Subject: [nvo3] Comments on draft-ietf-nvo3-geneve

From: Kathleen Moriarty <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2019 07:23:20 -0400

Hello,

Thank you for a well written document!  I know I am late to be offering
comments, but with a quick read, I think calling out the ability to tamper
with or alter packets should be made in the second sentence of the security
considerations section.  You do have the relevant text on integrity
protections later in the section, but this should be considered an
important enough problem to be in the sentence on possible problems due to
no security mechanisms.

OLD:
   As a result, an attacker with access
   to the underlay network transporting the IP packets has the ability
   to snoop or inject packets.
NEW:
   As a result, an attacker with access
   to the underlay network transporting the IP packets has the ability
   to snoop, alter, or inject packets.

And in the section on Data Integrity, it should be noted that the measures
in this sentence would have no bearing on the integrity of GENEVE:
OLD:
   A data center operator may choose
   to deploy any other data integrity mechanisms as applicable and
   supported in their underlay networks.
NEW:
   A data center operator may choose
   to deploy any other data integrity mechanisms as applicable and
   supported in their underlay networks, although this will not protect the
GENEVE portion of the packet from tampering.

Thank you!  The document is well written and I was glad to see these
considerations already in the document.  I do think this will help anyone
deploying multi-tenant environments to think about the importance of
integrity protection and not learn the hard way.

-- 

Best regards,
Kathleen