Internet DRAFT - draft-harkins-ike-iana-update
draft-harkins-ike-iana-update
Network Working Group D. Harkins
Internet-Draft Aruba Networks
Intended status: Informational November 17, 2011
Expires: May 20, 2012
A Modest Proposal to Update IKE's IANA Registry
draft-harkins-ike-iana-update-00
Abstract
The "IPSEC Authentication Methods" registry created by IKE states
that it can only be updated by Standards Track RFC. In practice,
this has not been the case. This memo proposed to relax that
requirement.
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on May 20, 2012.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
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1. Introduction
[RFC2409], also known as IKEv1, is a widely-deployed protocol for
establishing an authenticated secret key between two peers and for
negotiating security associations between them to faccilitate the use
of IPsec. This protocol has been deprecated by [RFC4306] but still
enjoys widespread use in the Internet today.
The IANA Registry created by [RFC2409] for adding new authentication
methods, IPSEC Authentication Methods (Value 3), indicates it can
only be updated by a Standards Track RFC. In spite of this
requirement, there are currently two methods in the registry which
were added as a result of an email exchange with John Gilmore (values
6 and 7), and one that was assigned to an individual for ECDSA
authentication (value 8). Values 6 and 7 appeared in
draft-ietf-ipsec-ike-00.txt but were removed in subsequent versions
and did not appear in [RFC4306].
[RFC2409] has a very clumsy way of dealing with pre-shared keys.
They are required to be based on a peer's IP address and the exchange
that uses them is susceptible to off-line dictionary attack. As a
result a plethora of insecure protocols and techniques have arisen to
handle per-user pre-shared keys (or passwords), many of which
continue to be used today. Therefore, it would be a service to the
Internet community to have a way of easily and securely using pre-
shared keys (or passwords) that did not require upgrading an
implementation to [RFC5996] (the latest version of IKE), the obsolete
status of [RFC2409] notwithstanding.
There is currently a proposal to add a new authentication protocol to
both [RFC2409] and [RFC5996] that authenticates the peers using a
pre-shared key (or password) and is resistant to off-line dictionary
attack. Due to various machinations in the IPsecme Working Group,
the draft specifying these changes will probably be advanced as
Experimental. As a result, the requirment that changes to the
authentication protocol registry be the result of a Standards Track
RFC poses a problem.
One could argue that the horse (and the cow, and goat too) left that
barn long ago given the fact that the registry has, traditionally,
been updated on the slimest of reasons, and against the specified
requirement, but rules are rules. And therefore it is needed to
modify the IANA Registry to relax the requirement for updating.
2. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
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document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
3. IANA Considerations
IANA SHALL modify the "IPSEC Authentication Methods (Value 3)" by
changing "Standards Track" to "Specification Required". The
resulting registry SHALL look like:
Registry Name: IPSEC Authentication Methods (Value 3)
Reference: [RFC2409]
Range Registration Procedures
----------- -----------------------------------------------------------
1-65000 Specification Required
65001-65535 Reserved for private use among mutually consenting parties.
Registry:
Value Method Reference
------------ -------------------------------------- ---------
0 Reserved
1 pre-shared key [RFC2409]
2 DSS signatures [RFC2409]
3 RSA signatures [RFC2409]
4 Encryption with RSA [RFC2409]
5 Revised encryption with RSA [RFC2409]
6 Encryption with El-Gamal
7 Revised encryption with El-Gamal
8 ECDSA signatures [Fahn]
9 ECDSA with SHA-256 on the P-256 curve [RFC4754]
10 ECDSA with SHA-384 on the P-384 curve [RFC4754]
11 ECDSA with SHA-512 on the P-521 curve [RFC4754]
12-65000 Unassigned
65001-65535 Reserved for private use
New IPSEC Authentication Methods Registry
4. Security Considerations
This memo does not introduce any security considerations, per se. It
enables the addition of a protocol that fixes a fundamental security
issue with a widely-deployed, but obsoleted, protocol and, therefore,
can indirectly yet beneficially influence the security of the
Internet.
5. Informative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
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[RFC2409] Harkins, D. and D. Carrel, "The Internet Key Exchange
(IKE)", RFC 2409, November 1998.
[RFC4306] Kaufman, C., "Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2) Protocol",
RFC 4306, December 2005.
[RFC5996] Kaufman, C., Hoffman, P., Nir, Y., and P. Eronen,
"Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)",
RFC 5996, September 2010.
Author's Address
Dan Harkins
Aruba Networks
1322 Crossman Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1113
United States of America
EMail: dharkins@arubanetworks.com
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