SNMPv3 protocol and packets composition - snmp

With a friend we are currently working on a library to create and read SNMPv3 packet.
The idea is "only" to create the content of the packet and it will be sent independently.
I know that many libraries exist for that but not in the language that we need. Our major problem now is to specify the content of the different packets. Which part is mandatory? Which part comes in which type of request?
With some examples available on Wireshark's website and the RFCs we can have a beginning of an idea but as it is a protocol, we need to be very clear and sure of what is required in each type of request (get-request, set-request, get-bulk, trap, etc.).
Is there a way to know exactly how each type of packet is created or the only information sources are the RFCs?

First, I want to offer some clarification about the terminology. A UDP packet encodes an SNMP "message". The format of the message varies with the SNMP version, but in all cases, it contains a single PDU. I think when you say "packet", you really mean "PDU".
As for your question, there's no better source than the RFCs, and they are actually easier to read than you think, as long as you know which parts to read (that's the tricky part).
RFC 3416 specifies everything to do with PDUs, including the format (p. 8), a comprehensive list of PDU types (pp. 7-8), and an explanation of how each PDU is used (under section 4.2, starting on p. 10).
The format of all PDUs is the same (though the BulkPDU replaces error-status and error-index with two integer fields of different meanings):
PDU ::= SEQUENCE {
request-id INTEGER (-214783648..214783647),
error-status -- sometimes ignored
INTEGER {
noError(0),
tooBig(1),
noSuchName(2), -- for proxy compatibility
badValue(3), -- for proxy compatibility
readOnly(4), -- for proxy compatibility
genErr(5),
noAccess(6),
wrongType(7),
wrongLength(8),
wrongEncoding(9),
wrongValue(10),
noCreation(11),
inconsistentValue(12),
resourceUnavailable(13),
commitFailed(14),
undoFailed(15),
authorizationError(16),
notWritable(17),
inconsistentName(18)
},
error-index -- sometimes ignored
INTEGER (0..max-bindings),
variable-bindings -- values are sometimes ignored
VarBindList
}

Related

Windows DHCP client hostname encoding

Recently I have been trying to save list of hostnames from captured DHCP packets. I have found out, every DHCP hostname (option 12) should have form defined in RFC 1035. So if I understand it correctly, hostname should be encoded in 7-bit ASCII and have other restrictions like:
- name should not start with digit and should omit some forbidden characters.
Almost every device I have encountered in packets fulfill this constraint, but not Windows devices (Vendor ID MSFT 5.0). IMHO Windows DHCP client takes computer (mobile) name and fill it in hostname option.
Problem occurs, when computer name is set for example to "Lukáš-PC". Wireshark display this hostname as Luk\240\347-PC. (240 and 347 are numbers in octal). To see for myself I have printed values in packets with printf("%hhu", c) (C language).
á = 160
š = 231
IMHO I think this is simple char variable overflow. I tried deduce original value from overflow value, but I haven't found any relation between character and known encodings. So my questions are:
Is there any way to convert these values back to original?
If yes, what was original character encoding, when overflow happened?
Thanks.
Default char is usually signed, and extends to int when passed to a variadic function. To ensure that it is printed unsigned, use printf("%hhu", c) or printf("%d", (unsigned char)c);.
The correct encoding is impossible to know because it depends on each system's settings.
Note that any compliant systems MUST encode names according to RFC 3490, but Windows seems to enjoy violating standards.
The characters á and š that you are seing are encoded using code page 852 (Latin-2 - Central European languages).
Unfortunately there is no simple way how you can figure out the encoding used only by looking at DHCP requests. In principle the DHCP client can use any code page it wants. If you are working in a private/controlled network, then it is probably safe to assume the all clients are using the same code page and explicitly encode the strings using that particular code page.

What is the time frame used to collect data for oid 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10(ifInOctets(10) )

When I do an snmpwalk for oid 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10.1 I get a Counter32 integer value as the result. [1] states that 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10 gives total number of octets received on the interface, including framing characters.
Does anybody knows for which time frame snmp gives this integer value because what I get is a pretty large value.
[1] http://www.oid-info.com/get/1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10
Thank you.
In RFC 202 you can find the mapping of MIB objects to their corresponding item in IEEE 802.12,
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2020#page-12
That means, SNMP only exposes those values directly from the network adapters, without any processing at SNMP layer. Thus, when you see a value for ifInOctets, it is very likely to be an accumulated value since the last reset of this adapter (may or may not be related to device reset).

using int64 type for snmp v2c oid?

I am debugging some snmp code for an integer overflow problem. Basically we use an integer to store disk/raid capacity in KB. However when a disk/raid of more than 2TB is used, it'll overflow.
I read from some internet forums that snmp v2c support integer64 or unsigned64. In my test it'll still just send the lower 32 bits even though I have set the type to integer64 or unsigned64.
Here is how I did it:
a standalone program will obtain the capacity and write the data to a file. example lines for raid capacity
my-sub-oid
Counter64
7813857280
/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf has a clause to pass thru the oids:
pass_persist mymiboid /path/to/snmpagent
in the mysnmpagent source, read the oidmap into oid/type/value structure from the file, and print to stdout.
printf("%s\n", it->first.c_str());
printf("%s\n", it->second.type.c_str());
printf("%s\n", it->second.value.c_str());
fflush(stdout);
use snmpget to get the sub-oid, and it returns:
mysuboid = Counter32: 3518889984
I use tcpdump and the last segment of the value portion is:
41 0500 d1be 0000
41 should be the tag, 05 should be the length, and the value is only carrying the lower 32-bit of the capacity. (note 7813857280 is 0x1.d1.be.00.00)
I do find that using string type would send correct value (in octetstring format). But I want to know if there is a way to use 64-bit integer in snmp v2c.
I am running NET-SNMP 5.4.2.1 though.
thanks a lot.
Update:
Found the following from snmpd.conf regarding pass (and probably also pass_persist) in net-snmp doc page. I guess it's forcing the Counter64 to Counter32.
Note:
The SMIv2 type counter64 and SNMPv2 noSuchObject exception are not supported.
You are supposed to use two Unsigned32 for lower and upper bytes of your large number.
Counter64 is not meant to be used for large numbers this way.
For reference : 17 Common MIB Design Errors (last one)
SNMP SMIv2 defines a new type Counter64,
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2578#page-24
which is in fact unsigned 64 bit integer. So if your data fall into the range, using Counter64 is proper.
"In my test it'll still just send the lower 32 bits even though I have set the type to integer64 or unsigned64" sounds like a problem, but unless you show more details (like showing some code) on how you tested it out and received the result, nobody might help further.

How to correctly represent message class in SMPP

I am currently trying to figure out how sms classes are correctly represented in SMPP. However I am by now completely confused by the standard and it's documentation.
In normal sms we have
Class0: Flash sms, which are shown on the display
Class1: Normal Sms to be stored on the sim or internally in the device
Looking at the SMPP spec, I first find the parameter data_coding in the submit_sm operation, which is used to set the DCS sent via MAP. As far as I understand this, if we want to explicitly set the message class we need to set the first four bits of this parameter to ones, then two bits indicating the coding and then another two bits indicating the message class. So for Class1 Sms, we would set 1111xx01. Is this correct so far?
If we try to set this DCS, however currently we also set the data coding to "8-Bit data". It seems, several phones are not able to understand this. Is this specified anywhere, and can we just change this, or is a special coding needed when sending other message classes.
More confusion arises, when we try to use the SMPPv3.4 recommended way of setting the Message class. Since 3.4 there is an optional parameter in the submit_sm operation, called dest_addr_subunit. According to the standard this parameter should be set to 0 for unknown, 1 for MS-Display, 2 for Mobile equipment, etc. If I look at this, it seems the parameters are shifted by one compared to GSM message classes. Class0 is encoded as 1, Class1 is encoded as 2 and so on. Is this correct or is there any more complicated mapping behind this?
Also, if we set dest_addr_subunit, do we still have to set DCS as well, or can we just leave this parameter at it's default value?
I recommend to read 3GPP TS 23.038 specification with detailed DCS (Data Coding Scheme) description.
In case of DCS bits 7654 are 00xx, you should check DCS for bit 4 value.
bit 4 == 0 - no message class for this message (bits 1 and 0 are reserved)
bit 4 == 1 - bits 1 and 0 contains message class
So you should set data_coding SMPP parameter in accordance to 3GPP TS 23.038 specification to handle message_class properly.
By default GSM SMS message has no message_class and this is not the same as message_class = 1.

Embedding GSM cellids in Short Messages

I'm using the WML function "providelocalinfo" to put location information into Short Messages send via a WIB menu on a GSM handset.
I'm using the WIG WML v.4 Spec from SmartTrust. The relevant section is "9.4 providelocalinfo Element"
I use the code as in the example, and then transmit the variable via SMS, and use Kannel to retrieve the message from the SMSC.
Here's the code that I'm using, with the exception of [myservicecentre] being my actual service centre:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE wml PUBLIC "-//SmartTrust//DTD WIG-WML 4.0//EN"
"http://www.smarttrust.com/DTD/WIG-WML4.0.dtd">
<wml wibletenc="UCS2">
<card id="s">
<p>
<providelocalinfo cmdqualifier="location" destvar="LOC"/>
<setvar name="X" value="loc=" class="binary"/>
<sendsm>
<destaddress value="367"/>
<userdata docudenc="hex-binary" dcs="245">
$(X)$(LOC)
</userdata>
<servicecentreaddress value="[myservicecentre]"/>
</sendsm>
</p>
</card>
</wml>
What I see in my received messages is "loc=" followed by 7 bytes (octets) or binary data. I have tried to find documentation explaining how to decode this data, but found nothing the explains this clearly.
Of the decoded 7 octets,
the first 3 octets are always the same,
The next 2 octets tend to vary between three unique values,
the last 2 octets appear to be the cellid.
So I have coded the receiver to pull the last two octets and construct a 16-bit GSM cellid. Most of the time it matches known cellids from the network. But quite often, the value does not match.
So I'm trying to find information on the following:
How to properly transmit the location information in a safe manner (encodings, casts, etc)
How to decode the information properly
How to configure Kannel to honor binary location data
I've examined the following documents in my vain searching, but not found the relevant data:
GSM 03.38, GSM 04.07, GSM 04.08, GSM 11.15, as well as the WIG WML Spec V .4
Any insight into what I might be doing wrong would be appreciated!
To decode the location info, you need to look in GSM 11.14 page 48
1.19 LOCATION INFORMATION
Byte(s) Description Length
1 Location Information tag 1
2 Length (X) of bytes following 1
3-5 Mobile Country & Network Codes (MCC & MNC) 3
6-7 Location Area Code (LAC) 2
8-9 Cell Identity Value (Cell ID) 2
The mobile country code (MCC), the mobile network code (MNC), the location area code (LAC) and the
cell ID are coded as in TS GSM 04.08 [8].
From personal experience, the first octet mentioned here is usually left off, so your first three unchanging bytes are the length and the country. The next 2 are the network operator code.
Not too many bites on this question! I wanted to summarize my findings in case others can find them useful:
Need to send messages with a dcs setting not equal to 0. dcs="0" sends data packed (honoring the lower 7-bits of each octet; this allows 160 character SMS messages when the max message size is actually 140 octets)
Need to parse the data in a binary safe manner: regex expressions that stop searching when 0x0A is encountered will fail when the binary data itself can be that value.
I found no need to change Kannel's default configuration.
Cheers
Disclaimer: Safe transmission of 16-bit GSM Cell-Ids requires dealing with a few settings that I understand only because they weren't configured by default. There are probably other defaults that I've depended on but am unaware that they can vary.

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