Work

A Taxonomy and Comparative Analysis of IPv4 Identifier Selection Correctness, Security, and Performance

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The battle for a more secure Internet is waged on many fronts, including the most basic of networking protocols. Our focus is the IPv4 Identifier (IPID), an IPv4 header field as old as the Internet with an equally long history as an exploited side channel for scanning network properties, inferring off-path connections, and poisoning DNS caches. This article taxonomizes the 25-year history of IPID-based exploits and the corresponding changes to IPID selection methods. By mathematically analyzing these methods’ correctness and security and empirically evaluating their performance, we reveal recommendations for best practice as well as shortcomings of current operating system implementations, emphasizing the value of systematic evaluations in network security.

Source: ACM Computing Surveys

DOI: 10.1145/3776582

Authors: Joshua J. Daymude, Antonio M. Espinoza, Holly Bergen, Benjamin Mixon-Baca, Jeffrey Knockel, Jedidiah R. Crandall

Institutions: Arizona State University, Eastern Washington University, Bowdoin College

Language: English

Topic: Network Security and Intrusion Detection

Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, Momental Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Awards: G3254667246, Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Rethinking the Fundamentals of Tunneling Technologies for Security, Privacy, and Usability, AF: Medium: Concurrency and Adaptive Self-Organization in Anonymous Dynamic Networks