Internet DRAFT - draft-bishop-httpbis-sni-altsvc

draft-bishop-httpbis-sni-altsvc







HTTPbis                                                        M. Bishop
Internet-Draft                                                    Akamai
Intended status: Standards Track                            May 24, 2018
Expires: November 25, 2018


                      The "SNI" Alt-Svc Parameter
                   draft-bishop-httpbis-sni-altsvc-02

Abstract

   HTTP Alternative Services provides a mechanism for an origin to
   declare that its content is accessible via some other combination of
   host, port, and protocol.  In the process of using such an
   alternative, an observer can identify that the client is requesting
   resources from a particular hostname.

   This document extends HTTP Alternative Services, in combination with
   Secondary Certificate Authentication, to enable clients not to
   disclose the origin to which they intend to connect.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on November 25, 2018.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect



Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 1]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.2.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  The "sni" Alt-Svc Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  SNI of Colocated Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.2.  Wildcard Subdomains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.3.  Omitting SNI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.4.  SNI of Unrelated Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.3.  URIs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Introduction

   Confidentiality and authentication during communication are primary
   goals of using TLS to secure traffic on the Internet.  However, due
   to the nature of TLS, certain information is inherently not
   confidential - notably, the hostname and the corresponding
   certificate of the origin to which the client is connecting are
   transferred unencrypted in the Server Name Indication extension [SNI]
   and the server's Certificate message [TLS12].

   While the client identity can be obscured by using TLS renegotiation
   immediately after the handshake (in TLS 1.2) or by using TLS 1.3
   [TLS13], the server is not afforded such privacy considerations.

   Servers may also have wildcard certificates which do not enumerate
   specific subdomains, but clients will disclose the first subdomain
   used on a connection via the SNI extension when establishing the
   connection.

   [SNIEncryption] discusses a potential solution to these issues in
   Section 3, HTTP Co-Tenancy Fronting, but notes both discoverability
   and server authentication issues with that approach.  This document
   provides a mechanism to address both limitations.



Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 2]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


1.1.  Usage

   In [AltSvc], once a client has received a validated Alternative
   Service record for an origin, it "SHOULD use that alternative service
   for all requests to the associated origin as soon as it is available,
   provided the alternative service information is fresh (Section 2.2)
   and the security properties of the alternative service protocol are
   desirable, as compared to the existing connection."  However, the
   client "MUST have reasonable assurances that the alternative service
   is under control of and valid for the whole origin ... established
   through use of a TLS-based protocol with the certificate checks
   defined in [RFC2818]."  This causes the origin to be disclosed in the
   SNI extension while connecting to the alternative, and the origin's
   certificate to be returned by the alternative, creating the same
   privacy issues as connecting directly to the origin.

   The extension described in Section 2 enables an origin to declare
   that reasonable assurances should be obtained, not by requesting the
   desired hostname in the TLS handshake, but by requesting it via
   [SecondaryCerts].  The validation checks from [RFC2818] are applied
   to this certificate.

   Because the entire exchange happens inside TLS, a passive observer
   cannot identify the hostname(s) the client might be requesting.

1.2.  Notational Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

   The key words "MUST (BUT WE KNOW YOU WON'T)", "SHOULD CONSIDER",
   "REALLY SHOULD NOT", "OUGHT TO", "WOULD PROBABLY", "MAY WISH TO",
   "COULD", "POSSIBLE", and "MIGHT" in this document are to be
   interpreted as described in [RFC6919].

   Field definitions are given in Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF), as
   defined in [RFC5234].

2.  The "sni" Alt-Svc Extension

   When an origin wishes to nominate a "fronting server", it includes
   the "sni" parameter in its alternative service entry.

   Syntax:




Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 3]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


   sni = ( reg-name / empty-string )
   empty-string = DQUOTE DQUOTE

   "reg-name" is defined in Section 3.2.2 of [RFC3986].

   When processing such an alternative, clients SHOULD present the
   hostname given in the "sni" parameter in the SNI extension during the
   TLS handshake.  If the hostname given is an empty string, clients
   SHOULD omit the SNI extension from the TLS handshake.  The server
   MUST return a valid certificate which covers at least one of the
   following:

   o  The hostname indicated in the SNI extension

   o  The hostname of the origin that published the alternative

   o  The hostname used for connecting to the alternative

   The client MUST validate the certificate in the handshake for
   authenticity according to [RFC2818] and ensure that it is valid for
   at least one of these names.  Clients SHOULD NOT accept certificates
   issued to the IP address of the alternative unless the alternative is
   specified as an IP literal.

   If the certificate is not valid for the origin's hostname, the client
   MUST NOT make requests to any origin corresponding to this
   certificate.  In this case, the client SHOULD send a
   "CERTIFICATE_REQUEST" frame including an SNI extension indicating the
   origin which published the alternative service immediately upon
   connecting.  If no corresponding "CERTIFICATE" frame is presented by
   the server after a reasonable timeout, or if the server's SETTINGS
   frame does not include the "SETTINGS_HTTP_CERT_AUTH" setting, the
   client MUST consider the alternative connection to have failed.

3.  Examples

3.1.  SNI of Colocated Domain

   Suppose a client has received the following Alt-Svc entry for
   sensitive.example.com in the past:

   h2="innocence.org:443";ma=2635200;persist=true;sni=innocence.org

   If the client now wishes to make a request to
   https://sensitive.example.com/private, it would perform a DNS
   resolution for innocence.org.  The client would then open a TCP
   connection to the resulting IP address and begin a TLS handshake.




Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 4]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


   In the client's TLS handshake, it would request a certificate for the
   hostname "innocence.org".  The TLS server would present such a
   certificate, issued by an authority trusted by the client.  The
   client will validate the certificate for the name
   "sensitive.example.com".  When validation fails, the client will try
   to validate the certificate for the name "innocence.org", which will
   succeed.  After validation succeeds, the client will send a
   "CERTIFICATE_REQUEST" frame asking that the server also authenticate
   with a certificate for sensitive.example.com.

   After receiving the "CERTIFICATE" frame proving possession of a
   certificate for sensitive.example.com, the client will verify that
   this certificate is trusted.  If so, the client will proceed to send
   HTTP/2 requests to the server requesting the resource
   https://sensitive.example.com/private.

3.2.  Wildcard Subdomains

   Suppose a client has received the following Alt-Svc entry for
   sensitive.example.com in the past:

   h2="www.example.com:443";ma=2635200;persist=true;sni=www.example.com

   If the client now wishes to make a request to
   https://sensitive.example.com/private, it would perform a DNS
   resolution for www.example.com, the specified alternative.  The
   client would then open a TCP connection to the resulting IP address
   and begin a TLS handshake.

   In the client's TLS handshake, it would request a certificate for the
   hostname www.example.com.  The TLS server would present a certificate
   which included www.example.com as one of the covered hostnames.

   Suppose that the certificate with which the server authenticated also
   contained a Subject Alternative Name of "*.example.com".  Because the
   certificate covers the desired origin, the client would perform
   validity checks on this certificate.

   If the certificate is trusted, the client will proceed to send HTTP/2
   requests to the server requesting the resource
   https://sensitive.example.com/private.

3.3.  Omitting SNI

   Suppose a client has received the following Alt-Svc entry for
   sensitive.example.com in the past:

   h2="alternative.example.com:443";ma=2635200;persist=true;sni=""



Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 5]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


   If the client now wishes to make a request to
   https://sensitive.example.com/private, it would perform a DNS
   resolution for alternative.example.com, the specified alternative.
   The client would then open a TCP connection to the resulting IP
   address and begin a TLS handshake.

   In the client's TLS handshake, it would omit the Server Name
   Indication extension.  The TLS server would present a certificate
   according to its configured defaults.

   The server would supply a certificate that covers
   sensitive.example.com, for example because it contains a Subject
   Alternative Name of "*.example.com", and the client would perform
   validity checks on this certificate.

   If the supplied certificate does not cover sensitive.example.com, or
   is not valid, the client will terminate the connection.

3.4.  SNI of Unrelated Domain

   Suppose a client has received the following Alt-Svc entry for
   sensitive.example.com in the past:

   h2=":443";ma=2635200;persist=true;sni=other.example

   If the client now wishes to make a request to
   https://sensitive.example.com/private, it would perform a DNS
   resolution for sensitive.example.com (the Alt-Svc entry does not
   specify a different hostname).  The client would then open a TCP
   connection to the resulting IP address and begin a TLS handshake.

   In the client's TLS handshake, it would request a certificate for the
   hostname "other.example".  The TLS server does not a have a
   certificate for this hostname, but it would return a certificate for
   sensitive.example.com, issued by an authority trusted by the client,
   and the client will successfully validate the certificate for the
   name "sensitive.example.com".

   Note that an active attacker could identify this server by sending a
   Client Hello with the same SNI value and observing the certificate
   the server uses to authenticate.  The server could mitigate this by
   authenticating with a certificate for other.example.

4.  Security Considerations

   [AltSvc] permits clients to ignore unrecognized parameters.  As a
   result, servers publishing records with the "sni" parameter cannot be
   assured that clients will not include their origin in the SNI header



Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 6]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


   when connecting to the nominated alternative.  If, for security
   reasons, an origin wishes its identity never to be disclosed when the
   alternative is being used, an alternative mechanism would be required
   to ascertain client support before generating the Alt-Svc record.

   Clients will need to connect directly to the origin at least once in
   order to receive the Alt-Svc entry via an HTTP header or "ALTSVC"
   frame, thus disclosing their use of the origin to the network on the
   first connection.  This could be mitigated by future work defining a
   way to publish alternative services in a mechanism which can be
   retrieved confidentially, such as via DNS in combination with
   [RFC7858] or [DoH].

   However, servers which publish Alt-Svc records over unencrypted
   channels (HTTP connections without TLS) or channels without client
   authorization (DNS, or publicly accessible HTTP resources) enable
   active observers to build a map of fronting servers by collecting
   Alt-Svc advertisements.  Servers SHOULD CONSIDER this trade-off in
   deciding when and how to make Alt-Svc records available to
   unauthenticated parties.

   While concealing information from passive observers is beneficial,
   low-effort active attacks still exist.  If an attacker can collect
   the actual server identity by sending a Client Hello with the same
   SNI value, the usefulness of this technique is limited.  Server
   deployments SHOULD reserve sensitive domains for use with Secondary
   Certificates or conceal them inside wildcards in order to mitigate
   this.

5.  IANA Considerations

   The "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Alt-Svc Parameter Registry"
   defines the name space for parameters, as described in [AltSvc].  It
   is maintained at http://www.iana.org/assignments/http-alt-svc-
   parameters [1].

   This document registers the following parameter:

   Name:  "sni"

   Specification:  This document

6.  References








Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 7]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


6.1.  Normative References

   [AltSvc]   Nottingham, M., McManus, P., and J. Reschke, "HTTP
              Alternative Services", RFC 7838, DOI 10.17487/RFC7838,
              April 2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7838>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC2818]  Rescorla, E., "HTTP Over TLS", RFC 2818,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2818, May 2000,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2818>.

   [RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
              RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, January 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.

   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.

   [RFC6919]  Barnes, R., Kent, S., and E. Rescorla, "Further Key Words
              for Use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", RFC 6919,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6919, April 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6919>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [SecondaryCerts]
              Bishop, M., Sullivan, N., and M. Thomson, "Secondary
              Certificate Authentication in HTTP/2", draft-bishop-
              httpbis-http2-additional-certs-05 (work in progress),
              October 2017.

   [SNI]      Eastlake 3rd, D., "Transport Layer Security (TLS)
              Extensions: Extension Definitions", RFC 6066,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6066, January 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6066>.







Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 8]

Internet-Draft                 SNI Alt-Svc                      May 2018


   [TLS12]    Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
              (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5246, August 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5246>.

   [TLS13]    Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol
              Version 1.3", draft-ietf-tls-tls13-28 (work in progress),
              March 2018.

6.2.  Informative References

   [DoH]      Hoffman, P. and P. McManus, "DNS Queries over HTTPS
              (DOH)", draft-ietf-doh-dns-over-https-08 (work in
              progress), May 2018.

   [RFC7858]  Hu, Z., Zhu, L., Heidemann, J., Mankin, A., Wessels, D.,
              and P. Hoffman, "Specification for DNS over Transport
              Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 7858, DOI 10.17487/RFC7858, May
              2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7858>.

   [SNIEncryption]
              Huitema, C. and E. Rescorla, "Issues and Requirements for
              SNI Encryption in TLS", draft-ietf-tls-sni-encryption-03
              (work in progress), May 2018.

6.3.  URIs

   [1] http://www.iana.org/assignments/http-alt-svc-parameters

Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   Conversations with Benjamin Schwartz helped to flesh out this idea.

Author's Address

   Mike Bishop
   Akamai

   Email: mbishop@evequefou.be












Bishop                  Expires November 25, 2018               [Page 9]