Network Working Group                                      M. Nottingham
Internet-Draft                                         February 15, 2016
Intended status: Informational
Expires: August 18, 2016


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                  draft-nottingham-capport-problem-00

Abstract

   This draft attempts to establish a problem statement for "Captive
   Portals", in order to inform discussions of improving their
   operation.

Note to Readers

   The issues list for this draft can be found at
   https://github.com/mnot/I-D/labels/capport-problem .

   The most recent (often, unpublished) draft is at
   https://mnot.github.io/I-D/capport-problem/ .

   Recent changes are listed at https://github.com/mnot/I-D/commits/gh-
   pages/capport-problem .

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 18, 2016.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.




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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Defining Captive Portals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     2.1.  Why Captive Portals Are Used  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Issues Caused by Captive Portals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Issues Caused by Captive Portal Detection . . . . . . . . . .   4
     4.1.  Issues Caused by Defeating Captive Portal Detection . . .   5
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     6.2.  URIs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

.  Introduction

   This draft attempts to establish a problem statement for "Captive
   Portals", in order to inform discussions of improving their
   operation.

1.1.  Notational Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

.  Defining Captive Portals

   A captive portal is a mechanism whereby a network requires a user to
   interact with a specific Web site before allowing broader (but not
   necessarily complete) Internet access.

   This is achieved by directing requests for "normal" Web access to the
   nominated server, through variety of techniques, including DNS
   poisoning, TCP interception, and/or HTTP redirection.




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   Once the captive portal's goals (see below) are met, the network
   "remembers" that the user is allowed network access, usually by MAC
   address.

2.1.  Why Captive Portals Are Used

   Captive portals are deployed in a variety of situations, but the most
   common motivations are:

   o  *Authentication* - Obtaining user credentials before authorising
      network access

   o  *Payment* - Obtaining payment for using the network.

   o  *Information* - Presenting information to the user.  This might
      include legal notices, details about the network provider and/or
      its location, advertisements, etc.

   o  *Notifications* - Some networks use the same mechanisms as captive
      portals to notify users of account status, network downtime,
      emergency alerts, etc.

   In all of these cases, using a Web browser is attractive, because it
   gives the network the ability to tailor the user's interface and
   experience, as well as the ability to integrate third-party payment,
   advertising, authentication and other services.

.  Issues Caused by Captive Portals

   When a network imposes a captive portal, it can cause a variety of
   issues, both for applications and end users.

   o  *False Negatives* - Because so many different heuristics are used
      to detect a captive portal, it's common for an OS or browser to
      think it's on an open network, when in fact there is a captive
      portal [4] in place.

   o  *Longevity* - Often, it's necessary to repeatedly log into a
      captive portal [5], thanks to timeout issues.  The effects of this
      range from annoyance to inability to complete tasks, depending on
      the timeout and the task at hand.

   o  *Interoperability Issues* - Captive portals often depend on
      specific operating system and browser capabilities and behaviours.
      Client systems that do not share those quirks often have
      difficulty connecting to captive portals.





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   o  *Confusion* - Because captive portals are effectively a man-in-
      the-middle attack, they can confuse users as well as user agents
      (e.g., caches).  For example, when the portal's TLS certificate
      doesn't match that of the requested site, or the captive portal's
      /favicon.ico gets used as that of the originally requested site.

   o  *DNS*/*DNSSEC* - When portals respond with forged DNS answers,
      they confuse DNS resolvers and interoperate poorly with host-
      validating DNSSEC resolvers and applications.

   o  *TLS* - Portals that attempt to intercept TLS sessions (HTTPS,
      IMAPS, or other) can cause certificate error messages on clients,
      encouraging bad practice to click through such errors.

   o  *Unexpected Configuration* - Some captive portals rely upon DNS
      interception to direct users to the portal; however, this doesn't
      work when the user has configured their own DNS server in
      preference to that provided by DHCP (e.g., 8.8.8.8).

   o  *Stealing Access* - because captive portals most often associate a
      user with a MAC address, it is possible for an attacker to
      impersonate an authenticated client (e.g., one that has paid for
      Internet access).

   o  *Access to Privileged Information* - Some captive portals want to
      utilise external information about the user, such as social media
      account logins and/or advertising tracking/targeting services.
      However, because the captive portal is effectively acting as a
      man-in-the-middle, providing these capabilities can put the user
      at risk.

   o  *Non-Browser Clients* - It is becoming more common for Internet
      devices without the ability to run a browser to be used, thanks to
      the "Internet of Things."  These devices cannot easily use most
      networks that interpose a captive portal.

   o  *Connectivity Interruption* - For a device with multiple network
      interfaces (e.g., cellular and WiFi), connecting to a network can
      require dropping access to alternative network interfaces.  If
      such a device connects to a network with a captive portal, it
      loses network connectivity until the captive portal requirements
      are satisfied.

.  Issues Caused by Captive Portal Detection

   Many operating systems attempt to detect when they are on a captive
   network.  Detection aims to minimize the negative effects caused by
   captive portals in several ways.



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   Captive portal detection can cause issues in some networks; for
   example:

   o  *False Positives* - Some networks don't use a Web browser
      interface to log in; e.g., they require a VPN to access the
      network [6], so captive portal detection relying on HTTP is
      counterproductive.

   o  *Non-Internet Networks* - Some applications [7] and/or networks
      don't assume Internet access, but captive portal detection often
      conflates "network access" with "Internet access".

   o  *Sandboxing* - When a captive portal is detected, some operating
      systems access the captive portal in a highly sandboxed
      environment.  This might have reduced capabilities, such as
      limited access to browser APIs.  In addition, this environment is
      separate from a user's normal browsing environment and therefore
      does not include state.

4.1.  Issues Caused by Defeating Captive Portal Detection

   Many captive portal devices provide optional mechanisms that aim to
   defeat captive portal detection.

   Such defeat mechanisms aim to avoid the problems caused by captive
   portal detection (see Section 4), with the consequence that they also
   cause the same problems that detection was intended to avoid (see
   Section 3).

.  Security Considerations

   TBD

.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

6.2.  URIs

   [] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6251349

   [] https://community.aerohive.com/aerohive/topics/
       ios_7_captive_portal_issues



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   [] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14606131/using-captive-
       network-assistant-on-macosx-to-connect-to-vpn

   [] http://forum.piratebox.cc/read.php?9,8879

   [] https://github.com/httpwg/wiki/wiki/Captive-Portals

Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   This draft was seeded from the HTTP Working Group Wiki Page on
   Captive Portals [8]; thanks to all who contributed there.

   Thanks to Martin Thomson for his suggestions.

Author's Address

   Mark Nottingham

   Email: mnot@mnot.net
   URI:   https://www.mnot.net/































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