Internet Command Message Protocol

(ICMP)
CS-431
Dick Steflik

ICMP
Internet Command Message Protocol (ICMP)
RFC 792
Used to communicate IP status and error messages
between host and routers

ICMP
Used to communicate IP status and error messages between
hosts and routers
Uses IP to route its messages between hosts
Must be implemented with IP
remember, IP is just a packet delivery system
transmits and routes datagrams from sources to destinations through a
series of interconnected networks
it has a checksum in the IP header to detect lost bits
no error detection on the datagram payload though

but has no native mechanism for source host notification

This is where ICMP comes in
its used to report IP errors to the source host

ICMP data is carried as the payload of an IP datagram

specifies additional message formats within this area

Basic ICMP Header

Headers are 32 bits in length; all contain same three fields
type - 8 bit message type code
thirteen message type are defined
code - 8 bit; indicating why message is being sent
checksum - standard internet checksum
16 bit 1s complement sum of the payload and header
for purpose of calculation the checksum field is set to zero

ICMP Message types

0 - Echo Reply
3 - Destination Unreachable
4 - Source Quench
5 - Redirect
8 - Echo
11 - Time Exceeded
12 - Parameter Problem
13 - Timestamp
14 - Timestamp Reply
15 - Information Request
16 - Information Reply
17 - Address Mask Request
18 - Address Mask Reply

Destination Unreachable (3)

ICMP header (4 bytes) + unused 32 bits (4 bytes) + IP header (24
bytes) + first 64 bits of data (8 bytes) = 40 bytes
Codes:
0 - net unreachable ; 1 - host unreachable
2 - protocol unreachable ; 3 - port unreachable

sent by destination host IP module

4 - fragmentation needed DF set ; 5 source route failed
6 - destination network unknown ; 7 destination host unknown
8 - source host isolated ; 9 - comm. with destn network prohibited
10 - comm. With dest host prohibited ; 11 - network unreachable for service
12 - host unreachable for service

Sent to originating host because destination is unreachable

may be determined by a router
destination IP may find the indicated protocol unavailable
Dont Fragment (DF) bit in the IP header is set but fragmentation is required
to continue forwarding

Source Quench (4)

Same message format as type 3
Code : 0
Sent to a host when an intermediate router or the
destination host with the source hosts transmission rate
may be sent to a source when a router is saturated
may be sent by a receiving host if it receive buffers are filling up

Upon receipt the source host should throttle back on its

transmission rate until the Source Quench goes away.
Can then increase its transmission rate

Redirect (5)
Same format as type 3
Code:

0 - redirect datagrams for the network

1 - redirect datagrams for the host
2 - redirect datagrams for the type of service and the network
3 - redirect datagrams for the type of service and host

a router sends a message to a host when it determines a

datagram that originated from the host must be forwarded
to router that can be directly reached
allows the host to sent future datagrams to the optimal first-hop
router increasing network efficiency

not used for datagrams that have source routing options

Echo (8)/Echo Reply (0)

ICMP header (4 bytes) + identifier (2 bytes) + sequence
number (2 bytes) + data (4 bytes)
identifier - used to match Echoes and Echo Replies
sequence - used to match Echoes with Echo Replies

Used to determine if a host is reachable

a host receiving an echo message

reverses the IP source and destination addresses

sets the ICMP type field to zero (echo reply)
recomputes the ICMP checksum
identifier, sequence and data are sent back unchanged

Time Exceeded (11)

Same format as type 3
Code:
0 - time to live exceeded in transit
1 - fragment reassembly time exceeded

Time exceeded message is sent if:

a router finds a datagram with TTL set to zero
router discards the datagram and sends message with code field set to 0
a host does not receive all of the fragments of a datagram before its
local reassemble timer expires
host discards all fragments and return message with code field set to 1

Parameter Problem (12)

ICMP Header (4 bytes) + pointer (1 byte) + unused (3 bytes)
+ IP header (24 bytes) + first 64 bits of data (8 bytes)
pointer - identifies octet where error occurred

Code:
0 - misc parameter problem
2 - required option missing

sent to a host when a router or host processing a datagram

finds a problem with the information in the datagram.
Only sent if the datagram had to be discarded
pointer field is zero based
ex: 1 indicates problem with type of service; 20 indicates first option

Timestamp(13)/Timstamp Reply(14)
ICMP Header (4 bytes) + identifier (2 bytes) + seq num (2
bytes) + Originate Timestamp (4 bytes) + Receive
Timestamp (4 bytes) + Transmit Timestamp (4 bytes)
Timestamps are number of msec past midnight UTC
used to determine the latency between the sender and
receiver
receiver forms a message by

reversing the originate and destination addr in the IP header

setting ICMP type code to 14
updating the timestamp fields
recomput the ICMP checksum

Info Request (15)/Info Reply(16)

Same as type 8, but no data
Code: 0
used by a host to determine the network number the host
resides on
receiver

reverses the source and destination addresses in the IP header

set the correct network number
set ICMP type to 16
recompute the ICMP checksum

Obsolete; shouldnt be used replaced by BOOTP and RARP

Addr Mask Rqst (17)/Addr Mask Reply(18)

ICMP Header (4 bytes) + identifier (2 bytes) + seq.num. (2
bytes) + addr mask (4 bytes)
identifier - used to match requests with replies.
seq.num. - used to match requests with replies.

Hosts and routers can request the subnet address mask for
the network they reside on at boot time.
Host or router broadcasts it on the local network
a receiving router should return it in a reply message

This message is defined in RFC 950

ICMPv6
New version of ICMP to go along with IPv6
Absorbs many IGMP and ARP functions
Used for:
Reporting errors in IP packet processing
Performing diagnostics
performing Neighbor Discovery and reporting
IPv6 multicast memberships

Two types of messages:

Error messages
Information messages

Error Message Categories

Destination Unreachable
Packet too big
Time exceeded
Parameter problem

Informational Messages
Diagnostic messages
Multicast group management messages
Neighbor discovery messages

 Every ICMPv6 message is preceeded by an

IPv6 header and 0 or more IPv6 extension
headers.
A next header field of 58 nidentifies the
ICMPv6 message (different than IPv4)

Message Format
0
1
2
3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
|-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-|
| Type
| Code
| Checksum
|
|-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-|
|
|
| Message Body
|
|
|
| +-------------------------------------------------------------+