Internet Engineering Task Force M. Badra
INTERNET DRAFT LIMOS Laboratory
November 9, 2006 Expires: April 2007
NETCONF over TLS
<draft-badra-tls-netconf-01.txt>
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Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
The NETCONF configuration protocol provides mechanisms to install,
manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices. This
document describes how to use TLS to secure NETCONF exchanges.
1 Introduction
The NETCONF protocol [NETCONF] defines a simple mechanism through
which a network device can be managed. NETCONF is connection-
oriented, requiring a persistent connection between peers. This
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connection must provide reliable, sequenced data delivery, integrity
and confidentiality and peers authentication. This document
describes how to use TLS [TLS] to secure NETCONF connections.
1.2 Requirements language and Terminologies
The key words "MUST", "SHALL", "SHOULD", and "MAY", in this document
are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119.
1.3 Terminology
This document uses the following terms:
manager
It refers to the end initiating the NETCONF connection. It issues
the NETCONF RPC commands.
agent
It refers to the end replying to the manager's commands during the
NETCONF connection.
2. NETCONF over TLS
Since TLS is application protocol-independent, NETCONF can operate
on top of the TLS protocol transparently. Therefore, use NETCONF
over TLS precisely as we would use NETCONF over the transport layer.
2.1. Connection Initiation
The agent acting as the NETCONF client SHOULD also act as the TLS
client. It SHOULD initiate a connection to the server on the
appropriate port and then send the TLS ClientHello to begin the TLS
handshake. Once the TLS handshake has been finished, the client or
the server MAY then send their NETCONF messages. All these messages
are encapsulated into TLS records of type "application data". These
records are protected using the TLS material keys.
2.2. Connection Closure
The NETCONF agent MAY stop the NETCONF connection at any time and
therefore notify the receiver that no more data on this channel will
be sent and that any data received after a closure request will be
ignored. TLS has the ability for secure connection closure using the
Alert protocol. When the agent processes a closure request of the
NETCONF, the agent SHALL respond, terminate the TLS session, and
close the transport connection. The agent MUST NOT process any RPC
commands received on the current session after receiving the closure
request and the manager MUNT NOT send any RPC command after sending
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the closure request. The agent MUST respond with a confirmation of
the closure and close down the channel immediately.
3. Security Considerations
The security considerations described throughout [TLS] apply here as
well.
4. IANA Considerations
This section provides guidance to the IANA to assign a TCP port
number which will be the default port for NETCONF over TLS.
References
[TLS] Dierks, T., et al., "The TLS Protocol Version 1.0", RFC
2246, January 1999.
[NETCONF] Enns, R., "NETCONF Configuration Protocol",
draft-ietf-netconf-prot-09 (work in progress), October
2005.
Author's Addresses
Mohamad Badra
LIMOS Laboratory - UMR (6158), CNRS
France Email: badra@isima.fr
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