i2p.www/i2p2www/spec/proposals/123-new-netdb-entries.rst

=================
New netDB Entries
=================
.. meta::
    :author: zzz
    :created: 2016-01-16
    :thread: http://zzz.i2p/topics/2051
    :lastupdated: 2017-11-12
    :status: Open
    :supercedes: 110, 120, 121, 122

.. contents::


Overview
========

This is an update and aggregation of the following 4 proposals:

- 110 LS2
- 120 Meta LS2 for massive multihoming
- 121 Encrypted LS2
- 122 Unauthenticated service lookup (anycasting)

These proposals are mostly independent, but for sanity we define and use a
common format for several of them.


Proposal
========

This proposal defines 5 new DatabaseEntry types and the process for
storing them to and retrieving them from the network database,
as well as the method for signing them and verifying those signatures.


Justification
-------------

LS2 adds fields for changing encryption type and for future protocol changes.

Encrypted LS2 fixes several security issues with the existing encrypted LS by
using asymmetric encryption of the entire set of leases.

Meta LS2 provides flexible, efficient, effective, and large-scale multihoming.

Service Record and Service List provide anycast services such as naming lookup
and DHT bootstrapping.


Existing types:
0: RI
1: LS

New types:
2: LS2
3: Encrypted LS2
4: Meta LS2
5: Service Record
6: Service List

Lookup/Store process
--------------------

Types 2-4 may be returned in response to a standard leaseset lookup (type 1).
Type 5 is never returned in response to a lookup.
Types 6 is returned in response to a new service lookup type (type 2).

Format
------

Types 2-5 all have a common format::

  Standard LS2 Header:
  - Destination (387+ bytes)
  - Published timestamp (8 bytes)
  - Expires (4 bytes) (offset from published in ms)
  - Flags (2 bytes) (see details for each type below)

  Type-Specific Part
  - as defined below

  Standard LS2 Signature:
  - Signature (40+ bytes)

Type 6 (Service List) is an aggregation of several Service Records and has a
different format. See below.


New DatabaseEntry types
=======================


LeaseSet 2
----------

Changes from existing LeaseSet:

- Add published timestamp, expires timestamp, flags, and properties
- Add encryption type
- Remove revocation key

Lookup with:
    Standard LS flag (1)
Store with:
    Standard LS2 type (2)
Typical expiration:
    10 minutes, as in a regular LS.
Published by:
    Destination

Format
``````
::

  Standard LS2 Header:
  - Destination (387+ bytes)
  - Published timestamp (8 bytes)
  - Expires (4 bytes) (offset from published in ms)
  - Flags (2 bytes)

  Standard LS2 Type-Specific Part
  - Encryption type (2 bytes)
  - Encryption key (256 bytes or depending on enc type)
  - Number of leases (1 byte)
  - Leases (44 bytes each)
  - Properties (2 bytes if none)

  Standard LS2 Signature:
  - Signature (40+ bytes)

Flag definition::

  Bit order: 15 14 ... 2 1 0
  Bit 0: If 0, a standard published leaseset.
         If 1, an unpublished leaseset. Should not be flooded, published, or
         sent in response to a query. If this leaseset expires, do not query the
         netdb for a new one.
  Bits 1-15: Unused, set to 0 for compatibility with future uses.

Properties is for future use, no current plans.


Justification
`````````````

- Published: Replaces the complex logic required to determine the 'version' of the
  leaseset. Currently, the version is the expiration of the last-expiring lease,
  and a publishing router must increment that expiration by at least 1ms when
  publishing a leaseset that only removes an older lease.
- Expires: Allows for an expiration of a netdb entry to be earlier than that of
  its last-expiring leaseset. May not be useful for LS2, where leasesets
  are expected to remain with a 11-minute maximum expiration, but
  for other new types, it is necessary (see Meta LS and Service Record below).
  Max is about 49.7 days.
- Flags: For future expansion, and the unpublished/published bit.
- Unpublished/published: For use when sending a database store end-to-end,
  the sending router may wish to indicate that this leaseset should not be
  sent to others. We currently use heuristics to maintain this state.
- Properties: Future expansion


Discussion
``````````

This proposal continues to use the public key in the leaseset for the
end-to-end encryption key, and leaves the public key field in the
Destination unused, as it is now. The encryption type is not specified
in the Destination key certificate, it will remain 0.

Possible extension: Optionally include multiple encryption type/public key pairs,
to ease transition to new encryption types.

An alternative is to specify the encryption type in the Destination key certificate,
use the public key in the Destination, and not use the public key
in the leaseset. A formal proposal for this is in progress.

Benefits of LS2:
- Location of actual public key doesn't change.
- Encryption type, or public key, may change without changing the Destination.
- Removes unused revocation field
- Basic compatibility with other DatabaseEntry types in this proposal
- Could allow multiple encryption types

Drawbacks of LS2:
- Location of public key and encryption type differs from RouterInfo
- Maintains unused public key in leaseset
- Requires implementation across the network; in the alternative, experimental
  encryption types may be used, if allowed by floodfills
  (but see related proposals 136 and 137 about support for experimental sig types).
  The alternative proposal could be easier to implement and test for experimental encryption types.


Notes
`````
- Should we reduce the 8-byte expiration in leases to a 2-byte offset from the
  published timestamp in seconds? Or 4-byte offset in milliseconds?

- If we ever implement revocation, we can do it with an expires field of zero,
  or zero leases, or both. No need for a separate revocation key.


Encrypted LS2
-------------

Changes from existing encrypted LeaseSet:

- Encrypt the whole thing for security
- Securely encrypt, not with AES only.
- Encrypt to each recipient

Lookup with:
    Standard LS flag (1)
Store with:
    Encrypted LS2 type (3)
Typical expiration:
    10 minutes, as in a regular LS.
Published by:
    Destination

Format
``````
::

  Standard LS2 Header:
  - Destination (387+ bytes)
  - Published timestamp (8 bytes)
  - Expires (4 bytes) (offset from published in ms)
  - Flags (2 bytes)

  Encrypted LS2 Type-Specific Part
  - Length of encrypted data (2 bytes)
  - Encrypted data
    Format TBD and application-specific.
    When decrypted, the LS2 Type-Specific part

  Standard LS2 Signature:
  - Signature (40+ bytes)

Flags: for future use

The signature is of everything above, i.e. the encrypted data.

Notes
`````
- For multiple clients, encrypted format is probably like GPG/OpenPGP does.
  Asymmetrically encrypt a symmetric key for each recipient. Data is decrypted
  with that asymmetric key. See e.g. [RFC-4880-S5.1]_ IF we can find an
  algorithm that's small and fast.

  - Can we use a shortened version of our current ElGamal, which is 222 bytes
    in and 514 bytes out? That's a little long for each record.

- For a single client, we could just ElG encrypt the whole leaseset, 514 bytes
  isn't so bad.

- If we want to specify the encryption format in the clear, we could have an
  identifier just before the encrypted data, or in the flags.

- A service using encrypted leasesets would publish the encrypted version to the
  floodfills. However, for efficiency, it would send unencrypted leasesets to
  clients in the wrapped garlic message, once authenticated (via whitelist, for
  example).

- Floodfills may limit the max size to a reasonable value to prevent abuse.


Meta LS2
--------

This is used to replace multihoming. Like any leaseset, this is signed by the
creator. This is an authenticated list of destination hashes.

It contains a number of entries, each pointing to a LS, LS2, or another Meta LS2
to support massive multihoming.

Lookup with:
    Standard LS flag (1)
Store with:
    Meta LS2 type (4)
Typical expiration:
    Hours to days
Published by:
    "master" Destination or coordinator

Format
``````
::

  Standard LS2 Header:
  - Destination (387+ bytes)
  - Published timestamp (8 bytes)
  - Expires (4 bytes) (offset from published in ms)
  - Flags (2 bytes)

  Meta LS2 Type-Specific Part
  - Number of entries (1 byte)
  - Entries. Each entry contains: (39 bytes)
    - Hash (32 bytes)
    - Flags (2 bytes)
    - Expires (4 bytes) (offset from published in ms)
    - Cost (priority) (1 byte)

  - Number of revocations (1 byte)
  - Revocations: Each revocation contains: (32 bytes)
    - Hash (32 bytes)

  - Properties (2 bytes if empty)

  Standard LS2 Signature:
  - Signature (40+ bytes)

Flags and properties: for future use

Notes
`````
- A distributed service using this would have one or more "masters" with the
  private key of the service destination. They would (out of band) determine the
  current list of active destinations and would publish the Meta LS2. For
  redundancy, multiple masters could multihome (i.e. concurrently publish) the
  Meta LS2.

- A distributed service could start with a single destination or use old-style
  multihoming, then transition to a Meta LS2. A standard LS lookup could return
  any one of a LS, LS2, or Meta LS2.

- When a service uses a Meta LS2, it has no tunnels (leases).


Service Record
--------------

This is an individual record saying that a destination is participating in a
service. It is sent from the participant to the floodfill. It is not ever sent
individually by a floodfill, but only as a part of a Service List. The Service
Record is also used to revoke participation in a service, by setting the
expiration to zero.

This is not a LS2 but it uses the standard LS2 header and signature format.

Lookup with:
    n/a, see Service List
Store with:
    Service Record type (5)
Typical expiration:
    Hours
Published by:
    Destination

Format
``````
::

  Standard LS2 Header:
  - Destination (387+ bytes)
  - Published timestamp (8 bytes)
  - Expires (4 bytes) (offset from published in ms, all zeros for revocation)
  - Flags (2 bytes)

  Service Record Type-Specific Part
  - Port (2 bytes) (0 if unspecified)
  - Hash of service name (32 bytes)

  Standard LS2 Signature:
  - Signature (40+ bytes)

Flags: for future use

Notes
`````
- If expires is all zeros, the floodfill should revoke the record and no longer
  include it in the service list.

- Storage: The floodfill may strictly throttle storage of these records and
  limit the number of records stored per hash and their expiration. A whilelist
  of hashes may also be used.


Service List
------------

This is nothing like a LS2 and uses a different format.

The service list is created and signed by the floodfill. It is unauthenticated
in that anybody can join a service by publishing a Service Record to a
floodfill.

A Service List contains Short Service Records, not full Service Records. These
contain signatures but only hashes, not full destinations, so they cannot be
verified without the full destination.

Lookup with:
    Service List lookup type (2)
Store with:
    Service List type (6)
Typical expiration:
    Hours, not specified in the list itself, up to local policy
Published by:
    Nobody, never sent to floodfill, never flooded.

Format
``````
::

  - Hash of the service name (implicit, in the Database Store message)
  - Hash of the Creator (floodfill) (32 bytes)
  - Timestamp (8 bytes)

  - Number of Short Service Records (1 byte)
  - List of Short Service Records:
    Each Short Service Record contains (90+ bytes)
    - Dest hash (32 bytes)
    - Published timestamp (8 bytes)
    - Expires (4 bytes) (offset from published in ms)
    - Flags (2 bytes)
    - Port (2 bytes)
    - Sig length (2 bytes)
    - Signature of dest (40+ bytes)

  - Number of Revocation Records (1 byte)
  - List of Revocation Records:
    Each Revocation Record contains (86+ bytes)
    - Dest hash (32 bytes)
    - Published timestamp (8 bytes)
    - Flags (2 bytes)
    - Port (2 bytes)
    - Sig length (2 bytes)
    - Signature of dest (40+ bytes)

  - Signature of floodfill (40+ bytes)

To verify signature of the Service List:

- prepend the hash of the service name
- remove the hash of the creator
- Check signature of the modified contents

To verify signature of each Short Service Record:

- Fetch destination
- Check signature of (published timestamp + expires + flags + port + Hash of
  service name)

To verify signature of each Revocation Record:

- Fetch destination
- Check signature of (published timestamp + 4 zero bytes + flags + port + Hash
  of service name)

Notes
`````
- We use signature length instead of sigtype so we can support unknown signature
  types.

- There is no expiration of a service list, recipients may make their own
  decision based on policy or the expiration of the individual records.

- Service Lists are not flooded, only individual Service Records are. Each
  floodfill creates, signs, and caches a Service List. The floodfill uses its
  own policy for cache time and the maximum number of service and revocation
  records.


References
==========

.. [RFC-4880-S5.1]
    https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4880#section-5.1