DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a client/server protocol that

automatically provides an Internet Protocol (IP) host with its IP address and
other related configuration information such as the subnet mask and default
gateway.  DHCP allows hosts to obtain required TCP/IP configuration
information from a DHCP server.
Dynamic ip add addressing is is the best choice. It is auto and it makes
managing network a lot easier.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol(DHCP) is an application layer protocol
which is used to provide: 
 
. Subnet Mask (Option 1 – e.g., 255.255.255.0)
. Router Address (Option 3 – e.g., 192.168.1.1)
. DNS Address (Option 6 – e.g., 8.8.8.8)
. Vendor Class Identifier (Option 43 – e.g., ‘unifi’ = 192.168.1.9 ##where
unifi = controller)
– DHCP is based on a client-server model and based on discovery, offer,
request, and ACK. 
– DHCP port number for server is 67 and for the client is 68. It is a
Client server protocol which uses UDP services.
– Subnet Mask : A subnet mask is used to divide an IP address into
two parts. One part identifies the host (computer), the other part
identifies the network to which it belongs.
– Subnetmask is nothing but a playning of network and Default gateway
is comunicate to one network to another network given to router all pc
in the network communicate to that particular default ip addreess
– DHCP runs on a server, sometime also runs on a router
===========================================================
===========================================================
==========================================
How it works?

 DHCP, the client and the server exchange mainly 4 DHCP messages in order to
make a connection, also called DORA process, but there are 8 DHCP messages
in the process. 

. DHCP discover message – 

This is a first message generated in the communication process
between server and client. This message is generated by Client host in
order to discover if there is any DHCP server/servers are present in a
network or not. This message is broadcasted to all devices present in
a network to find the DHCP server. This message is 342 or 576 bytes
long  
As shown in the figure, source MAC address (client PC) is 08002B2EAF2A,
destination MAC address(server) is FFFFFFFFFFFF, source IP address is
0.0.0.0(because PC has no IP address till now) and destination IP address is
255.255.255.255 (IP address used for broadcasting). As the discover message
is broadcast to find out the DHCP server or servers in the network therefore
broadcast IP address and MAC address is used. 
 
. DHCP offer message – 
The server will respond to host in this message specifying the
unleased IP address and other TCP configuration information. This
message is broadcasted by server. Size of message is 342 bytes. If
there are more than one DHCP servers present in the network then
client host will accept the first DHCP OFFER message it receives. Also
a server ID is specified in the packet in order to identify the server.  
Now, for the offer message, source IP address is 172.16.32.12 (server’s IP
address in the example), destination IP address is 255.255.255.255 (broadcast
IP address) ,source MAC address is 00AA00123456, destination MAC address
is FFFFFFFFFFFF. Here, the offer message is broadcast by the DHCP server
therefore destination IP address is broadcast IP address and destination MAC
address is FFFFFFFFFFFF and the source IP address is server IP address and
MAC address is server MAC address. 
Also the server has provided the offered IP address 192.16.32.51 and lease time
of 72 hours(after this time the entry of host will be erased from the server
automatically) . Also the client identifier is PC MAC address (08002B2EAF2A)
for all the messages. 
 
. DHCP request message – 
When a client receives a offer message, it responds by broadcasting a
DHCP request message. The client will produce a  gratuitous ARP in
order to find if there is any other host present in the network with
same IP address. If there is no reply by other host, then there is no
host with same TCP configuration in the network and the message is
broadcasted to server showing the acceptance of IP address .A Client
ID is also added in this message.  
– Now, the request message is broadcast by the client PC therefore
source IP address is 0.0.0.0(as the client has no IP right now) and
destination IP address is 255.255.255.255 (broadcast IP address) and
source MAC address is 08002B2EAF2A (PC MAC address) and
destination MAC address is FFFFFFFFFFFF. 
Note – This message is broadcast after the ARP request broadcast by
the PC to find out whether any other host is not using that offered IP. If
there is no reply, then the client host broadcast the DHCP request
message for the server showing the acceptance of IP address and
Other TCP/IP Configuration. 
 
. DHCP acknowledgement message – 
In response to the request message received, the server will make an
entry with specified client ID and bind the IP address offered with
lease time. Now, the client will have the IP address provided by
server.  
Now the server will make an entry of the client host with the offered IP address
and lease time. This IP address will not be provided by server to any other host.
The destination MAC address is FFFFFFFFFFFF and the destination IP address
is 255.255.255.255 and the source IP address is 172.16.32.12 and the source
MAC address is 00AA00123456 (server MAC address). 
 
. DHCP negative acknowledgement message – 
Whenever a DHCP server receives a request for IP address that is
invalid according to the scopes that is configured with, it send DHCP
Nak message to client. Eg-when the server has no IP address unused
or the pool is empty, then this message is sent by the server to client. 
 
. DHCP decline – 
If DHCP client determines the offered configuration parameters are
different or invalid, it sends DHCP decline message to the
server .When there is a reply to the gratuitous ARP by any host to the
client, the client sends DHCP decline message to the server showing
the offered IP address is already in use. 
 
. DHCP release – 
A DHCP client sends DHCP release packet to server to release IP
address and cancel any remaining lease time. 
 
. DHCP inform – 
If a client address has obtained IP address manually then the client
 .

uses a DHCP inform to obtain other local configuration parameters,

such as domain name. In reply to the dhcp inform message, DHCP
server generates DHCP ack message with local configuration suitable
for the client without allocating a new IP address. This DHCP ack
message is unicast to the client. 

Data stored at both ends:

The network administrator establishes DHCP servers that maintain TCP/IP
configuration information and provide address configuration to DHCP-enabled
clients in the form of a lease offer. The DHCP server stores the configuration
information in a database that includes:
● Valid TCP/IP configuration parameters for all clients on the
network.
● Valid IP addresses, maintained in a pool for assignment to
clients, as well as excluded addresses.
● Reserved IP addresses associated with particular DHCP
clients. This allows consistent assignment of a single IP address to a
single DHCP client.
● The lease duration, or the length of time for which the IP
address can be used before a lease renewal is required.
A DHCP-enabled client, upon accepting a lease offer, receives:
● A valid IP address for the subnet to which it is connecting.
● Requested DHCP options, which are additional parameters
that a DHCP server is configured to assign to clients. Some examples
of DHCP options are Router (default gateway), DNS Servers, and DNS
Domain Name.

===========================================================
===========================================================
==========================================
Reservations are typically given to special devices like network printers,
routers, server, etc.

Advantages:
● centralized management of IP addresses
● ease of adding new clients to a network
● reuse of IP addresses reducing the total number of IP addresses that
are required
● simple reconfiguration of the IP address space on the DHCP server
without needing to reconfigure each client

Disadvantages:
– DHCP protocol doesn’t require authentication which leads Man-in-
Middle or DoS attack
– DHCP server does not have a backup and the server fails, so do the
devices served by it.
– DHCP servers have also been the subject of multiple memory
corruption vulnerabilities. In these, attackers have targeted the
Windows DHCP Server service. When successful, the attacks can lead
to a full compromise of Microsoft Active Directory (AD). One such
vulnerability, patched by Microsoft, was the Common Vulnerabilities
and Exposures (CVE)-2019-0725 Windows DHCP Server Remote
Code Execution (RCE) Vulnerability.

The DHCP relay will manage requests between DHCP clients and servers.
Typically, relays are used when an organization has to handle large or complex
networks