Universal Plug and Play

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Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols that permits networked devices, such as personal
computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence
on the network and establish functional network services for data sharing, communications, and entertainment. UPnP is
intended primarily for residential networks without enterprise class devices.
The UPnP technology is promoted by the UPnP Forum. The UPnP Forum is a computer industry initiative to enable simple and
robust connectivity to stand-alone devices and personal computers from many different vendors. The Forum consists of over
eight hundred vendors involved in everything from consumer electronics to network computing.
The concept of UPnP is an extension of plug-and-play, a technology for dynamically attaching devices directly to a computer,
although UPnP is not directly related to the earlier plug-and-play technology. UPnP devices are "plug-and-play" in that when
connected to a network they automatically establish working configurations with other devices.
Contents [hide]
1 Overview
2 Protocol
2.1 Addressing
2.2 Discovery
2.3 Description
2.4 Control
2.5 Event notification
2.6 Presentation
3 UPnP AV standards
4 UPnP AV components
4.1 Media server
4.2 Other components
5 NAT traversal
6 Problems with UPnP
6.1 Lack of authentication
6.2 Accepting WAN requests
6.3 Other problems
6.4 Vulnerabilities detected in 2013
7 Future developments
8 See also
9 References
10 Books
11 External links
Overview
The UPnP architecture allows device-to-device networking of personal computers, networked home appliances, consumer
electronics devices and wireless devices. It is a distributed, open architecture protocol based on established standards such as
the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP), HTTP, XML, and SOAP. UPnP control points are devices which use UPnP protocols to
control UPnP devices.
[1]
The UPnP architecture supports zero configuration networking. A UPnP compatible device from any vendor can dynamically join
a network, obtain an IP address, announce its name, convey its capabilities upon request, and learn about the presence and
capabilities of other devices. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) servers are
optional and are only used if they are available on the network. Devices can disconnect from the network automatically without
leaving state information.
UPnP was published as a 73-part international standard, ISO/IEC 29341, in December, 2008.
[2][3][4]
Other UPnP features include:
Media and device independence
UPnP technology can run on many media that support IP including Ethernet, FireWire, IR (IrDA), home wiring (G.hn) and RF
(Bluetooth, Wi-Fi). No special device driver support is necessary; common network protocols are used instead.
User interface (UI) Control
UPnP architecture enables devices to present a user interface through a web browser (see Presentation below).
Operating system and programming language independence
Any operating system and any programming language can be used to build UPnP products. UPnP does not specify or
constrain the design of an API for applications running on control points; OS vendors may create APIs that suit their
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customer's needs.
[clarification needed]
Programmatic control
UPnP architecture also enables conventional application programmatic control.
[clarification needed]
Extensibility
Each UPnP product can have device-specific services layered on top of the basic architecture. In addition to combining
services defined by UPnP Forum in various ways, vendors can define their own device and service types, and can extend
standard devices and services with vendor-defined actions, state variables, data structure elements, and variable values.
Protocol
UPnP uses UDP port 1900 and TCP port 2869.
[5]
Addressing
The foundation for UPnP networking is IP addressing. Each device must implement a DHCP client and search for a DHCP server
when the device is first connected to the network. If no DHCP server is available, the device must assign itself an address. The
process by which a UPnP device assigns itself an address is known within the UPnP Device Architecture as AutoIP. In UPnP
Device Architecture Version 1.0,
[6]
AutoIP is defined within the specification itself; in UPnP Device Architecture Version 1.1,
[7]
AutoIP references IETF RFC 3927 .
[8]
If during the DHCP transaction, the device obtains a domain name, for example, through
a DNS server or via DNS forwarding, the device should use that name in subsequent network operations; otherwise, the device
should use its IP address.
Discovery
Once a device has established an IP address, the next step in UPnP networking is discovery. The UPnP discovery protocol is
known as the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP). When a device is added to the network, SSDP allows that device to
advertise its services to control points on the network. Similarly, when a control point is added to the network, SSDP allows that
control point to search for devices of interest on the network. The fundamental exchange in both cases is a discovery message
containing a few essential specifics about the device or one of its services, for example, its type, identifier, and a pointer to more
detailed information.
Description
After a control point has discovered a device, the control point still knows very little about the device. For the control point to
learn more about the device and its capabilities, or to interact with the device, the control point must retrieve the device's
description from the URL provided by the device in the discovery message. The UPnP description for a device is expressed in
XML and includes vendor-specific manufacturer information like the model name and number, serial number, manufacturer name,
URLs to vendor-specific web sites, etc. The description also includes a list of any embedded devices or services, as well as
URLs for control, eventing, and presentation. For each service, the description includes a list of the commands, or actions, to
which the service responds, and parameters, or arguments, for each action; the description for a service also includes a list of
variables; these variables model the state of the service at run time, and are described in terms of their data type, range, and
event characteristics.
Control
Having retrieved a description of the device, the control point can send actions to a device's service. To do this, a control point
sends a suitable control message to the control URL for the service (provided in the device description). Control messages are
also expressed in XML using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Much like function calls, the service returns any
action-specific values in response to the control message. The effects of the action, if any, are modeled by changes in the
variables that describe the run-time state of the service.
Event notification
An additional capability of UPnP networking is event notification, or eventing. The event notification protocol defined in the UPnP
Device Architecture is known as General Event Notification Architecture (GENA). A UPnP description for a service includes a list
of actions the service responds to and a list of variables that model the state of the service at run time. The service publishes
updates when these variables change, and a control point may subscribe to receive this information. The service publishes
updates by sending event messages. Event messages contain the names of one or more state variables and the current value of
those variables. These messages are also expressed in XML. A special initial event message is sent when a control point first
subscribes; this event message contains the names and values for all evented variables and allows the subscriber to initialize its
model of the state of the service. To support scenarios with multiple control points, eventing is designed to keep all control
points equally informed about the effects of any action. Therefore, all subscribers are sent all event messages, subscribers
receive event messages for all "evented" variables that have changed, and event messages are sent no matter why the state
variable changed (either in response to a requested action or because the state the service is modeling changed).
Presentation
The final step in UPnP networking is presentation. If a device has a URL for presentation, then the control point can retrieve a
page from this URL, load the page into a web browser, and depending on the capabilities of the page, allow a user to control the
device and/or view device status. The degree to which each of these can be accomplished depends on the specific capabilities of
the presentation page and device.
UPnP AV standards
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No
cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can. (March
2011)
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UPnP AV is an audio and video extension of UPnP. On 12 July 2006 the UPnP Forum announced the release of version 2 of the
UPnP Audio and Video specifications,
[9]
with new MediaServer version 2.0 and MediaRenderer version 2.0 classes. These
enhancements are created by adding capabilities to the MediaServer and MediaRenderer device classes that allow a higher level
of interoperability between MediaServers and MediaRenderers from different manufacturers. Some of the early devices complying
with these standards were marketed by Philips under the Streamium brand name.
The UPnP AV standards have been referenced in specifications published by other organizations including Digital Living Network
Alliance Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines,
[10]
International Electrotechnical Commission IEC 62481-1,
[11]
and Cable
Television Laboratories OpenCable Home Networking Protocol.
[12]
UPnP AV components
Media server
A UPnP AV media server is the UPnP-server (a 'master' device) that provides media library information and streams media-
data (like audio/video/picture/files) to UPnP-clients on the network. It is a computer system or a similar digital appliance that
stores digital media, such as photographs, movies, or music and shares these with other devices.
UPnP AV media servers provide a service to UPnP AV client devices, so called control points, for browsing the media content of
the server and request the media server to deliver a file to the control point for playback.
UPnP media servers are available for most operating systems and many hardware platforms. UPnP AV media servers can either
be categorized as software-based or hardware-based. Software-based UPnP AV media servers can be run on a PC. Hardware-
based UPnP AV media servers may run on any NAS devices or any specific hardware for delivering media, such as a DVR. As
of May 2008, there were more software-based UPnP AV media servers than there were hardware-based servers.
Other components
UPnP MediaServer ControlPoint - which is the UPnP-client (a 'slave' device) that can auto-detect UPnP-servers on the
network to browse and stream media/data-files from them.
UPnP MediaRenderer DCP - which is a 'slave' device that can render (play) content.
UPnP RenderingControl DCP - control MediaRenderer settings; volume, brightness, RGB, sharpness, and more.
UPnP Remote User Interface (RUI) client/server - which sends/receives control-commands between the UPnP-client and
UPnP-server over network, (like record, schedule, play, pause, stop, etc.).
Web4CE (CEA 2014) for UPnP Remote UI
[13]
- CEA-2014 standard designed by Consumer Electronics Association's
R7 Home Network Committee. Web-based Protocol and Framework for Remote User Interface on UPnP Networks and
the Internet (Web4CE). This standard allows a UPnP-capable home network device to provide its interface (display and
control options) as a web page to display on any other device connected to the home network. That means that one can
control a home networking device through any web-browser-based communications method for CE devices on a UPnP
home network using ethernet and a special version of HTML called CE-HTML.
QoS (Quality of Service) - is an important (but not mandatory) service function for use with UPnP AV (Audio and Video).
QoS (Quality of Service) refers to control mechanisms that can provide different priority to different users or data flows, or
guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow in accordance with requests from the application program. Since
UPnP AV is mostly to deliver streaming media that is often near real-time or real-time audio/video data which it is critical to
be delivered within a specific time or the stream is interrupted. QoS (Quality of Service) guarantees are especially important if
the network capacity is limited, for example public networks, like the internet.
QoS (Quality of Service) for UPnP consist of Sink Device (client-side/front-end) and Source Device (server-side/back-
end) service functions. With classes such as; Traffic Class that indicates the kind of traffic in the traffic stream, (for
example, audio or video). Traffic Identifier (TID) which identifies data packets as belonging to a unique traffic stream.
Traffic Specification (TSPEC) which contains a set of parameters that define the characteristics of the traffic stream,
(for example operating requirement and scheduling). Traffic Stream (TS) which is a unidirectional flow of data that
originates at a source device and terminates at one or more sink device(s).
Remote Access - defines methods for connecting UPnP device sets that are not in the same multicast domain.
NAT traversal
One solution for NAT traversal, called the Internet Gateway Device Protocol (IGD Protocol), is implemented via UPnP. Many
routers and firewalls expose themselves as Internet Gateway Devices, allowing any local UPnP control point to perform a variety
of actions, including retrieving the external IP address of the device, enumerate existing port mappings, and add or remove port
mappings. By adding a port mapping, a UPnP controller behind the IGD can enable traversal of the IGD from an external address
to an internal client.
Problems with UPnP
Lack of authentication
The UPnP protocol, as default, does not implement any authentication, so UPnP device implementations must implement their
own authentication mechanisms, or implement the Device Security Service.
[14]
There also exists a non-standard solution called
UPnP-UP (Universal Plug and Play - User Profile)
[15][16]
which proposes an extension to allow user authentication and
authorization mechanisms for UPnP devices and applications.
Unfortunately, many UPnP device implementations lack authentication mechanisms, and by default assume local systems and
their users are completely trustworthy.
[17][18]
Most notably, routers and firewalls running the UPnP IGD protocol are vulnerable to attack since the framers of the IGD
implementation omitted a standard authentication method. For example, Adobe Flash programs are capable of generating a
specific type of HTTP request which allows a router implementing the UPnP IGD protocol to be controlled by a malicious web
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site when someone with a UPnP-enabled router simply visits that web site.
[19]
This only applies to the "firewall-hole-punching"-
feature of UPnP; it does not apply when the IGD does not support UPnP or UPnP has been disabled on the IGD. Also, not all
routers can have such things as DNS server settings altered by UPnP because much of the specification (including LAN Host
Configuration) is optional for UPnP enabled routers.
[20]
Accepting WAN requests
In 2011, researcher Daniel Garcia developed a tool designed to exploit a flaw in some UPnP IGD device stacks that allow UPnP
requests from the WAN.
[21][22]
The tool was made public at DEFCON 19 and allows portmapping requests to external IP
addresses from the device and internal IP addresses behind the NAT. The problem is widely propagated around the world, with
scans showing millions of vulnerable devices at a time.
[23]
Other problems
UPnP uses HTTP over UDP (known as HTTPU and HTTPMU for unicast and multicast). HTTP communication usually takes
place over TCP/IP connections. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not preclude HTTP from being
implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. UPnP uses UDP due to its lower overhead in not
requiring confirmation of received data and retransmission of crc failed packets. As streaming media is time sensitive this has
proven a good compromise, even though this is specified only in an Internet-Draft that expired in 2001. Archived December 30,
2006 at the Wayback Machine
UPnP does not have a lightweight authentication protocol, while the available security protocols are complex. As a result,
some UPnP devices ship with UPnP turned off by default as a security measure.
Vulnerabilities detected in 2013
January 2013 the security company Rapid7 in Boston reported
[24]
on a six-month research programme. A team scanned for
signals from UPnP-enabled devices announcing their availability for internet connection. Some 6900 network-aware products
from 1500 companies at 81 million IP-addresses responded to their requests. 80% of the devices are home routers, others
include printers, webcams and surveillance cameras. Using the UPnP-protocol, many of those devices can be accessed and/or
manipulated.
Future developments
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No
cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can. (March
2011)
UPnP continues to be actively developed. In the fall of 2008, the UPnP Forum ratified the successor to UPnP 1.0, UPnP 1.1.
[25]
See
[26]
for documents describing the published standard.
The DPWS standard was a candidate successor to UPnP, but UPnP 1.1 was selected by the Forum.
The UPnP Internet Gateway Device (IGD)
[27]
standard has a WANIPConnection service that contains a competing solution
known as NAT-PMP, which is an IETF draft introduced by Apple Inc. in 2005. However, NAT-PMP is focused only on NAT
traversal. Version 2 of IGD is currently under development.
[28]
See also
Comparison of UPnP AV media servers
Devices Profile for Web Services
Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
List of UPnP AV media servers and clients
Zeroconf
References
1. ^ "Using the UPnP Control Point API" . Microsoft. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
2. ^ International Electrotechnical Commission, 2008-12-09. Retrieved on 2009-05-07.
3. ^ International Organization for Standardization "ISO/IEC standard on UPnP device architecture makes networking simple and
easy" , 2008-12-10. Retrieved on 2009-05-07.
4. ^ UPnP Forum "UPnP Specifications Named International Standard for Device Interoperability for IP-based Network Devices" ,
2009-02-05. Retrieved on 2009-05-07.
5. ^ "How Windows Firewall affects the UPnP framework in Windows XP Service Pack 2" . Microsoft. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
6. ^ UPnP Forum, UPnP Device Architecture version 1.0 , 2008-04-24
7. ^ UPnP Forum, UPnP Device Architecture version 1.1 , 2008-10-15
8. ^ Cheshire, S., et al, IETF RFC 3927 , "Dynamic Configuration of IPv4 Link-Local Addresses", May 2005
9. ^ "UPnP Forum Releases Enhanced AV Specifications Taking Home Network to the Next Level" (PDF). 2006-07-12. Retrieved
2012-05-14.
10. ^ Digital Living Network Alliance, DLNA Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines , 2006-10
11. ^ International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC 62481-1 ,"Digital living network alliance (DLNA) home networked device
interoperability guidelines - Part 1: Architecture and protocols", 2007-08-30
12. ^ Cable Television Laboratories, OpenCable Home Networking Protocol , 2006-06-30
13. ^ "Web4CE (CEA 2014) for UPnP Remote UI (www.ce.org/standards)" .
14. ^ "Device Security and Security Console V 1.0" .
15. ^ "UPnP-UP - Universal Plug and Play - User Profile" .
16. ^ "A UPnP extension for enabling user authentication and authorization in pervasive systems" .
17. ^ "Shorewall firewall author on UPnP security" . Retrieved 2007-09-30.
18. ^ "Linux-IGD authors on UPnP security" . Retrieved 2007-09-30.
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19. ^ "Flash UPnP attack" .
20. ^ "Internet Gateway Device (IGD) V 1.0" . UPnP Forum. November 12, 2001.
21. ^ "UPnP Mapping" .
22. ^ "US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#357851" .
23. ^ Millions of devices vulnerable via UPnP - Update , The H, 2013-01-30, retrieved 2013-02-02
24. ^ "Whitepaper: Security Flaws in Universal Plug and Play: Unplug, Don't Play." . Retrieved 2013-02-09.
25. ^ "UPnP 1.1 - designing for performance & compatibility (Consumer Electronics, IEEE Transactions on)" .
26. ^ http://www.upnp.org/resources/documents.asp
27. ^ "UPnP InternetGateway:1" .
28. ^ "UPnP Forum Gateway Working Committee: IGD:2 Improvements over IGD:1" .
Books
Golden G. Richard: Service and Device Discovery : Protocols and Programming, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 0-07-
137959-2
Michael Jeronimo, Jack Weast: UPnP Design by Example: A Software Developer's Guide to Universal Plug and Play, Intel
Press, ISBN 0-9717861-1-9
External links
The UPnP Forum
ISO/IEC 29341-1:2011
upnp-database.info Community-based database of UPnP/AV Devices.
Categories: Network protocols Windows administration Windows communication and services Digital media
Mobile content Servers (computing) Media servers
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