session_id;
644 opaque cookie<0..32>; // New field
645 CipherSuite cipher_suites<2..2^16-1>;
646 CompressionMethod compression_methods<1..2^8-1>;
649 When sending the first ClientHello, the client does not have a cookie
650 yet; in this case, the Cookie field is left empty (zero length).
652 The definition of HelloVerifyRequest is as follows:
655 ProtocolVersion server_version;
656 opaque cookie<0..32>;
657 } HelloVerifyRequest;
659 The HelloVerifyRequest message type is hello_verify_request(3).
661 The server_version field is defined as in TLS.
663 When responding to a HelloVerifyRequest the client MUST use the same
664 parameter values (version, random, session_id, cipher_suites,
665 compression_method) as it did in the original ClientHello. The
666 server SHOULD use those values to generate its cookie and verify that
667 they are correct upon cookie receipt. The server MUST use the same
668 version number in the HelloVerifyRequest that it would use when
669 sending a ServerHello. Upon receipt of the ServerHello, the client
670 MUST verify that the server version values match.
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679 The DTLS server SHOULD generate cookies in such a way that they can
680 be verified without retaining any per-client state on the server.
681 One technique is to have a randomly generated secret and generate
682 cookies as: Cookie = HMAC(Secret, Client-IP, Client-Parameters)
684 When the second ClientHello is received, the server can verify that
685 the Cookie is valid and that the client can receive packets at the
688 One potential attack on this scheme is for the attacker to collect a
689 number of cookies from different addresses and then reuse them to
690 attack the server. The server can defend against this attack by
691 changing the Secret value frequently, thus invalidating those
692 cookies. If the server wishes that legitimate clients be able to
693 handshake through the transition (e.g., they received a cookie with
694 Secret 1 and then sent the second ClientHello after the server has
695 changed to Secret 2), the server can have a limited window during
696 which it accepts both secrets. [IKEv2] suggests adding a version
697 number to cookies to detect this case. An alternative approach is
698 simply to try verifying with both secrets.
700 DTLS servers SHOULD perform a cookie exchange whenever a new
701 handshake is being performed. If the server is being operated in an
702 environment where amplification is not a problem, the server MAY be
703 configured not to perform a cookie exchange. The default SHOULD be
704 that the exchange is performed, however. In addition, the server MAY
705 choose not to do a cookie exchange when a session is resumed.
706 Clients MUST be prepared to do a cookie exchange with every
709 If HelloVerifyRequest is used, the initial ClientHello and
710 HelloVerifyRequest are not included in the calculation of the
711 verify_data for the Finished message.
713 4.2.2. Handshake Message Format
715 In order to support message loss, reordering, and fragmentation, DTLS
716 modifies the TLS 1.1 handshake header:
719 HandshakeType msg_type;
721 uint16 message_seq; // New field
722 uint24 fragment_offset; // New field
723 uint24 fragment_length; // New field
724 select (HandshakeType) {
725 case hello_request: HelloRequest;
726 case client_hello: ClientHello;
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735 case hello_verify_request: HelloVerifyRequest; // New type
736 case server_hello: ServerHello;
737 case certificate:Certificate;
738 case server_key_exchange: ServerKeyExchange;
739 case certificate_request: CertificateRequest;
740 case server_hello_done:ServerHelloDone;
741 case certificate_verify: CertificateVerify;
742 case client_key_exchange: ClientKeyExchange;
743 case finished:Finished;
747 The first message each side transmits in each handshake always has
748 message_seq = 0. Whenever each new message is generated, the
749 message_seq value is incremented by one. When a message is
750 retransmitted, the same message_seq value is used. For example:
754 ClientHello (seq=0) ------>
756 X<-- HelloVerifyRequest (seq=0)
761 ClientHello (seq=0) ------>
764 <------ HelloVerifyRequest (seq=0)
766 ClientHello (seq=1) ------>
769 <------ ServerHello (seq=1)
770 <------ Certificate (seq=2)
771 <------ ServerHelloDone (seq=3)
775 Note, however, that from the perspective of the DTLS record layer,
776 the retransmission is a new record. This record will have a new
777 DTLSPlaintext.sequence_number value.
779 DTLS implementations maintain (at least notionally) a
780 next_receive_seq counter. This counter is initially set to zero.
781 When a message is received, if its sequence number matches
782 next_receive_seq, next_receive_seq is incremented and the message is
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788 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
791 processed. If the sequence number is less than next_receive_seq, the
792 message MUST be discarded. If the sequence number is greater than
793 next_receive_seq, the implementation SHOULD queue the message but MAY
794 discard it. (This is a simple space/bandwidth tradeoff).
796 4.2.3. Message Fragmentation and Reassembly
798 As noted in Section 4.1.1, each DTLS message MUST fit within a single
799 transport layer datagram. However, handshake messages are
800 potentially bigger than the maximum record size. Therefore, DTLS
801 provides a mechanism for fragmenting a handshake message over a
804 When transmitting the handshake message, the sender divides the
805 message into a series of N contiguous data ranges. These ranges MUST
806 NOT be larger than the maximum handshake fragment size and MUST
807 jointly contain the entire handshake message. The ranges SHOULD NOT
808 overlap. The sender then creates N handshake messages, all with the
809 same message_seq value as the original handshake message. Each new
810 message is labelled with the fragment_offset (the number of bytes
811 contained in previous fragments) and the fragment_length (the length
812 of this fragment). The length field in all messages is the same as
813 the length field of the original message. An unfragmented message is
814 a degenerate case with fragment_offset=0 and fragment_length=length.
816 When a DTLS implementation receives a handshake message fragment, it
817 MUST buffer it until it has the entire handshake message. DTLS
818 implementations MUST be able to handle overlapping fragment ranges.
819 This allows senders to retransmit handshake messages with smaller
820 fragment sizes during path MTU discovery.
822 Note that as with TLS, multiple handshake messages may be placed in
823 the same DTLS record, provided that there is room and that they are
824 part of the same flight. Thus, there are two acceptable ways to pack
825 two DTLS messages into the same datagram: in the same record or in
828 4.2.4. Timeout and Retransmission
830 DTLS messages are grouped into a series of message flights, according
831 to the diagrams below. Although each flight of messages may consist
832 of a number of messages, they should be viewed as monolithic for the
833 purpose of timeout and retransmission.
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850 ClientHello --------> Flight 1
852 <------- HelloVerifyRequest Flight 2
854 ClientHello --------> Flight 3
858 ServerKeyExchange* Flight 4
859 CertificateRequest* /
860 <-------- ServerHelloDone /
864 CertificateVerify* Flight 5
868 [ChangeCipherSpec] \ Flight 6
871 Figure 1. Message flights for full handshake
877 ClientHello --------> Flight 1
880 [ChangeCipherSpec] Flight 2
883 [ChangeCipherSpec] \Flight 3
886 Figure 2. Message flights for session-resuming handshake
889 DTLS uses a simple timeout and retransmission scheme with the
890 following state machine. Because DTLS clients send the first message
891 (ClientHello), they start in the PREPARING state. DTLS servers start
892 in the WAITING state, but with empty buffers and no retransmit timer.
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900 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
905 +---> | | <--------------------+
910 | | Buffer next flight |
915 | | SENDING |<------------------+ |
917 | +-----------+ | | HelloRequest
919 next | | Send flight | | or
920 flight | +--------+ | |
921 | | | Set retransmit timer | | Receive
922 | | \|/ | | HelloRequest
923 | | +-----------+ | | Send
924 | | | | | | ClientHello
925 +--)--| WAITING |-------------------+ |
926 | | | | Timer expires | |
927 | | +-----------+ | |
930 | | +------------------------+ |
931 | | Read retransmit |
940 | FINISHED | -------------------------------+
944 Figure 3. DTLS timeout and retransmission state machine
946 The state machine has three basic states.
954 Rescorla & Modadugu Standards Track [Page 17]
956 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
959 In the PREPARING state the implementation does whatever computations
960 are necessary to prepare the next flight of messages. It then
961 buffers them up for transmission (emptying the buffer first) and
962 enters the SENDING state.
964 In the SENDING state, the implementation transmits the buffered
965 flight of messages. Once the messages have been sent, the
966 implementation then enters the FINISHED state if this is the last
967 flight in the handshake. Or, if the implementation expects to
968 receive more messages, it sets a retransmit timer and then enters the
971 There are three ways to exit the WAITING state:
973 1. The retransmit timer expires: the implementation transitions to
974 the SENDING state, where it retransmits the flight, resets the
975 retransmit timer, and returns to the WAITING state.
977 2. The implementation reads a retransmitted flight from the peer:
978 the implementation transitions to the SENDING state, where it
979 retransmits the flight, resets the retransmit timer, and returns
980 to the WAITING state. The rationale here is that the receipt of a
981 duplicate message is the likely result of timer expiry on the peer
982 and therefore suggests that part of one's previous flight was
985 3. The implementation receives the next flight of messages: if
986 this is the final flight of messages, the implementation
987 transitions to FINISHED. If the implementation needs to send a
988 new flight, it transitions to the PREPARING state. Partial reads
989 (whether partial messages or only some of the messages in the
990 flight) do not cause state transitions or timer resets.
992 Because DTLS clients send the first message (ClientHello), they start
993 in the PREPARING state. DTLS servers start in the WAITING state, but
994 with empty buffers and no retransmit timer.
996 When the server desires a rehandshake, it transitions from the
997 FINISHED state to the PREPARING state to transmit the HelloRequest.
998 When the client receives a HelloRequest it transitions from FINISHED
999 to PREPARING to transmit the ClientHello.
1001 4.2.4.1. Timer Values
1003 Though timer values are the choice of the implementation, mishandling
1004 of the timer can lead to serious congestion problems; for example, if
1005 many instances of a DTLS time out early and retransmit too quickly on
1006 a congested link. Implementations SHOULD use an initial timer value
1010 Rescorla & Modadugu Standards Track [Page 18]
1012 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
1015 of 1 second (the minimum defined in RFC 2988 [RFC2988]) and double
1016 the value at each retransmission, up to no less than the RFC 2988
1017 maximum of 60 seconds. Note that we recommend a 1-second timer
1018 rather than the 3-second RFC 2988 default in order to improve latency
1019 for time-sensitive applications. Because DTLS only uses
1020 retransmission for handshake and not dataflow, the effect on
1021 congestion should be minimal.
1023 Implementations SHOULD retain the current timer value until a
1024 transmission without loss occurs, at which time the value may be
1025 reset to the initial value. After a long period of idleness, no less
1026 than 10 times the current timer value, implementations may reset the
1027 timer to the initial value. One situation where this might occur is
1028 when a rehandshake is used after substantial data transfer.
1030 4.2.5. ChangeCipherSpec
1032 As with TLS, the ChangeCipherSpec message is not technically a
1033 handshake message but MUST be treated as part of the same flight as
1034 the associated Finished message for the purposes of timeout and
1037 4.2.6. Finished Messages
1039 Finished messages have the same format as in TLS. However, in order
1040 to remove sensitivity to fragmentation, the Finished MAC MUST be
1041 computed as if each handshake message had been sent as a single
1042 fragment. Note that in cases where the cookie exchange is used, the
1043 initial ClientHello and HelloVerifyRequest MUST NOT be included in
1046 4.2.7. Alert Messages
1048 Note that Alert messages are not retransmitted at all, even when they
1049 occur in the context of a handshake. However, a DTLS implementation
1050 SHOULD generate a new alert message if the offending record is
1051 received again (e.g., as a retransmitted handshake message).
1052 Implementations SHOULD detect when a peer is persistently sending bad
1053 messages and terminate the local connection state after such
1054 misbehavior is detected.
1056 4.3. Summary of new syntax
1058 This section includes specifications for the data structures that
1059 have changed between TLS 1.1 and DTLS.
1066 Rescorla & Modadugu Standards Track [Page 19]
1068 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
1075 ProtocolVersion version;
1076 uint16 epoch; // New field
1077 uint48 sequence_number; // New field
1079 opaque fragment[DTLSPlaintext.length];
1084 ProtocolVersion version;
1085 uint16 epoch; // New field
1086 uint48 sequence_number; // New field
1088 opaque fragment[DTLSCompressed.length];
1093 ProtocolVersion version;
1094 uint16 epoch; // New field
1095 uint48 sequence_number; // New field
1097 select (CipherSpec.cipher_type) {
1098 case block: GenericBlockCipher;
1102 4.3.2. Handshake Protocol
1105 hello_request(0), client_hello(1), server_hello(2),
1106 hello_verify_request(3), // New field
1107 certificate(11), server_key_exchange (12),
1108 certificate_request(13), server_hello_done(14),
1109 certificate_verify(15), client_key_exchange(16),
1114 HandshakeType msg_type;
1116 uint16 message_seq; // New field
1117 uint24 fragment_offset; // New field
1118 uint24 fragment_length; // New field
1122 Rescorla & Modadugu Standards Track [Page 20]
1124 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
1127 select (HandshakeType) {
1128 case hello_request: HelloRequest;
1129 case client_hello: ClientHello;
1130 case server_hello: ServerHello;
1131 case hello_verify_request: HelloVerifyRequest; // New field
1132 case certificate:Certificate;
1133 case server_key_exchange: ServerKeyExchange;
1134 case certificate_request: CertificateRequest;
1135 case server_hello_done:ServerHelloDone;
1136 case certificate_verify: CertificateVerify;
1137 case client_key_exchange: ClientKeyExchange;
1138 case finished:Finished;
1143 ProtocolVersion client_version;
1145 SessionID session_id;
1146 opaque cookie<0..32>; // New field
1147 CipherSuite cipher_suites<2..2^16-1>;
1148 CompressionMethod compression_methods<1..2^8-1>;
1152 ProtocolVersion server_version;
1153 opaque cookie<0..32>;
1154 } HelloVerifyRequest;
1156 5. Security Considerations
1158 This document describes a variant of TLS 1.1 and therefore most of
1159 the security considerations are the same as those of TLS 1.1 [TLS11],
1160 described in Appendices D, E, and F.
1162 The primary additional security consideration raised by DTLS is that
1163 of denial of service. DTLS includes a cookie exchange designed to
1164 protect against denial of service. However, implementations which do
1165 not use this cookie exchange are still vulnerable to DoS. In
1166 particular, DTLS servers which do not use the cookie exchange may be
1167 used as attack amplifiers even if they themselves are not
1168 experiencing DoS. Therefore, DTLS servers SHOULD use the cookie
1169 exchange unless there is good reason to believe that amplification is
1170 not a threat in their environment. Clients MUST be prepared to do a
1171 cookie exchange with every handshake.
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1180 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
1185 The authors would like to thank Dan Boneh, Eu-Jin Goh, Russ Housley,
1186 Constantine Sapuntzakis, and Hovav Shacham for discussions and
1187 comments on the design of DTLS. Thanks to the anonymous NDSS
1188 reviewers of our original NDSS paper on DTLS [DTLS] for their
1189 comments. Also, thanks to Steve Kent for feedback that helped
1190 clarify many points. The section on PMTU was cribbed from the DCCP
1191 specification [DCCP]. Pasi Eronen provided a detailed review of this
1192 specification. Helpful comments on the document were also received
1193 from Mark Allman, Jari Arkko, Joel Halpern, Ted Hardie, and Allison
1196 7. IANA Considerations
1198 This document uses the same identifier space as TLS [TLS11], so no
1199 new IANA registries are required. When new identifiers are assigned
1200 for TLS, authors MUST specify whether they are suitable for DTLS.
1202 This document defines a new handshake message, hello_verify_request,
1203 whose value has been allocated from the TLS HandshakeType registry
1204 defined in [TLS11]. The value "3" has been assigned by the IANA.
1208 8.1. Normative References
1210 [RFC1191] Mogul, J. and S. Deering, "Path MTU discovery", RFC 1191,
1213 [RFC1981] McCann, J., Deering, S., and J. Mogul, "Path MTU Discovery
1214 for IP version 6", RFC 1981, August 1996.
1216 [RFC2401] Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "Security Architecture for the
1217 Internet Protocol", RFC 2401, November 1998.
1219 [RFC2988] Paxson, V. and M. Allman, "Computing TCP's Retransmission
1220 Timer", RFC 2988, November 2000.
1222 [TCP] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7, RFC
1223 793, September 1981.
1225 [TLS11] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
1226 (TLS) Protocol Version 1.1", RFC 4346, April 2006.
1234 Rescorla & Modadugu Standards Track [Page 22]
1236 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
1239 8.2. Informative References
1241 [AESCACHE] Bernstein, D.J., "Cache-timing attacks on AES"
1242 http://cr.yp.to/antiforgery/cachetiming-20050414.pdf.
1244 [AH] Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "IP Authentication Header", RFC
1245 2402, November 1998.
1247 [DCCP] Kohler, E., Handley, M., Floyd, S., Padhye, J., "Datagram
1248 Congestion Control Protocol", Work in Progress, 10 March
1251 [DNS] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
1252 specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.
1254 [DTLS] Modadugu, N., Rescorla, E., "The Design and Implementation
1255 of Datagram TLS", Proceedings of ISOC NDSS 2004, February
1258 [ESP] Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "IP Encapsulating Security
1259 Payload (ESP)", RFC 2406, November 1998.
1261 [IKE] Harkins, D. and D. Carrel, "The Internet Key Exchange
1262 (IKE)", RFC 2409, November 1998.
1264 Kaufman, C., "Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol", RFC 4306,
1267 [IMAP] Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION
1268 4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.
1270 [PHOTURIS] Karn, P. and W. Simpson, "ICMP Security Failures
1271 Messages", RFC 2521, March 1999.
1273 [POP] Myers, J. and M. Rose, "Post Office Protocol - Version 3",
1274 STD 53, RFC 1939, May 1996.
1276 [REQ] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
1277 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
1279 [SCTP] Stewart, R., Xie, Q., Morneault, K., Sharp, C.,
1280 Schwarzbauer, H., Taylor, T., Rytina, I., Kalla, M.,
1281 Zhang, L., and V. Paxson, "Stream Control Transmission
1282 Protocol", RFC 2960, October 2000.
1290 Rescorla & Modadugu Standards Track [Page 23]
1292 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
1295 [SIP] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston,
1296 A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E.
1297 Schooler, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261,
1300 [TLS] Dierks, T. and C. Allen, "The TLS Protocol Version 1.0",
1301 RFC 2246, January 1999.
1303 [WHYIPSEC] Bellovin, S., "Guidelines for Mandating the Use of IPsec",
1304 Work in Progress, October 2003.
1317 Computer Science Department
1322 EMail: nagendra@cs.stanford.edu
1346 Rescorla & Modadugu Standards Track [Page 24]
1348 RFC 4347 Datagram Transport Layer Security April 2006
1351 Full Copyright Statement
1353 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
1355 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
1356 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
1357 retain all their rights.
1359 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
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1361 OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
1362 ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
1363 INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
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1365 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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