2 Security problems of TCP (2024)

The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20160103092914/http://www.isoc.org/inet95/proceedings/PAPER/144/html/node2.html

In this section, we address problems of the current version of TCP.

TCP provides fundamental communication service and is usedby many application protocols.Therefore, TCP becomes one of the most popular protocol.But TCP has several security problems as follows.

• TCP can not guard a segment against the messagemodification attacks.

  TCP has a checksum field.This field is used in order to identify a modification of asegment.However, since this field is not protected against the messagemodification attacks, it is possible to modify any TCPsegments. Moreover, there is no ways for peer entities tofind out the message modification attacks.

• TCP can not keep segment data secure against the messageeavesdropping attacks.

  TCP transports stream data used in the application layer.Since TCP does not provide any data encryption functions,anyone can gain any valuable information.

• TCP can not protect connections against the unauthorizedaccess attacks.

  TCP certifies a peer entity by a source IP address and aport number.However, it is possible to modify the source address and portnumber.