Internet DRAFT - draft-salgueiro-vcarddav-kind-device
draft-salgueiro-vcarddav-kind-device
VCARDDAV G. Salgueiro
Internet-Draft J. Clarke
Intended status: Standards Track P. Saint-Andre
Expires: July 19, 2013 Cisco Systems
January 15, 2013
vCard KIND:device
draft-salgueiro-vcarddav-kind-device-07
Abstract
This document defines a value of "device" for the vCard KIND property
so that the vCard format can be used to represent computing devices
such as appliances, computers, or network elements (e.g., a server,
router, switch, printer, sensor, or phone).
Status of this Memo
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provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on July 19, 2013.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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1. Introduction
Version 4 of the vCard specification [RFC6350] defines a new "KIND"
property to specify the type of entity that a vCard represents.
During its work on the base vCard4 specification, the VCARDDAV
Working Group defined values of "individual", "org", "group", and
"location" for the KIND property.
During working group discussion of the document that became
[RFC6473], consideration was given to defining a more general value
of "thing", but it was decided to split "thing" into software
applications and hardware devices and to define only the
"application" value at that time. Since then, use cases for device
vCards have emerged. These use cases involve using vCards as a
primer for inventory and asset tracking data specific to network
elements. Therefore, this document complements [RFC6473] by defining
a value of "device" for the KIND property to represent computing
devices such as appliances, computers, or network elements. In this
context, the concept of a device is constrained to computing devices
and thus is distinct from purely mechanical devices such as
elevators, electric generators, etc. that cannot communicate in any
way over a network. This does not preclude, however, network-
attached sensors that are connected to such mechanical devices.
2. Scope
When the KIND property has a value of "device", the vCard represents
a computing device such as an appliance, a computer, or a network
element (e.g., a server, router, switch, printer, sensor, or phone).
More formally, a "device" is functionally equivalent to the "device"
object class used in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
[RFC4519] as derived from the Open Systems Interconnection model
[X.521] [X.200]. However, whereas [X.521] specifies that devices are
"physical" elements, a device in this context can also be virtual
such as a virtual machine running within another physical element.
As one example of the "device" KIND, vCards can be embedded into
devices at manufacturing time such that basic information such as
serial number, support email, and documentation URL can be retrieved
upon initial deployment. This vCard can be modified after the device
is deployed to contain user-specified data about the device's
characteristics. The vCard data can therefore be used for both asset
tracking and operational purposes.
A device might have a number of embedded vCards for varying purposes.
The process for discovering and accessing these vCards is
purposefully left unspecified in this document as this process could
rely on any mechanism that makes sense for the device in question.
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For example, a device could have one or more of the following vCard
instances:
o The device itself. For example, the FN ("full name") property
might represent the hostname of a computing device, the URL
property might represent a website that contains details on where
to find documentation or get further information about the device,
the KEY property might represent a digital certificate that was
provisioned into the device at the time of manufacture
[IEEE.802.1AR], or a public key certificate previously provisioned
into the device, and the ADR, GEO, and TZ properties might
represent the physical address, geographical location, and
timezone where the device is deployed.
o An organization or person that produces or manufactures the
device.
o A person or role that maintains or administers the device.
o Application-level vCards as described in [RFC6473] for each
application installed on the device.
When a device has vCards other than its KIND:device vCard, those
vCards can be linked together with RELATED (see the definition of the
RELATED organizational property in Section 6.6.6 of [RFC6350]). In
multi-vCard instances the KIND:device vCard would use the RELATED
property to express the relationship with the ancillary vCard(s).
Those supplementary vCards need not use RELATED to point back to the
KIND:device vCard. In this manner, the vCard for the device itself
can be easily distinguished from vCards referring to the vendor
organization, device administrator, and installed applications.
The following base properties make sense for vCards that represent
devices (this list is not exhaustive, and other properties might be
applicable as well):
* ADR
* EMAIL
* FN
* GEO
* IMPP
* KEY
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* KIND
* LANG
* LOGO
* NOTE
* ORG
* PHOTO
* RELATED
* REV
* SOURCE
* TEL
* TZ
* UID
* URL
Although it might be desirable to define a more fine-grained taxonomy
of devices (e.g., a KIND of "device" with a subtype of "router" or
"computer"), such a taxonomy is out of scope for this document.
3. Example
The following is an example of a router device that contains both
manufacturing details as well as post-deployment attributes and uses
the XML representation of vCard (xCard) described in [RFC6351]. This
vCard points to another, related vCard that contains the details of
an administrative contact for the device. This vCard also leverages
the extensibility of the xCard format to reference additional
namespaces in order to provide richer details about the given device
(e.g., the serial number and software version are specified as xCard
extensions).
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<vcard xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:vcard-4.0">
<kind><text>device</text></kind>
<fn>
<parameters>
<type><text>x-model-name</text></type>
</parameters>
<text>RTR1001</text>
</fn>
<fn><text>core-rtr-1.example.net</text></fn>
<url><uri>http://www.example.com/support/index.html</uri></url>
<email><text>support@example.com</text></email>
<email>
<parameters>
<type><text>x-local-support</text></type>
</parameters>
<text>network-support@example.net</text>
</email>
<impp><uri>xmpp:core-rtr-1@example.net</uri></impp>
<related>
<parameters>
<type><text>contact</text></type>
</parameters>
<uri>urn:uuid:5CEF1870-0326-11E2-A21F-0800200C9A66</uri>
</related>
<logo><uri>http://www.example.com/images/logo.png</uri></logo>
<geo><uri>geo:35.82,-78.64</uri></geo>
<tz><text>America/New_York</text></tz>
<rev><timestamp>20120104T213000Z</timestamp></rev>
<uid><uri>urn:uuid:00CCFB88-155F-40F6-B9D9-B04D134860C0</uri></uid>
<serial-number xmlns='http://example.org/profiles/serial-number'>
FTX1234ABCD
</serial-number>
<note>
<parameters>
<type><text>x-contract-number</text></type>
</parameters>
<text>1234567</text>
</note>
<mac xmlns='http://example.org/profiles/mac'>
00-00-5E-00-00-01
</mac>
<sw-version xmlns='http://example.org/profiles/sw-version'>
2.1.5
</sw-version>
</vcard>
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4. IANA Considerations
IANA is asked to add the following entry to the "vCard Property
Values" registry table
(http://www.iana.org/assignments/vcard-elements#property-values):
+----------+--------+-----------+
| Property | Value | Reference |
+----------+--------+-----------+
| KIND | device | RFCXXXX |
+----------+--------+-----------+
Table 1: IANA Registration of KIND:device vCard Property Value
In conformance with Section 10.2.6 of [RFC6350], the registration
template is as follows:
Value: device
Purpose: The entity represented by the vCard is a computing device
such as an appliance, computer, or network element.
Conformance: This value can be used with the "KIND" property.
Example: See Section 3 of RFCXXXX.
[[NOTE TO RFC EDITOR: Please change XXXX to the number assigned to
this specification, and remove this paragraph on publication.]]
5. Security Considerations
Registration of this vCard KIND to represent devices does not in
itself introduce security considerations beyond those specified for
vCards in general as described in [RFC6350]. Nevertheless, risks can
arise for vulnerable Internet connected devices as a result of the
publication of the identification details provided by device vCards.
Well-known publicly accessible device vCard repositories, while not
defined in this document, can increase the probability of an exploit
of an existing vulnerability, especially for devices with no good way
to update their software or firmware. It is the responsibility of
the device administrator to adhere to best current security practices
and proper software upgrade and security patch strategies to mitigate
vulnerability to attack. Specifications defining device-specific
vCard extensions or profiles that might be included in such vCards
also need to consider this potential increased risk.
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6. References
6.1. Normative References
[RFC6350] Perreault, S., "vCard Format Specification", RFC 6350,
August 2011.
6.2. Informative References
[IEEE.802.1AR]
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, "Secure
Device Identity", IEEE 802.1AR, 2009.
[RFC4519] Sciberras, A., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP): Schema for User Applications", RFC 4519,
June 2006.
[RFC6351] Perreault, S., "xCard: vCard XML Representation",
RFC 6351, August 2011.
[RFC6473] Saint-Andre, P., "vCard KIND:application", RFC 6473,
December 2011.
[X.200] International Telecommunications Union, "Information
Technology - Open Systems Interconnection - Basic
Reference Model: The Basic Model", ITU-T Recommendation
X.521, ISO Standard 9594-7, February 2001.
[X.521] International Telecommunications Union, "Information
Technology - Open Systems Interconnection - The Directory:
Selected Object Classes", ITU-T Recommendation X.200,
ISO Standard 7498-1, July 1994.
Authors' Addresses
Gonzalo Salgueiro
Cisco Systems
7200-12 Kit Creek Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
US
Phone: +1-919-392-3266
Email: gsalguei@cisco.com
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Joe Clarke
Cisco Systems
7200-12 Kit Creek Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
US
Phone: +1-919-392-2867
Email: jclarke@cisco.com
Peter Saint-Andre
Cisco Systems
1899 Wynkoop Street, Suite 600
Denver, CO 80202
USA
Phone: +1-303-308-3282
Email: psaintan@cisco.com
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